A Victor Canning novel was the launching pad for this consummately produced TV spy movie. Alex Cord is an American secret agent reluctantly employed by British secret service for a life and death mission. Teamed with the beauteous Shirley Eaton (the "golden girl" of Goldfinger), Cord is expected to locate the head of an international blackmail ring. The villain is known only by the code name "Scorpio," which could under the circumstances be a masculine or feminine monicker. Produced and directed by Richard Thorpe, The Scorpio Letters was given an overseas theatrical run after its American TV debut.