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1] Casablanca – 1942
This is an obvious choice but well worth re-watching. Although not strictly a spy movie, this classic is set in the nest of spies that was Casablanca in the early years of WWII. There are many reasons why director Michael Curtiz’s masterpiece has become timeless – Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch’s screenplay crackles with wit and is gorgeously paced. Humphrey Bogart, at his gruff best, and Ingrid Bergman, at her most luminescent, are unforgettable. Casablanca is about loss, love, duty, and sacrifice…with a hell of a film score by Max Steiner. As time goes by, it improves with age.
2] Anthropoid – 2016
Based on the successful assassination of SS supremo Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, Anthropoid stars A-listers Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan, both in superb form. Shot entirely on location in Prague, notably in places where Operation Anthropoid took place, this is a smart, affecting film that highlights the immense courage of those who dared to kill the chief architect of the Holocaust. The director, Sean Ellis, went to impressive lengths to be historically accurate, including basing the film’s climax on detailed records held by the Gestapo.
3] The Imitation Game - 2014
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, this biographical thriller was the highest-grossing independent movie of 2014, winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. That screenplay was based on Graham Moore’s excellent 1983 biography, “Alan Turing: The Enigma,” by Andrew Hodges. Turing was the tortured genius behind breaking the Germans’ Enigma coding. It’s been said that Turing’s achievement shortened the war by as much as two years and saved millions of lives. That may be a bit of a stretch, but this profoundly moving film more than does justice to a previously uncelebrated, intellectual hero of WWII.
4] The Eye of the Needle – 1981
Based on the addicting Ken Follett novel, this beautifully shot film stars the late Donald Sutherland and to-die-for Kate Nelligan. Sutherland plays a German spy, Henry Faber, who uncovers crucial information about the D-Day invasion and, forced to go the lam, ends up stranded with a family on an island off the coast of Scotland. Nelligan plays Lucy, the wife of an embittered, injured fighter pilot. The chemistry between Nelligan and Sutherland simmers until an unforgettable climax.
5] Valkyrie – 2008
Tom Cruise was an unusual choice to play a Prussian aristocrat, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who came close to assassinating Hitler in July 1944. In Germany, there was some controversy about the famed Scientologist starring as von Stauffenberg, but the film was generally well-reviewed. Cruise is remarkably understated throughout, allowing the compelling story to dominate, bolstered by impressive staging and often remarkable historical accuracy.
6] Flame and Citron – 2008
The most expensive Danish film ever produced upon its release, this well-crafted film centers on two Danish resistance fighters, Flammen and Citeonen, played by Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen. Director Ole Christian Madsen spent eight years researching the story, and the result is a complex, highly intelligent exploration of the moral ambiguities involved so often in war, showing how “heroes” can be deeply flawed yet still on the right side – just - of history.
7] Lust, Caution – 2007
This captivating film, directed by the great Ang Lee, is based on a 1979 novella by Eileen Chang. It has been described as an “erotic spy romantic mystery” and is perhaps the least appreciated of Lee’s many films from the last two decades. Set in 1938 in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1942, the movie tells the story, based loosely on historical events, of a group of Chinese students who plan to kill a Japanese collaborator. The principals - actress Tang Wei, and actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai - are wonderfully matched in this tense and sumptuously shot story of love, lust and deception.
8] Allied – 2016
Starring Brad Pitt at arguably his most dashing and Marion Cotillard at her most seductive, this is one of my favorite films of the last decade. The complex relationship between Pitt, playing a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, and Cotillard, apparently a member of the French resistance, is brilliantly traced as they fall in love and then marry. North Africa and wartime England, especially London, are lushly portrayed, and the climax had me on the edge of my seat while reaching for a tissue. Enormous fun, evoking classic spy thrillers.
9] The Eagle Has Landed – 1976
Based on the book by Jack Higgins, one of the principal pleasures of this movie is seeing the likes of Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall seemingly having so much fun in this, at times, intentionally humorous romp. The film centers on a fictional plot to kidnap Winston Churchill during the Second World War. The English region of Cornwall has never looked so pretty, and the performance of Jenny Agutter reminds us of how splendid an actress she was in her prime.
10] Five Fingers – 1952
Based on the true story of Albanian-born Elyesa Bazna, a Nazi spy codenamed Cicero, this gem of a movie stars James Mason in top form. The screenplay is crisp, the plot full of great twists, and the direction by the legendary Joseph L. Mankiewicz is faultless. This is old-school Hollywood film-making at its finest.
