This is the (unofficial) Harry Palmer movie site. The Harry Palmer
movies belong to the "serious spy movies". Len Deighton wrote the
novels, but Harry Saltzman (who was also one of the the producers of
James Bond) and his team created the name and movie character.
"Harry Palmer is the thinking man's James Bond", they said...
Michael Caine starred as the "clever Cockney", the spy who wasn't as
glamorous as 007, but was certainly more realistic. The first three
movies, The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain,
were stylishly made by Saltzman and his team in the Sixties. Much
later, two more were made in 1995, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in
St. Petersburg. Unfortunately these films missed everything that made
their predecessors so successful, except for Michael Caine, who had
become older but was still a superpersonality on screen.
These pages are
about Harry Palmer and everything around the short phenomenon. Check
the movie pages in the menu for posters, stills, lobbycards,
radiocommercials, featurettes, trailers, deleted scenes, soundtracks
and a lot more. For more general information about the Harry Palmer
phenomena, read this article.These
pages describe as much as there is available about the movies or
give links to other pages. Thanks to Terry Hine, Mark
Isaacs, filmcollectief.nl and Pim Bergkamp
for their great contributions. In case you have material to add,
please mail me.
new **9
Nov'09 Liner notes and CD cover Billion Dollar Brain soundtrack
added here.2
Nov'09 Four Ipcress 'behind the scenes' stills added here.22
Oct'09
Ipcress rare ad and Italian video cover added
here and
here.8
Oct'09 Deleted scenes on European Bullet to Beijing dvd added
here.5
Oct'09
Two movies added in the spy movie section
here.30
Sep'09 Malaysian Ipcress dvd cover added
here plus Greek Bullet dvd cover
here.
25 Sep'09
Spy Story now legally available, click
here.14
Sep'09 Obituary added here plus news about a new Palmer movie
here.7 Sep'09 Rare Norwegian Funeral videocover added
here
(thanks to Morten Sagen)
and Greek Midnight dvd cover
here.24 Aug'09
Five rare Funeral in Berlin stills added
here and
here and behind the scenes shot added
here!16 Aug'09
Japanese Funeral in Berlin dvdcover added
here.**
new
Billion Dollar Brain soundtrack officially
released!
Previously available only as
part of a very expensive limited edition box set called The
MGM Soundtrack Treasury (that sold out quickly), the Billion
Dollar Brain soundtrack is now available as a stand-alone
release, for all who missed out on the box set or may not have
even known about it. This release has been newly remastered.
Also on this CD: the soundtrack of the The Final Option by Roy
Budd (Get Carter)
Only 1000 copies available. It
will be released in december 2009 but delivery has started
in November!
Missing scenes in European Bullet
to Beijing dvd...
Sue Lloyd surprisingly
reprises her role as Jean after 30 years in Bullet to Beijing
(1995). She had played the role before in The Ipcress File. In
Bullet To Beijing Harry Palmer refers to the good old days and they
have a nice little rendez-vous. This last scene is NOT included in
the shorter UK video and dvd version of Bullet To Beijing, only on the
Canadian dvdversion... See clip!
MICHAEL CAINE to bring back his most famous character for one last mission?
14 September 2009 WENN:
The veteran actor played Cold War spy Harry Palmer in three
movies in the 1960s - The Ipcress File, Funeral In Berlin and
Billion Dollar Brain. Now he wants to drag the cockney hero
out of retirement for a new movie. He said: "I have a script
called Cold War Requiem, which is Harry retired and he's
living out his fantasy in some middle class area in London and
the guys who he screwed have now got rich and they've decided
to come and kill him. "I would like to get that done but we
haven't got that financed yet."
Canadian Press:
"There's a script which I
like very much, which is called 'Cold War Requiem,"' said
Caine, adding that Susan Sarandon was interested in playing
his wife in the film.
"It's about an old spy from
the '60s in the Cold War, who's now retired - just like me, an
old guy. And his enemies come back to kill him because of what
he did in those days. ... It's a very good thriller. it might
get done, it might not."