The Quiller Memorandum is a 1966 British neo noir eurospy film filmed in Deluxe Color and Panavision, adapted from the 1965 spy novel The Berlin Memorandum, by Elleston Trevor under the name "Adam Hall", screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by Michael Anderson, featuring George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow and Senta Berger. 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. 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? ago Just watched it. In 1966, the book was made into a successful film starring George Segal, Max Von Sydow, Senta Berger, and Alec Guinness. 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). Segal is a very young man in this, with that flippant, relaxed quality that made him so popular. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click. After the interview, he gives her a ride to her flat and stops in for a drink. Conveniently for Quiller, shes also the only teacher there whos single and looks like a Bond girl. An American agent is sent to Berlin to track down the leaders of a neo-Nazi organization, but when they . The setting is the most shadowy "post WWII Berlin" with the master players lined up against each other - The Brits and The Nazi Heirs. Visually, the film was rather stunning, but the magical soft focus that appears every time Inga is in the frame is silly. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. Elleston Trevor (pictured) himself was a prolific, award-winning writer, producing novels under a range of pen names nine in total! 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down, existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. 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. Yes, Scream VI Marketing Is Behind the Creepy Ghostface Sightings Causing Scares Across the U.S. David Oyelowo, Taylor Sheridan's 'Bass Reeves' Series at Paramount+ Casts King Richard Star Demi Singleton (EXCLUSIVE), Star Trek: Discovery to End With Season 5, Paramount+ Pushes Premiere to 2024. Composer Barry provides an atmospheric score (though one that is somewhat of a departure from the notes and instruments used in his more famous pieces), but silence is put to good use as well. 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. Nobel prizes notwithstanding I think Harold Pinter's screenplay for this movie is pretty lame, or maybe it's the director's fault. That makes the story much more believable, and Adam Hall's writing style kept me engaged. 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. The film ends with Quiller suspecting that Inge is more than an ordinary schoolteacher. 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. 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). His Oktober does, however, serve as a one-man master class in hyperironic cordiality: Ah, Quiller! This is the first in the series, and it seems to have a reputation for being a little different from what would become the typical Quiller novel. Set largely on location in West Berlin, it has George Segal brought back from vacation to replace a British agent who has come to a sticky end at the hands of a new infiltrating group of Nazis. As usual for films which are difficult to pin down . 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. And will the world see a return of Nazi power? Once Quiller becomes extra-friendly with Ingewhich happens preternaturally quicklyits clear someone on the other side is getting nervous. It is the first book in the 20-volume Quiller series. How nice to see you again! and so forth. Fairly interesting spy movie, but doesn't make much sense under close scrutiny. The film is a spy-thriller set in 1960s West Berlin, where agent Quiller is sent to investigate a neo-Nazi organisation. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Drama. As such, it was deemed to be in the mode of The Ipcress File (1965) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). Nimble, sharp-toothed and sometimes they have to bite and claw their way out of a dark hole. 1 hr 45 mins. Quiller captures the contrast between the new and the seedy in the West Berlin of the 60s and how Germany remains haunted by the sins of its recent past. In the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate. George Sanders and others back in London play the stock roles of arch SIS mandarins who love putting people down, wearing black tie and being the snobs that they are. This is one of the worst thriller screenplays in cinema history. The movie made productive use of the West German locations. He sounded about as British as Leo Carillo or Cher. It relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters. The film was shot on location in West Berlin and in Pinewood Studios, England. Is Quiller going to wind up dead too? And considering how terrible its one fight scene is, it's certainly a blessing that it doesn't have any more. It was nominated for three BAFTA Awards,[2] while Pinter was nominated for an Edgar Award for the script. How did I miss this film until just recently? My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. This is a nom de plume for author. Alec Guinness never misses a trick in his few scenes as the cold, witty fish in charge of Berlin sector investigations. Oktober reveals they are moving base the next day and that they have captured Inge. You HAVE been watching it carefully. The casting of George Segal in the lead was a catastrophe, as he is so brash and annoying that one wants to scream. The quarry for all the work is old Nazi higher officials who are now hiding behind new names and plotting to return Germany to the glory days of the Third Reich, complete with a resurrected Fhrer twenty years after the end of WW II. [3], In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Clearly, 'The Quiller Memorandum' is claptrap done up in a style and with a musical score by John Barry that might lead you to think it is Art. And of course, no spy-spoof conversation would be complete without mentioning 1967s David Niven-led piss-take on the Bond films, Casino Royale. American agent Quiller (George Segal) arrives in Berlin and meets with his British handler Pol (Alec Guinness). Written by Harold Pinter from the novel by Adam Hall Produced by Ivan Foxwell Directed by Michael Anderson Reviewed by Glenn Erickson The enormous success of James Bond made England the center of yet another worldwide cultural phenomenon. The first thing to say about this film is that the screenplay is so terrible. Keating. He is shielded behind the building when the bomb explodes. Hassler drives them to meet an old contact he says knows a lot more, who turns out to be Inge's headmistress. 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.) He recruits Berger to help him infiltrate the Neo-Nazis and discover their base of operations, but, once again, is thwarted. 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. Each reveal, in turn, provides a separate level of truth--or, as it may be, self-deception. It's not my intention to be obnoxious and list every point in the movie that strays from the book, but it's truly a shame that such well-crafted material--intriguing back stories, superior spy tactics--is wasted here. Quiller is eventually kidnapped and tortured by Oktober (Max von Sydow), the leader of Phoenix. Get help and learn more about the design. Much quieter and understated than most spy flicks. Quiller: At the end of our conversation, he ordered them to kill me. It's not often that one wishes so much for a main character to get killed, especially by NAZI's. The only really interesting thing is the way we're left spoiler: click to read in the end. . I recently found and purchased all 19 of the series in hardback and read them serially. I thought the ending was Quller getting one last meeting with the nice babe and sending a warning to any remaining Nazis that they are being watched. This spy novel about neo-Nazis 1960's Berlin seemed dated and a little stilted to me. The ploy works as one, two or all three of those places were where the Nazis did learn about Quiller, who they kidnap. The Quiller Memorandum was based on a novel by Elleston Trevor (under the name Adam Hall). They wereso popularthat in 1966 a film was made the title waschanged to The Quiller Memorandum and from then on all future copies of the book were published under this title, rather than the original. Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neo-Nazi organization in West Berlin. 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. 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). Pol dispatches a team to Phoenix's HQ, which successfully captures all of Phoenix's members. February 27, 2023 new bill passed in nj for inmates 2022 No Comments . Quiller works for the Bureau, an arm of the British Secret Service so clandestinethat no-one knows itexists. The film starred George Segal in the lead role, with Alec Guinness supporting andwas nominated for three BAFTAs. In . Scriptwriter Harold Pinter, already with two of the best adapted screenplays of the 1960s British New Wave under his belt (The Servant and The Pumpkin Eater), adapted his screenplay for Quiller from Adam Halls 1965 novel, The Berlin Memorandum. Alec Guinness is excellent as a spy chief, and he gives a faint whiff of verisimilitude to this hopeless film. 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. The former was a bracingly pessimistic Cold War alternative to freewheeling Bondian optimism that featured burnout boozer actor Richard Burton in an all-too-convincing performance as burnout boozer spy Alec Leamus. 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. Set in 1950s Finland, during the Cold War, the books tell the story of a young police woman and budding detective who cuts against the grain when, John Fullertons powerful 1996 debut The Monkey House was set in war-torn Sarajevo and was right in the moment. Agent Quiller is relaxing in a Berlin theater the night before returning to London and rest after a difficult assignment when he is accosted by Pol, another British agent, with a new, very important assignment. Quiller confronts a man who seems to be following him, revealing that he (Quiller) speaks German fluently. He contacts the teacher Inge Lindt (Senta Berger) expecting to get some clues to be followed and soon he is abducted the the leader Oktober (Max von Sydow) and his men. The Quiller Memorandum: Directed by Michael Anderson. This well-drawn tale of espionage is set in West Berlin, 15 years after the end of WW II. The photo shows a man in Luftwaffe (airforce) uniform. In the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate. 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. But his accent was all wrongtaking the viewer out of the moment. 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. I am not saying he was bad in the filmor at least that bad. The scene shot in the gallery of London's Reform Club is particularly odious. This reactionary quake in the spy genre was brief but seismic all the same. The book itself sets a standard for the psychological spy thriller as an agent (code-named Quiller) plays a suspense-filled cat-and-mouse game with the head of a neo-Nazi group in post-war Berlin. While the Harry Palmer films from 1965 to 1967 (Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, and Billion Dollar Brain) saw cockney Everyman Michael Caine nail the part of Palmer, who was the slum-dwelling, bespectacled antithesis to Sean Connerys martini-sipping sybarite. But Quiller shares an important kinship with Spy in that it challenges popular 007 mythmaking: freshly envisioning the unglamorous underside of an intelligence profession that the James Bond franchise had been relentlessly trivializing since its inception. Probably the most famous example of a solid American type playing an Englishman is Clark Gable from Mutiny On The Bounty. The source novel "The Berlin Memorandum" is billed in the credits as being by Adam Hall. In many ways, it creates mystery through the notion of exploring "mystery" itself. Following the few leads his predecessor Jones had accumulated, Quiller finds himself nosing around for clues in the sort of unglamorous places in which Bond would never deign to set footbowling alleys and public swimming pools, especially. But don't let it fool you for one minutenor Mr. Segal, nor Senta Berger as the girl. Quiller has a love affair with Inge and they seek out the location of Oktober. Senta Berger was gorgeous! I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s. The characters and dialog are well-written and most roles are nicely acted. The premise isn't far-fetched, but the details are. Quiller then returns to his hotel, followed by the men who remain outside. Studios: The Rank Organisation and Ivan Foxwell Productions, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Quiller-Memorandum, BFI Screenonline - The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Britmovie.co.uk - "The Quiller Memorandum", The Quiller Memorandum - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neonazi organization in West Berlin. This was a great movie and found Quillers character to be excellent. At a key breakfast meeting, Pol uses two blueberry muffins to outline the particularly precarious cat-and-mouse game Quiller must play while in the gap between his own side and the fascist gang. The Berlin Memorandum, renamed The Quiller Memorandum, was published in 1965 by Elleston Trevor, who used the pseudonym Adam Hall. Quiller leaves, startling the headmistress on the way out. AKA: Ivan Foxwell's the Quiller Memorandum, Quiller, Quiller Memorandum, Ian Foxwell's The Quiller Memorandum, Ivan Foxwell's Production The Quiller Memorandum. He does this in a lone-wolf way, refusing to be hampered by bodyguards. "[4], The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive rating, based on 12 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. Harold Pinter was nominated for an Edgar Award in the Best Motion Picture category, but also didn't win. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. Quiller awakes in a dilapidated mansion, surrounded by many of the previous incidental characters. Hall (also known as Elleston Trevor and several other pseudonyms) seemed really to hate the Germans, or at least his character did. He also works alone and without contacts. Quiller goes back to the school and confronts Inge in her classroom. The Quiller Memorandum. America's leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema. Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol ( Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. 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. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Have read a half dozen or so other "Quiller" books, so when I saw that Hoopla had this first story, I figured I should give it a listen to see how Quiller got started. Read more ): as a result, they were summarily bumped off with stereotypical German precision. Quiller wakes up beside Berlin's Spree River. After all, his characters social unease and affectless personality are presumably components of the movies contra-Bond commitment. En route he has some edgy adventures. It's a more realistic or credible portrayal of how a single character copes with trying to get information in a dangerous environment. The nation remained the home of the best spies. The mission in Berlin is a mess, two of the Bureaus spies have been murdered already by the shadowy Phoenix. While the rest of the cast (Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow and George Sanders) are good and Harold Pinter tries hard to turn a very internal story into the visual medium, George Segal is totally miscast as Quiller. Although competing against a whole slew of other titles in the spies-on-every-corner vein, the novel, "The Quiller Memorandum" was amazingly successful in book stores. He is the true faceless spy. If Quiller isnt the most dramatically pleasing of the anti-Bond subgenre, its certainly not for lack of ambition, originality, or undistinguished crew or cast members. effective, low key, intelligent, spy film, Attractive, thoughtful spy film with an excellent cast. Clumsy thriller. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? He brings graceful authority and steely determination to his role. Another isQuillers refusal to carry a weapon hebelieves it lends the operative an over-confidence and cangive the opposition an opportunity to turn your firearm against you. Watchlist. After two British agents are killed while investigating Phoenix, a neo-Nazi group, Quiller is tasked with finding the organizations leader. If you've only seen the somewhat tepid 1966 film starring George Segal which is based on this classic post-WWII espionage novel, don't let it stop you from reading the original. He also wroteacrossa number ofgenres. It's a bit strange to see such exquisitely Pinter-esque dialogue (the laconic, seemingly innocuous sentences; the profound silences; the syntax that isn't quite how real people actually talk) in a spy movie, but it really works. International in its scope its contributors include scholars from Australia, Quiller . Quiller, an agent working for British Intelligence, is sent to Berlin to meet with Pol, another operative. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed. After being prevented from using a phone, Quiller makes a run for an elevated train, and thinking he has managed to shake off Oktober's men, exits the other side of the elevated station only to run into them again. As explained by his condescending boss Pol (Alec Guinness), Quillers two unfortunate predecessors were getting too close to exposing the subterranean neo-Nazi cell known as Phoenix (get it? Kindle Edition. 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. Quiller drives off, managing to shake Hengel, then notices men in another car following him. Harold Pinter's fairly literate screenplay features . The book is built around a continual number of reveals. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The film was shot on location in West Berlin and in Pinewood . 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. [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. The brawny headmistress points Quiller in the direction of Inge (Senta Berger), who happens to be the only English-speaking teacher at the school. 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. before he started doing "genial" and reminds us that his previous part was in the heavyweight "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Which is to say that in Quillers world, death is dispensed via relatively banal means like bombs and bullets instead of, say, dagger shoes and radioactive lint. This demonstration using familiar breakfast food items serves to stimulate the American spys brainwaves into serious operative mode. 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.