A solid but comparatively stolid second film in the 1960s Harry Palmer trilogy starring Michael Caine as the bespectacled British secret agent. In the Len Deighton novels the author leavens convoluted and murky plots through an insolent and witty narrative, crammed with detail. But this translates more stodgily to cinema. The other two films (The Ipcress File and Billion Dollar Brain) sought to overcome this with flashy camerawork and cutting. Here, Guy Hamilton, fresh from a huge success with Goldfinger, directs with a more assured but less overtly flamboyant touch. His supporting cast is excellent, especially Oskar Homolka as the supposedly defecting KGB colonel and Guy Doleman as Caine's urbane but unsmilingly ruthless MI5 boss. Still, the downbeat air (intended to expose how cynical and bureaucratic world of espionage really is) does rather sap the energy, not helped by Konrad Elfers' plodding music score.
Review of Funeral in Berlin
