Richard Burton stars in THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, an adaptation of John Le Carre's bestseller, as Alec Leamas, a burned-out spy hoping to "come in from the cold" and retire from British Intelligence. For his final assignment, Alec must pose as a drunk who wants to defect to East Germany, where the chief of operations for the Communists, Hans-Dieter Mundt, has captured several British spies. His acting works: Communists throw Alec into jail for public drunkenness and for having an affair with a young member of the local Communist party, Nan. In jail, he is approached by Mundt's agents and asked to defect. They take Alec to East Berlin where he is grilled by Mundt's top man, Fielding, who believes that Mundt is actually a double agent. Shot in stark black and white in documentary style, Ritt's film is a realistic portrait of the grim life of a spy, revealing all of the profession’s complexities in a style that is equally as thrilling as any James Bond movie.