1960s Spy/Espionage/Cold War Movies
(Only movies dealing with post-WWII espionage are covered in this list.)
The 60s run of "spy films" began with the first James Bond films, which set the tone by completely copping-out from dealing with the realities of espionage and the Cold War, opting instead for ridiculous "super-villains" and infantile "evil plots". Many subsequent 60s "spy" films treated espionage as even more of a joke, while a few others seemed to react against the unreality and stupidity of Bond, Flint, Helm, etc.
In the middle of this list are some 60s "nuclear crisis" and Cold War films that don't deal with espionage, but deal more closely with Cold War issues than most of the "spy" films. Like the "spy" films, but maybe to a lesser extent, they generally fall over themselves to remain apolitical.
After that, I list lesser known foreign (French, German, Italian, etc.) spy movies.
Scores out of ten for the ones I've seen.
The 60s run of "spy films" began with the first James Bond films, which set the tone by completely copping-out from dealing with the realities of espionage and the Cold War, opting instead for ridiculous "super-villains" and infantile "evil plots". Many subsequent 60s "spy" films treated espionage as even more of a joke, while a few others seemed to react against the unreality and stupidity of Bond, Flint, Helm, etc.
In the middle of this list are some 60s "nuclear crisis" and Cold War films that don't deal with espionage, but deal more closely with Cold War issues than most of the "spy" films. Like the "spy" films, but maybe to a lesser extent, they generally fall over themselves to remain apolitical.
After that, I list lesser known foreign (French, German, Italian, etc.) spy movies.
Scores out of ten for the ones I've seen.
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- DirectorGeorge SidneyStarsTony CurtisDean MartinJanet LeighIll-advised by a pal, a chemistry professor falsely claims to be an undercover FBI agent to cover up his marital infidelity; his wife swallows his life, but it gets him in trouble with the real FBI, the CIA, and the KGB.6/10
- DirectorLance ComfortStarsPeter ReynoldsDermot WalshJoanna DunhamThe nephew of a printer gets involved with foreign spies intent on making counterfeit money.
- DirectorWilliam WitneyStarsJack HoganJune KenneyJohn BaerA burglar steals a briefcase. Unknown to him, it contains a valuable secret formula. So he has the police on his trail--plus the owner of the formula and a ruthless spy...
- DirectorFrancis SearleStarsConrad PhillipsJane GriffithsVeronica HurstSpy David Baxter is sent to Ireland to investigate the death of a defected colleague apparently found dead on a beach. But is the body really him?
- DirectorJohn Paddy CarstairsStarsPeter van EyckMacdonald CareyMarianne KochIn East Germany, a double agent falls for a beautiful young escapee from Hungary.
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryUrsula AndressBernard LeeA resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.4/10
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.4/10
- DirectorH. Haile ChaceStarsArthur HowardEva WagnerAn English professor interested in photography is given a pair of special sunglasses by an Austrian colleague. To his surprise and boyish delight, he discovers they're X-ray specs, which allow him to see through people's clothes! As he ventures across Europe, he is pursued by spies who're after the glasses. He eventually manages to elude them, and settles down to a life of ease, ogling naked women on beaches...
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsBob HopeAnita EkbergEdie AdamsA returning moon capsule with vital information goes off-course and lands in Africa, where the little-known Ekele tribesmen find it. Washington orders African expert, Matthew Merriwether - an utter fraud and authority only on feminine pulchritude - to go find it.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsCary GrantAudrey HepburnWalter MatthauRomance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?5/10
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryRobert ShawLotte LenyaJames Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by the organization Spectre.4/10
- DirectorRobert SpaffordStarsYvonne BuckinghamJohn Drew BarrymoreAlicia BrandetA teenage prostitute in England gets involved with high-level politicians and becomes enmeshed in a sex-and-spy scandal.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsPaul NewmanEdward G. RobinsonElke SommerAs the Nobel Prize winners come to Stockholm to receive their awards, their lives are overturned and perturbed in various ways.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsMurray HamiltonJoyce TaylorHugh MarloweWhile attending a school for diplomats' daughters, the teen-aged daughter of the American ambassador uses her access to various embassies to engage in espionage.
- DirectorGerald ThomasStarsKenneth WilliamsBarbara WindsorBernard CribbinsAgent Simpkins and trainees chase STENCH (the Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans) for a stolen chemical formula, using gadgets and disguises to defeat villains The Fat Man, Dr Milchman, and Dr Crow.3/10
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsSean ConneryGert FröbeHonor BlackmanWhile investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.2/10
- DirectorRalph ThomasStarsDirk BogardeSylva KoscinaRobert MorleyCzech-speaking, out-of-work Briton Nicholas Whistler (Dirk Bogarde) is unwittingly sent on a secret mission to Prague by British Intelligence.6/10
- DirectorMontgomery TullyStarsStephen MurrayJune ThorburnAlan WheatleyA Russian scientist working for the British is suspected of being a "plant", sent to monitor nuclear secrets on behalf of the communists.
- DirectorJames LandisStarsMichael TerrArch Hall Jr.Liz RenayRussian spies secretly infect rabbits with a deadly bacteria, then let them loose in the U.S.
- DirectorRobert DouglasStarsLeslie NielsenAliza GurDorinda StevensFormer OSS officer Alan Holiday, now living in London, is visited on New Year's Eve by Catherine Carrel who says she is a close friend of Jules Lemoine who served with Holiday during the war. Lemoine urgently requests that Holiday go to Paris on a secret mission. Lemoine visits and wants Alan to deliver a reel of tape which he gives him, and keeps a fake reel himself to deceive enemy agents. Lemoine is killed and the fake tape stolen. Holiday, poses as an assistant to photographer Louis Vernay, and they take three models along to further the ruse.
- DirectorRobert TronsonStarsBernard LeeWilliam SylvesterMargaret TyzackDuring the Cold War, a RN warrant officer stationed in the British Embassy in Warsaw leaks secrets to his Polish girlfriend who's a Soviet agent and after his transfer to a naval station in Britain he joins a Soviet spy ring.
- DirectorDon MedfordStarsRobert VaughnLuciana PaluzziPat CrowleyThe pilot for the TV series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," re-edited and released to theaters as a feature.
- DirectorPhilip DunneStarsRock HudsonClaudia CardinaleJack WardenA New York psychiatrist is solicited by government agents in connection with a former patient of his who also happens to be a scientist wanted by certain foreign powers.5/10
- DirectorPeter BezencenetStarsPaul MaxwellTerry MooreMarisa MellA Canadian reporter gets mixed up in Cold-War politics, romance and espionage in Eastern Europe.
- DirectorChristian-JaqueCarlo LizzaniTerence YoungStarsBourvilHenry FondaVittorio GassmanThe US intelligence chief in Europe relates the stories of three different operations that he was involved in with colleagues in Paris and Djibouti, Rome, and Berlin.