NEW SECRET AGENT FOR FILM FANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01365R000300110012-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: September 29, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

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THE PASSII1 S! 'vW
By HARRY MacARTHUR
Drama Critic of The Star
James Bond now-has a rival in the secret agent trade, a
fellow named Harry Palmer. As played by a relative newcomer
named Michael Caine, Harry is being introduced to movie au-
diences in "The Ipcress File," a corking British spy film at the
Cinema. -
Palmer has no better chance than SMERSH of putting Bond
out of business, of course. He's
neither suave, nor Superman
and the ability to perform the
unbelievable is not one of his
weapons. He just does what any
red-blooded British spy would
do and he gets his lumps.for it.
Harry likes girls and he is not
as ready as some people to turn
.one off when duty calls. His
superiors, in fact, consider him
an insubordinate type with
criminal tendencies. He also
likes Mozart and likes - to pre-
pare gourmet meals, even when
dining alone. He's near-sighted,
too. None of these things makes
him seem more trustworthy to
the boss spies, but he does get
his job done.
In "The Ipcress File," direc-
tor Sidney J. Furie has sur-
rounded Harry with all the
mood, atmosphere and sinister
trappings an espionage film fan
could ask. Filming it in London
and color, the conventional
camera angle . never serves
Furie when he can think of a
better one and he seems consist-
ently to have, thought of better
ones.
He has made better use of the
.subjective camera than has
been seen in some time. Often
you look through a slit or a
crack in a door to see the
fragment of a face or-scene that
,the sleuth peeking in is seeing.
When he takes off his glasses a
scene is blurred by the hero's
myopia.
The screenplay by Bill Cona-
way and James Doran, from a
novel by Len ? Deighton, is
concocted of comedy, menace,
suspense, violence and a smat-
tering of sex. It may not be a
model of clarity at every mo-
ment and there are times when
you are whisked from one scene
to the next with such rapidity
that you ask yourself what
happened back there. But all
the necessary ingredients are
here and it's exciting.
It seems that a prominent
scientist has been kidnaped by
the foe and the head of British
military intelligence turns the
problem of recovering him over
to the head of civg>
gence. The latter more
I;nilitary than ' the former,
"TILE IPCILESS FILE." a Univer-
sal release of a Harry Saltzman pro-
duction; from a novel by Len Deigh-
inn; screenplay by Bill Conaway and
Tames Doran; directed by Sidney J.
Furie; music composed and conducted
by John Barry; production designed
by Hen Adam; photographed by Otte
]letter; art director. Peter Murton.
At the Cinema.
The Cast
Harry Palmer .......... Michael Caine
Darby ....... Nigel Green
Ross ................... Guy Doleman
.Tcan ......................... Sue Lloyd
Carswell ............:. Gordon Jackson
Radcliffe ........... Aubrey Richards
Blucjay ................. Frank Gatliff
Barney ............... Thomas Baptists
Ifousemartin ....... Oliver MacGreevy
Alice ................. Freda Bamford
ramrod straight, with bristling
mustache, a parade ground
walk and a sharp tongue for
underlings who make mistakes.
The chase that follows moves
through a variety of back-
grounds-London clubs, high-
ceilinged government offices
where upper level affairs of
state must go on, an abandoned
warehouse, etc. It leads eventu-
ally to a large deserted garage
for a confrontation between.
pursuers and pursued. The
former turn over the 25,000-
pound ransom and the latter the
scientist.
But don't get up to leave. The
scientist turns out to have been
brainwashed and can't remem-
ber his work that was so impor-
tant to the British cause.
Harry Palmer, of course
("The Ipcress File" is suspense-
packed, not surprise-packed), is
the fellow who finally knows too
much. He learns enough to
suspect an inside job and winds
up in the Ipcress establishment,
brain-washing division.
The procedure involves star-
vation, lack of sleep and subjec-
tion to assault by galloping
color images on a 360-degree
screen, accompanied by weird,
ear-splitting sound. Furie has
made this a masterpiece of
special effects and camera and
sound techniques. ?
It's a mighty violent passage
and you'd better be sure to
resist or you'll wind up brain-
washed yourself and you know
what that leads to-a clean
mind.
Caine does a splendid job of
playing the battered secret
durable aan l t~hers~a " ' 'll t le
ga he
varied facets of the man's
Michael Caine, producer Harry'. S?altzman's '
answer to James Bond, prepares to woo a girl
with his culinary dexterity in "The 1peress.
File," at the Cinema.
personality into a completely,
credible character.
The two intelligence chiefs
are played deftly for suspense
by Nigel Green (civilian) and
Guy Doleman ? (military).
Gordon Jackson registers
effectively, too, as a canny Scot
crony of Palmer's, the first to
find out too much 'about the'
Ipcress file and be done in.
Sue Lloyd comes through
warmly as the fellow spy Pal-
mer woos with gourmet meals
at his bachelor digs. Woos her.
without knowing which side she,
is really on, at that.
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