GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #64

GEORGE SMILEY


Created by John le Carre, Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency.  He is a central character in several of le Carre's novels and a supporting character in others.  Le Carre created Smiley as an intentional foil to James Bond, a character whom he felt depicted an inaccurate and damaging version of espionage work.  Short, overweight, balding, and bespectacled, George Smiley is polite and self-effacing and frequently allows others to mistreat him, including his serially unfaithful wife.  These traits mask his inner cunning, excellent memory, mastery of tradecraft, and occasional ruthlessness.  His genius, coupled with other characters' willingness to underestimate him, allows Smiley to achieve his goals and ultimately to become one of the most powerful spies in Britain.  Smiley dresses like a bookie (an unsuccessful one) in loose, baggy clothing.  He wears thick, round glasses and cleans the lenses with the fat end of his tie.  He was very far from the popular stereotype of a spy.  Le Carre wrote three novels in the 1980s that Smiley was noticeably absent from, and in "The Secret Pilgrim" (1990) he was shown enjoying a happy retirement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John le Carre was the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell (1931-2020).  In the 1950s and 1960s he worked for both MI5 and MI6.  His third novel, "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold", became an international bestseller and following the success le Carre became a full-time writer.  In his first two novels, "Call for the Dead" and "A Murder of Quality", Smiley is featured as a retired spy investigating a death.  Those first two books were mystery fiction, and in later books Smiley is portrayed as the central figure in a sprawling espionage saga.

NOVELS

1961 "Call for the Dead"/  1962 "A Murder of Quality"/  1963 "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold" (Star Weekly Jan. 4-11, 1964)/  1965 "The Looking Glass War" (Ladies Home Journal April-May, 1965)/  1974 "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"/  1977 "The Honourable Schoolboy" (Playboy Aug. 1977)/  1979 "Smiley's People" (Playboy Jan. 1980)/  1990 "The Secret Pilgrim"/  2017 "A Legacy of Spies"

SHORT STORIES

"George Smiley Goes Home" (The New Black Mask #2, 1985)/  "Smiley's Gift" (Esquire Dec. 1990)

FILMS

"The Spy Who Came In from the Cold" Paramount, 1965.  Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oscar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies (Smiley).  Director: Martin Ritt.  Concerns a British MI6 agent's mission as a faux defector who is given the task of sowing damaging disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer.

"The Deadly Affair" Columbia, 1967.  James Mason, Simone Signoret, Maximilian Schell, Lynn Redgrave.  Director: Sidney Lumet.  Paramount owned the rights to the George Smiley name, so Columbia was forced to rename the James Mason character Charles Dobbs.  Based on the novel "Call for the Dead".  Dobbs is an MI5 operative investigating a Foreign Office official (a former Communist), who apparently commits suicide.

"The Looking Glass War" Columbia, 1969.  The character of George Smiley is completely removed from the film version of le Carre's book.

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" Studio Canal, 2011.  Gary Oldman (Smiley), Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt.  Director: Tomas Alfredson.  In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet mole within MI6.

RADIO

The BBC did several versions of le Carre's Smiley stories over the years.  "Call for the Dead" and "A Murder of Quality", both from 1978, featured George Cole as Smiley.  Peter Vaughan was Smiley in "The Honourable Schoolboy" in 1983.  And Bernard Hepton played Smiley in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1988) and "Smiley's People" (1990).

TELEVISION

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" BBC, 1979.  The seven-episode mini-series ran in England from September 10 to October 22, 1979.  It aired in the U.S. on PBS beginning September 29, 1980, but was edited to fit into 6 episodes, losing 25 minutes.  Alec Guinness (Smiley), Alexander Knox, Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart.  Director: John Irvin.  Smiley is forced into retirement in the wake of a failed spy mission, but is brought back to help ferret out a Soviet mole.

"Smiley's People" BBC, 1982.  Six-episode series shown in England September 20 to October 25, 1982.  It began airing in the U.S. on October 25, 1982.  Guinness, Eileen Atkins, Barry Foster, Beryl Reid, Curd Jurgens.  Director: Simon Langton.  Smiley is called out of retirement when one of his former assets, an emigre general, is found murdered.  Smiley discovers a clandestine operation run by his nemesis.

"A Murder of Quality" ITV, 1991.  Made-for-TV movie aired in UK on April 10, 1991, and in the U.S. on A&E on October 13, 1991.  Denholm Elliott (Smiley), Glenda Jackson, Billie Whitelaw, Christian Bale.  Director: Gavin Millar.  Smiley, at the request of an old wartime colleague, investigates a murder.

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