The Ipcress File (film)

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The IPCRESS File

original movie poster
Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Produced by Harry Saltzman
Written by Len Deighton (novel)
Bill Canaway
James Doran
Starring Michael Caine
Nigel Green
Guy Doleman
Sue Lloyd
Gordon Jackson
Music by John Barry
Release date(s) Flag of the United Kingdom 1965
Flag of the United States 2 August 1965
Running time 109 min
IMDb profile

The Ipcress File is a 1965 film adaptation of Len Deighton's novel the The IPCRESS File.

The protagonist of Deighton's novel was nameless, but the film gives him the name "Harry Palmer". The name was partly inspired by a line from Chapter 5 of the novel: "my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been".

Contents

A number of leading Western scientists have been kidnapped only to reappear a few days later. Unfortunately, each scientist has been brain washed and is now completely useless.

Harry Palmer is a sergeant in the British Army who was court-martialed for running a black market ring in Berlin. He was given the choice of either going to prison or becoming a spy and chose the latter. Assigned to the case, Palmer soon finds himself getting involved in inter-departmental rivalry and at odds with the Americans. He soon comes to realise that he was been chosen because he is expendable.

During the investigation a tape turns up with the word 'Ipcress' written on it. Despite his truculence Palmer does get results, and he is soon in contact with the man who could be behind the operation.

The film was intended as a less extravagant alternative to the James Bond films popular at that time, seeking to keep closer to the spirit of the novel's character and more in the mold of Dr. No and From Russia with Love rather than later Bond extravaganzas. In this respect, it is a something of a tribute to the complexity and flexibility of the mind of Harry Saltzman, who was an acknowledged master of proposing "bigger and more extravagant ideas" for Bond films according to the MGM Home Entertainment documentary "Harry Saltzman SHOWMAN". Four prominent members of the production team — producer Harry Saltzman, film editor Peter Hunt, composer John Barry and production designer Ken Adam — also worked on the James Bond film series, and projects like this ultimately lead to Saltzman's departure from Eon Productions and his sale of Danjaq, LLC to United Artists in 1975.

The film had two immediate sequels: Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). Decades later, Michael Caine returned his Harry Palmer character in Harry Alan Towers' Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in St. Petersburg (1996).

Writers Bill Canaway and James Doran received a 1966 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Foreign Film Screenplay.

The film won the Bafta for Best British Film and Ken Adam won the Bafta for 'Best British Art Direction, Colour'.[1]

In the kitchen when Palmer (Michael Caine) cooks for Courtenay (Sue Lloyd), there is a newspaper cutting pinned up. It is a Cookstrip – one of a series of strip cartoon-style recipes that IPCRESS author Len Deighton contributed to London's The Observer during the early- to mid-1960s.[2] A collection of the strips was published in the UK in 1965 as Len Deighton's Action Cook Book,[3] and in 1966 in the US as the Cookstrip Cook Book.[4]

Nigel Green and Michael Caine appeared in a number of films and TV episodes together, including Zulu and Play Dirty. Zulu had been Caine's big break and he had been cast-against-type as an aristocratic Lieutenant, while Green had been his Colour Sergeant. In this film it was Green who is a Major to Caine's cockney Sergeant.

  1. ^ http://www.filmdesigners.co.uk/help.php?section=awards
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059319/trivia
  3. ^ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/len-deighton/action-cook-book.htm
  4. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Cookstrip-cook-book-Len-Deighton/dp/B0007ELS8M

Preceded by
Dr Strangelove		 BAFTA Award for Best British Film
1965		 Succeeded by
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ipcress_File_%28film%29"
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