The Harry Palmer Trio!

"The Harry Palmer Trio" sounds like a late 1950's jazz act, but in actuality I'm referring to three movies featuring a character named Harry Palmer who was played with quite bit of verve and finesse by the great Michael Caine. The first of these of course is the outstanding movie The Ipcress Files. The 1965 movie was based on the 1962 Len Deighton novel of the same name. What Deighton didn't name was the protagonist, and that was left to Caine and others to concoct. This is not a suave spy like James Bond, but an everyman's spy who shows up for work to do his spying, but with scuds of paperwork. 

The Ipcress File is a clever movie cleverly shot. We are often given bug's eye views of the action and the director even made a thing of obscuring the action. Actually, the technology of "Techniscope" was difficult and lead to the camera man making some odd choices. This is a classic Cold War yarn with kidnapped scientists and bizarre clues and duplicitous allies. Nigel Green is outstanding in the movie and a visual equal to the impressive Caine. I'm very hesitant to discuss it too much so as not to spoil one of my favorite movies for anyone who decides to give it a glimpse. I certainly recommend it. 

The success of The Ipcress Files prompted a sequel, but with a change of director, the oddball characteristics which made the first one so different vanish Funeral in Berlin. That said, this is still a pretty nice tale with Harry heading to Berlin to oversee the defection of a seemingly disaffected military man played with enthusiasm by Oscar Homolka. It was interesting to be reminded of those days when there were two Germanys and life was exceedingly different depending on which side of the wall you happened to be on. 

Billion Dollar Brain is something else again. The fragments of what made a Harry Palmer movie click disappear in this wild fantasy about a mad billionaire who decides to use his personal army to help knock over the Soviets after setting loose a virus to rouse the populace in anger. Directed by Ken Russell, the only thing connecting this one to the earlier films are Harry's specs. (And even they vanish from time to time.)  This one is only for completists like me. 

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The Harry Palmer File!

I don't remember when I first happened to see The IPCRESS File, but I do know I thoroughly enjoyed it. The 1965 movie is an adaptation of a novel by the same name by Len Deighton and is espionage with a bit more reality and tooth than was perhaps found in the on-screen adventures of James Bond, Derek Flint and other super-spies. Harry Palmer is no "super-spy", that's for sure. As played by Michael Caine, Harry Palmer (a named derived apparently as sounding like the least impressive possible) is very much a near-sighted man with feet of clay who chases women and seems constantly to be trying to find ways to slip out of his responsibilities at work. He's a guy who was a minor criminal in the army who serves in MI-5 as opposed to going to jail. He is, to put it mildly, a small-time scoundrel.

The story of this movie concerns missing scientists who seem to be part of a foreign scheme to drain the smarts out of the West. Palmer gets involved in a small outfit looking into the latest disappearance and using some techniques not quite approved by his immediate superiors makes surprising headway. There is death and some small-time mayhem in this sometimes gritty adventure, but by and large we have a low-key smart little glimpse of spies and spying and the common dreariness which just might be a significant part of the whole shebang.

The first Harry Palmer movie was pretty successful and the next year of 1966 was followed by a sequel title Funeral in Berlin. In this one Harry is dispatched to the divided city of Berlin to help in the defection of a Soviet official. This story quickly (to my eye) becomes mildly incoherent as the action (such as it is) tumbles onto the screen. Even when the sundry behaviors were sort of explained at the end, I'm not sure I understood it. I need to see it again perhaps, but it was so dull the first time, I rather doubt that will happen.

By the time of the third Michael Caine in 1967 the hard-bitten core of the debut was all but gone in a spy romp that abandons the minor tropes which made Palmer so compelling, even his signature glasses seem to go missing for extended periods of time. Billion Dollar Brain is a movie which could've been populated by pretty much any super spy of the era and for all its bombast falls flat fairly quickly. It makes more sense than its immediate predecessor but is much less satisfying as a film experience.

I always wondered why The IPCRESS File played TV so often (relatively speaking) while the sequels never did. Now I know, they sorta' suck.

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Handmade Movies Redux - The Hand!

How I've remained in the dark about this 1981 movie all these years is beyond me, but I had no inkling (or fogotten any inkling I might once have had) that Michael Caine had made a movie called The Hand about a comic artist who loses his hand and becomes a bit unglued about it all. Russ pointed me in the direction of his flick in a comment on the series of movies I reviewed last week which to varying degrees adapted "The Hand of Orlac". Though I've not seen The Hand, from this trailer it appears that it too goes into that territory.

Of particular interest to comic book fans is that Barry Windsor-Smith, famous for his lush and detailed renderings of Conan the Barbarian among others did some artwork specifically for this movie to pass as the work of Caine's character. See the beautiful example above and for more go here and here too.

I really need to watch The Hand. Thanks Russ.

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Get Carter - The Movies!

Get Carter starring Michael Caine is one of those two-fisted gangster flicks I'd read about for years before I was at last able to see it for the first time a few years ago. It lived up to its billing and I was eager to see it again when it recently played on TCM again, which it does from time to time. The movie is based on a 1969 novel by Ted Lewis titled Jack Returns Home. I've not read this novel, but I certainly need to do so. The movie adaptation came quickly in 1971 giving the whole thing a very contemporaneous feel.

The story is at once simple and complicated. Jack Carter, a cold-blooded enforcer for some high-profile and influential gangsters returns to his Newcastle home when he learns of the sudden death of his estranged brother from a suspicious car accident. He does so despite his bosses distinct desire he not do it, but as is demonstrated repeatedly during the story, Carter doesn't seem to give a damn what anyone else thinks.

We are quickly introduced to an exceedingly seamy British society full of poverty and desperate crime and some few reaping benefit fro same. Using some strong locations and legit local extras, the atmosphere in this movie is lush and involving, allowing the cold-eyed Carter to slither about in his sharp-lookng suits like a shark hunting his prey, the men and women he imagines murdered his brother. He meets his niece, who the story suggests might be more than that, and in their relationship is the only glimmer of humanity we glimpse from the bloody gangster. Slowly he peels back the scheme, finding all manner of folks trying to get him off the case either by sexual distraction or by brutal violence. Often we don't really know what he's up to, but he seems ever to be on a track which he follows relentlessly throughout the movie to its rough and tough conclusion.

Michael Caine is magnificent in the role of "Jack Carter". He plays Carter with barely a glimmer of romanticism, presenting instead a brutal man who kills in an efficient and clinical manner. Fueled by a rage, that anger rarely leaks out, but remains contained in the urbane, even at times sarcastic facade the character lurks behind waiting for his moments to strike. When he does it is with a workmanlike nonchalance which makes the horrific deeds even more terrible.

The end of the movie is at once a great surprise, but also completely understandable given the nature of the story to that point.

Get Carter was remade in 2000 and this American version stars an aging Sly Stallone in the lead role. It's inferior to the original in almost every way imaginable. For starters, Stallone is not nearly strong enough as an actor to recreate the cold-hearted hitman of the original. He plays Carter as a brutal man, but there are many moments in the movie which give him opportunity to reveal his softer core.

This movie wants us to like its lead, where as the original never cared for that approach at all. Watching both versions in close proximity I found parallels I'd missed before, but despite the similar stories, the Stallone effort is deficient because it decides it likes being an action movie more than a tough-as-nails crime drama. The characters become parodies of types who show up in these kinds of stories and not vivid distinctive characters of their own.

The film-making is hyperbolic too, using oddball editing to suggest interior emotions since by and large the cast is not up to the task or are not allowed to display it. Michael Caine does show up in this movie in a supporting role and his brief time on screen only points up the weakness of the other performances.

There is apparently a third adaptation of the Lewis novel, a 1972 "blaxploitation" version called Hit Man. I've never seen it, but reports are not good. I'd like to get a look and make my own judgment, but suffice it to say it will likely not top the original, one of the most ruthless movies I've seen in many years.

I highly recommend the 1971 original with Caine, the 2000 rendition with Stallone you watch at your own peril.

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