Come Spy with Me (film)

Plot

Starring Troy Donahue and Andrea Dromm, the film features Dromm ("I'm an AGENT, not a spy!"), solving a murder case, rescuing a kidnap victim (Valerie Allen, Donahue's wife at the time of filming), breaking up a mastermind's (Albert Dekker) underwater bomb assassination plot of several world leaders, and dancing the new dance called "the Shark" on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles performed the film's titular theme song, written by lead singer Robinson.

Production

The film was the first produced under a 13-film co-production treaty between Allied Artists and five television stations owned by ABC.

It was the first movie made by Troy Donahue following the end of his contract with Warner Bros. It was originally called Red on Red.

Hot off her success for her performance in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Andrea Dromm was recruited by the American Broadcasting Company to host a television special about the surfing craze called Hit the Surf and to play a female secret agent in the lead role of ABC Films first production. She knew the director Marshall Stone from their work together in National Airlines and Clairol "Summer Girl" television commercials. Dromm had to learn motorcycle riding and scuba diving for the film, but her underwater shots were doubled. Dromm was nervous about scuba diving and what she felt were unsafe conditions; she said that Troy Donahue got into some trouble underwater due to problems with his diving regulator. Dromm never made another film.

The film was overshadowed by 20th Century Fox's other 1967 female spy films; Fathom with Raquel Welch and Caprice with Doris Day.

Critical reaction

The film was released to mostly negative reviews and was not a success. The New York Herald Tribune film review stated "The film belongs on top of sky high pile of other 'I Spy' losers" ending the review with "come die with me". The review in Variety paraphrased Dromm's National Airline commercial catchphrase "Is this any way to run an airline? You bet it is!" to "Is this any way to make a motion picture? You bet it isn't!"

Consequently, Come Spy with Me has not been reissued by 20th Century Fox or released on home video; save for some television broadcasts, it has not been seen in several decades.