Harry Palmer

Michael Caine played British secret agent Harry Palmer in five films, based on a series of novels by Len Deighton.

The first three -- The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, and Billion Dollar Brain -- were released in the 1960s, during the height of the Sean Connery James Bond films, and offer a grimmer alternative to the flashy espionage of Bond. (In this wiki's Spy Fiction rating scale, the Bond films are Martini Flavored and Palmer films are very definitely Stale Beer.)

Caine returned to the role thirty years later for two more films, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in Saint Petersburg.

Films in this series with their own trope pages include:

 * Funeral in Berlin

The other films in this series provide examples of:

 * Named By the Adaptation: Harry Palmer. The narrator-protagonist of the novels never gave his name.