Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

General Midwinter: Did you know for example, that the air in the East Coast of America is polluted by the reds? Oh, you might look at me, but boy, I tell you and I know that the air in Texas is the only truly wholesome air in this world. That is why I have not been out of Texas in twenty five years. I don't like the air in other places.
Harry Palmer: It's amazing how we all survive, really.

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Harry Palmer: What exactly have you been saying we do in Latvia?
Leo Newbigen: I told the brain exactly what it wanted to hear.
Harry Palmer: Oh, yes? What would that be, Leo?
Leo Newbigen: I told it we had three hundred agents in Latvia dismantling missile sites and professional saboteurs ready for armed insurrection.
Harry Palmer: Er, or political assassination.
Leo Newbigen: Um, hmn. Mass uprisings...
Harry Palmer: Over throwing governments.
Leo Newbigen: Yeah, over throwing anything at all.
Harry Palmer: Three hundred agents? How much a week?
Leo Newbigen: Thirty thousand dollars.
Harry Palmer: Thirty thousand dollars a week?
Leo Newbegin: Plus expenses and from now on, you're in on half.
Harry Palmer: Oh, thank you, Leo. But I would like to stay alive to spend it. That lunatic is about to invade Soviet territory.
Leo Newbigen: And we're not going to be around when he does.
Harry Palmer: When he gets within five miles of the Latvian border, every alarm in the whole world will blow and four minutes later, nobody is going to be around.
Leo Newbigen: You want your money, don't you?

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Harry Palmer: OK, Leo, what's the catch?
Leo Newbigen: There's no catch.
Harry Palmer: Then who gets killed?
Leo Newbigen: Nobody gets killed.
Harry Palmer: There's no catch, and nobody gets killed? I'd still like to know more about it, Leo.

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This was the third Harry Palmer film, after The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin. Michael Caine had originally signed a five-picture deal, but when he was reluctant to return to the role, producer Harry Saltzman let him out of the contract. Much later, though, he did make two more Harry Palmer films: Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in Saint Petersburg.
The movie contains several references to the work of director Sergei M. Eisenstein. Most notably the ice battle scene from Alexander Nevsky, the red flag (seen flying over Riga, Eisenstein's birthplace) and the wounded nurse (the frozen Kaarna) from Battleship Potemkin.
The 'double-diamond' logo for Midwinter's army was clearly derived from the Nazi swastika. If you think of the swastika as being two 'S's crossed in the centre, then the Midwinter logo is created by reversing one 'S' and distorting the shapes slightly to leave a small gap at the ends.
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