This classic Cold War thriller about Western scientists being brainwashed is a bold and gritty contrast to the lightweight spoofery of Ipcress contemporaries such as Matt Helm and Our Man Flint(1965). Compared to these spies, Caine’s Harry Palmer makes an unlikely expert in espionage.
Cockney and bespectacled, Harry – who came to the intelligence service to work off a two-year sentence he’d received as a sergeant distributing black market goods in Berlin – cooks (spaghetti of course) and makes real coffee for his female conquests in his small flat in Formosa Street, Maida Vale, and – above all – he doesn’t take any shit from his plummy superiors.
Palmer is introduced to the hilariously inscrutable bureaucracy of the British Secret Service while trying to find out who is behind a “brain drain” of top scientists.
Harry is regarded with scorn by old-school Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman), who gladly hands him over to Major Dalby (Nigel Green) and his team, who include Carswell (Gordon Jackson) and Jean Courtney (Sue Lloyd).
Carswell quickly becomes an ally for Harry, whilst Jean responds to his less-than-suave overtures to come to his flat for dinner.
Harry gradually begins to make headway, locating one of the likely kidnappers, Grantby – codenamed Bluejay (Frank Gatliff), and his lieutenant, Housemartin (Oliver MacGreevy).
On a hunch, Harry orders a raid on a warehouse but finds nothing other than a strange tape that emits atonal noise. On it is written the word “Ipcress”.
Kidnapped Dr Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards) is returned in exchange for a payment, but in the chaos immediately after the swap, Harry shoots an American spy.
Radcliffe has been brainwashed and can no longer function as a scientist, leading Carswell to make the connection that will explain what Ipcress really means (the acronym stands for “Induction of Psychoneuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress”).
The production of The Ipcress File was not terribly smooth. The producer and the director didn’t get on, and Sidney Furie took a dislike to the script, symbolically burning the screenplay on the first day of shooting.
Furie was determined to shoot Ipcress in a stylised way, opting to take shots from unusual angles. Producer Harry Saltzman regarded Furie’s stylish excesses as pretentious.
It took editor Peter Hunt to convince Saltzman that Furie’s material would cut together to make for an intriguing and unique movie.
Shooting began in September 1964 on a £300,000 budget, using two houses in Grosvenor Gardens as a makeshift studio and production office. The Ipcress File was shot across London in ordinary suburban streets around Shepherd’s Bush, Harlesden, Wimbledon, and Docklands, largely ignoring landmarks, apart from the Royal Albert Hall, with additional interiors shot at Pinewood.
The stroppy spy returned in two impressive sequels:Funeral In Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967), as well as the less impressive made-for-TV movies Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996).
Harry Palmer Michael Caine
Major Dalby
Nigel Green
Colonel Ross
Guy Doleman
Jean Courtney
Sue Lloyd
Carswell
Gordon Jackson
Radcliffe
Aubrey Richards
Bluejay (Grantby)
Frank Gatliff
Housemartin
Oliver MacGreevy
Barney
Thomas Baptiste
Director
Sidney J Furie
Video
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Palmer is introduced to the hilariously inscrutable bureaucracy of the British Secret Service while trying to find out who is behind a “brain drain” of top scientists.
Furie was determined to shoot Ipcress in a stylised way, opting to take shots from unusual angles. Producer Harry Saltzman regarded Furie’s stylish excesses as pretentious.
