No way is this film as funny as it should be or seemingly as funny as it thinks it is. But it does have charm, some great and colourful location shooting and some very decent performances. From the extended opening as Tom Courtenay makes he way a good length of Portobello Road to the modest and quiet ending, we smile but little more. Nevertheless the film is likeable and a pleasure to watch, Coutenay is excellent, Romy Schneider lovely though underused and James Villiers who must have appeared in every British film of the time does better than usual. There is also a great turn from Leonard Rossiter who almost brings the film to life singlehandedly. Maybe it was the time, maybe it was writers La Frenais and Clement but this film is outrageously languorous and happy to almost stop now and again. Still good fun checking out the locations and Courtenay doesn't put a foot wrong.

Of all the spy spoofs that were set off by the James Bond films in the 60's, this was just about the best. Over 40 years later it's still witty with beautifully observed characters, great locations, and a suspenseful story. To top it off, it has a catchy title song that captures the spirit of the hero perfectly.Gerald Arthur Otley is a likely lad. He's an opportunistic, occasional antiques dealer - he has sold his landlady's furniture - who gets by on his wits and his way with the ladies. However things get out of control when he becomes involved in an espionage plot.He is kidnapped twice and meets some interesting but dangerous people including a female agent, Imogen, played by beautiful and enigmatic Romy Schneider. "Imogen", he exclaims when she first tells him her name, "It sounds like something you put on cut knees". He also meets Johnson, a hit man played by Leonard Rossiter whose light-heartedness about his work belies a merciless nature.Director Dick Clement gave the film a light touch, and Tom Courtney reveals a flair for comedy where a look says a lot. The film is almost a cross between "Alfie" and "Arabesque", but works far better than just about all the spy spoofs that hit like a tsunami in the 1960s.The film has a serious side and there is an element of danger for Otley; likable as he is, his survival is not a forgone conclusion. Although he is a bit of a loser, his luck holds up despite his relationships with women seeming always to be of short duration. His parting with Imogen at the end after their brief affair sums it up; when he asks if he can see her again, she answers, "Don't be silly", and drives away.The film is also something of a time capsule. Like "Goodbye Gemini" made around the same time, the background of the film captures not only the look of the times - the hairstyles, the clothes and the cars - but also the mood, including Otley's casual day-to-day approach to life.Along with great shots of late 60's Portobello Road and other London locations, the film has a score by the eclectic Stanley Myers. The song "Homeless bones" co-written and sung by busker Don Partridge, adds the right touch to a film that works beautifully on many levels.

Tom Courtney is perfect as Gerald Arthur Otley, from Martin Waddell's series of books about a wannabe antiques dealer who makes what living he can fobbing off small items of stolen merchandise . . . but who always stumbles into involvement with some arm of the British secret service.Otley blunders his way across four hilarious novels by author Waddell, and the movie is a pretty good version of the first, even with those aggravating changes movies always seem obliged to make. In this one the small-time deal in antiques crashes a friend's party and slips a small object d'art into his pocket, not knowing it contains a miniature tape-recorder with a recording a lot of people will kill to possess. Among the changes in the story is a very funny chase sequence when Otley is taking his driving test, with an increasingly desperate driving instructor (James Cossins).For the rest of the cast, Romy Schneider is a lovely Imogen (though the character is called Grace in the book and seems to be designed with Diana Rigg in mind--how perfect she would have been!) James Villiers, Edward Hardwicke, Alan Badel and Leonard Rossiter all lend their usual level of professionalism to the proceedings. Dump the lovely Schneider and you have the makings of a great Shakespeare flick. Not only that, then-child actor Kenneth Cranham has a funny little bit. And Indiana Jones' favorite Nazi, Ronald Lacy has a good but small part as a hypchonriacal hit-man. And the Likely Lads' James Bolam. They've plugged every part with a rising talent. The great Freddie Jones is particularly amusing as the fey leader of a news agency-cum-spy ring. The episodes between Courtney and Jones are the best in the movie.And yet the "Otley" movie as a whole never seems quite as good as the sum of its parts. It's like a series of sketches all featuring Courtney's Otley. There's Otley taking his driving exam. There's Otley humping pig swill on Leonard Rossiter's farm. Part of this is Martin Waddell's fault. His Otley books do read like a series of events held together as a narrative by Otley's wonderfully understated first-person description of the ever deeper holes he finds himself in. Losing the narration for the movie, they have the same problem prevalent with P.G. Wodehouse or Jerome K. Jerome adaptations, in that the narration is often the best part. They also try to cash in on the "swinging London" craze current at the time. Well, frankly, so did Waddell, though for whatever reason he made it clear that, at least to the secret service, Otley himself had far right-wing proclivities (which is good news to right-wing readers like me, who have so few heroes of my ilk in fiction).Still, as with about seventy-five percent of cases, the book is better, though it requires some thought, which movies do not. And for those movie goers who can read, chasing down the scarce OTLEY novel will lead to a worthwhile experience, though its price is steep on the second-hand market.Too bad. I'd have given it 10/10 with Diana Rigg.

Martin Waddell's OTLEY is about a wannabe second-hand/antiquities dealer (on the dole) who already has a line of clients and who is not particular about how he acquires what he sells. He gets in trouble for stealing an object d'art that is actually a recording device employed for espionage (for one side or the other -- I can't recall which, but it doesn't matter). He is the most reluctant of spies, though he dips and dives, toward whichever side will help him get out of trouble, over four charming, short comic novels.Tom Courtenay tries to breathe life to this character, and he is surrounded by some of Britains most individual supporting players (including Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey and Leonard Rossiter) and the beautiful Romy Schneider. Perhaps they wanted to make a film that was both a spy movie (everyone was cranking them out) as well as a "swinging London" movie (a genre worn into the ground) but it comes off as more diverting than funny; and like most movies of the period that tried to be "modern" it looks quaintly dated. But the stars are always worth watching.