Among Non-Bond Spy Games ...

Stephen Boyd Volunteers For Assignment K (1968)

All 60's spy thrillers function in context of where they figured into the James Bond series. Beyond mere copying of 007, most worked off blueprint of whichever Bond was recent, Assignment K being happy exception for beating JB to snowy backdrop that would inform much of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Not that Bond wouldn't trump K once he got there, Assignment being winter scenery first and action a distant second. In fact, Stephen Boyd's toy tycoon who's also a Brit intelligence operative plays by such polite code that we're actually surprised to see him (finally) draw a gun. That restraint is actually what I liked about Assignment K; Boyd's just trying to run his business and do the Empire a good turn during off-hours. There is microfilm concealed in doll dresses, coded message rolled up in cigarette paper, a sort of stuff Hitchcock or someone at Gaumont might have dreamed up during the mid-30's. Again: part of Assignment K's charm. Want fast pace? Never mind it here ... forty minutes pass before anything like a story surfaces. Boyd has a neat London flat with hid, if cramped, passages where he can observe mystery men in cars and walking the street. He answers to Michael Redgrave, who I'll bet did his one-room scenes in a single day and had not faintest idea of what the heck dialogue meant. Proceeds don't get too technical --- a Get Smart episode delves deeper, but like I said, a plus. This was an international co-production with vivid location all over the continent. His light touch and relaxed presence makes me think Stephen Boyd would have made a better James Bond than too-soufflé Roger Moore. Did Saltzman/Broccoli consider Boyd before settling on single-shot replacement-for-Connery George Lazenby?