The Deadly Affair (1966)

After investigating an agent of the Foreign Office on past communist affiliations and clearing him, a secret agent (James Mason) learns that the man has committed suicide. But when the government dissuades him from investigating further, he suspects it may have been murder. Based on the novel CALL FOR THE DEAD by John Le Carre and directed by Sidney Lumet (NETWORK). John Le Carre was the anti-Ian Fleming. His spy novels (and the films made from them) detail the dull meticulousness of espionage rather than the fanciful excitement of the Fleming spy novels. The film is based on one of Le Carre's George Smilely books though, like the novel's title, the character is give a different name. I'm not a Sidney Lumet fan but he seems the perfect choice for such a slow, dry film with only Quincy Jones's light jazz score to soften the aridity. The film is unnecessarily cluttered by scenes on Mason's domestic strife with his nymphomaniac wife (Harriet Andersson, CRIES AND WHISPERS) which only peripherally adds to the plot. As an antidote to James Bond though, it's actually not bad at all. With Simone Signoret, Maximilian Schell, Lynn Redgrave, Harry Andrews, Kenneth Haigh and Roy Kinnear.