Agent 8 3/4 (a.k.a. Hot Enough For June (1964) Allow BQ, if you will, to wax nostalgic for a few moments.......
Back in our younger days of moviegoing (the Jurassic Era), we fondly remembered the little Green Hill theater in our home town of Philadelphia.....
What a particular niche this theater carved out for itself........exclusively showing British comedies of the 1950's and early 60's.....the very best of Peter Sellers Terry-Thomas, Norman Wisdom and of course, the "Carry On" comedies.......
Our first visit there was a viewing of "Carry On Cabby".....and a packed house roared at the mildly naughty double-entendre gags and jokes older than my own grandfather.....("Have an accident?" "No thanks, I just had one...") We were hooked for life and the Green Hill's movies most likely began our path as a lifelong anglo-phile.
Apart from the raucous hijinks of the "Carry On" gang, British comedies excelled in sly, wry understated humor, uniquely British and with a deadpan panache we American audiences rarely saw in our own homegrown movies. And just as "Goldfinger" was about to kick off a world wide James Bond frenzy, who better to lightly spoof espionage thrillers than the Brits themselves.....
Even before U.S and European. studios could hop on the Bond-wagon and start pumping out their own secret agent imitations, the Rank Organisation had already beat them to it with this nifty little mixture of martini dry spoofery mixed with genuine spying suspense.
Originally titled "Hot Enough For June" (after its secret greeting code phrase) the film arrived in 1965 on U.S. shores as 'Agent 8 3/4".....and for the first two thirds of it, the film does live up to that obviously jokey title.
NIcholas Whistler (Dirk Borgarde) is just an everyday, unemployed struggling writer until he takes what he thinks is a mundane but strangely well paid position at a glass manufacturing corporation. Since he speak Czech, he's sent off to Prague for what he thinks is a tour of glass factories......
Whistler's got no idea his imperious boss Cunliffe (Robert Morley,, always a delight) is actually an MI6 spymaster who's deploying him as a 'useful idiot' courier to collect a secret formula from a Brit deep cover agent...(hence the use of the "hot enough for june" phrase).
Once arrived in Prague, he also doesn't know that his gorgeous government driver Vlasta Simoneva (the luscious Syva Koscina) is the daughter and empoyee of an implacable Soviet spymaster (Leo McKern).....and the Reds already know who sent him and what he's up to.....
What no one counts on.......Whistler's smarter than he appears and given to surprisingly clever, impulsive moves when his back's up against the wall. It's as this point that the film abandons the tongue-in-cheek tone to transform, in its last third, into an honestly nail biting hunt-and-chase thriller.
We loved all of it, both the laughs, the real HItchcockian suspense and that incredible supporting cast of our favorite Brits....(John Le Mesurier, Jahn Stsanding, Frank Finlay, Eric Pohlmann, Richard Vernon and so many others.....)
Borgarde, one of the U.K.'s biggest stars possessed the versatility to handle both the subtle satire and dead serious drama the film requires of him. But for hardcore anglophiles, nothing beats the sight of those two Brit treasures, Morley and McKern paired up in scenes together. They're pure joy to watch playing the British and Communist frenemy spy chiefs, each one long familiar with the other's dirty tricks.
And let's not forget the dessert topping of including the stunning international starlet Koscina who starts out as a strict Commie Ninotchka, but before long, dazzles us with the sight of her in a bikini.....
After all these years and all the secret agent knock-offs we've sat through, 'Agent 8 3/4' still remains a gentle little gem....4 stars (****)
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