The Deadly Affair (1967)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Load of rubbish!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Charles Dobbs (James Mason) investigates a typed letter accusing Samuel Fennan of the foreign office of his communist past. Dobbs' personal life is completely dysfunctional with his wife (Harriet Andersson) openly cheating on him. Dobbs is doing a security check on Fennan who seems to be amiable and claims to be young at the time. Then Dobbs is told he committed suicide. When everybody wants to leave it simply as a suicide, Dobbs continues to investigate. He interviews the wife Elsa Fennan (Simone Signoret) and things don't add up. An old friend Dieter Frey (Maximilian Schell) returns to town and his wife is cheating with him. Retired Inspector Mendel (Harry Andrews) helps with the investigation.It's a murky spy thriller from a John le Carré novel. It's slow and moody. Director Sidney Lumet does a reasonable job. It's not particularly tense. Even the action isn't that exciting. Dobbs is a pathetic character in his personal life. James Mason plays the personification of the British stiff upper lip. The mystery moves fairly slowly. It's not completely compelling to me. There are long sections of bland scenes like the play rehearsal. I think that may have been a bit British humor that I don't get.

The meeting at a London park triggers the death of Samuel Fennan, a man being accused of being a communist spy. Charles Dobbs, had interviewed the man and based on his talk with Fennan, he cleared him from the charge. Fennan had confessed of his sympathies for the party in his youth, but he has lived to regret it. Dobbs, is shocked when he learns about Fennan's death, which appears to be a suicide. Dobbs is a long suffering man. His wife Ann, has had a long history of deceiving him. As he prepares to go to talk to his boss, Ann comes home from a night on the town. Charles Dobbs feels betrayed, but he is in love with Ann, in spite of her deceit. To add to his problems, the unexpected arrival of Dieter Frey, whose friendship Dobbs has enjoyed, sends him a message about his sudden appearance, which he ties to being involved with Ann.Dobbs realizes the mysterious death of Fennan is not what is made out to be. When he notices a car tailing his every move, Dobbs realize there was foul play in Fennan's demise. Visiting Elsa Fennan, complicates things for Dobbs. He finds a cold woman, a Jewish survivor of the camps, gives him a new angle to explore. With the help of police inspector Mendel, Dobbs sets out to investigate on his own account. The duo gets lucky in getting help from a disgruntled employee of a Home Office officer, who is key to getting to the bottom of the problem.An interesting thriller directed by Sidney Lumet. Based on a John LeCarre spy novel, the adaptation for the screen was entrusted to Paul Dehn. This film was a rarity for Mr. Lumet, who worked mainly in New York. Mr. Lumet takes the action to places where few tourists venture when exploring London. This is more of a cerebral account of the investigation. Mr. Lumet injects some laughs when he takes us to a rehearsal of "Macbeth" at a small theater. Then, he sets the pivotal scene where the mystery is solved by taking us to the Aldwich theater, the home of the Royal Shakespeare company during those years. James Mason makes a wonderful Dobbs, holding the viewer's interest throughout the film. The cast is wonderful. Harry Andrews is seen as Inspector Mendel, in a fine performance. Simone Signoret's Elsa is dignified in a quiet way. Maximilian Schell shows up as Dieter, a man whose friendship had to be questioned by Dobbs. Harriet Andersson, the Swedish star of many of Igmar Bergman's films plays the deceiving Ann. The supporting English cast does a fine job for the director.Freddy Young captures those out of the way places in London. Quincy Jones was the man responsible for the musical score. Not often seen these days, "The Deadly Affair" is a fine thriller that will delight fans of Mr. Lumet and John LeCarre's.

Being one of the less familiar entries in the Lumet canon, The Deadly Affair is a superior John Le Carré spy cold war drama, based on his first published novel "Call for the Dead". The author's ability to infuse his characters with the necessary humanity, the flaws and melancholy of living in a world rapidly evolving beyond their control always does it for me and the same happens here. Mr. Lumet captures cold war London, describes the routine of decidedly unglamorous government agents (think 007 in reverse), tormented by nymphomaniac wives, sleepiness (…) and, typical of Le Carre, confronted with the emotional frustration of questioning old friendships. Few abrupt "Roeg-ish" cuttings aside, this one gains from its splendid Freddie Young photography, the exceptional production design and the jazzy Quincy Jones soundtrack. Performances vary from the (usual) delight in watching Mason, to the magnetic (Signoret) and the downright awkward – Ms. Andersson (Bergman's one time muse) may be a wisely twisted choice but acts unconvincingly hysterical. Genre fans expected.

Due to one of those internicene cock-ups Paramount 'owned' the name of George Smiley, a character who cropped up in several John Le Carre novels, so here he is renamed Charles Dobbs and portrayed by James Mason (who gets to keep the nymphomaniac wife, Ann the Le Carre created). That epitome of minimalist acting Simone Signoret walks away with the film despite appearing only four times - and in two of those she remains silent) and had she been able to drag the rest of the cast up to her level we'd be talking ten out of ten. As it is the rest of the cast acquit themselves more than admirably making this Cold War thriller well worth revisiting.