The picture concerns the world of secrets agents and spies . Unexciting spy caper has a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence , as a British Service agent betraying his country in order to aid a woman and a friend . The high-command fears he may be the leak to Moscow, and schemes to stop the damage permanently . Then Security man Daintry is brought in to investigate. As a result of his actions an innocent man is condemned to a fatal fate . Things go wrong when the responsible person is discovered and is forced to defect . Every man in love is a potential traitor !.
This interesting but low-key movie is a cold thriller plenty of suspense , mystery , plot twists , tension and top cast . The prospect of Tom Stoppard rendition a Graham Greene novel promises more than movie really offers , though darkly ironic tale of Foreign Office treason still throws up delights and twisted surprises . The casting is first-rate with a top-notch star-studded , including script by prestigious Tom Stoppard , though results are average. As the bulk of the formidable cast is pleasantly familiar in this engaging if slow-moving drama , including the following ones : Richard Attenborough , John Gielgud , Derek Jacobi , Robert Morley, Ann Todd , Richard Vernon , Tony Vogel , Fiona Fullerton, Adrienne Corri , Martin Benson . And no fault of the always splendid Nicol Williamson as a British double agent who is forced to defect to Russia , though he's billed eight in order alphabetic , but quite clearly has the central part , and surprisingly the gorgeous model Iman , David Bowie's wife, resulting to be an acting discovery by providing an nice performance.
Based on the novel by Graham Greene , almost all of his novels and five plays -including "Brighton Rock", "The Ministry of Fear" and "The End of the Affair"- , have been brought to the screen. A superb storyteller, he also wrote the screenplays for such classics as The fallen idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949). The flick belongs to spies sub-genre developed during ¨Cold war¨ and its maxim representations are John LeCarre's novels rendered to cinema in movies as ¨The spy who came in from cold¨ (by Martin Ritt with Richard Burton) , ¨The Kremlin Letter¨(John Huston with Nigel Green) and ¨Russia House¨(Fred Schepisi with Sean Connery) , these films get similar atmosphere and twisted intrigues about spies among East and west World but with no relation to spies from James Bond novels by Ian Fleming . The motion picture was professionally directed by Otto Preminger. His direction tends to to lack passion , robbing what what should be a thrilling story of some of the human factor of the title . The great filmmaker Otto Preminger made several successful and classic movies , such as : ¨Fallen Angel , Daisy Kenyon, Forever amber , Whirlpool, Angel face, The moon is blue, Carmen Jones , Court martial of Billy Mitchell, The man with the golden arm , Saint Joan, Bonjour Tristesse , Exodus , The cardinal, Advise and consent, Hurry sundown , Bunny Lake is missing , In harm's way¨, and this ¨The human factor¨ : Preminger's final film . Rating 6/10 . Watchable spy drama , but neither extraordinary , nor notable , but acceptable and passable . The story will appeal to suspense movies fans and people with adquired tastes .
