The Ipcress File (1965)

This weekend I watched an old espionage film on Turner Classic Movies starring Michael Cane called The Ipcress File. Made in 1965, the film is directed by Sidney J. Furie, who does his best to create interesting visual images. He often layers the frame with levels of information, crowding the image with items in the foreground and background. But, no amount of direction can overcome a slow, unintriguing plot line.

I'm guessing the film was made in reaction to the success of the James Bond films. However, watching the film forty years later... well, it just doesn't hold up that well. The pacing is lethargic, the uncovering of the plot is sophomoric and the ending of the story is unfulfilling. Cane, playing an agent who lives in the gray areas between right and wrong, is moved to a new department in order to uncover the plot behind missing scientists.

He is briefed, along with his new team, on the suspected bad guy's name and that he is very hard to find. In a moment of unparalleled brilliance, Cane decides to go to Scotland Yard and finds that the guy has parking tickets occurring consistently at the same place on the same day each month. No one else has thought of this? This is what makes Cane so good? Or does it just make the rest of British Intelligence looks inept?

So, he finds the guy, follow him, loses him, finds him, uncovers more stuff, etc. The bulk of the storyline, however, is Cane not only fighting to get the bad guy, but fighting his departments internal red tape. Does that sound interesting? No. Is it interesting on film? Nope.

I can handle any sort of dated spy film if the unfolding of the story is at all interesting and/or entertaining. Unfortunately, The Ipcress File is neither.