Dec 2nd
The Ipcress File**
GB 1965. Rank/Steven/Lowndes. 109m. Techniscope

Heralding in December with this suitably chilly Cold War tale, about a womanising British surveillance officer who discovers that a network of brainwashing Communists is led by one of his own superiors.
Superficial espionage thriller in deliberately downbeat surroundings (somewhere between John Le Carre and James Bond) with much of the complex plot obscured by fashionable Sixties style. The defining image of the young Michael Caine, whose success in the role of "Harry Palmer" (anonymous in the original novel) led to further outings in a similar vein to this one.

Written by: Bill Conway, James Doran, from the novel by Len Deighton.
Producer: Harry Saltzman.
Director: Sidney J. Furie.
Starring: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson, Frank Gatliff, Aubrey Richards.
Photography: Otto Heller.
Music: John Barry.
Production Design: Ken Adam.