The Harry Palmer Trio!

"The Harry Palmer Trio" sounds like a late 1950's jazz act, but in actuality I'm referring to three movies featuring a character named Harry Palmer who was played with quite bit of verve and finesse by the great Michael Caine. The first of these of course is the outstanding movie The Ipcress Files. The 1965 movie was based on the 1962 Len Deighton novel of the same name. What Deighton didn't name was the protagonist, and that was left to Caine and others to concoct. This is not a suave spy like James Bond, but an everyman's spy who shows up for work to do his spying, but with scuds of paperwork. 

The Ipcress File is a clever movie cleverly shot. We are often given bug's eye views of the action and the director even made a thing of obscuring the action. Actually, the technology of "Techniscope" was difficult and lead to the camera man making some odd choices. This is a classic Cold War yarn with kidnapped scientists and bizarre clues and duplicitous allies. Nigel Green is outstanding in the movie and a visual equal to the impressive Caine. I'm very hesitant to discuss it too much so as not to spoil one of my favorite movies for anyone who decides to give it a glimpse. I certainly recommend it. 

The success of The Ipcress Files prompted a sequel, but with a change of director, the oddball characteristics which made the first one so different vanish Funeral in Berlin. That said, this is still a pretty nice tale with Harry heading to Berlin to oversee the defection of a seemingly disaffected military man played with enthusiasm by Oscar Homolka. It was interesting to be reminded of those days when there were two Germanys and life was exceedingly different depending on which side of the wall you happened to be on. 

Billion Dollar Brain is something else again. The fragments of what made a Harry Palmer movie click disappear in this wild fantasy about a mad billionaire who decides to use his personal army to help knock over the Soviets after setting loose a virus to rouse the populace in anger. Directed by Ken Russell, the only thing connecting this one to the earlier films are Harry's specs. (And even they vanish from time to time.)  This one is only for completists like me. 

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Novembris!

It's an important month for us all. We all know that the fate of the free world hinges on the next American election for President. If we as a nation choose wisely as I anticipate we will, then stability will be maintained, and we can look to improvements. If otherwise, then we'll cross those bridges when they are required. I intended this past year to eschew large monthly themes and keep the blog more diverse. I've largely failed, and I won't try that anymore. I love themes. I just do. It structures both my reading, viewing, and my writing, and it's just fun to organize. Here are the themes for this month. 

I find Jack H. Harris to be a fascinating figure in vintage cinema. He was the man behind The Blob, a surprise hit from a truly independent outfit during the height of the monster-movie mania in the late 50s. He quickly produced two more sci-fi monster movies before fading away. He reappeared as a packager of other people's movies, sometimes with some of his input. He continued to show up as a producer mostly until 1991. There are thirteen movies listed in his filmography for which he was responsible for directly or indirectly, and I'm going to take a look at all of them this month. Some I've already reviewed over the years, and I'll get those reviews out and dust them and spruce them up. But many of these movies I'd never seen and more than a few I'd never heard of. I'll let his book Father of Blob help guide me. 

C.S. Lewis wrote a masterpiece for kids and the rest of us with his Narnia stories. The stories are intentionally a bit heavy-handed at times when it comes to Christian theological interpretation. But despite Aslan standing in for Jesus Christ in the mythic realm of Narnia, the stories can be read sans that, but don't get riled if I bring those elements up from time to time. I plan to read the books in their internally historical order and not in the order of publication, which has always been my default. I have also procured some of the companion book or two to assist in a deeper understanding of the Lewis saga. 

Expect more Neal Adams material. I've spent the whole year of 2024 to this point showcasing his work and this month will be no different. 

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And all sorts of other stuff as well. 

And as I mentioned before, we have an election we have to survive. If this doesn't go well, I might have to take to my bed, and all bets are off. 

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