The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Frosty reception assured.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is directed by Martin Ritt and adapted to screenplay by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper from the novel of the same name written by John le Carré. It stars Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack. Music is by Sol Kaplan and cinematography by Oswald Morris.

Disillusioned spy Alex Leamas (Burton) returns from Berlin and is required to "come in from the cold" and work in a stable everyday job environment. But this is just a small piece of a much bigger jigsaw From start to finish this is a deliberate downer of a movie, the complete flipside to the spy adventures served up in other high energy filmic quarters. Filmed in c...

Talky, brooding B&W spy drama during the Cold War with Richard Burton

In the early 60s, an alcoholic British intelligence agent (Richard Burton) is sent behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany disguised as a defector, but intending to spread disinformation.

Based on the 1963 novel by John le Carré, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1965) is a realistic spy drama and NOT an action thriller in the mold of James Bond. Its similar to another flick based on a le Carré book, The Russian House (1990), which ironically starred Sean Connery. Both movies are dialogue-driven and their depiction of intelligence work is decidedly mundane, static and cynical, which isnt to say theyre not worth checking out for those interested. The tone i...

There's an authenticity about the performance from Richard Burton in this cold war thriller that, alongside some well paced direction from Martin Ritt really helps it hit home. His character ("Leamas") is assigned one final task, to deal with the duplicitous Peter van Eyck ("Mundt") who appears to be systematically removing the West's reliable sources of information. What follows is a far more psychological cat-and-mouse game as he gets apprehended, and has to play a very dangerous game balancing the needs of his mission with his own survival instincts - all of this without much clue as to whom he can really trust and against a backdrop of thinly veiled prejudices. John le Carré's books were always packed with detail - and that detail carri...