If you look on that wooden panel behind Michael Caine as he's making the coffee, there's a newspaper cutting pinned to it. This is actually a cookery comic strip drawn by Ipcress File author Len Deighton who published these recipes in The Observer. All these strips are collected in a very cool book called the Action Cookbook which was reprinted a few years ago
I saw this intro for the first time the other day, & it changed my life. Everytime I make myself a coffee in the morning, I hear John Barry twanging his Hungarian instrument! But seriously, the atmosphere seeps out of your screen & as long as there's a single film from the 60's/70's I haven't seen.. I'm not going to even bother to waste my time with music-video-films of today. This is perfect cinema.
A very clever way of starting a film that doesn't involve spoon-feeding the viewer with uneccesary exposition. This one sequence tells us everything we need to know about Harry Palmer.
It's a pity this clip misses out the first minute or so when there is no music. It is the contrast and surprise when the music starts that makes those iconic opening notes so brilliant.
I despise how films today lack the ability to captivate me with simplicity & mood like these classics did. I also hate how the Composers are FORBIDDEN to have a say in how loud the music is & where it goes now. This is why all the silly sound effects bury everything else. Are there NO film makers who want to do things differently?
It's best to just avoid Hollywood now. Because they (like the Major Record Labels) are mostly concerned with manufacturing a product to a docile audience of philistines for a quick turn around. Sometimes they entrust a director enough to give him free reign like with The Dark Knight Rises. But what is REALLY spoiling the art is all these pointless remakes. Do we really need Ghostbusters? Power Rangers? Mary Poppins? Beauty & the Beast? The Wild Bunch? They are even remaking Commando, Police Academy & The Godfather for fux sake. This is a result of too many old cats being afraid to move on & let new talent bring new ideas to the table. Nostalgia is irrational. I also think making films has become far too expensive with Cameras costing $£8,000 upwards for a RED or Black Magic etc. And the fact they take a SUPER COMPUTER to render/edit footage that takes up farms of storage. I mean some Cameras store 500GB per minute!! Just out of curiosity, what are 5 of your Favourite films? I'm doing a study & would appreciate your feedback. Many thanks. ;)
My point is that we have crossed a line where instead of creating Art, we are just manufacturing products. *King Kong, 1933~ 8.0/10.* *King Kong, 2005~ 7.2/10* There really isn't any point trying to better a masterpiece other than to make profit. No one's "Trading off MY childhood memories" mate. I aint watching these shitty remakes, & I don't intend to. No one gives a shit about the 1998 remake of Phycho!! Where as the Original shall be hailed as a flawless masterpiece for as long as this medium exists. I've watched The Magnificent Seven & appreciated it as a classic. The others? Who the fuck cares about those? lol Our contributions towards art are worth so much more than any amount of money.
The sequence of just under 3 minutes tells the viewer so much about the character of Palmer. As Mike Stoklasa might have said; "You might not have noticed it; but your brain did." 1) A social drinker (there were two cognac glasses there so maybe female company during the night) 2) A large collection of unusual and expensive looking copper pans (by the 60s these had already been abandoned for the easier to clean steel pans) gives him away as something of a gourmet. As does the fact that he drinks real coffee. Coffee in the UK was not as a huge a thing in the 60s as it is now. And when it was made, it was usually with instant granules. Certainly very few Brits back then would go through the trouble of making it fresh. 3) The step-by-step way he makes the coffee when seated suggests a man who does things systemically and logically. 4) First page he turns to in then newspaper (which he did NOT have to flick through to find and s therefore familiar with it's place) is the racing tips, so he is a casual gambler. 5) There is a charm bracelet in his bed which might suggest an Irish connection. Either his own or perhaps a lady friend's. 6) And a gun with the safety off which leaves us in no doubt this is a man with either a dangerous job or criminal tendencies.
on 7th march itv will start showing a six part adaption of The Ipcress File staring joe cole as harry palmer ive always loved this film and the book so it will be interesting to see how it turns out
@00:47. Will he get that 240v socket fixed? Either the socket front plate isn’t screwed fully into to back box properly or the plasters crumbled around the dowel holding the back box screw in the wall. Anyway it’s anoying.🤪
NetworkReleasing Have you forgotten something? Left something out. In the movie he is in bed, the alarm clock sounds, he wakes and when he presses the button to stop the alarm the music starts.
The opening titles on "Dexter" totally copied this! I watched this in my screenwriting class today (loved it), and as soon as I saw and heard this sequence, Dexter came to mind. What an influential film this was! And of course the music!
I don't know wherther it's chance, but he spoons the coffee into the french press in time to the music. If it's comic timing (and, knowing who we're talking about, it wouldn't surprise me), it's perfect.
The first time I watched The Ipcress File, I shouted at the TV...."I have that coffee grinder!" (although mine is orange with the brown plastic lid, that you push down to activate the blades inside....still use it as well.
In the mid-eighties I used to dream of getting a pair of blue pyjamas and a flat in north London to emulate Harry Palmer. I got the blue pyjamas. That was not difficult. It turns out the flat is actually in a street off the Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush in west London, though.
I've always just loved how just-behind-the-beat-surely-on-purpose-maybe-thanks-to-sound-engineer the cimbalom feels here... PS Doesn't the version here omit the very last phrase of the music..?
Thought provoking atmospheric music The cafetiere of coffee, I'd never noticed previously; as these didn’t become common in 🇬🇧 until around the 1980s. For me, this film and Funeral In Berlin, not only captured the styles of the time; but it portrayed what espionage was actually like. A 🌏 away from James Bond.
Somehow, whenever I watch this opening scene, I forget all the real problems in the world and spend a bit of time reading info on how sacrilegious his coffee ritual was. Then I have a mug of instant with too much milk and sugar.
You may need to remove the sugar for a whole week to regain a sense of the taste of coffee. I recommend removing the milk as well. After a week when you again have a sweetened cup you may discover how sweet sweetness can be and again appriciate sugar.
Actually, the brewing is more intense when using a french press instead a filtercone. Since the water has contact to the coffee powder even after pressing down the piston, the process gets stopped by the final pouring. I’m doing my coffee the same way and from my experiences, it’s rather the amount of coffee and grinding deciding the taste. The water is almost instantly saturated when using enough and fine coffee powder rather making it TOO strong when not serving right afterwards.
OP is correct, properly made french press coffee takes about five minutes to brew. He puts in the (way too hot) water then instantly presses and pours. You could feasibly grind for a french press in that blade grinder he uses, however, so I'll still give him a point, and another point for actually trying to make real coffee when ninety percent of the UK was using instant.
Back then, every film composer was expected to write ORIGINAL music for every scene of the movie (even the most insignificant one), not just putting popular hits there! Also, they felt obliged to write THEMES, not just create an "atmosphere", so the sountrack would stuck to your head and have a life of its own, outside the film. That goes for Barry, Maurice Jarre, Henry Mancini, Bernard Hermann - up to John Williams. Today, even the most famous s/t composers (f.i. Alexandre Desplat) can create moods & atmospheres, but NOT memorable themes!
Polar opposite of Bond, this is so relaxed and precise, normality of sorts buu totally opposed to the gun totting action of JB.... this sings more to my soul than the other ... although I love a bit of Bond this is the real deal
I love all the comments about how bad the coffee would be. Quite right too. Four minutes of the movie should have been dedicated to watching him wait for the coffee to steep. Among all the obvious plaudits for this, a shout out for whoever was responsible for the lighting.
I love Dexter so much I got a tattoo for it. You should give it a chance. For some ot takes 3 episodes to get into but once you are in you don't leave.
Back in the days, when people, especially men (women always looked good :) IMO) had a sense for fashion, and new how to dress themselves well. Of coures things are changing, and it's a good thing. Nowadays, many people wear sloppy cloths. It's not all about fasion, but I think people who dress themselves well, look really sharp, What do you think? I'm into women of course, but I do think gentlemen, who dressed well appear way more professional, especially in cooperate world. What do you think? Not just the cloths, but also knowing some basic etiquette on how to be polite, quality time … etc. Great movie!!! MUST SEE
Sometimes it’s funny how times changed. I remember a 1964 Louis de Funès movie in which he disguises as a homeless person to spy on someone and even though his outfit was (deliberately) dirty and worn, it still included a tie. :)
Joe Cole delivered a credible character in the Ipcress File with subtle nuanced differences. The Joe Cole version of the Ipcress File may well prove to be of the same enduring quality as the epic Harry Saltzman version starring Michael Caine. In a way though it is a shame that the film industry is producing yet another remake of a classic thriller. If success is to breed success the film industry must not polish old gems but mine for new ones. In the espionage genre, an example of such a new gem is Beyond Enkription, the first fact based spy thriller in The Burlington Files series. I only mention that because, coincidentally, a few critics have likened its protagonist to a "posh and sophisticated Harry Palmer" and the first novel in the series is indisputably anti-Bond or at the least a tad Deightonesque. It's worth checking out this enigmatic and elusive thriller … though not being a remake it may have eluded you.
David Hardman I apologize profusely! I forgot there was a spot the crossfade crusade in my remark. I though you meant you thought this was my copy of Barry and it sounded suspect. My apologies!
am currently in Ableton doing an exact clone of this song, even including the coffee grinder interestingly the software 'cimbalom' is not in tune with john barry's live person!! i had to use semi-tone correction to bring it up. also there's an HORRIFIC edit (as Barry said, "you're not always hearing what you think you are") c'mon, kids! whoever can tell me where the crossfade UTTERLY fails gets free lunch. (as it required tape splicing cross-fading was harder in the mid-60's! barry intelligently buried it in the mix as much as possible ... however full QUARTER notes are crushed! a great, great film and soundtrack. god bless JB -whatever musical Valhalla he's in.
Palmer breaks eggs using one hand in making scrambled eggs -- to impress the lady, or perhaps not because if you look closely a piece of egg shell is in the mix.
I find it slightly ironic that while Saltzman wanted to make an 'Anti-Bond' Spy film, he used an awful lot of the Bond Crew along the way! As for the opening scene and that music, the only niggle I have is NOT the effing coffee (Guys, c'mon, who cares!), but the way Palmer tucks the gun into his waistband. Never happen in a million years, not by a Pro. He would have put the thing in his jacket pocket, with the safety ON! Although, if I'm getting niggly...an MI5 Officer would not routinely be carrying firearms anyway, especially while not on any operation, as Palmer was clearly not. I guess Saltzman thought the public needed a nudge....
Nothing wrong: he's a prole so he has to be shown reading the "Sun", still a broadsheet in 1965 like the "Mail" and "Express": the coffee-grinder bit tells you that he a smart customer with good taste.
And then he simply tucks his revolver into the waist of his pants. May look "cool' but is so unprofessional. Certainly considering he was in the military. There must be cheap holsters for sale too.
I suspect this was Saltzman meddling, typical Hollywood producer. Caine himself would know Palmer would never jam a gun with the safety Off, in his trousers like that, he served and saw action in Korea, knows how to handle weapons. But you could never talk to Harry Saltzman, it was either His way or the Highway!
David Hardman - HOW THE HELL can this be 'suspect?' this ISN'T my copy. this is the original. bit like telling Moses his bit of the bible is a bit suspect!
One of the greatest spy opening songs of all time, and it's set to Michael Caine making a cup of coffee. It's such a wasted opportunity it's almost a parody.
True - but I guess expecting the audience to watch it brew for 4 minutes would have been pushing it. And for most people at that time, someone grinding their own beans and using a cafetiere would have been the height of sophistication. (Like the tinned champignons later in the film.) Note the "cookstrip" recipe from the Observor pinned to the shelf, written and illustrated by one Len Deighton - and I read somewhere that it is in fact his hands you see handling the coffee beans.
NathanRuzzock You have overlooked one thing. Most people are stupid. They see Michael Caine (Or Len Deighton) using a cafetiere,(US french press) pressing the piston immediately, and they think this is the right thing to do. Then they wonder why they can't make a decent cup of coffee with one. This is all fake, spending 10d extra for a can of marinated champignons. He's no gourmet. He lives in Formosa Street. I know where his flat is, and I also know that all he had to do was walk about 15 m to Levy the greengrocer and buy fresh mushrooms in there. If he wanted marinated champignons, he could have walked 10 m to Stern, the continental store, and bought a can in there. No need to go to a supermarket on the Edgware Road - you might meet Col Ross in there. The correct thing for the film makers to do is to have him fill the cafetiere, go do something else, like get his automatic out of the bed, and come back and press the piston then. Then the audience can see how it is done properly. Anyway, these cafetieres are no good - not that they don't make a decent cup of coffee; but because they are made of glass. It is only a matter of time before some clot drops it on the floor, and it shatters. So the film should have shown Michael Caine making his coffee in a good old enamelled all-American cowboy coffee pot.
If you look on that wooden panel behind Michael Caine as he's making the coffee, there's a newspaper cutting pinned to it. This is actually a cookery comic strip drawn by Ipcress File author Len Deighton who published these recipes in The Observer. All these strips are collected in a very cool book called the Action Cookbook which was reprinted a few years ago
I have the book :)
Thanks for this, love finding things like that out, just proves ‘easter eggs’ are not a new thing 😅
I saw this intro for the first time the other day, & it changed my life. Everytime I make myself a coffee in the morning, I hear John Barry twanging his Hungarian instrument!
But seriously, the atmosphere seeps out of your screen & as long as there's a single film from the 60's/70's I haven't seen.. I'm not going to even bother to waste my time with music-video-films of today. This is perfect cinema.
I do exactly the same when my beans are in my electric grinder 🤣🤣
A brilliant trilogy. The anti bond role that made his lifelong friendship with Sean Connery so ironically beautiful.
Fantastic film and a fantastic soundtrack.
And not only that but do you notice that the sound of the coffee grinder is in the same key as the music? How brilliant is that!
A beautiful work of art.
Gosh this is a great opening sequence
Brilliantly shot by Sidney J. Furie, the whole film is so captivating to look at.
A very clever way of starting a film that doesn't involve spoon-feeding the viewer with uneccesary exposition. This one sequence tells us everything we need to know about Harry Palmer.
Always nice to see Michael Caine grinding his beans
It's a pity this clip misses out the first minute or so when there is no music. It is the contrast and surprise when the music starts that makes those iconic opening notes so brilliant.
I've read all the books of harry Palmer series there amazing
2016 looking back on 1965........ wish I was back alive then
i was alive then it wasnt all that good
This still goes on I worked for a German company who they got a few of us , honey traps and money , good times!
I despise how films today lack the ability to captivate me with simplicity & mood like these classics did. I also hate how the Composers are FORBIDDEN to have a say in how loud the music is & where it goes now. This is why all the silly sound effects bury everything else.
Are there NO film makers who want to do things differently?
It's best to just avoid Hollywood now. Because they (like the Major Record Labels) are mostly concerned with manufacturing a product to a docile audience of philistines for a quick turn around. Sometimes they entrust a director enough to give him free reign like with The Dark Knight Rises.
But what is REALLY spoiling the art is all these pointless remakes. Do we really need Ghostbusters? Power Rangers? Mary Poppins? Beauty & the Beast? The Wild Bunch? They are even remaking Commando, Police Academy & The Godfather for fux sake. This is a result of too many old cats being afraid to move on & let new talent bring new ideas to the table. Nostalgia is irrational.
I also think making films has become far too expensive with Cameras costing $£8,000 upwards for a RED or Black Magic etc. And the fact they take a SUPER COMPUTER to render/edit footage that takes up farms of storage. I mean some Cameras store 500GB per minute!!
Just out of curiosity, what are 5 of your Favourite films? I'm doing a study & would appreciate your feedback. Many thanks. ;)
My point is that we have crossed a line where instead of creating Art, we are just manufacturing products.
*King Kong, 1933~ 8.0/10.*
*King Kong, 2005~ 7.2/10*
There really isn't any point trying to better a masterpiece other than to make profit. No one's "Trading off MY childhood memories" mate. I aint watching these shitty remakes, & I don't intend to. No one gives a shit about the 1998 remake of Phycho!! Where as the Original shall be hailed as a flawless masterpiece for as long as this medium exists.
I've watched The Magnificent Seven & appreciated it as a classic. The others? Who the fuck cares about those? lol Our contributions towards art are worth so much more than any amount of money.
@proud Dutchman you are seriously messed up
Iconic opening titles. Never bettered. Listen to the clever use of the everyday objects forming part of the music tempo.
Fantastica.
0:07 Barry is quoting Rachmaninoff, or rather Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker's use of his riff on All The things You Are
The sequence of just under 3 minutes tells the viewer so much about the character of Palmer. As Mike Stoklasa might have said; "You might not have noticed it; but your brain did."
1) A social drinker (there were two cognac glasses there so maybe female company during the night)
2) A large collection of unusual and expensive looking copper pans (by the 60s these had already been abandoned for the easier to clean steel pans) gives him away as something of a gourmet. As does the fact that he drinks real coffee. Coffee in the UK was not as a huge a thing in the 60s as it is now. And when it was made, it was usually with instant granules. Certainly very few Brits back then would go through the trouble of making it fresh.
3) The step-by-step way he makes the coffee when seated suggests a man who does things systemically and logically.
4) First page he turns to in then newspaper (which he did NOT have to flick through to find and s therefore familiar with it's place) is the racing tips, so he is a casual gambler.
5) There is a charm bracelet in his bed which might suggest an Irish connection. Either his own or perhaps a lady friend's.
6) And a gun with the safety off which leaves us in no doubt this is a man with either a dangerous job or criminal tendencies.
love this soundtrack
Great film to watch .
Everything you could ever want contained in the 1st 3 mins.
on 7th march itv will start showing a six part adaption of The Ipcress File staring joe cole as harry palmer ive always loved this film and the book so it will be interesting to see how it turns out
What a film! :)
@00:47. Will he get that 240v socket fixed? Either the socket front plate isn’t screwed fully into to back box properly or the plasters crumbled around the dowel holding the back box screw in the wall. Anyway it’s anoying.🤪
Recorded during John Barry's CBS period always along with The Persuaders on the Sony John Barry compilations
NetworkReleasing Have you forgotten something? Left something out. In the movie he is in bed, the alarm clock sounds, he wakes and when he presses the button to stop the alarm the music starts.
John Barry, the only person who can make Michael Caine more cool :)
King of cool
Michael Cain was always the English version of Steve McQueen
Ere, you got a loysence to say that, Guvnor?
The opening titles on "Dexter" totally copied this! I watched this in my screenwriting class today (loved it), and as soon as I saw and heard this sequence, Dexter came to mind. What an influential film this was! And of course the music!
I don't know wherther it's chance, but he spoons the coffee into the french press in time to the music. If it's comic timing (and, knowing who we're talking about, it wouldn't surprise me), it's perfect.
The first time I watched The Ipcress File, I shouted at the TV...."I have that coffee grinder!" (although mine is orange with the brown plastic lid, that you push down to activate the blades inside....still use it as well.
Lovely touch that, falling asleep over the coffee grinder.
He may have been counting the secs
Michael Cain looking very cute and handsome in this film
Great film soundtrack
생계형 스파이 인트로 ㅠㅠ
스파이도 졸리고 피곤해
요즘엔 건강 때문에 계란에 토마토를 먹고 비타민을 챙기지만 10년전 이 영화를 보고나선 아침마다 커피를 끓이기 위해 모카포트로 에스프레소를 만들었음
보고나면 아침에 조금 더 부지런 해지는 마법의 영화
Greatest scene of someone making a coffee ever.
Can't decide what's better - this or "Get Carter" (1971) opening titles.
In the mid-eighties I used to dream of getting a pair of blue pyjamas and a flat in north London to emulate Harry Palmer. I got the blue pyjamas. That was not difficult. It turns out the flat is actually in a street off the Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush in west London, though.
That shot at 0:24 though. That's art, that is.
(And blimey, they had Kellogg's Special K back in 1965?)
No decade can beat 60s.
I've always just loved how just-behind-the-beat-surely-on-purpose-maybe-thanks-to-sound-engineer the cimbalom feels here...
PS Doesn't the version here omit the very last phrase of the music..?
Thought provoking atmospheric music
The cafetiere of coffee, I'd never noticed previously; as these didn’t become common in 🇬🇧 until around the 1980s.
For me, this film and Funeral In Berlin, not only captured the styles of the time; but it portrayed what espionage was actually like.
A 🌏 away from James Bond.
Good sound , first class!
I have one of those coffee grinders!!!! .. My parents 1961 wedding present....
What is the name of the grinder?
Somehow, whenever I watch this opening scene, I forget all the real problems in the world and spend a bit of time reading info on how sacrilegious his coffee ritual was. Then I have a mug of instant with too much milk and sugar.
You may need to remove the sugar for a whole week to regain a sense of the taste of coffee. I recommend removing the milk as well. After a week when you again have a sweetened cup you may discover how sweet sweetness can be and again appriciate sugar.
I'll never understand why he presses his coffee immediately after pouring it - leaving it no time to brew... must have tasted very weak..
Actually, the brewing is more intense when using a french press instead a filtercone. Since the water has contact to the coffee powder even after pressing down the piston, the process gets stopped by the final pouring. I’m doing my coffee the same way and from my experiences, it’s rather the amount of coffee and grinding deciding the taste. The water is almost instantly saturated when using enough and fine coffee powder rather making it TOO strong when not serving right afterwards.
If they remade it today, it would be an aeropress - but please don't remake it. 60s remakes just don't understand the 60's.
OP is correct, properly made french press coffee takes about five minutes to brew. He puts in the (way too hot) water then instantly presses and pours. You could feasibly grind for a french press in that blade grinder he uses, however, so I'll still give him a point, and another point for actually trying to make real coffee when ninety percent of the UK was using instant.
I bet Palmer would use the inverted Aeropress method...
not to mention the blade grinder
Great music & intro - All those coffee making youtube channels can get lost!
Back then, every film composer was expected to write ORIGINAL music for every scene of the movie (even the most insignificant one), not just putting popular hits there! Also, they felt obliged to write THEMES, not just create an "atmosphere", so the sountrack would stuck to your head and have a life of its own, outside the film. That goes for Barry, Maurice Jarre, Henry Mancini, Bernard Hermann - up to John Williams. Today, even the most famous s/t composers (f.i. Alexandre Desplat) can create moods & atmospheres, but NOT memorable themes!
Polar opposite of Bond, this is so relaxed and precise, normality of sorts buu totally opposed to the gun totting action of JB.... this sings more to my soul than the other ... although I love a bit of Bond this is the real deal
I love all the comments about how bad the coffee would be. Quite right too. Four minutes of the movie should have been dedicated to watching him wait for the coffee to steep. Among all the obvious plaudits for this, a shout out for whoever was responsible for the lighting.
SO good, he was more than Bond Dances with wolves is a stunning score
Hory sheet, it is reminiscent of the opening theme for Dexter!
I love Dexter so much I got a tattoo for it. You should give it a chance. For some ot takes 3 episodes to get into but once you are in you don't leave.
No, more like Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from Thunderball.
Shouldn't you wait a few minutes for the coffee to brew before depressing the filter?
Love this movie. I can't help but wonder if the producers of Dexter were riffing on this with their opening credits.
AND... it still works!
Absolutely.
I suppose you know of the other Harry Palmer movies? Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain? Check those out if not.
Back in the days, when people, especially men (women always looked good :) IMO) had a sense for fashion, and new how to dress themselves well. Of coures things are changing, and it's a good thing. Nowadays, many people wear sloppy cloths. It's not all about fasion, but I think people who dress themselves well, look really sharp, What do you think? I'm into women of course, but I do think gentlemen, who dressed well appear way more professional, especially in cooperate world. What do you think? Not just the cloths, but also knowing some basic etiquette on how to be polite, quality time … etc.
Great movie!!! MUST SEE
Sometimes it’s funny how times changed. I remember a 1964 Louis de Funès movie in which he disguises as a homeless person to spy on someone and even though his outfit was (deliberately) dirty and worn, it still included a tie. :)
people wear sloppy clothes because they are fat bastards
great comment!
We need a review of this scene from James Hoffman (how can i tag him?)
@jameshoffman
Good post. But that's The Sun - a tabloid if there ever was one. However, it might have been more classy in 1965, pre-Murdoch.
Pre "page 3"
Michael Caine had a share in the coffee maker company-hence its featuring.
The Intro of All Intros...
Joe Cole delivered a credible character in the Ipcress File with subtle nuanced differences. The Joe Cole version of the Ipcress File may well prove to be of the same enduring quality as the epic Harry Saltzman version starring Michael Caine. In a way though it is a shame that the film industry is producing yet another remake of a classic thriller. If success is to breed success the film industry must not polish old gems but mine for new ones. In the espionage genre, an example of such a new gem is Beyond Enkription, the first fact based spy thriller in The Burlington Files series. I only mention that because, coincidentally, a few critics have likened its protagonist to a "posh and sophisticated Harry Palmer" and the first novel in the series is indisputably anti-Bond or at the least a tad Deightonesque. It's worth checking out this enigmatic and elusive thriller … though not being a remake it may have eluded you.
The dulcimer gives a very Russian sound to it.
Capolavoro
David Hardman I apologize profusely! I forgot there was a spot the crossfade crusade in my remark. I though you meant you thought this was my copy of Barry and it sounded suspect. My apologies!
just coffee for breakfast😮
that must have been one of the first ever plungers.
am currently in Ableton doing an exact clone of this song, even including the coffee grinder interestingly the software 'cimbalom' is not in tune with john barry's live person!! i had to use semi-tone correction to bring it up. also there's an HORRIFIC edit (as Barry said, "you're not always hearing what you think you are") c'mon, kids! whoever can tell me where the crossfade UTTERLY fails gets free lunch. (as it required tape splicing cross-fading was harder in the mid-60's! barry intelligently buried it in the mix as much as possible ... however full QUARTER notes are crushed! a great, great film and soundtrack. god bless JB -whatever musical Valhalla he's in.
0.37 sounds a bit suspect.
Movie: cool
Soundtrack: cool
Actor: super cool
Coffee: not so cool
Palmer breaks eggs using one hand in making scrambled eggs -- to impress the lady, or perhaps not because if you look closely a piece of egg shell is in the mix.
To me he always pushes that plunger down to early let the coffee brew a bit
Harry Palmer.
I find it slightly ironic that while Saltzman wanted to make an 'Anti-Bond' Spy film, he used an awful lot of the Bond Crew along the way!
As for the opening scene and that music, the only niggle I have is NOT the effing coffee (Guys, c'mon, who cares!), but the way Palmer tucks the gun into his waistband. Never happen in a million years, not by a Pro. He would have put the thing in his jacket pocket, with the safety ON!
Although, if I'm getting niggly...an MI5 Officer would not routinely be carrying firearms anyway, especially while not on any operation, as Palmer was clearly not. I guess Saltzman thought the public needed a nudge....
moulinex....
Has a coffee grinder and Ladderax shelves in the bedroom but reads the Sun newspaper... ...something wrong there.
Nothing wrong: he's a prole so he has to be shown reading the "Sun", still a broadsheet in 1965 like the "Mail" and "Express": the coffee-grinder bit tells you that he a smart customer with good taste.
What should he read ? Maybe a
Guardian piece on " .Diversity and
Inclusivity "...?
@@2msvalkyrie529 Ha no- That's to wrap the coffee dregs in!
Great opening sequence. Dreadful cup of coffee.
And then he simply tucks his revolver into the waist of his pants. May look "cool' but is so unprofessional. Certainly considering he was in the military. There must be cheap holsters for sale too.
I suspect this was Saltzman meddling, typical Hollywood producer. Caine himself would know Palmer would never jam a gun with the safety Off, in his trousers like that, he served and saw action in Korea, knows how to handle weapons. But you could never talk to Harry Saltzman, it was either His way or the Highway!
David Hardman - HOW THE HELL can this be 'suspect?' this ISN'T my copy. this is the original. bit like telling Moses his bit of the bible is a bit suspect!
Alfred WTF
One of the greatest spy opening songs of all time, and it's set to Michael Caine making a cup of coffee. It's such a wasted opportunity it's almost a parody.
What a lousy cup of coffee. You are supposed to leave the coffee to steep for four minutes before pushing the plunger down.
Son of Alba Steelman not three and a half?
JLipnicki Well even 3.5' will make a better cup of coffee than pushing the plunger down immediately.
+Son of Alba Steelman And uses boiling water! No!
True - but I guess expecting the audience to watch it brew for 4 minutes would have been pushing it. And for most people at that time, someone grinding their own beans and using a cafetiere would have been the height of sophistication. (Like the tinned champignons later in the film.) Note the "cookstrip" recipe from the Observor pinned to the shelf, written and illustrated by one Len Deighton - and I read somewhere that it is in fact his hands you see handling the coffee beans.
NathanRuzzock You have overlooked one thing. Most people are stupid. They see Michael Caine (Or Len Deighton) using a cafetiere,(US french press) pressing the piston immediately, and they think this is the right thing to do. Then they wonder why they can't make a decent cup of coffee with one. This is all fake, spending 10d extra for a can of marinated champignons. He's no gourmet. He lives in Formosa Street. I know where his flat is, and I also know that all he had to do was walk about 15 m to Levy the greengrocer and buy fresh mushrooms in there. If he wanted marinated champignons, he could have walked 10 m to Stern, the continental store, and bought a can in there. No need to go to a supermarket on the Edgware Road - you might meet Col Ross in there. The correct thing for the film makers to do is to have him fill the cafetiere, go do something else, like get his automatic out of the bed, and come back and press the piston then. Then the audience can see how it is done properly. Anyway, these cafetieres are no good - not that they don't make a decent cup of coffee; but because they are made of glass. It is only a matter of time before some clot drops it on the floor, and it shatters. So the film should have shown Michael Caine making his coffee in a good old enamelled all-American cowboy coffee pot.
Soooo much better than stupid ITV Production 2022