a British-accented Albanian national codenamed
Bluejay (Frank Gatliff ). He even has an Oddjob-
like bald killer goon (Oliver MacGreevy), with
whom Palmer has one of the movies’ most
understated fi st fi ghts, on the steps of the Albert
Hall, viewed remotely from inside a phone box.
Just as Dr. No made Sean Connery a star, The
Ipcress File was the fi rst showcase for Michael
Caine as a leading man. Having come off Zulu,
where he played against type as a posh offi cer,
Caine essentially created his on- and off -screen
image as Harry. Caine sports heavy-framed
National Health specs (the fi rst for an action
hero), a bland mac like the raincoats worn by
Prime Minister Harold Wilson (Harry pointedly
doesn’t smoke a pipe, though), and an air of
guarded insolence that irritates his (professional
and social) superiors but never quite crosses
the line into getting-fi red territory. It should
be reiterated that Harry Palmer is still
a handsome, sexy leading man, and the fi lm
is quietly in love with lingering shots of his
subliminal smirk. This spy holds up as well
as Bond under torture (‘Ipcress’ stands for
Induction of Psychoneuroses by Conditioned
Refl ex Under Stress — which amounts to
psychedelic brainwashing), wins over a cool
femme fatale (Sue Lloyd) sent to spy on him
with his impressive kitchen and bedroom skills,
and isn’t a stinking drunk like Richard Burton’s
doomed Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In
From The Cold. Salzman saw Caine’s Palmer
as a franchise, and Harry did return in Guy
Hamilton’s ordinary Funeral In Berlin (1966) and
Ken Russell’s daff y Bond skit Billion Dollar Brain
(1967), plus a pair of disposable 1995 quickies
whose titles (Bullet To Beijing and Midnight In
Clockwise from left:Palmer finds hinself subjected to
brainwashing techniques...; ...And at the wrong end of
a gun; Sue Lloyd as agent Jean Courtney.THE IPCRESS FILE IS OUT NOW ON DVD, BLU-RAY AND DOWNLOADSt. Petersburg) you should memorise in case
you’re ever in a spy movie trivia quiz.
Director Sidney J. Furie mastered an arch
style that was sneered at by some — he was
famous for never shooting anything from a
conventional angle — which successfully conveys
the air of seedy unease necessary to a downbeat
paranoia movie where everyone is a likely
betrayer (traitors in the intelligence services
were a news fi xture in the 1960s) and heroes
are just fall guys in waiting. Furie’s mannerisms
also worked in The Entity (1982), where bizarre
camera angles suggest the invisible presence
that repeatedly assaults Barbara Hershey. The
director gets a lot of value out of Bond regulars
working in a diff erent register — production
designer Ken Adam, editor Peter Hunt and
composer John Barry (whose cimbalom-heavy
earworm score had a lasting infl uence on TV
spy show themes).
The novel ranges around the world, but the
fi lm sticks to wonderfully miserable London
locations, shot through grimy glass and drizzle.
Harry is led to believe he’s being brainwashed in
Albania but escapes to fi nd a red bus driving past
a stark, brutal Iron Curtain bunker, hinting that
the sides in this Cold War are interchangeable,
totalitarian dystopia. The fi nale fi nds Harry
wavering as he has to decide which of his bosses to
shoot in cold blood. Not only is the hero fi ghting
a Manchurian Candidate-like ‘conditioned
refl ex’ to kill the patriot to save the traitor, but
he has to deal with the fact that he most likely
hates both toff s equally. He does the right thing
but, of course, gets no thanks for it. KIM NEWMANFUNERAL IN BERLIN(1966)
“Who’s that playing the piano with his
elbows?” With Bond-veteran director Guy
Hamilton and a Deighton source novel set
firmly in John le Carré territory, the immediate
Ipcressfollow-up has a conventional (if
complicated) plot about a fake defector, an
unclaimed Nazi fortune, Israeli avengers and
getting over the Wall. However, screenwriter
Evan Jones gives Michael Caine some of the
most insolent, amusing Harry Palmer lines of
the series. Also outstanding: Konrad Elfers’
jaunty funereal score and Oskar Homolka’s
cackling Soviet spymaster, Colonel Stok.BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN(1967)
The joke here is that Caine’s drab civil servant
— wearing a silly fur hat in the snowywastes
between Helsinki and Riga — istrapped in
a Bond-style superspy yarn,completewith
evil computer, Maurice Binder titles and Ed
Begley’s demented American tycoon, General
Midwinter (who now seems more prophetic
than parodic). Ken Russell, a bold choice for
director, puts together one ofthe great insane
climacticaction sequences asMidwinter
leads an army of oil tankers and snowmobile-
riding troops in a doomed invasion of
Latvia. And Richard Rodney Bennett’s onde
martenot-heavy score is excellent.BULLET TO BEIJING(1995)/
MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG(1996)
Thirty years on, Caine’s Palmer gloomily
returned in a pair of TV movies mostly made
in post-Soviet Russia.Bullet To Beijingopens
with Harry where he was at the start ofThe
Ipcress File(boring surveillanceduty), then
made redundant by cuts. After that, he sets
up as a PI in Russia —his first case involves
a bioweapon being smuggled to North Korea,
thenMidnight In St. Petersburghas him
deal with missing plutonium and art stolen
from the Hermitage.Despite avoice cameo
from Sue Lloyd in herIpcressrole,this Harry
could beany one of a dozen long-gone ’60s
heroes. It’steased thatsidekickNikolai (Jason
Connery) might be the hitherto-unknown son
of another famous British spy.KIM NEWMANTHE PALMER FILES
AFTER THE IPCRESS FILE,
HARRY PALMER DID RETURN
...IF RATHER WAYWARDLY↓