dmsesquire Silly action yarn about the new boss at an ad agency (Robert Mitchum) who wants to plant subliminal messages in commercials, with political intent. Inoffensive enough, but to call this more than a time-passer would be kind. Music is sometimes too over-the-top for the subject of the shot.

bkoganbing Agency is a film based on an interesting premise about subliminal advertising. Too bad the production was so shoddy, even with Robert Mitchum in a juicy role as the mysterious millionaire who buys an advertising agency for his own nefarious purposes.I remember seeing this exact same premise on a Saved By the Bell episode where Zack and Screech plant audio subliminal messages in tapes of favorite rock group so that boys can present these tapes to the girls of their dreams hoping for a match. It actually does work for a while.Mitchum's after much bigger game, in some commercials that saturated the state of Arizona a noted liberal Senator went down with subliminal visuals placed in some ads about some product. Saul Rubinek catches on and he gets killed for his trouble.Rubinek's friend Lee Majors also catches on, but he proves a lot more difficult to deal with.Mitchum is deliciously evil in this film, unfortunately the film itself is just not worthy of him. And the premise is kind of dumb. Who's to say the other party won't start using it. It's hard enough to get people to the polls in the USA let alone vote for the candidate with the best subliminal advertising.And if they could use the plot on Saved By the Bell..................

sol *****Major Spoilers**** Don't Read If You Did Not See Movie.... Timely movie,especially now when political campaigning never seems to end even after the elections, about the takeover of a large advertising agency, Porter & Stripe, and it's being used to further the agenda of a shadowy and unelected group of power brokers to shape America and the world into what they feel that it should be. Unknown to the advertising world but with an unlimited amount on money Ted Quinn, Robert Mitchum, buys out the giant Porter & Stripe advertising agency. Quinn soon begins producing and peddling commercials on everything from deodorants drain cleaners and soap products to powered chocolate milk for children. It turns out that the real reason for Quinn's takeover of the agency is not to sell household goods but to sell politicians and even more sinister political ideas to an unsuspecting public.Quinn slowly starts getting rid of the people working at the agency and begins replacing them with undercover political operatives. One of the people working for the agency as a commercial writer Sam Goldstein, Saul Rubinek, gets wind of what Quinn's plans really are which leads to his death. Sam's friend Philip Morgan, Lee Majors, who at first seemed to be ignorant of what was happening and thinking that Sam was a bid paranoid in his behavior changed his opinion after Sam's death when he comes across a audio tape that Sam recorded just minutes before he died. Marked to be eliminated because he knows too much Morgan is on the run from Quinn's goons throughout the rest of the movie. Even though dated "Agency" still packs a punch about media manipulation via outside sources and is as good as the many movies made about the same subject since then, 1980. "Agency" is not a top flight Hollywood production with very bad lighting and occasional muffles and drops in the soundtrack but the film still grabs your attention and keeps you interested until the final scene. Robert Mitchum gives his usual good and workman like performance as Ted Quinn like he did in the many films that he made in the last years of his acting career. Mitchum also gives the movie class and respectability just by being in it. Lee Majors is surprisingly good with a much more in-depth acting role then what you usually saw him in on TV and in films back then. Vallerie Perrine is more then adequate as Lee Majors' love interest in the film as well as the damsel in distress. Yet by far the biggest surprise in the movie was Saul Rubinek as Sam Goldstein. Sam who when you first saw him you would think that he's only in the film for comic relief instead became the most pivotal character in the movie. What I liked most about Rubinek's performance is that the more he got closer to the truth the more his paranoia subsided. As Sam seemed to resigned himself to the fate that was in store for him. Which made Sam both believable and tragic at the same time and which is just the opposite of what you would expect from a part like his in a movie filled with surprises and paranoia like "Agency" to be like.

RealLiveClaude I have seen Agency the first time on TV many years ago. Even the French version (done in Paris...) was not bad, but couldn't save it...Again Montreal passes for an American city (too oblivious that Place Ville Marie is shown too much here) in winter. And Lee Majors tried here, even with a beard, to get rid of the typecast of the Six Million Dollar Man he portrayed, along with Valerie Perrine who wanted to pump some gas in her failing career and Robert Mitchum, a veteran now condemmed to roles in bad films...The story's good, moving. But bad photography, poor editing (some scenes are too dark) and some weak performances spoil everything. At least Saul Rubinek steals the show here as the employee who tries to denounce the scheme but gets killed by Quinn's secret henchmen...Sad to say the least: even the interesting stories get some bad treatment. And you don't need subliminal messages to tell it...