On the advice of a friend who loved this movie, I spent my Saturday afternoon sticking with it even when my better judgment said to turn it off. And, I really wish listened to my intuition because when the credits rolled I felt like I had just wasted two hours of my life on this VERY dated and incredibly convoluted film.Perhaps 50 years ago when it was first released it might have been considered intriguing and suspenseful. But today I just found it to be an incredible bore.

In the 60's, during the Cold War, the operative Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) loses his last agent in East Berlin when he is shot while crossing the border. Leamas travels to London to meet his Chief Control (Cyril Cusack). They have a meeting and Control asks him to lure the East Germans to make them believe that their agent Hans-Dieter Mundt (Peter Van Eyck) is a double agent and use the Jewish agent Fiedler (Oskar Werner), who is under the command of Mundt and hates him, to expose Mundt to get rid off him. Leamas poses of alcoholic defector without any pension that finds a job in a library. Soon he becomes lover of the naive Nan Perry (Claire Bloom), who works with him in the library and belongs to the Communist Party. Leamas is arrested for fighting in a store and when he is discharged from jail, an East German agent recruits him and they travel to Netherlands. Then they travel to East German where Leamas meets Fiedler that uses his information to accuse Mundt. They go to a tribunal and out of the blue, Mundt's attorney summons a mysterious witness. Who might be this witness?"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" is a film with an amoral spy story of manipulation, seduction and betrayal. The plot point is absolutely unexpected and the explanation of the behavior of a spy of Leamas to Nan is cruel. The performances are outstanding and the conclusion is depressive. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Espião que Veio do Frio" ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold")

Having read the first 4 of John Le Carre's 'George Smiley' books, I might say "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" is my personal favorite.I never thought I would one day like a black and white movie (especially a movie made after a novel...). Somehow, nowadays, script writers turn the plot around 180 degrees and most of the times it seems like the book and the movie have nothing in common (or the movie lacks scenes that are vital for the action). But not this movie. Considering the year during which it had been filmed, I might say that it's quite good. Not impressive. But watchable without finding yourself doing something else in the meantime out of boredom.

Short and sweet:1. Audience does not know what to expect from this movie, not at all means no emotional involvement which results in extremely boring movie although I kinda enjoyed the tribunal scene.2. The hero of the movie has no clear outer motivation nor a clear conflict, again a major contributor to a boring movie.3. Suppose we tolerate the first 2, this movie had absolutely no message, just a movie about a British agent tries to do his job which has not been well described possibly due to too much names in very short scenes of exposition.4. Talking heads movie, no upside down with minimal action. The worst part is that in most of the movie you don't know what they are talking about and still struggling with names due to cheesy exposition. It may be funny but for first 30 minutes you may not even realize that the story occurs in London not West Berlin.5. Plays are mostly theatrical rather than cinematic.6. I don't know what the writer/director taught of the very last scenes of the movie but it was as cheesy as it could get.My verdict? I struggled to stay awake and watch this movie without much needed interruption and I did but I did not like it and I do not recommend this movie to anyone,