Television adaptation of Hugh Whitemore's play about an older British couple in a suburb of London circa 1961 learning from the police that their best friends of three years--a Canadian couple who live across the road--may be involved with a notorious Russian spy. Not-bad "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production is a bare-bones dramatic presentation coasting on the performances of its cast, with the emphasis on Ellen Burstyn as the otherwise-friendless housewife who feels betrayed by chatty, lively neighbor Teri Garr. Garr is working seriously here, but there's too many close-ups of her looking puzzled, asking the same redundant questions; Burstyn fares a bit better, even if her accent comes and goes (which can be overlooked). Still, Ellen's character deteriorates under the pressure of falsehood far too soon (everyone, at some point, becomes a liar in this teleplay--a gimmick that is heightened in the dialogue but, thankfully, not underscored too strenuously). The downbeat conclusion--and the two useless melodramatic tags--is unsatisfying, as is Alan Bates' role (and over-the-top performance) as a British agent. Worth-seeing for the intriguing first-half, but the hysteria which follows feels canned.

I saw this film when it first came out. I just rented it from Netflix after all these years. This story has the same power and gut wrenching scenes that I remembered.Ellen Burstyn and Teri Garr had the talent to make this production exceptional. Alan Bates does well portraying Stewart, a weaselly little master manipulator who works for MI5.This story is close to a documentary of the investigation and arrest of Helen and Peter Kroger. Their best friends and neighbors, Bill and Ruth Search serve as a communications link for the KGB in England.Ruth is manipulated into betraying her best friend of 10 years, Helen. It becomes apparent at the end of the film that Ruth cannot live with what she has done. The film also makes clear that friendship supersedes current politics or at least should.Fortunately for the Searches, they were traded out of prison for an English agent arrested in Russia. Their neighbor Ruth did not fare so well. The Searches served 8 years for espionage. This film is heartbreaking but well done. Don't see this if you like happy endings.

This is an excellent film because of great acting skills by all of the actors and especially Ellen Burstyn,(Barbara Jackson),"Down in the Valley",'05 and Teri Garr,(Helen Schaefer),"The Sky Is Falling",'2000. The story takes place in London, England at the home of Barbara Jackson, who lives across the street from her good friend, Helen Schaefer. Helen plays an attractive blonde gal who is full of pep and very outgoing in her personality and tries to liven up her good friend Barbara, by getting her to purchase a sexy nightie for her self and husband and befriends her daughter. One day a complete stranger comes to the home of the Jackson's and disrupts their entire household and causes problems you will never believe could actually happen and I am sure it did in real life situations. I knew that this film was well produced and directed and the acting was outstanding, simply because it made me so Mad at people who would actually let this happen to their family and life without telling them WHERE TO GET OFF ! Enjoy

"Pack of Lies" is a very interesting drama which is aptly named. MI5 agents, led by Alan Bates as "Stuart," skillfully manipulate a well-intentioned British family into believing that they are merely police on a routine investigation who need to use their home in the London suburbs "just for the weekend" in order to surveil a suspect who has been tracked into their neighborhood. As it becomes clearer what is really going on and what is at stake, the agents practically take over the house, the British couple are encouraged to lie to their teenage daughter about the unseemly details they have learned, and then the husband must lie to his increasingly distraught wife in order to spare her the trauma of the final ugly truth. Everyone must deceive the family's friendly neighbors by pretending that nothing at all is amiss, for it turns out that they are Soviet spies who have been lying their heads off to maintain their cover. In the end, as British agents close in for the inevitable arrest, Ellen Burstyn, as Barb, is subsumed in guilt, completely torn between her loyalty to her best friend, Helen (Teri Garr), while at the same time feeling totally gullible and cruelly betrayed by her. This is a great TV movie with excellent performances all around, but especially from Alan Bates, Teri Garr, and Ellen Burstyn. In fact, the latter is so convincing in her interpretation that at certain key moments it almost defies description.The interesting thing, of course, is that this effective movie is based on a true story, as was pointed out in another's comments. "Helen and Peter" seemed so affable and caring but were in fact part of the infamous atomic spy ring that gathered American nuclear secrets after WWII and transmitted them to the Soviets. They escaped the US when the Rosenbergs and others were arrested, only to surface in London some time later under assumed names.