Cold-Blooded Fever
Inside a grim little room in the empty countryside somewhere east of the Berlin wall an East German agent is interrogating a defecting British spy. The defector is anxious and weary. He wants his money now. Prompting the Communist agent to say this : "You are a traitor, the lowest currency of the cold war. We buy you, we sell you, we lose you, we can even shoot you. Not a bird in the trees would stir if we did just that."
Except that Alec Leamas(Richard Burton) is not really a defector, he is only masquerading as one. On his last assignment for the British Secert Service, he is to pretend to be burnt out and jobless. Never faraway from a bottle he walks around the streets of London cynical and depressed, his "masterstroke" in this act is an ugly fight with a shopkeeper who refuses to give him credit. This ofcourse attracts the attention of the East German agants who view him as a potential defector because of his dire need for cash and his...
Burton at his Most Impressively Brooding
Richard Burton's brooding performance coupled with appropriately grim black and white photography from cameraman Oswald Morris provide just the proper mood as the masterpiece thriller from former British intelligence operative John Le Carre was brought to the screen in 1965 with capable fidelity.
While a British production, the film's director was American Martin Ritt, an accomplished master of providing films of compelling seriousness with a touch of the grim, as exemplified by "No Down Payment", "Hud" and "The Front." Burton plays an intelligence operative gone to seed, hence the reference to "coming out of the cold" which, in spy talk, involves being taken out of the field of operation. Burton goes to planned seed, becoming an alcoholic who ultimately is thrown into prison for pummeling a thoroughly decent London grocer who had extended him credit and ultimately had to draw the line, incurring Burton's well orchestrated rage in accordance...
Gutty, gritty, and gray, 'Spy' is the real deal
Finally! A gritty, gutty portrayal of the most integral (and expendable) piece in the Cold War match: the spy. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold abandons the glitz and gadgets of the James Bond genre in favor of gray, minimalist trappings. The result is one of the best, if underrated, dramas of the 1960's. Richard Burton should have won Best Actor Oscar for his role as the burned out spy Alec Leemas, whose initial bitter denial that he's too old to work as a field agent gets him into the biggest jam of his career. The script is excellent, relying largely on metaphors and terse, but profound, arguments to define its characters instead of guns and special effects. The plot's pace is adult and intricately woven, not wasting a moment. But overall, the use of black and white film (and the minimalistic atmosphere it envokes) is perhaps the biggest asset. The viewer gets a sense that there is really little difference between the hunted and the hunter, between East and West. That...
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