Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV Mini Series)

Flushing Out the Mole (1979)

Alec Guinness: George Smiley

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  [Smiley and Guillam prepare the safe house] 

  George Smiley : Toby Esterhase did say, two full milk bottles and all's well.

  Peter Guillam : Right. That's the second time you asked.

  George Smiley : Well, let's not pretend we're not nervous.

• George Smiley : Did you love him? Ann, did you?

  Ann Smiley : No, George.

• Oliver Lacon : I suppose your wife will have to be among them. I know you told me she and Haydon are over and done with now, as you said. There's always the unknown factor in matters of the heart. I'm thinking about the future - any possible further contact - and if Ann doesn't know - she does meet so many different sorts of people.

  George Smiley : [smiles]  She gets around.

  Oliver Lacon : I'm sorry, George.

  George Smiley : Not at all, I quite take your point. Ann must let us know of any approach directly or indirectly made by or on behalf of...

  Oliver Lacon : Exactly.

  George Smiley : ...or even merely concerning Bill Haydon.

  Oliver Lacon : Thank you.

  [Smiley looks at Ann's painting] 

  George Smiley : I was going to tell her anyway. You might call it balancing the books.

• Bill Haydon : What do you want to know?

  George Smiley : Oh... why? How? When?

  [Bill starts laughing and crying at the same time] 

  Bill Haydon : Why? You ask that? Because it was NECESSARY, that's why! Someone had to!

  [pause] 

  Bill Haydon : We were bluffed, George. You, me, even Control. Those Circus talent spotters, all those years ago. They plucked us when we were golden with hope, told us we were on our way to the Holy Grail... freedom's protectors!

  [laughing and sobbing] 

  Bill Haydon : My God! What a question... "Why?"

• [on his affair with Ann] 

  Bill Haydon : The thing with Ann was Karla's idea. He always believed that if there was ever any threat, it would come from you. He said you were quite good. But you had this one weakness: Ann. It was a double-fix, actually. On the one hand, you wouldn't be likely to think of me as a Circus traitor if you were preoccupied with wondering what we got up to in bed. And if it were known around the place that I was her lover, then it was bound to look like personal vengeance if you ever did suggest that I might be the mole. So, he suggested, well, not to strain it, but if possible... join the queue. Point?

  George Smiley : [almost inaudibly]  Point.

• Oliver Lacon : You know, George, one thing perplexes me more than anything else about the mole conspiracy: well, Karla conceived Operation Witchcraft primarily as a means of placing poor Percy Alleline on Control's throne. But why didn't Karla want Haydon to simply take over the Circus himself? Well, surely it would have been much easier to arrange, with all of Bill's acknowledged accomplishments.

  [cut to Haydon and Smiley walking the grounds of the detention camp] 

  Bill Haydon : No, no. It was a perfect setup: Percy made the running, I slipstreamed behind him, Roy and Toby did the legwork. Being in charge would have bogged me down. All the admin, the dinners in Whitehall, hobnobbing with the set...

  George Smiley : Never happened to Control.

  Bill Haydon : A natural recluse, Control. I couldn't have behaved that way and gotten away with it. Much better for me to remain the freewheeling subordinate, the laughing cavalier. No, no, George, Karla and I agreed: I'd have been wasted as Chief. Could have done it, of course.

  George Smiley : Of course.

• [after the tape is played revealing Haydon's treachery] 

  Toby Esterhase : Well, that's that. Congratulations, George.

  Oliver Lacon : Next step, gentlemen?

  George Smiley : Would you agree with me, Percy, that our best course of action is to make some positive use of Bill Haydon? We need to salvage what's left of the networks he's betrayed.

  Percy Alleline : [weakly]  Yes...

  George Smiley : We sell Haydon to Moscow Centre for as many of our men in the field as can be saved - for humanitarian reasons. Professionally, of course, they're finished.

  Percy Alleline : Quite.

  George Smiley : Then the sooner you open negotiations with Karla, the better. Well, you're much better placed to talk terms than I am. Polyakov remains your direct link with Karla.

  Oliver Lacon : The only difference is, this time you know it! It's definitely your job, Percy. You're still Chief, officially... for the moment.

  Percy Alleline : Very well, George.

• Bill Haydon : They tell me I could be away tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. Can you make sure any mail gets forwarded from my club? Oh, and the balance of my salary, of course.

  George Smiley : I will. Anything else?

  Bill Haydon : Oh, yes. Nearly forgot. You got a pen somewhere?

  [Smiley tosses his pen at him] 

  Bill Haydon : Thanks.

  [writes a cheque] 

  Bill Haydon : Girlfriend. Give her this. I'm away on work of national importance... maybe for years, so she can forget me. And I can't take her with me, can I? Even if I could, she'd be a bloody millstone. Oh, and there's one particular boy.

  [writes an address] 

  Bill Haydon : A cherub, but no angel. Haven't seen a lot of him. You better give him a couple of hundred - can you do that, out of the reptile fund?

  George Smiley : I would think so.

  Bill Haydon : Good.

  [puts Smiley's pen in his pocket and leans back in his bunk] 

  Bill Haydon : Oh, God, I'm tired...

  George Smiley : My pen, please!

  Bill Haydon : ...What? Oh!

  [chuckles and returns Smiley's pen] 

  Bill Haydon : Certainly. Sorry.

• George Smiley : Just for a moment, I wanted to shoot him, for what he did to us.

  Ann Smiley : Haydon betrayed everything, everyone.

• George Smiley : [Smiley wraps up his meeting with the Circus chiefs]  As to the future, I've been asked to... look after things for a while. I'd like everyone to take some leave.

  [Silence as everyone digests this] 

  George Smiley : Afterwards, there'll be some... redeployments...

  [More silence] 

  George Smiley : ... for those of you who wish to remain with the Service.

• [Haydon is battered and bruised and has had blood on his shirt. Smiley begins his interrogation of Haydon] 

  George Smiley : Lacon assures me there's been no coercion. I hope that's true?

  Bill Haydon : Oh yes. No complaints, George. Bit of a nosebleed, keep feeling dizzy. I'm sure it's just the excitement of it all.

• George Smiley : There was no one out there, that you noticed?

  Mendel : Quiet as the grave.

• George Smiley : Did you expect Control to send Jim Prideaux?

  Bill Haydon : Well... obviously we needed to be certain Control would rise to the bait. We had to send in a big gun to make the story stick, and we knew he'd only settle for someone outside London Station, someone he trusted.

  George Smiley : And someone who spoke Czech, of course.

  Bill Haydon : Naturally. It had to be a man who was old Circus, to bring the temple down a bit.

  George Smiley : Yes, I see the logic of it. It was, perhaps, the most famous partnership the Circus ever had: you and him, back in the old days. The iron fist, and the iron glove. Who was it coined that?

  Bill Haydon : I got him home, didn't I?

  George Smiley : Yes. That was good of you.

• Oliver Lacon : Would the Russians kill Haydon?

  Percy Alleline : It gives Karla all the reason he needs to cancel the deal with our networks.

  Roy Bland : But Moscow Centre prides itself on getting its people back.

  George Smiley : Important point, Roy.

  Oliver Lacon : Well, WHO then?

• Ann Smiley : How would you describe him?

  George Smiley : Yet another man trying to find a footplace in history.

  Ann Smiley : George, Bill took centre stage playing stagewright, playing world against world. He loved that! He loved being a traitor.

• George Smiley : If you make your enemy look stupid you lose the justification for taking him on.