Strong and Moving!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Michael Caine, Nigel Green and Guy Doleman, all three, have their own charm. The movie is not bad but it's boring and hard to digest. Sue Lloyd is a very enjoyable presence. The story is interesting, but it does not matter. I would make a great parody from a few scenes in the movie. John Barry's music is super cool, heavily heightens the value of the movie.

As someone who knows Caine mostly from the films made in the latter part of his life, it's great to see him as a leading man. In the Ipcress File he delivers a solid performance as, well, himself working as a spy. And that's one of this movie's best qualities: it's not a heroic tail of a spy facing constant danger - it's about a man doing his job. In some ways, it's like a Hitchcock picture, with a man getting caught up in a situation beyond his control. In other ways, it's a movie that replaces many cinematic thrills with realism. Paperwork, shopping at the supermarket, duties and hassles. The plot moves with a slow pace, and builds up to a neat (though a bit cliché) ending.It's not a flawless movie though. Some performances are subpar, and there are sequences that could have done with some trimming. I liked that they didn't go all-out with "the girl", though they could at least have her serve some purpose. Some times the editing confuses more than it clarifies. And there are many unanswered (or badly answered) questions that's not interesting enough to be left ambiguous.

It's always interesting to see what race, nationality, or religion must bear the burden of the heavy in these kinds of movies. The traditional choice used to be Germany but World War II is slipping down the memory hole and one out of five of today's students think that Germany and the US fought Russia in World War II. The USSR was good for a while but with the dissolution of the Soviet Union it's gotten less common. There has been the occasional Israeli heavy ("Eye Witness") or the Irish nationalist ("The Devil's Own") but the villain usually represents some splinter group of renegade, so the Jews and the Irish shouldn't be upset.Albania makes a nice villainous place and provides plenty of opportunities for villainy. First of all there's no audience to be offended. Nobody can place Albania on a map. In fact, there may be no such place, even though in the underground classic, "Tune In Tomorrow," I was an Albanian protesting against a negative portrait of Albanians in the media, exactly like what we see in this production.Well, that's neither here nor there; don't bother saying it. This movie is about Michael Caine as Harry Palmer, a Brit working for one of those intelligence or counterespionage agencies that the Brits have so many of. A scientist kidnapped by a group that are apparently Albanians, although it's never made entirely clear. The British buy the scientist back but his memory has been erased.MI5 or MI6 or MI7 is determined to get to the bottom of this and Caine leads the way, at some cost to himself and his friends. Caine plays the agent as smooth and heterosexual. He's also half blind without his glasses. This was 1965 and by this time, the pluperfect James Bond character may have begun to seem mechanical rather than human. He had no weaknesses or vices. So Harry Palmer had to be invested with some recognizably hominid traits.It's really rather amusing at times, as it's meant to be. All of Caine's superiors have fixed expressions of disdain or irony. One of them, Guy Doleman, is rolling his shopping cart down a supermarket aisle while musak murmurs in the background. "Never cared for these American shopping habits," he remarks, and, examining a tin of Chef Boyardee, "Beefaroni -- extraordinary!" The photography is dark and Sidney Furie, the director, is trying to figure out how to be innovative with the camera. He fails because instead of Nouvelle Vague we get hide-and-seek. Many scenes are shot from floor level for no particular reason. And every other shot seems to be peeking over a lampshade or through a hole in the door of a prison cell. Sometimes an object hides most of the image and we don't know what the object is.The plot is nonsense from a psychological point of view but that doesn't matter. A new method of brainwashing is not so different from any of the gadgets that 007 carries around. If it's not taken seriously, and if you can get over the annoyance of looking up at someone sipping from a cup of tea from the perspective of his shoe laces, it's kind of fun. The droll dialog and Caine's balmy delivery make it an enjoyable diversion.

After being caught black-marketing in Germany, an English soldier by the name of "Harry Powell" (Michael Caine) is essentially conscripted into becoming a spy for the British government. His immediate supervisor, "Colonel Ross" (Guy Doleman) then reassigns him to a subordinate named "Major Dalby" (Nigel Green) to work on a case involving a missing scientist. However, during the course of his investigation Harry soon finds that there is more to this case than meets the eye and the closer he comes to discovering the truth the more dangerous it gets for him. Now, rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that those who enjoy a good spy caper will probably love this film. I especially liked the dry British humor along with the overall performance by Michael Caine. In short, although this film is a bit dated, I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre.