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Apparent continuity lapses in last episode--can someone explain?

posted 10 years ago by delavalmilker
2 replies | jump to latest

First-off let me say that this is a great movie and I have watched it several times and thoroughly enjoyed it.

However I have a couple of questions concerning some apparent continuity lapses in the story, mainly in the last episode:

1) When George returns to Kretzschmar's house and gets the material that Claus was keeping for Otto Leipzig, George tells Kretzschmar to get him the next available flight to London "and tell them it's urgent". Yet the next scene he is on a train reading a letter, and then suddenly appearing outside Madame Ostrakova's apartment. Did he forego the plane and instead take a slow train to Paris?

2) After the meeting with Grigoriev, there is a scene by a Swiss lakeside between Toby Esterhase and George. Toby is saying "this is a madhouse!" and "this guy is a total crazy!". Which particular "guy" is he referring to? And the "madhouse" remark---was he referring to George's impending visit to the Swiss clinic where the girl is confined?

I have only seen this series on DVD, and from I have read from other posts apparently there were many cuts on the DVD from what appeared on the television broadcast. Is this the reason for these discrepancies?

[–] dylanw1 10 years ago

1) When George returns to Kretzschmar's house and gets the material that Claus was keeping for Otto Leipzig, George tells Kretzschmar to get him the next available flight to London "and tell them it's urgent". Yet the next scene he is on a train reading a letter, and then suddenly appearing outside Madame Ostrakova's apartment. Did he forego the plane and instead take a slow train to Paris?

Yes. By this point, Smiley has assumed that the German police and Karla’s goons are both after him, so he gets Kretzschmar to book a flight for him to lay down a false trail.

2) After the meeting with Grigoriev, there is a scene by a Swiss lakeside between Toby Esterhase and George. Toby is saying "this is a madhouse!" and "this guy is a total crazy!". Which particular "guy" is he referring to? And the "madhouse" remark---was he referring to George's impending visit to the Swiss clinic where the girl is confined?

There’s a scene deleted from the US version in which Esterhase goes to meet Grigoriev to get the letter of instructions from Karla (as arranged in the interrogation scene). Grigoriev shows up drunk, and demands $10,000 for the letter. After Esterase threatens to expose him, he hands it over, but then confesses to telling his girlfriend he has a secret mission. He wraps it up by telling Esterhase that he wants to be a Colonel in the British Army after he defects.

So it’s not a huge surprise that he’s feeling a bit exasperated in the next scene.

[–] jd-276 9 years ago

By this point, Smiley has assumed that the German police and Karla’s goons are both after him, so he gets Kretzschmar to book a flight for him to lay down a false trail.

Exactly. You have to pay attention to this because it's not quite as clear in the TV series as it is in the book. In the book, Smiley goes to great lengths to be sure that people will remember a "Mr J. Standfast" booking a flight from Hamburg to London. He makes sure the whole thing is very complicated by buying an economy class ticket and promising to pay for an upgrade to first class. He even wears a disguise that people would remember. He then mails his Standfast passport to a fictitious address in Australia and travels by train to Paris, via Copenhagen, as George Smiley. Very little of this piece of spy craft is transported into the series.