Friday 15 June 2012

Spies, 1970s style ....

A wonderful copy of a rare trailer for the 1976 film by Lindsay Shonteff of Len Deighton's Spy Story novel:



The narrator is fabulous - he has the sort of advertising voice that could sell a three piece sofa at two-hundreds yards. The film - which is pretty average, truth be told, given that the budget was limited (no submarine shots in the Arctic) - is nevertheless replete with 1970s charm. Its look and feel - even such things as the colours and the cars - seem so dated, yet it's only 36 years ago.

It's no Quantum of Solace, clearly, but I can see definite stylistic looks back to The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin, even though Patrick Armstrong - the hero - is only a 'cousin', shall we say, of Harry Palmer.

6 comments:

  1. Check out my review some months back http://randomramblingsthoughtsandfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/spy-story.html

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  2. Mark, I tend to agree with most of what you put in your review. The uniform worn by 'Colonel Stok' is laughably like something out of a costume hire store, and this character is very weak when compared with Oscar Homulka's effort in the sixties. Good review!

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    1. Thanks! They should have changed Stok into 'A.N Other KGB Col' Homolka just was Stok; far too big shoes to fill

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  3. I bought this from Shonteff's website about two years ago. It never downloaded all the way, but most of it was verbatim from the book. Not bad for 2 quid.

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  4. Just a line to say that the narrator of the clip is the fine actor Patrick Allen of Wild Geese and the Barrats Double Glazing helicopter adverts. RIP

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