Operation C.I.A.

Operation C.I.A. is a 1965 black-and-white spy film directed by Christian Nyby and starring Burt Reynolds and John Hoyt.[2]

When CIA Agent Stacey (Marsh Thomson) learns of a plan to assassinate the American ambassador to Vietnam but is killed by a bomb before he can inform the C.I.A. of the details, Secret Agent Mark Andrews (Burt Reynolds) is sent to Saigon to take his place as a university professor as a cover while he attempts to prevent the assassination of the American ambassador that is expected to occur sometime within the next five days.[3]

The film was originally titled Last Message from Saigon with an announcement made in 1964 it would be filmed in Saigon, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Allied Artists filmed A Yank in Viet-Nam on actual South Vietnamese locations, but the security situation had deteriorated to such an extent that the safety of the filmmakers could not be guaranteed.[4]

Filming began in Bangkok in January 1965.[5]

Said Reynolds:

Producer Peer Oppenheimer later signed Reynolds to appear with Diane Cilento in Deadly Contest, to be filmed in Germany, but the project did not happen.[6]

Operation C.I.A. was referenced in the Archer episode "The Man from Jupiter", in which Reynolds makes a guest appearance as himself. Sterling Archer claims the film inspired him to become a secret agent, to which Reynolds replies "that film was just god-awful."