The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Overview:

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) was a Drama - Film Adaptation Film directed by Martin Ritt and produced by Martin Ritt.

Academy Awards 1965 --- Ceremony Number 38 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorRichard BurtonNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Hal Pereira, Tambi Larsen, Edward Marshall; Set Decoration: Josie MacAvinNominated
.

BlogHub Articles:

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

By Beatrice on Nov 19, 2018 From Flickers in Time

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold Directed by Martin Ritt Written by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper from the novel by John Le Carre 1965/UK Salem Films Limited Repeat viewing/Netflix rental Possibly the saddest spy movie ever made. ?Also one of the best. Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) has been head of Brit... Read full article


The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 14, 2016 From 4 Star Films

Adapted from the John le Carr?novel, this is a black & white spy thriller that personifies cold war paranoia in ways that Bond never could.?Richard Burton is an operative working in Berlin before being demoted to a librarian job. It looks like our narrative is heading in a direction hardly fit ... Read full article


The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 14, 2016 From 4 Star Films

Adapted from the John le Carr?novel, this is a black & white spy thriller that personifies cold war paranoia in ways that Bond never could.?Richard Burton is an operative working in Berlin before being demoted to a librarian job. It looks like our narrative is heading in a direction hardly fit ... Read full article


See all The Spy Who Came in from the Cold articles

Quotes from

Alec Leamas: Mundt was a Nazi, wasn't he?
Fiedler: He was a member of the Hitler Youth... as a boy.
Alec Leamas: Now he's a grown-up Communist. He was what I would call... available.
Fiedler: Like you!... Shall we begin? Let me start by asking you an amusing question.
Alec Leamas: Let me start by asking you one! Make you laugh your head off! Where's my money? When can I go whatever... whatever home is? And Carleton's gone home! Peters has gone home! What about me?
Fiedler: The agreement was...
Alec Leamas: Agreement!... You've broken the bloody agreement and barring miracles my bloody neck too! The agreememnt was that I should be interrogated for two weeks in Holland, paid, and allowed to slip quietly back to England without anyone knowing. I'd have been away and nobody would have known if you haven't broken the story.
Fiedler: Just who the hell do you think you are? How dare you come sniffing in here like Napoleon ordering me about? You are a traitor! Does it occur to you? A wanted, spent, dishonest man, the lowest currency of the Cold War? We buy you - we sell you - we lose you - we even can shoot you! Not a bird would stir in the trees outside. Not even a single pheasant would turn his head to see what fell.


Control: We have to live without sympathy, don't we? We can't do that forever. One can't stay out of doors all the time. One needs to come in from the cold.
Alec Leamas: I'm an operator, Control, just an operator.
Control: There's a vacancy in Banking Section which might suit you.
Alec Leamas: Sorry, I'm an operational man. I'll take my pension. I don't want a desk job.
Control: You don't know what's on the desk.
Alec Leamas: Paper!
Control: [after taking a long sip from his tea cup] I want you to stay, uh, out in the cold... a little longer.


Alec Leamas: What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?


read more quotes from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold...

Facts about

In the room in East Germany where Leamas is interrogated by Fiedler, the wallpaper is of English design ("Marigold" by William Morris).
Though playing a teenager, Claire Bloom was actually 34 at the time of filming.
The phrase "Number 11 bus", which is heard a few times, is British slang for walking; your two legs look like the number 11.
read more facts about The Spy Who Came in from the Cold...
Share this page:
Visit the Classic Movie Hub Blog CMH
Best Actor Oscar 1965






See more Best Actor awards>>
Also directed by Martin Ritt




More about Martin Ritt >>
Also produced by Martin Ritt




More about Martin Ritt >>
Related Lists
Create a list


See All Related Lists >>
Also released in 1965




See All 1965 films >>
More "Cold War" films



See All "Cold War" films >>
More "Spies" films



See All "Spies" films >>