Hi! I am looking for the title of an old movie as described to me by a
friend. Hopefully this will be fun for you movie buffs.

This movie was in black and white and was made in late 50's to early
60's. My friend described it as looking like a "pre James Bond" movie
although he doesn't think the main character was named James Bond.
Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the names of actors or actresses
that appeared in the movie.

The setting seemed to be in England. At the beginning of the movie,
there was an office setting where a lot of people were working at
their desks. An excellent performance of one of the workers caught the
attention of the government(?). So this worker (the main character)
was offered to do a mission for them. They used a projector to show
him pictures of the bad guys and he accepted the mission and was given
gadgets to help him. Along the way, there were romantic scenes with
two women (a la in James Bond style). One of the women's kisses didn't
seem right to the main character and later it turned out that she was
in the league with the bad guys. At or near the end of the movie, the
main character returned to his desk as if nothing major happened. No
one around him said anything or even seemed to have noticed that he
was gone for a while.

My friend recalls the movie having English subtitles although he
doesn't remember or know why the subtitles were there in the first
place.

Any of this seem familiar? Have a go at it and produce a title! Thanks
very much. :-)

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Clarification of Question by jaspera-ga on 11 Feb 2006 10:54 PST

Hello! I apologize for not getting back here sooner. My friend and I
are still trying to rent the titles that you all suggested so that he
could watch them and see if one of them is the one he had seen.

(pafalafa-ga, my friend happened to like the actor Rowan Atkinson so
he's even going to rent 'Johnny English' just for laughs ;-))

Thank you everyone very much for the titles. So far, 'Quiller
Memorandum' is not it (ditto with 'Casino Royale'). I will return here
as soon as possible to let you all know whether or not one of your
titles has hit the jackpot. Again, thanks!

Sounds quite a lot like the genuinely awful Johnny English:


http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0274166/Ss/0274166/5571-JE-3479.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0274166


even though it isn't.

Spy films were ten a penny in that era. I don't recognise the one you
cited but here are some titles to conjure with:

Where the Spies Are (David Niven)

The Ipcress File (Michael Caine) and its successors.

The Quiller Memorandum (George Segall)

Good luck!

I also thought of Michael Caine with his many films; but also about
John Thaw's films - I know, it's not spy film but police films, but
they also have this flair.

Two more:

Hot Enough for June (Dirk Bogarde)

and

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (Richard Burton)

Casino Royale with Peter Sellers?

sorry, no office at the beinning of Casino Royale.

Late 50s to early 60s, black and white, spy movie, English. That kind
of narrows it down. How about "Secret Venture" (1955), starring Kent
Taylor? Here's the IMDb page on it:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0048595/

If that's the one you're looking for, let me know and I'll post it as
an official answer.