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The IPCRESS File
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The IPCRESS File was the first spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962.
It was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman and directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.
The plot involves mind control: the acronym IPCRESS stands for "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under strESS". The novel also includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a US atomic bomb test, as well as information about Joe One, although these elements were not in the film version.
Deighton's protagonist, as in all sequels, is nameless. He works for some secret agency of the government, but has a great deal of autonomy. He is quite paranoid about his situation. He keeps an "escape package" containing money, a false passport and other documents, circulating in the mail. Once a week he picks up the package from an accommodation address, a seedy London shop, and re-mails it to that address in a fresh envelope.
He is also a gourmet who enjoys good food. Cooking features a lot in both the film and the novel versions this story. Deighton himself is a keen cook.
In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In The IPCRESS File these take the form of each chapter being headed with a quote from a horoscope, which relates to the action in the chapter, though vaguely, as in most horoscopes.
A film adaptation starring Michael Caine was released in 1965.