THE MASTERPIECE
The Ipcress File
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO overestimate how huge spies were in the mid-1960s. If Empire had been published back then, spies would have been on the cover two out of every three issues (The Beatles would have nabbed the third). Of course, the craze started with James Bond, who made his big-screen debut in Dr. No (1962), and inspired other high-living secret agents, like James Coburn’s Derek Flint, Dean Martin’s Matt Helm and Monica Vitti’s Modesty Blaise. On television, there was Danger Man, , and . Everyone wanted in on the spy game — even Fred Flintstone in .
