Sidney Lumet made this screen version of John Le Carre's novel "Call for the Dead" in a grey and wet London and succeeded admirably in capturing the banal and corrosive atmosphere that Le Carre was so good at conjuring up in his books. It's not as well known as the Smiley books and the films and tv adaptations that followed, (here the Smiley character is called Dobbs and is beautifully played by James Mason), but it's almost as good.
It begins with the death of a senior Whitehall official suspected of being a communist spy. Suicide or murder? It's Mason's job to find out and the superb cast of spies, wives and potential suspects includes Maxamilian Schell, a magnificent Simone Signoret, Harriet Andersson, Harry Andrews and Max Adrian as a spy chief known as 'Marlene Dietrich', all at the top of their game. Paul Dehn did the adaptation and the superb cinematography was by Freddie Young, making brilliant use of the London locations. The only incongruous note comes from Quincy Jones' jazzy score.
No comments:
Post a Comment