Michael Caine made his first appearance as novelist Len Deighton's bespectacled British-spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File. Palmer has no real love of espionage, but he doesn't really know any other life. With studied insolence, he takes on the case of locating missing doctor Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards), who has in his possession a valuable file that would prove injurious to the Free World should it fall in the wrong hands. The government also fears that Radcliffe will be brainwashed by the
enemy, as has happened to two previous British scientists. While Palmer is off doing everyone else's dirty work, his superior, Nigel Green, is making a deal with duplicitous information "broker" Frank Gatliff to win Radcliffe's release. The price for this would seem to be Palmer, who is captured by the enemy and subjected to a grueling brainwashing session. Palmer escapes, whereupon he confronts a traitor in his midst in the climactic exchange of gunfire. Advertised as "The Thinking Man's Goldfinger, The Ipcress File offered a far more realistic view of the morally ambivalent world of espionage than did the like-vintage James Bond films. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Caine skillfully resists any temptation he may have had to pep up the proceedings. In fact, his consistent underplaying adds considerably to the pull of the picture.
Check out the scene where Caine and Green discuss the merits of button mushrooms and you'll appreciate that, as the actors have an excellent grasp of character, so the screenwriters have a superb eye for detail.
Embora inferior a Funeral em Berlim, que contaria com um roteiro melhor, o primeiro filme da série ainda funciona graças ŕ direçăo de Furie, ŕ atuaçăo irônica de Caine e ŕ forma curiosamente monótona com que o cotidiano da espionagem é retratado.
Caine, Zulu under his belt and Alfie ahead, is the cheeky working class but aspirational bright spark hero par excellence, captured at the exact moment he became a star.
Deighton's plot is a mild headache of deceit and double-dealing that glides stylishly and with much wit around Caine's Sergeant Palmer, a cocky London bachelor and middle-ranking scion of the MoD's counter-espionage department.
At the rise of the 007 mania, and the effervescence of the swingin' sixties and the new wave, square secret service agent Harry Palmer was born.Most of the same people who gave life to Fleming's spy; including John Barry, Ken Adam and many more; had their hands in this, his antithesis. A myopic, expert cook who has to
deal with uninteresting tasks of surveillance and piles of paper to fill; thick cockney accents; rigid bureaucratic bosses; and some other dirty businesses going on behind his back.Director Sidney J. Furie injects angular, lavish and noirish camera work; and the old chap Michael Cain is always efficient.
Intelligent and perfectly cast 60s spy thriller that's a little too self conciously gimmicky for it's own good, but Caine's on top form, and the brainwashing scene is highly memorable.
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