SYNOPSIS: Colonel Stok is a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall. It appears he wants to defect, but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and enlists agent Harry Palmer to smuggle him out of East Germany.

ANALYSIS:
FUNERAL IN BERLIN is the sequel to THE IPCRESS FILE and also adapted from a Len Deighton novel. It is a solid sequel to THE IPCRESS FILE for 1960s spy thrillers as the James Bond films became more over the top and spectacle driven. You can think of Harry Palmer as a reformed criminal who works for British Intelligence. He is a normal everyday man who isn't superhuman like James Bond 007. He uses his streetwise smarts to get the job done by using his old contacts in Berlin. Sometimes even other spies get the upper hand on him as he has no gadgets like Bond and all Harry has on his side are his wits. One of the big characters in the film is the city of Berlin which gets a big spotlight to what it looked like back in the 1960s. If you didn't pick up the DVD, the blu-ray is one for you to buy if you’re a fan of the Harry Palmer film series.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
None- not even the original theatrical trailer (or the French Mono track) which was included on the out of print DVD

FINAL ANALYSIS: I wish Paramount just licensed FUNERAL IN BERLIN out to Kino Lorber Studio Classics like they did with THE IPCRESS FILE (coming in October). This MOD blu-ray is just for fans of the movie and Michael Caine fans. I hope Kino Lorber gets to visit this on blu-ray in the near future. As is, FUNERAL IN BERLIN isn't much an upgrade over the DVD in quality and I hope there is a better transfer and restoration done in the future.

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