Ritt’s socially and politically minded adaptation of John le Carré’s breakthrough spy novel is a bleak portrait of Cold War espionage that self-consciously replaces the increasingly romanticized theatrics of James Bond with a chilly sense of desperation and manipulation. Set against the barbed wire of the Berlin Wall and shot in a grayish black and white that visually suggests eternal winter, the film may be a bit too grim and fatalistic for its own good, although it benefits from one of Richard Burton’s most restrained (and therefore best) performances. (DVD)