At lunch in an exclusive club in London, close to Buckingham Palace, the directors of an unnamed agency, Gibbs and Rushington, decide to send American agent Quiller to continue the assignment, which has now killed two agents. 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 This was the first book, and I liked it. This reactionary quake in the spy genre was brief but seismic all the same. Watched by Rui Alves de Sousa 04 Jun 2022. Quiller, a British agent who works without gun, cover or contacts, takes on a neo-Nazi underground organization and its war criminal leader. Also contains one of the final appearences of George Sanders in a brief role, a classic in his own right! 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. How nice to see you again! and so forth. I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s.
The Quiller Memorandum Ending Explained 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. Having just read the novel, it's impossible to watch this without its influence and I found the screen version incredibly disappointing. Each reveal, in turn, provides a separate level of truth--or, as it may be, self-deception. Once Quiller becomes extra-friendly with Ingewhich happens preternaturally quicklyits clear someone on the other side is getting nervous. 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!). Sadly, Von Sydows formidable acting chops are never seriously challenged here, and his lines are limited to fairly standard B-movie Euro-villain speak. When Quiller refuses to talk, Oktober orders his execution. Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor certainly produces the unexpected.
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. Before long, his purposefully clumsy nosing around leads to his capture and interrogation by a very elegantly menacing von Sydow, who wants to know where Segal's own headquarters is! Pretending to be a reporter, Quiller visits the school featured in the article. Can someone explain it to me? Sadly the Quiller novels have fallen out of favour with the apparentend of the Cold War. 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. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. 42 editions. 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. 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. 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. Quiller slips out though a side door to the small garage yard where his car is kept. Soon Quiller is confronted with Neo-Nazi chief "Oktober" and involved in a dangerous game where each side tries to find out the enemy's headquarters at any price. The setting is Cold War-divided Berlinwhere Quillertackles a threat from a group ofneo-Nazis whocall themselves Phoenix. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Writing in The Guardian, playwright David Hare described Pinters strengths as a dramatist perfectly: In the spare, complicated screenwriting of Pinter, yes, no and maybe become words which do a hundred jobs. Unfortunately, when it comes to the use of language in Quiller, less does not always function as more. We never find out histrue identity or his history. Segal plays a secret agent assigned to ferret out the headquarters of a Neo-Nazi movement in Berlin. You are the hero of an extraordinary novel that shows how a spy works, how messages are coded and decoded, how contacts are made, how a man reacts under the influence of truth drugs, and that traces the story of a vastly complex, entertaining, convincing, and sinister plot. Oktober reveals they are moving base the next day and that they have captured Inge. (UK title). In a clever subversion of genre expectations, the plot and storyline ignore contemporary East versus West Cold War themes altogether (East Berlin is, in fact, never mentioned in the film). 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. Keating. But the writing was sloppy and there was a wholly superfluous section on decoding a cipher, which wasn't even believable. Clumsy thriller. It relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters. With a screenplay by Harold Pinter and careful direction by Michael Anderson, the movie is more a violent-edged tale of probable, cynical betrayal by everyone we meet, with the main character, Quiller (George Segal), squeezed by those he works for, those he works against and even by the delectable German teacher, Inge Lendt (Senta Berger) he meets. 1 hr 45 mins. Also the increasing descent into the minutiae of spycraft plays into the reveal, plot-wise as well as psychologically. I can't NOT begin by saying, "This Is A MUST Read For Every Fan Of The Espionage Genre". 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. As other reviewers have suggested, this Cold War Neo-Nazi intrigue is more concerned with subtle, low-key plot evolution than the James Bond in-your-face-gadgetry genre that was prevalent during the 60's-70's.
Quiller Series by Adam Hall - Goodreads "[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. The novels are esoteric thrillers, very cerebral and highly recommended. 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). In terms of style The Quiller books aretaut and written with narrative pace at the forefront. Read more . Alec Guinness never misses a trick in his few scenes as the cold, witty fish in charge of Berlin sector investigations. [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. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. The Berlin Memorandum, renamed The Quiller Memorandum, was published in 1965 by Elleston Trevor, who used the pseudonym Adam Hall.
The Quiller Memorandum - Rate Your Music Movie Info After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller (George Segal) is sent to Berlin to. When drug-induced questioning fails to produce results, Segal is booted to the river, but he isn't quite ready to give in yet. Kindle Edition. Quilleris a code name. The Quiller Memorandum was based on a novel by Elleston Trevor (under the name Adam Hall). A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. , . The plot holes are many. The whole thing, including these two actors, is as hollow as a shell. His dry but quick Yiddish humor shines through on many occasions, providing diversions that masquerade his underlying desire to expose the antagonists' machinations. He begins openly asking question about Neo-Nazis and is soon kidnapped by a man known only as "Oktober". The characters and dialog are well-written and most roles are nicely acted. 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. Oh, there are some problems, and Michael Anderson's direction is. Watchable and intriguing as it occasionally is, enigmatic is perhaps the most apposite adjective you could use to describe the "action" within. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click. Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. He accepts the assignment and almost immediately finds that he is being followed. Hall is not trying be a Le Carre, hes in a different area, one he really makes his own. In the mid-Sixties, the subgenre of the James Bond backlash film was becoming a crowded market. He calls Inge and arranges to meet. He first meets with Pol, who explains that each side is trying to discover and annihilate the other's base.
Quiller Memorandum, The (Blu-ray Review) - The Digital Bits (What with wanting to go to sleep and wanting to scream at the same time, this film does pose certain conflict problems.) Mind you, in 1966-67 the Wall was there, East German border guards and a definite (cold war) cloud hanging over the city. 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 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 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. Quiller: At the end of our conversation, he ordered them to kill me. Variety wrote that "it relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters". Quiller manages to outwit his opponent yet again, leading to his arrest. Quiller reaches Pol's secret office in Berlin, one of the top floors in the newly built Europa-Center, the tallest building in the city, and gives them the location of the building where he met Oktober. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed.
The Quiller Memorandum (1966) directed by Michael Anderson Reviews 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. ): as a result, they were summarily bumped off with stereotypical German precision. Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol (Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. 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. He also has to endure some narcotically enhanced interrogation, which is the basis of one of the novel's most thrilling chapters. I am not saying he was bad in the filmor at least that bad. The film ends with Quiller suspecting that Inge is more than an ordinary schoolteacher. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close?
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). 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.
The Quiller Memorandum - DVD Talk 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. The film starred George Segal in the lead role, with Alec Guinness supporting andwas nominated for three BAFTAs. Pol dispatches a team to Phoenix's HQ, which successfully captures all of Phoenix's members. movies. The screenwriter, Harold Pinter, no less, received an Edgar nomination. I loved seeing and feeling the night shots in this film and, as it was shot on location, the sense of reality was heightened for me. Lindt (Berger) is a school teacher who meets Quiller to translate for him. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Finally, he is placed in the no-win position of either choosing to aid von Sydow or allowing Berger to be murdered. The book is built around a continual number of reveals. 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.