Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Movie Review By: Beevers “ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ” is a great old fashion espionage film. It is based on the 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, of the same name. Gary Oldman stars as George Smiley, who is brought out of retirement to track down a mole in the Circus. The Circus is the code name for the British Secret Intelligence Service and is the highest echelon of the agency. At the beginning of the film we see the Chief of the Circus, Control played by John Hurt , asking Jim Prideaux, played by Mark Strong , to go to Budapest on a mission to find out the identity of the mole. The mission goes horribly wrong and Control is forced into retirement. Control’s right hand man, George Smiley, Circus’ Deputy Chief is forced into retirement as well. Control dies soon after. When the Permanent Undersecretary to the Secretary of State Defense gets a call from a Circus Scalphunter who was thought to have defected, with information that there