The Human Factor

Variety by

Graham Greene's low-keyed, highly absorbing 1978 novel of an aging English double agent finding himself trapped into defecting to Moscow and leaving his family behind may have seemed like ideal material for Otto Preminger's style of dispassionate ambiguity, but helmer doesn't seem up to the occasion, bringing little atmosphere or feeling to the delicate ticks of the story.

The Associated Press by Bob Thomas

A cerebral approach to espionage and defection, often suspenseful but sometimes dull. [26 Jan 1980]

Chicago Reader by Dave Kehr

Graham Greene's impeccably plotted spy story serves Preminger's personal aims with a minimum of modification, as the film develops themes of loneliness, debilitation, and obsessive security—all centered on the tragic survival of moral feeling in a world drained by reason.

Newsweek by David Ansen

Sometimes flat, The Human Factor is nonetheless a lucidly impressive return to form for the 73-year-old director. It's not really a thriller at all, but an understated, uncompromising dissection of an event: an anatomy of the murder of a soul. [11 Feb 1980, p.82]

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

It is a splendidly appropriate project for Otto Preminger, even though he hasn't succeeded at making the most of it.

Washington Post by Gary Arnold

Exquistely written but treacherously threadbare Greene. The author's style doesn't emerge through the filters of Tom Stoppard's foreshortened screenplay and Preminger's monotonous direction, which keeps the exposition at such a low energy level that the scenes feel instantly depleted. [18 Apr 1980, p.E1]

The New York Times by Vincent Canby

A fascinating, slightly chilly picture — as well as one of the best Preminger films in years.