The Ipcress File dvd movie.|
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Features • NTSC In Theaters : 02 August, 1965 |
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The Ipcress File description In the spy-crazed film world of the 1960s, Len Deighton's antihero Harry Palmer burst onto the scene as an antidote to the James Bond films. Here was a British spy who had a working-class accent and horn-rimmed glasses and above all really didn't want to be a spy in the first place. As portrayed by Michael Caine, Palmer was the perfect antithesis to Sean Connery's 007. Unlike that of his globetrotting spy cousin, Palmer's beat is cold, rainy, dreary London, where he spends his days and nights in unheated flats spying on subversives. He does charm one lady, but she's no Pussy Galore, just a civil servant he works with, sent to keep an eye on him. Eventually he's assigned to get to the bottom of the kidnapping and subsequent "brain draining" of a nuclear physicist, all the while being reminded by his superiors that it's this or prison. Things begin to get pretty hairy for Harry. Produced by Harry Saltzman in his spare time between Bond movies, the film also features a haunting score by another Bond veteran, composer John Barry. --Kristian St. Clair |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | The Non-Glamorous, "Gourmet" Spy |
| "The Ipcress File," is first in a series of three movies made from Len Deighton books, produced by Harry Saltsman, directed by Sidney J. Furie, and with a sound track by John Barry, all of them apparently taking breaks from their other, more famous spy series, the James Bond 007s. As one of Michael Caine's earlier films, it undoubtedly helped make him a star. However, as most people would say, he's the anti-Bond in this series, cockney accented before it was cool, wearing glasses and ill-fitting suits, living in a humdrum flat, and taking busses where he needs to go. Harry Palmer, Caine's character, further differs from 007 in that he's not a spy by choice; he just prefers it to going to jail for wartime fiddles in the not particularly glamorous, nor applauded, Quartermasters' Corps. And poor Harry, at least in this movie, never goes anywhere glamorous. No Caribbean island for him: it's all damp, cold England.
This movie finds Palmer seconded to a new, secret, domestic spying bureacracy, assigned to a puzzling case: important British scientists are disappearing, and coming back useless. His supervisors hope his rebellious streak, his non-organization man personality-- his sheer rudeness to his betters--may help him prevail where several others have failed. It's a tightly plotted, entertaining movie, and takes a lot of flavor from its London setting. It's a particular favorite of mine, since I always thought the young Michael Caine to be quite a tasty dish. Supporting players are well-cast; however, not much has been seen of Sue Lloyd, Palmer's love interest before or since. (Not that many Bond girls have had outstanding careers, either.) Finally, for reasons unknown, the two CIA men important to the plot are made to virtually wear flashing red "Notice Me" signs: one, already noticeably black, also wears broken glasses mended with cellophane tape. The movie is also remarkable as a snapshot of the mid 1960's, a time when England was still very much as it had always been, but was about to change, and London was about to start swinging. The smoke in the spies' office is so thick that, considering they also work in a dangerous trade, Her Majesty's Government is unlikely ever to have to give any of them pensions. Supervisors wear fine Savile Row suits, drive elite cars, and enjoy their private clubs. Military bands play in the parks. And yet, the Ipcress File, when we do actually see it, is a psychedelic light show that might accompany any of the new rock and roll bands. When Ross, Palmer's ultimate supervisor, finds his employee pushing a cart in an American-style supermarket, he remarks that he does not care for this new American style of grocery-shopping, surely very different from the small, full-service grocery stores that were mainstays of British life. (Although it's doubtful that any Englishman of Ross's stature bought his own groceries at that time.) And Ross echoes the widely held view that Palmer is a gourmet cook: doesn't he buy fancy French canned mushrooms, labeled "Champignons," in preference to plain old fresh English ones. What a gourmet is our Palmer. |
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