WHERE THE SPIES ARE —-in case you wonder what beautiful Beirut looked like in 1966 (before the Israelis blew it to smithereens), this nifty little thriller-lite will provide an eyeful. The location filming provides extra exotica to the story of a doctor who gets roped into secret-agent work.
Of course, it’s dated, but David Niven is droll as ever and the gone-too-soon Francoise Dorleac is a wistful pleasure. Directed by Val Guest, it moves in a pleasantly unhurried fashion, aided by some decent repartee in the script, written by Guest with Wolf Mankowitz. Additional contribution comes from James Leasor, who’d done it as a novel, “Passport To Oblivion.”
The last portion fizzles, with some cheezy special effects, and a toss-off ending that’s jarringly at odds with the tone of the scenes leading up to it. With John LeMesuier, Nigel Davenport, Paul Stassino, Eric Portman, Cyril Cusack and Noel Harrison. Nice score from Mario Nascimbene. 110 minutes. Film did take in $2,640,000.