The Ipcress File (1965 – Blu-Ray)

“Insubordinate, insolent, a trickster, perhaps with criminal tendencies… yes, that’s a pretty fair appraisal sir”

I’ve got a bit of a blind spot as far as Michael Caine 60’s classics go but I’m gonna put it right starting with 1965’s ‘The Ipcress File’. It’s fantastic and in spy film terms it’s like the missing link between the suave, fun, yet ludicrous Bond fair of the 60’s and Tomas Alfredson’s sober office bound masterpiece ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’.  Director Sidney J. Furie ramps up the tension with odd Wellsian angles or having the camera leer at the characters from voyeuristic vantage points.  This and John Barry’s slinky score and the creepy sound design all combine to disorient the viewer.  Caine is marvellous as the cheeky working class Spy Harry Palmer but Nigel Green as Harry’s stern mustachioed spy-chief is my highlight.  I’m maybe gonna check out the sequels including the outlandish looking Ken Russell helmed third film ‘Billion Dollar Brain’.