nomoons11 This one was an entertaining/intriguing watch but it's not high on my list for Col War Spy Thrillers.I think the first flaw is a casting miscue. Simone Signoret imo was not the right choice for role she plays. By this time her looks were far gone from what she looked like in her hayday but she just didn't seem like the spy type. I didn't buy it.This one also suffered from being a little slow. Screenplay wasn't very tight. It's expected to be a "dry" typa film but most good spy films do. I care very little for action in spy films. What I look for is the "words" that'll lead me to the answer at the end. This film dos a good job right up until the end but it just seemed slow to me.I liked this film for sure but it's one that I'll forget soon. I guess you call those "throwaway films".If you want Cold War Spy Thriller films that keep you guessing then the best are most certainly "The Spy who came in from the Cold" and The TV version(1979) of "Tinker' Tailor, Soldier, Spy". Not surprisingly, they're both from le Carré novels.

st-shot Sidney Lumet's The Deadly Affair fields an outstanding cast of actors but the results are disappointing in this slow moving and passionless spy story that meanders sluggishly throughout.Special agent Charles Dobbs (James Mason) is stunned to find out a man he interviewed and gave clearance for a high security position has committed suicide. Things at home aren't going so well for Dobbs either with an adulterous wife. Assigned a retired detective (Harry Andrews) to help investigate the suspicious death Dobbs begins to find out some sordid truths close to home.James Mason Dobb's is about the only saving grace to be found in Affair. Simone Signoret, Max Schell and Bibbi Anderson are all wasted in parts that are undeveloped and remote remaining en masse in a comatose state most of the way. Mason on the other hand is powerfully effective in scene after scene but other than a couple of humorous moments with Harry Andrews has no one to counter his emotional tenor.Lumet's direction is erratic, his pace suspense draining (glaringly so during the films climax at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre) and his compositions murky. By the time you get around to it's hollow forced finish this whole affair is d.o.a.

bob-1070 I caught this on TCM and figured with a cast that included James Mason and Simone Signoret and direction by Sidney Lumet, it would be worth watching. I was wrong. It is ponderously slow, with uninteresting characters and a plot that is even less interesting. There is absolutely no reason to care about the "suicide" victim in the story, and even less reason to care if James Mason solves the crime. And since we didn't care, my wife and I turned it off halfway through. I'm a huge fan of Cinematographer Freddie Young, but the photography here is drab and desaturated -- it's no doubt the "look" the filmmakers wanted, but it's not a pleasure to look at. Plus, there's a subplot about Mason's nymphomaniac wife which has nothing to do with anything, other than to make Mason an even less likable protagonist. IMO, there's a reason this isn't available on DVD: it's terrible!

ccbc First of all, I liked this movie. I could watch it several more times but there are some irritating things about it. Anyway, this is one of the essential LeCarre spy movies. It is unfortunate that the studio renamed Smiley as Dobbs, but James Mason plays George Smiley, and does so very well. Smiley/Dobbs is a cuckold because his wife just can't help it. This is not very well played out in this film which hints at, oh, impotence and nymphomania (does that still mean anything?). The point, for LeCarre, was that Smiley's betrayed love is a metaphor for the political betrayal that is his stock in trade. Who better to discover a traitor than the betrayed man? The plot is genius: a cabinet minister dies, possibly a suicide, after Smiley/Dobbs interrogates him about possible Communist connections. Smiley/Dobbs thinks there is something more to this; he thinks it might be murder. Assisted by a superannuated cop, he seeks the truth, and finds it. All this is well-done: a good story, good acting, good photography, etc. But! The soundtrack is often terribly inappropriate. Lumet must have known this and at one point the soundtrack ends with a phono needle being scratched across vinyl -- the one truly cool moment in the use of the music. And sometimes the editing is wretched: choppy, major speeches interrupted with meaningless shots -- I don't know who to blame for this except Lumet. Still, with all its flaws, a movie worth watching, especially if you are interested in Cold War spy thrillers.