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The Ipcress File [DVD] [1965]

Staring: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson
Director: Sidney J. Furie
Average Customer Rating:

List Price: ~~£9.99~~
Our Price: £6.93

Product Details
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Parental Guidance
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5037115056931
Format: Full Screen, PAL
Label: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2003-10-20
Running Time: 103
Studio: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1965-08-02

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Editorial Review
Amazon.co.uk Review
In the spy-crazed film world of the 1960s, Len Deighton's antihero Harry Palmer burst onto the scene as an antidote to the James Bond films. Here was a British spy who had a working-class accent and horn-rimmed glasses and above all really didn't want to be a spy in the first place. As portrayed by Michael Caine, Palmer was the perfect antithesis to Sean Connery's 007. Unlike that of his globetrotting spy cousin, Palmer's beat is cold, rainy, dreary London, where he spends his days and nights in unheated flats spying on subversives. He does charm one lady, but she's no Pussy Galore, just a civil servant he works with, sent to keep an eye on him. Eventually he's assigned to get to the bottom of the kidnapping and subsequent "brain draining" of a nuclear physicist, all the while being reminded by his superiors that it's this or prison. Things begin to get pretty hairy for Harry. Produced by Harry Saltzman in his spare time between Bond movies, the film also features a haunting score by another Bond veteran, composer John Barry. --Kristian St. Clair, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

The distilled essence of the book, and of the period, 2009-08-31
This film is just as powerful in 2009 as it was on first release.

The plot is slightly simplified for the film, and actually doesn't make all that much sense, but this matters not one jot. It's all about character, mood, period, class, snobbery, and a lot of other things that you would think were no longer relevant more than forty years later, but somehow still are.

The cold war is (supposedly) past us, but the atmosphere of the cold war is still chillingly brought to life. The villains as villainous as in any previous spy drama, but more convincing than most.

The film version of the hero, called Palmer only in the films, was made to be a sergeant and presumably "working class", with criminal tendencies. The book version may well have been an officer, had probably been to a redbrick university, and had his own tailor, so not quite the working class hero of the film, but still, by the standards of Ross and Dalby was not quite "one of us". Fascinating stuff for students of British snobbery, which is rich with layering and nuance.

It's actually rather interesting to compare "Harry Palmer" with John Le Carre's "Alec Leamas" ("The Spy who came in from the Cold"), from a similar historical period.

As the additional material on this version of the DVD makes clear, it is the music of John Barry that really lifts this film up from being merely very good, to being great.

A spy you can believe in appears in this antitidote to big-budget Bondage..., 2009-11-21
Veteran Canadian movie producer Harry Saltzman ("The Iron Petticoat" & "Battle of Britain") teams with Canadian journeyman director Sidney J. Furie ("The Jazz Singer" & "Superman IV") for this adaptation of the Len Deighton spy novel of the same name as a BAFTA winning down-beat alternative to his own Bond series.

British movie star Michael Caine is at the top of his game as the now legendary Harry Palmer whilst Nigel Green reunited with his "Zulu" co-star, allbeit with their roles now reversed, at the head of a powerful supporting cast that includes Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd and an star turn from Gordon Jackson.

The filmmakers had a tempestious relationship throughout production starting with Furie setting fire to the script on the first day of filming to Saltzman banning Furie from the editing room and stealing the BAFTA but this translates onto screen as a powerfully edgy and disconcerting piece of film.

Tell me who wins.

The classic espionage thriller, 2009-12-02
The other reviewers have done a great job with this. It is a classic espionage thriller and a period piece featuring Michael Caine at his best. Must see movie.

an all-time classic, 2009-11-17
having read the book while still at school, i saw this film when it was first released (even though i must have been under-age). i absolutely loved it. 40 years later, when i eventually acquired a dvd player, it was one of the very first dvds i bought. would i still like it, though? so many other films, that i had first seen as a child, looked so much different when viewed as an adult, some disappointingly so. would this be yet another? no way! this is an all-time classic film, with superb acting and a wonderful, atmospheric score, and it still does the magic for me. there are very few films that i can watch more than a few times and still enjoy them : the ipcress file is definitely one of them.

A classic, only slightly disappointing, 2009-05-25
Ipcress starts so well: quick start, mystery plot, good actors, great John Barry score, nice pictures of 1960's London, interesting characters... Too bad the end does not keep up with the rest of the movie: the tacky science-fiction effects and slower pace of the last 25 minutes spoil what could have been a really great movie.
Yet, if only thanks to the above-mentioned elements, this remains a very enjoyable movie, with a strong 1960s flavor.

Together with Funeral in Berlin, this is one of the best 2 movies of the Harry Palmer series.