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Hot Enough for June
Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas, and starring Dirk Bogarde with Sylva Koscina in her English film debut, Robert Morley and Leo McKern. It is based on the 1960 novel The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson. The film was cut by twenty minutes and retitled Agent 8+3⁄4 for the US release by the American distributor Continental Distributing.
Secret Service employee Roger Allsop (John Le Mesurier) turns over some belongings to a clerk, who stows them in a drawer marked 007 before turning the identifying card over to read "deceased". Allsop and his superior, Colonel Cunliffe (Robert Morley), then discuss the necessity to send someone to pick up an item from behind the Iron Curtain.
Unemployed writer Nicholas Whistler (Dirk Bogarde) is sent by the employment exchange to be interviewed by Cunliffe, supposedly for a job as a trainee executive for a glass company. Cunliffe discovers Whistler speaks Czech, and offers him an exorbitant salary, plus expenses.
Whistler is given puzzling instructions to meet someone who will respond to the coded remark "Hot Enough For June", before being sent to Prague on a "business" trip later the same day. On his arrival, he is assigned a beautiful driver and guide, Vlasta (Sylva Koscina). She drives him to inspect a glass factory, where the washroom attendant responds to the code.
That night he takes Vlasta to dinner. Unbeknownst to him, she is an agent of the Czech secret police who know (although he doesn't realise it himself yet) that he is actually working for British intelligence. He and Vlasta are attracted to each other and she invites him to stay the night at her surprisingly luxurious home.
When Whistler revisits the factory the next day, the washroom attendant gives him a piece of paper and informs him they are both spies. Vlasta arranges to meet him secretly that night and she warns him to return to England immediately. However, when he returns to the hotel, Simenova (Leo McKern), the head of the secret police, is waiting. He presents Whistler with a stark choice: sign a confession or suffer a fatal accidental fall, but Whistler creates a distraction and manages to escape.
Evading a manhunt, he turns to the only person who might be willing to help him: Vlasta. When he reaches her house in the morning however, he is shocked to find her seeing her father, Simenova, off to work. After Simenova leaves, Whistler confronts Vlasta. She offers to help him reach the British embassy, despite a cordon of communist agents. To demonstrate his good faith, he burns the crucial slip of paper he is meant to bring back to England, so that neither side can have it. Her plan almost succeeds, but Simenova is leaving the embassy as Whistler approaches and recognises him, forcing him to flee once more. Finally, he gets inside the embassy by masquerading as a milkman.
Cunliffe informs him that he is being exchanged for a spy the British have caught. At the airport, he is pleasantly surprised to find that Vlasta has been assigned to the trade mission in London and they sit next to each other as the plane departs.
Hot Enough for June
Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas, and starring Dirk Bogarde with Sylva Koscina in her English film debut, Robert Morley and Leo McKern. It is based on the 1960 novel The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson. The film was cut by twenty minutes and retitled Agent 8+3⁄4 for the US release by the American distributor Continental Distributing.
Secret Service employee Roger Allsop (John Le Mesurier) turns over some belongings to a clerk, who stows them in a drawer marked 007 before turning the identifying card over to read "deceased". Allsop and his superior, Colonel Cunliffe (Robert Morley), then discuss the necessity to send someone to pick up an item from behind the Iron Curtain.
Unemployed writer Nicholas Whistler (Dirk Bogarde) is sent by the employment exchange to be interviewed by Cunliffe, supposedly for a job as a trainee executive for a glass company. Cunliffe discovers Whistler speaks Czech, and offers him an exorbitant salary, plus expenses.
Whistler is given puzzling instructions to meet someone who will respond to the coded remark "Hot Enough For June", before being sent to Prague on a "business" trip later the same day. On his arrival, he is assigned a beautiful driver and guide, Vlasta (Sylva Koscina). She drives him to inspect a glass factory, where the washroom attendant responds to the code.
That night he takes Vlasta to dinner. Unbeknownst to him, she is an agent of the Czech secret police who know (although he doesn't realise it himself yet) that he is actually working for British intelligence. He and Vlasta are attracted to each other and she invites him to stay the night at her surprisingly luxurious home.
When Whistler revisits the factory the next day, the washroom attendant gives him a piece of paper and informs him they are both spies. Vlasta arranges to meet him secretly that night and she warns him to return to England immediately. However, when he returns to the hotel, Simenova (Leo McKern), the head of the secret police, is waiting. He presents Whistler with a stark choice: sign a confession or suffer a fatal accidental fall, but Whistler creates a distraction and manages to escape.
Evading a manhunt, he turns to the only person who might be willing to help him: Vlasta. When he reaches her house in the morning however, he is shocked to find her seeing her father, Simenova, off to work. After Simenova leaves, Whistler confronts Vlasta. She offers to help him reach the British embassy, despite a cordon of communist agents. To demonstrate his good faith, he burns the crucial slip of paper he is meant to bring back to England, so that neither side can have it. Her plan almost succeeds, but Simenova is leaving the embassy as Whistler approaches and recognises him, forcing him to flee once more. Finally, he gets inside the embassy by masquerading as a milkman.
Cunliffe informs him that he is being exchanged for a spy the British have caught. At the airport, he is pleasantly surprised to find that Vlasta has been assigned to the trade mission in London and they sit next to each other as the plane departs.