Review: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

So, yet another of what Zach calls "those British movies." What can I say - I'm an Anglophile. We're just hitting a stretch of 'em in my Netflix queue at the moment, so he's forcing himself to tolerate them. Not that he hates them - just would prefer to watch other things, and when they come in a stretch like this.... Still, he puts up with them. We must be newlyweds, huh? ;)

Anyway: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Based on John Le Carre's novel of the same name, this tells the story of Alec Leamus, a tired and cynical British spy in the Cold War. Leamus was formerly the head of the Berlin station, and is nearing the end of his career. He is brought back to London and given a choice: if he is tired, burnt out, ready to "come in from the cold," then he can take a desk job, or if he is prepared, then he can have one last mission. Thus, Leamus becomes involved in a plot against Mundt, the head East German spy in Berlin. Leamus is sent to East Germany supposedly to defect, but actually to spread disinformation. Like any good spy story, plot twists among plot twists appear, and the bitter Leamas becomes more convinced that his own people see him as just a pawn. The story ends with his struggle against the dehumanization of his job.

One word for this movie: DARK!! Another word: Excellent! This movie really is dark, though - literally and figuratively. It's filmed in B&W, and is actually shot so that there are no sunny views. Everything is indoors or nighttime or overcast or rainy. Makes for a very heavy atmosphere to the movie. Which, honestly, is what it's supposed to be - it suits the story, which is similarly dark. Leamus is an anti-James Bond, like a lot of Le Carre's spies. No car chases, no explosions, no gun battles, no sweeping-the-girl-off-her-feet. This movie (again, like a lot of Le Carre's plots) focuses on the average spy, the backstabbing, the lies, the manipulations, the hatred involved in spying, particularly in the Cold War.

I liked how Le Carre ties his stories together loosely. A minor character in this movie is George Smiley, the protagonist in several of his later works, including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And Mundt, the head German spy in this one, is actually a character from an earlier work, too. I like how they're all part of the same world without being a Series, with all that that entails.

As for the movie itself, instead of the story, awesome!! Beyond the B&W cinematography, there's a lot that makes this a very simple, very focused, very dark movie. There's little background music, so you are totally focused on the sounds of the movie itself, even if it's simply footsteps. The lighting is done so that characters, Leamus particularly, aren't as attractive. Not that they're ugly, but they are certainly not as flatteringly filmed - the tiredness and haggard appearances are emphasized. And scenery is shot also to emphasize the dirtiness of the job. One conversation, for example, as Leamus becomes solidly involved with the Germans, is held in a strip club. The conversation is filmed to frame the stripper's routine in the background. Not a sensuous performance - her face is tired as well. Another emphasis on spying being the business of "seedy, squallid bastards." So many simple things - just wonderfully filmed!

The cast is great! Richard Burton is wonderful in the lead. He has a phenomenal way of playing doomed, cynical, jaded characters. (Beckett, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, etc). And drunks, for that matter. Though I like the quote reported on imdb.com, "When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn't know how to play them when I was drunk." His tired, numb, disheartened stares are perfect, more expressive than a lot of words, and his monologue in the car ride after the tribunal is perfect - a release of a spy's career-worth of tension and hatred and frustration pouring out, balancing with the viewer's need for release as well. The whole movie is tense, building up to something, and that spiteful, bitter release reflects beautifully what the audience is feeling as well. Definitely deserved the Oscar nomination that he earned for the role!

Burton, from what I've read, liked casting his friends in his movies once he became a big star and had the clout to pull that off. All the better for movie-dom, I say! Especially considering his friends are all NICE names from classically trained stage and drama actors. Cyril Cusak is wonderful as Control, the London head. He's another one of those actors I love with that sense of suppressed power. Granted he can play it very silly too (Taming of the Shrew), but I've seen him in other roles (like the Gunsmith in Day of the Jackal) where he seems so harmless, but at the same time.... Maybe it's all in the voice :) He's a good fit for Control, too. Having seen Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy first, I already had a mental image of how Control was 'supposed' to be, and the two mesh very well. Michael Hordern I think looks the same, no matter when a particular role was filmed. I've seen him in so many different time periods in movies - Taming of the Shrew, Ivanhoe, Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. In all, he's eternally the perfect fussy bureaucrat - in this case the mid-level spy who first contacts Leamus. Peter Van Eyck plays Leamus' nemesis Mundt, the head of Berlin's counter-intelligence. He's so cold, it's perfect!

Oh, and Anne? I lose. The girl in this one is Clare Bloom. I should have recognized her, as she also plays Marina Gregg in Miss Marple's The Mirror Crack'd (which I've only seen about 800 times). But, I couldn't place her. All I could tell was that she was familiar but just vaguely so, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Well, dark brunette v. golden-tan-y hair, and almost 30 years in between do make a difference :)

Overall: 5 of 5. Not a happy movie, by any account, but beautifully filmed, directed, acted. Would want it for my shelf, as one of those rainy-day, thinking movies.

Side note: The above poster wasn't my favorite one of the movie. I actually like the Swedish one the best, but couldn't find the same picture in an English version. Le sigh.