By 1965, when Martin
Ritt's adaptation of John le Carré's breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came In
From The Cold
was released to theaters, Sean Connery was already three movies into his stint
as James Bond, and the Bond version of a spy's life had become entrenched in
the popular imagination. That's unfortunate, because the image Richard Burton
cultivates in Ritt's film—cynical and world-weary, yet crafty, brave, and
patriotic—seems closer to the real thing, as does the stuffy bureaucracy
of the spy game. Yes, it's still a dangerous occupation, but it's neither
glamorous nor action-packed; in most instances, Burton's job is to outsmart his
adversaries and devise how to navigate the Cold War's shifting allegiances and
subtle treachery.
In a tense opening
standoff at a checkpoint between East and West Berlin, Burton's weathered
British agent watches in horror as East German troops shoot down a valuable
operative. After he's recalled to London and demoted to a desk job in his
agency—by appearances, anyway—East German intelligence officials
sense they have a potential defector on their hands, and work to woo Burton to
the communist side. In concert with a pushy interrogator (Oskar Werner), Burton
seeks to implicate another East German as a double agent working for the
British, but of course, he has ulterior motives. The one major wrinkle is his
romantic relationship with a British librarian (Claire Bloom), which figures in
at a pivotal moment.
Shooting in a
black-and-white that registers more as an appropriately overcast gray, Ritt perhaps
goes too far in capturing the somber, heady tone of le Carré's novel, losing some
suspense as a result. But he and Burton get the dry wit of le Carré's work just
right; many of the film's best lines are pressed through Burton's perpetual
fatigue, like "If ever I have to break your neck, I promise to do it with a
minimum of force," or "She offered me free love. At the time, that was all I
could afford." The Spy Who Came In From The Cold introduced a new spy
archetype:† the man (almost)
without a country.
Key features: The highlight is a terrific new interview
with le Carré, who remembers the making of the movie as if it were yesterday.
Vintage interviews with Ritt and Burton, plus another doc, round out the
package.