Whereas Bond's adventures usually start off with some huge chase and a female with huge... ehrm. Well anyhow, this film starts with Palmer struggling to find his glasses before getting out of bed, taking his sweet time making perfect coffee, and walking from his at best mediocre apartment to an even worse one, to replace his colleague at aforementioned stakeout.
Brilliantly, this flick plays to the secret agent as an employee of the government. Mundane bureaucracy, long hours and low pay are amongst the very everyday grievances our hero must endure. Alongside an endless array of brown and grey office buildings. It gives it a kind of credibility as a spy story, that Bond never had. Thus making it entertaining in a wholly different way.
The plot is somewhat more fantastical as 17 top scientists all seem to quit for no reason. Without wanting to spoil too much, I will limit myself to saying the plot is optimistic as to the effectiveness of hypnotism. Since this is an old film with a stellar script from a great book, Palmer actually has to do some most clever detective work, based on observation and deduction. Always a treat.
Of all the things done well here, nothing is quite as good as the dialogues. Caine, Green and Doleman are all on exceptional form, and whatever combination of those three director Sidney Furie decides to bestow upon us, is pure class. The scene of the two latter in the park a pure feast of British implicitness and understatement in dialogue.
The filming is at times experimental for its decade, but quite sublime, and never overdoes it. As an example two of the key scenes to a side plot, are shot through different kinds of glass as they both pertain to the same character. Subtle, cool and smart. Ipcress makes no excuses for knowing it's smart and making a point of it. One really most love the British arrogance of it all when it's so meticulous.
Even Palmer's incarceration and eventual torture is long and slow, and as there is an absurd form of realism to most of it, it holds up wonderfully in modern age. Thanks in no small part to the quality of Caine's acting skills as well as Furie's ability to not overdo anything.
Another reason it works a treat, is due to famous Bond-composer John Barry's utterly genius score. Barry's score to Ipcress is one of his most jazz-loyal, and one of his very best. Never downplaying that Palmer is a doing a grunt's job, he leaves the fanfares and big horns at home. Instead he opts for simple, haunting and often repetitive tones.
To add to that, the endgame is riveting as the three main characters face off in a verbal game to the death. In a dark warehouse at night, under a single lightbulb so the director can play with shadows. Fantastic.
9/10
