I had a relative who in the fringes of their job came into contact with people from intelligence services.

They always said real spies were less James Bond and more Alec Leamas.

Middle aged, bitter, alone, likely to be divorced, drink too much, politically slightly left of centre.

John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is noted for maybe showing the true face of spycraft.

On the fringes it has characters like George Smiley. As it goes on, the only person in control is Control. His talk to Leamas about the dirty things the spy services have to do. It is not small talk. It is the literal truth.

Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) messes up an operation in Berlin and is recalled to Britain.

He has been given a new assignment. Leamas has to pretend to have been thrown out by the security services.

It is a ruse for Leamas to come into the attention of British communists and East German intelligence. Be seen as a potential defector.

Leamas is meant to bring down an East German high ranking intelligence officer named Mundt. Leamas finds himself deep of a complex and messy espionage game.

American director Martin Ritt seems to be at ease with such complex material. He makes sure to include a pivotal scene where an important plot point is explained. So many times, espionage films want to leave it dense.

Ritt was left wing and a victim of the Mccarthyite witch hunts. Maybe that explained why he was able to identify with an outsider like Leamas and the complex manoeuvrings of the intelligence agencies.

As for Burton, he was already halfway there as the self loathing alcoholic Leamas. The rest was courtesy of a good script and his acting ability.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is perhaps not a movie for everybody, it is a very bleak and gritty movie. However, this bleakness was perfect for the story, and the result is a very engrossing film. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold also has some slow spots, but considering how complex the narrative is it was very effective. The photography is what makes this Cold War film so authentic, and the music just enhances the narrative. The writing is written in a clever and intelligent way, Morris' direction is appropriately icy and the story is complex yet always gripping with all the twists and turns, the cynical and ambiguous spy business and under-the-surface characters. The cast are exemplary, not just Richard Burton, who is wonderfully world-weary with bitterness pouring out of him, but also Claire Bloom, Cyril Cusack and especially Oskar Werner. The film also boasts Bernard Lee, Michael Hordern and Robert Hardy, all solid. Overall, a very engrossing film and one of the better John Le Carre adaptations either on film or otherwise. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold is one of the few Richard Burton vehicles that he did without Elizabeth Taylor in the sixties. Some might argue it is the greatest film performance of his career and I'd be hard pressed to disagree.

Taken from the John Le Carre novel, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold is a grim, realistic look at the world of espionage. No glamor, no gadgets involved, no derring-do to save the world, just people trying to acquire information illegally on both sides. The black and white photography in this film gives it a noir like quality and the performances are from a perfectly cast group of players.

Headed of course by Richard Burton. He's a man over 20 years in the espionage game, but he knows no other life. Offered a desk job, he refuses and instead gets a dirty mission trying to bring down a crack East German intelligence agent.

Burton when he gets the job uses true believer Communist Claire Bloom to gain entry as a defector to the Eastern bloc. Once in East Germany he cleverly plays off rivals in the Communist camp Oskar Werner and Peter Van Eyck against each other. Werner is of Jewish descent and Van Eyck is a former Nazi, so there's history between them that Burton cleverly exploits. Werner and Van Eyck are perfect in their roles.

Richard Burton received another Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but lost to Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou. Cat Ballou is a funny film, but I don't think Marvin's performance in any way ranks over Burton in this. Of course Burton probably took consolation in the fact that Sir Laurence Oliver was up for Othello at the same time and he lost. One of the worst decisions ever made by Academy voters.

The Code was getting a bit loose in this one and while there are no sex scenes, even in a film where part of Burton's mission was to seduce Claire Bloom. I guess this is the closest The Spy Who Came In From the Cold gets to James Bond. But one thing was also there and that was the performance of Michael Hordern as the explicitly gay man who makes contact with Burton as a supposed defector. Gay was almost invisible during the hey day of the Code and now gay characters were emerging on the screen.

Claire Bloom's character is truly one of the most tragic ever put on the screen. It should serve as a warning to starry eyed idealists of the Left and how they can be exploited by their own people and those they are opposed to.

In the years after Germany has been reunited, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold stands as a reminder of how dirty the Cold War could get.