Spy story films come in all shapes and sizes – from action romps to internally tortured protagonists - and are a requisite genre of films

Audiences never seem to get their fill of spies, CIA, defectors, secret identities and cool gadgets

The latest, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, prompts us to think back some on some of the best and most diverse of the spy film genre

Unforgettable Spy Story Films | 7

Charade

http://youtu.be/NMkeqjacvAU
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, Thomas Chelimsky
Year: 1963

The sixties was in many ways the high time for spy films, and Charade has two of the biggest stars of their day – or any day – Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. A graying Cary Grant might not be the Bourne-type action man, but Grant is perfect as Peter Joshua, the bumbling acquaintance who turns out to be involved both with the death of Regina Lampert’s husband and a revolving door of identities. The pairing is perfect, and the two have real chemistry – and also would make beautiful, beautiful children

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn beautifully duetting in Charade

Charade also has a good bit of comedy as well as a love story, all against the backdrop of an iconic Paris. The twists and turns keep coming, giving us a really surprising ending. Some viewers might also be won over by Audrey Hepburn’s fantastic sixties, Givenchy wardrobe, but don’t worry if that doesn’t interest you, there are still plenty gun fights and murders for all action fans

Unforgettable Spy Story Films | 6

The Bourne Identity

Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Gabriel Mann, Walton Goggins, Josh Hamilton, Julia Stiles, Orso Maria Guerrini, Tim Dutton, Denis Braccini, Nicky Naude, David Selburg
Year: 2002

A lot of digital ink has been spilled praising the three Bourne films, and in many ways these have ushered in a new series of spy films, marked by a thoughtful action protagonist rather than a buff meathead. Doug Liman’s opening film – The Bourne Identity - also gives action that is easy to follow and less reliant on big explosions a la typical summer blockbusters. It also helps that the source material, the books by Robert Ludlum, create a three-dimensional Jason Bourne, an amnesiac hero on a mission to get back his identity. Matt Damon provides the perfect amount of approachable, puppy-dog-face, and running jumping climbing action star

Matt Damon - alongside Franka Potente - tries to solve the mystery of his past as Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne is the emotional center of The Bourne Identity, and rather than a convoluted case of mistaken identities (though there are twists and turns) the audience is fundamentally focused on finding out Bourne’s past, which gives a focused and at times rather moving film. Though the other members of the trilogy – The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum – don’t quite provide the punch of the first, The Bourne Identity is still a must for any fans of the modern spy genre

Unforgettable Spy Story Films | 5

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

http://youtu.be/e95caAjjo_M
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker, George Voskovec, Rupert Davies, Cyril Cusack, Peter van Eyck, Michael Hordern, Robert Hardy, Bernard Lee, Beatrix Lehmann, Esmond Knight, Tom Stern, Niall MacGinnis
Year: 1965

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is one of two spy films on this list based on a John le Carré novel, and with good reason. The book is one of the best spy novels of all time, and both the book and the film paved the way for a more morally ambiguous and internally tortured spy (Daniel Craig’s Bond, I’m looking right at you). Richard Burton plays protagonist Alec Leamas, head of the failing West Berlin office of the British Intelligence, Circus. For his one last mission, he poses as a defector to East Germany, to try and take down Mundt, a high-ranking East German official. However, as identities are revealed and plots are unraveled – as they so often are – Leamas becomes less of the double agent, and more of a pawn in a larger game, a fact that is not lost on him and causes him a great deal of moral quandary

Richard Burton‘s stern face as Alec Leamas realizes he is being played

Leamas certainly falls far from an idealized film spy when he characterizes as a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. His actions at the end of the movie bring to the forefront the real moral concerns of the Cold War, and of many subterfuge actions. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold may not be the lightest fare, but rest assured – you’ll never look at a spy film the same way again

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