Diagonaldi Very well executed

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

alexanderdavies-99382 Richard Burton made his best films between the late 1950s to the very early 1970s, with an occasional good one afterwards. "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" is one of Burton's greatest as the slightly weary secret operative, Alec Lemas. After his section of agents in Germany have been caught or killed by German Intelligence, Lemas is sent back to Headquarters in London. His masters offer him the chance of redeeming himself by accepting an assignment where Lemas has to find the very German agent who has been responsible for the slaying of British operatives - Mundt. The assignment is the biggest test of Lemas in more ways than one. Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Oskar Werner share the acting honours. The story is a fairly gripping yarn with an excellent script. It is a fine adaptation of John Le Carre's best selling novel. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Richard Burton goes out of his way to dis-spell once and for all, Claire Bloom's impressions of the type of job Government agents have to do. His acting brims with fiery Welsh passion. "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" is deliberately photographed in a harsh way as it compliments the plot and rather grim narrative. For sheer realism, this film is about as far removed from the world of James Bond as could be. Unforgettable and with a shattering climax.

LiquidPoetry1921 On the advice of a friend who loved this movie, I spent my Saturday afternoon sticking with it even when my better judgment said to turn it off. And, I really wish listened to my intuition because when the credits rolled I felt like I had just wasted two hours of my life on this VERY dated and incredibly convoluted film.Perhaps 50 years ago when it was first released it might have been considered intriguing and suspenseful. But today I just found it to be an incredible bore.

Claudio Carvalho In the 60's, during the Cold War, the operative Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) loses his last agent in East Berlin when he is shot while crossing the border. Leamas travels to London to meet his Chief Control (Cyril Cusack). They have a meeting and Control asks him to lure the East Germans to make them believe that their agent Hans-Dieter Mundt (Peter Van Eyck) is a double agent and use the Jewish agent Fiedler (Oskar Werner), who is under the command of Mundt and hates him, to expose Mundt to get rid off him. Leamas poses of alcoholic defector without any pension that finds a job in a library. Soon he becomes lover of the naive Nan Perry (Claire Bloom), who works with him in the library and belongs to the Communist Party. Leamas is arrested for fighting in a store and when he is discharged from jail, an East German agent recruits him and they travel to Netherlands. Then they travel to East German where Leamas meets Fiedler that uses his information to accuse Mundt. They go to a tribunal and out of the blue, Mundt's attorney summons a mysterious witness. Who might be this witness?"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" is a film with an amoral spy story of manipulation, seduction and betrayal. The plot point is absolutely unexpected and the explanation of the behavior of a spy of Leamas to Nan is cruel. The performances are outstanding and the conclusion is depressive. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Espião que Veio do Frio" ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold")

Uriah43 "Alec Leamas" (Richard Burton) is a spy for the British who is given an assignment that involves implicating a high-ranking East German agent named "Hans Dieter-Mundt" (Peter van Eyck) for treason. Knowing that Mundt's subordinate, "Fiedler" (Oskar Werner) despises his boss the British cleverly concoct a plan which sends Alec under false pretenses straight to Fiedler with enough false evidence to have Mundt executed. But there are several variables which make the mission extremely perilous. Now, rather than give any more details and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie captures the Cold War climate extremely well. Not only was Richard Burton nominated for an Academy Award for his performance but Oskar Werner also won a Golden Globe award for his performance as well. Further, the cinematographer (Oswald Morris) also won a BAFTA award for his work. Yet, in spite of all of these awards there were still some parts which were a bit too slow and dull which I felt lessened the film's overall effect. Accordingly, I rate this movie as slightly above average.