THE DEADLY AFFAIR (1967: Dir. Sidney Lumet)
James Mason was now facing middle-age and thanks to his hit with Hitchcock he hungrily devoured a full course of meaty roles that, in terms of quality, puts his run of films in the Sixties at the very pinnacle of his career. Lolita (1962), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), and Georgy Girl (1966) further polished his sterling reputation for impeccable screen acting. The Deadly Affair is the forgotten gem of this quartet, and the first of three great performances he gave for director Sidney Lumet - see also Child's Play (1972) and The Verdict (1982). Mason stars in this adaptation of John Le Carre's Call for the Dead, the novel that introduced his iconic spy master George Smiley, here, for contractual reasons, re-named Charles Dobbs. In keeping with Le Carre's bleak view of the Secret Service, Mason digs deep into the depressed life of Dobbs, a lonely man with marital troubles, in a profession predicated upon deceit and distrust. Despite a screenplay by Paul Dehn, co-writer of Goldfinger, the glamour of Bond is nowhere to be found here, replaced by a seediness and paranoia that makes this one of the most authentic films of its genre. DVD REGION 1 & 2
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