On balance, this was not a bad watch. Once you get past the clunking opening sequence clearly designed to comfort viewers weaned on the recent outpourings of the nascent Bond francise, it has enough of a flavour of the book to keep you reasonably enthralled and some half decent performances. However, for anyone with knowledge of the book, the idea of Pan Whistler being a) Dirk Bogarde and b) somewhere in his forties, is a little much to take.
Sylva Koscina as Vlasta is suitably statuesque and can any film with John Le Mesurier, Leo McKern and Robert Morley in the cast not be worth watching? I had a slight problem with the way the actual 'Night of Wencelas' was filmed. Perhaps a filmmaker today would revel in the claustrophobia and limitations of the 'square' and Whistler's increasing panic as the night went on. Back in 1964, director Ralph Thomas seems to have gone for more of a travelogue approach, the Czech setting being mined as exotic fodder in the way of 'From Russia With Love', released a year before.
While I would hesitate to call it a good film, it captured the attention and held it until the denouement. Had I not been aware of the source material, I would probably have dismissed it as a cash-in vehicle for Bogarde on the back of Bond, which in one sense it is.
'The Night of Wencelas' is a cracking story that could be better served on screen than through this. Is there enough in there to sustain a modern feature film? My view is sadly not, especially when we see what was done to 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' recently. That was a very different kettle of espionage agents of course, but I can picture Davidson's work being dismissed for only having one linear plot line. Perhaps a quality period drama is the way forward. The Radio 4 version would be fine starting point
Hot Enough for June (3 out of 5)
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