The Looking Glass War

A uniformed boarder guard actually says "Your papers please!" in this drab adaptation of John Le Carre's novel (with Bergmanesque visuals from cameraman Austin Dempster).

First-time director Frank R. Pierson had recently received two Oscar nominations as a scriptwriter when Columbia gambled upon his ability to direct a feature film. Columbia lost, it went out on the graveyard shift in February and Pierson went back to TV for several more years.

Both leads were blessed with sullen good looks but not the ability to speak English and soon disappeared. Fortunately they're backed by a fine line-up of British acting talent who are the ones who make the film worth watching. (As in the earlier Le Carre adaptation 'The Deadly Affair' time is devoted to the unhappy home lives of the minders; and again it's not a pretty sight.)

Christoper Jones does a great job. And with Ralph Richardson and Sir Tony Hopkins in support you have to have a real experience. Maybe some people weren't happy that Jones wasn't James Bond. I don't think he was ever meant to be. This is an entirely different protagonist...much more realistic and human. Even with the "correct papers" you were guilty until proven innocent once you entered the Soviet Bloc. The danger he faces was as great as any 007. And he does so without the weapons that J. Bond was provided with. Like Bond, a seemingly impossible mission. But with none of the "Tier One" hardware that Bond ever had. Just a man...no super powers...not even a pistol. This "unfair" powers of force provides a deeper and more subtle level of suspense and tension. He can't survive can he? Can he complete his mission? So I don't spoil it for you I won't go on. Let me say this is one of the best Cold War spy movies I've seen and Jones deserves a great deal of credit. Enjoy.

He was an inexperienced man clutched out of crises and thrown into an impossible situation. I think he pulls this off quite well. Very few remember;e the danger and suspense of penetrating East Germany. The constant striving to be free against the murderous boot of the Stasi.

Made in 1969 this adaptation of a Le Carré novel isn't faithful to every element of the original book, and is heavily influenced by other contemporary films.

This means it isn't quite as uniformly bleak as many other Le Carré adaptations but depending on how you take it, it is perhaps hard to really believe in or sympathise with any of the characters. This is despite some pretty good performances by some of the lead actors.

What is perhaps missing is the clever editing, taut direction and sheer screen presence that (say) Michael Caine brings to the Harry Palmer movies (even though the plots of those are not exactly uniformly brilliant) or Richard Burton brings to "the spy who came in from the cold". Those movies stand head and shoulders above this.

Technically this film is well-photographed and the dubbing is well done too; however it is perhaps understandable if the pace of the film wanders, given that it looks a lot like they decided to shoehorn various sequences into the plot purely for stylistic reasons.

Some of the criticisms in the other reviews here are spot on and others are (IMHO) thoroughly misplaced; no spoilers here so you will have to work out which for yourself. I guess it is a bit of a curate's egg, this; "good in parts". Therefore if you approach it with suitable expectations you will probably find enough things about this movie to like to make it worth watching.

Overall this film probably isn't as bad as the knockers would lead you to suppose and nor is it as good as the 'ten' folk make out either. It is certainly an interesting period piece but it is also a little more than that too, so it gets 6/10 from me.

A disappointing adaptation of a good book, with a key aspect of the latter (inter-departmental rivalry) being omitted. I located an on-line copy after the usual frustrations of working through links to Youtube that led to short clips, paid subscription copies and so on.

With several jumps in the plot, I did wonder if the version I saw had been hacked around, but it was the 108 minutes stated here on IMDb. Christopher Jones was unconvincing and uninspiring as Leiser, his fight with Avery a prolonged interpolation and his scrabbling around to get under the wire in the dark protracted. And how lucky he was to come across an attractive girl and child (what happened to him?) in the middle of nowhere - and to bump into her again in a cafe.

The best things were the wide, open European spaces and Anthony Hopkins' acting

Most of the reviews I have given are of films that I saw at the cinema upon its release and have then recently watched again. However, THE LOOKING GLASS WAR is a movie that I never got around to watching at the pictures, therefore, I decided to shell out 3 pounds and buy the DVD. I must say that I am glad I did as I quite enjoyed it. A young Christopher Jones plays a Polish seaman who is recruited by British Intelligence to go into East Germany to check out some missiles in return for being given leave to stay in the UK. The acting was better than I thought it would be and the storyline was OK. I liked the jazzy soundtrack as well. Not a bad film at all and worth the 3 quid I paid.