Counterspy

Above average (just) minor thriller with Dermot Walsh in a slightly atypical role as a mild-mannered accountant who's initial intent is to audit the books of a company that turns out to be mixed up with all sorts of hokey pokey. This leads to our villain, played by Alexander Gauge, in full Sydney Greenstreet mode ("upon my soul sir, you are the most impatient man...." etc etc; That nice Bill Travers, of all people, crops up as a heavy and Hazel Court (Mrs Walsh at this time), is generally underused for much of the film.

A reasonable way to pass 68 minutes and probably not very memorable but at least no American "B" star shoehorned into the cast in an attempt to raise its transatlantic appeal.

This is the sort of film I like. All the other reviews here are positive but I am struggling to find something I like about this film. It is so bad it has not been shown on the old film tv channel which has some standards.

I know this is a low budget film made in 1953 it really is uninteresting.

I used to wonder why my late parents hated British films,I think they saw too many films like this one.

The underrated and underused Dermot Walsh is actually very good in this. The other performances range from good to mediocre. But it is the script and direction that let this movie down, along with the plot and intrusive score. Another reviewer said this was a good example of why their late parents hated British films. In my late father's case he really resented the fact so many 1950s British movies relied upon a 6 foot something imported American star to tower over the rest of the British cast. It wasn't until the 1960s when the British Film Industry opened the doors to actors without affected RP accents and middle/upper class stage background. The likes of Connery, Caine, Burton, Finney etc were able to talk naturally and along with the Beatles etc completely transformed the UK's fortunes. So it's easy to forget how depressing it must have been to be around in the 1950s when the US dominated the music scene and cinema despite all of the great films and talent Britain did produce in the 1940s and 1950s, not least in Hollywood itself.

Better known as Undercover Agent. This is a low budget quota quickie.

An auditor (Dermot Walsh) gets mixed up in espionage as he ends up getting an envelope containing secret plans regarding jet engines.

The baddies who are using a nursing home as a front, get hold of him and torture him for information.

Government agents are also looking into the baddies as well. It is just a matter if they can get to the auditor before he is out for the count.

It is a movie that takes a while to get going. It has a tense if silly finale.

There is a decent cast that includes Bill Travers and Hermione Baddeley. However the movie is only for fans who like obscure and not very good films.

This is no classic, but it is amusing and has a period interest. It is also interesting because of two of the performances in it. Bill Travers is seen here in an early role as an unpleasant heavy, completely opposite to the Bill Travers we were later to know on screen. There is a wonderful supporting part for Hermione Baddeley, which needs to be seen by anyone interested in her, as she pulls it off with such professional aplomb and style. She was a very amusing woman. I knew her only slightly. And along with very large numbers of people indeed, I also knew her brother, the charming Reverend William ('Bill') Baddeley, who as Rector of St. James Piccadilly, was prominent in artistic, literary,and social work circles, though many people did not know he was Hermione's brother. Hermione Gingold told me that she and Hermione Baddeley used to do a lot of comedy double acts together and call themselves 'The Two Hermiones'. Apart from having the same first name, they were both as outrageous as each other and were like two comic twins. I wish I had seen them perform together on stage, as it must have been truly hilarious, but that was long before my time. This film has a story about an accountant who gets mixed up in an espionage operation, and it is sufficiently amusing for a rainy afternoon. It has been released on DVD under its alternative title of COUNTERSPY.