Smiley's People, by John le Carré

(hb; 1979: fifth novel in the George Smiley series; third novel in the Karla trilogy)

From the inside flap:

"In Paris, a Russian woman is accosted by a Soviet agent, who offers to send her daughter West to join her. In Hamburg, a frightened Estonian emigré performs a secret mission. And in London, George Smiley - once head of British Intelligence - is called from retirement to identify the body of a former British agent. As Smiley gets involved in the tangle of events, all clues lead in one direction - to Karla, Smiley's archenemy and opposite number in Russia. This one time Karla is vulnerable. At last, after all these years, Smiley begins playing Karla's ruthless, relentless game, for that is the only way he can win."

Review:

This wrap-up of the Karla trilogy is more like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy than The Honourable Schoolboy in its scope: it focuses on a few select locales and thoroughly developed characters, as well as George Smiley's quest to destroy Karla's influence.

Exemplary read, better than Honourable (which is barely referenced in Smiley's), and great finish to the Karla-Smiley chess match.

Check it out.

Followed by The Secret Pilgrim.

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The resulting television mini-series, bearing the same title, aired in England on September 20, 1982. It first aired stateside on October 25, 1982.

Alec Guinness resumed his role of George Smiley. Bernard Hepton resumed his role of Toby Esterhase. Anthony Bate resumed his role of Sir Oliver Lacon. Michael Byrne played Peter Guillam. Bill Paterson played Lauder Strickland. Andy Bradford played Ferguson. Barry Foster played Saul Enderby.

Eileen Atkins played Madame Ostrakova. Tusse Silberg played Alexandrea Ostrakova. Vladek Sheybal played Otto Leipzig. Ingrid Pitt played Elvira. Curd Jürgens played The General. Michael Lonsdale played Anton Grigoriev. Michael Gough played Mikhel. Paul Herzberg played Villem Craven.

Lucy Fleming played Molly Meakin. Julia McCarthy played Millie McCraig.

An uncredited Alan Rickman played Mr. Brownlow.

Patrick Stewart, this time credited, reprised his role of Karla.

Simon Langton directed the six-episode mini-series, from a screenplay by co-authored by book author John le Carré and John Hopkins.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré

(hb; 1974: third novel in the George Smiley series; first novel in the Karla trilogy)

From the inside flap:

"London. It has become evident beyond all question that somewhere at the very highest levels of British Intelligence there stands a double agent -- a 'mole' implanted deep in its fabric, perhaps decades ago, by Moscow Centre. And it is evident as well that he can be one of five men -- brilliant, complicated men, proven in action, men who have worked closely together through the years, respecting each other, depending on each other, despite abrasive clashes of temperament and painful differences of caste and sensibility, despite the central imperative of their profession to trust no one. . .

"It is George Smiley, one of the five, perhaps the most brilliant and complicated of them all, who is tapped to dig out the mole and destroy him. 'You'll take the job, clean the stables?' the man from Whitehall says to him. 'Go backwards, go forwards, do whatever is necessary?' And so Smiley embarks on his blind night walk, retracing path after path into his own past -- its aliases, covers, sleights of hand -- burrowing into the dust of unresolved episodes, among them the 'mad' twilight of his old chief, Control; the two Czech bullets in Jim Prideaux's back; the dissensions that have torn apart the Circus (as Intelligence Headquarters is ambivalently called); the vagaries of his own so beautiful, so well-connected wife. . ."

Review:

The shooting of a 'Circus' agent, Jim Prideaux, in Czechoslavakia exposes the existence of a high-level Russian mole inside the British agency. As he did with the murders of the previous Smiley novels, George Smiley must sift through varied and often duplicitous personalities, recorded and current conversations, and secret paperwork spanning four decades to unearth who that agent is.

And he must do it without official government approval, without alarming the mole, or his Russian controller, Karla.

Tinker is an improvement over A Murder of Quality in that le Carré's material this time out is less ponderous (i.e., not set in a stuffy English school), with larger ramifications if Smiley, reeling from multiple personal betrayals, fails.

Excellent read, worth checking out: a great set-up for the next Smiley novel, The Honourable Schoolboy.

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The resulting television mini-series, bearing the same title, aired in England on September 10, 1979. It first aired stateside on September 29, 1980.

Alec Guinness played George Smiley. Michael Jayston played Peter Guillam. Anthony Bate played Sir Oliver Lacon. George Sewell played Mendel. Ian Richardson played Bill Haydon.

Bernard Hepton played Toby Esterhase. Hywel Bennett played Ricki Tarr. Terence Rigby played Roy Bland. Ian Bannen played Jim Prideaux. Michael Aldridge played Percy Alleline.

Alec Sabin played Fawn. Alexander Knox played Control. Duncan Jones played Roach. Daniel Beecher played Spikely.

An uncredited Patrick Stewart played Karla (aka "Gastman").

John Irvin directed the seven-episode mini-series, from a screenplay by Arthur Hopcraft.

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A theatrical remake of the 1979 mini-series is scheduled for stateside release on November 18, 2011.

Gary Oldman played George Smiley. Mark Strong played Jim Prideaux. Tom Hardy played Ricki Tarr. Benedict Cumberbatch played Peter Guillam. Kathy Burke played Connie Sachs. David Dencik played Esterhase.

Katrina Vasilieva played Ann Smiley.

Colin Firth is listed in the film credits, but there's no character name attached to his role. Such is the case for Ciarán Hinds, also.

The film was directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a script by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan.

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

(hb; 1978) 

 From the inside flap

"March, 1945. From all over war-devastated Europe, by plane and ship and submarine, are secretly dispatched shipments of precious cargo. Children. German children. To nations everywhere. These are die Sonnenkinder, children who will come of age and in the 1970s carry out their preordained mission -- the establishment of the Fourth Reich. Everywhere.

"Noel Holcroft, an American architect, is flown to Geneva and shown an extraordinary document drawn up by three men more than thirty years ago, each a member of the Third Reich's High Command -- one of them Noel's long-forgotten, natural father. The three men, appalled by the revealed horrors of the Nazi machine, have created a covenant, and executed a massive theft. The sum of $780,000,000.00 was stolen from the German coffers, and in atonement for Hitler's crimes these monies are to be used to aid the survivors and descendants of those trapped in the Holocaust. All that's necessary to release the funds is Holcroft's signature and the signature of the other two heirs. They must be found. 

 "But the document is a lie. The millions are to be the economic foundation of a vast and ruthless plan that will politically shape governments across the world, a plan so brilliantly conceived it cannot fail. The other heirs are waiting: they know the true intention. Noel does not. In signing the covenant, Holcroft will in effect be signing his own death warrant just as he is signing away the future of free people everywhere. Yet even when he finds out what the document really is, even when he discovers who is enemies are and what power lies in their hands, he determines to aid in the release of the funds, for ironically it is the only chance to stop the plan and the men who are determined to carry it out." 

 Review

Ludlum's trademark conspiratorial and labyrinthine plotting/twists/characterization, masterful bursts of violence and action, and reader-compelling prose made this near impossible to set down. Great, fast read despite its bulk. Worth owning, this. 

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The film version was released stateside on October 18, 1985. The Holcroft Covenant was directed by John Frankenheimer, who also voiced -- uncredited and unseen -- the character Bernie Sussman. The film was co-scripted by George Axelrod, Edward Anhalt and John Hopkins.

  Michael Caine played Noel Holcroft. Victoria Tennant played Helden von Tiebolt/Helden Tennyson. Anthony Andrews played Johann von Tiebolt/John Tennyson. Lilli Palmer played Althene Holcroft. Michael Lonsdale played Ernst Manfredi. Shane Rimmer played Lt. Miles. Bernard Hepton played Commander Leighton. Richard Münch, billed as Richard Munch, played Oberst. Mario Adorf played Erich Kessler/Jürgen Mass. Carl Rigg played Anthony Beaumont. Alexander Kerst played Gen. Heinrich Clausen. Michael Wolf played Gen. Erich Kessler. Hugo Bower played Gen. Wilhelm von Tiebolt.