Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 10 wins & 5 nominations total
- Hans-Dieter Mundt
- (as Peter Van Eyck)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter Richard Burton became a superstar, he insisted on casting his friends from his days at the Old Vic and West End (London's equivalent to New York City's Broadway). Friends of Burton's cast in this movie included Michael Hordern and Robert Hardy. Burton's former leading lady (on-stage and in two movies) Claire Bloom, however, was cast by Martin Ritt. This caused friction for several reasons: Burton had wanted his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, in the role, and he and Bloom had been an item in the 1950s. John le Carré remembers that "off-screen Bloom preserved a dignified distance in her caravan".
- GoofsAt the beginning of the film they say that Leamas has been waiting for days for the arrival of Riemeck. This behavior doesn't make sense, as it gives away the arrival of a defector to the opposing side.
- Quotes
Alec Leamas: It was a foul, foul operation, but it paid off.
Nan Perry: Who for?
Alec Leamas: What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong? Yesterday I would have killed Mundt because I thought him evil and an enemy. But not today. Today he is evil and my friend. London needs him. They need him so that the great, moronic masses you admire so much can sleep soundly in their flea-bitten beds again. They need him for the safety of ordinary, crummy people like you and me...
Nan Perry: You killed Fiedler!
Alec Leamas: How big does a cause have to be before you kill your friends? What about your Party? There's a few million bodies on that path!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Great Performances: Richard Burton: In from the Cold (1988)
They always said real spies were less James Bond and more Alec Leamas.
Middle aged, bitter, alone, likely to be divorced, drink too much, politically slightly left of centre.
John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is noted for maybe showing the true face of spycraft.
On the fringes it has characters like George Smiley. As it goes on, the only person in control is Control. His talk to Leamas about the dirty things the spy services have to do. It is not small talk. It is the literal truth.
Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) messes up an operation in Berlin and is recalled to Britain.
He has been given a new assignment. Leamas has to pretend to have been thrown out by the security services.
It is a ruse for Leamas to come into the attention of British communists and East German intelligence. Be seen as a potential defector.
Leamas is meant to bring down an East German high ranking intelligence officer named Mundt. Leamas finds himself deep of a complex and messy espionage game.
American director Martin Ritt seems to be at ease with such complex material. He makes sure to include a pivotal scene where an important plot point is explained. So many times, espionage films want to leave it dense.
Ritt was left wing and a victim of the McCarthyite witch hunts. Maybe that explained why he was able to identify with an outsider like Leamas and the complex manoeuvrings of the intelligence agencies.
As for Burton, he was already halfway there as the self loathing alcoholic Leamas. The rest was courtesy of a good script and his acting ability.
- Prismark10
- Feb 24, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- John le Carré's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
- Filming locations
- Smithfield Market, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland(Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin - opening scene: Leamas waits for the agent to come through the border from East Germany)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $342
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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