Richard Burton is perfectly dour and weary in the title role of the John Le Carre adaptation, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965). Shot in black and white by cinematographer Oswald Morris and directed by Martin Ritt (who made Hud and Hombre), the film is set during the Cold War and follows Le Carre’s unglamorous world of spies. Burton plays Leamus, a British intelligence operative who works for “Control” and who is close to being reassigned to a desk job after a run of agents being killed before they could successfully defect. His handlers ask him for one last assignment, a plan to incriminate an East German agent named Mundt (Peter van Eyck) who is responsible for hunting down and killing their defecting spies. It’s a long con game Reamus has to play, slowly revealed by the movie and complicated by his incidental relationship with a communist librarian Nan (Claire Bloom). Oskar Werner is also very good as Fiedler, the snappy East German agent who dislikes Mundt and investigates Reamus when he defects. Le Carre’s character of George Smiley even turns up in a supporting role (played here by Rupert Davies; later portrayed by Sir Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman). Methodically paced and shot across English and European locations, there’s also a melancholy piano score by Sol Kaplan. Observing Burton’s jaded countenance in the frame is strongly compelling, and communicates the story’s cynical take on the world of espionage. Recommended. Available to stream on SBS OnDemand.
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