‘The Ipcress File’ review: The 1965 British spy thriller is adapted into a TV series — but still set in the early '60s

Based on the 1965 Michael Caine espionage thriller of the same name, “The Ipcress File” on AMC+ (by way of ITV in the U.K.) keeps the Cold War action set in the early 1960s. Harry Palmer is a young Brit with clever instincts but not much spy experience, and he gets roped into a saga that involves a kidnapped nuclear scientist, pushy American interests and a brainwashing scheme that could lead to an assassination. Witty and occasionally terrifying, the series moves at a good clip and is stylish — it retains those thick-framed eyeglasses that are so iconic to Caine’s original performance.

In the ‘65 film (adapted from Len Deighton’s 1962 novel), Harry Palmer emerged