I Watch Films: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

A 1965 film based on the John Le Carré novel. Alex Leamas (Richard Burton), head of station for British Intelligence in Berlin, has all his best spies being killed by Mundt, the East German head of counter-intelligence. Control comes up with a plan, in which they fake Leamas being fired and becoming an embittered alcoholic, so that East German intelligence will view him as a potential defector. This will put into place a frame to make Mundt appear to be working for British Intelligence, and so be shot.

Things get complicated after that with betrayals and plots within plots.

Watch This: A claustrophobic cold war spy thriller, pushing people to their breaking points in an effort to gain advantage
Don’t Watch This: If you don’t want to see people betraying and being betrayed