The Deadly Affair was probably one of the most enjoyable spy thrillers I’ve seen in a long time. Based on a book by John le Carre, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring the incomparably British James Mason, I enjoyed every scene and can’t wait to get my hands on a second-hand DVD so I can watch it again to get all the dialog I missed the first time around. The film was a restoration and I think they had some trouble getting a good sound recording. And then there was the music.

It was, hands-down, the most improbable musical sound track I’ve ever heard. Not that it was bad, just that the pairing of a Brazilian bossa nova with a British spy thriller seemed way too strange, as if the movie’s makers were trying to be so deliberately weird as to dare viewers to hate it. I didn’t, but I’d welcome a release of this movie without the musical sound track.