The Thaw of April

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)
directed by Martin Ritt
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

And here it is, the inadvertent impetus for so much grousing about dismal, dreary British stars. Criterion's least explicable re-release is just the sort of cutthroat, dour, and somber spy picture you're not even sure you want to watch until you settle nicely into the precise but leisurely searchlight sweep of a cool-to-the-touch, technically proficient thriller. I'm amazed that it ends with such a wallowing gesture of sentimentality, but until that final moment the double-crosses and double scotches inside West Berlin checkpoint guardhouses make good on their promise to expose the anti-Bond at the heart of MI6. Say what you will about James, but he was described from the start by Ian Fleming as "rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way," and I for one would rather be serenaded by the guy who played characters with names like Cricket, Celestial O'Brien, and Hi Linnet (his first three roles!) than Hamlet and Antony together.



Hi Linnet trades for a musical instrument.