THE UNEXPECTED MRS POLLIFAX

US, 1998, 90 minutes, Colour.
Angela Lansbury, Thomas Ian Griffith, Ed Bishop.
Directed by Anthony Shaw.

The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax was filmed as Mrs Pollifax Spy in 1970, a star vehicle for Rosalind Russell as she moved towards retirement. After a long film career, a successful television career, especially as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury follows in Rosalind Russell's footsteps and is a very lively Mrs Pollifax. The film was directed by her son, Anthony Shaw, responsible for so many episodes of Murder, She Wrote.

At 73, Angela Lansbury is quite sprightly. A widow, she volunteers to be a CIA spy and finds adventures in Marrakesh, Paris and Geneva. The locations are attractive, the dialogue humorous. And, as played by Angela Lansbury, the doings of Mrs Pollifax as a spy seem almost credible. This is PG-rated spy stories - with some wry comments about the efficiency and intelligence of CIA operatives as well as highlighting the dangers of international terrorism. It has a post-fall of the Soviet Union setting with nuclear devices available to rogue buyers. An entertaining drama with comic touches - something like a pilot for a series on Mrs Pollifax.

1. Entertaining comedy-drama? For Angela Lansbury fans? Her screen persona, the tradition of Jessica Fletcher, intelligence, detection, coping with any difficulty?

2. The locations: Washington and the CIA, Marrakesh, Paris, the apartment and the dungeons, Geneva and the hotel? Musical score?

3. The title, the focus on Mrs Pollifax, her ambitions to be a secret agent - and her fulfilment of these ambitions?

4. The character of Mrs Pollifax: talking to her husband at the grave, the device of talking to her husband throughout the film as a continual way of giving information, revealing character, highlighting eccentricity for her to continue her espionage? The discussion with the doctor, his urging her to follow her secret dream when she was young? The phone calls to Washington, to the congressman, her going to Langley, the authorities not wanting to meet her, the interviews, her being left alone, the mistaken identity, going on her way as a spy? Her skill in memorising what she had to do?

5. The CIA, the characters, Carstairs and his being in control, Bishop and his ineptitude? Mason and the interview with Mrs Pollifax? The continued phone calls to Langley? Things going wrong, Carstairs and Bishop having to go to Europe, the double agents, the torture? Mrs Pollifax and Farrell being in the embassy? Their paying her off? Losing track of her again, wondering whether she was a double agent? The mistaken order to sanction her? Everybody arriving in Geneva and the resolution of the espionage problem?

6. Mrs Pollifax in Marrakesh, with the tourists, noticing the man following her, ringing Carstairs? Her going to the bookshop on the wrong day, the shooting, her getting the book and the pack of cards? Her return, her being abducted along with Farrell? In the plane, in the truck? In the dungeon? Thinking that they were in Albania?

7. Farrell, his shadowing Mrs Pollifax, his being shot, their being abducted, her tending to his leg? In the truck, their escape, to the Paris embassy, his being restored to health?

8. The false agent in Marrakesh, the interrogation and abduction of Mrs Pollifax? His cover for being a double agent? The interrogations? The arrival of Alice, her sinister reputation?

9. Mrs Pollifax seeing Alice in the street, following the taxi, going to Geneva, going to the hotel? Her being a guest, her encounter with Robin, the jewel thief, the irony of his death and his being Mossad? The goings-on, Alice and the build-up to the auction, the nuclear devices? The assassin sent to kill her, Farrell saving her? The geiger counter, discovering the nuclear devices? The deception in the sauna, the confrontation at the auction, the police coming? The resolving of all the problems? Her return to New Jersey, the assassin in her home, hitting him with the pot-plant? Farrell turning up - and the happy ending?

10. A rather engaging espionage story? The attraction of Angela Lansbury and her manner of getting things done?