X3 agent spécial

When this film begins, you learn that agent 007 has died! Soon, the scene switches to a very lazy writer, Whistler (Dirk Bogarde). He's on the dole...and very happy to remain that way. However, he's surprised when he goes to collect his unemployment check...he's told he has a job interview!! Well, he has no choice...either go to the interview or no more relief! So he goes...showing up late and initially putting little effort into the interview. But when they offer him an enormous sum to work for them, he's hooked...not realizing that he's just been recruited to become a spy! Why would they want this ne'er-do-well? Well, he speaks Czech...and they need an agent to retrieve something in Czechoslovakia.

As for the mission, Whistler STILL doesn't realize how serious it is and that he could be shot for spying! Clearly he's in over his head and it's not at all surprising that the secret police are soon on to him. But how to escape?! He'll have to use his wits...and so far we haven't noticed that he has any!

I liked this film because although it was a bit of a spy parody, it was NOT overtly a comedy. In other words, they made it all seem plausible and engaging. You also have to really feel sorry for Whistler! Overall, a surprisingly good film--one that was original and intelligently written. Plus, it stars Bogarde, who was a dandy actor.

Although "Hot Enough For June" (a.k.a. "Agent 8 3/4") was sold as a spoof of James Bond and spy films in general, the movie isn't really a comedy. It is closer to a drama with a number of lighter moments. Though the movie did surprise me in being much more serious than it was advertised, I have to admit that I enjoyed it. The lighter moments are a welcome addition, giving the audience a few chuckles and stopping the movie from becoming too dry and serious. The otherwise serious tone of the movie is also well done. The movie doesn't stay long in one location, which keeps the movie moving at a pretty brisk pace. And when things start to get very serious for the hero, with his life being at stake, I have to admit that I was pretty captivated. It also helps that the character is pretty smart instead of being an idiot. Maybe the end results won't stay in your mind for a long time after the end credits start rolling, but the movie is engaging from the opening to the end.

MASTER PLAN: capture that spy! A restrained yet witty, surprisingly entertaining parody of the James Bond/spy genre so prevalent during the Cold War of the sixties. Keep in mind that the connection to Bond may be based on the fact that agent 007 was killed at the end of the original novel version of "From Russia With Love." The hero and main character (Bogarde) is not actually a spy - that is, trained for or knowledgeable of the arcane profession. He's actually a bit of a layabout, an unpublished writer content with collecting unemployment to get by. He's not even truly interested in getting a job, but when the prospect of a good salary unexpectedly comes up, he's unable to resist the offer. He thinks, based on his meeting with his new boss (Morley), that he's being sent to Prague on typical corporate business and because he understands Czech. Some warning signals go off in the back of his mind with the thought of going behind the dreaded Iron Curtain and using a code phrase (the title of the film) as part of his instructions. Well, he should have heeded those signals more. It's intriguing that he doesn't know who his contact is - the return code phrase has something to do with September - and this sets up some amusing scenes.

Bogarde is excellent as the slightly naive but nevertheless intelligent, quick-on-his-feet dupe. The story bogs down just a bit as he acquaints himself with the new locale but it really kicks into full gear when he's finally targeted by the enemy (headed by McKern). The audience and the character himself find out that he's actually pretty well suited for the cloak-and-dagger business, much to our astonishment. The actress Koscina had a more flamboyant role in the similarly imitative "Deadlier Than the Male," but she exudes a lot of sultry appeal here. And old pros Morley and McKern show how such experienced thespians can add much to such a film. Since much of the story's premise points to the pointlessness and 'running-about-in-circles' of the espionage business, this translates into a rather frivolous, pointless overall scheme for the film, but you're engaged while viewing it. Also, this early in the decade, this was more derivative of the early "From Russia With Love"-style of the 007 thrillers, rather than the 'world-threatening/domination' plots of later imitators, such as Flint and Matt Helm. And, I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of the alternate title, "Agent 8&3/4." Hero:8 Villain:7 Femme Fatale:7 Henchmen:6 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:4 Auto:6 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:6

I did enjoy this film, but the reason for saying above 'if you don't think too hard' is that after watching it, the thing that stuck in my mind was that Nicholas (Dirk Bogarde) seemed to adapt to the situations he found himself as a spy rather too easily for someone who is supposed to be an unemployed writer. That aside the film is a little difficult to categorise, IMDb call this a comedy, and it starts out in the same vein as the "Doctor" films that Dirk Bogarde made, but it changes to what I would classify as 'Light Drama', and that makes it much more interesting.

Overall the acting was good but not outstanding, and I would recommend it for an evenings entertainment, provided your idea of an evenings entertainment is something you don't have to think about too much, and you have had enough of sex, violence and obscenity.

Despite occasionally amusing passages this engaging spoof of the nascent spy genre is, however, perhaps not memorable enough to be more than an agreeable time passer.

Still, the cast is willing: for most of the film's second half, Dirk Bogarde - playing an unwilling British spy - is forced to sport several ingenious impersonations (waiter, milkman, a typically Bavarian villager, etc.) to evade the pursuing Russian agent Leo McKern. Robert Morley is McKern's British counterpart (but posing as a diplomat) and John Le Mesurier (playing one of Her Majesties' top secret agents) appears in the film's very first (and arguably best) sequence: stopping at what seems to be a reception desk, he proceeds to place on it every kind of gadget one could think of before proclaiming that one of their best agents had been killed and, soon enough, a card showing "007 Deceased" appears on the screen!

Sylva Koscina, playing McKern's Ninotchka-like daughter (who also poses as Bogarde's chauffeur) adds the requisite element of sex appeal to the mix when she becomes enamored with her "boss". Another funny sequence takes place when Bogarde is asked to try out an indestructible glass fabric (the work of a German inventor) by throwing a large rock at it; sure enough, the rock bounces onto the floor when it hits, but as they start walking away, the sound of shattering glass is heard on the soundtrack which prompts the Russian factory owner to hiss "You Nazi swine" to the dumb-founded inventor!