A dog has a covert listening device implanted before being presented as a gift to the Russian leader. Spies recruit a veterinarian, to retrieve the transmitter before the Russians find it.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Broad, thoroughly British farce, developed along totally predictable lines but partly saved by a script which at least has the virtue of keeping things on the move, and by a zany and superbly timed performance from Lionel Jeffries. There is good support from Colin Blakely as the dog-loving Russian Premier and from Eric Portman as the British Ambassador who holds private meetings in a sound-proof glass bowl. The dogs have thankfully little to say for themselves."[2]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Ace sitcom writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson here offer their contribution to the spy boom that was dominating popular cinema in the 1960s. Their sub-Bondian farce stars Laurence Harvey and fine comedy actor Lionel Jeffries in a story of Cold War espionage which features a bulldog with a listening bug grafted to its insides for spying on the Russians. The script was held up as a model of its type but the genius of the words lost a little something in translation, but much mirth remains."[3]
Film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "Rather painful, overacted and overwritten farce full of obvious jokes masquarading as satire."[4]
Accolades
The film was nominated for the 1967 Golden Globe Awards in the Best English-Language Foreign Film category, and Lionel Jeffries in the Best Performance in a Comedy or Musical category.[5]
