The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 12, 2021

Martin Ritt's "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1965) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer; new video essay by critic David Cairns; and audio commentary recorded by critic Adrian Martin. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The Cold War era. Alec Leamas (Richard Burton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is a British secret agent who understands perfectly how the system he is a part of works. But he is unsure if he fully understands the people that control the system.

After an important British agent is killed in Berlin, Alec meets his boss, Control (Cyril Cusack, Fahrenheit 451, The Italian Connection), in London. Control informs Alec that he will be his key player in a secret plan designed to neutralize his East German counterpart, Mundt (Peter Van Eyck, The Wages of Fear, Duel at Sundown), who has been remarkably effective in intercepting Western spies. For the plan to work Alec will have to become a double agent and convince Mundt’s ambitious right-hand man, Fiedler (Oskar Werner, Jules and Jim, Lola Montes), that his superior is not a man that can be trusted. And once Fiedler begins questioning Mundt’s methods, it would be only a matter of time before high-ranking Party officials would do the same and consider removing him from his post.

Soon after his meeting with Control, Alec quietly leaves MI6 and gets an ordinary job in a local library. There he befriends Nan Perry (Claire Bloom, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer), an outspoken member of the British Communist Party, who falls madly in love with him. The two frequently meet, but Alec’s serious drinking problem frustrates Nan. Eventually, a well groomed man approaches Alec with an unusual job offer.

The film very effectively captures the tone and atmosphere of John le Carré’s famous novel. At times the tension is almost unbearable. A casual look, a phone ringing, or a passing car can all be pointing to something important, and like Alec the viewer is constantly trying to see and understand the big picture, recognize the important players and their roles.

There is also a great dose of that unique cynicism that is present in classic American noir films. When Alec begins his character transformation, the film becomes unusually dark and then very pessimistic. The viewer knows that there is some intended role playing, but the film gradually drifts away from the spy game that is underway. In this part of the film right and wrong seem completely irrelevant.

Things return back to normal when the action again moves to East Berlin. The obvious liberal propaganda here is fairly weak, but some of the film’s interesting observations about the morality of those who had unlimited powers on the opposite sides of the Berlin Wall have certainly been proven right.

Le Carre explains in an interview included on this release that director Martin Ritt had a difficult time communicating with Burton during the shooting of key sequences, but the film has a terrific rhythm, and recreates the atmosphere and mentality of Cold War era espionage wonderfully well. All of Burton’s character transformations are believable. Bloom is also excellent as the naive young communist who does not fully understand the man she has fallen in love with. Werner also plays the ambitious apparatchik to perfection.

Cinematographer Oswald Morris’ (Lolita, The Man Who Would Be King) lensing is very effective. The tense atmosphere that existed around Checkpoint Charlie, in particular, is recreated exceptionally well. (Checkpoint Charlie was rebuilt in Dublin). Alec’s final trip to the Wall is also superbly shot.

*In 1966, The Spy Who in from the Cold earned Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Richard Burton) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Ted Marshall, Josie MacAvin).

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

In the United States, this film was released on Blu-ray by Criterion in 2013. (You can see our review of this release here). This is the only other release of it that I have in my library, so I did some quick comparisons for the purpose of this review.

I could not spot any meaningful discrepancies on my system. I think that overall the film looks really, really good in high-definition, though there are a few areas where minor improvements can be made. For example, grain exposure could be slightly better, but I have to specifically mention that even the very dark nighttime footage still looks solid. Some extremely fine details could be better exposed, but I doubt that the end product will look notably different. The grayscale is very convincing as well. You will see solid blacks and whites, as well as very good ranges of nuanced grays. There are no image stability issues. The entire film looks very healthy as well. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English: LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is clear, stable, and very easy to follow. I think that it has pretty strong dynamics as well, especially during some of the outdoor action footage where the age of the film should easily show. The upper register feels like it could be just a tad stronger, but overall this is a very solid lossless track.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a remastered vintage trailer for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Cold Light - new video essay by critic David Cairns. In English, not subtitled. (23 min).

• Commentary - new audio commentary recorded by critic Adrian Martin.

• Booklet - an illustrated collector's booklet featuring a new essay by Richard Combs as well as technical credits.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dark and very cynical, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is arguably director Martin Ritt's best film. This upcoming release from Eureka Entertainment is sourced from the same master that Criterion worked with to produce the U.S. release of the film in 2013. I think that it looks very good. So, the main discrepancy between these releases is in the selection of bonus features they offer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.