TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“The Ipcress File.” MCA. $29.95. Back in 1965, when Harry Saltzman produced this first of the Len Deighton-inspired Harry Palmer spy thrillers, it was highly praised as a refreshing alternative to the James Bond films--then also produced by Saltzman. Michael Caine, making his star debut as Palmer, was low-key, impudent, Cockney, bespectacled; he often made blunders, and he was nobody’s superhero. “Ipcress” was directed by Sidney J. Furie in a series of “Third Man” tilts and off-angles, with the camera peering through everything from a typewriter bar to a parking meter. But time has not been kind to this alleged classic (though it has to Caine). The film now seems less urbane and innovative, more coldly flashy and bluntly affected--full of sound and Furie, signifying little. And, with the wide-screen image cropped, we get only half the flash. Information: (818) 777-4315. ** 1/2