The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Reviews
John Chard
Frosty reception assured. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is directed by Martin Ritt and adapted to screenplay by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper from the novel of the same name written by John le Carré. It stars Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack. Music is by Sol Kaplan and cinematography by Oswald Morris. Disillusioned spy Alex Leamas (Burton) returns from Berlin and is required to "come in from the cold" and work in a stable everyday job environment. But this is just a small piece of a much bigger jigsaw… From start to finish this is a deliberate downer of a movie, the complete flipside to the spy adventures served up in other high energy filmic quarters. Filmed in coarse monochrome to set the mood, picture is often depressing, overtly talky and complex in its characterisations and narrative bent. However, those things are not hindrances, for this is undeniably adult stuff, oozing with intelligence and intricacies for the mature film fan, a clinically spun web of pawns, manipulations and distrustful men. The Cold War backdrop is marked as deathly cold, where the grey weather is only matched by the colourless complexion of Burton's depressed spy. As the twists rack up and the tension noose is tightened, Ritt and his cast of excellent performers are only interested in keeping it real, right up to, and including, the devastating finale. Not one to turn to when in need of a pick-me-up, or in fact a film you want to watch perennially, but certainly it's a piece of work that serves to remind us that intense well written and performed cinema is always available to view when the mood fits. 8/10
Wuchak
**_Talky, brooding B&W spy drama during the Cold War with Richard Burton_** In the early ’60s, an alcoholic British intelligence agent (Richard Burton) is sent behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany disguised as a defector, but intending to spread disinformation. Based on the 1963 novel by John le Carré, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1965) is a realistic spy drama and NOT an action thriller in the mold of James Bond. It’s similar to another flick based on a le Carré book, “The Russian House” (1990), which ironically starred Sean Connery. Both movies are dialogue-driven and their depiction of intelligence work is decidedly mundane, static and cynical, which isn’t to say they’re not worth checking out for those interested. The tone is similar to “36 Hours” with James Garner from the year prior. Burton locked horns a bit with the director and the tense atmosphere on set was heightened by the presence of Elizabeth Taylor, Burton’s wife, likely due to costar Claire Bloom’s romantic history with Richard. Claire plays the librarian, Nan Perry. The movie runs 1 hour, 52 minutes, and was shot in Ireland’s Ardmore Studios and England's Shepperton Studios with exterior scenes done in Dublin; for instance, Smithfield, Dublin, was used as the location for the Berlin checkpoint at the opening. GRADE: B-
CinemaSerf
There's an authenticity about the performance from Richard Burton in this cold war thriller that, alongside some well paced direction from Martin Ritt really helps it hit home. His character ("Leamas") is assigned one final task, to deal with the duplicitous Peter van Eyck ("Mundt") who appears to be systematically removing the West's reliable sources of information. What follows is a far more psychological cat-and-mouse game as he gets apprehended, and has to play a very dangerous game balancing the needs of his mission with his own survival instincts - all of this without much clue as to whom he can really trust and against a backdrop of thinly veiled prejudices. John le Carré's books were always packed with detail - and that detail carries well into this film, it offers a richness to the proceedings that ensures we are drawn into the plot like a mouse after the cheese. Claire Bloom adds a diversion to the intensity - but in a sophisticated fashion - maybe she's just innocent, or could she actually be involved? Oskar Werner, Robert Hardy, Michael Hordern and a rather menacing Beatrix Lehmann all play important cogs in the wheel too. It's a watch that requires a degree of concentration - like the story itself, blink and you might miss something... important!
Movie Recommendation
Hope and Glory1987-09-03A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.More...
The Hindenburg1975-12-25Colonel Franz Ritter, a former hero pilot now working for military intelligence, is assigned to the great Hindenburg airship as its chief of security. As he races against the clock to uncover a possible saboteur aboard the doomed zeppelin he finds that any of the passengers and crew could be the culprit.More...
Songs from the Second Floor2000-10-06A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.More...
Funeral in Berlin1966-12-22Colonel Stok, a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.More...
The First Grader2010-09-12The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.More...
Asphalt1929-03-12Starring Betty Amann in her most famous leading role, Joe May's Asphalt is a luxuriously produced German Expressionist classic where tragic liaisons and fatal encounters are shaped alongside the constant roar of Berlin traffic.More...
Red Army2015-01-23A documentary highlighting the Soviet Union's legendary and enigmatic hockey training culture and world-dominating team through the eyes of the team's Captain Slava Fetisov, following his shift from hockey star and celebrated national hero to political enemy.More...
The Possessors1958-11-19Noël Schoudler, founder of an empire built on three foundations - sugar, banking and the press - reigns like an absolute sovereign over his business and his family. But someone is about to challenge this authority: his son François...More...
Experiment in Terror1962-04-12A man with an asthmatic voice telephones and assaults clerk Kelly Sherwood at home and coerces her into helping him steal a large sum from her bank.More...
Red Dust2004-01-11Sarah Barcant, a lawyer in New York City who grew up in South Africa, returns to her childhood dwelling place to intercede for Alex Mpondo, a Black South African politician who was tortured during apartheid.More...
Rockstar2011-11-11College student Janardhan is a simpleton who desperately seeks inspiration for the musician inside him. Although heartbreak helps him reach his goal, it also leads him to self-destruction.More...
Battle of the Bulge1965-12-16In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent it, Hitler orders an all-out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp.More...
The Train1964-09-24As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.More...
Lore2012-09-20After being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents’ actions and the reality of a new world.More...
Zulu1964-01-22In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.More...
Kneecap2024-08-02When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip-hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.More...
Joe2014-04-11The rough-hewn boss of a lumber crew courts trouble when he steps in to protect the youngest member of his team from an abusive father.More...
The Invisible Man1933-10-31After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.More...
The Swimming Pool1969-01-31Set in a magnificent villa near a sun-drenched St. Tropez, lovers Jean-Paul and Marianne are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover and his beautiful teenage daughter to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four, which soon escalates in a dangerous love-game.More...
Where Eagles Dare1968-12-04World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.More...
Similar Movies
Guitar Men: The Darke...
2007-06-28Tough contract killers and secret organizations operating worldwide in a murderous battle for a relic that hides much more than just a simple instrument. The merciless hunt for the guitar of the "King of Rock'n Roll" leaves a trail of violence and death in its wake.Hot Enough for June
1964-03-10A young man travels to Prague to join his new employer, unaware that he is being used as an espionage courier.Sophie Scholl: The Fi...
2005-02-13In 1943, as Hitler continues to wage war across Europe, a group of college students mount an underground resistance movement in Munich. Dedicated expressly to the downfall of the monolithic Third Reich war machine, they call themselves the White Rose. One of its few female members, Sophie Scholl is captured during a dangerous mission to distribute pamphlets on campus with her brother Hans. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to the White Rose, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility.2:37
2006-05-26A contemporary, ensemble drama that tells the complex tale of six high school students whose lives are interwoven with situations that so many of today's youth are faced with. The story takes place during a normal school day. At precisely 2:37 a tragedy will occur, affecting the lives of a group of students and their teachers.Excursion
1966-09-261941 and the war culminates. The wife of a lieutenant and a sergeant fall madly in love. Times and circumstances -military service, marriage, friendship between the two men- forbid this love, but do not negate it. When the lieutenant is injured and taken to hospital, the two lovers, against all odds, dare the only possible way out: he defects, she leaves her husband, and they begin a journey without return towards the border.Psycho
1960-06-22When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.Blackmail
1929-07-28London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.Transamerica
2005-02-14A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.Rashomon
1950-08-26Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.The Man Who Knew Too ...
1956-05-16An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.The Lives of Others
2006-03-23In 1984 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.The Hours
2002-12-27The story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.The Da Vinci Code
2006-05-17A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.The Conversation
1974-04-12A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.The Child I Never Was...
2002-11-15A serial killer dispassionately discusses the nuts and bolts of his grisly avocation, as well as the youthful traumas which helped to mold him into a psychopath, in this disturbing independent drama from Germany, based on the true story of of Germany's most famous child murderer Juergen Bartsch who, between the ages of 15 and 19, abused, tortured and killed four schoolboys in the Ruhr region of Germany from 1962 to 1966.Wambo
2001-05-13A feature film about the life and death of the famous Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr, who was murdered in 1990 and who tried all his life to hide his homosexual tendencies from the public. The life story is told from the perspective of his professional environment and - sometimes in a documentary style - his fellow actors report on him. His sexual preferences in the BDSM area are also discussed.2010
1984-12-06While planet Earth poises on the brink of nuclear self-destruction, a team of Russian and American scientists aboard the Leonov hurtles to a rendezvous with the still-orbiting Discovery spacecraft and its sole known survivor, the homicidal computer HAL.Decision Before Dawn
1951-12-21WWII is entering its last phase: Germany is in ruins, but does not yield. The US army lacks crucial knowledge about the German units operating on the opposite side of the Rhine, and decides to send two German prisoners to gather information. The scheme is risky: the Gestapo retains a terribly efficient network to identify and capture spies and deserters. Moreover, it is not clear that "Tiger", who does not mind any dirty work as long as the price is right, and war-weary "Happy", who might be easily betrayed by his feelings, are dependable agents. After Tiger and another American agent are successfully infiltrated, Happy is parachuted in Bavaria. His duty: find out the whereabouts of a powerful German armored unit moving towards the western front.Jesus of Montreal
1989-05-15A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.Viridiana
1962-04-01Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.