The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
December 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

We’re often told that the best way to become an author is to "write what you know." In The Secret Centre: John le Carré, one of the terrific documentary supplements on the second disc of this set, we find that the author, noted for writing novels in the spy-thriller genre, worked from his own personal experience. He served as a British agent, eventually working for MI-6. At that time he was using his natal name, David Moore Cornwell, but as he started publishing fiction he had to use the pseudonym that has become far better known.

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold was le Carré’s third novel. In it, he exposed the futility of the spying business in dealing with the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. Agents in the story are moved around like chess pieces in some great game with no genuine purpose in mind other than to play. The writer’s depiction of spies and spying is much more realistic than the glamorous people and settings portrayed in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels would indicate. It stands to reason, then, that the film version of le Carré’s most famous novel should stand as an antithesis to movies such as From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger. By choice, it was filmed in black and white and is more dependent on intelligent dialogue than action.

Richard Burton stars as Alec Leamas, an agent weary from his job yet unable to quit. Leamas is a very cynical man who seems unable to let go. Burton captures his moods perfectly, and the actor’s sonorous voice is used to great effect throughout the movie, particularly in the last-act courtroom drama, where he is unmasked by his former girlfriend (Claire Bloom), a member of the Communist Party. No less effective is Oskar Werner as Fiedler, an agent who thinks he is the cat capturing the mouse while he is really having the tables turned on him.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: The Criterion folks are the best there are at bringing black-and-white films to DVD. Just take the opening scene under credits, a pan shot of the no-man’s land between East and West Berlin (actually a set constructed in Dublin). Ritt wanted the movie to look dour and unpleasant, and at all times threatening, so this opening makes much of shadow and light, with the light dancing off wet streets only to be swallowed in inky shadows. The detail on a good upconverting player is darned good for DVD. There are a lot of tweeds among the costumes, and these have palatable texture. The weary, pock-marked faces of the actors, often caught in extreme close-up, are so detailed that every nuance of expression is never in doubt. The mono soundtrack is serviceable for the all-important dialogue and is adequate for the subdued music of composer Sol Kaplan.

The BBC documentary mentioned in the first paragraph is quite lengthy, but it is so fascinating that one scarcely realizes so much time has passed. It is joined on the second disc by a new interview with John le Carré, who proves a most engaging raconteur, and a selected-scene commentary by Oswald Morris, the movie’s director of photography. There is an audio interview featuring director Ritt, and a 1967 interview with Richard Burton from a BBC show called Acting in the ‘60s. As usual for Criterion, these extras enhance one’s enjoyment of the feature.

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