Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

writers_reign This is a bit of a dog's breakfast all round. Clearly intended as a spoof on the James Bond franchise which was just establishing itself it trails a bad nowhere to the likes of Derek Flint (James Coburn) and Matt Helm (Dean Martin) who quickly joined the bandwagon although even highly polished, sophisticated spoofs such as these came and went within a decade proving there was little mileage in the genre. The plot - and I use the word loosely - requires Dirk Bogarde to portray a layabout content to live on the dole whilst masquerading as a writer who is gullible enough to believe he is trainee executive material on the strength of a ten minute 'interview' and a Swiss cheese where a CV should be. Nor does he find too much wrong with being whisked to Prague within hours of starting his new job. Best of the support comes from Robert Morley as an M-wannabee who makes it as far as about F whilst Richard Pascoe ensures the mahogany content is in the high nineties. It's all pretty harmless and mildly diverting but if they churned out something like this with lottery money today they'd risk being lynched.

gridoon "Hot Enough For June" tries to be both a James Bond spoof AND a serious spy thriller, but in truth it contains very little humor and very little action. What it does have is a lot of cold war espionage - it certainly feels more like a real spy movie than any Bond film of the period, with the notable exception of "From Russia With Love". At the end, the real aim of the film seems to be to reveal the pointlessness and futility of the typical spy games. But since what we just watched WAS a typical spy game, the film ends up feeling pointless and futile itself! Dirk Bogarde is fine as the reluctant spy, Robert Morley is fun as essentially an "M" figure, and the unspeakably gorgeous Sylva Koscina, who starred in several spy movies of this period, reminds us once again what a shame it was that she never got to be a real Bond girl - she would have easily ranked among the Top 3. (**)

MARIO GAUCI Despite occasionally amusing passages this engaging spoof of the nascent spy genre is, however, perhaps not memorable enough to be more than an agreeable time passer.Still, the cast is willing: for most of the film's second half, Dirk Bogarde - playing an unwilling British spy - is forced to sport several ingenious impersonations (waiter, milkman, a typically Bavarian villager, etc.) to evade the pursuing Russian agent Leo McKern. Robert Morley is McKern's British counterpart (but posing as a diplomat) and John Le Mesurier (playing one of Her Majesties' top secret agents) appears in the film's very first (and arguably best) sequence: stopping at what seems to be a reception desk, he proceeds to place on it every kind of gadget one could think of before proclaiming that one of their best agents had been killed and, soon enough, a card showing "007 Deceased" appears on the screen! Sylva Koscina, playing McKern's Ninotchka-like daughter (who also poses as Bogarde's chauffeur) adds the requisite element of sex appeal to the mix when she becomes enamored with her "boss". Another funny sequence takes place when Bogarde is asked to try out an indestructible glass fabric (the work of a German inventor) by throwing a large rock at it; sure enough, the rock bounces onto the floor when it hits, but as they start walking away, the sound of shattering glass is heard on the soundtrack which prompts the Russian factory owner to hiss "You Nazi swine" to the dumb-founded inventor!

DEREKFLINT I remember this film used to be shone on PBS, now and again, and I always looked forward to watching it.(this was before VCRs, so I caught it when it braodcasted) It was one of the better low key spy films to come out during the James Bond phenomena of the mid 60's, a light comedic film that turned into a good suspense thriller by the end. I hope somebody acquires a good print and puts it out on DVD.