The Ipcress File (film)

The Ipcress File (film)

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The Ipcress File (film)

The Ipcress File is a 1965 film adaptation of Len Deighton's 1962 novel, The IPCRESS File.

The protagonist of Deighton's novel was nameless, but the film gives him the name "Harry Palmer". A line in Chapter 5 of the novel does have the nameless anti-hero remarking: "my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been".

Plot outline
Acceptance
Awards
Notes
Cast list
References
External links

Plot outline

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 has been chosen because he is expendable.

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

Acceptance

The film was intended as a less extravagant alternative to the James Bond films popular at that time. In contrast to Bond's public school background and playboy lifestyle, Palmer is a Cockney career soldier who lives in an East End flat and has to put up with red tape and inter-departmental rivalries. When appointed to a new post, one of his first questions is whether he will get a pay rise. (Bond's salary is hardly mentioned and he only goes to the best hotels, often using the Presidential suite.)

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 led 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 to his Harry Palmer character in Harry Alan Towers' Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in St. Petersburg (1996).

Awards

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]

Notes

In Palmer's (Michael Caine) kitchen there are a number of newspaper cuttings pinned to a column. They are Cookstrips - from a series of strip cartoon-style recipes that IPCRESS author Len Deighton, himself an accomplished cook, contributed to The Observer during the early- to mid-1960s. A collection of the strips was published in the UK in 1965 as Len Deighton's Action Cook Book,^[2] and in 1966 in the US as the Cookstrip Cook Book.^[3]. In the kitchen scene when Palmer first cooks for Courtney (Sue Lloyd), the close ups of Palmer's hands as he prepares various food items are actually the hands of author Len Deighton.

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.