The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Last night I was watching a 1965 film called The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, directed by Martin Ritt, and based on a novel by John le Carre. The film tells the story of a British secret agent, Alec Leamas (played by Richard Burton) who, on his return to London from East Berlin, is offered the opportunity by his boss to "come in from the cold" (i.e. quite spying and return to some kind of normal life) but Leamas refuses, and so is given a mission to pose as a disgruntled ex-secret agent and to pretend to defect to East Germany in order to infiltrate their intelligence agency and sow disinformation. It's a very gritty, and quite bleak film, far from the glamorous world of James Bond, where everyone is selling out everyone else for whatever little information they can get. Burton is superb as a cynical, burnt-out agent.

I went out today and bought some cheap DVDs in the sales. I bought a box set of horror films (which included House of 1000 Corpses, Tattoo and Monster Man) as well as the film A Very Long Engagement. On my way home I stopped off to buy my groceries for the week. I was asked to prove that I was over the age of 21 so I could buy my bottle of wine. The only thing I had with my date of birth and a photo was a college ID card from 1996. The guy at the checkout said that they would only accept either a passport or driving license. I don't drive so I don't have a license, and because I wasn't planning on travelling the globe in search of cheap microwave meals, booze and horror DVDs, I hadn't brought my passport with me. I'm 29 now. I wish I was 21. The guy called his supervisor who took one look at me and told the checkout guy to let me have the stuff, so it was okay.

This afternoon I watched House of 1000 Corpses, directed by Rob Zombie. It's about a group of four college kids who are travelling the backroads of America to investigate, weird, out-of-the-way roadside attractions and, on Halloween, stop off at a service station featuring "Captain Spaulding's Museum of Murder and Mayhem" where they learn about a gruesome local legend about a deranged surgeon. Heading out to investigate they break down at an old house where they run afoul of a sadistic family. It was a pretty gruesome film, a little like an extended heavy metal video at times.