Next to Alfie, Len Deighton’s spy remains Michael Caine’s signature role.
But, like many series, it’s all downhill after the opener – the steady decline from 1965 franchise starter The Ipcress File to 1966 sequel Funeral In Berlin becoming a precipitous descent by the time knock-offs Bullet To Beijing (1995) and Midnight In St. Petersburg (1996) enter the frame.
The wild card here is1967’s Billion Dollar Brain, an impossibly complicated espionage thriller given a welcome infusion of eccentricity by director Ken Russell.
