Thriller

Funeral in Berlin

- It was going to be a lovely funeral. Harry ‘Ipcress File’ Palmer just hoped it wouldn’t be his …

Colonel Stok, a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.

Release Date : 1966-12-22

Language :GermanEnglish

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Paramount PicturesLowndes Productions Limited

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Harry Palmer

Original Name : Michael Caine

Gender : Male

Character Name : Johnnie Vulkan

Original Name : Paul Hubschmid

Gender : Male

Character Name : Colonel Stok

Original Name : Oskar Homolka

Gender : Male

Character Name : Samantha Steel

Original Name : Eva Renzi

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ross

Original Name : Guy Doleman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Hallam

Original Name : Hugh Burden

Gender : Male

Character Name : Aaron Levine

Original Name : Heinz Schubert

Gender : Male

Character Name : Werner

Original Name : Wolfgang Völz

Gender : Male

Character Name : Reinhardt

Original Name : Thomas Holtzmann

Gender : Male

Character Name : Kreutzman

Original Name : Günter Meisner

Gender : Male

Character Name : Artur

Original Name : Herbert Fux

Gender : Male

Character Name : Benjamin

Original Name : Rainer Brandt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Ross

Original Name : Rachel Gurney

Gender : Female

Character Name : Rukel

Original Name : John Abineri

Gender : Male

Character Name : Chico

Original Name : David Glover

Gender : Male

Character Name : Babcock

Original Name : Sarah Brackett

Gender : Female

Character Name : Black Widow

Original Name : Charlotte Brummerhoff

Gender : Male

Character Name : Monica

Original Name : Ira Hagen

Gender : Male

Character Name : Old Man

Original Name : Erhart Stettner

Gender : Male

Character Name : Alice (uncredited)

Original Name : Freda Bamford

Gender : Female

Character Name : Lady on the London Bus (uncredited)

Original Name : Pauline Chamberlain

Gender : Female

Character Name : Commuter (uncredited)

Original Name : Patrick Halpin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bar Girl (uncredited)

Original Name : Ursula Heyer

Gender : Female

Character Name : Brigit (uncredited)

Original Name : Marthe Keller

Gender : Female

Character Name : East German Guard (uncredited)

Original Name : Edward Meeks

Gender : Male

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2022-06-29

Michael Caine reprises his role as the rather curmudgeonly, stoic, "Harry Palmer" in this rather lacklustre tale of Cold War espionage. He is given the task of travelling to East Berlin to help facilitate the defection of "Col. Stok" (the scene-stealing Oskar Homolka), who has for years been in charge of stopping folks escaping from the East heading West - but with increasingly limited success! Pretty quickly, "Palmer" smells a rat. Well, actually, he smells a whole sewer of them and has no idea whom to trust as this really rather pedestrian story plods along. Caine is fine, but we see too little of Homolka and the rest of the cast add very little to this really un-menacing thriller. The infamous Berlin Wall seems to offer very little by way of impediment to anyone's movements around the city, and the longer the film went on the less I really bothered about the fairly obvious outcome. It's really only a film for fans of the star, this - and is simply not a patch on the "Ipcress File" (1965).

SmarterLabels

@SmarterLabels

2023-07-14

This almost shocked me. I have watched this film a number of times over the years, and really considered it a somewhat poorer sequel to the exploits of Harry Palmer as first seen in The Ipcress File. Well, I watched it again one day after when I was well rested (and a little bit bored). The thing is that I was concentrating on every little event or nuance that I was picking up. And lo and behold a whole new level of intrigue emerged. I had only ever previously glossed over the surface, picking up the salient features of the plot. But the deeper layer is sooo much more interesting. You need to take your time and look for it though. Start considering the motivations behind the things people say and do, and whether you are quite sure who was behind them, and who was working for who at the time. There are a lot of unstated goings on under the surface that explain seemingly small details that actually give the game away if you stop to think about them. Of course, if you are super bright and really on the ball, you may pick up this deeper level of intrigue at first viewing. Sadly I did not; - or is that happily, since when I did eventually pick it up it was like watching a whole new (and far more satisfying) movie.