The Whistle Blower
In this 1987 espionage thriller, Michael Caine is Frank Jones, a businessman and patriotic war veteran whose son Bob (Nigel Havers) is a Russian linguist who works at the intelligence-gathering Government Communications Headquarters. A few days after Bob expresses doubts to his father about aspects of his work, police report to Frank that his son has died in a fall, and a verdict of accidental death is recorded. However, in the midst of his grief, Frank is puzzled by the circumstances of his son's death and decides to conduct his own investigation. In so doing he finds himself pitted against an utterly unscrupulous Secret Service prepared to stop at nothing, including murder, to cover up their operations. Set during a time when concerns about GCHQ were at their height and the Cold War had yet to thaw, many of the film's concerns seem, years subsequently, to be thankfully dated. Moreover, it's hard to believe that the bumbling British Secret Service would actually be capable of organizing a convivial soiree in a brewery, let alone orchestrating the sort of skullduggery they perpetrate here. Still, with a cast that features all the usual British suspects (Sir John Gielgud, James Fox, Gordon Jackson), there's no doubting the pedigree ofThe Whistle Blower, which, despite its ostensibly uncomfortable message, actually makes for very agreeable comfort viewing.--David Stubbs