Starring Richard BurtonClaire Bloom

By Martin Ritt, 2008.

John le Carre's classic spy yarn gets a suitably brisk, unromanticized telling in this quintessential Cold War movie. A British agent (Richard Burton) sets up an elaborate cover story for being lured into defecting to the Communists, but he hardly needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy.

Claire Bloom is an offbeat love interest, and a bearded Oskar Werner is an East German investigator on Burton's case (the pecking order in the Communist spy hierarchy is a source of black humor). Director Martin Ritt extends his unvarnished approach to the movie's stripped-down look, which means that Richard Burton is constantly in a harsh, unflattering light. He looks terrible, but it's in the service of a fine performance.

--Robert Horton John Le Carr 's acclaimed bestselling novel, about a Cold War spy on one final, dangerous mission, is every bit as precise and ruthless onscreen in this adaptation directed by Martin Ritt. Richard Burton delivers one of his career-defining performances as Alec Leamas, whose hesitant but deeply felt relationship with a beautiful librarian (Claire Bloom) puts what he hopes will be his last assignment, in East Germany, in jeopardy. An intelligent, hard-edged, and even tragic thriller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is etched with realism and suffused with genuine political and personal anxiety.

Info Directed by Martin Ritt (Hud, Sounder, Norma Rae) Starring Richard Burton (Becket, Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Equus) Starring Claire Bloom (Limelight, Richard III, Crimes and Misdemeanors) From the novel by John Le Carr (The Russia House, The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardener) SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer New interviews with author John Le Carr and cinematographer Oswald Morris The Secret Center: John Le Carr (2000), a BBC documentary on the author s extraordinary life and work Acting in the '60s: Richard Burton, a 1967 interview with the BBC s Kenneth Tynan examining the actor's performances and accomplishments Gallery of set designs Theatrical trailer PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Michael Sragow and a reprinted interview with Ritt

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