advertisement


Espionage film suggestions please…

The Ipcress File is a *very* simplified and abridged version of the book.

Funeral in Berlin is a lot more like the book but a lot slower pace than the first film.

Billion Dollar Brain is a poor attempt to make Harry Palmer more like James Bond.


I quite liked Bridge of Spies and will get to watch The Courier in due course.
Thanks. I'll try to catch Funeral in Berlin sometime. Billion Dollar Brain sounds missable.
 
As a result of this thread I'm watching ITV's version of "The Ipcress File", and as a Liverpool resident I'm enjoying spotting the locations.

In order to reclaim some bookshelf space, last weekend I took some stuff to Oxfam, this included Deighton's "Berlin" series. The 1998 ITV adaptation of "Game, Set & Match" was pretty good, but Deighton hated it & has apparently blocked it's repeat or release on DVD, you can find it on Youtube or PirateBay if you want to. Ian Holm as Bernard Sampson.

  1. Not film or TV, but I'd highly recommend "Declare" by Tim Powers, a spy story with sorcerous overtones, or Charlie Stross's "Laundry" series. The first one of which, "The Atrocity Archive" is a pastiche of Deighton.
 
The Billion Dollar Brain is (as you would expect) completely OTT, but lacks anything much in terms of tension or subtlety.
 
The Billion Dollar Brain is (as you would expect) completely OTT, but lacks anything much in terms of tension or subtlety.

It was produced by Harry Saltzman and the opening credit sequence was by Maurice Binder. So James Bond levels of sophistication were to be expected.

Of the three 60s Harry Palmer films, it had to be the one most in the minds of the writers of Austin Powers.
 
Spy Game is worth consider, I think, I liked it.

Great film. The CIA Langley exterior and some interior scenes were filmed at the GSK building in Stevenage as they share the same architect. Anyone familiar with GSK Stevenage will recognise several scenes. They even used the GSK security personal, the scene where he drives his 911 out of the parking multi-storey was there as well.
 
Otto Preminger’s last film was an adaptation of Graham Greene’s ‘The Human Factor’ - probably the book that most accurately captures the administrative tedium of actual intelligence and espionage work.

It has a superb cast, but I’ve never seen it.
 
Thanks again to everyone for all the great suggestions. I have compiled a list...names have been taken... ;)


If by spying you also mean surveillance there is the classic
The Conversation
also the German classic
The Lives of Others

The Conversation I saw recently, very good and made me want to watch The French Connection again. I've just acquired The Lives Of Others and am looking forward to watching it, thanks!

The Bourne storyline and characters are very strong imo (despite deviating hugely from the books) - worth watching the first three at least once.

I saw bits of it once but was disappointed that some of the main characters were missing, such as his wife, and his main contact at Treadstone (though I can't remember his name). It's been a long time since I read the books so I might give it a go. I've already broken my own rule of not being interested in action films by getting Atomic Blonde. I haven't seen it yet but I'm hoping it's credible.

not a film but the original BBC series adaptation of Tinker Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alex Guinness

oh and Spies in Disguise https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5814534/

I've got the Alec Guinness tv series on my hard drive somewhere, and Smileys People, which isn't as good as TTSP but still enjoyable. I've also got A Perfect Spy which I thought was excellent. Spies In Disguise is one I'll have to check out, thanks!

Unavoidable, I guess - there was no more Soviet Union and no more Carlos, so an updated version was inevitable. There was an earlier film version starring, of all people, Dr. Kildare!



Great link, thank you. That looks very watchable. Richard Chamberlin was also in the TV series of Shogun, another favourite book of mine.
 
I saw bits of it once but was disappointed that some of the main characters were missing, such as his wife, and his main contact at Treadstone (though I can't remember his name).

I think that if you can "forget" about the books then there's absolutely loads in there that's worthwhile. There are so many great characters, including Clive Owens' in the first one and the ending to the second instalment always leaves me in bits. Whenever they are on TV I always stick it on, so eminently watchable.
 


advertisement


Back
Top