The Spies (French title: Les Espions), a Cold War espionage thriller that subverts the genre conventions, is a lesser-known work from French maestro, Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Diabolique).
Malik (Gérard Séty), a doctor at a struggling psychiatric hospital, is approached by NATO intelligence operative and offered a large sum of money to shelter a Soviet scientist (Hugo Vogel) in the hospital incognito, posing as a patient.
Malik reluctantly accepts the dubious offer, only to realize that his clinic is full with spies pretending to be patients.
The Spy featured an international cast, including Véra Clouzot, Curd Jürgens, Sam Jaffe and Peter Ustinov.
It became be the last acting role for Clouzot’s wife Véra, who had been suffering from severe heart problems since filming Les Diaboliques.
Les Espions was not theatrical released in the U.S. and was a financial failure in France.
Clouzot later admitted that he only liked the first two-thirds of Les Espions.
