Ìý User Rating 
Contains mild violence and language
Remember when Michael Caine was cast as Austin Powers' Dad in Goldmember? Here's where the inspiration came from. Back in 1965 Caine starred in The Ipcress File as Harry Palmer, the working-class answer to James Bond. A new franchise for the spy-hard 60s was born, but none of the other Palmer pics (Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain) was able to match this gritty tale of missing scientists, cryptic tapes and psychedelic brainwashing set in a grey, wet London.
Unlike Bond, Palmer doesn't get to trot the globe, bed exotic lovelies or play with funky gadgets. But he's still a cool character thanks to Caine's Martini-dry Cockney charm. And in place of 007's OTT stunt-pieces (Harry steers a shopping cart rather than an Aston Martin), we get a fiendishly twisty plot that sends our reluctant hero to find out who's behind the kidnapping and mind-wiping of the nation's top boffins.
"SPYCRAFT NITTY-GRITTY"
Eventually, Harry himself has his head re-wired in one of the film's stand-out sequences. This eerie (and nowadays somewhat kitsch) spectacle aside, helmer Stanley J Furie opts for spycraft nitty-gritty over suspense. However, he doesn't skimp on style: with the action lensed from an array of low, skewed angles, even a trip to the supermarket rouses the retina. And of course, it's a pleasure to revisit Caine in his bespectacled prime - as well as great homegrown character actors like Gordon Jackson, who carried on doing his bit for British intelligence in his best-known role as The Professionals' Cowley.
