The Deadly Affair (1967)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Deadly Affair (1967) – S. Lumet

Based on John Le Carré’s first novel, James Mason stars as George Smiley (renamed here Charles Dobbs, for copyright reasons), the Mi6 spy who is more bureaucrat than Bond. Although Alec Guinness later embodied the character in two TV miniseries, Mason is no slouch and more than holds his own, portraying Dobbs/Smiley as at the end of his tether, as his wife, Anne (Harriet Andersson, of Bergman fame), has been cheating on him. What’s more, a man he had just interviewed (who had been dubbed a communist in an anonymous letter) has gone and committed suicide – or has he? Smiley is not so sure and when his boss urges him to close the case, he chooses to resign and pursue the truth outside the political constraints of the agency (with help from retired “just the facts” Inspector Mendel, played well by Harry Andrews, and agent Bill Appleby, played by Kenneth Haigh). Simone Signoret and Maximillian Schell round out the international cast.  Director Sidney Lumet and cinematographer Freddie Young purposefully washed out the colour stock to give the proceedings a suitably grey tone. I thought it held together pretty well (unlike so many spy stories) although I’ll admit that beyond Mason’s Smiley no one gets too much of a chance to develop their characters.