100
Empire by Angie Errigo
Harry Palmer, charismatic but grounded in reality, is the perfect popular bridge between the spectacular escapades of Bond and the cold, harsh milieu of Deighton's embittered, betrayed spies.
The Ipcress File
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United Kingdom
- 1965
- · 109m
Director
Sidney J. Furie
Cast
Michael Caine,
Nigel Green,
Guy Doleman,
Sue Lloyd,
Gordon Jackson,
Aubrey Richards
Genre
Mystery,
Thriller
In London, sly and dry intelligence agent Harry Palmer is tasked with investigating British Intelligence security when a top scientist is kidnapped. He soon becomes entangled in a world of double-dealing, kidnap and murder when he finds a traitor operating at the heart of the secret service.
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What are critics saying?
88
Slant Magazine
In the end, The Ipcress File abandons its more low-key, nuts-and-bolts depiction of spycraft, and as such morphs from the pure antithesis of a 007 romp into something far closer to a self-serious send-up.
88
Slant Magazine
In the end, The Ipcress File abandons its more low-key, nuts-and-bolts depiction of spycraft, and as such morphs from the pure antithesis of a 007 romp into something far closer to a self-serious send-up.
80
BBC
This eerie (and nowadays somewhat kitsch) spectacle aside, helmer Stanley J Furie opts for spycraft nitty-gritty over suspense. However, he doesn't skimp on style: with the action lensed from an array of low, skewed angles, even a trip to the supermarket rouses the retina.
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Caine's star-quality and absolute ease in front of the camera are fully formed.
80
BBC by Matthew Leyland
This eerie (and nowadays somewhat kitsch) spectacle aside, helmer Stanley J Furie opts for spycraft nitty-gritty over suspense. However, he doesn't skimp on style: with the action lensed from an array of low, skewed angles, even a trip to the supermarket rouses the retina.
70
Time Out
Director Sidney J Furie’s indulgence of the queer manners of an army-based British spy culture remains seductive, as does Caine’s rash character, a mild flirt who is proud of his cooking skills (a superior calls him ‘insubordinate… insolent… a trickster… perhaps with criminal properties…’). More quaint is the film’s dated science.
70
The New York Times by Bosley Crowther
The Ipcress File is as classy a spy film as you could ask to see.
70
Time Out by Staff (Not Credited)
Director Sidney J Furie’s indulgence of the queer manners of an army-based British spy culture remains seductive, as does Caine’s rash character, a mild flirt who is proud of his cooking skills (a superior calls him ‘insubordinate… insolent… a trickster… perhaps with criminal properties…’). More quaint is the film’s dated science.
60
Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington
The film now seems less urbane and innovative, more coldly flashy and bluntly affected -- full of sound and Furie, signifying little. [2 June 1987, p.Cal-1]
60
Variety
Pic does not build up to the type of suspense usually demanded of such thrillers.
60
Variety by Staff (Not Credited)
Pic does not build up to the type of suspense usually demanded of such thrillers.
40
Village Voice by Andrew Sarris
The Ipcress File was reasonably entertaining while I was watching it, but after it was over I felt I'd been had... Among the tiresome directorial tricks in The Ipcress File is the repetitively off-angle anti-climax with the heavies feeding parking meters, hibernating in libraries, and plotting at band concerts. Nothing happens most of the time, and this is supposed to be funny and ironic.
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