![]() ![]() Palmer doesn't have gadgets or convenient heating vents in prison cells to help him out of his tough scrapes, but when the rough stuff unlike the deliberately Americanized Bond world, Harry Palmer's millieu is resolutely English, from the tastes of his bosses (a marching band murdering Mozart, tea breaks in top secret meetings) to its disdain for American supermarkets and pipe-smoking, poaching American operatives. ![]() Smugly insolent and emotionally insulated, Harry is a spy as working-stiff, a boy who wants to get ahead but is constantly reminded of his worthlessness by the stifling bureaucracy within which he must labor. agents threatening to kill Harry? And just what is that piece of recording tape with weird noises, and the word IPCRESS printed on it? His biggest problem is trusting his shifty co-workers, especially agent Jean Courtney (Sue Lloyd), who shows up at his flat for a lot more than just the gourmet meals. Harry risks life and limb to solve the case and please his superiors. Harry's new boss, a bullying martinet named Dalby (Nigel Green) is trying to recover a kidnapped scientist and find out why hundreds of 'brains' like him are suddenly disappearing or unaccountably becoming unable to function. Harry Palmer is pulled from dull surveillance duty under the contemptuous Ross (Guy Doleman) to begin a new assignment helping a small intelligence group in a ramshackle building posing as an employment agency. There are three 60sįuneral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain and latecomer 1995's Bullet to Beijing. Basically a petty crook, Harry became a spy to avoid court-martial, a background that his employers think perfectly suits him for espionage work. His personal dreams go no farther than being able to afford his own car. He wears glasses, prefers to cook for himself at home and operates in a naturalistic spy environment of dingy offices, overbearing Army intelligence superiors and drab assignments. Len Deighton's cockney agent Harry Palmer, played by Michael Caine in only his second starring role, is the antithesis of 007. ![]() New DVD is a wonderful way to be introduced to Len Deighton's 'Thinking Man's James Bond.'Īs the 'Bondwagon' was just getting up speed, Bond producer Harry Saltzman initiated another spy series apart from his partner Albert R. The Ipcress File was a modest success in 1965 and has endured among aficionados as perhaps the best non-007 spy film of the 60s. In all the hubbub last fall following the release of the first boxed set of James Bond special editions, an equally important Anchor Bay release seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. ( A Letter Response from an English reader, Ian Dobson, has been added at the bottom of this review, 2/18/00) Screenplay Brian Comport from the novel by Len Deighton Starring Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson ![]()
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