Come Spy with Me (1967)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Marshall Stone

Writers:

Cherney Berg (writer)
Stuart James (story)

Release Date:

18 January 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Young American girl tries to solve the murders of two Americans in the Caribbean. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Spy | Independent Film

Cast

Troy Donahue	...	Pete Barker
Andrea Dromm	...	Jill Parsons
Albert Dekker	...	Walter Ludeker
Mart Hulswit	...	Larry Claymore
Valerie Allen	...	Samantha
Dan Ferrone	...	Augie
Howard Schell	...	Corbett
Chance Gentry	...	Chance
Louis Edmonds	...	Gunther Stiller
Kate Aldrich	...	Chris
Pam Colbert	...	Pam
Gil Pratley	...	Kieswetter
Georges Shoucair	...	Pantin
Alston Bair	...	Keefer
Tim Moxon	...	Morgan

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

ABC Circle Films

Trivia:

Author Craig Hamrick writes a fair amount about this film in his book "Big Lou: the life and career of actor Louis Edmonds." Hamrick did extensive research about Edmonds for the book, and after months of searching was able to unearth the only known copy of Come Spy With Me: a badly scratched, black-and-white, Spanish-dubbed version. (Stills were included of Hamrick's follow-up book, "The Big Lou Scrapbook.") In "Big Lou," Emdonds comments briefly, and rather dismissively, about the film -- but it is one of the few published references to the practically forgotten movie. Immediately after finishing his work in the film, Edmonds returned to New York City and joined the cast of the Gothic soap opera "Dark Shaadows" as Roger Collins.

A "Thunderball" Wannabe

This is a film I saw as a child at a local matinée. It was supposed to be like a "James Bond" movie so I eagerly went expecting an action packed two hours. What I ended up seeing (even as a child I realized it was a really bad movie) was a film that was entirely derivative of other spy films.

Troy Donahue, like so many pretty boys of the 60's, did not have the acting ability to pull off the kind of character the film was trying to create. Connery was Bond; Caine was Harry Palmer, and James Coburn was Derek Flint. They defined the roles. They were interesting and magnetic. The hero in this film is not even a faint echo of those great spy film characters.

The film was cheaply made with scuba scenes reminiscent of Thunderball. However, in one of the underwater fight scenes, the injured diver has his hand in his wet suit clearly pumping a plastic bottle full of stage blood that is then permeating the water. I watched thinking surely a mistake like this couldn't slip through any professional film editor--but it did.

If you can even find this film, don't waste your time--unless bad movies as humor is your gig. Oh, and I almost forgot. The theme song is catchy but with ridiculous lyrics: "Come spy with me--we can share a room down by the groovy sea. . ." Really bad!