You HAVE been watching it carefully. 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. Hall alsopeppered the text with authentic espionage jargon and as you read you get to live the part of Quiller. 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 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. Omissions? Probably the most famous example of a solid American type playing an Englishman is Clark Gable from Mutiny On The Bounty. In many ways, it creates mystery through the notion of exploring "mystery" itself. 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. before he started doing "genial" and reminds us that his previous part was in the heavyweight "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Fans of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" will notice that film's Mr. Slugworth (Meisner) in a small role as the operator of a swim club (which features some memorably husky, "master race" swimmers emerging from the pool.) Oh, there are some problems, and Michael Anderson's direction is. It out the quiller? I recently found and purchased all 19 of the series in hardback and read them serially. Hassler drives them to meet an old contact he says knows a lot more, who turns out to be Inge's headmistress. Where to Watch. They don't know how to play it, it's neither enjoyable make-believe like the James Bond movies, nor is it played for real like "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." closing theme, This page was last edited on 26 January 2023, at 11:13. Quiller has a love affair with Inge and they seek out the location of Oktober. 2 decades after the collapse of Nazi Germany, several old guard are planning to (slowly) rebuild. 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). The Phoenix group descend and take Quiller, torturing him to find out what he knows. Quiller's assignment: to discover the location of the neo-Nazi . 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. George Segal's Quiller isn't intense, smart, calculating--qualities Quiller is known for--instead he comes across as a doofus by comparison, better suited to sports-writing or boxing, completely lacking in cunning. See for instance DANDY IN ASPIC too, sooo complex and fascinating in the same time. Neo-Nazi plot Newer. This was evidently the first of a very long series featuring the spy Quiller. 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. aka: The Quiller Memorandum the first in a series of 19 Quiller books. My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. 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. 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. 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. What will Quiller do? I'll give this horribly dated film a generous **1/2 rating anyway; hell, you don't see a cast as great as this one every day! Nimble, sharp-toothed and sometimes they have to bite and claw their way out of a dark hole. Quiller is released. I enjoyed the book. 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. There are a number of unique elements in the Quiller series that make it stand out. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. America's leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema. 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. 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). Hall's truncated writing style contributes to this effect. When they find, Quiller gives the phone number of his base to Inge and investigates the place. Apparently, it was made into a classic movie and there is even a website compiled by Trevor devotees. Segal plays a secret agent assigned to ferret out the headquarters of a Neo-Nazi movement in Berlin. In fact, he is derisory about agents who insist on being armed. When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. The latter reveals a local teacher has been unmasked as a Nazi. He published over 50 novels as Elleston Trevor alone. Twist piles upon twist , as a British agent becomes involved in a fiendishly complicated operation to get a dangerous ringleader and his menacing hoodlums . The film has that beautiful, pristine look that seems to only come about in mid-60's cinema, made even more so by the clean appearance and tailored lines of the clothing on the supporting cast and the extras. Quiller tells Inge that they got most, but clearly not all, of the neo-Nazis. He notices the concierge is seated where he can see anyone leaving. You are a secret agent working for the British in Berlin. movies. Don't start thinking you missed something: it's the screenplay who did ! 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. Alec Guinness never misses a trick in his few scenes as the cold, witty fish in charge of Berlin sector investigations. And the legendary John Barrycomposer of the original Bond themeprovides appropriately haunting incidental music here. This books has excellent prose, unrealistic scenes, and a mediocre plot. From that point of view, the film should be seen by social, architectural, and urban landscape historians. I just dont really understand the ending to a degree. It was from the quiller memorandum ending of the item, a failed nuclear weapons of Personalized Map Search. If you have seen this movie, and it leaves you very dissatisfied or with a bunch of bright orange question marks, don't worry ! Variety wrote that "it relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters". The Quiller Memorandum book. 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. And of course, no spy-spoof conversation would be complete without mentioning 1967s David Niven-led piss-take on the Bond films, Casino Royale. My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. On its publication in 1966, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM received the Edgar Award as best mystery of the year. For Quiller, it's a question of staying alive when he's not in possession of all of the facts. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. Because the books were written in the first person the reader learns very little about him, beyond his mission capability. Berger is luminous and exceedingly solid in a complicated role. The book and movie made a bit of a splash in the spy craze of the mid-sixties, when James Bond and The Man From Uncle were all the rage. This was the first book, and I liked it. 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. He is shot dead by an unseen gunman. I read the whole Quiller series when I was younger, and loved it. 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 thugs believe him dead when they see the burning wreckage. The premise isn't far-fetched, but the details are. Michael Sandlin is a writer and academic based in Houston, Texas. Finally, he is placed in the no-win position of either choosing to aid von Sydow or allowing Berger to be murdered. He was the author of. Ian Nathan of Empire described the film as "daft, dated and outright confusing most of the time, but undeniably fun" and rated it with 3/5 stars. The Quiller Memorandum: Directed by Michael Anderson. The source novel "The Berlin Memorandum" is billed in the credits as being by Adam Hall. Alec Guinness plays spymaster Pol, Quillers minder. Quiller leaves, startling the headmistress on the way out. Special guests Sanders and Helpmann bring their special brand of haughty authority to their roles as members of British Intelligence. Nobel prizes notwithstanding I think Harold Pinter's screenplay for this movie is pretty lame, or maybe it's the director's fault. He is shielded behind the building when the bomb explodes. A man walks along a deserted Berlin street at night and enters an internally lit phone box. The West had sent a couple of agents to find out their headquarters, but both are killed. A few missteps toward the end so that a few of the twists felt thin and not solidly set up, but overall very nicely plotted and written. An almost unrecognizable George Segal stars in "The Quiller Memorandum," set in Berlin and made 40 years ago. 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. It is credible. The mission in Berlin is a mess, two of the Bureaus spies have been murdered already by the shadowy Phoenix. Write by: Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neo-Nazi organization in West Berlin. First isthe protagonist himself. The film is a spy-thriller set in 1960s West Berlin, where agent Quiller is sent to investigate a neo-Nazi organisation. When Quiller refuses to talk, Oktober orders his execution. 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. Each reveal, in turn, provides a separate level of truth--or, as it may be, self-deception. A crisply written story that captured my attention from beginning to end. 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. The sentences are generally clipped and abrupt, reminiscent of Simon Kernicks style wherenot a word is wasted, but predating him by a generation. Quiller avoids answering Oktober's questions about Quiller's agency, until a doctor injects him with a truth serum, after which he reveals a few minor clues. ago Just watched it. effective, low key, intelligent, spy film, Attractive, thoughtful spy film with an excellent cast. . February 27, 2023 new bill passed in nj for inmates 2022 No Comments . I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s. Quiller continues his subtle accusations, and Inge continues her denial of ever meeting Jones. The ploy works as one, two or all three of those places were where the Nazis did learn about Quiller, who they kidnap. I read a few of these many years ago when they first came out. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. 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. A bit too sardonic at times, I think his character wanted to be elsewhere, clashing with KGB agents instead of ferreting out neo-nazis. The setting is Cold War-divided Berlin where Quiller tackles a threat from a group of neo-Nazis who call themselves Phoenix. 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). Quiller, however, escapes, and with Inges help, he discovers the location of Phoenixs headquarters. 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? Once Quiller becomes extra-friendly with Ingewhich happens preternaturally quicklyits clear someone on the other side is getting nervous. 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. 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 story, in the early days of, This week sees the release of Trouble, the third book in the Hella Mauzer series by Katja Ivar. The photo shows a man in Luftwaffe (airforce) uniform. Cue the imposing Max Von Sydow as Nazi head honcho Oktober, whose Swedish accent is inflected with an Elmer Fudd-like speech impedimentthus achieving something like a serviceable German accent. Other viewers have said it all: it is a good movie and more interestingly it is a different kind of spy movie. This isn't your standard spy film with lots of gunplay, outrageous villains, and explosions. All of that, and today the novels are largely forgotten. Not terribly audience-friendly, but smart and very, very cool. The movie made productive use of the West German locations. Hall (also known as Elleston Trevor and several other pseudonyms) seemed really to hate the Germans, or at least his character did. 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. The first thing to say about this film is that the screenplay is so terrible. Quiller confronts a man who seems to be following him, revealing that he (Quiller) speaks German fluently. George Segal as Agent Quiller with Inge Lindt (Senta Berger). When drug-induced questioning fails to produce results, Segal is booted to the river, but he isn't quite ready to give in yet. These include another superior soundtrack by John Barry, if perhaps a little too much son-of "The Ipcress File", some fine real-life (West) Berlin exteriors, particularly of the Olympic Stadium with its evocation of 1936 and all that and Harold Pinter's typically rhythmic, if at times inscrutable screenplay. 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 Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett, Norwegian crime show Witch Hunt comes to Walter Presents, The Wall: Quebec crime show comes to More4, Irish crime drama North Sea Connection comes to BBC Four, The complete guide to Mick Herrons Slough House series. I can't NOT begin by saying, "This Is A MUST Read For Every Fan Of The Espionage Genre". [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. 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. The film magnificently utilizes West German locations to bring the story to life. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? [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. What Adam Hall did extremely wellwas toget us readers inside the mind of an undercover operative. The classic tale of espionage that started it all! Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. 2023's Most Anticipated Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-offs, Dirk Bauer
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