The Ipcress File
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| The Ipcress File | |
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 The Ipcress File DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Sidney J. Furie |
| Produced by | Harry Saltzman |
| Written by | Len Deighton (novel) Bill Canaway James Doran |
| Starring | Michael Caine Nigel Green Guy Doleman Sue Lloyd Gordon Jackson |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Release date(s) | July 2, 1965 West Germany |
| Running time | 109 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Ipcress File was the first spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962.
It was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman and directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.
The plot involves mind control: the acronym IPCRESS stands for "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under strESS". The novel also includes scenes in the Lebanon and an atoll for a US atomic bomb test and learn about Joe One, although these elements were not in the film version.
Contents |
[edit] Novel
Deighton's protagonist, as in all sequels, is nameless. He works for some secret agency of the government, but has a great deal of autonomy. He is quite paranoid about his situation. He keeps an "escape package" containing money, a false passport and other documents, circulating in the mail. Once a week he picks up the package from an accommodation address, a seedy London shop, and re-mails it to that address in a fresh envelope.
He is also a gourmet who enjoys good food. Cooking features a lot in both the film and the novel versions this story. Deighton himself is a keen cook.
In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In The Ipcress File these take the form of each chapter being headed with a quote from a horoscope, which relates to the action in the chapter, though vaguely, as in most horoscopes.
[edit] Film
The film version of The Ipcress File was intended as a downbeat alternative to the James Bond films, which were being made at the same time. Four prominent members of the production team -- producer Harry Saltzman, film editor Peter Hunt, composer John Barry and production designer Ken Adam -- also worked on the Bond series. The main character is named Harry Palmer, and has a backstory as a former soldier caught dealing on the black market.
Although, in Deighton's novel, the narrating anti-hero was notably nameless, the film version gave him the name "Harry Palmer". In the novel the narrator states (in chapter five when he arrives in Rome) "my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been".
Writers Bill Canaway and James Doran received a 1966 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Foreign Film Screenplay.
The film had two immediate sequels:
Decades later, Michael Caine returned to his Harry Palmer role in Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in St. Petersburg (1996).
