Les Doigts croisés

In one scene where French starlet Marlène Jobert plugs her nose for a mousy-sounding voice to thwart cat-and-mouse counterpart Kirk Douglas, it's actually less annoying than her real one...

But she's super cute, probably all that mattered to director Dick Clement in his spy-spoof followup to the spy-spoof OTLEY that starred Tom Courtenay in his penultimate big-screen role until THE DRESSER...

Herein Tom's a bumbling spy trying to follow before befriending Jobert; the latter (whose pop Trevor Howard is vastly underused) on a honeymoon interrupted by her enigmatic husband's arrest, connected to Douglas's vain attempts to retrieve Russian microfilm from the couple's luggage...

And while Kirk's not bad doing lightweight action/comedy, his role should have gone to Courtenay, not only befitting the slapdash pace but with far better chemistry with Jobert, who Douglas seems to be babysitting (as opposed to parenthetically romancing) throughout this semi-entertaining yet entirely-uneven cold war romp.

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.

: 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.

A light and completely inoffensive spy spoof, To Catch A Spy is not the kind of film that demands high calibre acting talent. Yet for reasons best known to themselves, established stars like Kirk Douglas, Trevor Howard, Marlene Jobert and Tom Courtenay lend their skills to this 1971 potboiler, making it seem a bigger and better picture than it really is. The first three quarters of the movie are virtually a total loss, with dispirited plotting and pacing, but it perks up into something resembling life during the final quarter as the action shifts to a secluded, deserted Scottish hotel. By this time, most viewers will have given up the ghost - but for the handful still watching these climactic scenes are actually quite amusing.

Married couple Fabienne (Marlene Jobert) and John (Patrick Mower) are honeymooning in Bucharest when the latter is arrested by the secret police. The anxious Fabienne is forced to return to Britain without him. Meanwhile, it is revealed to the viewers that John is actually a spy working for the Russians, and that his arrest was just an elaborate deception created so that they could contact him. Fabienne is duped into believing that John is now a hostage, his only hope of release being that the British secret service might release one of their Russian prisoners in exchange for him. Still unaware of the double-cross, Fabienne works tirelessly with her uncle Sir Trevor (Trevor Howard) - a foreign office diplomat - to get the British government to trade a Russian spy for her husband. Just when it seems that a deal has been struck, the spy they choose to bargain with is accidentally killed. Fabienne instead sets her sights on Romanian spy Andrej (Kirk Douglas), but as she tries desperately to trap him in order to use him in the exchange, she discovers herself to be falling in love with him. All is resolved in a last-minute revelation at an exchange-rendezvous-point near the Iron Curtain.

To Catch A Spy was penned by the expert comedy script duo Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement (the latter also directed), but they seem to be having an off-day. The film looks terribly dated, with a storyline that resurrects all the clichés of the spy movies and caper movies that were popular at the time. Of the main actors, Tom Courtenay registers best, providing some mirth as an inept agent. The others don't disgrace themselves, but they're stuck with nothing roles and can't really get across characterisations worth caring about. The film is occasionally pleasing to the eye, with some interesting locations, but on the whole it is a rather uninspired and unremarkable time killer. Everyone involved has certainly done much better.

You wouldn't guess from this film that the writers were amongst the most talented in the UK.Also come to it what is Kirk Douglas doing.Was he that desperate for work.Robert comes across best though it is not much of a contest.Avoid this.