Our Man in L.A., a much less known than it should be television movie from 1976, was made within a series called “Wednesday Mystery Movie” produced by the network NBC. This movie show casts Jim Hutton in the role of a secret agent, who can be somewhat compared to James Bond, but in a more silly and comedic view. Here are some perks from the movie.
Summary
The movie is about Harry Orwell (Jim Hutton) who is ‘sent to L.A. to stop a plot to commit a crime, this charming bumbling secret agent who gets himself into all sorts of trouble’. In LA there is a crime organization that is very secretive and has some very dangerous schemers at its head. Irony is one of the main factors that could be emphasized in the previous sentence, but rather a lot of the laughs stem from how Orwell rather rather unsuccessfully attempts to be a spy and gets himself into ridiculous situations anyway.
Cast:
- Jim Hutton as Harry Orwell – A lead in the movie, Jim Hutton also acted in comedic and detective pictures and the character that he plays is supposed to combine these two psyches with some twists.
- Herbert Lom as the villain – Andrew Thomas, Otto Klemperer, now Herbert Lom in this film plays the baddie, he’s a very intelligent and rather classy crime boss who wished to wreak havoc all through LA.
- E. J. Peaker – She interacts with Orwell in a romantic subplot. With her help, Orwell is able to maneuver around L.A.’s hazardous underbelly that is quite aesthetically pleasing.
Themes & Style:
The film uses conventions of the spy genre and supplements it with exaggeration and comical sight gags. The story incorporates conventional spy components such as espionage activities, secret rendezvous, chase sequences, and criminal organizations, but the humor is the distinguishing factor from other types of serious spy films of the epoch.
Reception:
The picture had no remarkable impression when it came out being part of a TV Movie series. But several critics noted Jim Hutton’s performance, its funny nature, and the work gradually found a small but devoted audience. Other critics found its harmless view about a secret agent concept amusing while others classified it as ordinary yet entertaining b level movie.
Our Man in L.A. is best associated with the era it was made. This is the mix of music, styling and feel of the 70s America. It echoed with the popular light hearted crime capers and spy flicks of the time instead of mushy gritty films which remained the trend of the genre.