Mister 8

COBRAS associate Jeremy Duns is running an interesting experiment on Twitter now, where his secret agent character Paul Dark seems to have escaped the world of fiction to share with us a series of Tweets from his experiences in Duns’ Free Agent.

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

In our round-up of IPCRESS File posters, I posted two that, until today, I thought were the same with elements rearranged and glasses drawn afterward:

As you can see, I was mistaken. They’re clearly not the same — the faces hold different expressions, the hand pulling the jacket is present in one, but not the other, and the color pallette is different. The two posters, drawn by different unknown (does anyone have credit information for these posters?) artists used the following publicity photo as reference:

I asked Kees Stam of the Harry Palmer Movie Site if he knew the origin of the pic, but his best guess is that it was a promotional still made before the film was shot (he even has a promotional postcard featuring the image, which I think can be seen on this page of rare IPCRESS File stills).

So the thought that this still was shot early in the planning of the film might solve the mystery of why Harry isn’t wearing his specs in this pic. In any case, he’s not going to hit anything with that gun. I’ve seen how bad his vision is.

Dear readers (all six of you):

My wife and I are taking a spur of the moment trip to Boston for the next few days, so the Harry Palmer Files will be on pause until we return on Thursday. So please, check back on Thursday, when I’ll try and give you a double shot of IPCRESS posts.

In the meantime, if you’ve got a jones for spy blogs, check out the collective works of the Coalition of Bloggers wRiting About Spies (COBRAS for short), my new associates Rob Mallows of the Deighton Dossier, Kees Stam of the Harry Palmer Movie Site, Paul Baack of the HMSS Weblog, or an apparent new kid on the block, Markus Wolf’s TheStasi.com.

In the meantime, I’ll be in Cambridge. No, not that Cambridge.

–Armstrong

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

Ipcress File cover with Michael Caine

“You have to remember I saw my first movie at fifteen; I’ve had to make up for lost time. The first film I saw was on television, The IPCRESS File; I loved the way Michael Caine broke eggs for an omelette.”

“Broke eggs?”

Kadi nodded. “Tenderly. I’d never seen a man cook before.”

– From Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer by Dorothy Gilman

The world first met the “Harry Palmer” character in 1962, when England was then in the midst of a mod revolution led by, as culture studies scholar Dick Hebdige says, “working-class dandies.” Mod men wore their hair longer, held exacting tastes in slim Italian suits, and played with concepts of androgyny in their personal appearance. Hebdige, in his Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things refers to Palmer as, “a fictional extension of mod,” with his preference for food, clothes and cigarettes from France and Italy—the “continental cool” (75).

But the heroes of films at that time were still rugged, handsome, tough, with no time for cooking. Caine, writing in his autobiography, What’s it All About?, says that the filmmakers were overly concerned with playing down any aspect of the character that could be deemed homosexual (175):

Sid Furie the director and Harry [Saltzman] went off to ‘de-gay’ my role in the script. The supermarket cart problem had already been solved by having me use mine as a weapon. The glasses were satisfactorily ‘butched up’ by having Sue Lloyd, who played the romantic lead, ask me if I always wear glasses. I say, ‘I only take them off in bed,’ she looks at me for a moment, then reaches forward and takes them off.

But Caine as Palmer, and shortly after, Caine as Alfie, helped redefine the concept of the masculine Brit. Andrew Spicer writes in his Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema that:

Critics were reserved about Sidney Furie’s over-ingenious ‘eavesdropping’ style of direction, but admired the film’s freshness and contemporaneity, the ‘current bachelor neatness’ of Palmer’s flat, and a working-class figure whose ‘Cockney vowels’ did not preclude an appreciation of Mozart and champignons. The role established Caine as a major star and a new type whose attraction was defined by Penelope Gilliatt: ‘Intransigence and opportunism are as central now to sex-appeal in English male acting as charm and height used to be. Make a crack, cheat the boss, expect nothing, go for the lot, and never commit murder except on expenses. The girls fall like skittles.’

Followed by the androgyny of the glam period, the Palmer character seems much closer to the John Wayne end of the spectrum of masculinity. Indeed, Caine feels that, ironically, the character once seen by Saltzman and Furie as too homosexual now serves as the icon for British manliness. As he told the LA Times in 1999:

“If you think of ‘The Italian Job,’ ‘Get Carter’ and ‘Alfie,’ then to young English guys now I represent English heterosexual masculinity without any doubts. You don’t look at me and say, I wonder if he’s gay? You look at me and think, he’s a geezer [regular guy], he’s one of us.

I hope you won’t mind my taking a short moment in the midst of our Harry Palmer Files series to publicize some comic books by some folks I greatly respect.

First up is fellow COBRAS member Christopher Mills. I was excited to have Mills onboard with the COBRAS because I’ve been a fan of his ever since I read Gravedigger, a take on Lee Marvin as Parker/Walker in Point Blank with art by Rick Burchett. Last week, I reported the news that Mills and Burchett were wrapping up the sequel to Gravedigger, and sang their praises.

This week, Burchett and Mills are striving to outdo themselves with a few peeks at a potential series called Skorpion, a loving take on the Eurospy genre popularized by Diabolik. Burchett is one of my favorite all-time comic artists, vastly underappreciated, who worked on two of my favorite stories featuring my all-time favorite character and I dream of one day seeing Burchett at a convention and having the spare cash to solicit a sketch like this from him. Check out this bevy of preview artwork — is that Eddie Constantine I see?

Another of my favorite writer / artists, Jeff Parker, just announced a contest to solicit help in publicizing his work. In a perfect alternate universe, he wouldn’t need help — he’d be a best-seller writing the Legion of Super-Heroes with art by Matt Wieringo and Dean Trippe, which would somehow bring about peace in the Middle East.  Here’s how much I like Parker’s work — I’m going to officially remove myself from contest eligibility to spread word of it to you all.

You may remember Parker from our recent write-up of his Agents of Atlas series, by far one of the best things that Marvel has put out since…well, since Kirby left to work for DC. Comics, especially of the mainstream superhero variety, are in rough shape now. There are numerous reasons, including 1990s speculation, gimmickry, and a tendency of writers to follow poorly in the footsteps of certain creators who introduced continuity-driven melodrama that now makes General Hospital look like The Sun Also Rises. Comics have lost their fun, and a handful of creators, Parker among them, are fighting to bring enjoyment back to the medium.

A long overdue write-up on the work that introduced me to Parker, Interman, is due shortly after the HPF series wraps up, but in the meantime, you should be aware of his other works, mostly for Marvel Comics, although a recently debuted thriller with art by Steve Lieber and published by Image, Underground (previews of first two issues available there), looks to be among the best works he’s ever done. The covers below are linked to reviews or news stories on Parker’s books, if you need impetus to purchase.

Parker’s work even got me to do the unthinkable: buy a monthly X-book, which I promised myself in the late 90s I would never do again. Not even the potential of Grant Morrison got me to break that vow, but knowing that Parker would be looking at the early careers of the original five had me excitedly adding to my pull list. So, if you’re in your local comic store sometime soon, know that Jeff Parker’s name on a comic is as good as a seal of approval. And if comic stores aren’t your thing, check out some of the trade paperbacks that collect his work. I’d start with The Interman, myself, and work my way through Agents Of Atlas.

* Plus $3.85 printing and distribution.

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

The Ipcress File Soundtrack

John Barry’s theme for The IPCRESS File has an interesting place in the genealogy of the thriller score, both built on the work of the past, and, as with his scores for the 007 movies, influencing the future.

e|--7--7-7---7--|
B|--8--8-8-8-8--|
G|--9------9----|
D|--9-----------|
A|--7-----------|
E|--0-----------|

[See full tablature]

According to Barry in Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979, Barry’s score was influenced by Anton Karas’ zither work in one of the earliest espionage classics, Carol Reed’s The Third Man:

Like Bond, Palmer had the benefit of spying to a John Barry score. Along with The Quiller Memorandum (1966), The IPCRESS File represents Barry’s only significant non-Bond spy scoring. The composer made a distinct effort to differentiate the Palmer sound through mood and, most noticeably, instrumentation. Barry avoids the bombast of a typical Bond score by using smaller scale orchestration featuring vibes, piano, guitar, and most notably, a cimbalom (a melancholy-sounding stringed instrument traditionally played by Hungarian Jews or gypsies).

“The IPCRESS File was like my homage to The Third Man,” Barry recounted. “I knew that was how I wanted to do it from the start, but obviously I wasn’t going to use a zither.” (Pan Macmillan, p. 170)

Some of IPCRESS‘ quieter passages that rely on trombone, French horn and the piano’s lower register would not sound out of place on Thunderball, but the general absence of shock and awe rhapsodies helps differentiate IPCRESS from the Bond scores. In fact, some of the jazzier sections wouldn’t sound out of place on one of the crime jazz scores of the ’50s. And, years later, some of the murkier cues turned up on the exemplary trip-hop compilation Coffee Table Music. Among that album’s contributors was Grantby, a British production duo named for the villain in The IPCRESS File. The score is the most memorable of the three Palmer soundtracks.

After IPCRESS, the cimbalom became a mainstay of the serious thriller, turning up in Michael Small’s score for Klute, Lalo Schifrin’s for The Eagle Has Landed, and Roy Budd’s theme for The Sandbaggers, and was also featured in Barry’s theme for The Persuaders, which, like IPCRESS, featured the work of John Leach (who wrote a history of the cimbalom that can be found, if you have access, on JSTOR). The cimbalom was originally supposed to be featured in Barry’s score for King Rat, but the American cimbalom player couldn’t hack it, so the theme was played on a guitar instead.

Rumor has it that producer Saltzman wanted to separate the composer from his volatile director, Sidney J. Furie, but that the two met in secret and Barry hummed the score he’d so far completed. In Royal S. Brown’s
Overtones and Undertones, Barry says that his music was inspired by the different take on the thriller that Furie was making:

All the Bond scenes were all loud noises and up close. But in The IPCRESS File, Sidney Furie did this lovely fight scene outside of the Albert Hall, where they’re in the distance, on the top of the steps, and I have that arpeggio music going against it, and it was wonderful. Because you saw these two stupid men. It made you realize how stupid physical violence is. It had such a different effect, and I think a very penetrating effect, from what violence in the movies is all about.

Barry’s IPCRESS theme didn’t only have an effect on film score composers, but on contemporary electronic musicians, who often sample the cimbalom riff. For instance, the spytronica band Portishead use Barry’s work as the starting point for their song / short film To Kill a Dead Man:

The original release of The IPCRESS File on Decca Records featured an essay on Barry’s role in creating the spy music genre:

With the growing popularity of the “spy” novel, depicting the world of intrigue and violence of the secret agent, a new sound was born in contemporary music. One of the leading and most successful exponents of this new sound is John Barry, a 31-year-old composer of prolific output, who has soared to the pinnacle of his profession through his brilliant and imaginative writing for television and films.

His most recent achievement was his score for “Goldfinger,” the third in the James Bond 007 series starring Sean Connery still breaking box office records wherever it is played. This exciting and provocative score with its plentitude of inventive ideas was perfectly related to every mood and aspect of the film. The music, like the picture, was an immediate success, and the sound track album attained the number one position in the national best selling LP charts.

John Barry’s score for The Ipcress File will surely achieve the same kind of success.

Unlike the Bond films, The Ipcress File is not set against some exotic background with glamorous women and preposterous villains. This is the story of an anti-hero, played out against everyday settings in London, where a secret agent seems only unusual by the ordinariness of his protagonists.

It is the story of kidnapped scientists, of brain washing, and of the suspect undercover men of great power who will stop at virtually nothing to accomplish their diabolical deeds. The music of John Barry helps to create moods that are as exciting as they are unusual for this film. His effects are striking, urgent, compulsive, sinister–and even haunting–and are achieved through the use of a harp, flutes and the unusual Hungarian instrument called the cymbalum.

One of the reasons for the success of John Barry is that he makes the unusual acceptable. His compositions, particularly those for “Goldfinger” and The Ipcress File, and television shows (like “The Human Jungle,” a highly popular and successful series) introduce us to sounds that seem almost esoteric, yet they are never less than contemporary.

John Barry is a composer who is very much a part of the everyday scene, yet a man who is constantly moving ahead in his work. He is as experimental as he is practical and precise, and his music is as expressive and economical as it is rich in text and mood. Not so many years ago John Barry was playing with a beat group in London’s reknowned Soho, but since then his progression has been almost meteoric. He became widely known with his own group, The John Barry Seven, which did the exciting and colorful backings for the hit records of Adam Faith. From that period in his career he has never looked back, and few composers are more in demand for television and motion picture scoring than he.

“The Ipcress File” is the latest brilliant composition from this inventive and imaginative talent; and shortly John Barry will be in Hollywood to write the music for yet another major production. Here is a young man who has already achieved fantastic success in the world of music and who is destined for even greater success in the future: JOHN BARRY!

And here, in case you’d like to play along at home, is John Barry’s theme from The IPCRESS File:

I’d planned to have a recording of my own, demonstrating the correctness of my tablature, but unfortunately, my recording computer died shortly into my first draft. Here’s 33 seconds of a loosely edited guitar version of The IPCRESS File, played by yours truly:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

Paul Beaumont at The Harry Palmer Movie Site message board informs us of the recent passing of IPCRESS File screenwriter James Doran. Doran, along with the late W.H. Canaway, was nominated for a BAFTA for his work in adapting Deighton’s novel for the screen. In addition to The IPCRESS File, Doran was a playwright and worked on numerous TV shows, but it was the 1965 film for which he is best known.

The Times obituary for Doran can be read at the Times Online.

Geoffrey Jenkins, a favorite of Ian Fleming’s and writer of a lost rejected Bond sequel, is now back in print. Brenda Wise has the details!

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

Here’s a collection of advertisements for the film found in the theater listings of the New York Times in 1965-1966: