Catch Me a Spy ** (1971, Kirk Douglas, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Marlène Jobert, Patrick Mower, Bernadette Lafont, Bernard Blier) – Classic Movie Review 11,578

Director Dick Clement’s 1971 comedy spy film Catch Me a Spy [To Catch a Spy] stars Kirk Douglas, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Marlène Jobert, Patrick Mower, Bernadette Lafont, and Bernard Blier. The story is based on the 1969 novel Catch Me a Spy by George Marton and Tibor Méray.

The talented but variable writing team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais is totally off form with this muddled and mediocre spy comedy-action thriller about a bumbling British agent Baxter Clarke (Tom Courtenay) smuggling Russian manuscripts inconveniently falling for a Russian spy Andrej (Kirk Douglas)’s wife, Fabienne (Marlène Jobert).

With very capable talents like Kirk Douglas, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Patrick Mower, Richard Pearson, Garfield Morgan, Angharad Rees and Robert Raglan, this warmed-up left-over from the Swinging Sixties should have been much smoother. Though of all the people in it, it is Douglas who most seems like a fish out of water, with no light touch for superficial comedy. Marlène Jobert is not particularly comfortable, either, as Fabienne, a young French-born British school teacher. As expected, Trevor Howard and Tom Courtenay have a better hold on the thing.

A co-production between the UK, US and France, involving several companies including Kirk Douglas’s own Bryna Productions, it was shot at Twickenham Studios and on location in London, in Bucharest, Romania, and on Loch Leven, Loch Awe and Loch Etive, Scotland, for the gunboat scenes and Kirk Douglas running through a herd of Highland cattle.

Also notable in the cast are Sascha Pitoëff, Richard Pearson, Garfield Morgan, Angharad Rees, Isabel Dean, Bunny May, Bernice Stegers, Bridget Turner, Sheila Steafel and Fiona Moore.

Vincent Square looking towards the pavilion during a game of cricket.

The school football match was shot at Pimlico’s Vincent Square in London.

Catch Me a Spy [To Catch a Spy] is directed by Dick Clement, runs 94 minutes, is made by Bryna Productions, Ludgate Films, Capitole Films and Les Films de la Pléïade, is released by Rank Film Distributors, is written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, is shot by Christopher Challis, is produced by Pierre Braunberger and Steven Pallos, is scored by Claude Bolling and is designed by Carmen Dillon.

It was also released as Catch Me a Spy and Keep Your Fingers Crossed.

The cast are Kirk Douglas as Andrej, Marlène Jobert as Fabienne, Trevor Howard as Sir Trevor Dawson, Tom Courtenay as Baxter Clarke, Patrick Mower as James Fenton, Bernadette Lafont as Simone, Bernard Blier as Webb Sacha Pitoëff as Stefan, Richard Pearson as Haldane, Wilfrid Brambell as Beech, Garfield Morgan as The Husband, Angharad Rees as Victoria, Isabel Dean as Celia, Jonathan Cecil as British Attaché, Robin Parkinson as British Officer, Jean Gilpin as Ground Stewardess, Robert Raglan as Ambassador, Bridget Turner as Woman in Plane, Trevor Peacock as Man in Plane, Clive Cazes as Rumanian in Plane, Ashley Knight as 1st Schoolboy, Philip DaCosta as 2nd Schoolboy, Robert Gillespie as Man in Elevator, Sheila Steafel as Woman in lift, Bunny May as Lift Operator, Fiona Moore as Russian Girl, Bernice Stegers as Russian Girl, Dinny Powell as 1st Heavy, Del Baker as 2nd Heavy, Ishaq Bux as Arab at Party, and Cheryl Hall as Clarke’s Girlfriend.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,578

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