The Deadly Affair

Overview

John LeCarre's Call for the Dead was the basis for this gloomy, complex spy story. James Mason plays a British secret agent puzzled by the sudden suicide of Foreign Office higher-up Robert Flemyng. Mason had worked on Flemyng's security clearance himself, and can't fathom what personality quirk he might have missed. The agent suspects that the dead man's wife (Simone Signoret), a concentration camp survivor, may hold the answer to Flemyng's despair, but the Foreign Office wants Mason to drop the case. Mason hires retiring Inspector Harry Andrews to do some private detective work. What Mason and Andrews find out is more insidious than they've imagined; worse, Mason is saddled with a new dilemma--his wife (Harriet Andersson) has been unfaithful with a colleague (Maximillian Schell).

Product Details

Release Date:	11/23/2010
UPC:	0043396369467
Original Release:	1967
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Sales rank:	38,924

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Mason	Charles Dobbs
Simone Signoret	Elsa Fennan
Maximilian Schell	Dieter Freey
Harriet Andersson	Ann Dobbs
Harry Andrews	Inspector Mendel
Kenneth Haigh	Bill Appleby
Lynn Redgrave	Virgin,David
Roy Kinnear	Adam Scarr
Max Adrian	Adviser
Robert Flemyng	Samuel Fennan
Les White	Harek
Kenneth Ives	Stagehand
John Dimech	Waiter
Julian Sherrier	Waiter
Denis Shaw	Landlord,Landlord
Sheraton Blount	Eunice Scarr
David Warner	Edward
Michael Bryant	Gaveston
Stanley Leber	Lancaster
Paul Hardwick	Young Mortimer
Charles Kay	Lightborn
Timothy West	Matrevis
Jonathan Wales	Gurney
William Dysart	Noble
Murray Brown	Noble
Paul Starr	Noble
Peter Harrison	Noble
David Quilter	Noble
Terence Sewards	Noble
Roger Jones	Noble
Petra Markham	Daughter at Theater
Maria Charles	Blonde
Amanda Walker	Brunette
Janet Hargreaves	Ticket Clerk
Michael Brennan	Barman
Richard Steele	Businessman
Gertan Klauber	Businessman
Margaret Lacey	Mrs. Bird
Judy Keirn	Stewardess
June Murphy	Witch
Frank Williams	Second Witch
Rosemary Lord	Witche
Leslie Sands	Inspector

Technical Credits

Paul Dehn

Sidney Lumet	Director,Producer
Paul Dehn	Screenwriter
Denis O'Dell	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Sidney Lumet's The Deadly Affair comes out of the same tradition (and from the same source-author) as Martin Ritt's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold -- and it manages to be just as grim and absorbing, even amid the beautiful color cinematography of Freddy Young, who still manages to make London look drab and threatening. James Mason gives a beautifully understated performance as an intelligence agent who finds himself caught amid a bureaucratic maze that may be shielding an intelligence disaster -- one that may be a lot closer to home on two different fronts than he would like to admit. He gets great support from a cast that is more than first rate from top to bottom. The plot may be a little more complicated than devotees of 1960's espionage films are accustomed to seeing, but that's the way with John LeCarre's stories -- this one is a little simpler than The Spy Who Came In From The Cold but also very viscerally compelling, and overall this is about as good an espionage/mystery thriller as came out of anywhere in the decade in which it was made, and even manages to work in some much-needed and welcomed moments of sardonic humor, amid its seriousness -- a difference that might make it preferable to much of its competition of the era, including Ritt's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.