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Customer Reviews of The Ipcress File

A flesh and bone James Bond.
Britain is suffering from a severe case of "brain drain" as its top scientists keep disappearing. Sounds like a job for James Bond? Enter Harry Palmer, a spy to be sure as we watch him watching his assignment through binoculars. A ladies man to be sure, since he definitely has an eye for bird watching. Yet, the spy world of Harry Palmer is a bureaucratic labyrinth of pencil pushers, endless paperwork, and monotony. Harry is indeed a clever spy, but was recruited into the organization because of his criminal background and the threat of being sent back into prison is dangled above his head by superiors. Harry's insubordinate and a trickster but these qualities make him unpredictable and in an organization filled with straight laced bureaucrats, he's a wild card in their favor. And so Harry's transferred from one department to another as a replacement for an agent who was found shot to death, a man who was afraid of cancer, while shadowing another of the country's latest scientists. The Brits want him back and are willing to pay top dollar. Things get complicated when his old boss requests a classified file containing a section of audio tape that Harry had recovered during an investigation, identified only by the name Ipcress. Harry's perceptive enough to realize that his own spy network might contain a double agent. When he presents his case before his new department head, he's already a marked man, too hot to touch, and so is left out in the cold. THE IPCRESS FILE is the first of three films about the exploits of Harry Palmer (the other two being Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967)) and is a deliberately slow paced, stylishly directed thriller that perfectly showcases Michael Cain's subtle blend of arrogance, humor and vulnerability that he often brings to a performance. The camera work throughout is innovative, constantly peeking from behind characters, around corners, angled shots looking up from the ground, never giving us a clear perspective of what's going on. The same can be said when we see things from Harry's perspective, slightly out of focus. It is curious that he wears glasses throughout the film to see things more clearly, but it is only when his glasses are removed that he sees things how they really are. The film is complemented by an excellent score and catchy theme composed by the great John Barry. Highly recommended.

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One of Michael Caine 's first starring roles
Back in the sixties when James Bond was all the craze, Michael Caine threw his hat into the arena. He made three movies based on Len Deighton novels: "The Ipcress Files," "Funeral in Berlin," and "Billion Dollar Brain." The first is the best of the lot. Caine plays Harry Palmer, a working class Londoner with hornrim glasses who's a far cry from 007. He doesn't get all the girls, in fact he doesn't get many at all. In fact, he doesn't even want to be a spy. He got caught with the black market while he was in the army, and now it's either spying or prison. The movie is a different take on spying, and is probably closer to the John LeCarre novels than Ian Fleming. Harry Palmer's world is a dark rainy place where no one can trust anyone else, not even the "good guys". This is one of the movies that put Michael Caine on the road to stardom. A really good film!

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I'll have the Chateuneuf des Papes and the firing pin for a Beretta, please
10 years before Sidney Pollack's extraordinary "Three Days of the Condor," "The Ipcress File" was released. We saw for the first time the master-servant relationship between the handlers and the operatives in the spy world. And it wasn't very pretty. <
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>Our belief then was that the Soviets were evil and tried to pass among us as if they were 'normal,' bringing their denomic philosophy.' And James, well Bond was Mr. Cool. Girls just jumping out of their bathing suits and couldn't keep their hands off him. Remember him getting out of that skin tight wet suit wearing an Austin Reed white dinner jacket? And carnation? <
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>But Michael Caine in his second starring role was like us. He was normal. And he was a spy! <
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>I think that Harry Palmer was the first movie to raise the question that maybe we did the same things as the Russians. Maybe we kept "normal" guys and forced them into a harsh life and harm's way. <
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>Caine of course was to go on to more and more greatness. This is his prime though, and he's brilliant. Who needed Bond? He was just 'Valley of the Dolls' with a lot of gizmos. The fact was, Caine was real. 5 stars for Caine and Len Deighton's character Harry Palmer. Larry Scantlebury