Director Michael Anderson Writers Trevor Dudley Smith (based on the novel by) Harold Pinter (screenplay) Stars George Segal Alec Guinness Max von Sydow See production, box office & company info While most realistic spy films of the 60s focused on the Soviet threat, Quiller pits the title character against a group of neo-Nazis. I too read the Quiller novels years ago and found them thrilling and a great middle ground between the super-spy Bond stories and the realism of Le Carre. Inga is unrecognizable and has been changed to the point of uselessness. But soon he finds that she has been kidnapped and Oktober gives a couple of hours to him to give the location of the site; otherwise Inge and him will be killed. The Wall Street Journal said it was one of the best espionage/spy series of all time. If your idea of an exciting spy thriller involves boobs, blondes and exploding baguettes, then The Quiller Memorandum is probably not for you. All Rights Reserved. The Quiller Memorandum is a film adaptation of the 1965 spy novel The Berlin Memorandum, by Trevor Dudley-Smith, screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by Michael Anderson, featuring George Segal, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger and Alec Guinness.The film was shot on location in West Berlin and in Pinewood Studios, England.The film was nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards, while Pinter was nominated for an . 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. Very eerie film score, I believe John Barry did it but, I'm not sure. 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. After their first two operatives leading the field mission are assassinated in subsequent order, the British Secret Service recruit Quiller, an American agent, to continue to lead that field operation, namely to discover the base of operations of a new Nazi organization in West Berlin, they whose general members hide in plain sight in blending in with all walks of West German society. 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. The Quiller Memorandum Reviews. The plot holes are many. Quiller wakes up beside Berlin's Spree River. But the writing was sloppy and there was a wholly superfluous section on decoding a cipher, which wasn't even believable. The latter reveals a local teacher has been unmasked as a Nazi. Thought I'd try again and found this one a bit dated and dry - I will persevere with the series, Adam Hall (one of Elleston Trevor' many pseudonyms) wrote many classic spy stories, and this one is considered one of his best. Your email address will not be published. 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. Hes lone wolf who lives or dies by his own actions a very clean and principled approach to espionage. And will the world see a return of Nazi power? During the car chase scene, the cars behind Quiller's Porsche appear and disappear, and are sometimes alongside his car, on the driver's (left) side. 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? Performed by Matt Monro, "Wednesday's Child" was also released as a single. 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By day, the city is presented so beautifully, it's hard to imagine that such ugly things are going on amidst it. There was also a TV series in 1975. This was a great movie and found Quillers character to be excellent. Kindle Edition. As classic as it gets. The Berlin Memorandum, or The Quiller Memorandum as it is also known, is the first book in the twenty book Quiller series, written by Elleston Trevor under the pen name of Adam Hall. The photo shows a man in Luftwaffe (airforce) uniform. In many ways, it creates mystery through the notion of exploring "mystery" itself. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. "The Quiller Memorandum" is a film with a HUGE strike against it at the outset.they inexplicably cast George Segal as a British spy! 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.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.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. 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. The Quiller Memorandum (1966) is one such film, and though it's one of the more obscure ones, it is also one of the better ones. 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. The mission in Berlin is a mess, two of the Bureaus spies have been murdered already by the shadowy Phoenix. He brings graceful authority and steely determination to his role. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. His understated (and at times simply wooden) performance here can be a tough sell when set against the more expressive comedic persona he cultivated in offbeat 1970s comedies like Blume in Love, The Owl and the Pussycat, Wheres Poppa?, California Spilt, and Fun With Dick and Jane. 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. Alec Guinness gets to play a Smiley prototype but brings too much Noel Coward to the table. He finds that a bomb has been strapped underneath and sets it on the bonnet of the car so it will slowly slide and fall off due to vibration from the running engine. They are all members of Phoenix, led by the German aristocrat code-named Oktober. This books has excellent prose, unrealistic scenes, and a mediocre plot. Segal is a very young man in this, with that flippant, relaxed quality that made him so popular. Your email address will not be published. In typically British mordant fashion, George Sanders and a fellow staffer in Britain are lunching in London on pheasant, more concerned with the quality of their repast than with the loss of their man in the field! Quiller asks after Jones at the bowling alley without success and the swimming pool manager Hassler tells him spectating is not allowed. Don't bother watching it, except to see the many scenes shot on location in West Berlin at that time, with its deserted streets and subdued mood. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed. Keating. George Segal was good at digging for information without gadgets. When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. Book 4 stars, narration by Simon Prebble 4 stars. The thugs believe him dead when they see the burning wreckage. On its publication in 1966, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM received the Edgar Award as best mystery of the year. 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. The film was shot on location in West Berlin and in Pinewood . That makes the story much more believable, and Adam Hall's writing style kept me engaged. A spy thriller for chess players. I'm generally pretty forgiving of film adaptations of novels, but the changes that were made just do not make sense. 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). She states that she "was lucky, they let me go" and claims she then called the phone number but it did not work. When Quiller returns to his hotel, a porter bumps Quiller's leg with a suitcase on the steps. I listened to the audio version narrated by Andrew B Wehrlen and found it an utterly engaging tale. Commenting on Quiller in 1966, The New York Timessomewhat unfairlywrote off Segals performance as an unmitigated bust: If youve got any spying to do in Berlin, dont send George Segal to do the job. The reviewer then refers to Quiller as a pudding-headed fellow (a descriptive phrase that sounds more 1866 than 1966). 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). THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (3 outta 5 stars) The 1960s saw a plethora of two kinds of spy movies: the outrageous semi-serious James Bond ripoffs (like the Flint and Matt Helm movies) and the very dry, methodical ones that were more talk than action (mostly John Le Carre and Alistair MacLean adaptations). The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click. His job is to locate their headquarters. AKA: Ivan Foxwell's the Quiller Memorandum, Quiller, Quiller Memorandum, Ian Foxwell's The Quiller Memorandum, Ivan Foxwell's Production The Quiller Memorandum. 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. I can't NOT begin by saying, "This Is A MUST Read For Every Fan Of The Espionage Genre". Also contains one of the final appearences of George Sanders in a brief role, a classic in his own right! Quiller admits to Inge that he is an "investigator" on the trail of neo-Nazis. Oktober also wants to know the location of the British base in Germany and uses drugs in Quiller to get the information but the skilled agent resists. This exciting movie belongs to spy sub-genre being developed during the cold war , it turns out to be a stirring thriller plenty of mystery , tension , high level of suspense , and a little bit of violence . The story is ludicrous. What is the French language plot outline for The Quiller Memorandum (1966)? The original, primary mission has been completely omitted. Sadly the Quiller novels have fallen out of favour with the apparentend of the Cold War. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. What Adam Hall did extremely wellwas toget us readers inside the mind of an undercover operative. In the 60's, in Berlin, two British agents that are investigating a Neonazi ring are murdered. And whats more, Quillers espionage tale is free of the silly gimmicks and gadgetry that define the escapist Bond franchise. In fact, he is derisory about agents who insist on being armed. The movie wants to be more Le Carre than Fleming (the nods to the latter fall flat with a couple of fairly underpowered car-chases and a very unconvincing fight scene when Segal first tries to escape his captors) but fails to make up in suspense what it obviously lacks in thrills. A handful of engaging spy thrillers followed before the author paused his novels to focus on journalism, although its also worth noting that he has freelanced. This isn't your standard spy film with lots of gunplay, outrageous villains, and explosions. No doubt Quiller initially seems like a slow-witted stumblebum, but his competence as an agent begins to reveal itself in due course: for instance, we find out he speaks fluent German; in a late scene, he successfully uses a car bomb to fake his own death and fool his adversaries; and along the way he exhibits surprisingly competent hand-to-hand combat skills in beating up a few Nazi bullyboys. He does this in a lone-wolf way, refusing to be hampered by bodyguards. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? It is very rare that I find anyone else who is even aware of the Quiller books and yet they are as your reviewer mentions, absolutely first class. George Segal, plays the edgy American-abroad new CI5 recruit (looking unnervingly at times like a young George W Bush!) Pol tells Quiller the fascist underground is far more organized and powerful in Germany than people believe. 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. Instead, the screenplay posits a more sinister threat: the nascent re-Nazification of German youths, facilitated by an underground coven of Nazi sympathizing grade-school teachers. effective, low key, intelligent, spy film, Attractive, thoughtful spy film with an excellent cast. Max von Sydow as a senior post-War Nazi conspirator over-acts and is way out of control, Anderson being so hopeless and just a bystander who can have done no directing at all. 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. Quiller tells Inge that they got most, but clearly not all, of the neo-Nazis. As a consequence I was left in some never-never land and always felt I was watching actors in a movie and never got involved. Newer. The film is ludicrous. 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. His virtual army of nearly silent, oddball henchmen add to the flavor of paranoia and nervousness. See production, box office & company info, Europa-Center, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany. Updates? 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. Is Quiller going to wind up dead too? I know several spy fiction fans who rate Quiller highly; I'd read a couple and thought they were only OK, plus seen and enjoyed the film (which fans of the novel tend to dislike). And he sustains the same high level of quality over the course of nineteen books. He walks down the same street where Jones was shot, but finds he is followed by Oktober's men. 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. The Quiller Memorandum. She claims she turned in the teacher from the article, and points out the dilapidated Phoenix mansion. America's leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema. Harold Pinter's fairly literate screenplay features . But for today's audiences, those films are a bit old fashioned and not always very easy to follow, too much complicated. Your name is Quiller. He accepts the assignment and almost immediately finds that he is being followed. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. closing theme, This page was last edited on 26 January 2023, at 11:13. Quiller continues his subtle accusations, and Inge continues her denial of ever meeting Jones. The setting is Cold War-divided Berlin where Quiller tackles a threat from a group of neo-Nazis who call themselves Phoenix. Segal plays a secret agent assigned to ferret out the headquarters of a Neo-Nazi movement in Berlin. They say 'what a pity' with droll indifference as they eat their roast pheasant and take note of which operatives have been killed this week. 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. Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol (Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. His dry but quick Yiddish humor shines through on many occasions, providing diversions that masquerade his underlying desire to expose the antagonists' machinations. 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. (What with wanting to go to sleep and wanting to scream at the same time, this film does pose certain conflict problems.) In conclusion, having recently watched "Quiller's" almost exact contemporary "The Ipcress File", I have to say that I preferred the latter's more pointed narrative, down-home grittiness and star acting to the similar fare offered here. I found it an interesting and pleasant change of pace from the usual spy film, sort of in the realm of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (but not quite as good). Our hero delivers a running dialogue with his own unconscious mind, assessing the threats, his potential responses, his plans. No one really cared that Gable did not even attempt an English accent the film was that good. The film had its world premiere on 10 November 1966 at the Odeon Leicester Square in the West End of London. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. It keeps the reader engrossed right up to the last couple of lines. 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. 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. He also has to endure some narcotically enhanced interrogation, which is the basis of one of the novel's most thrilling chapters. After two British agents are assassinated in Berlin by a group of Neo-Nazis, the British Secret Service assign Quiller to locate and identify the culprits. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 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. This is a nom de plume for author. The mind of the spy In a feint to see if Quiller will reveal more by oversight, Oktober decides to spare his life. Languid, some might say ponderous mid-60's British-made cold-war drama (it could scarcely be called a thriller, more "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" than, say "Thunderball") that for all its longueurs, does have some redeeming features. 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. True, Segal never seems to settle into the role of Quiller. Michael Anderson directs with his usual leaden touch. Quiller investigates, but hes being followed and has been since the moment he entered Berlin. Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. Summaries 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. 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. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. The source novel "The Berlin Memorandum" is billed in the credits as being by Adam Hall. 1 jamietre 8 mo. Older ; About; 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. A crisply written story that captured my attention from beginning to end. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. Pol dispatches a team to Phoenix's HQ, which successfully captures all of Phoenix's members. 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). When Quiller passes out at a traffic stop, the other car pulls alongside and abducts him. Quiller's assignment: to discover the location of the neo-Nazi . Not terribly audience-friendly, but smart and very, very cool.