Bernard Lee had already twice played gamekeeper-in-chief 'M' in the first two James Bond films when he here played poacher Harry Houghton in this austerely realistic black & white telling of the sensational Portland spy case of 1961; which after a deceptively fanciful opening sequence portrays the grubby reality of the life of a spy against an everyday backdrop of an early sixties London in which professional people lived in caravans and relaxed of a night by watching The Crazy Gang on stage, which nearly sixty years later seems as exotic as anywhere ever visited by 007.

Margaret Tyzack in her only film lead (reunited shortly afterwards with fellow actor William Sylvester in '2001') gives easily the best performance as Ethel Gee (here curiously called 'Elizabeth'). Most of the enormous but usually fleetingly seen cast of familiar faces rarely appeared in films; including later TV comedy veterans Paul Eddington and Geoffrey Palmer.

This film has recently been released on DVD under its original title of RING OF SPIES. It is an excellent film, and a fascinating dramatization of the notorious 1950s Gordon Lonsdale spy case, better known as the 'Portland Spy Ring' in Britain. The film is made with a documentary attitude, and a great deal of verisimilitude is added to the film through the use of a wide variety of genuine locations (i.e., Ruislip Station because the Krogers really lived there). Many of the location scenes are genuinely fascinating on their own account. For instance, this film may contain the only surviving extended footage of the roof terrace at Derry and Tom's Department Store in London at that time. No expense was spared to give this film all the location shooting it needed, and the producer Sidney Gilliat was clearly not shouting at the director to get back into the studio and save some money. The director was Robert Tronson, a talented director who has always been under-estimated because most of his work was for television. He directed some of the most popular series on British television, such as THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY (1991-3),BERGERAC (1983-8),and ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (1978-88). The casting of this film was impeccable. William Sylvester is a smooth and affable charmer as the Russian spy Konon T. Molody, who masqueraded as a Canadian and an American under the pseudonym of Gordon Lonsdale. But Sylvester is a master at dropping that mask of affability as soon as his guests leave, and reverting to a grim and determined expression with ruthless immediacy. The finest performance in the film is by Bernard Lee as the alcoholic Henry Houghton who steals files from the safe at the Portland Naval Establishment so that the Soviets can learn all the British secrets about advanced submarine warfare. Two other reviewers have already provided background on the real spy case, so I shall not repeat it myself. The film wisely suggests that the drunken Houghton would never have been tolerated at Portland if he had not been protected by someone higher, which is doubtless true, considering how riddled with spies for foreign powers the Foreign Office has always been. This film is very well worth watching, both for entertainment and for historical purposes, and the location shots really are worthwhile.

Fascinating film not just because of the story.The film shows London as it was in the early sixties.There is even a brief glimpse of the Crazy Gang performing at the Victoria Palace.The funny thing is that the small fry,Houghton and Gee served out their time in prison,whilst the big fry ended up being exchanged for all edged British spies.Mind you Lonsdale was unhappy in Moscow and died in mysterious circumstances.