Reply to: Ipcress, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain.

[Chunk]

You were only supposed to blow the bleeping' doors off!

[OwlHoot]

"The Spy that came in from the cold"?

I have a hazy memory of a fight in Berlin where the bad guy gets speared by a set of drills.

I thought it was in one of the Harry Palmer films, but it wasn't.

Are you perchance thinking of the punch up in The Odessa File (1974), with John Voight?

Was in a print factory as I (vaguely) recall, and the baddie ends up impaled on some printing machine gadgetry.

[Troll]

Dunno if anyone else has seen the two Harry Palmer films from the 90s?

Not exactly wonderful, but they occupied an otherwise even more tedious several hours.

Which one featured the Army type in an Austin-Healey 3000?

[OwlHoot]

Oh, this thread again.

Zeity, did you know Harry Palmer came out of retirement for Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996) ?

Perhaps there would have been more, but according to the trivia section in the IMDB page for the St Petersburg film:

Michael Caine stated in his memoir that the making of this film and Bullet to Beijing, "was my worst professional experience ever" and that he decided to quit acting during the production. ...

[minestrone]

Ipcress on BBC3

[minestrone]

Pretty sure I have not seen spy who came in from the cold as I had that saved on SKY and waiting to watch recently.

I think the Caine was sent across to find a kidnapped child, there is a woman in a watch repair shop that is his contact. I think the films are all blurring into each other now.

I seem to remember one where he was cooking a meal with tomatoes and red wine at the start.

[minestrone]

Was there one that centred around a watch shop in East Germany?

Or was that Richard Burton.

[Paddy]

I fear your impression is incorrect.

Aside from this remarkable triple DVD collection, I've seen it as a single DVD.

Is there a Lego version?

[Paddy]

I was under the impression that the “The Billion Dollar Brain” never came out on DVD, if it did your disks are worth quite a bit.

The Billion Dollar Brain should have been made in 70mm Panavision,
35mm spoilt many scenes

[minestrone]

I know I have seen the The Ipcress File but can't remember any of it, even though I was not born then does that mean I enjoyed the 60s?

I suppose these days spying is all about running a grep on a DB dump file knicked from twitter.

[OwlHoot]

Billion Dollar Brain is mostly notable for its incomprehensible plot (I'm sure there's bits missing) and the extensive use of Honeywell computery.

Billion Dollar Brain is completely berserk - Definitely a case of jumping the shark, plotwise.

Another good(ish) espionage film starring Michael Caine (and Laurence Olivier) is The Jigsaw Man (1984). Wasn't one of the Harry Palmer series though.

edit: Ooh, clicking around a few times in IMDB I see they're making another film called 1066. Sounds promising. (It's not the low-key Battle for Middle Earth one that was made a couple of years ago, although that was pretty good too in its way)

[stek]

I liked A Funeral in Berlin because I love Berlin (Kino Kant) and it showed post war Berlin very well, and featured Templehof Airport and a 1959 Cadillac Convertible, the car of cars, if Biarritz and Pink, tho the one in the film was brown and just the bobby basic..

Ich Bin Ein Doughnut!

And Des Schwartes Cafe on err, Kantstrasse? Love that place and the Zwiebelfisch or whatever opposite-ish, was it a bit lesbo? Need to go back....

[stek]

I liked A Funeral in Berlin because I love Berlin (Kino Kant) and it showed post war Berlin very well, and featured Templehof Airport and a 1959 Cadillac Convertible, the car of cars, if Biarritz and Pink, tho the one in the film was brown and just the bobby basic..

Ich Bin Ein Doughnut!

[NickFitz]

I remember enjoying Billion Dollar Brain when I first saw it, but I was probably about twelve at the time. Might hunt it down and watch it again when I next own a TV

[Sysman]

I watched the Ipcress File recently and found it better than I remembered.

Given your review I might skip the Billion Dollar Brain.