The gimmick is they got the real guy to play himself and Monty. I gather the real Clifton James - Aussie born - was more of a character; we don't see that, and it goes in soft on Monty. This film could be remade now both are dead.
But those restraints happen. The script was by Bryan Forbes who has a role at the end (quite heroic, helping John Mills wipe out some crack German troops). I think it helps this was written by an actor because there's lovely acting stuff - James thinking he's being hired for a film and bringing along a scrapbook of his reviews, James having last minute nerves, getting up on stage and worrying about blowing it.
John Mills and Cecil Parker have fun as intelligence men. I think they could have added a female glamour - Parker has a secretary, and the gag is she's plain... why not have her engage in a romance with Mills or James? It can be chaste. There could have been more humor.
But then again, maybe that would have made the fictitious last third, where James is kidnapped, less exciting. This is well done - Germans knife English sentres in the back and are ruthless.
Support cast full of familiar faces like Marius Goring, Leslie Phillips, Michael Hordern. An entertaining, skilled movie.
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