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I love this movie so much

Truly Dreadful Film

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This one was an entertaining/intriguing watch but it's not high on my list for Col War Spy Thrillers.I think the first flaw is a casting miscue. Simone Signoret imo was not the right choice for role she plays. By this time her looks were far gone from what she looked like in her hayday but she just didn't seem like the spy type. I didn't buy it.This one also suffered from being a little slow. Screenplay wasn't very tight. It's expected to be a "dry" typa film but most good spy films do. I care very little for action in spy films. What I look for is the "words" that'll lead me to the answer at the end. This film dos a good job right up until the end but it just seemed slow to me.I liked this film for sure but it's one that I'll forget soon. I guess you call those "throwaway films".If you want Cold War Spy Thriller films that keep you guessing then the best are most certainly "The Spy who came in from the Cold" and The TV version(1979) of "Tinker' Tailor, Soldier, Spy". Not surprisingly, they're both from le Carré novels.

The 1960s were something of a golden age of the British spy thriller, most notably the adventuresome frolics of the James Bond franchise, an exciting and patriotic fantasy of Blighty in the Swinging Sixties™. But it wasn't all like that… The Deadly Affair, based on a John le Carré novel, is a deeply dark and melancholy counterpoint. It is not about the action, nor even particularly about suspense and intrigue. Instead it turns the spying game into a pessimistic bit of psychological introspection; a study into the moral and emotional pitfalls of the job and a very definite rubbishing of any attempt to romanticise the genre.In response to this grim tone director Sidney Lumet, his cinematographer Freddie Young and their design crew stick to a bleak pattern of dark greys and browns, with occasional spots of dull red. The whole thing is as gloomy as a wet bank holiday, and the fact that it is done using colour, while not so "arty" is certainly more affecting of mood than even the most expert chiaroscuro lighting in a black and white feature. Lumet shows real precision in creating little shifts of colour. For example in the first meeting between James Mason and his superior the opening banter is in one motionless camera set-up, but as we reach a point of interest the camera pans round for no other apparent reason than to bring a red book and telephone into the frame – a little hint of colour to focus our interest. The choice of red by the way is of course symbolic of communism, but I believe Lumet is using it more to tap into our association of it with danger – we pick such things up subconsciously but we tend not to read direct symbolism, unless we have lost interest in the story! The world of The Deadly Affair is one in which James Mason seems to belong, and he Masons it up to his world-weary best. Simone Signoret's is undoubtedly the standout performance, bitterly powerful but never quite slipping into exaggeration. It's a pity Lumet chooses such an extreme close-up for her key moment – surely her body language was worth recording too? Maximilian Schell is steady and believable but his part is fairly small. A really nice turn however is that of Harry Andrews, who does the difficult yet crucial job of making the brutish Inspector Mendel actually appear as the most sympathetic and likable character. Of course, this image is helped by the fact that as written the character has a fondness for animals, but it is Andrews who makes us really believe that here is a man who beats confessions out of people at work then goes home to feed his rabbit.So some nice, appropriate visual design, and a fitting, rewarding cast, but does it all add to a gripping motion picture? The trouble with The Deadly Affair is that it is simply too stark, too grim to really allow us to connect with the material. The character of Charles Dobbs, while his personal turmoil is clearly stated, seems altogether too humourless for us to really empathise with. The picture's bleakness even backfires on the awkward attempts at comic relief, such as Andrews continually nodding off or the ghastly MacBeth rehearsal, which seem surreally out of place, even distracting in the latter case. It is, like so much cinema of the 1960s, far more concerned with style and effect than any real attempt to engage an audience. I let The Deadly Affair more lightly than others of its ilk because so many of its parts are done well and it is never too technically showy, but the whole is disappointingly soulless.

I caught this on TCM and figured with a cast that included James Mason and Simone Signoret and direction by Sidney Lumet, it would be worth watching. I was wrong. It is ponderously slow, with uninteresting characters and a plot that is even less interesting. There is absolutely no reason to care about the "suicide" victim in the story, and even less reason to care if James Mason solves the crime. And since we didn't care, my wife and I turned it off halfway through. I'm a huge fan of Cinematographer Freddie Young, but the photography here is drab and desaturated -- it's no doubt the "look" the filmmakers wanted, but it's not a pleasure to look at. Plus, there's a subplot about Mason's nymphomaniac wife which has nothing to do with anything, other than to make Mason an even less likable protagonist. IMO, there's a reason this isn't available on DVD: it's terrible!

James Mason, Maximillian Schell, and Simone Signoret star in "The Deadly Affair," a 1966 Sidney Lumet film based on the John LeCarre novel, "Call for the Dead." It's a George Smiley story, but the character names are changed because of rights issues.James Mason is Charles Dobbs, a British agent who wants to know why a government employee committed suicide after he received security clearance. The government had received an anonymous letter about him having ties to Communism. Dobbs interviews him and learns that the man was interested in Communism as a young man only and gives him clearance. He then learns the man committed suicide. Not satisfied with the verdict, Dobbs leaves his job in order to investigate further. Meanwhile, he has problems at home with his sex addict wife (Harriet Andersson), who is involved in an affair with an old friend from the war (Schell).This is a very dark drama set in England, which looks mighty bleak in this film. Mason plays the world-weary Dobbs very well. Signoret is excellent as the victim's wife, a concentration camp survivor. She's an intriguing character, but in the end, it's not a very big role.Mason is ably supported by Harry Andrews, Kenneth Haigh, and Robert Flemyng. The climax of the film takes place at a strong performance of Edward II, in which Lynn Redgrave has a role. Corin Redgrave also appears in the movie.Good drama - if I had more familiarity with George Smiley, I could say more. I don't. I can't.