Popular reviews

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  Review by williamfaeleith ★★★

  Mildly funny late sixties spy spoof with a great cast of (mostly) British character actors with the always likeable Tom Courtenay as Gerald Arthur Otley, a feckless, small-time buyer/seller/stealer of antiques who accidentally gets caught up in international espionage and intrigue.
  Benefits from some nice London location shooting and a nicely staged car chase while Otley's taking his driving test. The plot (Clement/La Frenais adapting the novel by Martin Waddell) is a bit silly but Romy Schneider adds a bit of glamour, Leonard Rossiter is great as an assassin and Freddie Jones sparkles as a very camp executive of a shady news organisation.
  I was surprised to see Emma Thompson in this as she's far too young, but then realised it was her mother, Phyllida Law.
  Love the opening credits with Tom walking down a busy London street (Portobello Road?) with most of the bystanders staring at the camera.

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  Review by noir1946 ★★½

  “You know, I always thought colonic irrigation had something to do with agriculture.”

  I have previously confessed my weakness for spy spoofs. As such, I approached Otley with some enthusiasm in 1969. With Tom Courtnay and Romy Schneider heading the cast, it sounded like my kind of film. Alas, I found it disappointing. Seeing it again a few years later, I had the same reaction. Here I am a third time, hoping the material by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais with direction by Clement would improve. They wrote The Commitments, after all. Alas, still no sale.

  Gerald Arthur Otley (Courtnay), who loves saying his full name, is a London layabout mistaken for a spy, becoming caught up in machinations…

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  Review by Wilson ★★★½

  Otley is a rambunctious, vaguely anarchic, comic spy thriller, that takes Tom Courtenay, in Billy Liar mode (this could arguably be an unofficial sequel) and drops him in the middle of a Euro-spy thriller. But he cannot drive, he cannot use a gun, and has no idea what is going on. Courtenay is magnificent in the film, as he bumbles about, delivering comedy with an expert dishevelment. It is a shame that this was near the end of Courtenay's film-work, before his long diversion to the theatre. We missed out on much great work.

  The film probably gets away from Dick Clement, the noted writer, less-noted director, but at 90 minutes it is an immensely enjoyable, brief light-weight comedy.

  Romy…

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  Review by Zoë 🐛 ★★★½

  Romy Schneider seduces Tom Courtenay and frankly I needed that in my life

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  Review by Fint ★★★

  Amusing, amiable but not exactly arresting caper with Tom Courtenay getting caught up in a complicated plot that I’m not sure I understand in retrospect. What keeps it buoyant are nice performances from a gallery of familiar faces, some choice lines from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and, particularly, fresh London locations a la 1968. Romy Schneider never ceases to be a winning presence.

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  Review by Rob Simpson ★★★½ 2

  REVIEWED on the latest episode of CINEMA ECLECTICA

  You may disagree but here I am going on record saying that British cinema was at its best in the 1960s. Experimental, thoughtful, weird and funny movies where being made left, right and centre as facilitated by the image of the Swinging 60s and American studios setting up shop wanting to be part of that. When that moment passed, British cinema went into a freefall that it hasn't really recovered from. Yes, there are pockets of prolificness but those pass on by. I am not going to go into a rant on the cultural empiricism running roughshod over British culture, or that all British culture is being squashed under the foot of…

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  Review by Silversaxophone ★★★★

  Unassuming but utterly charming and funny spoof on espionage thrillers, with the title character who might as well be Billy Liar who actually did go to London, five years on. It's arguably Tom Courtney's most enjoyable performance on film. He's supported by splendidly eccentric turns by a bevy of magnificent British thespians such as Freddie Jones as the campy chief of a villainous spy ring, Leonard Rossiter's friendly assassin and James Villiers' upper middle-class snot. Romy Schnieder plays the exotic foreigner, but it's James Cousins as a grumpy driving instructor who steals the picture for ten minutes during a hilarious car chase. The director, Dick Clement, shooting his debut feature, has the touch of a less fidgety Richard Lester. The…

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  Review by 𝔸ℕℕ𝔸 ★★★

  I suppose we'd better discuss Antonioni.
  Oh, no - I can't stand all that Spanish dancing.

  Bless him, Tom Courtenay really carried this film on his back. Which is saying something, because I didn't like Billy Liar, and when I started watching this, I was worried this was going to be Billy Liar goes spy thriller. I had no bloody clue what anyone or anything was in this spy spoof, but I enjoyed watching Tom Courtenay walk around half confused. Splendid. Otley had dry British humour and a certain charm to it. Features a nice driving test scene. Pedestrians!

  It really beckons disbelief when Tom Courtenay said he didn't want to continue doing films because he wanted to improve himself as an actor on the stage. I mean, the guy can act! It's great he went into theatre since that was what he liked, but 1970s ( / 1980s) cinema really missed out on the guy.

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★½ 2

  Look, I know I've waxed lyrical in the past about Edward Fox being the most dangerous man to ever wear a cravat in The Day of the Jackal and everyone loves Jean Reno's Leon, but surely Leonard Rossiter in Otley is the greatest assassin to ever grace the big screen?

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  Review by Rick Burin ★★★ 3

  Something like the London Tony Rome, in both its periodic preoccupations – houseboats, black power, gay people as villains – and its production elements, the film’s essential unseriousness highlighted both by its jaunty score and the subservience of its story to more sitcomish concerns.

  There are two competing impressions that Otley elicits. The first is that cinema has simply lost its way, the fabric of narrative crumbling into disconnected sequences as the medium chases societal scenes it doesn’t understand. Its star, Tom Courtenay, had broken through with an act of blistering rebellion in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner; now he’s a suspected killer in a laboured, fractured spy parody set around the Portobello Road – and are we…

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  Review by Chris 🍉 ★★★½

  Idk if it was just my throbbing headache but I wanted to like this more than I did.... oh well it was kinda gay so. 😜

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  Review by James Patrick ★★★½

  Though OTLEY is unsure if it's a spoof or a sincere spy caper, Tom Courtenay carries the film with a deft touch on the bumbling, unwitting conspirator archetype. Imagine a cross between Martin Freeman and a young Tom Jones-era Albert Finney. It's a finely crafted performance that betters the film at every step, even when the conspiracy grows a bit long in the tooth for a comedy. An enjoyable showcase of the Swinging London of the 1960's with a bevy of familiar faces in supporting roles. Watch for Courtenay's off-type performance, anything else is just a bonus.