Agent 8 3/4
Officials in some Government department are cataloguing someone's possessions. This leaves a position vacant. Nicholas Whistler is signing on at the unemployment office, and to his dismay, he is give…
Agent 8 3/4
Officials in some Government department are cataloguing someone's possessions. This leaves a position vacant. Nicholas Whistler is signing on at the unemployment office, and to his dismay, he is given a referral for a job interview. It can't be me, says he, I'm a writer. But he has to go to the interview otherwise he will lose his unemployment benefit. His friends commiserate He goes for the interview, and it emerges that he speaks the Czech language, having been born in Czechoslovakia, but he is a British citizen. It is employed that the company is a glass manufacturer. The salary is remarkably generous, to his surprise, and he agrees to come back on Monday. A call comes in from the Russian embassy; a British agent has been neutralised in Romania. The man was Carruthers, and he was exposed by his interest in a woman. Whistler returns on Monday and Colonel Cunliffe, who interviewed him last week, and his assistant Allsop, discuss an urgent trip to Prague. He will accompany a company man called Jones, a Sales Manager, although after Whistler has gone the men mention that Jones doesn't exist. Whistler returns after lunch and is told that Jones is ill. Cunliffe explains that Whistler will be meeting a Mr Galushka, and he will hand over a document that he will insert into a book that Whistler has to carry. There is a password, "Hot enough for June". And Whistler wants to know the reply, which is "And you should have been here last September". Whistler is hurried out of the building and is in a plane on his way to Prague. On the plane he is sitting next to a man with a newspaper; the front page article is that a businessman got 25 years in jail for spying. He checks in at the Prague hotel, and evidently has a spacious room. A man called Josef, his floor waiter, comes to the room with a letter; when he opens it it informs him that a driver will come for him at the hotel at 3:30 tomorrow. Tomorrow his car is waiting, and his driver is a beautiful, but rather forbidding woman, Vlasta Simoneva. They arrive at the offices of the glassworks, and Mr Galushka receives him, and asks him what he wishes to see. The interview is awkward, and Whistler tries out the password, without success. In the canteen he finds his inability to discuss the technicalities of glassmaking awkward, and armed guards are on patrol. Again he tries the password on another official, without success. There is a demonstration of unbreakable glass, at which Whistler is invited to throw a missile to break it. Naturally the glass doesn't break, until Whistler and his host turns away, when the glass spontaneously shatters. At the end of the visit, Whistler goes to the washroom, and an attendant engages him in conversation, and seems to be just on the point of mentioning the password, when Galushka bursts in and hustles him out. On the car ride back to his hotel, Whistler asks the female driver Vlasta to have a drink with him. They are in a bar and there is some unlikely conversation with stereotypes of the communist and capitalist systems. They agree to have dinner out that evening. She leaves and makes a phone call, and reports that she will be having dinner with Whistler. She shows some independence which does not go down well with her boss. Meanwhile Whistler phones Cunliffe; he wasn't supposed to know the number; but he asks when Jones will be arriving, but Cunliffe tells him that Jones has died. That evening at the restaurant, Whistler and Vlasta have arrived; she has changed and is wearing an elegant dress. We see that her bosses are observing. In conversation, she is guarded about her Father, knowing that she is being overheard by a badly hidden microphone. Suddenly she says she must go home. The next day she and Whistler are at a lido enjoying themselves; her immediate boss disapproves but his boss is evidently prepared to let matters continue. Whistler and Vlasta arrive at her father's house by bus in a rainstorm; he isn't there but she has to change her wet clothes. She tells Whistler that her Father is away and won't be home that night. The phone rings and Vlasta picks up the receiver, but then replaces it without speaking. They get amorous and we assume intimacy has taken place. Afterwards, she is in a solemn mood; she asks him whether he would tell her if he was doing something bad in Prague. He tells her simply that he will be visiting the factory once more tomorrow, and she says unconvincingly that that is what she will believe. The next day Whistler gets a taxi to his hotel, and Vlasta gets reprimanded for her frivolous attitude to her work. As Whistler goes to the car to take him to the factory, a different female driver is taking him. When they get to the factory, the substitute driver, who had seemed unsympathetic, gives him a note from Vlasta with a smile. In the factory he goes to the lavatory and meets the contact, who is obviously a British agent. He is contemptuous of Whistler's naivety, and puts a document in Whistler's book. Back at his hotel, Whistler dismembers the book and finds a folded paper, which he removes and puts in his pocket. There is a fairground in town, and at a shooting gallery he encounters Vlasta, who tells him to take a rifle as they mustn't be seen talking together. Don't wait for the plane tomorrow, she says: you must leave today; and "If I don't see you again, please remember, I didn't want this to happen." Back at the hotel he tells the floor manager to have his bill made up and brought to him; but when he returns Mr Simoneva, Vlasta's father bursts in and wants to question him. In fact he wants him to sign a confession, and threatens him with a fatal "accident". In fact for the first time Whistler shows some initiative and manages to escape from Simoneva and his sidekick, and he evades them, and gets into another room in the hotel. He rings room service from there and orders a drink from room service. When the waiter comes, he knocks him out and changes clothes with him. He talks his way out of the hotel. He manages to get to the vicinity of the British Embassy, but just as he is going to go in, a police car arrives and distributes photographs of him to policemen in the vicinity. He steals a bicycle and having hidden somewhere overnight, he goes to Simoneva's house the next morning. Simoneva is just leaving and Whistler goes in and confronts Vlasta about her father being a secret policeman. She tells him that she too is in the secret police. She asks him if he really posted the document; he says that he didn't, and she turns angry because she realises that all he wants is for her to help him get to the British Embassy; but she agrees to try and he burns the document. Simoneva goes to the British Embassy, because the ambassador has complained about the secret police who are loitering at the entrance to the embassy. Now we see Vlasta and Whistler together in a street café; she tells him to go to the embassy now; she has contrived a change of clothes for him; he is dressed as a plumber. As he approaches the embassy, a dozen or so men dressed as waiters-the clothing presumed to be being worn by Whistler-approach as well, and the police concentrate on them. Whistler manages to sneak in. However as he does so, Simoneva is leaving and recognises him. Whistler manages to run off. There is an agricultural procession taking place, and Whistler manages to escape by riding on a trailer, among the others. He goes to a lido where he gets a token for his clothes; he manages to exchange the token with another man and claims his clothes, which prove to be a conspicuous national costume. Much later he makes his way back to the cafe where he had left Vlasta, as she had said there is a loft where he could hide. She is still there and they embrace. He is going to stay there overnight. The next morning he is near the embassy, and when the milkman approaches with his horse and cart, Whistler overpowers him and puts his clothes on, and goes to the embassy yard. But the gates are locked, and no-one comes when he rings the bell. However eventually he manages to get in, just in the nick of time. He is given a change of clothes, and Cunliffe appears. Whistler is angry with Cunliffe for having deceived him about the espionage. He takes him to the airport, and Simoneva turns up with his daughter; she is going to England on a trade mission. Whistler and Vlasta sit together on the plane, and Cunliffe and Simoneva walk away from the place, arm in arm.
Agent 8 3/4
Comedy,Thriller
Film Details
Officials in some Government department are cataloguing someone's possessions. This leaves a position vacant. Nicholas Whistler is signing on at the unemployment office, and to his dismay, he is given a referral for a job interview.
It can't be me, says he, I'm a writer. But he has to go to the interview otherwise he will lose his unemployment benefit. His friends commiserate He goes for the interview, and it emerges that he speaks the Czech language, having been born in Czechoslovakia, but he is a British citizen.
It is employed that the company is a glass manufacturer. The salary is remarkably generous, to his surprise, and he agrees to come back on Monday. A call comes in from the Russian embassy; a British agent has been neutralised in Romania.
The man was Carruthers, and he was exposed by his interest in a woman. Whistler returns on Monday and Colonel Cunliffe, who interviewed him last week, and his assistant Allsop, discuss an urgent trip to Prague. He will accompany a company man called Jones, a Sales Manager, although after Whistler has gone the men mention that Jones doesn't exist.
Whistler returns after lunch and is told that Jones is ill. Cunliffe explains that Whistler will be meeting a Mr Galushka, and he will hand over a document that he will insert into a book that Whistler has to carry. There is a password, "Hot enough for June".
And Whistler wants to know the reply, which is "And you should have been here last September". Whistler is hurried out of the building and is in a plane on his way to Prague. On the plane he is sitting next to a man with a newspaper; the front page article is that a businessman got 25 years in jail for spying.
He checks in at the Prague hotel, and evidently has a spacious room. A man called Josef, his floor waiter, comes to the room with a letter; when he opens it it informs him that a driver will come for him at the hotel at 3:30 tomorrow. Tomorrow his car is waiting, and his driver is a beautiful, but rather forbidding woman, Vlasta Simoneva.
They arrive at the offices of the glassworks, and Mr Galushka receives him, and asks him what he wishes to see. The interview is awkward, and Whistler tries out the password, without success. In the canteen he finds his inability to discuss the technicalities of glassmaking awkward, and armed guards are on patrol.
Again he tries the password on another official, without success. There is a demonstration of unbreakable glass, at which Whistler is invited to throw a missile to break it. Naturally the glass doesn't break, until Whistler and his host turns away, when the glass spontaneously shatters.
At the end of the visit, Whistler goes to the washroom, and an attendant engages him in conversation, and seems to be just on the point of mentioning the password, when Galushka bursts in and hustles him out. On the car ride back to his hotel, Whistler asks the female driver Vlasta to have a drink with him. They are in a bar and there is some unlikely conversation with stereotypes of the communist and capitalist systems.
They agree to have dinner out that evening. She leaves and makes a phone call, and reports that she will be having dinner with Whistler. She shows some independence which does not go down well with her boss.
Meanwhile Whistler phones Cunliffe; he wasn't supposed to know the number; but he asks when Jones will be arriving, but Cunliffe tells him that Jones has died. That evening at the restaurant, Whistler and Vlasta have arrived; she has changed and is wearing an elegant dress. We see that her bosses are observing.
In conversation, she is guarded about her Father, knowing that she is being overheard by a badly hidden microphone. Suddenly she says she must go home. The next day she and Whistler are at a lido enjoying themselves; her immediate boss disapproves but his boss is evidently prepared to let matters continue.
Whistler and Vlasta arrive at her father's house by bus in a rainstorm; he isn't there but she has to change her wet clothes. She tells Whistler that her Father is away and won't be home that night. The phone rings and Vlasta picks up the receiver, but then replaces it without speaking.
They get amorous and we assume intimacy has taken place. Afterwards, she is in a solemn mood; she asks him whether he would tell her if he was doing something bad in Prague. He tells her simply that he will be visiting the factory once more tomorrow, and she says unconvincingly that that is what she will believe.
The next day Whistler gets a taxi to his hotel, and Vlasta gets reprimanded for her frivolous attitude to her work. As Whistler goes to the car to take him to the factory, a different female driver is taking him. When they get to the factory, the substitute driver, who had seemed unsympathetic, gives him a note from Vlasta with a smile.
In the factory he goes to the lavatory and meets the contact, who is obviously a British agent. He is contemptuous of Whistler's naivety, and puts a document in Whistler's book. Back at his hotel, Whistler dismembers the book and finds a folded paper, which he removes and puts in his pocket.
There is a fairground in town, and at a shooting gallery he encounters Vlasta, who tells him to take a rifle as they mustn't be seen talking together. Don't wait for the plane tomorrow, she says: you must leave today; and "If I don't see you again, please remember, I didn't want this to happen." Back at the hotel he tells the floor manager to have his bill made up and brought to him; but when he returns Mr Simoneva, Vlasta's father bursts in and wants to question him. In fact he wants him to sign a confession, and threatens him with a fatal "accident".
In fact for the first time Whistler shows some initiative and manages to escape from Simoneva and his sidekick, and he evades them, and gets into another room in the hotel. He rings room service from there and orders a drink from room service. When the waiter comes, he knocks him out and changes clothes with him.
He talks his way out of the hotel. He manages to get to the vicinity of the British Embassy, but just as he is going to go in, a police car arrives and distributes photographs of him to policemen in the vicinity. He steals a bicycle and having hidden somewhere overnight, he goes to Simoneva's house the next morning.
Simoneva is just leaving and Whistler goes in and confronts Vlasta about her father being a secret policeman. She tells him that she too is in the secret police. She asks him if he really posted the document; he says that he didn't, and she turns angry because she realises that all he wants is for her to help him get to the British Embassy; but she agrees to try and he burns the document.
Simoneva goes to the British Embassy, because the ambassador has complained about the secret police who are loitering at the entrance to the embassy. Now we see Vlasta and Whistler together in a street café; she tells him to go to the embassy now; she has contrived a change of clothes for him; he is dressed as a plumber. As he approaches the embassy, a dozen or so men dressed as waiters-the clothing presumed to be being worn by Whistler-approach as well, and the police concentrate on them.
Whistler manages to sneak in. However as he does so, Simoneva is leaving and recognises him. Whistler manages to run off.
There is an agricultural procession taking place, and Whistler manages to escape by riding on a trailer, among the others. He goes to a lido where he gets a token for his clothes; he manages to exchange the token with another man and claims his clothes, which prove to be a conspicuous national costume. Much later he makes his way back to the cafe where he had left Vlasta, as she had said there is a loft where he could hide.
She is still there and they embrace. He is going to stay there overnight. The next morning he is near the embassy, and when the milkman approaches with his horse and cart, Whistler overpowers him and puts his clothes on, and goes to the embassy yard.
But the gates are locked, and no-one comes when he rings the bell. However eventually he manages to get in, just in the nick of time. He is given a change of clothes, and Cunliffe appears.
Whistler is angry with Cunliffe for having deceived him about the espionage. He takes him to the airport, and Simoneva turns up with his daughter; she is going to England on a trade mission. Whistler and Vlasta sit together on the plane, and Cunliffe and Simoneva walk away from the place, arm in arm..