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Plot summary
It was originally billed in the film’s PR material in the following way: “stunning, cunning, spy-thrilling...in this deadly game of east-west politics, ‘superspy’ Armstrong is an expendable man.” Despite the excellent PR spin, the film by all accounts did little with theatre audiences in the UK and overseas. It draws parallels with the so-called 'spy with no name' films; however, Deighton has corroborated that the Patrick Armstrong character is not the unnamed spy who became Harry Palmer. As such, it’s not as widely recognised as the Caine films, and there is little dramatic connection back to the earlier films.
Michael Petrovich, a relatively unknown actor, plays the main character with a new identity and role outside of the secret service - it appears - doing war gaming for a London-based defence research agency. One evening, he finds his flat has been ransacked, and it has something to do with Colonel Stok, Harry Palmer's old adversary (which is why many readers and viewers may have made associations with the earlier character). Armstrong is led into meeting with a Conservative MP who, with the connivance of his boss, Dawlish, is keen to put a spanner in the works of attempts by a Russian politician to unify the two Germanies.
Petrovich does try to replicate the character of a tough-guy spy. His work on the film isn't bad, and there are performances from a range of British actors which add something. Similarly, the actor playing Colonel Stok is fine, but lacks Oskar Homolka's bulky, vodka-fuelled bonhomie and knowing expression from the earlier films. The film script is quite labyrnthine at key points, and the viewer is not always clear who's doing what to whom, why, or what their back-story is. But, the narrative of the original story is followed pretty closely and it is a good solid drama.
Visually, this has the appearance of a TV series rather than a feature film, which means this film lacks some of the dramatic impact you'd hope for. Nevertheless, it feels very much of its time and has a lot of seventies style and panache to it.
Film notes
This film has never, as research seems to indicate, been released commercially on DVD in the UK or the US markets since its release - suggesting that the audience response in 1976 was an arbiter of an future audience interest in buying or renting this movie. Interestingly, it did come out in the UK briefly on Betamax Video. It has rarely if ever been shown on terrestrial TV. However, it is now available as a £2.99 download from the director's website.
Deighton wrote Spy Story after a letter from a wargamer, who thought that Bomber would make a very good basis for a wargame. They exchanged a few letters and Deighton became interested in the idea of a story in which people were playing a wargame. He thought it would require a sort of massive board to explain it to the audience (sort of like the boards used by the RAF in the Battle of Britain. This is the aspect of Spy Story that professionals have pointed out to Deighton is inaccurate, as there would be only a lot of data being churned out by machines.
The director, Lindsay Shonteff, who died three years ago was, according to his website, quite a cinematic maverick who fell out with a number of studios but continued to make a wide range of films.
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