Word: fiedler
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Explosive Expansion. While they assessed the Russian information, Western scientists continued to interpret Luna 9's pictures. London University Astronomer Gilbert Fiedler called attention to lines in some of the pictures that might be edges of an ancient lava flow; he agreed with the Russians and many American scientists that the porous surface resulted from the explosive expansion of gases in the lava as it emerged onto the moon's airless surface...
...from the cynicism and out of the grey rain and cold, there emerges Burton's own narrow, rather seedy humanity. He shows his distaste for Control, for London. He loves, in his homely way, Nan (Claire Bloom). He predictably shows his contempt for Mundt and Fiedler, the two Communist spies, and takes satisfaction in playing the one off against the other. He shows no regret when he beats up a grocer, and only irritation at Fiedler's fate. And finally, Leamas is forced to define his relationship to senseless, inhuman intrigues of Control and Mundt...
There are several unfortunate lines that from the way they are delivered, make you wonder if they are intended to refer to Burton's role in Becket. Control refers to Fiedler as the "acolyte who will one day stab the high priest in the back;" and Burton refers to the warden in the prison as the Archbishop of Canterbury. It's not the right kind of movie for clever allusions. The lines would have been better left...
Martin Ritt, who both produced and directed, deserves credit for his cast. Oskar Werner as Fiedler and Peter Van Eyck as Mundt are good in the court room scene, though in general Werner is rather over-done and Van Eyck wooden. Claire Bloom elicits just the right amount of love from Burton. And Burton, when he sits waiting to be interviewed for a job, when he makes contact with the Communist agent, and when he looks down from the Berlin wall at Smiley, is superb. All he has to do is whisper, "I have to go early in the morning...
Even liberal intellectuals can be shocked at the frequent failure of the young to take ideas seriously. Writes Critic Leslie Fiedler, 48: "Not only do they reject the Socratic adage that the unexamined life is not worth living, since for them precisely the unexamined life is the only one worth enduring at all. But they also abjure the Freudian one: 'Where id was, ego shall be,' since for them the true rallying cry is, 'Let id prevail over ego, impulse over order'-or 'Freud is a fink...