THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

UK, 1966, 112 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Osker Werner, Cyril Cusack, Peter Van Eyk, Michael Hordern, Robert Hardy. Directed by Martin Ritt.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is an adaptation of John le Carre’s famous novel. Filmed in sombre black and white, it provided a stark contrast to the spectacular, colourful spy dramas, adventures and antics so popular in the 60s and summed up in the James Bond films. This story is one of dismal realism and tired disillusionment with the manipulation and duplicity necessary for espionage.

The plot, like all spy dramas, is complicated. We are like all the outsiders to such situations, wondering how much the details we watch are relevant to the plot, wondering who is on the hero's side, who is not, wondering who the victim of all the plotting really is. The cold war is a lonely business for a spy.

Martin Ritt (Hud, Hombre. The Molly Maguires) is noted for his attention to social setting and atmosphere as well as to plot and characterisation. Here we move in a dark and half-alive London of flats, small libraries and rendezvous restaurants; we see East Berlin, prison cells and the wall, the only relief being a walk in the German country-side. As with most of Rltt's other films, death, haphazard and arbitrary death, is meant to make an audience question.

Richard Burton fits the part of Leamas perfectly. The film contrasts with the spy epics and spoofs; towards the end of the 60's a number of films on this theme and manipulation of spies were made, showing almost a cynical attitude towards the 'Control'. Examples are The Executioner, The Kremlin Letter, The Naked Runner, The Ipcress File and the version of the Le Carre's The Looklng-Glass? War.

1. What is the mood conveyed in the dark, black-and-white atmosphere of the film: the dingy London streets, the library, Berlin, prison, court-room, the Berlin Wall at night?

2. What is the point of this spy film? Is there any espionage excitement in it?

3. What is the difference between the cold war and hot war? How does the war situation affect morality (especially, truth and killing) and the manipulation of other people's lives by authorities?

4. Where was 'the cold' and how was the title fulfilled?

5. Why was Leahmas a spy? Was it just a profesaion? Was it just left unexplained or did he have an ideology and loyalties? How much loyalty, patriotism, did he have at the beginning of the film? At the end?

6. What choice had Leamas made before the film had opened? What choice did he make during the film? Acting? Deceiving? Death?

7. How did hie attitudes to Hand and Fiedler vary? (Mund: “He is evil: I hate him and evil is now on my side.")

8. Discuss the presentation of 'Control,' - cold, calculating, the master-planner, use of intelligence, planning and a 'Godlike ' command and use of men.

9. Why was Nan needed? Was she made a sympathetic character to the audience? What was the purpose of her death?

10. Was Fiedler a worthy opponent for Leamas? Why was Fiedler just as much a victim as Leamas?

11. Discuss the morality of spying, the acting, the lies, the manipulation, the giving of information, the deaths. If there any necessity for this, any justification?

12. Is the film completely pessimistic? Who wins? Only 'Control' and Mund?

13. How is the film social comment on the twentieth century?