I've always loved this film - not least because most of the filming locations are familiar to me.
I'm not usually a fan of spy films, but this one works for me partly because the casting is so excellent.
There is a great chemistry between Bernard Lee and Margaret Tyzack, and if you watch some of their reactions closely they appear spontaneous rather than rehearsed.
The only reservation I have about the film is, while it's great entertainment, its only very loosely based on the facts.
And that is why I wrote this article - not just to praise this film but rather to set the record straight for other reviewers who seem to labor under the illusion that this film is factual.
Viewers (and reviewers) should not take it as the Gospel truth in terms of historical accuracy - it's far from it. But the scriptwriter has turned the basic story into enjoyable cinema!
And with all due respect to those who have sadly departed this world, Harry Houghton and Elizabeth Gee became spies of their own volition rather than through blackmail and coercion as this film would have us believe. In fact, it portrays them more sympathetically than perhaps they really deserve.
I'm not usually a fan of spy films, but this one works for me partly because the casting is so excellent.
There is a great chemistry between Bernard Lee and Margaret Tyzack, and if you watch some of their reactions closely they appear spontaneous rather than rehearsed.
The only reservation I have about the film is, while it's great entertainment, its only very loosely based on the facts.
And that is why I wrote this article - not just to praise this film but rather to set the record straight for other reviewers who seem to labor under the illusion that this film is factual.
Viewers (and reviewers) should not take it as the Gospel truth in terms of historical accuracy - it's far from it. But the scriptwriter has turned the basic story into enjoyable cinema!
And with all due respect to those who have sadly departed this world, Harry Houghton and Elizabeth Gee became spies of their own volition rather than through blackmail and coercion as this film would have us believe. In fact, it portrays them more sympathetically than perhaps they really deserve.