Michael Caine is the epitome of Sixties cool in his first outing as the secret agent Harry Palmer. His cockney smarts, his horn-rimmed glasses — “I only take them off in bed” — and his ironic contempt for his superiors give this double-crossing British establishment spy flick a delightful edge that remains 50 years on.
Although The Ipcress File was created by those behind the James Bond movies, it eschews glamour for a resolutely dowdy, sunless London with high-ceilinged government offices behind fake fronts such as “Astra Fireworks”.
Ex-military con Palmer is never going to have an Aston Martin, Instead he hopes for a tiny salary increase after a job transfer. Like Bond, however, he is always on the lookout for a luscious “bird”, in