The Whistle Blower

Infobox_Film
name = The Whistle Blower


director = Simon Langton
writer =John Hale (book)
Julian Bond
starring = Michael Caine
Barry Foster
Nigel Havers
Gordon Jackson
Sir John Gielgud
David Langton
James Fox
producer = Geoffrey Reeve
distributor =
released = December 1986 (UK)
10 July 1987 (USA)
runtime = 100 m
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0092206|

The Whistle Blower is a 1986 spy thriller film, staring Michael Caine, based on the novel of the same name by John Hale.

Plot

Frank Jones (Caine) is a retired British navy secret operative, who has retired to the quiet life as a businessman. His bright but naive and idealistic son Robert (Havers), works as a linguist in a top secret British intelligence agency, using his love of Russian to listen to various pieces of communication.

The movie opens on Remembrance Day in Whitehall, as the war veterans line up to walk past the Cenotaph. The movie cuts back to a conversation between Jones and his son at Robert's flat some months earlier, where Robert tells Jones that strange things are happening, and he's planning on leaving and marrying an older woman called Cynthia (Dean) he's fallen in love with. Robert says a Soviet mole was found, and that security is all over the place encouraging people to rat on each other. The higher ups seem convinced that if they don't do something, their American friends in the CIA will stop working with them. Frank isn't thrilled over the marriage plans, and he tells his son before he leaves that it's unlikely anything off key can be happening in the agency. It's obvious that Jones loves his son deeply and wants his son to be happy in whatever his son chooses for himself.

The scene cuts to a room in British Intelligence, where operatives including Bruce (Jackson) are listening to a tape recording of the conversation between Jones and his son.

A few days later, police report to Jones that Robert has died in a fall in an apparent suicide, and propose a verdict of accidental death is recorded. However, in the midst of his grief, Jones is puzzled by the circumstances of his son's death and decides to use his old skills to conduct his own investigation, and approaches his friend Charles Greig (Foster). Returning to Robert's flat, Jones is confronted by socialist journalist Bill Pickett (Colley) who had arranged to meet Robert to discuss the problems at British Intelligence, but Jones rejects his investigative approaches.

The rest of the movie digs into an examination of the British establishment which is disturbing and ugly, and make Jones question his view of the country he loves. There are strong echoes of the Antony Blunt case and the Cambridge spies. Jones, discretely pursued by British Intelligence, finds men who easily consider others expendable if their ideas of class and privilege are endangered.

After Pickett is also killed in mysterious circumstances in a traffic accident, having found out the name of the man who Robert wished him to meet and before meeting Jones. Jones is then approached by Robert's best friend and fellow British intelligence linguist Allen Goodburn (Hawkins) at Robert's funeral. Jones gets from Goodburn that it was his good friend Grieg who had approached him re Robert's feelings re the service. Jones gets Greig drunk, and gets him to confess that he was at Robert's flat the night Robert died. Greig admits he was there as the service had something on him, but that his job was only to leave the door open and let "others" heavy hand Robert - not kill him.

Leaving Grieg to die, Jones is picked up British Intelligence and driven to a country house, where he is confronted by Secretary to the Cabinet (Langton) and Lord (Fox). They explain to him that his son was out of control, and was killed as part of a plan to mislead the Americans to the extent of the depth of Russian intelligence's operatives inside British operations, in the hope that they could continue to gain intelligence from the CIA. They have presently left the higher Russian operative in place, until they can asses the extent of the damage caused. They advise Jones that should he go public with any of this information, he and/or Robert's girlfriend Cynthia and her daughter will be killed or at least restrained. As a door to a further dining room, Jones notices Sir Adrian Chapple (Gielgud) and concludes him to be the higher level Russian operative.

The film returns to the present, and Remembrance Day parade. Jones confronts Chapple at his home in Whitehall, and gets him to confess to being a spy for Russia. Jones asks Chapple to sign a full confession, which he does, but on approaching the desk where Chapple writes, Chapple points a gun at Jones. Jones turns the gun on Chapple, which goes off and kills Chapple - leaving his signed confession to act as a suicide note, and leave Jones in the the clear. Jones returns to the Remembrance Day parade.

The closing credits role to an ambulance attending the death of Chapple, as Caine walks past the Cenotaph up Whitehall.

Cast

*Michael Caine - Frank Jones
*James Fox - Lord
*Nigel Havers - Robert Jones
*John Gielgud - Sir Adrian Chapple
*Felicity Dean - Cynthia Goodburn
*Barry Foster - Charles Greig
*Kenneth Colley - journalist Bill Pickett
*Gordon Jackson - British intelligence operative, Bruce
*David Langton - Secretary to the Cabinet
*Andrew Hawkins - Allen Goodburn
*Dinah Stabb - Rose
*Trevor Cooper - Insp. Bourne
*James Simmons - Mark
*Bill Wallis - Dodgson
*Arturo Venegas - Alex
*Peter Miles - Stephen Kedge
*David Shaughnessy - Medical officer

In context

Set during a time when concerns about GCHQ were at their height and the Cold War had yet to end, many of the film's concerns seem now to be dated. However, with a cast that features all the then usual British acting suspects (Sir John Gielgud, James Fox, Gordon Jackson), "The Whistle Blower" is a more than reasonable film, which hangs mainly on Caine's strong performance in the same vein as he established in the 1960's with Harry Palmer, and makes good viewing.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0092206|title=The Whistle Blower