Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Prismark10 Operation CIA is an early film role for Burt Reynolds. We see a clean shaven Reynolds playing a young CIA agent dispatched as an university agriculture professor who is assigned to Saigon to stop a planned political assassination at the US Embassy.Reynolds went on to become a top box office star in the 1970s mainly for light action comedies but his reputation as an actor is rather maligned. Directors such as John Boorman who worked with him in Deliverance have noted that Reynolds is a good and clever actor, always thinking how to make his performance better.The film has extensive location shooting. The problem is, as my son exclaimed, 'Dad, dad, we've been there, its Bangkok!' Right from the beginning we see the iconic Wat Arun and then we see the Grand Palace. It certainly is not Saigon. Maybe in those days viewers will not have noticed as people were less extensively travelled.The film has a routine if silly plot but there are a lot of nasty deaths. People throwing bombs even at a group of children, people walking off a motorbike which is primed to go off. There is a grinning villain almost akin to Frank Gorshin's The Ridder.Its a B film, although I am sure the filmmakers had a great time in Bangkok. Reynolds shows sign of promise, he gets a love interest, we even see him wisecracking. A spy with his heart in the right place.

slightlymad22 Burt Reynolds who has contributed some hard as nails characters over the years, provides his usual touch of class to this low budget 1960's flick.Plot In A Paragraph: Central Intelligence Agent Mark Andrews is dispatched to Saigon in an attempt to stop a potential assassination attempt on a US Ambassador.In his first leading role in a movie, a clean shaven Reynolds isn't really given much to do, except run around a lot and try ad make some of the worst choreographed fight scenes seem plausible.Reynolds would go on to greater things, I don't think anybody else in this movie did.

zardoz-13 Watching Christian Nyby's "Operation C.I.A." makes you wonder if he had anything to do with directing the classic chiller "The Thing From Another World." Whereas the latter horror thriller was agile, atmospheric, and audacious, "Operation C.I.A." is clumsy, amateurish, and downright boring. Could it be that the presence of Howard Hawk in the background had a salutary effect on the former editor? Little of his brilliance on the sci-fi saga filters through this lackluster espionage nail-biter about an attempt to assassinate state department officials. Burt Reynolds portrays a C.I.A. agent reluctantly sent into the Orient by his superior, Wells (John Hoyt of "Brute Force") with a little information. Our stalwart hero is constantly under scrutiny by the opposite side and occasionally gets into a scrap with them. Nothing memorable emerges from this muddled melodrama. Actually, you know something is wrong when the exotic locale and a talented cast are let down by a second-rate screenplay by "Strangler" scribe Bill S. Ballinger and "Nashville Girl" writer Peer J. Oppenheimer. "Operation C.I.A." qualifies as thoroughly forgettable. I must say, however, that the long shot that pans to follow an airliner into Hong Kong airport is scenic stuff. Oh, yes, "Operation C.I.A." was lensed in black & white is presented in standard full frame format.

MrOllie I had never heard of this film until I watched it recently. A CIA agent played by a young Burt Reynolds is sent to Vietnam (although it was filmed elsewhere) to try to abort an assassination plot against the US ambassador. The film which was made in black and white does have an amateurish feel about it, although Burt, who is not a great actor, does okay. When the film started I didn't think that I would be able to watch it all, however, I did and quite enjoyed it. There is a long chase sequence with Burt doing a lot of running which I thought decent. Although it's not a great film, do if you get the chance try to watch it - if only for curiosity value.I noticed on the final credits that the mens' hair stylist was Jay Sebring who was sadly one of the Sharon Tate murder victims.