The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Best description-bleak-cynical, from start to finish. Still a great flick! Late Richard Helms, Director of the CIA, hated the book and the movie. Burton was great as the drunk British Agent. How he didn't win an Academy Award is a mystery. Aside, Helms di show up on the set of Three Days of the Condor-famous still of his reflection in Robert Redford's sunglasses!

Perfect in black & white.

Classic sixties with a very strong performance from Burton. But, it kind seems at times like an actor giving a performance when he knows he's giving a performance and putting on a show. Is this method acting or the opposite? I don't know, and after a while you don't care because it gets a little dull.The old violin musical scores don't work for me either. It really makes it seem dated, but not like the 1960s, more like the 40s.

I saw this movie when it came out, and was immediately struck by how raw and realistic it was. To this day, I have been impressed by every one of Richard Burton's B&W movies. For some reason he shines in them like a beacon, while he slums through the more glamorous, and ultimately less successful color movies he's been in.These movies include: "Look Back In Anger", "Night of the Iguana", "Spy", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", "My Cousin Rachel" and "The Bramble Bush". "Iguana", "Rachel" and "Bush" weren't as impressive as the others, but for some reason, Burton still commands the camera better in them in monochrome than he would have in color. Go figure.The man was VASTLY underrated as an actor...well, maybe not underrated, but under-CONGRATULATED, since he never won an Oscar for any of his incredible, intense performances! He and Peter O'Toole were the crown PRINCES of intense! O'Toole, also, never won an Oscar, except for the Life Achievement Award he won just recently."Spy" was one of those landmark movies of the sixties that broke with type and showed the moviegoing public what life was REALLY like in a certain type of world. "Blow-Up" was another movie like this, showing how strange the world of fashion photographers could be. The psychiatric dramas "David & Lisa" and "Lilith" showed the world of adolescent and adult psychology in a true-to-life fashion, and "Spy" showed how dreary, deadly, grey and angst-ridden espionage could be, going against the glamourous, over-the-top image the Bond and Flint films and all their imitators had projected.In the film, Burton plays a character named Alec Leames, an upper-middle-aged agent working for British Intelligence in the midst of the Cold War. The film opens with him, in fact, overseeing the defection of an East German at Checkpoint Charlie, perhaps THE major symbol of the Cold War. From there, it follows him in further dealings with East Germany trying to track down a double agent. He falls into a relationship with a pert but naive little communist played by Claire Bloom, gets approached by smarmy types trying to get him to defect to the OTHER side, with him masquerading AS a possible defector for BI, under the auspices of Cyril Cusack, an actor who has played some of the most condescending elitist types in movies. His characters are almost always in powerful middle management positions and always, ALWAYS have pedantic attitudes. His character, though he actually ISN'T the legendary George Smiley, was nonetheless the obvious prototype for Sir Alec Guinness' portrayal of Smiley in the BBC/PBS series based on Le Carre's novels. The Smiley character is actually a minor entity in this film, played by a rather nerdy actor.Oskar Werner, who, along with Cusack, was very hot in "important" movies at the time, plays an East German investigator, prosecutor and negotiator. Cusack, in fact, starred with him in the Truffaut sci-fi classic "Fahrenheit 451" as well. Burton, Bloom, Cusack, Werner and Michael Holdern (Lillian Helman's long-lost twin brother)....This cast couldn't have gotten any classier if it had tried!The B&W cinematography, the casting, Burton's performance, the relentlessly grey and doleful feel of the film, Martin Ritt's expert direction, (the man was a VERY reliable "good movie" director,) all add the dramatic touches that make this film the absolute BEST film about espionage in my experience! Claire Bloom's character, Nan, offsets and emphasizes the dreary feel of the movie with her own naiveté and altruism.Why this film didn't sweep the '66 Academy Awards, I'll never know, but rest assured, it was the best dramatic offering in theaters that year. A complex, disturbing, important and incredible film that should, in retrospect, be honored for the work of art it was.Highly recommended!

This is the best espionage film ever made.Le Carre has been responsible for other excellent ones, but none of his, nor anyone else's, has the pithy power of this.Soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) plays the part of a dissolute, jaded, ripe-for-turning spy, and is dutifully recruited by East German Intelligence. He has been given information that will discredit Hans Dieter Mundt, the head of that organization. What Leamas doesn't know is that the English woman with whom he has been intimate has unwittingly been involved in events that will discredit his brief.He is debriefed by Fiedler (played brilliantly by Oskar Werner), who is Mundt's second in command, and is Jewish. He is sophisticated, yet solicitous as to Leamas' comfort; he is meticulous, yet allows Leamas latitude, and they form a bond. Mundt, a sadistic former Nazi, breezes through the trial that could cost him his life. Without giving away the whole story, suffice it to say that his sangfroid is well founded.In the climactic scene, as the first screen incarnation of George Smiley waits on the Western side of the Berlin wall, Leamas finally does come in from the cold (the phrase, in actual usage, meant, 'to leave the field work of covert operations'). As they drove towards their departure from East Berlin, Leamas' lover, aghast, had asked a question, followed by, " Fiedler was your friend! " Leamas replies with a great line in film history: " How big does a cause have to be until you kill your friends? What about your party? There's a few million souls down that road, too. "The theme of the state vs. the individual is central to most good films in this genre, and Le Carre expresses it best in Leamas' recollection: driving, he had seen a station wagon full of kids bracketed by 'two great lorries (trucks)', with expected red consequence.The book, which launched Le Carre's career, is quite short, and the film shares its forceful brevity. The Cold War may be decades past, but this emotional examination of commitment and deceit remains resonant.While Ian Fleming, too, was in the British Secret Service, this story has no car chases, no exploding potentates, no salacious pandering, no travelogue. Unlike a Bond confection, this is a series of scenes in a series of dreary rooms and forbidding exteriors, piled one atop another, a Jenga Babel, until they, like one of Smiley's operations, are exquisitely unbearable.The black and white medium seems especially appropriate for this mutual shading into greys. If thought-provoking dialog and unblinking, spartan photography are your cup of tea, see this wonderful masterpiece that never seems to get cold.

First off, a few words about techinical details of the DVD: both picture and sound quality are very nice for a film from the time. For those who don't know: this is a black and white film, so while the cover notes describe the DVD as "colour" this is misleading and only refers to the disc, i.e. menus and studio logo which are in colour. The film is black and white only. The DVD I bought has English (and various other language) subtitles. However, it has been brought to my attention that this review is now linked to a DVD without English subtitles.The film itself is excellent. It's based on John Le Carre's novel of the same title which centers around the utterly unglamourous and increasingly disillusioned agent in the service of the British Secret Service Alec Leamas. Leamas is brilliantly played by Richard Burton in a performance that earned him a highly deserved Oscar nomination.Made in the mid 1960s, the film is set in the early years of the Cold War, just after the construction of the Berlin Wall and much of it takes place in East Germany. It's a slow and intelligent psychological thriller concerned mostly with who plays who in the web of spies and expertly played out on the screen by many greats of British acting (the supporting cast includes Clair Bloom, Bernard Lee, Cyril Cusack, Sam Wanamaker). An excellent film, even 50 plus years later and highly recommended for anybody who has enjoyed more recent adaptions of Le Carre's novels. However anybody expecting an action packed spy adventure will likely be disappointed.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1963 Cold War espionage novel by author John le Carré. It is prominent for its representation of Western spying methods as ethically fickle with Western democracy and values. The film, of the same name, concerned a British spy who is sent to East Germany in order to sow misinformation about a prevailing East German intelligence officer. With the help of his unsuspecting English girlfriend, a principled Marxist, he allows himself to be conscripted by the communists, but soon his pretence untangles and he confesses to being a British agent—a disclosure that realises the crucial objective of the assignment. This is a film where there are no hi-tech gadgets, shoe knives and sensual female Soviet agents to seduce. There are no fanciful plots to recover microfilm or encryption machines. Moreover, our protagonist does not even carry a weapon of any sort. Instead, the mêlée is fought with pure acumen, guile, dogmatic guidance and deceit.The nature of the film if anything is purposefully 1950s Britain, its colours are dull grey, and its weather depressing. It is worth recalling that rationing in Britain finally ended in 1954; that the Second World War was a fresh raw nerve (our main protagonist Leamas is a veteran); the action of the novel takes place half a century ago. It belongs to a wholly dissimilar world from the one we know today. This is one of those films that makes you realise that “black & white” is not an old medium of filming, neither is it just a choice of film media; rather , if used well, it can be an entire art form unto itself. Darkness and the light, shadows and contrast are used to the fullest. This is where the plot requires your full attention. Things are not spelt out for us, and it requires a bit of work to piece it together, but that makes the payoff even more stunning.This film was a paradigm shift in the genre if compared to the James Bond franchise. An excellent production that is well worthy of five stars​.

Deliverd on time. Packed very well, a cover photo sleeve over the case was nice. The picture qaulity of the movie was very, very good.Some actors have what they call a lions head, it fills the screen like the lion at the begining of MGM's films. Richard Burton had this. When he was on screen you couldn't take your eyes of him.All the worries and fears he felt was conveyed to the audience brillianty. No one like him, a unique acting talent. Just sit back and enjoy it.He also of course had some of the best English actors around him in this movie.A truely great film.

Fantastic thriller from 1965. The performances are fantastic, Burton chief among them, with honorable mentions to Oskar Werner and Claire Bloom. The plot will not disappoint you. Full of intrigue and the necessary twists and turns of a story of this kind. it's one of those movies you want to watch again as soon as it finishes. Image and sound on this new BD release is as fine as it exists thus far, and the dialogue is crisp and clear, which is essential, in this very word-y movie. There's a nice essay by David Cairns and a commentary by Adrian Martin that round up the special features. There are quite a few notable actors in small roles, who went on to have significant careers. Robert Hardy from All Creatures, Richard Marner from Allo Allo, and Bernard Lee, famous at the time of the movie's release already, as the first M in the Bond Franchise.

This Cold War story takes us into the shady world of espionage and counterespionage where the British Secret Service and its East German counterpart try to outwit each other any way they see fit. The excellent Richard Burton plays the weathered Secret Service employee Leamas, who gets called back from Berlin to London. In the story that follows, Leamas is used as a willing pawn in a cat-and-mouse game, knowing much but not as much as he thinks he does.Fine acting, crisp black& white and a sharp script make this film top notch. However, there's an obvious flaw in the script and it concerns Leamass' love interest - very convenient to have an innocent communist lady bumping into him. And so, because the film is so dependent on the cleverness of its script and ultimately not truly memorable, it's a 4 star rating for me.