The Deadly Affair

The Deadly Affair
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sidney Lumet
Produced by	Sidney Lumet
Written by	Paul Dehn
Starring	James Mason Harry Andrews Simone Signoret Maximilian Schell
Music by	Quincy Jones
Cinematography	Freddie Young
Edited by	Thelma Connell
Distributed by	British Lion-Columbia (UK) Columbia Pictures (US)
Release date	October 1966 (UK) 26 January 1967 (US)
Running time	115 minutes (UK) 107 minutes (US)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Deadly Affair is a 1966 British espionage–thriller film, based on John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead. The film stars James Mason, Harry Andrews, Simone Signoret and Maximilian Schell and was directed by Sidney Lumet from a script by Paul Dehn. In it George Smiley, the central character of the novel and many other of le Carré's books, is renamed Charles Dobbs as Paramount, which owned the film rights of their recently filmed The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, had the rights to the Smiley character. The soundtrack was composed by Quincy Jones, and the bossa nova theme song, "Who Needs Forever", is performed by Astrud Gilberto.

In contemporary London, Charles Dobbs (James Mason) is a staid MI5 operative investigating Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan, a former Communist who apparently commits suicide. Dobbs becomes suspicious when a wake-up call is made to Fennan's home the next morning. While his widow Elsa (Simone Signoret) says it was for her, this is discovered to be a lie. Dobbs then suspects that Elsa, a survivor of an extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. Dobbs privately links up with retired police inspector Mendel (Harry Andrews) to continue inquiries. As they uncover a network of Communist agents, Dobbs also discovers that his wife Ann (Harriet Andersson) is leaving him for a former wartime colleague in Switzerland, Dieter Frey (Maximilian Schell), who may have used access to her to gain knowledge of Dobbs' movements. Dobbs uses his knowledge of Dieter to set a trap, which proves that Elsa is the spy and Dieter is her control. In a final confrontation, Dieter strangles Elsa and shoots Mendel but is killed bare handed by the enraged Dobbs.