Mrs Pollifax-Spy * (1971, Rosalind Russell, Darren McGavin, Nehemiah Persoff, Harold Gould, Albert Paulsen, John Beck, Dana Elcar) – Classic Movie Review 11,572

‘Before she joined the CIA, Mrs Pollifax thought Red China was a set of dishes.’

Director Leslie H Martinson’s 1971 spy comedy Mrs Pollifax-Spy stars Rosalind Russell as the title character, and finds the always game actress trying to breathe life into a weak script – and she had no one to blame but herself as she wrote it under the pseudonym C A McNight, taken from her mother’s maiden name.

The unconvincing story, from Dorothy Gilman’s novel The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, has Mrs Emily Pollifax, a middle-aged widowed New Jersey woman, volunteering to be a spy for the CIA and being sent on a secret mission to pick up a book in Mexico City, but is kidnapped and imprisoned in communist Albania.

Also in the cast are Darren McGavin as Farrell, Nehemiah Persoff as Berisha, Harold Gould as Nexhdet, Albert Paulsen as Perdido, John Beck as Lulash, and Dana Elcar as Carstairs.

Joseph F Biroc’s cinematography and Lalo Schifrin’s score are classy assets.

Mrs Pollifax-Spy is Russell’s last cinema film.

It was made by Meteor Films and released by United Artists.

It runs 110 minutes, but CBS cut 28 minutes for its 1975 US network TV premiere.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,572

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