Main Cast: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson
Release Year: 1965
Country: UK
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Michael Caine made his first appearance as novelist Len Deighton's bespectacled British-spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File. Palmer has no real love of espionage, but he doesn't really know any other life. With studied insolence, he takes on the case of locating missing doctor Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards), who has in his possession a valuable file that would prove injurious to the Free World should it fall in the wrong hands. The government also fears that Radcliffe will be brainwashed by the enemy, as has happened to two previous British scientists. While Palmer is off doing everyone else's dirty work, his superior, Nigel Green, is making a deal with duplicitous information "broker" Frank Gatliff to win Radcliffe's release. The price for this would seem to be Palmer, who is captured by the enemy and subjected to a grueling brainwashing session. Palmer escapes, whereupon he confronts a traitor in his midst in the climactic exchange of gunfire. Advertised as "The Thinking Man's Goldfinger, The Ipcress File offered a far more realistic view of the morally ambivalent world of espionage than did the like-vintage James Bond films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Advertised as "The Thinking Man's Goldfinger," The Ipcress File (1965) was widely considered one of the best Cold War spy films. Based on the novel of the same name by best-selling author Len Deighton, the film's plot was a ludicrous mishmash involving psychedelic brainwashing of the U.K.'s top scientists. Just as in the long-running series of James Bond spy thrillers, however, what set The Ipcress File apart were top-notch production values (particularly director Sidney J. Furie's magnificent use of the extreme widescreen properties of Techniscope) and a riveting central character. Michael Caine became an international movie star on the basis of three performances in only three years, in Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), and Alfie (1966). It's easy to see why Caine's portrayal of reluctant sleuth Harry Palmer so captivated audiences, as Caine played him with a reserved elegance that barely masked Palmer's lower-class Cockney roots and seething anti-authority attitude. The comparisons to Bond didn't end with the marketing of The Ipcress File. The film was brought to the screen by Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman, and many long-time Bond regulars did fine work on The Ipcress File, including composer John Barry and editor Peter Hunt, who cut the first three Bond features and eventually went on to direct On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The opening sequence of The Ipcress File was an extended, tongue-in-cheek reference to Bond, setting up Palmer as an anti- 007 "common man" who woke up alone, was nearly blind as a bat, and needed coffee to wake up in the morning. The Ipcress File was quickly followed by two sequels, Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). Caine returned to play Palmer once again in 1995 with two made-for-American-television movies, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in St. Petersburg. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Aubrey Richards - Radcliffe; Frank Gatliff - Bluejay; Thomas Baptiste - Barney; Oliver Macgreevy - Housemartin; Freda Bamford - Alice; Pauline Winter - Charlady; Stanley Meadows - Inspector Keightley; Peter Ashmore - Sir Robert; Glynn Edwards - Police Station Sergeant; Douglas Blackwell - Murray; David Glover - Chilcott-Oakes; Paul Chapman - Prison Guard; Anthony Baird - Raid Sergeant; Michael Murray - Raid Inspector; Richard Burrell - Operator; Tony Caunter - O.N.I. man; Max Faulkner - Prison Guard
Credit
Peter Murton - Art Director, Sidney J. Furie - Director, Peter Hunt - Editor, Ronald Kinnoch - Executive Producer, Charles Kasher - Executive Producer, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), John Barry - Musical Direction/Supervision, Phil Leakey - Makeup, Ken Adam - Production Designer, Otto Heller - Cinematographer, Harry Saltzman - Producer, Michael White - Set Designer, Bill Canaway - Screenwriter, James Doran - Screenwriter, Len Deighton - Book Author
A scientist called Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards) is kidnapped on a train and his escort killed. A senior British intelligence officer, Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman), sends for Harry Palmer (Michael Caine), the film's protagonist, who up to that point has been engaged in a tedious stakeout.
The protagonist of Deighton's novel was nameless, but in Chapter 5 he remarks, "My name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been." In the opening scenes of the film, Palmer is shown to care little for authority, to indulge in quick repartee and to have an interest in good food. Newspaper cuttings shown in Palmer's kitchen are actually cookery articles written for The Observer by Deighton, an accomplished cook and cookery writer.[1][2] In a scene where Palmer prepares a meal, the hands in close-up are Deighton's.
Ross tells Palmer that he is being transferred to a department headed by a Major Dalby (Nigel Green). "Dalby," says Ross, "doesn't have my sense of humour". "I shall miss that," says Palmer. Radcliffe's disappearance appears to be part of a brain drain, in which several scientists have unaccountably vanished. Ross introduces Palmer to Dalby as a good man but insubordinate. His file records that he had been court-martialed for black market activities but offered a job as a spy as an alternative to jail. Dalby tells Palmer that his criminal tendencies may be of use but that if he gives any trouble he will go straight to prison.
At his first departmental meeting Palmer befriends a young woman, Jean Courtney (Sue Lloyd) and a Scotsman, Jock Carswell (Gordon Jackson). Dalby briefs his agents on the Radcliffe kidnapping, saying that they suspect an Albanian-born criminal known as Bluejay (Frank Gatliff). Palmer's unorthodox methods bring him quickly into contact with Radcliffe's captors. Palmer organises an expensive and unauthorised raid that yields nothing but a piece of audio tape, marked 'IPCRESS', that produces a meaningless noise when it is played, but one of Palmer's colleagues discovers that IPCRESS stands for "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress". A file is opened on IPCRESS. Radcliffe is bought back from his captors but proves to have forgotten everything about his research and to be of no further use to the British government. Palmer is caught up in rivalry between Ross and Dalby and finds himself in conflict with local CIA operatives. He becomes involved with Courtney, but suspects that she is watching him for Ross. Carswell is killed and Palmer thinks there is an attempt to frame him for the murder. The IPCRESS file disappears from Palmer's desk. Palmer eventually discovers what IPCRESS is and unmasks the agent behind the disappearance and brainwashing of the scientists. The discovery is made at great cost to himself and he realizes that he was chosen for the job because he is expendable.
Nigel Green and Michael Caine appeared in a number of films and TV episodes together, including Zulu and Play Dirty. Zulu was Caine's big break, and he was cast-against-type as an aristocratic Lieutenant, while Green was his Colour Sergeant. In this film it was Green who is a Major to Caine's cockney Sergeant.
Production
The film was intended as a less extravagant alternative to the James Bond films popular at that time. In contrast to Bond's public school background and playboy lifestyle, Palmer is a Cockney career soldier who lives in an East End flat and has to put up with red tape and inter-departmental rivalries. When appointed to a new post, one of his first questions is whether he will get a pay rise. (Bond's salary is hardly mentioned and he only goes to the best hotels, often using the Presidential suite.)
In this respect, it is a tribute to the complexity and flexibility of the mind of Harry Saltzman, who was an acknowledged master of proposing "bigger and more extravagant ideas" for Bond films according to the MGM Home Entertainment documentary Harry Saltzman: Showman. Five prominent members of the production team - producer Harry Saltzman, executive producer- Charles Kasher (who also produced the sequel-"Funeral In Berlin", film editor Peter R. Hunt, composer John Barry and production designer Ken Adam - also worked on the James Bond film series, and projects like this ultimately led to Saltzman's departure from Eon Productions and his sale of Danjaq, LLC to United Artists in 1975.
