My Favorite Spy Movies
by elhippie | created - 26 Apr 2011 | updated - 11 Apr 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Army of Shadows (1969)
Not Rated | 145 min | Drama, War
An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville | Stars: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret
Votes: 25,840 | Gross: $0.74M
2. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker
Votes: 18,808
3. Three Days of the Condor (1975)
R | 117 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow
Votes: 62,501 | Gross: $41.51M
4. Syriana (2005)
R | 128 min | Drama, Thriller
A politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
Director: Stephen Gaghan | Stars: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Kayvan Novak
Votes: 134,252 | Gross: $50.82M
5. Triple Cross (1966)
PG | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
During WW2, convicted bank robber Eddie Chapman becomes a triple agent working for both the British and the Germans.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Christopher Plummer, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, Gert Fröbe
Votes: 3,029
6. The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
In order to fool the Germans into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily will take place elsewhere, British Military Intelligence comes up with a cunning ruse.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin
Votes: 5,786
7. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,027 | Gross: $13.28M
8. The 39 Steps (1935)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Votes: 61,522
9. The War Is Over (1966)
121 min | Drama, War
A middle-aged political activist tries to dissuade his young followers from taking radical action.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Geneviève Bujold, Jean Dasté
Votes: 2,440
10. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong
Votes: 212,456 | Gross: $24.15M
11. Spy Game (2001)
R | 126 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane
Votes: 167,019 | Gross: $0.03M
12. The Ipcress File (1965)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Thriller
In London, a wisecracking spy investigates the kidnapping and brainwashing of British scientists while dealing with the constraints of his agency's bureaucracy.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd
Votes: 17,578
13. The Kremlin Letter (1970)
M/PG | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During the Cold War a Naval Intelligence officer endowed with a powerful photographic memory is transferred to the CIA to participate in a covert operation in Moscow.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Richard Boone, Nigel Green, Dean Jagger
Votes: 2,308 | Gross: $0.24M
14. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Not Rated | 96 min | Mystery, Thriller
While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty
Votes: 57,139
15. The Osterman Weekend (1983)
R | 103 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
During the Cold War, a controversial television journalist is asked by the C.I.A. to persuade certain acquaintances, who are Soviet Agents of the Omega network, to defect.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper
Votes: 9,413 | Gross: $6.49M
16. Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Passed | 106 min | Adventure, Film-Noir, Romance
In WW2, the Allies race against time to persuade two nuclear scientists working for the Germans to switch sides.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Gary Cooper, Robert Alda, Lilli Palmer, Vladimir Sokoloff
Votes: 3,441
17. The Good Shepherd (2006)
R | 167 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 108,554 | Gross: $59.95M
18. Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, War
FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-war espionage activities of the German-American Bund.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, Francis Lederer, Paul Lukas
Votes: 2,136
19. 13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When spy chief Bob Sharkey finds out one of his agents-in-training is actually a Nazi double agent, his strategic decision not to arrest him results in tragedy.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte, Frank Latimore
Votes: 3,067
20. U-Boat 29 (1939)
77 min | Thriller, War
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring
Votes: 2,457
21. Eye of the Needle (1981)
R | 112 min | Romance, Thriller, War
A ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown
Votes: 11,818 | Gross: $17.58M
22. Our Man in Havana (1959)
Not Rated | 111 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jim Wormold, who is a vacuum cleaner salesman, participates as an Agent in the British Secret Service. But he soon realizes that his plans by lying are going to get him into trouble.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 6,097
23. 36 Hours (1964)
Approved | 115 min | Thriller, War
Germans kidnap an American Major and try to convince him that World War II is over so they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Taylor, Werner Peters
Votes: 4,759
24. The Human Factor (1979)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
When a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence is discovered, security man Daintry is brought in to investigate.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Nicol Williamson, Derek Jacobi, Joop Doderer
Votes: 1,575
25. The Serpent (1973)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Thriller
A Soviet diplomat hatches a complicated plan to enable him to defect to the West.
Director: Henri Verneuil | Stars: Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret
Votes: 1,199
26. Funeral in Berlin (1966)
Not Rated | 102 min | Thriller
Sent to East Berlin to retrieve a Communist defector, British spy Harry Palmer suspects the situation is not what his superiors believe it to be.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Oscar Homolka, Paul Hubschmid, Eva Renzi
Votes: 7,777
27. Deadly Decision (1954)
92 min | Biography, Drama, War
Brief biopic of Wilhelm Canaris, army intelligence (Abwehr) chief of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1944.
Director: Alfred Weidenmann | Stars: O.E. Hasse, Barbara Rütting, Adrian Hoven, Martin Held
Votes: 311
28. Mata Hari (1931)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
Director: George Fitzmaurice | Stars: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone
Votes: 3,954 | Gross: $0.93M
29. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,782
30. The Prize (1963)
Approved | 134 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As the Nobel Prize winners come to Stockholm to receive their awards, their lives are overturned and perturbed in various ways.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker
Votes: 5,275 | Gross: $7.70M
31. Torn Curtain (1966)
PG | 128 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin before planning an escape back to the West.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy
Votes: 29,241
32. A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
Approved | 107 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
The British and Soviet Intelligence services attempt to out-fox one another using the homesick double-agent Krasnevin a.k.a. Alexander Eberlin as a pawn in a complex spy-game which takes place in Berlin.
Directors: Anthony Mann, Laurence Harvey | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Tom Courtenay, Mia Farrow, Harry Andrews
Votes: 1,289
33. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,889
34. Scorpio (1973)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Paul Scofield, John Colicos
Votes: 5,206
35. The MacKintosh Man (1973)
PG | 98 min | Thriller
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda, James Mason, Harry Andrews
Votes: 5,217 | Gross: $3.30M
36. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 121,806 | Gross: $4.42M
37. The Fourth Protocol (1987)
R | 119 min | Thriller
John Preston is a British Agent with the task of preventing the Russians detonating a nuclear explosion next to an American base in the UK. The Russians are hoping this will shatter the "special relationship" between the two countries.
Director: John Mackenzie | Stars: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ned Beatty, Joanna Cassidy
Votes: 10,983 | Gross: $12.42M
38. Munich (2005)
R | 164 min | Action, Drama, History
After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 238,233 | Gross: $47.40M
39. The Deadly Affair (1967)
Not Rated | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A British agent sets out to uncover the hidden facts behind a British government employee's suicide.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Simone Signoret, Harriet Andersson
Votes: 4,185
40. The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
Approved | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger
Votes: 4,352
41. From Russia with Love (1963)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi
Votes: 145,315 | Gross: $24.80M
42. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
An ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Frank Vosper
Votes: 21,149
43. No Way Out (1987)
R | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A coverup and witchhunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, Will Patton
Votes: 45,925 | Gross: $35.51M
44. Flame & Citron (2008)
Not Rated | 130 min | Action, Drama, History
A drama centered on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.
Director: Ole Christian Madsen | Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade, Peter Mygind
Votes: 19,938 | Gross: $0.15M
45. The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
R | 131 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Pat Hingle, Joyce Van Patten
Votes: 12,673 | Gross: $17.10M
46. Goldfinger (1964)
PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
While investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton
Votes: 202,508 | Gross: $51.08M
47. In Like Flint (1967)
Unrated | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Super-spy Flint takes on a cabal of women plotting to rule the world.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Jean Hale, Andrew Duggan
Votes: 6,082 | Gross: $11.00M
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