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Spy Film

Spy films depict the espionage activities of government agents and their risk of being discovered by their adversaries. From the Nazi espionage thrillers of the 1940s to the campy 007 films of the '60s to the high-tech blockbusters of today, the spy film has always been popular with audiences worldwide. Offering a combination of exciting escapism, technological thrills, and exotic locales, the spy film fuses the action and science-fiction genres, presenting clearly-delineated heroes for audiences to root for and villains for them to hiss. James Bond is the most famous of movie spies, but films about espionage have been around for a long time and encompass more diverse styles then his slick, mostly light films. Though there were a few World War II films involving the spy, notably in Britain, the Cold War is what really threw the genre into the mainstream. Bond, in his various incarnations, flippantly beat up on the Russians, but there were also more serious, probing works like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold which also emerged from the Cold War. Usually based on popular espionage books, the more serious of the films examined the nature of being a spy, the deception and revolving identity. As the Cold War ended, the newest villain became world terrorism and more often than not involved the Middle East. Unlike the western and crime genres, the morally dubious "anti-hero" has never gained a firm foothold in the spy film, perhaps because of this tendency to oversimplify right and wrong.

Major Works
Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
  9 Stars 1935 The 39 Steps   Alfred Hitchcock
  9 Stars 1946 Notorious   Alfred Hitchcock
  9 Stars 1959 North by Northwest   Alfred Hitchcock
  9 Stars 1964 Goldfinger   Guy Hamilton
  8 Stars 1963 From Russia With Love   Terence Young
  7 Stars 2001 Spy Kids   Robert Rodriguez
    7 Stars 1965 I Spy [TV Series]   Richard Sarafian
  7 Stars 1960 Our Man in Havana   Carol Reed
  7 Stars 1945 The House on 92nd Street   Henry Hathaway
    7 Stars 1952 5 Fingers   Joseph L. Mankiewicz
    7 Stars 1971 Zeppelin   Etienne Perier
  7 Stars 1967 You Only Live Twice   Lewis Gilbert
  7 Stars 1943 Watch on the Rhine   Herman Shumlin
  7 Stars 1965 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold   Martin Ritt
  7 Stars 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much   Alfred Hitchcock
  7 Stars 1938 The Lady Vanishes   Alfred Hitchcock
  7 Stars 1965 The Ipcress File   Sidney J. Furie
  7 Stars 1968 Ice Station Zebra   John Sturges
  7 Stars 1940 Foreign Correspondent   Alfred Hitchcock
  7 Stars 1985 The Falcon and the Snowman   John Schlesinger
  7 Stars 1962 Dr. No   Terence Young
  7 Stars 1962 The Counterfeit Traitor   George Seaton
  6 Stars 2001 The Tailor of Panama   John Boorman
  6 Stars 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me   Lewis Gilbert
  6 Stars 1936 Sabotage   Alfred Hitchcock
  6 Stars 1990 The Russia House   Fred Schepisi
  6 Stars 1953 Pickup on South Street   Samuel Fuller
    6 Stars 1988 Pascali's Island   James Dearden
  6 Stars 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service   Peter Hunt
  6 Stars 1979 The In-Laws   Arthur Hiller
  6 Stars 1966 Funeral in Berlin   Guy Hamilton
  6 Stars 1981 For Your Eyes Only   John Glen
  6 Stars 1971 Diamonds Are Forever   Guy Hamilton
  6 Stars 1988 The Bourne Identity   Roger Young
  6 Stars 1984 Another Country   Marek Kanievska
  5 Stars 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies   Roger Spottiswoode
  5 Stars 1996 Mission: Impossible   Brian De Palma
  5 Stars 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy   John Irvin
    5 Stars 1965 Danger Man [TV Series]   Don Chaffey
    5 Stars 1961 The Avengers [TV Series]   Robert Day
  5 Stars 1994 True Lies   James Cameron
    5 Stars 1966 Kiss Kiss... Bang Bang   Duccio Tessari
    5 Stars 1968 Istanbul Express   Richard Irving
    5 Stars 1987 Double Agent   Mike Vejar
    5 Stars 1968 The Wrecking Crew   Phil Karlson
  5 Stars 1943 Tonight We Raid Calais   John Brahm
    5 Stars 1937 Think Fast, Mr. Moto   Norman Foster
    5 Stars 1968 Salt and Pepper   Richard Donner
    5 Stars 1968 Project X   William Castle
    5 Stars 1968 The Pink Jungle   Delbert Mann
    5 Stars 1966 One of Our Spies Is Missing   E. Darrell Hallenbeck
    5 Stars 1946 O.S.S.   Irving Pichel
    5 Stars 1954 Night People   Nunnally Johnson
    5 Stars 1967 The Naked Runner   Sidney J. Furie
  5 Stars 1944 Ministry of Fear   Fritz Lang
  5 Stars 1956 The Man Who Never Was   Ronald Neame
    5 Stars 1943 Five Graves to Cairo   Billy Wilder
  5 Stars 1951 Decision Before Dawn   Anatole Litvak
  5 Stars 1967 The Deadly Affair   Sidney Lumet
  5 Stars 1970 Darling Lili   Blake Edwards
    5 Stars 1939 Confessions of a Nazi Spy   Anatole Litvak
    5 Stars 1950 Captain Carey, U.S.A   Mitchell Leisen
  5 Stars 1967 Caprice   Frank Tashlin
  5 Stars 1967 Billion Dollar Brain   Ken Russell
  5 Stars 1980 Ffolkes   Andrew V. McLaglen
  5 Stars 1986 Yuri Nosenko, KGB   Mick Jackson
  5 Stars 1965 Thunderball   Terence Young
  5 Stars 1985 Target   Arthur Penn
  5 Stars 1957 Stopover Tokyo   Richard Breen
  5 Stars 1928 Spione   Fritz Lang
  5 Stars 1942 Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon   Roy William Neill
  5 Stars 1936 The Secret Agent   Alfred Hitchcock
    5 Stars 1968 Sebastian   David Greene
  5 Stars 1942 Saboteur   Alfred Hitchcock
    5 Stars 1963 The Prize   Mark Robson
    5 Stars 1941 Pimpernel Smith   Leslie Howard
  5 Stars 1965 Our Man Flint   Daniel Mann
  5 Stars 1965 Operation Crossbow   Michael Anderson
  5 Stars 1973 The Mackintosh Man   John Huston
    5 Stars 1984 The Little Drummer Girl   George Roy Hill
  5 Stars 1967 In Like Flint   Gordon M. Douglas
  5 Stars 1980 Hopscotch   Ronald Neame
  5 Stars 1972 The Groundstar Conspiracy   Lamont Johnson
  5 Stars 1985 Gotcha!   Jeff Kanew
  5 Stars 1966 The Glass Bottom Boat   Frank Tashlin
  5 Stars 1987 The Fourth Protocol   John MacKenzie
  5 Stars 1981 Eye of the Needle   Richard Marquand
  5 Stars 1976 The Eagle Has Landed   John Sturges
  5 Stars 1984 Cloak and Dagger   Richard Franklin
    5 Stars 1989 The Brotherhood of the Rose   Marvin J. Chomsky
  5 Stars 1952 Big Jim McLain   Edward Ludwig
    5 Stars 1948 Berlin Express   Jacques Tourneur
    5 Stars 1943 Background to Danger   Raoul Walsh
  5 Stars 1966 Arabesque   Stanley Donen
  4 Stars 2001 Enigma   Michael Apted
  4 Stars 1999 The World is Not Enough   Michael Apted
  4 Stars 1996 Broken Arrow   John Woo
  4 Stars 1995 GoldenEye   Martin Campbell
    4 Stars 1965 Where the Spies Are   Val Guest
    4 Stars 1952 Walk East on Beacon   Alfred L. Werker
    4 Stars 1951 My Favorite Spy   Norman Z. McLeod
    4 Stars 1966 A Man Could Get Killed   Ronald Neame
    4 Stars 1966 The Liquidator   Jack Cardiff
    4 Stars 1948 The Iron Curtain   William Wellman
    4 Stars 1945 Confidential Agent   Herman Shumlin
    4 Stars 1940 Charlie Chan in Panama   Norman Foster
    4 Stars 1937 Charlie Chan at the Olympics   H. Bruce Humberstone
    4 Stars 1966 Where the Bullets Fly   John Gilling
  4 Stars 1985 A View to a Kill   John Glen
    4 Stars 1977 Telefon   Don Siegel
  4 Stars 1974 The Tamarind Seed   Blake Edwards
  4 Stars 1943 Sherlock Holmes in Washington   Roy William Neill
  4 Stars 1966 The Quiller Memorandum   Michael Anderson
  4 Stars 1983 Octopussy   John Glen
    4 Stars 1943 Northern Pursuit   Raoul Walsh
    4 Stars 1940 Night Train to Munich   Carol Reed
  4 Stars 1983 Never Say Never Again   Irvin Kershner
  4 Stars 1939 Mr. Moto's Last Warning   Norman Foster
  4 Stars 1979 Moonraker   Lewis Gilbert
  4 Stars 1987 The Living Daylights   John Glen
  4 Stars 1973 Live and Let Die   Guy Hamilton
    4 Stars 1990 The Fourth War   John Frankenheimer
  4 Stars 1977 The Amsterdam Kill   Robert Clouse
  3 Stars 1993 The Innocent   John Schlesinger
  3 Stars 1989 Licence to Kill   John Glen
    3 Stars 1969 Otley   Dick Clement
  3 Stars 1966 Modesty Blaise   Joseph Losey
  3 Stars 1957 Les Espions   Henri-Georges Clouzot
    3 Stars 1970 The Kremlin Letter   John Huston
    3 Stars 1967 The Double Man   Franklin J. Schaffner
  3 Stars 1969 The Chairman   J. Lee Thompson
  3 Stars 1966 What's Up, Tiger Lily?   Woody Allen
  3 Stars 1966 Torn Curtain   Alfred Hitchcock
  3 Stars 1985 Spies Like Us   John Landis
  3 Stars 1973 Scorpio   Michael Winner
  3 Stars 1971 Puppet on a Chain   Geoffrey Reeve
  3 Stars 1983 The Osterman Weekend   Sam Peckinpah
  3 Stars 1969 The Looking Glass War   Frank Pierson
  3 Stars 1988 Little Nikita   Richard Benjamin
  3 Stars 1986 Jumpin' Jack Flash   Penny Marshall
  3 Stars 1982 The Amateur   Charles Jarrott
    3 Stars 1943 Above Suspicion   Richard Thorpe
  2 Stars 1993 Undercover Blues   Herbert Ross
 
 
 
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