Strong and Moving!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

A bit over-talkative (although some droll humor is artfully concealed in the dialogue) with standard heroics and action brought to more life than it deserves by an especially hardworking cast: David Niven, Francoise Dorleac (her last film! Disappointingly her role is not all that large. She disappears for a long stretch while Niven is partnered by the redoubtable Nigel Davenport). Val Guest's direction too is not as fluent as Wolf Mankowitz's, but it could be the other way around. Both are credited, but who did what has not been officially told to us. As the movie was produced by Guest, my educated guess is that Mankowitz started the movie, but director Guest was unhappy with the rushes, fired Mankowitz and took over the direction himself. It's easy to tell the directors apart as one of them is not as fluent as the other and tends to concentrate and over-do close-ups. Real locations in Beirut, etc. help, but there also some very obvious models and studio scenes, Grant's close-ups of Miss Dorleac are attractive whilst Nascimbene's score is a bit too reliant on mechanical effects to be continually effective.

I can absolutely not find a DVD or VHS to purchase of "Where the Spies Are". Please tell me where everyone is finding this film???? The reviews show it to be a fascinating time-capsule of 1960's Cold War craziness. The book is noteworthy. There are several different movie posters available which also suggest this was a hilarious film --even if paned by some noteworthy critics. Merely having David Nivin starring in any film should make it a gas.....so please tell me why is the dog-gone film so difficult to locate in cyberspace or real-world retail world??? I have searched Amazon, Netflix, eBay, and virtually every other vintage movie site. And now to add to my frustration, IMDb makes me write a minimum of 10 lines of absolute dribble when all I wanted to post was found in the first two lines. So I will keep adding to this silly comment until the minimum number of lines has been achieved. I need to know what site to visit to find this movie.

Brilliant... Where the Spies are is superb. With outstanding performances by David Niven, Nigel Davenport and John Le Mesurier. Where the spies are will make even the most reluctant of reluctant of audiences nostalgic for the classic secret agent film. When Dr. Love (David Niven) is approached by an old equatence in the secret service (John Le Mesurier) his life is turned upside down.

Cold War hi-jinks of an implausible nature. David Niven plays the civilian who turns out to have an aptitude for being a secret agent when plunged into the role by accident.The studios were obviously still trying to convince people that David Niven could be a dashing man of action as well as suave and debonair, but unfortunately this line was always doomed, and this picture gives convincing evidence why.The plot is arrant nonsense from beginning to end, played by a puppet theatre of cliched stereotypes.Where The Audiences Are this certainly isn't.