The egocentric connivers (Clive Owen and Julia Roberts) are snoops who specialize in one-upmanship and learn the perils of courtship even when the spy-training manual states that sincerity is not a professional virtue. Entangled assassins (think Prizzi's Honor or Mr. Mrs. Smith) have comparable problems.

The spy/romance genre more or less began in 1928 with Spies, in which a German megalomaniac (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) complicates the romance of two agents.

The movie inspired all kinds of screen variations, and now Duplicity director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) finds new life in the genre.

He establishes his stars as conventional spooks, then uses them to examine corporate espionage. Corporations take the place of James Bond's villainous governments, and they're led by rival big-shots — a coarse Paul Giamatti vs. smooth Tom Wilkinson.

Full of Clayton-caliber plot twists, Duplicity fits snugly into the romantic spy-pic framework. Roberts and Owen revel in room service and some exotic locales, while big business is footing the bill.

And the (mostly off-camera) sex must be just as colorful: In one throwaway line, Roberts alludes to the "rug burn" she acquired in a hotel.

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•Spies (1928, Kino, $25). German director Fritz Lang recast his Metropolis villain (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) as a criminal-empire kingpin who orders his female agent (Gerda Maurus) to seductively trick a male counterpart (Willy Fritsch as "No. 326"). Naturally, the two fall in love.

•Mata Hari (1931, Warner, $15). Greta Garbo played history's most famous sex-wielding female spy. The lover who gets off relatively easiest (Ramon Novarro) merely goes blind.

•The 39 Steps (1935). OK, so Alfred Hitchcock's breakthrough American film is a bit different since the spy who propels the plot is quickly murdered. Still, this is a pillar of the genre, with Robert Donat and gorgeous Madeleine Carroll.

•Notorious (1946, Fox, $20). In Hitchcock's classic, Cary Grant's chilly undercover agent sometimes plays rough with boozy and "been-around" Ingrid Bergman. In an exceptionally perverse movie for the times, she loves him, yet is messily entangled with the older and ickier Claude Rains.

•North by Northwest (1959, MGM, out of print; available used online). Hitchcock further refines the genre and gets a mystery woman (Eva Marie Saint) more involved this time. Ad exec Cary Grant is on the run after he is mistaken for a secret agent.

•The James Bond franchise. Long available on DVD, the Bond films are in many ways the template for the romantic spy movie, filled as they are with banter, babes and exotic locations. A big batch of Blu-ray is coming next week, after which the tally will be: Sean Connery (5); George Lazenby (1); Roger Moore (3); Timothy Dalton (0; but Licence to Kill arrives May 19); Pierce Brosnan (1); Daniel Craig (2).

•The Silencers (1966, Sony, $15). Long before Austin Powers, Dean Martin's libidinous secret agent, Matt Helm, employed a round bed to woo bimbos in the first of a four-film series. In one scene, he memorably rips off co-star Stella Stevens' dress in a single motion.

•Three Days of the Condor (1975, Paramount, $10; Blu-ray due May 19). After CIA researcher Robert Redford finds his office colleagues slain, he meets eventual love interest Faye Dunaway by taking over her apartment while plotting what to do.

•No Way Out (1987, Fox, $15). In a remake of 1948's The Big Clock, a Navy officer at the Pentagon (Kevin Costner) is assigned to find the killer in a case in which the officer might be implicated. Remembered for the limousine sex scene with Costner and Sean Young.

•True Lies (1994, Fox, $15). In this James Cameron-directed thriller, Jamie Lee Curtis is misinformed when she thinks hubby Arnold Schwarzenegger sells computers. The plot leads to Curtis seducing him in the dark while thinking he's someone else.