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Minor plot holes involving Smiley, Control, and Mundt

posted 8 years ago by Geoman660066
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1) Leamas’s tradecraft in avoiding being followed after his lunch with Ashe was meticulous; he took many different taxis, trains, and buses. It would have been impossible for him to actually have been tailed by East German agents (such as Ashe or Carlton) to Smiley’s flat in Chelsea. Hence Control or Smiley had to tell Mundt this was actually the case so that Karden could accuse Leamas accordingly during the trial. It is true that intelligence is compartmentalized, yet would it not have raised suspicions in the Abteilung that this information was known ONLY to Mundt and disseminated, so to speak, from the top down?

2) Similarly, it did not seem credible that the East Germans could maintain a constant watch on Nan’s flat. Why do this after Leamas has left England? Yet they could only have known Smiley called on her by maintaining a constant vigil outside her door, which in reality would be impractical. Hence they could not have really been watching, but must have been told by Control or Smiley that Smiley paid a visit so they could confront Nan with this fact during the tribunal. But how exactly was this information transmitted to Karden for use during his examination? Obviously, Mundt had to tell him that his (Mundt’s agents) reported it to him, but would not Karden or others in the Abteilung have been suspicious that Mundt had such a direct line to “impeccable” intelligence from London without any of the actual agents there being involved?

Geoman660066

Postscript: Just skimmed the book after watching the move and Fiedler presses Mundt on some of these issues at the end: how exactly, for example, did Mundt know about Nan's lease? Telling line, by which the truth finally hits Leamas like a blow: "Mundt hesitated [before answering], a second too long . . . ."

[–] JacintoCupboard 8 years ago

I haven't read the book but in the movie this is explained in the car trip to Berlin towards the end.

Short version: everything was set up by Smiley and Mundt to preserve the latter's position as a counter agent. This includes the leasehold gifted to Nan, the intel on his meeting with Smiley and even the involvement and later execution of Nan. Importantly it had to look like a conspiracy by Fiedler and his people so as to remove them entirely from the equation in future.

As for whether the tribunal, or indeed anyone else in the East German intelligence community, would have thought this was all too 'impeccable', bear in mind this is a game within a game within a game. It is so layered that it would stretch the credibility of any of those people to consider it. And as Mundt himself suggests when freeing Leamas, attention will be spent looking at the Fiedler 'conspiracy'.

And in the end, there is zero evidence connecting Mundt to the British except the now discredited banking documents fed to Fiedler.