Synopsis
A low-ranking Secret Service agent is conned into supplying information to Eastern Bloc countries. Although he is not a suspect due to his unimportant position, when his office partner is hauled in as a suspect he realises he has got himself into very deep water.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Nicol WilliamsonMaurice Castle
- Richard AttenboroughColonel John Daintry
- Derek JacobiArthur Davis
- John GielgudBrigadier Tomlinson
- ImanSarah
- Joop DodererCornelius Muller
- Robert MorleyDoctor Percival
- Ann ToddCastle's Mother
- Anthony WoodruffDr Barker
- Keith MarshPorter
Recommendations
- 80
Chicago Reader
Graham Greene's impeccably plotted spy story serves Preminger's personal aims with a minimum of modification, as the film develops themes of loneliness, debilitation, and obsessive security—all centered on the tragic survival of moral feeling in a world drained by reason. - 80
The New York Times
A fascinating, slightly chilly picture — as well as one of the best Preminger films in years. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
The Human Factor, a spy saga and Preminger’s final film, is an overlooked gem. - 70
Newsweek
Sometimes flat, The Human Factor is nonetheless a lucidly impressive return to form for the 73-year-old director. It's not really a thriller at all, but an understated, uncompromising dissection of an event: an anatomy of the murder of a soul. [11 Feb 1980, p.82] - 67
Christian Science Monitor
It is a splendidly appropriate project for Otto Preminger, even though he hasn't succeeded at making the most of it. - 60
Time Out
The whole thing badly lacks any sort of central thematic focus, and the strangely obsessive Englishness of Greene's world is altogether missing. Craftsmanlike rather than inspired, it's watchable thanks largely to its solid performances. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
While far from a bad film, The Human Factor fails to convey the desperation and stagnation felt by the Williamson character. - 50
Variety
Graham Greene's low-keyed, highly absorbing 1978 novel of an aging English double agent finding himself trapped into defecting to Moscow and leaving his family behind may have seemed like ideal material for Otto Preminger's style of dispassionate ambiguity, but helmer doesn't seem up to the occasion, bringing little atmosphere or feeling to the delicate ticks of the story.
