The Ipcress File

It's now time for some cold war shenanigans in 60s Britain with working class spy Harry Palmer, Britain's other most well known spy. After Michael Caine had made a name for himself with his scenestealing turn in Zulu he next solidified his success with The Ipcress File, in his first leading role. Sean Connery had recently come to fame via his sophisticated turn as superspy James Bond in a trio of jetsetting films that matched him against various super villains, based on the popular series of books by Ian Fleming. Somewhat in response to Fleming's unrealistic series of spy books, fellow novelist Len Deighton wrote the popular anti-James Bond novel The Ipcress File, which put the emphasis firmly on how a real spy might really operate. The accompanying film follows this mandate fairly closely, casting the resolutely cockney lad's lad Michael Caine in the lead role, making this the first of five films that would see Caine playing the sarcastic but chirpy Harry Palmer.

The film sets the ball rolling almost immediately as we watch Harry go about his morning routine in a rather regular fashion in the opening credits sequence. Jazzy James Bond-esque spy music plays throughout, setting a rather ironic yet ominous tone. This is a movie about the dull reality of espionage... the endless paperwork and humourless superiors. Thankfully any potential boredom the viewer might feel is offset by the presence of Caine... his spy is a smart alecky one-of-the-boys who doesn't play by the rules, and the UK government knows this and needs him because of these particular skills. I wouldn't want to talk about the actual plot of this movie too much in case I gave anything away, there are a couple of interesting twists and at least one very clever conceit that sets this apart from most spy films. I wouldn't exactly call this a 'gritty' film but it's very much in the spirit of later attempts to take the disbelieving sheen off the spy genre (such as The Bourne Identity), and I think The Ipcress File deserves it's place as a classic of the genre for distancing itself from James Bond so resolutely.

This is probably the most well known film that director Sidney J. Furie worked on, and apparently he and the producer didn't get on at all (owing to Furie's alleged disregard for the script). A lot of the film is memorably shot through windows and doors, like we're spying on spys and catching them in their natural, unglorified habitat and behaviour. The biggest star here though is Michael Caine, who justifiably rose to fame through the three-punch combo of this film, Zulu and Alfie. As someone who read the book before seeing the film I think I can safely say that this is one of the film-adaptations that actually manages to be better than the book it's based on, though the book is still worth reading.

TRIVIA: As expected, there are a few noticeable differences between the film and the novel. In the novel 'Harry' remains nameless throughout, owing to his more paranoid nature, and he mails an 'escape package' to himself once a week. There's also a lengthy side-trip to Lebanon that involves a car chase and a sticky bomb, and another early sequence that takes place in a jazz club.

Caine went on to play Harry Palmer in two more films in the 1960s, Funeral in Berlin and The Million Dollar Brain. He then later reprised the role in the mid-90s in Bullet to Beijing and Midnigh in St. Petersburg, neither of which were based on books by Len Deighton.