The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film)

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Theatrical release poster by Howard Terpning
Directed by	Martin Ritt
Produced by	Martin Ritt
Screenplay by	Paul Dehn Guy Trosper
Based on	The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Starring	Richard Burton Claire Bloom Oskar Werner
Music by	Sol Kaplan
Cinematography	Oswald Morris
Edited by	Anthony Harvey
Production company	Salem Films Limited
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	16 December 1965 (1965-12-16) (USA) 13 January 1966 (1966-01-13) (UK)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$7,600,000

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1965 British Cold War spy film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, and Oskar Werner.

Based on the 1963 novel of the same name by John le Carré, the film is about a British agent who is sent to East Germany in order to sow disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer. With the aid of his unwitting English girlfriend, an idealistic communist, he allows himself to be recruited by the communists, but soon his charade unravels and he admits to being a British agent—a revelation that achieves the ultimate objective of the mission. The screenplay was written by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper.^[1]

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold did well at the box office, received positive reviews, and received several awards, including four BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction. For his performance, Richard Burton also received the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor, the Golden Laurel Award, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film was named one of the top ten films of 1966 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.^[2]

Plot

The West Berlin office of “The Circus”, under administrator Alec Leamas (Richard Burton), has not been doing well. He is recalled to London shortly after the death of one of his operatives. Leamas is seemingly demoted to the banking section of the agency. In reality, a carefully staged transformation of Leamas has been arranged by Control (Cyril Cusack), the agency's chief. Now depressed and disgruntled, alcoholic and low on funds, he is quickly spotted by the East German Intelligence Service as a potential defector.

Leamas accepts overtures from German communists to reveal British secrets for payment, and he is interviewed by a man named Peters (Sam Wanamaker) at a coastal house in the Netherlands about what he knows. When the process is later moved to a country villa in East Germany, the interviews become less cordial. It appears Leamas has information that will implicate a powerful East German intelligence officer named Mundt (Peter van Eyck) as a paid informant of the British, but the information is spotty and it frustrates his interrogator, Fiedler (Oskar Werner). When Mundt arrives at the compound and discovers the investigation, he has both Leamas and Fiedler arrested. Mundt himself is eventually arrested.

An East German tribunal ensues to determine the guilt of Mundt, with Leamas appearing as a star witness. Mundt's attorney (George Voskovec) uncovers several discrepancies in Leamas' transformation into an informant. Leamas' credibility collapses when his English girlfriend, an unassuming and idealistic communist named Nan Perry (Claire Bloom) unwittingly reveals that she has received payments from British intelligence. As Leamas' charade unravels and he is forced to admit he is still working as a British agent, Fiedler is escorted from the room as a complicit dupe and Mundt's reputation is vindicated.

Leamas initially believes he has failed in his mission and he will soon be executed. But when Mundt releases him from his cell with an escape plan in tow, he learns that his mission has actually succeeded; Fiedler was the agent to be undermined and Mundt was indeed a British agent. Although this comes as a surprise to Leamas (for he has steadfastly insisted to Fiedler that the Circus could not possibly have run an agent in East Germany without his, Leamas's, knowing about it), he isn't completely shocked by the revelation. As he and Perry sit in a car waiting to be escorted from East Germany, she berates him as being involved in murder: the execution of Fiedler who was guilty of nothing. Leamas, agitated by Perry's naiveté, tells her that her worldview is childish and people are murdered every day—on both sides—while she lives an insulated life: "What do you think spies are?" he asks. "They are a bunch of seedy squalid bastards like me, little drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands ..."

Leamas and Perry are soon ushered to the Berlin Wall and apparently permitted to leave. But Perry is shot down, apparently by an East German double agent, as she tries to cross the wall. Leamas then looks down from the top of the wall at Perry, while agents from both sides urge him to return to the west. Instead he climbs back down the East German side of the wall and goes to Perry's lifeless body, but is then himself shot dead.

Cast

Production

The film closely follows the plot of the novel. One exception is that the name of the principal female character, "Liz Gold" in the novel, is changed to "Nan Perry," supposedly because the producers were worried about out-of-context quotes of Burton from the film being used in reference to his real-life wife, Elizabeth "Liz" Taylor. Two other significant differences are firstly that in the film there are no references to Liz Gold's/Nan Perry's supposed Jewishness, a fact which features in the novel since both she and Fiedler are subject to antisemitic taunts, and secondly the addition in the film of an explanation of the work's title by Control suggesting to George Smiley that Leamas' decision to join Perry in death represented his final wish to re-enter the warmth of human love and companionship and thus "Come in from the cold" of isolation and alienation that characterizes the life of the spy.

Studio production took place in Ardmore Studios in Ireland and England's Shepperton Studios.^[3]

Reception

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold took in $7,600,000 at the box office.^[4] The film currently holds 85% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews.

Awards and nominations

Home video

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was released by the Criterion Collection on DVD on 25 November 2008 and on Blu-ray on 10 September 2013. Extras for this version include digitally restored picture and sound, an interview with John le Carré, scene-specific commentary by director of photography Oswald Morris, a BBC documentary titled The Secret Center: John le Carré (2000), an interview with Richard Burton from a 1967 episode of the BBC series Acting in the '60s, a 1985 audio interview with director Martin Ritt, a gallery of set designs, the film's theatrical trailer, and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Sragow.^[5]

References

External links

• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at the Internet Movie Database
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at the TCM Movie Database
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at AllMovie
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at Rotten Tomatoes
• Criterion Collection Blu-ray review
• Criterion Collection DVD review
• The Movie Scene review

Berlin Wall
Main articles	Berlin Wall Inner German border Iron Curtain Wall of Shame East Berlin West Berlin German reunification Eastern Bloc emigration and defection Republikflucht Berlin Crisis of 1961
Memorials, museums and galleries	White Crosses East Side Gallery Checkpoint Charlie Museum Topography of Terror Mauerpark Chapel of Reconciliation
Crossings	Berlin border crossings Bornholmer Straße Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Bravo Berlin Friedrichstraße station Glienicke Bridge Invalidenstraße Oberbaum Bridge Sonnenallee Tränenpalast, Friedrichstrasse station
Died breaching the Wall	List of deaths at the Berlin Wall Klaus Brueske Peter Fechter Winfried Freudenberg Christian-Peter Friese Chris Gueffroy Marienetta Jirkowsky Cengaver Katrancı Erna Kelm Czesław Kukuczka Günter Litfin Dorit Schmiel Olga Segler Ida Siekmann Heinz Sokolowski Hildegard Trabant
Others associated with the Wall	Günter Schabowski Riccardo Ehrman Erich Honecker Conrad Schumann Walter Ulbricht
The Wall in speeches	Ich bin ein Berliner "Tear down this wall!"
In popular culture	The Tunnel (NBC documentary) The Wall (1962 film) The Road to the Wall Das Versprechen The Tunnel (2001 film) Rabbit à la Berlin (2009 documentary) Good Bye, Lenin! Sonnenallee The Berlin Wall (video game) "Nikita" "West of the Wall" "The Soldier" Funeral in Berlin Gotcha! Judgment in Berlin (novel) Judgment in Berlin (film) Stop Train 349 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (novel) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film) Bridge of Spies
Other	List of Berlin Wall segments Ghost station Steinstücken
Book:Berlin Wall