WHERE THE SPIES ARE

Francoise Dorleac and David Niven

WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1965). Director: Val Guest. 

Dr. Jason Love (David Niven of Please Don't Eat the Daisies) is a quiet British doctor whose chief love is his snazzy automobile, and who is promised an even snazzier car, a LeBaron, if he agrees to undertake a little assignment for the government as embodied by MacGillivray (John Le Mesurier). Although certainly there are agents who could impersonate a doctor, Love is enlisted to go to Beirut, Lebanon, to look into the disappearance of a certain spy. First he stops off in Rome to make contact with another agent, the beautiful Vikki (Francoise Dorleac), who is also a highly-paid model. Love doesn't think there will be much to this assignment, and wants to put it off to make love to Vikki, but the plane he was supposed to take to Beirut explodes right after take-off. While Love doesn't think this has much to do with him, on that he would be wrong. Assisted by another agent named Parkington (Nigel Davenport of No Blade of Grass), Love uncovers a plot to assassinate Prince Zahlouf. 

Niven and Nigel Davenport

Everything in Spies must be taken with a grain of salt. One assumes Love has been drafted for the assignment because he is a real doctor who will be above suspicion, but apparently all of the agents have other professions. Not only that, but the opposition seems clued in to who he is before he even leaves the country, planting a bomb on an airliner he is to take. Love is able to beat up Parkington in their first encounter with relative ease, and although his last espionage assignment was during WW2 proves more capable than the professionals. 

Niven with Paul Stassino

Despite this, Spies is relatively absorbing and moves swiftly enough as Jason Love finds himself getting deeper and deeper into trouble. He is pursued by both Lebanon police and Russian agents, and winds up on a Soviet "Peace" plane where he is threatened with extinction when he is placed in a special chamber during the flight in which the air is slowly sucked out. (Another good scene has Love dangling from a helicopter as one of the rungs of the ladder starts to shred!) One of his allies turns out to be a double-agent, and there are a couple of interesting villains in the persons of Simmias (Paul Stassino) and his portly boss, Stanilaus (Ronald Radd). The humor of the film is a bit at odds with such grim stuff as the destruction of an airliner and all aboard. (A disturbing, tossed-off sequence has the Russian who engineered this disaster requesting asylum from American authorities!) 

Niven and John Le Mesurier

Niven is okay as the not-so-bumbling "amateur" spy, and there is good work from the other named cast members as well as Eric Pohlmann as the amiable Farouk, who runs a garage; and Noel Harrison as Le Musurier's good right hand in the London office. Dorleac, the sister of Catherine Deneuve, died in an automobile accident two years later. This was based on the novel "Passport to Oblivion" by James Leasor, who wrote nine novels starring the character of Jason Love. This is the only one that was ever filmed. Mario Nascimbene's score is all over the lot. 

Verdict: David Niven was no James Bond (even if he played 007 in the spoof Casino Royale. **3/4. 

THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY

Guy Rolfe [foreground] and David Spenser [behind him]

THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY (1959). Director: Terence Fisher.

Captain Harry Lewis (Guy Rolfe) of the East India Co. has been amassing details about the great many disappearances of people and caravans in Bombay. After heated complaints from merchants about the situation, Colonel Henderson (Andrew Cruickshank), decides a man must be appointed to head an investigation. Although he considers Lewis an expert, he nevertheless assigns the arrogant, insufferable. newly-arrived Captain Connaught-Smith (Allan Cuthbertson) to the job. Meanwhile the stranglers of the cult of Kali continue robbing and murdering with impunity. The severed hand of Lewis' houseman, Ram Das (Tutte Lemkow), who went to get his younger brother, Gopali (David Spenser), away from the cult, winds up on his dining room table to horrify his wife, Mary (Jan Holden). Will Lewis survive to strike down the cult, or are his days numbered? The Stranglers of Bombay is a zesty, absorbing Hammer production with an excellent cast, especially Rolfe [Mr. Sardonicus]; George Pastell as the High Priest of Kali; Cuthbertson as the snooty, hateful Connaught-Smith; Paul Stassino as Lt. Silver, a colleague of Lewis' who secretly belongs to the cult; and Marne Maitland [The Terror of the Tongs] as Patel Shari, who may or may not be an ally. One of the most interesting scenes is a battle between a mongoose and a snake that is on its way to strike at Lewis. Terence Fisher directed a great many films for Hammer studios and others.

Verdict: Hammer hits another home run. ***.