The Looking Glass War (1970)

POSSIBLE SPOILERS In the novel, British military intelligence in 1961 was looking for something to justify its existence. Some ambiguous aerial photos suggested the East Germans had constructed a missile site. Instead of sharing this information with... who? (sorry I don't know the other intelligence service. MI6?) the military people, who had not run an operation in years, decided to do what they knew best: send one of their now aged WWII spies with WWII equipment ( a 40 lb. tube radio with different crystals to change transmitting frequencies) into East Germany to verify the existence of the missile installation and radio back his findings. The East Germans were mystified by the strange radio messages until an old sergeant vaguely remembered how English spies had sent out messages 20 years earlier. The poor spy's floundering around created an international incident and the military intelligence people were ordered to pull the plug on the operation. LeCarre's caustic comments on the military intelligence service were swept aside and the movie was made treating all the bumbling as a serious spy story. Ah well. In 1961 the cold war was very serious business.

Back in 1971 or so, this film showed on t.v. on the old Friday Night at the Movies series, and as a nine- or ten-year-old closeted gay boy I distinctly remember dropping my youthful jaw for the shirtless Christopher Jones in those scenes in the handball court. But seeing the film as a 48-year-old is an entirely different experience. Young Mr. Jones had a nice chest, but he was never a great actor, and the sub-text of Anthony Hopkins's character's resentments is inspired by that tiresome youth-worship that every film of that period was poisoned with: adults are misguided and evil and young people are innocent and good. I didn't buy it then and I certainly don't buy it now. Nevertheless, I think anything Hopkins is featured in is probably worth seeing once, and Ralph Richardson is always enjoyable to watch as well. The less celebrated Paul Rogers is pretty splendid, too. Well cast, but a somewhat worn period piece, is what I think.

This is a film that I had seemed to overlook and was very glad to have found a copy. The story is written by John Le Carre, who has written many espionage books and in this picture, Leiser,(Christopher Jones) plays the role of a Polish defector promised political asylum in England. However, he has to go back behind the Iron Curtain to investigate the possibilities that East Germany is building a rocket in violation of a disarmament pack. Leiser visits a girl friend, Susan, (Susan George),"Straw Dogs", who is having his child and then all of a sudden finds out things about what she has been doing and splits up the relationship. Leiser soon meets up with another gal, Pia Degermark who he falls in love, and is happy that she also has a very young son to make for a very happy marriage. They both decide to flee from all the espionage Leiser is caught up in and still has to deal with expert ruthless old men who use the both of them as decoys. Great film with great actors, all very young and starting out in their films careers.

I am amazed that so many reviewers panned this film when TLGW came out.While this film is very bleak, so was The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. TSWCIFTC had none of the whimsical touches that distinguish TLGW, and lacked the gritty underbelly that makes TLGW so much more believable, if even less romantic and reassuring. While TSWCIFTC is more of an intellectual overview of The Game (until its dismal conclusion), TLGW spares no one.Christopher Jones is excellent as the charming but unbalanced ne'er-do-well, who is exactly what British Intelligence needs. Anthony Hopkins is so good, you'll forget Hannibal Lecter.The entire ensemble cast is superb, with supporting players able to convey fully realized characters with only a few lines in most cases. The few characters who are not fleshed out seem to come from out of nowhere, as does Jones' character, echoing the mood of a man lost in a country he does not know - first England, then East Germany.I particularly liked the fact that the film made England the dark, enclosed, maze of liars and opportunists, while E. Germany was shown alternately as open, pristine land and the property of deceptive invaders (the mirrors of the British). In addition, the film bluntly and confidently attempts to dissect patriots and their imitators: a rarity in 1970.This film is not strictly an entertainment, but there are some fine, light moments between the characters played by Jones, Hopkins, Pickles and Richardson. The Looking Glass War is a fascinating film, a tribute to an era and an author.