ONCE UPON A SPY
US, 1980, 91 minutes, Colour.
Ted Danson, Mary Louise Weller, Eleanor Parker, Christopher Lee.
Directed by Ivan Nagy.
Once Upon a Spy is a forgettable, though entertaining telemovie. It was written by Jimmy Sangster, English author of many Hammer horror films of the '60s who moved to Hollywood and writing telemovies in the '70s and 'SOS. The film is a blend of the serious, the spoof and the satiric. It resembles James Bond situations (and an attractive title sequence is reminiscent of Maurice Binder's introductions to the Bond features) while the music resembles the music of the British television series The Avengers, (as do the silhouettes during this credits sequence).
The situation, however, is definitely American. A Ed Lauter is robbed and is taken over by an evil mastermind. American agencies want a computer expert to recover it. Characterisations are on the exaggerated, though not too exaggerated, side and therefore are entertaining. Ted Danson (Body Heat) was later to make an impact in the offbeat and entertaining television series Cheers. From his performance in this film it is obvious why he would become a pleasant leading man. He participates in all the heroic adventures with the right amount of scepticism and derring-do. Mary Louise Weller is an attractive and strong heroine, an espionage agent.
The villain is once again Christopher Lee - as Marcus Valorium who uses the computer to miniaturise anything he wants to possess, from artworks to battleships to the Hoover Dam etc. He plays in wheelchair with greying hair and moustache and a fine sense of the arch villain (he was to do something like this though in a more satiric style in the Australian film The Return of Captain Invincible). Eleanor Parker is the head of the U.S. agency, simply called The Lady.
There are elaborate sequences for the invading of the plant and the robbing of the computer, aerial photography, the miniaturising of things, and a huge plant which enables the hero and heroine to have chases. There is also a deadly labyrinth - where Marcus Valorium wants to beat the hero in revenge for his having beaten him years before.
It is all familiar. The title with its tongue-in-cheek tone of espionage fairytale gives the right indication and suggests the kind of exaggerated espionage fantasy that it is.
