Forty years later those are no longer obstacles to appreciating the quality of the acting, direction and screenplay. Richard Burton has one of his best outings as the title character, a spy called Alec Leamas returned from a decade of service running the Berlin station, though one wonders just how difficult playing a burned out drunk was for the former Mr. Elizabeth Taylor.
Some fine supporting performances by Claire Bloom as a beautiful, naive young English communist, Cyril Cusack as Leamas’ MI-6 controller, Oskar Werner as a Jewish East German spy boss at war with Peter van Eyck, his anti-semitic boss, and Beatrix Lehmann as the stern chief of the tribunal where Leamas and the two East German spies face off.
Martin Ritt, who also directed such classics as Woody Allen’s The Front, Sounder, a couple of Paul Newman hits (Hud and The Long, Hot Summer) and Norma Rae, has his A game on Cold, using lighting as a powerful tool to convey emotions and framing shots precisely to help viewers see beneath the dialog. The script by Guy Trosper (Jailhouse Rock and Birdman of Alcatraz) and Paul Dehn (Goldfinger, the second Bond movie), who came on to finish it when Trosper passed away, does very well in getting the meat of Le Carre’s novel on screen with some very crisp dialog and plot construction.
Le Carre is the pen name of David Cornwell, a real life an MI-6 spy. He was still active when this movie was made but shortly thereafter left the agency as one of the dozens of western agents betrayed to the Soviets by Kim Philby; one expects he’d have not stayed much longer in any case as his literary star bloomed. Many Le Carre novels have been made into acclaimed films and mini-series, including his best known work Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy starring Alec Guinness, The Little Drummer Girl with Diane Keaton and ex-Bond Pierce Brosnan starrer The Tailor of Panama as well as the 2005 critical favorite Constant Gardener.
recommended
Source: http://billsaysthis.com/movies/2007/09/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold
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