The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

Original title

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Directed by

Martin Ritt

Genre

drama film, spy film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 52m

Rated

12

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 334 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

British spy Alec Leamas pretends to become a disgruntled alcoholic defector. He is tasked with spreading false information to discredit an East German intelligence officer. His mission becomes more complicated as rival spy agencies play their own games.

tensebleakslow-burncerebralmelancholicgrittysuspensefulsomber

What happens

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is a 1965 British spy film directed and produced by Martin Ritt, adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper from the 1963 novel by John le Carré. It stars Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, and Oskar Werner, and features Sam Wanamaker, Cyril Cusack, Rupert Davies, George Voskovec, and Peter van Eyck in supporting roles. The film depicts British MI6 agent Alec Leamas' (Burton) mission as a faux defector who is given the task of sowing damaging disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer (Werner). As part of a charade, Leamas is apparently dismissed from the British secret intelligence service and becomes an embittered alcoholic. He also strikes up a relationship with Nan Perry (Bloom), a British communist. He is soon approached by East German agents in Britain, and he allows himself to be recruited and taken to continental Europe to sell his secrets for money. The plots of the rival spy agencies unfold, and prove more complicated than Leamas expected. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold was a box-office success, receiving positive reviews and several awards, including four BAFTA Awards for Best British Film, Best Actor (for Burton), Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design. For their performances, Burton was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor while Werner won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was named one of the top ten films of 1965 by the National Board of Review in the United States. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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