Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Berlin Memorandum, or The Quiller Memorandum as it is also known, is the first book in the twenty book Quiller series, written by Elleston Trevor under the pen name of Adam Hall. Harold Pinter's fairly literate screenplay features . 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. For my money, the top three cold war spy novelists were Le Carre, Deighton, and Adam Hall. movies. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. 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. In the following chapter the events have moved on beyond the crisis, instantly creating a how? question in your mind. 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.) 42 editions. 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. This well-drawn tale of espionage is set in West Berlin, 15 years after the end of WW II. Quiller: At the end of our conversation, he ordered them to kill me. 15 years after the end of WW II. Oh, there are some problems, and Michael Anderson's direction is. In a feint to see if Quiller will reveal more by oversight, Oktober decides to spare his life. This film has special meaning for me as I was living in Berlin during the filming and, subsequent screening in the city. It relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters. 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! Inga is unrecognizable and has been changed to the point of uselessness. Senta Berger was gorgeous! Phoenix boss Oktober (Max von Sydow) with George Segal, seated. 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!). Performed by Matt Monro, "Wednesday's Child" was also released as a single. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down, existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Or was she simply a lonely Samaritan who altruistically beds the socially awkward American spy to help prevent a Fourth Reich? 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 Quiller Memorandum 1966, directed by Michael Anderson | Film review The Quiller Memorandum Film Time Out says The thinking man's spy thriller, in as much as Harold Pinter wrote the script. The sentences are generally clipped and abrupt, reminiscent of Simon Kernicks style wherenot a word is wasted, but predating him by a generation. After two British agents are assassinated in Berlin by a group of Neo-Nazis, the British Secret Service assign Quiller to locate and identify the culprits. Your email address will not be published. The cast is full of familiar faces: Alec Guinness, who doesn't have much of a role, George Sanders, who has even less of one, Max von Sydow in what was to become a very familiar part for him, Robert Helpmann, Robert Flemyng, and the beautiful, enigmatic Senta Berger. George Segal was good at digging for information without gadgets. The Quiller character is constantly making terrible decisions, and refuses to use a gun, and he's certainly no John Steed. As usual for films which are difficult to pin down . Not terribly audience-friendly, but smart and very, very cool. 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. 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. 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. 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. Dril several holes in it, the size of a pin, one the size of a small coin. The book is more focused on thinking as a spy and I found it to be very realistic. Theres a humanity to Quiller that is unique in this type of action spy thriller. 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. 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. 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. The shooting on location in Berlin makes it that much more thrilling. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Your email address will not be published. It keeps the reader engrossed right up to the last couple of lines. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed. 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 . When Quiller refuses to talk, Oktober orders his execution. Their aim is to bring back the Third Reich. And he sustains the same high level of quality over the course of nineteen books. Our hero delivers a running dialogue with his own unconscious mind, assessing the threats, his potential responses, his plans. Neo-Nazi plot For example, when the neo-Nazi goons are sticking to Quiller like fly paper, wasn't he suspicious when they did not follow him into his hotel? Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor certainly produces the unexpected. He is shot dead by an unseen gunman. What a difference to the ludicrous James Helm/Matt Bond (or is it the other way round?) In terms of style The Quiller books aretaut and written with narrative pace at the forefront. Quiller investigates, but hes being followed and has been since the moment he entered Berlin. Quiller leaves, startling the headmistress on the way out. But admittedly its a tricky business second-guessing his dramatic instincts here. A spy thriller for chess players. This isn't your average James Bond knockoff spy thriller; the fact that the screenplay is by playwright Harold Pinter is the first clue. Nobel prizes notwithstanding I think Harold Pinter's screenplay for this movie is pretty lame, or maybe it's the director's fault. Quiller tells Inge that they got most, but clearly not all, of the neo-Nazis. 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. The headmistress introduces him to a teacher who speaks English, Inge Lindt. 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. 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. Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neo-Nazi organization in West Berlin. 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. Studios: The Rank Organisation and Ivan Foxwell Productions, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Quiller-Memorandum, BFI Screenonline - The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Britmovie.co.uk - "The Quiller Memorandum", The Quiller Memorandum - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Elleston Trevor wrote 19 novels in the highly successful Quiller series. This time he's a spy trying to get the location of a neo-Nazi organization. (What with wanting to go to sleep and wanting to scream at the same time, this film does pose certain conflict problems.) 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. They are not just sympathisers though. The Quiller Memorandum (1966) is one such film, and though it's one of the more obscure ones, it is also one of the better ones. Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. The scene shot in the gallery of London's Reform Club is particularly odious. Although competing against a whole slew of other titles in the spies-on-every-corner vein, the novel, "The Quiller Memorandum" was amazingly successful in book stores. But good enough to hold my interest till the end. 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.
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