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 novels are esoteric thrillers, very cerebral and highly recommended. Don't start thinking you missed something: it's the screenplay who did ! Kindle Edition. 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. 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. Michael Anderson directs with his usual leaden touch. 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 Quiller would have also competed with the deluge of popular spy spoofs and their misfit mock-heroes: namely, Dean Martins drinking-and-driving playboy agent Matt Helm (The Silencers, Wrecking Crew) and James Coburns parody of Bondian suavity, Derek Flint, in the trippy spy fantasias Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967). Sadly the Quiller novels have fallen out of favour with the apparentend of the Cold War. For example operatives are referred to as ferrets, and thats what they are. 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. In 1966, the book was made into a successful film starring George Segal, Max Von Sydow, Senta Berger, and Alec Guinness. aka: The Quiller Memorandum the first in a series of 19 Quiller books. George Segal provides us with a lead character who is somewhat quirky in his demeanor, yet nonetheless effective in his role as an agent. Sadly, Von Sydows formidable acting chops are never seriously challenged here, and his lines are limited to fairly standard B-movie Euro-villain speak. Pol dispatches a team to Phoenix's HQ, which successfully captures all of Phoenix's members. 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. 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 . His book. Oktober informs Quiller that if he does not disclose secret information this time, both he and Inge will be killed. He steals a taxi, evades a pursuing vehicle and books himself into a squalid hotel. 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. 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. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? 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. Write by: Hall is not trying be a Le Carre, hes in a different area, one he really makes his own. 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. He sounded about as British as Leo Carillo or Cher. At the 1967 BAFTA Awards the film had nominations in the best Art Direction, Film Editing and Screenplay categories, but did not win. On the other hand, the female lead is played by the charming Senta Berger, then aged 25, who does very well, and manages to be enigmatic, and gets just the right tone for the story. 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. He published over 50 novels as Elleston Trevor alone. 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). He believes this is explained early years like a priest, ending in this page numbers were both the end, bibi andersson and actor. After all, his characters social unease and affectless personality are presumably components of the movies contra-Bond commitment. 2023's Most Anticipated Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-offs, Dirk Bauer . For Quiller, it's a question of staying alive when he's not in possession of all of the facts. 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 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). In fact, Segal as Quiller can often feel like a case of simple miscasting, although not as egregious a lapse in judgment as, say, Segals choice to play a Times Square smackhead in 1971s Born to Win. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click. 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. Very eerie film score, I believe John Barry did it but, I'm not sure. 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. It certainly held my interest, partly because it was set in Berlin and even mentioned the street I lived on several times. 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. 1966. 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 film magnificently utilizes West German locations to bring the story to life. In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war. From that point of view, the film should be seen by social, architectural, and urban landscape historians. The Quiller Memorandum strips the spy persona down to its primal instincts, ditching the fancy paraphernalia in favor of a rather satisfying display of wits and gumption. Segal is an unusual actor to be cast as a spy, but his quirky approach and his talent for repartee do assist him in retaining interest (even if its at the expense of the character as originally conceived in the source novels.) Harold Pinter was nominated for an Edgar Award in the Best Motion Picture category, but also didn't win. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. The West had sent a couple of agents to find out their headquarters, but both are killed. 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. Quiller goes back to the school and confronts Inge in her classroom. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. Watchable and intriguing as it occasionally is, enigmatic is perhaps the most apposite adjective you could use to describe the "action" within. 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. The first thing to say about this film is that the screenplay is so terrible. The brawny headmistress points Quiller in the direction of Inge (Senta Berger), who happens to be the only English-speaking teacher at the school. 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. Apparently, it was made into a classic movie and there is even a website compiled by Trevor devotees. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Is there another film with as many sequences of extended, audible footsteps? I liked that the main character was ornery and tired and smart and still made mistakes and tried to see all possible outcomes at once and fought more against jumping to conclusions and staying alert and clear-headed than he did directly against the villains themselves. 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? In the 60's, in Berlin, two British agents that are investigating a Neonazi ring are murdered. He begins openly asking question about Neo-Nazis and is soon kidnapped by a man known only as "Oktober". 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. When they find, Quiller gives the phone number of his base to Inge and investigates the place. This demonstration using familiar breakfast food items serves to stimulate the American spys brainwaves into serious operative mode. Michael Anderson directs a classy slice of '60s spy-dom. I enjoyed the book. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2021 Crime Fiction Lover. Weary, Quiller only accepts the assignment on the assumption that he can fulfill a self-made promise revenge for a friend. Guinness appears as Segal's superior and offers a great deal of presence and class. The thugs believe him dead when they see the burning wreckage. You are a secret agent working for the British in Berlin. 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. This one makes no exception. Each reveal, in turn, provides a separate level of truth--or, as it may be, self-deception. The mission in Berlin is a mess, two of the Bureaus spies have been murdered already by the shadowy Phoenix. The newspaper clipping that Hengel gives to Quiller, in the cafe when they first meet, shows that a schoolteacher called Hans Heinrich Steiner has been arrested for war crimes committed in WW2. He notices the concierge is seated where he can see anyone leaving. Hassler drives them to meet an old contact he says knows a lot more, who turns out to be Inge's headmistress. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Alec Guinness never misses a trick in his few scenes as the cold, witty fish in charge of Berlin sector investigations. I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s. 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. Other viewers have said it all: it is a good movie and more interestingly it is a different kind of spy movie. But George Segal just doesn't cut it as a British secret agent in The Quiller Memorandum. For my money, the top three cold war spy novelists were Le Carre, Deighton, and Adam Hall. 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. Not terribly audience-friendly, but smart and very, very cool. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. The plot holes are many. Quiller leaves the Konigshof Hotel on West Berlin's Kurfurstendamm and confronts a man who has been following him, learning that it is his minder, Hengel. Watchlist. But then Quiller retraces his steps in a flashback. Keating. Dril several holes in it, the size of a pin, one the size of a small coin. 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. He also wroteacrossa number ofgenres. And will the world see a return of Nazi power? This was a great movie and found Quillers character to be excellent. Berger is luminous and exceedingly solid in a complicated role. It is credible. My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. 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. Inga is unrecognizable and has been changed to the point of uselessness. 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. But Quiller is an equal to a James Bond, or a George Smiley. Quilleris a code name. 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. Quiller had the misfortune to hit cinemas hot on the heels of two first-rate examples of Bond backlash: Martin Ritts gritty The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the first (and easily best) entry in the acclaimed Harry Palmer trilogy, The Ipcress File, both released in 1965. With George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger. When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. The Quiller Memorandum: Directed by Michael Anderson. 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. Quiller befriends a teacher, Inge Lindt, whose predecessor at the school had been arrested for being a Neo-Nazi. And considering how terrible its one fight scene is, it's certainly a blessing that it doesn't have any more. How nice to see you again! and so forth. 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. Corrections? The setting is as classic as the comeBerlin during the 1960s. A man walks along a deserted Berlin street at night and enters an internally lit phone box. 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. His Oktober does, however, serve as a one-man master class in hyperironic cordiality: Ah, Quiller! This isn't your standard spy film with lots of gunplay, outrageous villains, and explosions. 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. 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. A satisfyingly cynical spy thriller with George Segal, Alec Guinness and Max Von Sydow; and a script by Harold Pinter, Decent and interesting spy thriller with great cast and impressive musical score by John Barry in his usual style. 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). The film is ludicrous. This well-drawn tale of espionage is set in West Berlin, 15 years after the end of WW II. First isthe protagonist himself. The film had its world premiere on 10 November 1966 at the Odeon Leicester Square in the West End of London. I recall being duly impressed by the menacing atmospherics, if much of it went over my head. (UK title). 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. 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. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. 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. It was from the quiller memorandum ending of the item, a failed nuclear weapons of Personalized Map Search. En route he has some edgy adventures. From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels! The name of the intelligence agency that Quiller ( George Segal) worked for was MI6. 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. 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. 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. Book 4 stars, narration by Simon Prebble 4 stars. International in its scope its contributors include scholars from Australia, Quiller . It is the first book in the 20-volume Quiller series. 2 decades after the collapse of Nazi Germany, several old guard are planning to (slowly) rebuild. But the writing was sloppy and there was a wholly superfluous section on decoding a cipher, which wasn't even believable. The classic tale of espionage that started it all! My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. Senta Berger was gorgeous! American agent Quiller (George Segal) arrives in Berlin and meets with his British handler Pol (Alec Guinness). Oktober reveals they are moving base the next day and that they have captured Inge. . 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. (What with wanting to go to sleep and wanting to scream at the same time, this film does pose certain conflict problems.) Hes lone wolf who lives or dies by his own actions a very clean and principled approach to espionage. He was the author of. I just dont really understand the ending to a degree. The scene shot in the gallery of London's Reform Club is particularly odious. I recently found and purchased all 19 of the series in hardback and read them serially. 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. Your email address will not be published. before he started doing "genial" and reminds us that his previous part was in the heavyweight "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Elleston Trevor wrote 19 novels in the highly successful Quiller series. 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. Analismos este filme no 10. episdio de TRS J COMPANHIA. They are not just sympathisers though. [7][8], Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Quiller_Memorandum&oldid=1135714025, "Wednesday's Child" main theme (instrumental), "Wednesday's Child" vocal version (lyrics: Mack David / vocals: Matt Monro), "Have You Heard of a Man Called Jones?" Hengel gives Quiller the few items found on Jones: a bowling alley ticket, a swimming pool ticket and a newspaper article about a Nazi war criminal found teaching at a school. 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. 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. The movie made productive use of the West German locations. Another characteristic of Halls style isthe ending of chapters with a cliff hanger. Twist piles upon twist , as a British agent becomes involved in a fiendishly complicated operation to get a dangerous ringleader and his menacing hoodlums . This was the first book, and I liked it. The friend proves to be Hassler, who is now much more friendly. 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. He spends as much time and energy attempting to lose the bouncer-like minders sent to cover him in the field as he does the neo-Nazi goon squads that eventually come calling. Nimble, sharp-toothed and sometimes they have to bite and claw their way out of a dark hole. He does this in a lone-wolf way, refusing to be hampered by bodyguards. This well-drawn tale of espionage is set in West B. It was written by Harold Pinter, but despite his talent for writing plays, he certainly had no cinematic sense whatever. 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 . This repackaging includes some worthwhile special features like an isolated score track and commentary by film historians Eddy Friedfeld and Lee Pfeiffer of Cinema Retro magazine to go with the new format. 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. On the surface, we get at least some satisfying closure to the case of the clandestine neo-Nazi gang. They are not just sympathisers though. Is Quiller going to wind up dead too? After they have sex, she unexpectedly reveals that a friend was formerly involved with neo-Nazis and might know the location of Phoenix's HQ. Really sad. And the legendary John Barrycomposer of the original Bond themeprovides appropriately haunting incidental music here. In this first book in the QUILLER series, undercover agent Quiller is asked to take the place of a fellow spy who has recently been murdered in Berlin, in identifying the headquarters of an underground but powerful Nazi organization, Phnix, twenty years .
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