sandbaggers: Re: Harry Palmer

Re: Harry Palmer

Philip H. J. Davies (P.H.J.Davies@reading.ac.uk)
Mon, 22 Jan 1996 11:12:21 +0000 (GMT)

On Mon, 22 Jan 1996 jpotapof@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Anton Sherwood wrote:
>
> > Ken Crist wrote a while ago:
> > : Deighton also wrote the Harry Palmer books, which were made into
> > : films in the 1960s (I think) starring Michael Caine. ...
> >
> > I've seen "The Ipcress File" on AMC; what are the others?
>
> Funeral in Berlin, and The Million Dollar Brain were the other Palmer
> movies.

Actually, the third Harry Palmer film was the *B*illion Dollar Brain,
based on what was the fourth of Deighton's loosely connected spy novels
(_Horse Under Water_ was Deighton's second novel and not made into a
film). Michael Caine is currently working on a fourth Harry Palmer film,
not based on a Deighton novel, in which reportedly Palmer has been
pensioned off by Ross & Intelligence and is contracted by Russian
interests to deal with their 'mafiya' problems.

To be honest, while _Ipcress File_ has what I think is the best '60s
spy movie music ever (by John Barry, who also did the vast majority
of the Bonds, mostly, sad to say, rather indifferently after Diamonds are
Forever) I was never able to buy into the story's plot. There has never
been a trade in purloined scientists, even during the frostiest days of
the Cold War (ahem, *first* Cold War, if you ask me). The nearest
approximate I can think of was the East German SSD grabbing people across
the Berlin frontier like BfV head Otto John in the sixties and a leading
lawyer around 1970 or so, but that was a very special situation.

Personally, I like Funeral in Berlin, which is far more stylish, has a
wittier script (_Funeral in Berlin_ is also my favourite of Deighton's
novels although again the plot, by Deighton's own admission, is weak) and
is more of an actual *spy* story.

Allahu akbar.

Phil