A Dandy in Aspic

Directed by ANTHONY MANN

Starring LAURENCE HARVEY TOM COURTENAY MIA FARROW

1968

Released 25 MARCH

Blu-ray

Anthony Mann remains in a tier of slightly lesser-known but supremely talented and valued workhorse, and among his most cherished offerings. In 1968, at the age of 60, Mann died of a heart attack while directing the film that would become his swansong: . It’s a markedly English spy yarn whose genteel nature feels ramped up further by its maker’s out-of-town credentials. The film is fascinating rather than successful, an example of a reliable hand happily shifting with the times and embracing newly relaxed attitudes to sex and violence. It stars lantern-jawed Laurence Harvey as Eberlin, playing a raffish Russian spy embedded within the British secret service who is given the queer task of apprehending his own alter ego – though intelligence has pegged him as a completely different man, so if he plays his cards right, he could have the ultimate undercover alibi.