Spies and Spying
Night Agent (2023) and The Recruit (2022) – two modern spy series
At times I get asked – very politely, of course – whether I have something against “new stuff”, as most of my blogs are about “old” movies or serials. I have nothing for or against new stuff except that, at times, they seem to recycle “old stuff”. I also have a “problem” with TV…
Read MoreThe Billion Dollar Brain(1967) – Palmer meets the Bond Universe.
Director: Ken Russell Cast: Michael Caine. Karl Malden. Francoise Dorleac. Ed Bagley. Oscar Homolka. Harry Saltzman knew he was on to a good thing. Worldwide spy film mania was going through the roof. Even the Europeans had got on the “Bond wagon”, starting an entirely new sub-genre known as “Euro Spy” films. Their most infamous…
Read MoreFuneral in Berlin (1966) – Divided Berlin and Palmer, the anti-Bond
Director: Guy Hamilton. Cast: Michael Caine. Oscar Homolka. Eva Renzi. Paul Hubschmid. Gunter Meisner. By 1966, Len Deighton had published his fourth spy thriller, The Billion Dollar Brain, with the same nameless hero. However, his second book, Horse Under Water, involving sunken U Boats, exotic locations and heroin trafficking, somehow wasn’t developed for the…
Read MoreThe Ipcress File (1965) – the first coolest Anti Bond
Director: Sidney .J.Furie Cast: Michael Caine. Guy Doleman. Nigel Green. Sue Lloyd. In 1962 the first James Bond film Dr No was released. In 1962 Len Deighton wrote his first book, The Ipcress File. Perhaps it was a coincidence. By 1965 when Thunderball was released, the Bond mania had spread worldwide. Everyone thought…
Read MoreThe Odessa File (1974) – Lost in adaptation
Director: Ronald Neame . Script: George Markstein (also an excellent spy fiction writer) Cast: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Mary Tamm Israel has always considered itself to be facing existential threats from everywhere. Historically the state of Israel seemed at its most fragile from its declaration of independence in 1948 till the 1967 Seven-Day War.…
Read MoreThe Day of the Jackal – 1974 – RIVETING (even now)
Fact: The OAS – The Organisation Armee Secrete (the Secret Armed Organisation), was composed of ex-French Army soldiers who opposed French President Charles de Gaulle’s policy of granting independence to Algeria as they considered it and its French population as French. The organization aimed to kill de Gaulle and bring Algeria back under French rule.…
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