spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,519
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 3, 2023 3:16:09 GMT
What are some of your favorite films about spies and spying - in war or out? And why do you like them?
I'll start with a few of my favorites.
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965) - for me, one of the best films about espionage in the Cold War, based upon John LeCarre's novel. Love Richard Burton's performance and Martin Ritt's direction.
Foreign Correspondent (1940) - a Hitchcock film about a news reporter played by Joel MacRae caught up in the world of Nazi spies in Europe, made before America was in World War II. Very entertaining and suspense filled, but it also captures the reality of what Europe was enduring at that time, especially in the powerful final scene.
Saboteur (1942) - another Hitchcock favorite in which Robert Cummings is pursued by and pursues spies in America after the U.S. is in the war. It has one of the most suspense-filled and cinematically brilliant endings of any Hitchcock film.
I'll stop with those for now.
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Post by mattgarth on Mar 3, 2023 4:12:01 GMT
Five Fingers -- James Mason Bridge of Spies -- Mark Rylance Mata Hari -- Greta Garbo The Counterfeit Traitor -- William Holden Notorious -- Ingrid Bergman
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Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 3, 2023 5:00:29 GMT
Spione, Spies, (1928) Classic German silent espionage fim directed by Fritz Lang. Fear, power and paranoia, international conspiracy and intrigue a dynamic highly entertaining spy thriller...
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 3, 2023 6:49:12 GMT
THE KREMLIN LETTER 1970 - I really like this one. It has a great cast and a serious tone but some humor.
Richard Boone is so great in this as the wiser older spy who speaks with a folksy Okie(?) accent as he gives new recruit Patrick O'Neill a crash course in spying. The way he so casually threatens or kills people with an upbeat friendly attitude is something to behold.
"She can still be saved if only you'll agree. But if you don't agree, we'll turn her into the most perverted human being our minds can conceive. And when we're finished with her we'll start on your other daughter and your wife."
"Buck up nephew, buck up! We still got the Grand Mute, the receiving set, and me!"
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Post by Old Aussie on Mar 3, 2023 10:10:07 GMT
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,519
Likes: 9,318
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 3, 2023 12:42:12 GMT
Five Fingers -- James Mason Bridge of Spies -- Mark Rylance Mata Hari -- Greta Garbo The Counterfeit Traitor -- William Holden Notorious -- Ingrid Bergman Oddly, I haven't seen most of those (how can that be?). But without question NOTORIOUS is not only one of my favorite spy films, it's one of my favorite films, period.
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,519
Likes: 9,318
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 3, 2023 12:52:44 GMT
THE KREMLIN LETTER 1970 - I really like this one. It has a great cast and a serious tone but some humor. Richard Boone is so great in this as the wiser older spy who speaks with a folksy Okie(?) accent as he gives new recruit Patrick O'Neill a crash course in spying. The way he so casually threatens or kills people with an upbeat friendly attitude is something to behold. "She can still be saved if only you'll agree. But if you don't agree, we'll turn her into the most perverted human being our minds can conceive. And when we're finished with her we'll start on your other daughter and your wife." "Buck up nephew, buck up! We still got the Grand Mute, the receiving set, and me!" Yet another one I haven't seen! Well, I'll add it to my list (which gets longer and longer as I get older and older). Thanks for the suggestion. And what a great cast!
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,519
Likes: 9,318
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 3, 2023 12:57:05 GMT
Fantastic interview, Pike. Thank you so much! One tends to forget the history behind LeCarre -- worthy of a movie unto itself. And I haven't seen THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD since it was released -- though I remember it vividly -- but watching this has made me want to see it again.
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Post by politicidal on Mar 3, 2023 13:04:18 GMT
Speaking of Hitchcock...an ordinary person caught up in espionage.
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 3, 2023 14:29:05 GMT
Five Fingers -- James Mason Bridge of Spies -- Mark Rylance Mata Hari -- Greta Garbo The Counterfeit Traitor -- William Holden Notorious -- Ingrid Bergman Oddly, I haven't seen most of those (how can that be?). But without question NOTORIOUS is not only one of my favorite spy films, it's one of my favorite films, period.Ditto!
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Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 4, 2023 22:00:14 GMT
Kuro no tesuto kâ, Black Test Car (1962) Japan Dir. Yasuzô Masumura Black Test Car, an excellent corporate espionage film-noir. Two rival Japanese car companies the Tiger Motorcar Company and their competitors, the Yamato Company rush to introduce the first sports car into Japan. In ruthless pursuit for dominance, undercover spies are active and have infiltrated both sides. After Tiger’s prototype bursts into flames, a secretive task force is established to flush out Yamato’s spy, and find out what they can about their competitor’s familiar-looking new model...
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Post by Power Ranger on Mar 4, 2023 22:24:03 GMT
The Osterman Weekend isn’t without it’s charm.
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Post by marshamae on Mar 4, 2023 22:52:17 GMT
THE KREMLIN LETTER 1970 - I really like this one. It has a great cast and a serious tone but some humor. Richard Boone is so great in this as the wiser older spy who speaks with a folksy Okie(?) accent as he gives new recruit Patrick O'Neill a crash course in spying. The way he so casually threatens or kills people with an upbeat friendly attitude is something to behold. "She can still be saved if only you'll agree. But if you don't agree, we'll turn her into the most perverted human being our minds can conceive. And when we're finished with her we'll start on your other daughter and your wife." "Buck up nephew, buck up! We still got the Grand Mute, the receiving set, and me!" Have not seen this one but I too love Richard Boone. As to the Oakie( or southern or middle American ) accent, here is a favorite scene from Mission Impossible in which Tom Cruise alludes to CIA agents as Virginia Farm boys. This might refer to the CIA HEADQUARTERS IN Langley, VA. But it is a fact that FBI and, perhaps to a lesser extent ,tend to be white middle Americans where patriotism is the norm. You would think that CIA Agents need linguistic and cultural competence in different countries, but I think there is a tendency to start with that very trustworthy background . I love Cruise and Redgrave in this scene, and the gorgeous apartment in Prague.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 6, 2023 0:16:37 GMT
Rikugun Nakano gakko, The School of Spies (1966) Japan Dir. Yasuzo MasumuraThe film setting takes place on the eve of the Pacific War. At this time severely underdeveloped was Japan's military intelligence. A small group of soldiers have been singled out from the ranks, elite soldiers they are both physically and mentally superior to their peers, essential attributes for the testing task ahead. The intense and rigorous training comes at a great personal cost, it is a huge demand and sacrifice to leave former lives and families, who must now be completely left to distant memories. Devoting themselves body and soul, the close-knit group endure a year of training in the art of espionage at the Nakano Spy School, not all the students make it through alive.... An outstanding psychological drama, with an insight into spy school training, the film is an absorbing thought-provoking cinematic story, from master filmmaker Yasuzo Masumura...
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Post by Rufus-T on Mar 6, 2023 6:21:25 GMT
No mention of Bond, James Bond yet?
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 6, 2023 6:35:58 GMT
I can't take James Bond seriously! The coochie-coochie element kills the movies for me--it is too jokey with the Bond girl stuff. If I had to choose I would pick Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the ones I liked best.
Sure I can watch it now and then--and there are other spy movies of the type I like--Deadlier Than the Male and Special Mission, Lady Chaplin, and some spoofs like The Spy With A Cold Nose (Lionel Jeffries is hilarious in it), but for a realistic spy movie, I prefer things like the Kremlin Letter. That's the best anti-Bond spy movie I have seen--since it is so nasty--with Nigel Green as a spy who uses prostitutes for the job (and has no qualms about getting them addicted to heroin for control purposes!), or George Sanders as a transvestite spy who knits socks for one of his marks! And that's in addition to Boone as Ward the psychotic master spy.
"So we head home with our tails between our legs."
"Nephew, there are worse things to have between your legs."
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Post by timshelboy on Mar 6, 2023 11:20:03 GMT
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Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 7, 2023 1:02:41 GMT
The Spy in Black aka. U-Boat 29 (1939) UK. Dir. Michael Powell. This gripping World War I espionage thriller was the first of the now famous collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Set on the Orkney Isles in 1917 the German's are planning to sink the British fleet . Submarine captain (Conrad Veidt) is given a mission to discover British intelligence secrets. Once he arrives in the Orkney Islands, he meets up with the local schoolteacher Jill Blacklock (Valerie Hobson), who happens to be a German agent Fräulein Tiel...
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Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 7, 2023 1:45:01 GMT
Konec agenta W4C, The End of Agent W4C (1967) Czechoslovakia. Dir. Václav Vorlíček. Up against an international spy network, superspy Agent W4C is sent to Prague to uncover a top secret microfilm hidden in a salt shaker. In true Czech style a madcap parody of spy film and in particular James Bond films....... Jan Kacer is Agent W4C
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Post by Archelaus on Mar 7, 2023 1:52:57 GMT
Notwithstanding some of the James Bond films, these are some of my favorite films about espionage: It's a fantastic Cold War spy thriller. I don't think nothing more needs to be said, but I deeply admired Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury's performances. Technically, The 39 Steps is the template from Alfred Hitchcock's other spy films were patterned after. Saboteur (1942) is often seen as an American remake of the film. The story is about as old as time: an innocent man is falsely accused of murder and goes on the run which leads him to the real culprits. Along the journey, the protagonist meets a gorgeous blonde woman and we discover the MacGuffin. There's a reason why Hitchcock often visited this throughout his career. It has the thrills, the chases, the locations, the humor, and the escapism, which are usually the hallmarks of a great Hitchcockian film. I don't remember too much from this film, but I remember liking it. It was a pleasant low-key spy thriller that very much contrasts with the James Bond films, which had become more epic in scale by 1965. The film even had the same personnel that worked on the Bond films including Peter Hunt as the editor, John Barry as the composer, and Harry Saltzman as the producer. Personally, this was a difficult film to understand as a viewer. It's due for a rewatch, but the gist of the story is a British intelligence agency locating a mole within its division. Don't expect spectacular action set-pieces, but I feel like it's the most realistic film about espionage. I do admire the ensemble cast and there are fine performances from Gary Oldman and John Hurt.
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