[6], The mainly orchestral atmospheric soundtrack composed by John Barry was released by Columbia in 1966. aka: The Quiller Memorandum the first in a series of 19 Quiller books. 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. Very eerie film score, I believe John Barry did it but, I'm not sure. It's hard to believe this book won the Edgar for Best Novel, against books by Mary Stewart, Len Deighton, Ross MacDonald, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, and H.R.F. But Quiller is an equal to a James Bond, or a George Smiley. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Don't start thinking you missed something: it's the screenplay who did ! 1966. [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. Sadly, Von Sydows formidable acting chops are never seriously challenged here, and his lines are limited to fairly standard B-movie Euro-villain speak. 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. 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. George Segal as Agent Quiller with Inge Lindt (Senta Berger). Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol ( Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. 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 . 42 editions. 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. It was written by Harold Pinter, but despite his talent for writing plays, he certainly had no cinematic sense whatever. Quiller goes back to the school and confronts Inge in her classroom. The novels are esoteric thrillers, very cerebral and highly recommended. Each reveal, in turn, provides a separate level of truth--or, as it may be, self-deception. 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. He calls Inge and arranges to meet. Hes lone wolf who lives or dies by his own actions a very clean and principled approach to espionage. I read a few of these many years ago when they first came out. Journeyman director Michael Andersons The Quiller Memorandum, which was as defiantly anti-Bond as you could get in 1966, has just been rescued from DVD mediocrity by the retro connoisseurs at Twilight Time and given a twenty-first-century Blu-ray upgrade. 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. Also contains one of the final appearences of George Sanders in a brief role, a classic in his own right! Segal plays Quiller with a laconic but likeable detachment, underlining the loneliness and lack of relaxation of the agent, who can- not even count on support from his own side. By day, the city is presented so beautifully, it's hard to imagine that such ugly things are going on amidst it. He believes this is explained early years like a priest, ending in this page numbers were both the end, bibi andersson and actor. 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. 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. Is there another film with as many sequences of extended, audible footsteps? Quiller continues his subtle accusations, and Inge continues her denial of ever meeting Jones. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. Quiller tells Inge that they got most, but clearly not all, of the neo-Nazis. 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. 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. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. 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. ago Just watched it. 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. 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). Alec Guinness plays spymaster Pol, Quillers minder. Despite an Oscar nomination for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," Segal's strength lies in light comedy, and both his demeanor and physical build made him an unlikely pick for an action role, even if the film is short on action. Quiller: At the end of our conversation, he ordered them to kill me. This is a nom de plume for author. The Phoenix group descend and take Quiller, torturing him to find out what he knows. His book. Quiller investigates, but hes being followed and has been since the moment he entered 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. Performed by Matt Monro, "Wednesday's Child" was also released as a single. Whats more, not even Harold Pinter can inject Segals Quiller with anything like the cutting cynicism and dark humor that made Alec Leamus such a formidably wretched character. THE SITE FOR DIE HARD CRIME & THRILLER FANS. Pol dispatches a team to Phoenix's HQ, which successfully captures all of Phoenix's members. He recruits Berger to help him infiltrate the Neo-Nazis and discover their base of operations, but, once again, is thwarted. The Neo-Nazis want to know the location of British operations and similarly, the British want to know the location of the Neo-Nazis' headquarters. Neo-Nazi plot Phoenix boss Oktober (Max von Sydow) with George Segal, seated. A spy thriller for chess players. 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). This was the first book, and I liked it. Quiller, however, escapes, and with Inges help, he discovers the location of Phoenixs headquarters. Read more Dril several holes in it, the size of a pin, one the size of a small coin. 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. He first meets with Pol, who explains that each side is trying to discover and annihilate the other's base. 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). 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. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click. Quiller becomes drowsy from a drug that was injected by the porter at the entrance to the hotel. 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. Other viewers have said it all: it is a good movie and more interestingly it is a different kind of spy movie. As usual for films which are difficult to pin down . His romantic interest is Senta Berger, whose understated and laconic dialog provides the perfect counterpoint to Segal's character. The love interest between Quiller and Inge (Senta Berger) developed with no foundation. He notices the concierge is seated where he can see anyone leaving. It out the quiller? Despite an Oscar nomination for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," Segal's strength lies in light comedy, and both his demeanor and physical build made him an unlikely pick for an action role, even if the film is short on action. 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 On paper, this film had all the makings of a potential masterpiece: youve got a marquee cast, headed up by George Segal, Max Von Sydow, and Alec Guinness, for starters. I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s. 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. "The Quiller Memorandum" is a film with a HUGE strike against it at the outset.they inexplicably cast George Segal as a British spy! All Rights Reserved. Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor certainly produces the unexpected. He also works alone and without contacts. It relies. Much quieter and understated than most spy flicks. The ploy works as one, two or all three of those places were where the Nazis did learn about Quiller, who they kidnap. Finally, paint the result in Barbie pink and baby blue That's more or less what happened to Adam Hall's spy novel for this movie. Visually, the film was rather stunning, but the magical soft focus that appears every time Inga is in the frame is silly. Really sad. 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. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. 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. 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. 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. What is the French language plot outline for The Quiller Memorandum (1966)? 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. 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. (UK title). 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. Quiller has a love affair with Inge and they seek out the location of Oktober. . My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. But then Quiller retraces his steps in a flashback. For Quiller, it's a question of staying alive when he's not in possession of all of the facts. 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. At the 1967 BAFTA Awards the film had nominations in the best Art Direction, Film Editing and Screenplay categories, but did not win. "[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 shooting on location in Berlin makes it that much more thrilling. The Quiller series is highly regarded by the spy-fiction community, and as strange as it may seem - because I have had most of the books for years - I have never actually read them. Sadly the Quiller novels have fallen out of favour with the apparentend of the Cold War. [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. 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. In 1965, writing under the pseudonym of Adam Hall, Elleston Trevor published athriller which, like Ian Flemings Casino Royale before it, was to herald a change in the world of spy thrillers. He is shielded behind the building when the bomb explodes. George Segal provides us with a lead character who is somewhat quirky in his demeanor, yet nonetheless effective in his role as an agent. 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. The protagonist, Quiller, is not a superhuman, like the James Bond types, nor does he have a satchel full of fancy electronic tricks up his sleeve. Hes that good try the book and youll find out. The setting is the most shadowy "post WWII Berlin" with the master players lined up against each other - The Brits and The Nazi Heirs. 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. In the relationship between Quiller and Inge, Pinter casts just enough ambiguity over the proceedings to allow us plebian moviegoers our small participatory role in the production of meaning. Elleston Trevor (pictured) himself was a prolific, award-winning writer, producing novels under a range of pen names nine in total! 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). 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. Meanwhile , Quiller befriends and fall in love for a teacher , Inge Lindt (Senta Berger) , and both of whom suffer constant dangers . The novel was titled The Berlin Memorandum and at its centre was the protagonist and faceless spy, Quiller. 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. It's a more realistic or credible portrayal of how a single character copes with trying to get information in a dangerous environment. The source novel "The Berlin Memorandum" is billed in the credits as being by Adam Hall. This reactionary quake in the spy genre was brief but seismic all the same. 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. How did I miss this film until just recently? 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! In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war. En route he has some edgy adventures. Quiller meets his controller for this mission, Pol, at Berlin's Olympia Stadium, and learns that he must find the headquarters of Phoenix, a neo-Nazi organization. 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. And considering how terrible its one fight scene is, it's certainly a blessing that it doesn't have any more.