Catch Me a Spy

This terrible little film is clearly among the worst Kirk Douglas ever made. It's not as bad as "Saturn 3"...but what is?!

When the film begins, a couple in honeymooning in Bucharest (???). What they don't realize is that the guy working in the hotel is NOT an employee but a smuggler (Kirk Douglas). Because of his actions, the husband is arrested and his wife (Marlène Jobert) is left wondering what happened. Even though it makes no sense at all, she later ends up handcuffed with the smuggler and then on the run with him...and it's all supposed to be kooky and romantic. Well, to me it just comes off as annoying and nonsensical...and Jobert's voice often grated on me. The smuggler says at one point "...you are such a child"...and her voice does sometimes sound like one. Poorly written, poorly acted and boring.

An amusing and adventurous espionage caper from the early-'70s. I like some of the imagery - the scenes filmed at Loch Leven, Perth & Kinross and Oban (?) are evocative and show the bleak beauty of Scotland. The adventure film ''Kidnapped'' was filmed nearby at roughly the same time at Stirling and Loch Fyne faeturing cockney actor Michael Caine. Those years '71-72 had a strangely ''Caledonian-ish'' feel. Auburn-haired, steely-eyed, lantern-jawed US actor, Kirk Douglas as ''Andrej'' a Rumanian spy is very good and is adept at comedy. He had recently been in the compelling adventure film ''The Light at the Edge of the World'' which was produced in Spain in the autumn of 1970. Some of the comedy scenes have a Python-esque sense of slapstick. Patrick Mower (''Emmerdale Farm'') is good. The writers, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are famous for brilliant '70s tv comedies ''Porridge'' and ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads''. Gaunt, darkhaired Swiss-born White-Russian actor Sascha Pitoeff is very good too.

: Kirk Douglas is wandering around the diplomatic parties looking for something. As spies are arrested -- including Marlène Jobert's husband, Patrick Mower -- Douglas approaches the lady and asks her how much she wants for 'the goods'. Soon, they are captured by Soviet agents and fleeing.

This is a comedy starring Kirk Douglas. Director Dick Clement said

Kirk Douglas requested a meeting before filming started. "Being an American, Douglas got straight to the point. He said I can't play comedy. And do you know what - he couldn't.".

I confirm that. Douglas was a fine dramatic actor, but his few attempts at comedy are astonishingly dull. As is this movie, which steals heavily. In one sequence clearly lifted from The 39 Steps, Douglas and MlleJobert are fleeing from the bad guys and hole up at an abandoned hotel in Scotland, where they fall in love. Douglas is not in the least entertaining.

As is the rest of this movie. Trevor Howard, who could play comedy, has a rant about homosexuals. It all ends in a chase which is frantic, rather than funny.

There is some lovely location shooting by DP Christopher Challis. But if you're looking for a comedy, look elsewhere.

When the Citadel Film Series book The Films Of Kirk Douglas was first issued, To Catch A Spy had been released in Europe, but not in America. It seems to have had very limited showings on this side of the pond.

The film is a lightweight spoof of the Cold War with Marlene Joubet a French girl married to a British subject trying desperately hard to get her husband back who has been arrested for espionage. Turns out he's made a deal with the Soviets and was deliberately arrested so they could affect a prisoner exchange. When the original exchange doesn't work out due to the most hilarious sequence in the film, Joubet looks to affect her own exchange and settles on Kirk Douglas, a most mysterious Romanian who keeps showing up all the time. She has to because her uncle, a member of Parliament played by Trevor Howard can't seem to close the deal.

Some nice location shooting in several spots in Europe is the best thing this film. The players look truly bored with this project and just phone in the performances.

To Catch A Spy will never make anyone's top 10 list of best Kirk Douglas films.

Jobert's Gallic charm radiates through her voice, eyes and mannerisms. Kirk Douglas seems to look disheartened at his role. He appears flat and strained at times. He does have his moments. Douglas tells a very funny joke to Fabièn (Jobert) about Russian researchers determining the age of a mummy.

A few scenes seem stolen from Jobert's Rider On the Rain (of particular note hiding in the closet and being discovered, peering through a shop window). Jobert's comedic talent comes easily and properly dovetails into the serious aspects of the plot. Sir Trevor's scene stealing butler is absolutely hilarious and rivals Tom Courteny's role as the bungling spy. While the plot may seem a tad contrived, it comes across quite well, if one takes the time to relax and be entertained. The ending does leave you with the feeling that there should have been a sequel. Like "Rider On the Rain", her on-screen husband comes across unappreciative of having a loyal and dedicated beauty such as Jobert for a wife. Also reflecting the cold war times , you have lies, counter-lies and disinformation battering the truth.

Overall, you may find yourself watching this movie a few times for the sheer fun of it!