Comments on: Tinker Tailor https://habitablezone.com/2012/03/23/tinker-tailor/ Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:07:28 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2012/03/23/tinker-tailor/#comment-12829 ER Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:15:10 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=11626#comment-12829 Oldman was excellent, as always, and I'm a huge fan, but I believe he was miscast here. I would have John Hurt do Smiley and give Oldham Bill Haydon. Oldham's too good looking and too young to play Smiley and he looks like a dangerous man. I'd also like to know his tailor. Smiley, by contrast, was described by Le Carre as being somehat ruffled and disheveled: "a man who wore expensive clothes badly". Guinness was made up to look homelier and older than he was when TTSS was filmed, and he looked perfectly harmless, a little clumsy Mr Magoo, except when he was interrogating someone. THEN you could sense just how lethal he really was. I always imagine real spies look completely unremarkable and totally forgettable. Oldman was excellent, as always, and I’m a huge fan, but I believe he was miscast here. I would have John Hurt do Smiley and give Oldham Bill Haydon. Oldham’s too good looking and too young to play Smiley and he looks like a dangerous man. I’d also like to know his tailor. Smiley, by contrast, was described by Le Carre as being somehat ruffled and disheveled: “a man who wore expensive clothes badly”.

Guinness was made up to look homelier and older than he was when TTSS was filmed, and he looked perfectly harmless, a little clumsy Mr Magoo, except when he was interrogating someone. THEN you could sense just how lethal he really was.

I always imagine real spies look completely unremarkable and totally forgettable.

]]> By: TB https://habitablezone.com/2012/03/23/tinker-tailor/#comment-12823 TB Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:29:52 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=11626#comment-12823 Guinness is a hell of a tough act to follow. Was Gary Oldman any good? Guinness is a hell of a tough act to follow. Was Gary Oldman any good?

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