About the only thing that made Palmer amusing [in The Ipcress File] was his shabby small-time “professional’s” indifference to the larger stakes: improve his character and you take away the only character he had.

the least interesting of the [first] three Harry Palmer films... Mostly due to a lack of character development and the numerous double-crossings make the plot difficult to follow.

Faithful hardcore genre fans will find much to like here among the cloaks and daggers.... On the other hand, the pacing is slow and the twisty, sometimes flabby script might be frustrating for a viewer not fully engaged with such skullduggery.

disjointed and disappointing