Mrs. Pollifax-Spy

While I wouldn't necessarily say, "You gotta see this!" I enjoyed it. Just the "time warp" aspect alone made it worth watching. It would probably be a tough sell for a non-Roz-fan, but there are several good moments for her to shine (often with just her facial expressions and no dialogue).

This was filmed in 1969 by the director of the 1966 "Batman" movie, to give you an idea of style (including animated opening credits). This film is not as campy but some similarities in style can be spotted as "dynamic duo" Rosalind Russell and Darren McGavin banter back and forth while captured and held captive just like the caped crusader and boy wonder were lo so many episodes of the TV show. (And of course, the acting is better, less cartoonish.)

I liked seeing McGavin (the dad from "A Christmas Story") and Harold Gould (Miles from "The Golden Girls"--as an Albanian!) in different roles. And as a movie buff in general, I would say the animated opening credits are right up there with those of Roz's "The Trouble With Angels." I think it's great that RR adapted the screenplay herself (under a pseudonym) so that her final film could be a star vehicle and not some throwaway two-minute scene playing Raquel Welch's mother or anything along that line.

Is the movie an indisputable classic? No. But a worthwhile effort? Totally. Especially compared to some of the klunkers other screen legends made as their final bows. I was interested in what would happen to the two main characters and enjoyed their rapport with each other. Overall, a good movie I would definitely watch again.

Like so many of her contemporaries Rosalind Russell was finding it difficult to get work without having to resort to the horror genre. I give her credit she never did do that. For her last big screen release she chose a film that was about a middle aged woman who now that her kids are grown and she's a widow decides that espionage is the career for her. With the help of her US Senator she gets an introduction to a top CIA man and says she wants to become Mrs. Pollifax-Spy.

As guileless as Russell is Dana Elcar decides maybe she will do at least as a courier. But through a series of mixups and missed signals Russell whose assignment was in Mexico is whisked off to Albania where she's held prisoner with professional spy Darren McGavin. Their Albanian prison is in the hands of a "Red" Chinese general Albert Paulsen with his second being Albanian Nehemiah Persoff. Paulsen's occidental features are explained that he's off mixed racial origin.

Mrs. Pollifax-Spy has the charm of Rosalind Russell to carry it over the rough spots which are many. I find it hard to wrap myself around the concept that at my age which is older than Russell's was as presented I could just get my Senator to just arrange an appointment with the CIA so I could apply to be a spy. People for that agency are recruited in all kinds of ways, but I doubt they just take people who ask to work. Even Dana Elcar says we get a lot of screwballs.

For Roz Russell fans.

I have been searching for this film for some time, having enjoyed the novel on which it was based, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman. All book-to-film adaptations require changes being made, but as the script was written by the star herself - Rosalind Russell - it is surprising so many of these changes were badly thought out, even pointless on occasion. The rapport and camaraderie between Mrs. Pollifax and her co-agent Farrell is totally missing - in fact he is downright rude and hostile towards her for most of the film. Likewise, her boss Carstairs has little regard for Mrs. P. and scant concern for her wellbeing. For no good reason we get a scene in which Mrs. P.'s son is informed that his mother has become a CIA agent. The middle of the film drags, the ending is muddled, and the overall look is relentlessly drab.

And in stark contrast to the matronly Mrs. P. who does precious little spying or cloak and dagger stuff, the januty animated opening credits feature a tall, slender, sexy Mati Hari type spy who could not be further removed from Rosalind Russell c. 1970. It is a shame this was a missed opportunity for Ms. Russell to shine in what would sadly be her last feature film, however as other reviewers have commented it is not an embarrassment nor a cheap horror film. Roz went out a star, but unfortunately of a film that could have been so much better.

Odd but true, I missed seeing this film when it was new as I was a fairly busy man at the time. Little did I know at that time that this was to be the Roz's last major production. ........And because it was her last film, this is a shame that to my knowledge this has never seen the light of day since it first ran in theaters! What a crime, not only for Roz's fans but also to the fans of Mrs.Pollifax stories as well to be denied the pleasure of seeing the Roz in the Role of Mrs. Pollifax. So I am going to ask to whom it may concern: Please rescue the prints from the vault and put this out on DVD!! Heck, you don't even have to spend a ton of money to restore it to digital standards if you don't want to, just release it as a "budget special" for all I care!! I'd like to at least watch ANY VERSION of this before I check off for good!!!

So who cares if it isn't exactly Roz's greatest film? Who cares if this isn't the greatest filmed version of a Mrs. Pollifax story? What matters here is that this is Roz's LAST MOVIE and that alone makes it WORTH RELEASING TO DVD!!!

In her final theatrical film (there would be a TV movie in 1972), Rosalind Russell plays novelist Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax in "Mrs. Pollifax, Spy." This 1971 film also stars Darren McGavin, Nehemiah Piersoff, Albert Paulson, Harold Gould, John Beck and Dana Elcar. The script is written by Russell under a pseudonym. Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly woman who after being widowed volunteers to be a spy for the CIA. Since she looks so un-spylike, one of the people at the CIA (Elcar) decides to try her out on a mission. She is to go to Mexico, head for a bookstore, watch for The Tale of Two Cities in the window, enter the bookstore when she sees the book has been placed in the window, exchange some code sentences with the owner, get the book and leave. Except it doesn't go that way. Before Mrs. Pollifax knows what hit her, she's en route to an Albanian fortress with a man, John Sebastian Farrell (McGavin). They share a cell. Mrs. Pollifax goes to work plotting their escape as Farrell recovers from a bullet wound.

The Mrs. Pollifax books make for light, fun reading, and this pleasant story is along the same benign lines. Some of the elements of the books are disregarded - for instance, Mrs. Pollifax's children never were told she was a spy as they are here. Rosalind Russell does an excellent job, and she looks wonderful, particularly when one remembers how blown up the poor woman was from steroids due to her rheumatoid arthritis later on. She was such a striking woman with a strong presence in the films she made over her career. Darren McGavin isn't Gilman's Farrell, but his dry humor is effective just the same - another actor who, like Russell, is sorely missed.

This movie doesn't move very quickly; in fact, it's slow in parts, but there are some good scenes, particularly the Christmas party that Mrs. Pollifax talks her jailers into throwing. You can really admire her charm and cleverness.

"Mrs. Pollifax, Spy" is one of those comfortable movies where one sees a lot of familiar faces and an okay story. You'll see worse, you'll see better - but seeing Russell and McGavin more than makes up for the script's shortcomings.