ago Just watched it. Fairly interesting spy movie, but doesn't make much sense under close scrutiny. The Chief of the Secret Service Pol (Alec Guinness) summons the efficient agent Quiller (George Segal) to investigate the location of organization's headquarter. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Watchable and intriguing as it occasionally is, enigmatic is perhaps the most apposite adjective you could use to describe the "action" within. Quiller's assignment: to discover the location of the neo-Nazi . Segal is a very young man in this, with that flippant, relaxed quality that made him so popular. Really sad. Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. This was the first book, and I liked it.
The Quiller Memorandum | film by Anderson [1966] | Britannica Read 134 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Write by: If your idea of an exciting spy thriller involves boobs, blondes and exploding baguettes, then The Quiller Memorandum is probably not for you. The screenwriter, Harold Pinter, no less, received an Edgar nomination. 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 drives off, managing to shake Hengel, then notices men in another car following him. Twist piles upon twist , as a British agent becomes involved in a fiendishly complicated operation to get a dangerous ringleader and his menacing hoodlums . He is the true faceless spy. It keeps the reader engrossed right up to the last couple of lines. When Quiller arrives inthe cityhis handler gives him three items found on a dead agent: tickets to a swimming pool and a bowling alley along with a newspaper cutting. Audiobook. I read it in two evenings. See for instance DANDY IN ASPIC too, sooo complex and fascinating in the same time. 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. 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. 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 by Adam Hall - Goodreads After all, his characters social unease and affectless personality are presumably components of the movies contra-Bond commitment. The setting is as classic as the comeBerlin during the 1960s. Kindle Edition. Is there another film with as many sequences of extended, audible footsteps? The sentences are generally clipped and abrupt, reminiscent of Simon Kernicks style wherenot a word is wasted, but predating him by a generation. A highly unusual and stimulating approach that draws us into the story. This was evidently the first of a very long series featuring the spy Quiller. 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. But Quiller gets closer to the action when he visits a supposedly progressive West Berlin middle school on a tip about an alleged Nazi war criminal who once taught there. In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war. The first thing to say about this film is that the screenplay is so terrible. 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. The film had its world premiere on 10 November 1966 at the Odeon Leicester Square in the West End of London. He manages to get over the wall of his garage stall as well as the adjoining one and then outside to the side of the building before detonation. Hall (also known as Elleston Trevor and several other pseudonyms) seemed really to hate the Germans, or at least his character did. He is shielded behind the building when the bomb explodes. 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. Berger is luminous and exceedingly solid in a complicated role. His two predecessors were killed off in their attempts, but he nevertheless proceeds with headstrong (perhaps even bullheaded) confidence without the aid of cover or even a firearm! 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.) Guinness appears as Segal's superior and offers a great deal of presence and class. With its gritty, real-world depiction of contemporary international espionage, The Quiller Memorandum was one of the more notable anti-Bond films of the 1960s. 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.
BFI Screenonline: Quiller Memorandum, The (1966) Synopsis I just dont really understand the ending to a degree. When Quiller decides to investigate the building, Inge says she will wait for him, while Hassler and the headmistress leave one of their cars for them.
The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall | Goodreads So, at this level. Corrections? 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. The Berlin Memorandum, renamed The Quiller Memorandum, was published in 1965 by Elleston Trevor, who used the pseudonym Adam Hall. 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 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! They have lots of information about the film, but inexplicably take ten minutes to explain how the Cold War conflict between Communism and Capitalism relates to . 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. The brawny headmistress points Quiller in the direction of Inge (Senta Berger), who happens to be the only English-speaking teacher at the school. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down, existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. In many ways, it creates mystery through the notion of exploring "mystery" itself. This isn't your average James Bond knockoff spy thriller; the fact that the screenplay is by playwright Harold Pinter is the first clue.
Where to Watch. Pretending to be a reporter, Quiller visits the school featured in the article. 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 See production, box office & company info, Europa-Center, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany. But for today's audiences, those films are a bit old fashioned and not always very easy to follow, too much complicated. George Segal, plays the edgy American-abroad new CI5 recruit (looking unnervingly at times like a young George W Bush!) Mind you, in 1966-67 the Wall was there, East German border guards and a definite (cold war) cloud hanging over the city. It's not my intention to be obnoxious and list every point in the movie that strays from the book, but it's truly a shame that such well-crafted material--intriguing back stories, superior spy tactics--is wasted here. At the 1967 BAFTA Awards the film had nominations in the best Art Direction, Film Editing and Screenplay categories, but did not win. In addition to Pinters screenplay, the film was noted for its plot twists and the portrayal of Quiller as refreshingly vulnerable and occasionally inept. He walks down the same street where Jones was shot, but finds he is followed by Oktober's men. 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. This demonstration using familiar breakfast food items serves to stimulate the American spys brainwaves into serious operative mode. 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 . 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). 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 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. 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. 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. 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. It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Michael Anderson directs a classy slice of '60s spy-dom. And the legendary John Barrycomposer of the original Bond themeprovides appropriately haunting incidental music here. American agent Quiller (George Segal) arrives in Berlin and meets with his British handler Pol (Alec Guinness). 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.
Other viewers have said it all: it is a good movie and more interestingly it is a different kind of spy movie.