The Deadly Affair

This enjoyable film captures the spirit of Le Carré's first novel very well. Lumet and Young's "preflashing" technique and their cinematic sensibilities fill the screen with the proper gloomy Sixties British atmosphere--in the weather, in the exterior scenes, in the sets, and in the characters' emotions and interactions. Mason is outstanding as George Smiley (inexplicably renamed Charles Dobbs), portraying with fine nuance both Smiley's wounded, bewildered angst and his gift for tradecraft. A treat for fans of Le Carré and of the genre.

I have seen better but this is somewhat of an energetic spy film where inspector James Mason comes away from an interview with a man in his security department suspected of being a Communist, fully contented with the interview, only to have the man commit suicide later. Mason is immediately suspicious that this was not exactly murder and interviews the grieving widow, Simone Signoret, who portrays a holocaust survivor. When her story has cracks in it, Mason and others come to a surprising revelation. While this is going on, Mason's marriage to a much younger woman seems to be deteriorating and when Maximilian Schell, an old friend of his from the war years, enters, Schell confesses his love for Mason's wife. Wait until you see who the real culprit is as the bodies begin to pile up. Mason is his usual stand-offish self which he was so good at and Signoret sets the mood of a grieving holocaust survivor wishing to make the world a better place.

Glum London backdrops and washed-out color match British secret agent Charles Dobbs' (James Mason) despair at the infidelity of his nymphomaniac wife, and the possible murder of a likable and idealistic Foreign Office civil servant. Slightly dated yet still exciting cold war spy thriller combines the talents of James Mason, Sidney Lumet, and a fine supporting cast, though John LeCarre might wonder what happened to the novel the movie is based on. There isn't a hint of 'Swinging London'; the relationships and a gay subtext, played out on several levels, are handled maturely and without an invitation to snicker.

Due to one of those internicene *-ups Paramount 'owned' the name of George Smiley, a character who cropped up in several John Le Carre novels, so here he is renamed Charles Dobbs and portrayed by James Mason (who gets to keep the nymphomaniac wife, Ann the Le Carre created). That epitome of minimalist acting Simone Signoret walks away with the film despite appearing only four times - and in two of those she remains silent) and had she been able to drag the rest of the cast up to her level we'd be talking ten out of ten. As it is the rest of the cast acquit themselves more than admirably making this Cold War thriller well worth revisiting.