O Fator Humano

I must confess that this was the first Otto Preminger movie I've seen, so I cannot comment it as an Otto Preminger movie, but rather just a movie among others.

I'm very much a fan of both cold war spy movies and 70/80s Great Britain, so the elements were in place for me to enjoy this. I had never heard of this (I'm yet to go through Preminger's movies) and I quite randomly picked it from the online service as it seemed pretty interesting.

And it was interesting. Very subtle and talkative, I have to say I really really liked it. The story itself wasn't too exciting, but interesting nonetheless. It's about the secret service and an apparent leak of information - possibility of double agents and so on. Very gripping, yet quite slow paced - no action. I just watched le Carre film "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and they are quite alike in style, altho I have to say I enjoyed this more. Even if it's not necessarily as well made, this wasn't quite as heavy-handed.

The acting is great for the most part. Nicol Williamson was a name I hadn't heard of before, but his presence really made this movie. Very understated and brilliant character, just like anyones neighbor or work colleague. There's a weak link too unfortunately and that's Iman, she's horribly wooden and unnatural in her acting most of the time.

I'm dropping one point because of sloppy cinematography too - lighting in particular and a few shots that look really staged. I'm not sure why some scenes were so horribly set up, the lights almost looked as if they just flipped a few spotlights over and pointed them at actors faces.

Despite these few flaws, it's a really enjoyable spy movie for anyone into cold war spy stories in style of le Carre etc. Grab a whisky and time machine yourself back into cold war era. This doesn't seem to be too well distributed tho so it may be a bit hard to find.

Not being familiar with the source material upon which this is based, I worried that i would have a hard time following the various plot entanglements upon learning it was based on a rather knotty British spy novel but the screenplay makes everything that is happening (and why) more or less clear enough for someone just catching it randomly (like i did) to get.

Film's first half is really quite good. It takes you into the cold and somewhat distant world of this quite average bureaucrat's office and then home life (wherein you learn that he's being suspected of leaking top secret info--"very unimportant top secret info" as one of the characters making these allegations says--but top secret none the less.) Film really captures and sustains a very solid tone of slow growing mistrust by everyone in the film. Nicol Williamson's character realizes he's under suspicion right away but the various other characters' slow burning distrust of one another grows rather nicely as the film goes on. (In true British spy film tradition tho none of them ever seem to voice their distrust of one another to each other, choosing instead calmly and carefully constructed parables of being trapped in boxes within boxes.) As Nicol Williamson somewhat slowly tries to put together a plan to quiet his superior's suspicions about him and keep his wife and adopted son safe, everything around him naturally falls apart and the film's narrative somewhat suffers from having to keep clear the reasons why Williamson is doing what he's doing as well as what his superior's are up to (and why they too are doing what they're doing) It doesn't help that the film without much warning about halfway through flashes back to Williamson's time in Africa when he first met and began an affair with the woman who would come to be his wife---that part is of course supposed to explain Williamson's motivation and give you some idea of what's at stake--but because of its rather abrupt happening, you never really feel much except for confusion, especially once the film just as arbitrarily jumps back to present day.

Film's last half hour or so gets somewhat jumbled and almost completely loses the nice quiet momentum it had been steadily building up---jumbled as in i'm not entirely sure what exactly happened but I get the main idea regardless. I won't spoil the events that happen but I will say that the big event that happens at film's end certainly doesn't feel like a big event, nor does it feel like a very satisfactory ending. Perhaps the novel was able to end this way because it was able to leave you with the proper sense that the main character's feelings on what is happening to him was resolved more or less, but the film literally leaves you hanging for much, much more closure on behalf of the fate of one Maurice Castle.

That said there are some wonderful details featured throughout. From Robert Morley's delicious performance as the devious doctor whom the section employs for "physicals" of its employees, to the wedding reception at the easily cowed secion chief Richard Attenborough's house (wherein his shrew of an ex wife completely chastises him for breaking her precious ceramic owls) to the painting of boxes decorating the hotel walls where the villains meet in the first half to discuss what is to be done with their suspects to just about every scene featuring Derek Jacobi as the heavy drinking/no sweat colleague of Castle, there is much to be savored and enjoyed here...just don't expect any action or actual resolutions to the film's various plot points.

A Cold War Tragedy

Great dialogue and characters. Nicol Williamson plays our hero. He does some brilliant and subtle work here. Always a pleasure to see him on the screen.

Iman plays his wife. Unfortunately, she is hopelessly outclassed by the rest of the cast which makes her okay performance look worse by comparison.

Robert Morley steals the show as the villainous doctor who gets more of a thrill from killing than healing people. He owns every scene he is in.

As for the plot and pacing, I have some criticism. Just as the main story start to pick up steam, there is an extended flashback in the middle of the film that derails the momentum. I wish they found a different way to present that information that didn't effect the pacing.

The picture concerns the world of secrets agents and spies . Unexciting spy caper has a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence , as a British Service agent betraying his country in order to aid a woman and a friend . The high-command fears he may be the leak to Moscow, and schemes to stop the damage permanently . Then Security man Daintry is brought in to investigate. As a result of his actions an innocent man is condemned to a fatal fate . Things go wrong when the responsible person is discovered and is forced to defect . Every man in love is a potential traitor !.

This interesting but low-key movie is a cold thriller plenty of suspense , mystery , plot twists , tension and top cast . The prospect of Tom Stoppard rendition a Graham Greene novel promises more than movie really offers , though darkly ironic tale of Foreign Office treason still throws up delights and twisted surprises . The casting is first-rate with a top-notch star-studded , including script by prestigious Tom Stoppard , though results are average. As the bulk of the formidable cast is pleasantly familiar in this engaging if slow-moving drama , including the following ones : Richard Attenborough , John Gielgud , Derek Jacobi , Robert Morley, Ann Todd , Richard Vernon , Tony Vogel , Fiona Fullerton, Adrienne Corri , Martin Benson . And no fault of the always splendid Nicol Williamson as a British double agent who is forced to defect to Russia , though he's billed eight in order alphabetic , but quite clearly has the central part , and surprisingly the gorgeous model Iman , David Bowie's wife, resulting to be an acting discovery by providing an nice performance.

Based on the novel by Graham Greene , almost all of his novels and five plays -including "Brighton Rock", "The Ministry of Fear" and "The End of the Affair"- , have been brought to the screen. A superb storyteller, he also wrote the screenplays for such classics as The fallen idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949). The flick belongs to spies sub-genre developed during ¨Cold war¨ and its maxim representations are John LeCarre's novels rendered to cinema in movies as ¨The spy who came in from cold¨ (by Martin Ritt with Richard Burton) , ¨The Kremlin Letter¨(John Huston with Nigel Green) and ¨Russia House¨(Fred Schepisi with Sean Connery) , these films get similar atmosphere and twisted intrigues about spies among East and west World but with no relation to spies from James Bond novels by Ian Fleming . The motion picture was professionally directed by Otto Preminger. His direction tends to to lack passion , robbing what what should be a thrilling story of some of the human factor of the title . The great filmmaker Otto Preminger made several successful and classic movies , such as : ¨Fallen Angel , Daisy Kenyon, Forever amber , Whirlpool, Angel face, The moon is blue, Carmen Jones , Court martial of Billy Mitchell, The man with the golden arm , Saint Joan, Bonjour Tristesse , Exodus , The cardinal, Advise and consent, Hurry sundown , Bunny Lake is missing , In harm's way¨, and this ¨The human factor¨ : Preminger's final film . Rating 6/10 . Watchable spy drama , but neither extraordinary , nor notable , but acceptable and passable . The story will appeal to suspense movies fans and people with adquired tastes .

Nicol Williamson remains restrained throughout the film, yet his face is so expressive that it does mirror the emotions and thoughts of his character. His admirable performance elevates this otherwise flat, talky thriller, which definitely tries to be a non-taditional spy drama, in the spirit of "The Ipcress File", but doesn't even have the elementary excitement we expect from the genre. (**)