The presence of good players such as Ronald Howard, warmly remembered as Sherlock Holmes, makes for competent acting, but as usual, the story's off. When the spy is forced to abduct the Ambassador's daughter, we would expect him to be a bit more able to get rid of her. She's about ten years old and full of romantic misconceptions about spies, and treats the whole affair, at first, like a thrilling adventure. She's played by Loretta Parry (of "Hand in Hand" fame), an overly chatty, precocious upper class rich girl who tends to cajole or nag with speeches dotted with poetry and philosophy like an Oxford graduate. The spy is sullen and monosyllabic and German. Still, she's fascinated by him and follows him faithfully through a night of hiding in a barn, in separate stalls of course. In 1963 any sexual overtones would be unthinkable, and we would never worry that he might be a threat to her, nor do the people looking for them. About the story's spy and his dirty work? Once again, the skewed neutral-relativist politics of the series plays a hand. The spy is recalled as once spying for the British, but now he's working for the "other side". (In "Espionage", any mention of Russia, East Germany or Communism is avoided, even at the cost of story integrity.) The point being, of course, if the Brits have used him as a spy, they have no claim on moral superiority over when the, um, "other side" does the same thing. See, it's all equal. Nobody's right, maybe both are wrong. Tsk Tsk. That "The other side" wants to enslave the Earth one country at a time is not important enough to consider.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews