Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Excellent but underrated film

Brilliant and touching

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The descriptors "simple" and "uninspired" apply to both this film and its title. It's the story of a stenographer who flies to Malta to write a mystery noir novel during her two week vacation. While there, she inadvertently comes into contact with nefarious elements.Unfortunately, "Trenchcoat" has no charm, no intrigue, no artistic value. Margot Kidder--playing the wannabe writer--looks like she is doing a walk-through. Reportedly she did not get along with the director.The direction and everything else about the film feels amateurish. The only thing that could make it worse would be a laugh track. The main problem is the script, which offers very little that is original. Its main approach seems to be putting the "heroine" in dangerous circumstances and having her lament that no one believes her. Not funny, unless maybe the actress is someone who is intrinsically funny.Avoid this stinker.

The only reason I decided to check this one out was because it’s set in Malta; the result, however, was an exceedingly feeble comedy-thriller from, of all people, the Disney stable and, needless to say, a long way behind Hitchcock.Incidentally, this was the film which forced the studio to open a parallel label – Touchstone – so that they could make more adult-oriented fare: its few moments of violence and the appearance of a man in drag, presumably, were the offending elements in this regard! The title is the typical outfit worn by the detective hero of 1940s film noirs: here, it’s incongruously donned by the irritating would-be thriller novelist Margot Kidder(!) – while the boyish-looking Robert Hays is the typical undercover agent (whose mission is to catch a ring of plutonium-traffickers). I can’t say the script-writers/film-makers were particularly inspired by the Maltese locations – so much so that it could have been set practically anywhere else to much the same dismal effect (it’s simply not thrilling and certainly not funny)! Most of the other characters are seen either aiding or harassing the two leads – sometimes they seem to be doing one when their intention is actually the opposite; these include clumsy assassin Leopoldo Trieste, laid-back police chief David Suchet (TV’s future Hercule Poirot!), a couple of sweet old lodgers at Kidder’s hotel, a German mystery woman, and a Sicilian stud. A notable appearance is put in by John Justin (yes, the hero of the classic Michael Powell/Alexander Korda THE THIEF OF BAGDAD [1940] in what amounted to his last feature-film role!) as the long-suffering aristocratic owner of the hotel, whose place is turned upside-down by the end of the film. By the way, I only spotted two Maltese actors of stature in bit roles – one played a guide at a museum, and the other a fishmonger who helped Kidder evade her pursuers in one scene.For what it’s worth, the identity of the villains is ingenious (if not exactly original); in the end, though, in spite of a number of chases, the film is never as engaging (or enjoyable) as it should have been…and only manages to give a bad name to the genre it’s playing at, not to mention the people and country involved!

Margot Kidder is unstoppable. She will always be there when you need to be entertained. This film was one of the Disney film which were made to change the image of the company. Needless to say by the films controversy, it did.Kidder is ambitious, hard edged writer on her way to write her first big mystery novel, when she stumbles upon Hayes, a lier and fraud, who turns out to be working for... Leave that up to audiences. Kidder falls upon a real plot of terror and adventure when she is kidnapped and taken to a hotel where murder and mayhem ensues. Then things get really ugly. Hayes and Kidder have great chemistry together. Intellect and acting makes up for some lulls earlier on in the film, and when you see the "Club scene" with "Princess Aida"... Laughs and even a bit of tension highlight this film with strange yet watchable locations, and bit of Italian! 8/10

I can't understand why this movie has such a low User Rating. I enjoyed it thoroughly the first time I saw it and have seen it again several times with no loss of pleasure. Perhaps some viewers failed to realize that this is not a serious thriller but a tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy in disguise. Taken on these terms it's a lot of fun.