The Ipcress File and British Spy films

[Grey Wyler]

The UK/Canada production Russian Roulette starring George Segal is well worth a look. It has stood the test of time quite well, and if ones hopes are not too high it provides a very entertaining 90 mins. Denholm Elliott and Gordon Jackson turn up too.

Not one of the classics, but worth a look.

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by Stephen Pickard Has anybody purchased this new edition yet? I would like to know if the film transfer has been improved. All the editions I have exhibit colour problems. There seems to be a lack of green. When Carswell (Gordon Jackson) is shot at the traffic lights, they turn red, amber then blue not green!

It was filmed in Techniscope, a cheapjack widescreen system that tends to leave to colours washed out. It was best used on spaggetti westerns and was leter abandoned despite the cost advantage.

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by Windthrop It was filmed in Techniscope, a cheapjack widescreen system that tends to leave to colours washed out. It was best used on spaggetti westerns and was leter abandoned despite the cost advantage.

"Techniscope" was indeed a cheap way to achieve a "cinemascope" proportion by simply masking the negative in camera to the desired wide frame. It had its advantages because you could use spherical lenses and much smaller cameras and shoot in low light conditions in small locations and interiors. You were able to easily achieve great depth of focus and to place objects close to the camera and have characters in the background, all in focus without distortion.That feature was used a lot in the "Ipcress File" and obviously Leone used the motif of having very large close ups of sweaty faces and stuff going on in the background over their shoulder, and all in focus! Often it was a little grainy as in "the Ipcress File" but I think that adds to the atmosphere and gritty realism of the film. Ironically practically all films shot today in 2.40:1 or "scope" as it is referred to by many projectionists, use a variation of "Techniscope" insofar as the extreme rectangle is masked in camera and films are shot with spherical lenses, the negative is then blown up slightly into an anamorphically squeezed print for cinema projection which is exactly how the old "Techniscope" system worked. Advances in film emulsion and finer grain film stock has made huge improvements to the quality of the projected image. Movies are generally not filmed "in Panavision" anymore and haven't been since the early 80s,there are exceptions like the Bond films and some big budget films, but its all gone back to what is essentially "Techniscope" but its not called that anymore as its a defunct brand name, its called "super 35". The last Bond film Casino Royale was shot in "super 35" and the cinematographer of that film explains in an interview in "American Cinematographer" magazine, that he made that choice because he was influenced by the "Techniscope" spy films of the 60s and talks at some length about being influenced by the visual style of "The Ipcress File"! So looks like its come full circle. I think the last Harry Palmer film was a far cry from the original "Ipcress File" in every respect and visually "Billion Dollar Brain" is a glossy production using superb quality full anamorphic ( the image is squeezed in camera with anamorphic lenses)"Panavision" with nicely saturated colours, just like the Bond films of the time.

[jamesharris]

Originally Posted by mysteriesofedgarwallace I hav always thought it a shame that Deighton's 'Horse Under Water' was never made into a film, as it was supposed to have been. This is the 2nd book in the series.

wasn't it going to be made with Patrick Mower

[Lord Brett]

Originally Posted by Grey Wyler The UK/Canada production Russian Roulette starring George Segal is well worth a look. It has stood the test of time quite well, and if ones hopes are not too high it provides a very entertaining 90 mins. Denholm Elliott and Gordon Jackson turn up too. Not one of the classics, but worth a look.

That used to be on ITV a lot, and was one of the earliest titles I remember being available on home video. I haven't seen it in yonks - shame certain films seem to drop off the map like that.

BTW, Grey's Alexis Kanner book, Hear the Word of the Lord, is excellent.

[winsfordtown]

Originally Posted by foha80 Billion Dollar Brain directed by Ken Russell whose film work in the 70's didn't quite engage me.The fault was probally mine,maybe I should look at work again,suggestions anyone.

I may be wrong but is 'Billion Dollar Brain' one of the very few sixties films to have a Beatles song in the soundtrack. I can't think of another non-Beatle film where one of their songs appear

[oxfam1uk]

Hmm, it's stretching the point a little, but "The Magic Christian" (1969) has the song "Come and get it", which was first recorded by the Beatles before Paul McCartney decided to give it to the group Badfinger.

You can hear the original "Come and get it" on one of those Beatles Anthology albums, and it's almost indistinguishable from the version on the film.

[Lord Brett]

Songs would turn up in filmed TV of the period. One episode of UFO, Ordeal (shot in 1969) uses Get Back during a party scene. Then of course, there's the famous use of All You Need is Love during The Prisoner's climactic 1967 episode Fall Out.

[CaptainWaggett]

Paperback Writer turns up in Evil of the Daleks (though not in the published audio versions, I think). The Beatles themselves appeared in the Who story The Chase singing Ticket to Ride - it may be some time before the Beeb can afford to release this on dvd.

[stevie boy]

watched ipcress again last night,superb film,great acting, just a sublime experience. One flaw though, when the police inspector gives Palmer the car information as a favour why did Palmer not return the favour? ie give him the girls phone number, sureley the policeman would not have done any more favours?

[Colonel Blimp]

Originally Posted by winsfordtown I may be wrong but is 'Billion Dollar Brain' one of the very few sixties films to have a Beatles song in the soundtrack. I can't think of another non-Beatle film where one of their songs appear

I'm sure you know this, in fact it may well have been discussed here before I arrived, but the DVD is minus the Beatles song ... the Sky broadcast was also minus the song ... however the most recent BBC airing DID include it, however it was - as with almost all 2.35:1 ratio films - screened in the wrong w/s ratio (except the titles).

I think it's really bad that MGM didn't pay for the rights to use the Beatles song, don't they know Paul McCartney is now only worth £800 million? How do they expect him to keep entertaining us if we don't support him?