The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)

A burnt out British M16 agent (Richard Burton in an Oscar nominated performance) is assigned the task of defecting to East Germany with the aim of throwing suspicion on a top communist intelligence officer (Oskar Werner). Based on the novel by John Le Carre and directed by Martin Ritt (THE LONG HOT SUMMER). With the James Bond films, the 1960s ushered in the era of spy movies with exotic locations, beautiful women and plenty of action. But there was a sort of backlash to these glamourous spy movies with bleak films showing the grimy more realistic and often unpleasant side of spy work. THE IPCRESS FILE was one and so was this stark B&W spy movie. The three lead performances (Claire Bloom as a naive communist librarian is the third star) are pure gold. It's not an easy watch as you sense that things aren't going to end well and if there's any flaw in the movie, it's that I wish its obvious desolate ending weren't telegraphed. With Peter Van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern and George Voskovec.