Updated RankingThe Ringer (1952)
★ ★ ½ My 3rd version of this story splits the difference between the 30s static adaptation of the play and the 60s German freewheeling hoot. Played straight, it’s an unavoidable theatrical experience with most cast wearing wigs, glasses, facial hair and age makeup to keep the audience guessing who’s The Ringer and who is simply an actor in makeup. This version captures the three-card monte of The Ringer being anyone or no one, but there are no people, only illusions.
The Colditz Story (1955)
★ ★ ★ - Good Lighthearted POW escape film, established from the opening attempts that fail because multiple groups are attempting similar secret escapes. There’s very little character, with nearly all the focus on escape plans. (Ideas are the one thing they have an excess of.) It’s not jokey enough to qualify as a comedy, but it’s full of good cheer and entertainment.
Funeral in Berlin (1966)
★ ★ ★ – OkayIt’s fascinating that Hamilton followed Goldfinger with this working class-Bond and then went back to the Bond pool. Michael Caine plays British spy Harry Palmer and while he avoids paperwork and loves the ladies, similarities to Bond end there. He is simply better at the spy game – lying to others while figuring out why they’re lying to him – beating the bad guys mostly by looking like unassuming Michael Caine in Austin Powers glasses. The plots require maximum effort to follow, there isn’t a sidekick for Palmer to let us know what he’s figured out. It’s a dry martini, but a satisfying spycraft cocktail.