rodrig58 Michael Caine, Nigel Green and Guy Doleman, all three, have their own charm. The movie is not bad but it's boring and hard to digest. Sue Lloyd is a very enjoyable presence. The story is interesting, but it does not matter. I would make a great parody from a few scenes in the movie. John Barry's music is super cool, heavily heightens the value of the movie.

elvircorhodzic THE IPCRESS FILE is a spy thriller film about a realistic mysterious game that takes place between hatred and fearlessness. It is based on the 1962 Len Deighton's novel of the same name. The set is placed in an authentic London scenery which, together with an official grayness, fully corresponds to a double espionage conspiracy.A top scientist is kidnapped and his security escort killed. Harry Palmer, a British Army sergeant with a criminal past, has no real love of espionage, but he doesn't really know any other life. His boss, Colonel Ross, suspects that a scientist disappearance is connected to a plot: sixteen top British scientists have inexplicably left their jobs at the peak of their careers. Palmer is transferred to a section of the organization headed by Major Dalby. With studied insolence, Palmer takes on the case of locating missing scientist, who has in his possession a valuable file that would prove injurious to the Free World should it fall in the wrong hands...A conspiracy theory and threat are closely linked to a scientific achievement, which quite reminiscent of the films about the secret agent 007. The link between efficiency and sarcasm has become a trademark of the British Secret Service. At least on film. The pace is a bit slow, the plot is unclear, but the denouement is perfectly fluid and exciting.Characterization is very good and fully corresponds to a tense atmosphere.Michael Caine as Harry Palmer is an insubordinate agent, who loves to cook, read and love a nice widow, while, through his glasses, exhibits a strange magnetism. Mr. Caine has offered a solid performance.Guy Doleman as Colonel Ross is quite unconvincing as Palmer superior. Nigel Green as Major Dalby is, despite his mischievous mustache, strict attitude and cynical reflections, convincing character. Frank Gatliff as Eric Grantby (Bluejay) is an evil external player with lovely face. Sue Lloyd as Jean Courtney is too nice protector for an agent.A modest and unobtrusive film, which includes a double deception and a quite interesting experiment.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Known as the thinking man's "James Bond" movie has the just released from the brig for stealing booze out of the local army PX former UK Army Sgt. Harry Palmer, Michael Caine, who's recruited by his boss Colonel Ross, Guy Doleman,to find out what's been happening to a number of NATO scientists. It's these brilliant men who suddenly lost their memories as well as minds taking what ever information that they had in scientific as well as military research down the memory hole together with them.Palmer a master cook, he learned that wile doing KP in the British Army, and food & wine expert is told by his bosses in British intelligence to go undercover and find out what happened to the scientists in there suddenly losing their minds. That's in order to keep Plamer's handlers' hands from getting dirty or being , like Palmer, exposed and possibly assented. Palmer does crack the case he's on by deciphering this so-called "Ipcress File" that involves brainwashing the top western scientists and making them useless in their ability to think straight. Palmer himself is later kidnapped and tortured by the master mind of this weird operation communist Albanian Eric Ashly Grantby-Code name "Bluejay"-who uses torture to make Palmer forget who he is and who he's working for. "Bluejay" is planning to turn him into a helpless zombie as well as mind controlled assassin for, I suppose, the Soviet Union's KGB.***SPOILERS***Dark and stark looking film with a minimum of light-even in total daylight-"The Ipcress File" was soon to become the standard intelligent spy film that all others following it are to be compared to. It shows just how dangerous the spy game really is unlike the many "James Bond" real or imitated movies where in it our hero Harry Plamer is just a regular guy or just plain Joe not a superman without all kinds of gadgets to get him out of danger as well as beautiful women in every scene that he's in. It also has the villains in the film being not as powerful as in the "Bond" movies and not running an entire shadowy and secret organization that Palmer is confronted with that makes the movie a lot more believable.

AMar_rom This is a well-made gritty spy film set during the cold war years of the 60's.Michael Caine is Harry Palmer, an undercover British agent who we see initially to perform routine surveillance on suspected enemy agents from an apartment in London. This everyday routine is interrupted when his boss gives him a different assignment: to follow the whereabouts of enemy agents involved in the kidnapping of British scientists and theft of sensitive documents related to nuclear arms. The case is more difficult than usual since the British agents have reasons to believe that one of their own works for the enemy.What makes this film different from the films of the Jame-Bond 007 series is that it portrays a different and more realistic life of intelligence agents that is not glamorized or romanticized. Instead their lives can be more boring but also more deadly at the same time whereby little details can make the difference between life or death especially if the enemy may anticipate your moves.Eventually Palmer manages to resolve the case he works on (and also stay alive) not because he has the best weaponry or the best information but simply because he follows his instincts.I recommend this film if you are looking for a good mystery and intense thriller. It may have a bit outdated feel now since the cold war is over but do not let this deter you from seeing the good film that it is. An 8/10 from me. Note: This is the first film where Michael Caine portrays the 'Harry Palmer' fictional character.