Harry Palmer
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Harry Palmer is a fictional secret agent who is the protagonist in a number of films based on three of the first four spy novels written by Len Deighton. The character has most often been portrayed by actor Michael Caine.
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[edit] Novels
'Harry Palmer' was first introduced in Len Deighton's first novel published in 1962, The IPCRESS File. However, in the novel the lead character was written in the first person, and the agent is never actually named. Further books featuring what seem to be the same character were later written and published :
- Horse Under Water (1963)
- Funeral in Berlin (1964)
- Billion Dollar Brain (1966)
- Spy Story (1974)
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976) [published in the USA as Catch A Falling Spy]
As the lead protagonist is never named in these novels, there is some dispute as to whether 'Harry Palmer' is actually the narrator in the last two novels. Deighton has himself stated that the narrator of Spy Story is not the same man as that of The IPCRESS File[citation needed], and the narrator bears for most of the novel the name 'Patrick Armstrong' - although as another character puts it, "We have so many different names". Despite this, the books have unofficially all been linked together as a series entitled the Harry Palmer novels, based on the name given to the hero in the subsequent film adaptations.
Further, some of the characters that appear in the Deighton novel Yesterday's Spy (1975) also appear in Spy Story, although 'Harry Palmer' doesn't seem to be amongst them.
It is sometimes put forward that the lead character in another of Deighton's spy novels, An Expensive Place To Die (1967), which is also written in the first person and who remains unnamed, is also 'Harry Palmer'. However differences in the characterisation and plot lead to the conclusion that this not the case, but another spy instead.
In the first novel, The IPCRESS File, the unnamed narrator states in chapter five, "My name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been."
[edit] Origin of the Name
In November 1962, soon after the release of the first James Bond film Dr. No, The IPCRESS File was published. Unlike Ian Fleming's Bond, Deighton's spy is hindered by bureaucracy, wears glasses, shops in supermarkets, lives in back street flats and seedy hotels, and is in need of a pay rise. He is is a lowly army sergeant who was forcibly recruited to the secret service in order to work off a sentence for black market activities. The character also shares a lot in common with his creator, including a passion for cooking.
With the book receiving good sales, Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli approached Deighton to script the next 007 film, From Russia With Love. However, despite Deighton's efforts, little of his screenplay was used. Saltzman instead decided to use Deighton's novel, and its sequels, as the beginning of a new sequence of secret agent films. The IPCRESS File was designed to be different in style to the Bond movies, although Saltzman ended up employing many of the same staff, including production designer Ken Adam, editor Peter Hunt and composer John Barry. Michael Caine was eventually chosen to play the lead.
Needing to name the previously anonymous character, the film production team chose the name 'Harry Palmer' because they wanted the name to be as dull and unglamorous sounding as possible, to distance him from the prevalent stereotype of the flamboyant, swashbuckling secret agent exemplified in the Bond movies. (Ironically, Ian Fleming originally named his brainchild 'James Bond' after an American ornithologist, because he thought it an unromantic, no-nonsense name, much like 'Harry Palmer').
In his memoirs, Michael Caine claimed producer Harry Saltzman came up with the surname 'Palmer', whereupon Caine himself innocently remarked that 'Harry' was a dull name, only realising his gaffe when he saw Saltzman's suspicious stare. In another version of the origin of the name, in an interview Caine gave with Len Feldman, Caine recalled how he and Saltzman discussed how they came to name their spy. Caine, recalling the conversation, states that "I made a rather bad social blunder, because he said, 'What's the dullest name you can think of ?' And I said, 'Harry.' And he said, 'Thanks very much.' And then he said 'What's a dull surname ?' And the most boring boy in our school was called Palmer, Tommy Palmer. So he said, 'All right, we'll call him Harry Palmer.'"
[edit] Films
After the release of the film version of The IPCRESS File in 1965, two further films based on Deighton's novels and starring Michael Caine were made by Saltzman's production company - Funeral in Berlin (1966), and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). The second novel, Horse Under Water, was not used, although it is rumoured that had the film series continued at the time, this would have been the next novel adapted.
In 1976, another 'Harry Palmer' film, Spy Story, based on the novel of the same name, was made. It featured Michael Petrovitch playing Deighton's spy (using the pseudonym Patrick Armstrong), and is unconnected to Saltzman's films.
In the 1990s, two more 'Harry Palmer' films were produced using original screenplays, with Palmer again being portrayed by Michael Caine :
- Bullet to Beijing (1995)
- Midnight in St Petersburg (1996)
Despite sometimes being titled Len Deighton's Bullet To Beijing and Len Deighton's Midnight in St Petersburg, Deighton apparently had no input into these films. And as a funny fact: The son of Sean Connery (the James Bond star), Jason Connery is playing Palmers young assistant Nick in both of these movies.
In 1992, the film Blue Ice was released, featuring Michael Caine as a (now) ex-spy called 'Harry', and who bears a uncanny similarity to an older 'Harry Palmer' type character.
Michael Caine also spoofed his Harry Palmer character, as Austin Powers' father Nigel Powers, in the Mike Myers' 2002 film Austin Powers in Goldmember.
