68 replies to this topic

[Scrambled Eggs]

He's just too bloody American. I want to punch him every time I see him on screen. Him and Tom Hanks. If we must have Americans acting in films, let it be the Bogart type.
Donald Sutherland spoke those lines you've quoted above - now that's my kind of American actor! Costner's just too Mid West.

Kev C's made some great films though, haven't seen JFK for a while so I'm willing to reconsider my view of him.

Well, I don't mind American actors. For me, it doesn't really matter where someone is from. That would be...something bad. It matters the job they do. And actors, generally, are beholden to scripts and directors.

BTW, Donald Sutherland is not American. He is Canadian. There is a difference.

ACE

Canadian? Ahhh, that'd explain it.

Of course it doesn't matter where an actor comes from, I'm just being mischevious.
I think you're right that Costner suits the the Jim Garrison role quite well but I think JFK would have been a better film if it had focused less on that particular character.


Another suggestion for a quality recent spy movie (if slightly left field and American) "Confessions of a dangerous mind".

Edited by Scrambled Eggs, 29 November 2005 - 04:33 PM.

[JackChase007]

In no particular order:

[Tarl_Cabot]

Casablanca (open to debate but why not a spy thriller?)

The Bourne Supremacy

Spartan

No way out

Spy Game

[Scrambled Eggs]

Casablanca (open to debate but why not a spy thriller?)

I would say yes, Casablanca counts as a spy movie. The roulette table, the one liners, the intrigue, Ingrid Bergman, it definetly counts.

Did Bogart ever play a spy? Damn shame if he didn't.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Casablanca (open to debate but why not a spy thriller?)

I would say yes, Casablanca counts as a spy movie. The roulette table, the one liners, the intrigue, Ingrid Bergman, it definetly counts.

Did Bogart ever play a spy? Damn shame if he didn't.

His character played a former mercenary/insurgent...that's partly why I qualify Casablanca as a spy thriller. Laslo, the Nazis, all the sneaking around...I say it's a spy thriller just more appreciated by the public as a romantic drama-the love triangle hit home the most. I could also put The English Patient on my list but that's probably pushing it!

[Scrambled Eggs]

Casablanca (open to debate but why not a spy thriller?)

I would say yes, Casablanca counts as a spy movie. The roulette table, the one liners, the intrigue, Ingrid Bergman, it definetly counts.

Did Bogart ever play a spy? Damn shame if he didn't.

His character played a former mercenary/insurgent...that's partly why I qualify Casablanca as a spy thriller. Laslo, the Nazis, all the sneaking around...I say it's a spy thriller just more appreciated by the public as a romantic drama-the love triangle hit home the most. I could also put The English Patient on my list but that's probably pushing it!

I think the element of intrigue classes it as a spy movie, as well as a romantic drama. Not that it should be shoe horned into any particular genre, it's in a class of it's own.
I think you're right, compile a list of the best spy movies ever and Casablanca should be in there.

[ACE]

Casablanca (open to debate but why not a spy thriller?)

I would say yes, Casablanca counts as a spy movie. The roulette table, the one liners, the intrigue, Ingrid Bergman, it definetly counts.

Did Bogart ever play a spy? Damn shame if he didn't.

His character played a former mercenary/insurgent...that's partly why I qualify Casablanca as a spy thriller. Laslo, the Nazis, all the sneaking around...I say it's a spy thriller just more appreciated by the public as a romantic drama-the love triangle hit home the most. I could also put The English Patient on my list but that's probably pushing it!

I agree, Casablanca is a spy movie in the same way as The Third Man.
I also adore The English Patient which, amongst other things, is very much a spy movie.
That would certainly be in my list if we had a top 10.

ACE

[Bond_Bishop]

In no particular order

The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
Spy Game
Mission: Impossible
Ronin

[codenamel]

1. NOTORIOUS (1945) Alfred Hitchcock's espionage masterpiece with Claude Rains as the prototyppe Bond villain, Ingrid Bergmann as the prototype Bond girl and Cary Grant as the prototype James Bond.

2. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FORM THE COLD (1965) Richard Burton in his best role as the burned out spy Leamas in a dark Cold War story as grim and gritty as the Berlin Wall.

3. FUNERAL IN BERLIN (1966) Reluctant spy Harry Palmer is sent by urbane chief Ross on a mission to bring in a high level defector from the Eastern Zone. Guy Doleman is at his urbane and cynical best as Ross, Oscar Homolka is memorable as the Russian general who reprises his role in BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN and Guy Hamilton does his best job as director after GOLDFINGER.

4. 36 HOURS (1964) James Garner in his best film role as an American intelligence officer kidnapped by Nazi agents in Portugal as part of an elaborate scheme to convince him the war has ended and he is in an American hospital suffering from amnesia. Rod Taylor nearly steals the movie as an English-speaking German doctor posing as an American. Remade in the 1990s as a pathetic made-for-TV movie.

5. THE NAKED RUNNER (1967) Frank Sinatra turns in a stunning performance as a former spy manipulated by British Intelligence into carrying out an assassination of an East German spy master. This film keeps you on edge all the way through, a minor masterpiece.

[Scrambled Eggs]

1. NOTORIOUS (1945) Alfred Hitchcock's espionage masterpiece with Claude Rains as the prototyppe Bond villain, Ingrid Bergmann as the prototype Bond girl and Cary Grant as the prototype James Bond.

2. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FORM THE COLD (1965) Richard Burton in his best role as the burned out spy Leamas in a dark Cold War story as grim and gritty as the Berlin Wall.

3. FUNERAL IN BERLIN (1966) Reluctant spy Harry Palmer is sent by urbane chief Ross on a mission to bring in a high level defector from the Eastern Zone. Guy Doleman is at his urbane and cynical best as Ross, Oscar Homolka is memorable as the Russian general who reprises his role in BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN and Guy Hamilton does his best job as director after GOLDFINGER.

4. 36 HOURS (1964) James Garner in his best film role as an American intelligence officer kidnapped by Nazi agents in Portugal as part of an elaborate scheme to convince him the war has ended and he is in an American hospital suffering from amnesia. Rod Taylor nearly steals the movie as an English-speaking German doctor posing as an American. Remade in the 1990s as a pathetic made-for-TV movie.

5. THE NAKED RUNNER (1967) Frank Sinatra turns in a stunning performance as a former spy manipulated by British Intelligence into carrying out an assassination of an East German spy master. This film keeps you on edge all the way through, a minor masterpiece.

4 and 5 sound terrific, I'll have to check them out.

[Lounge Lizard]

Fave five in alphabetical order:

The Ipcress File (1965, UK: Sidney J. Furie)
Mission: Impossible (1996, US: Brian De Palma)
North by Northwest (1959, US: Alfred Hitchcock)
Notorious (1946, US: Alfred Hitchcock)
The Third Man (1949, UK: Carol Reed)

Honourable mentions:

The Assignment (1997, US: Christian Duguay)
The Billion Dollar Brain (1967, UK: Ken Russell)
The Bourne Identity (2002, US: Doug Liman)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004, US: Paul Greengrass)
Charlotte Gray (2001, UK: Gillian Armstrong)
Firefox (1982, US: Clint Eastwood)
The Fourth Protocol (1987, UK: John Mackenzie)
Foreign Correspondent (1940, US: Alfred Hitchcock)
Hopscotch (1980, US: Ronald Neame)
The Quiller Memorandum (1966, UK: Michael Anderson)
The Russia House (1990, US: Fred Schepisi)
Scorpio (1973, UK: Michael Winner)
Shining Through (1992, US: David Seltzer)
Spy Game (2001, US: Tony Scott)
Three Days of the Condor (1975, US: Sydney Pollack)

Are they or aren't they?:

A Beautiful Mind (2001, US: Ron Howard)
Casablanca (1942, US: Michael Curtiz)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002, US: George Clooney)
The Day of the Jackal (1973, US: Fred Zinnemann)
Diabolik (1967, I: Mario Bava)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976, UK: John Sturges)
Marathon Man (1976, US: John Schlesinger)
Soldaat van Oranje (1977, NL: Paul Verhoeven)

Guilty pleasures:

The Dirty Game (1965, UK / I: Terence Young and others)
The Eiger Sanction (1975, US: Clint Eastwood)
Estambul 65 (1965, I / E: Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi)
Fathom (1967, US: Leslie Martinson)
The Karate Killers (1967, US: Barry Shear)
Our Man Flint (1965, US: Daniel Mann)
Spies Like Us (1985, US: John Landis)
Telefon (1977, US: Don Siegel)
Top Secret! (1984, US: Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker)
True Lies (1994, US: James Cameron)

[spynovelfan]

5. THE NAKED RUNNER (1967) Frank Sinatra turns in a stunning performance as a former spy manipulated by British Intelligence into carrying out an assassination of an East German spy master. This film keeps you on edge all the way through, a minor masterpiece.

Nice list. I haven't heard of this, and love the sound of it. Have you ever seen SUDDENLY? You and JFK fan ACE should like that one - Sinatra plays a guy hired to assassinate the president with a sniper rifle. Made in 1954. Some similarities with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and Sinatra had both films pulled after JFK was shot.

[spynovelfan]

Honourable mentions:

The Assignment (1997, US: Christian Duguay)

Despite starring Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley, I'd call this a guilty pleasure for sure. It's pretty hokey in places. Some nice stuff, too, but I'd say it is to THE BOURNE IDENTITY what IN THE COMPANY OF SPIES is to SPY GAME. If you get me. Quite liked Duguay's THE ART OF WAR.

Nobody's mentioned THE INTERPRETER. It's kind of a spy film: Sean Penn is an intelligence agent investigating UN interpreter Nicole Kidman's claim that an assassination will take place in the UN assembly.

[Arch Stanton]

Firefox (1982, US: Clint Eastwood)

I was hoping someone would mention this. One of my favs.

[Lounge Lizard]

Honourable mentions:

The Assignment (1997, US: Christian Duguay)

Despite starring Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley, I'd call this a guilty pleasure for sure. It's pretty hokey in places. Some nice stuff, too, but I'd say it is to THE BOURNE IDENTITY what IN THE COMPANY OF SPIES is to SPY GAME. If you get me. Quite liked Duguay's THE ART OF WAR.

You could well be right, I put it in the 'honourable mentions' section at the last moment... There's a thin line between honourable mention and guilty pleasure. But I have to say I was especially fond of the night-time chase through Tripoli in that one. And I guess I'm just a sucker for steadicam pyrotechnics!

[killkenny kid]

5. THE NAKED RUNNER (1967) Frank Sinatra turns in a stunning performance as a former spy manipulated by British Intelligence into carrying out an assassination of an East German spy master. This film keeps you on edge all the way through, a minor masterpiece.

Nice list. I haven't heard of this, and love the sound of it. Have you ever seen SUDDENLY? You and JFK fan ACE should like that one - Sinatra plays a guy hired to assassinate the president with a sniper rifle. Made in 1954. Some similarities with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and Sinatra had both films pulled after JFK was shot.

Three great Sinatra movies.

[booyeah_]

5. THE NAKED RUNNER (1967) Frank Sinatra turns in a stunning performance as a former spy manipulated by British Intelligence into carrying out an assassination of an East German spy master. This film keeps you on edge all the way through, a minor masterpiece.

Nice list. I haven't heard of this, and love the sound of it. Have you ever seen SUDDENLY? You and JFK fan ACE should like that one - Sinatra plays a guy hired to assassinate the president with a sniper rifle. Made in 1954. Some similarities with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and Sinatra had both films pulled after JFK was shot.

Suddenly is one of my all time favorite movies. really tensed thriller; havent seen Naked Runner yet. I heard about it but def will see it w/ your reccomendation.

[DLibrasnow]

4. 36 HOURS (1964) James Garner in his best film role as an American intelligence officer kidnapped by Nazi agents in Portugal as part of an elaborate scheme to convince him the war has ended and he is in an American hospital suffering from amnesia. Rod Taylor nearly steals the movie as an English-speaking German doctor posing as an American. Remade in the 1990s as a pathetic made-for-TV movie.

I saw this on television this past summer but I have a question that bugs me about the plot.

/spoiler.gif

If he realized the significance of the paper cut,, in that it would have healed if in fact it had been so many years since the war had ended. Why then did he then reveal what he did?

/gen_line.gif

[CharlieBind]

My top ten

01. CHARADE (IF it is a spy movie, as I've never thought it was one until reading this today!)Original, not the poor remake. If it doesn't count, I'll go for THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, again the proper version, not the remake

02. THE IPCRESS FILE

03. NORTH BY NORTHWEST

04. OUR MAN IN HAVANA

05. THE 39 STEPS

06. FUNERAL IN BERLIN

07. THE DEADLY AFFAIR

08. THE LADY VANISHES

09. BILLION DOLLER BRAIN

10. NOTORIOUS

Edited by CharlieBind, 17 December 2005 - 11:12 AM.

[Stephen Spotswood]

These are my favorite in no particular order, and some were TV shows.

Three Days of the Condor
Where Eagles Dare
North By Northwest
The Hunt For Red October
The Man Who Came in From the Cold
Spy Smasher
Nazi Agent
My Favorite Brunette
All the Austin Powers Movies
Get Smart
The Man From Uncle
A Man Called Flintstone (Now that Bond is popular again I'd love to see a live-action remake of AMCF, preferably with Robert DeNiro and Kenneth Brannagh as Fred and Barney. Maybe Timothy Dalton could play secret agent Rock Slag.)

Edited by Stephen Spotswood, 21 December 2005 - 08:20 PM.

[Judo chop]

2. Three Days of the Condor. (check for the man in the brown overcoat walking down Park Row. A very young killkenny kid.)

Seriously? You're in THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR?

When I was 12, I almost made it into a scene in A FISH CALLED WANDA. Almost.

Anyone else been in anything? I believe Athena is in DEEP IMPACT and maybe also WAR OF THE WORLDS. Right, Athena?

You can just make me out in the video for Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive".

I have a feeling I'm going to be reaching for that precious EDIT button very shortly...

[Polynikes]

I guess we all have our own ideas of what makes a "Spy" movie.

For my money none of the Bourne movies (Matt Damon or Richard Chamberlain) are spy movies - though Robert Ludlum does write some viciously good books - The Matarese Circle being my favourite.

Likewise none of the Jack Ryan / Tom Clancy movies are spy movies.

If the truth be told, none of the Bond movies are spy movies either...they're action/adventure.
Is there a single movie where Bond actually does any spying? He's either an investigator or one-man-commando-team.

To my mind there are precious few real spy movies - where the "action" takes place in the protagonists' minds in a battle of wits.

The Third Man (Joseph Cotton)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (Richard Burton)
The Ipcress File (Michael Caine)
Funeral In Berlin (Michael "I want to be Rock Hunter" Caine)
The Quiller Memorandom (George Segal)
Quiller (Michael Jayston)
Who? (Elliot Gould)
The Chairman/The Most Dangerous Man In the World (Gregory Peck)
3 Days of the Condor (Robert Redford)
Triple Cross (Christopher Plummer)
Charlie Muffin (obscure British TV movie with David Hemmings)
Callan (Edward Woodward)
Innocent Bystanders (Stanley Baker)

For me a Spy movie should be devoid of mass gun battles, explosions or any kind of Hollywood action sequence. You most definitely do NOT need a second unit director for a spy movie.

If I had to pick one, it would be Burton's tour-de-force in Le Carre's "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold".

[spynovelfan]

Quiller (Michael Jayston)

Welcome to CBN, Polynikes.

I'll have to disagree with you on the standard of Ludlum's writing - though I think he was superb at plot (you don't sell over 200 million books for nothing) - but I'm amazed you have listed the Quiller TV series. Quiller fans around the world (a small but obsessive tribe) are desperate for this to be released on DVD. Was it anything like the books?

Incidentally, I think Bond did do some spying, especially in the early films. Setting traps in his hotel room, looking up periscopes into Russian meetings, and so on.

[Four Aces]

No order:

Bourne 1
Bourne 2
N by NW
Gorki Park
Swordfish

[Quartermaster007]

In no particular order

North by Northwest

The Bourne Identity

The Hunt for Red October

The Lady Vanishes

xXx

[Napoleon Solo]

North by Northwest shows up on many of these lists, and I definitely agree. To me, NxNW, in effect, became the template (particularly in mixing drama and humor) that Bond movies adapted, knowingly or not. I believe the "Inside From Russia With Love" documentary says the filmmakers "took a page" from Hitchock with the helicopter attack on Bond (a scene not in the novel).

[Polynikes]

spynovelfan

I'll have to disagree with you on the standard of Ludlum's writing - though I think he was superb at plot (you don't sell over 200 million books for nothing) - but I'm amazed you have listed the Quiller TV series. Quiller fans around the world (a small but obsessive tribe) are desperate for this to be released on DVD. Was it anything like the books?

I guess Ludlum's books are an aquired taste - certainly not for everybody and they DO require a lot of concentration.
Pulp fiction, they are not.

Have you read The Matarese Circle?

Great book.

I remember the BBC Quiller TV series but I was actually referring to the pilot movie.
I liked it anyway.
Have you seen the rest of my British nominations?

Incidentally, I think Bond did do some spying, especially in the early films. Setting traps in his hotel room, looking up periscopes into Russian meetings, and so on.


I suppose the periscope under the Soviet Embassy in From Russia With Love was spying but it was something Bond had a look-in on...it was Karim's toy.

The traps in the hotels (like the talcum powder on a lock and a hair across a closet door) were just personal security.

Did Bond though ever try to discover top secret intelligence? Most of the time what he "discovered" was handed out rather too easily for him - observing un-noticed through a window as he did in Goldfinger (twice), The Spy Who Loved Me or literally falling on to the secret as in You Only Live Twice.

Bond's not really a spy - he's an action agent.
A covert commando.
Her Majesty's Ninja.

In the books he was an unfeeling (at times) asassin. In the movies he's an international troubleshooter. If there's a threat to the UK (usually the world) he's the man sent to shoot it.

I mean if HMG was to send in a secret agent/spy, would it see fit to kit in in designer clothes, watches, toys, the most expensive cars imaginable and book him into the best hotels in the world?

It's no different really than any number of Alistair MacLean adventure stories like "Ice Station Zebra" or "Where Eagles Dare" except with a different setting.

I would say that Bond became something of a template for the lone hero sent in to win against all the odds...if the Bond movies had never been made, would the Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movies have been?

I even think the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone owe something to the early Bonds too.

[Hitchcock Bond]

Some of my top five spy movies contain many influences on the development of the Bond film style and characterisations:

The 39 Steps - Perhaps the first Proto-Bond in Robert Donat's Hannay character: courageous, resourceful, yet also quite charming and humorous in scenes where he is addressing the political conference and with Madeline Carroll. Godfrey Tearle's Bond style villain: he is at first very social and charming, even when he is discovered by Hannay.

Notorious - Perhaps the first spy film that showed the personal side of espionage. There were no showy heroics or comic relief in this adult story of people in love who happen to be spies. The espionage love triangle was realised perfectly in the Grant, Bergman, Rains cast.

North by Northwest - The apex of Hitchcock's entertaining 'innocent on the run' spy films. So many elements that became Bondian staples: the suave hero, the equally suave and charismatic villain, the 'unusual' henchman (allusions to a gay character in Martin Landau's Leonard were not common in American mainstream cinema at the time). Even the highly polished look of the film was copied by the Bond filmmakers.

I think that lists of espionage films would have to include many Hitchcock films, as I would suggest he more or invented the spy film formula which we are most familiar: a pacy, episodic suspense narrative based on exciting visuals interjected with elements of comedic relief and sexual tension.

The other two films I would like to suggest may be argued as not truly spy films, but I think they contain elements of realistic espionage and the effects it can have on people. They were made around the same time.

The Conversation - Coppola's 1974 film dealing with the increasing paranoia of a surveillance expert as he uncovers a murder plot.

All the President's Men - Pakula's 1976 documentary style film about the Watergate scandal. I would suggest this contains enough political intrigue to qualify as a spy film.

[Number 6]

The Tailor Of Panama

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Supremacy

North By Northwest

Clear And Present Danger

[Diabolik]

I wouldn't call it a favorite, but I just finished watching a really intriguing spy thriller entitled, "THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM" on TCM (I'd never even heard of it!)

Released in 1966, it starred George Segal, Alec Guiness and Max Von Sydow. It was shot on location in West Berlin with studio work done at Pinewood.

But the most fascinating thing about the film is the soundtrack, which was done by none other than John Barry. Besides having the feel of the early Bond scores, it has some of the EXACT SAME MUSICAL SCORE used in "The Living Daylights" when Bond is shadowing Kara in Bratislava.

I couldn't believe it -- THE SAME NOTE BY NOTE (I figure he lifted it because it captures that "trapped behind the Iron Curtain" feeling so well).

Anyway, I'm new to the forum. I've been reading it for a while and finally had something I thought was worth contributing.