so much poppycock
Of course The Ipcress File is just a piece of light entertainment, not really made to stand up to close scrutiny. On the plus side, Caine's insubordinate sarcasm is fun, and the story moves along nicely. In its day people must have enjoyed the (awful) music and the gimmicky camera angles. But the holes in the plot left me cold.
Soviet agents want to cripple British science. OK, murder them. Simple. No, they take to kidnapping them and "brainwashing" them so they don't remember their science. Sure, guys, that's how brainwashing works, allowing you to target specific areas of memory.
As portrayed in the film, brainwashing appears to be nothing new, just mental torture, consisting of confusing sights and annoying sounds, plus good old-fashioned hypnosis (the fictional type, of course).
Dr. Radcliffe is said to be the only scientist who was "lifted," that is kidnapped. What happened to the others?
If adding to the British "brain drain" is the goal of the Soviets, why they would send brainwashed scientists back into the population? How many were there, by the way? And why is it that Radcliffe is the first whose faulty memory was noticed——in that very public venue.
There is no point to the Soviets returning a brainwashed scientist for a payment of ransom. Ransom is for criminals, not Soviet spymasters.
Dr. Radcliffe stepped up to the podium full of confidence to speak about his research on mesons. Suddenly he gets a brain freeze. Confidence requires awareness of existing knowledge. I suppose a Soviet agent somewhere nearby suddenly pushed a button that turned off that part of Radcliffe's brain.
Well, we could go on. But the coup de grace is the premise of the whole plot at the end, when Ross tells Palmer that he was chosen because he was relying on his insubordination to resist the brainwashing. What? Ross knew Palmer was going to be captured? He knew all about the brainwashing? He knew it could be resisted? His entire plan to expose the Soviet mole depended on all the improbabilities of Palmer's capture, resistance, etc., etc.?[spoiler] Did he also anticipate that Palmer would have both of them in his gunsights and with a few words he would be able to convince Palmer that the traitor was not himself but Dalby? Poppycock.
I've read how some people here are willing to make up all sorts of fanciful scenarios in an attempt to make some sense of the story, but I think it's better just to take the movie as a bit of light entertainment. Unfortunately, for me the nonsense took away most of the entertainment value.