Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

`Smiley's People' wrapped up the three John LeCarre Cold War novels concerning George Smiley, the lumpy, unprepossessing but brilliant British spymaster who plays a deadly game with his Russian nemesis, Karla, in the dark world of East/West espionage. As played marvelously by Alec Guinness in this filmed version co-produced by the BBC and Paramount Pictures, no matter how bland his character attempts to be he is always the center of attraction, though surrounded by great, mostly British character actors, among others Bernard Hepton as the shady, pseudo-sophisticated Toby Esterhase; Anthony Bates offering a somewhat more vulnerable version of his trademark supercilious performance as Smiley's former superior; Eileen Atkins as the doughty émigré mother of a long lost daughter who Karla has picked for his own daughter's new persona; Michael Lonsdale as one of Karla's bumbling Russian agents-in-place; and Barry Foster, in a delightful comic turn as the new head of the British `Circus' which has brought back the retired Smiley for one more foray out into `the cold.' Michael Byrne competently takes over the role of Smiley's protégé Peter Guillam from Michael Jayston (marginally better) in the earlier BBC production of LeCarre's companion Smiley novel, `Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.' Although based on a dubious premise - Karla is looking for a covering `legend' for his daughter, a schizophrenic, whom he desires to be treated in the West rather than in Russia - once accepted the film slowly but powerfully builds to the final confrontation between the two long time adversaries. Though Karla himself is played by the accomplished actor Patrick Stewart, make no mistake about it: if he hadn't gone on to stardom on American TV as Star Trek's Captain Picard, his effective but non-speaking mini-role would hardly have been noted. The DVD is disappointingly grainy, though the sound is adequate. But buyer beware: for some reason BBC for their American market has released the cut, PBS version, which is minus several excellent scenes. At the end of the Foster turn, for example, when he suggests to Smiley that they now retire to the rooftop garden for further discussion (during which he avows, in a display of typical Le Carre cynicism, that if the Karla operation is blown the Circus will disavow both it and Smiley), the next scene instead opens the following day with the operation already begun. Also missing is a delicious later scene when Hepton in his inimitable fashion `persuades' the overbearing Lonsdale that the latter's sudden attempt to hold the operation ransom is misguided at best. Why BBC chose to do this is a mystery, since I was able some years ago to obtain a tape copy of `People' from an original master, and there should have been no reason why they didn't use such a master for this release. Nevertheless the movie is still highly recommended; now if the Brits would finally release that other masterpiece of English spycraft, Len Deighton's `Game, Set and Match' starring the splendid Ian Holm, our libraries of these more intelligent forays into the underworld of Cold War espionage would be just about complete!