Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV Mini Series)

Tinker Tailor (1979)

Alec Guinness: George Smiley

Photos 

Quotes 

• George Smiley : [quoting an old letter from Bill Haydon about Jim Prideaux]  He has that heavy quiet that commands. He's my other half. Between us we'd make one marvelous man. He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked, divine friends, and I'm vastly tickled by the compliment. He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge.

  Jim Prideaux : Christ... Christ, man, we were chidren.

• Jim Prideaux : Smiley.

  George Smiley : Jim.

  Jim Prideaux : If you're not on your own, I swear I'll break your neck.

• George Smiley : What did he say about me?

  Jim Prideaux : He showed me a cigarette lighter. Said it was yours. It had "From Ann, with all my love" and her signature engraved.

  George Smiley : Did he tell you how he came by it?

  Jim Prideaux : Some confrontation years ago. He said you'd remember.

  George Smiley : Is there anything else?... Oh, come on, Jim, I'm not going to weaken at the knees just because some Russian hood has made a bad joke about me.

  Jim Prideaux : He reckoned that after Bill Haydon's fling with her she might care to redraft the inscription. I told him to his face he can go to bloody hell, he can't judge Bill on things like that, he's a different standard!

  George Smiley : [on Bill]  He was never one for regulations...

  Jim Prideaux : And you were never one to see him straight.

• [last lines] 

  George Smiley : Didn't it all strike you as a bit odd? No inquisition, Toby throwing loose money around? After all, through you that the Russians had discovered the exact reach of Control's suspicions about a traitor in the Service. He narrowed the field to five, and no one's asking you about the facts...

  Jim Prideaux : The facts were known. Toby ordered me not to approach anyone to try and make my story heard. He said the Circus was back on the road and I could forget Tinker, Tailor, the whole damn game, moles, everything. "Drop out," he said. "You're a lucky man, Jim. Forget it, huh? Forget it."

  George Smiley : So Toby actually mentioned "Tinker, Tailor" to you? However did he get hold of that?

  Jim Prideaux : [gets out of the car]  And that's what I've been doing: obeying orders and forgetting!

  [walks off] 

• Jim Prideaux : [describing his interrogation]  I hoped I'd go mad. And no, they knew how to stop that. They left me alone for a couple of days; got me ready for the long one. That was when I ga... ga... gave... g... gave them what they wanted.

  George Smiley : It's a matter of health as much as anything.

  Jim Prideaux : Yes, you don't break exactly, you just run out of stories to tell. I'd reached a point where the things locked away deep down were the only things coming into my brain.

• Sam Collins : So what can I do for you?

  George Smiley : I want to talk to you about the night Jim Prideaux was shot. The night of Operation Testify, which is what it was called in case you didn't know.

  Sam Collins : Writing your memoirs, George?

  George Smiley : We're reopening the case.

  Sam Collins : Who's this "we", old boy?

  George Smiley : Lacon called me, with the Minister's blessing. I can give you a telephone number to confirm it, although I would prefer not to.

  Sam Collins : All power corrupts but some must govern and in that case Brother Lacon will reluctantly scramble to the top of the heap.

• George Smiley : They sacked you for fibbing?

  Sam Collins : Alcoholism. There's a standing order against booze on the premises. What was your offense, George?

  George Smiley : Oh, I couldn't convince them that I wasn't involved.

• George Smiley : Sam, listen. It was too late for Bill's club to be running ticker tapes, wasn't it? He was making love to Ann that night. You made a guess at that and you were right. You telephoned her, she told you he wasn't there, and then as soon as you rung off she pushed him out of bed... and Bill turned up an hour later, knowing about Czecho. But you didn't tell Ann about Czecho.

• Jim Prideaux : God damn you, George, what the hell do you want?

  George Smiley : I'm sorry, Jim, but I have to know what happened.

• George Smiley : How do you like schoolmastering? I think you had a spell of it after the War, didn't you?

  Jim Prideaux : Don't come around playing cat and mouse with me, George Smiley. Look at the file.

• Jim Prideaux : Tell me about the networks... didn't anyone get out?

  George Smiley : No. It seems they were shot. The story is you blew them to save your own skin. I know that isn't true, of course...

  [Prideaux rushes to the bathroom] 

  Jim Prideaux : For Christ's sake let's go somewhere we can breathe!

• Jim Prideaux : [describing his interrogation]  At this stage there was a frosty bearded fellow left, seemed to be head boy. Hated his damn cigarettes...

  George Smiley : Why?

  Jim Prideaux : It was a foul American thing. Camel, actually. I saw the brand.

  George Smiley : And did he smoke?

  Jim Prideaux : Never stopped!