American agent Quiller (George Segal) arrives in Berlin and meets with his British handler Pol (Alec Guinness). Quiller being injected with truth serum by agents of Phoenix. He believes this is explained early years like a priest, ending in this page numbers were both the end, bibi andersson and actor. In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war. Is there another film with as many sequences of extended, audible footsteps? Required fields are marked *. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I read a few of these many years ago when they first came out. Thanks in advance. A Twilight Time release. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions. This is one of the worst thriller screenplays in cinema history. When a spy film is made in the James Bond vein then close analysis is superfluous, but when the movie has a pretense of seriousness then it'd better make sense. Michael Anderson directs a classy slice of '60s spy-dom. The classic tale of espionage that started it all! The intense first person narration which is the defining characteristic of the Quiller books comes into its own during this interrogation scene, and also during the latter chapters of the books as events begin to come to a head. Write by: In 1966, the book was made into a successful film starring George Segal, Max Von Sydow, Senta Berger, and Alec Guinness. I read it in two evenings. The film's screenplay (by noted playwright Pinter) reuses to spoon feed the audience, rather requiring that they rely on their instinct and attention span to pick up the threads of the plot. [5], According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $2,600,000 in rentals to break even and made $2,575,000, meaning it initially showed a marginal loss, but subsequent television and home video sales moved it into the black. But don't let it fool you for one minutenor Mr. Segal, nor Senta Berger as the girl. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. The films featured secret agent is the very un-British Quiller (George Segal), a slightly depressive American operative on loan to Britains secret services (take that, Bond!). From that point of view, the film should be seen by social, architectural, and urban landscape historians. Max Van Sydow is better as the neo-Nazi leader, veiled by the veneer of respectability as he cracks his knuckles and swings a golf club all the time he's injecting Segal with massive doses of truth serum, while Senta Berger is pleasant, but slight, as the pretty young teacher who apparently leads our man initially to the "other side", but whose escape at the end from capture and certain death at the hands of the "baddies" might lead one to suspect her true proclivities. I am not saying he was bad in the filmor at least that bad. Although the situations are often deadly serious, Segal seems to take them lightly; perhaps in the decade that spawned James Bond, he was confused and thought he was in a spy spoof. The whole thing, including these two actors, is as hollow as a shell. I wanted to make a list of all the things that are wrong with this film, but I can't - such a list would need much more than a thousand words. Press J to jump to the feed. The setting is as classic as the comeBerlin during the 1960s. One of the first grown-up movies I was allowed to go see by myself as an impressionable adolescent (yes, this was some years ago now) was the Quiller Memorandum, with George Segal. A highly unusual and stimulating approach that draws us into the story. This movie belongs to the long list of the spy features of the sixties, and not even James Bond like movies, rather John Le Carr oriented ones, in the line of IPCRESS or ODESSA FILE, very interesting films for movie buffs in search of a kind of nostalgia and also for those who try to understand this period. He quickly becomes involved with numerous people of suspicious motives and backgrounds, including Inge (Senta Berger), a teacher at a school where a former Nazi war criminal committed suicide. To do his job George Segal's hapless Quiller must set himself out as bait in the middle of a pressure play in West Berlin. With what little information the British operatives are able to provide him especially in his most recent predecessor, Kenneth Lindsay Jones, working alone without backup against advice, Quiller decides to take a different but potentially more dangerous tact than those predecessors in showing himself at three places Jones was known to be investigating, albeit in coded terms, as the person who has now taken over the mission from Jones in the probability that the Nazis will try to abduct him for questioning to discover what exactly their opponents know or don't know, and to discover in turn their base of operations in West Berlin. Fairly interesting spy movie, but doesn't make much sense under close scrutiny. Michael Sandlin is a writer and academic based in Houston, Texas. He first meets with Pol, who explains that each side is trying to discover and annihilate the other's base. The novels are esoteric thrillers, very cerebral and highly recommended. Is Quiller going to wind up dead too? The Quiller Memorandum is the third Quiller novel that I have read, and it firmly establishes my opinion that Quiller is one of the finest series of espionage novels to have ever been written. I feel this film much more typified real counter espionage in the 60's as opposed to the early Bond flicks (which I love, by the way). Dril several holes in it, the size of a pin, one the size of a small coin. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. The plot holes are many. Harold Pinter was nominated for an Edgar Award in the Best Motion Picture category, but also didn't win. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Alec Guiness and George Sanders have brief roles as Segal's Control and Home Office head, respectively, and both rather coldly and matter-of-factly pooh-pooh over the grisly death of Segal's agent predecessor. This is an espionage series that started in the '60's and ran through the '90's. Corrections? When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. 2023's Most Anticipated Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-offs, Dirk Bauer . Or was she simply a lonely Samaritan who altruistically beds the socially awkward American spy to help prevent a Fourth Reich? In West Berlin, George Segal's Quiller struggles through a near- existential battle with Neo-Nazi swine more soulless than his own cold-fish handlers. Get help and learn more about the design. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down, existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. I had to resist the temptation to fast forward on several occasions. Always under-appreciated by U.S. audiences, it's a relief to know that she's had a major impact on the German film community in later years. 1 jamietre 8 mo. The Quiller Memorandum, based on a novel by Adam Hall (pen name for Elleston Trevor) and with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, deals with the insidious upsurge of neo-Nazism in Germany. The film illustrates the never-ending game of spying and the futility that results as each mission is only accomplished in its own realm, but the big picture goes on and on with little or no resolution. When Quiller refuses to talk, Oktober orders his execution. Max von Sydow plays the Nazi chief quietly but with high camp menace. Fans of realistic spy fiction will enjoy David McCloskeys debut thriller Damascus Station, newly available in paperback in the UK. After a pair of their agents are murdered in West Berlin, the British Secret Service for some unknown reason send in an American to investigate and find the location of a neo-Nazi group's headquarters. The only redeeming features of The Quiller Memorandum are the scenes of Berlin with its old U-Bahn train and wonderful Mercedes automobiles, and the presence of two beautiful German women, Senta Berger and Edith Schneider; those two females epitomize Teutonic womanhood for me. In terms of style The Quiller books aretaut and written with narrative pace at the forefront. George Segal was good at digging for information without gadgets. One of the most interesting elements of the novel is Quiller's explanation of tradecraft and the way he narrates his way through receiving signals from his Control via coded stock market reports on the radio, and a seemingly endless string of people following him around Berlin as he goes about his mission. For example, when the neo-Nazi goons are sticking to Quiller like fly paper, wasn't he suspicious when they did not follow him into his hotel? Blu-ray, color, 105 min., 1966. People tend to like it because "it's not like the Bond movies"; well, it's not - it's like "The Ipcress File", except that "The Ipcress File" was a genuinely smart and atmospheric movie, while "The Quiller Memorandum" is a clumsy, dated spy thriller full of pseudo-hip dialogue and plot holes. The story is ludicrous. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Whats left most open to interpretation is Inges role in all this: was she a Janus-faced Nazi mole who used sex as a weapon to lead Quiller into a trap? Fresh off an Oscar nomination for the mental anguish he suffered at the hands of Richard Burton and Liz Taylor in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf (also 1966), George Segal seems, in hindsight, a dubious choice to play the offbeat Quiller. What Adam Hall did extremely wellwas toget us readers inside the mind of an undercover operative. Defiant undercover spy Quiller carries out a nervy , stealthy , prowling around Berlin in which he becomes involved into a risked cat and mouse game , being chased and hunted , by a strange and sinister leader , known only as Oktober (Max Von Sidow) . The movie made productive use of the West German locations. Nobel prizes notwithstanding I think Harold Pinter's screenplay for this movie is pretty lame, or maybe it's the director's fault. This isn't your standard spy film with lots of gunplay, outrageous villains, and explosions. The Quiller Memorandum, based on a novel by Adam Hall (pen name for Elleston Trevor) and with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, deals with the insidious upsurge of neo-Nazism in Germany. Book 4 stars, narration by Simon Prebble 4 stars. 1 hr 45 mins. Pol tells Quiller that Kenneth Lindsay Jones, a fellow agent and friend of Quiller's, was killed two days earlier by a neo-Nazi cell operating out of Berlin. The third to try is Quiller, an unassuming man, who knows he's being put into a deadly game. In fact, he is derisory about agents who insist on being armed. But admittedly its a tricky business second-guessing his dramatic instincts here. The casting of George Segal in the lead was a catastrophe, as he is so brash and annoying that one wants to scream. The thugs believe him dead when they see the burning wreckage. The screenwriter, Harold Pinter, no less, received an Edgar nomination. This film has special meaning for me as I was living in Berlin during the filming and, subsequent screening in the city. Drama. Slow-moving Cold War era thriller in the mode of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Quiller Memorandum" lacks thrills and fails to match the quality of that Richard Burton classic. And, the final scene (with her and Segal) is done extremely well (won't spoil it for those who still wish to see itit fully sums up the film, the tension filled times and cold war-era Germany). Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. All Rights Reserved. The premise isn't far-fetched, but the details are. Unfortunately, the film is weighed down, not only by a ponderous script, but also by a miscast lead; instead of a heavy weight actor in the mold of a William Holden, George Segal was cast as Quiller. It's a more realistic or credible portrayal of how a single character copes with trying to get information in a dangerous environment. Not terribly audience-friendly, but smart and very, very cool. The Quiller Memorandum certainly couldnt compete on an aesthetic level with a film like Spy Who Came in from the Cold: No actor, certainly not George Segal, is going to one-up Richard Burton in the anti-Bond department. But for today's audiences, those films are a bit old fashioned and not always very easy to follow, too much complicated. I havent watched too many movies from the 1960s in my lifetime, but the ones I have watched have been excellent (Von Ryans Express, Tony Rome, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Hustler, The Great Escape, etc, including this one.) Segal plays a secret agent assigned to ferret out the headquarters of a Neo-Nazi movement in Berlin. The story, in the early days of, This week sees the release of Trouble, the third book in the Hella Mauzer series by Katja Ivar. That makes the story much more believable, and Adam Hall's writing style kept me engaged. Quiller, an agent working for British Intelligence, is sent to Berlin to meet with Pol, another operative. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. There are long stretches of what may have seemed to Pinter like very lively and amusing dialogue (the torture scenes between October and George Segal), but they drag on interminably, and make one want to go to sleep. And although Harold Pinters screenwriting for Quiller doesnt strike one as being classically Pinteresque, occasionally his distinct style reveals itself in pockets of suggestive menace where silence is often just as important as whats spoken. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? ): as a result, they were summarily bumped off with stereotypical German precision. And he sustains the same high level of quality over the course of nineteen books. He begins openly asking question about Neo-Nazis and is soon kidnapped by a man known only as "Oktober". Von Sydow (one of the few actors to have recovered from playing Jesus Christ and gone on to a varied and lengthy career) is excellent. Slow-moving Cold War era thriller in the mode of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Quiller Memorandum" lacks thrills and fails to match the quality of that Richard Burton classic. Segals laconic, stoop-shouldered Quiller is a Yank agent on loan to the British government to replace the latest cashiered Anglo operative in West Berlin. The Quiller Memorandum, British-American spy film, released in 1966, that was especially noted for the deliberately paced but engrossing script by playwright Harold Pinter. In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war. What will Quiller do? Soon after his amorous encounter with Inge, Quiller is drugged on the street by a crafty hypodermic-wielding operative and wakes up in a seedy basement full of stern-looking Nazis in business attire. He also has to endure some narcotically enhanced interrogation, which is the basis of one of the novel's most thrilling chapters. 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Like Harry Palmer, Quiller is a stubborn individualist who has some rather inflated ideas of being his own man and is contemptuous of his controlling stuffed-shirt overlords. His romantic interest is Senta Berger, whose understated and laconic dialog provides the perfect counterpoint to Segal's character. Alec Guinness gets to play a Smiley prototype but brings too much Noel Coward to the table. Mind you, in 1966-67 the Wall was there, East German border guards and a definite (cold war) cloud hanging over the city. The source novel "The Berlin Memorandum" is billed in the credits as being by Adam Hall. The book and movie made a bit of a splash in the spy craze of the mid-sixties, when James Bond and The Man From Uncle were all the rage. He is shielded behind the building when the bomb explodes. Without knowing where they have taken him, and even if it is indeed their base of operations, Quiller is playing an even more dangerous game as in the process he met schoolteacher Inge Lindt, who he starts to fall for, and as such may be used as a pawn by the Nazis to get the upper hand on Quiller. His job is to locate their headquarters. George Segal as Agent Quiller with Inge Lindt (Senta Berger). Theres a humanity to Quiller that is unique in this type of action spy thriller. This books has excellent prose, unrealistic scenes, and a mediocre plot. How did I miss this film until just recently? Your name is Quiller. An almost unrecognizable George Segal stars in "The Quiller Memorandum," set in Berlin and made 40 years ago. The Quiller Memorandum came near the peak of the craze for spy movies in the Sixties, but its dry, oddly sardonic tone sets it apart from both the James Bond-type sex-and-gadget thrillers and the more somber, "adult" spy dramas such as Martin Ritt's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965). But then Quiller retraces his steps in a flashback. We never find out histrue identity or his history. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Directed by Michael Anderson; produced by Ivan Stockwell; screenplay by Harold Pinter; cinematography by Erwin Hiller; edited by Frederick Wilson; art direction by Maurice Carter; music by John Barry; starring George Segal, Max Von Sydow, Alec Guinness, Senta Berger, and guest stars George Stevens and Robert Helpmann. axolotl gills curled back, valtierra cowboy hats, keloland rain totals today,
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