Editorial Review:

Product Description:
A cynical british spy plays cold war games with an east german spy. From the john le carre novel. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/11/2006 Starring: Richard Burton Oscar Werner Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Martin Ritt

Amazon.com:
John le Carre's classic spy yarn gets a suitably brisk, unromanticized telling in this quintessential Cold War movie. A British agent (Richard Burton) sets up an elaborate cover story for being lured into defecting to the Communists, but he hardly needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy. Claire Bloom is an offbeat love interest, and a bearded Oskar Werner is an East German investigator on Burton's case (the pecking order in the Communist spy hierarchy is a source of black humor). Director Martin Ritt extends his unvarnished approach to the movie's stripped-down look, which means that Richard Burton is constantly in a harsh, unflattering light. He looks terrible, but it's in the service of a fine performance. --Robert Horton









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Rating: - The Cold War is Chilly
This is the classic John LeCarre thriller. I read it in college and was so moved by it, I never forgot the feel even as I forgot the story. The movie is no less important. Richard Burton plays a spy whose life is cold, unfeeling and distant. How could it be otherwise when you are trying to maintain a lifestyle that is inherently false? He falls in love with a woman and begins to loosen up and think more about a life that he has lost. The ending is a heartbreaker. A very realistic sad film by Martin Ritt and Richard Burton is perfect in his role as George Smiley.

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Rating: - Classic cold-war thriller
Classic cold-war thriller that portrays the sacrifice of the individual for the good of the state. The Richard Burton character is involved in a mission to frame an opposite spy and in the end finds himself also expendable to that same cause. Rich undertones of the cold war chill and it's cost. Very well done and an excellent choice in Mr. Burton for this intense ambiguous role.

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Rating: - Superb adaptation
Having read the novel by LeCarre, I can't imagine anyone but Richard Burton as the burnt-out false defector Alec Leamas. The black-and-white of this film underscores the shades of gray in the moral no-man's-land in which Leamas takes on the most difficult, most insidious assignment of his trying career as a spy. The jacket of this edition of the film says "forget James Bond," a very apt line for what's inside. This film is made with raw, real suspense, fine acting, and excellent cinematography. There are no "super-spies," no gadgets, no kung-fu stunts, only the subtleties of people keeping secrets upon secrets. If you want to be cheered or excited, this is not your stop. But if you want to see brilliant work in film, check this one out.

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Rating: - grim story accurately portrayed
This is an adaptation of the first popular novel by John le Carre (David Cornwell) who served in MI6 just after WWII. If you are easily depressed avoid this one. Otherwise it is close to the things that actually happened in that time frame.

The woman judge is modeled after a real person. She was from the German Aristocracy and was an opportunist who embraced the communist cause for what she could get from it. In stark contrast, her brother aided MI6 in WWII by being the source of the Oslo Report about German technological develoments.

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Rating: - 5 stars for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
This movie makes you feel like you are back in the cold war era. The main character's life and job are nothinglike James Bond or other fictional glamorous spies. This is a real person, flaws and all, struggling to do his very best to fight for what he believes in. And Richard Burton plays this character perferctly. It shows the changes he goes thru and the how forces he can't see or control affect his life. I highly recommend this movie for someone who wants to experience the cold war instead of a lot of special effects and car crashes.