Line #16 Film/TheHumanFactor


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_human_factor_1979.jpg]]
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3	''The Human Factor'' is a 1979 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film based on the novel of the same name]] by Creator/{{Graham Greene\|Author}}, directed by Creator/OttoPreminger.
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5	Maurice Castle (Creator/NicolWilliamson) is an operative in the British spy agency [=MI6=], working in the Africa section. He is hardly Franchise/JamesBond but instead is a worker bee with an office and a desk, and he has to share the office, with a fellow named Davis (Creator/DerekJacobi). In the past however he worked in the field in South Africa, and from South Africa he brought back a wife (Creator/{{Iman}}, the supermodel, in her film debut) and an adopted son, Sam.
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7	A South African intelligence officer arrives in England for a joint operation, and brings word that there is a suspected leak in [=MI6=]. Castle's superiors, Hargreaves and Dr. Perceval (Creator/RobertMorley), get Daintry from internal security (Creator/RichardAttenborough, in his last acting role until ''Film/JurassicPark'' 14 years later) to hunt for the mole, but Hargreaves and Perceval themselves zero in on Davis--he's single, he drinks a lot, he likes strip clubs, he just generally fits their preconception of a mole.
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9	Naturally, it's actually Castle who is the mole. He's been passing info on to the Soviets for seven years, not for money or for ideology, but for personal reasons that date back to his service in South Africa.
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11	This was Otto Preminger's last film, and it proved to be a TroubledProduction in which Preminger had to sell a house and some art work to fund the film himself after his backers pulled out. Additionally, Preminger himself was not in top form during the filming, as he was already suffering from mild cognitive decline associated with his later Alzheimer's diagnosis.
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14	!!Tropes:
15	* AffablyEvil: Dr. Perceval is a jolly and friendly man who loves fly fishing and socializing over a drink with friends. He also has absolutely no qualms about poisoning an [=MI6=] agent suspected of leaking secrets to the Soviets, and shrugging off the agent's death as no great loss when he realizes that he's murdered the wrong man.
16	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Maurice Castle is so quiet, bland, and conventional that nobody suspects him of being a double-agent. Even when evidence points to his office and Africa-related intelligence, Davis becomes the prime suspect instead on account of his trouble-maker reputation.
17	* BewareTheSillyOnes: Dr. Perceval seems like little more than a fat, eccentric buffoon during most of his interactions with [=MI6=] personnel. Under this surface, he's a man who's ruthless in eliminating any possible threat to their operations using any means necessary (from threats to murder).
18	* BlackAndGrayMorality: Castle is, as he himself admits, a traitor. But he is in debt to the Soviets after using them to get his wife out of South Africa. He is far more sympathetic than Hargreaves and Perceval, who coolly murder poor Davis in order to spare the agency embarrassment, and aren't even all that sorry when they find out they killed the wrong man.
19	* BlowingSmokeRings: Just to illustrate his sociopathic indifference, Perceval blows smoke rings while he and Hargreaves discuss murdering Davis in order to spare [=MI6=] from bad publicity.
20	* TheBookCipher: Castle communicates with his KGB handlers by means of books that he buys from a used bookstore. It turns out that the genial old man who owns the bookstore is also a KGB spy.
21	* TheCameo: Creator/JohnGielgud appears in one scene as Watson, Castle's supervisor at the agency. Even though Gielgud only appears in a single brief scene, he gets [[AdvertisedExtra high billing alongside Attenborough and Williamson]].
22	* CouldSayItBut: Castle and Daintry have a loaded conversation in which Castle says that Davis couldn't have possibly been the spy, that he didn't even know anything about South Africa. Castle meaningfully says that if there was a leak it would most likely be someone who served in South Africa (like Castle did) and has a personal connection to South Africa (like Castle does).
23	* DeskJockey: Contrary to romanticized notions of what [=MI6=] operatives do, Castle, Davis, and most of their coworkers mostly sit at a desk processing documents (though Castle did perform some actual espionage work by posing as a journalist in South Africa to get information about Communist infiltration of anti-Apartheid groups).
24	* DiplomaticImmunity: As Mueller explains in a flashback, this is the only reason Castle wasn't arrested for having a black girlfriend.
25	* DoubleAgent: Castle admits to his wife that "I've been a double agent for seven years." While still doing his spy stuff for [=MI6=] he has also been feeding the KGB intel, mostly low-level stuff.
26	* DownerEnding: Castle is stuck in Moscow, in what appears to be glorified house arrest in a dingy apartment. He is likely to be permanently separated from his wife, as Perceval tells her that if she tries to leave Britain, she'll be investigated for possible involvement in her husband's espionage--and the boy can't leave anyway as he doesn't have a passport. Castle tells his Moscow contact that he'd rather have stayed at home because at least jails have visiting hours. The film ends with tears rolling down his face as he talks with Sarah on the phone - only to be cut off in mid-sentence by the operator.
27	* FakeDefector: A little KickTheDog moment at the end. Castle's KGB sponsor in Moscow reveals that the intel Castle has been passing for seven years actually had no importance at all. [=MI6=]'s mole in Moscow (whom the audience [[TheGhost never sees]]), the one who reported the leak in the Africa section of [=MI6=] in the first place, isn't a real mole. He's been passing Castle's intel right back to [=MI6=] to prove his bona fides, while also passing back disinformation meant to confuse British intelligence. That was the only value Castle had, as a pawn to convince the British to trust the fake mole.
28	* {{Flashback}}: A series of flashbacks explain why Castle became a mole. He fell in love with his wife Sarah in South Africa, but thanks to racist apartheid laws against miscegnation, she was subject to arrest and imprisonment just for dating him. Castle got a KGB contact of his to smuggle Sarah out of South Africa to safety, which put him in their debt, which is why he spies for them.
29	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Daintry invites Castle to go pheasant hunting, Castle declines, saying that he's never shot anything in his life. In a later scene, he tries to put down his dog with a revolver, and apparently botches the job, because his neighbors discover the dog slowly bleeding to death and yelping in pain afterwards.
30	* {{Hypocrite}}: Mueller defends laws prohibiting sexual relations between white and black people while enjoying sexual encounters with black prostitutes.
31	* KarmaHoudini: Naturally, Perceval and Hargreaves get away with the murder of Davis.
32	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Perceval kills Davis with an injection meant to simulate death by natural causes. Perceval also gave Davis a physical exam when he first became a suspect and made (probably false) claims about Davis having high blood pressure and liver problems prior to his death.
33	* TheMole: Castle is a mole, an [=MI6=] agent leaking to the KGB.
34	* NotWhatISignedUpFor: Daintry, who is dedicated to finding the mole but is shocked and disgusted when he realizes that Perceval murdered Davis. Daintry doesn't get any less disgusted when he finds out that Perceval killed the wrong man.
35	* SexySecretary: Davis lusts for Cynthia, the hot secretary that he and Castle share.
36	* ShootTheDog: A literal example - when Sarah forgets to take the family dog with her when she leaves, Castle doesn't have time to deal with the dog, so he takes the dog into the cellar and shoots it on the advice of the Soviet agent who's helping to smuggle him out of the UK.
37	* SpyFiction: Stale Beer flavored. Graham Greene said of his novel that he had set out to write a spy thriller that didn't have any James Bond-style violence or derring-do, but instead portrayed spies as civil servant office drones.
38	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Castle has the chance to retire from spy work, and in fact he does sever contact with the Soviets, after Hargreaves and Percival incorrectly tab Davis as the mole and murder him. But when he finds out about the British-South African operation, "Uncle Remus"--placing tactical nuclear weapons on South Africa's border, as security in the event of a race war--he leaks that plan to the Soviets, and thus has to flee the country.

Context Film / TheHumanFactor