As a consequence I was left in some never-never land and always felt I was watching actors in a movie and never got involved. The West had sent a couple of agents to find out their headquarters, but both are killed. 1966's The Quiller Memorandum is a low-key gem, a pared-down, existential spy caper that keeps the exoticism to a minimum. Quilleris a code name. 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 plot holes are many. No one really cared that Gable did not even attempt an English accent the film was that good. At the 1967 BAFTA Awards the film had nominations in the best Art Direction, Film Editing and Screenplay categories, but did not win. Max Van Sydow is better as the neo-Nazi leader, veiled by the veneer of respectability as he cracks his knuckles and swings a golf club all the time he's injecting Segal with massive doses of truth serum, while Senta Berger is pleasant, but slight, as the pretty young teacher who apparently leads our man initially to the "other side", but whose escape at the end from capture and certain death at the hands of the "baddies" might lead one to suspect her true proclivities. But don't let it fool you for one minutenor Mr. Segal, nor Senta Berger as the girl. This books has excellent prose, unrealistic scenes, and a mediocre plot. But for today's audiences, those films are a bit old fashioned and not always very easy to follow, too much complicated. The setting is as classic as the comeBerlin during the 1960s. Agent Quiller is relaxing in a Berlin theater the night before returning to London and rest after a difficult assignment when he is accosted by Pol, another British agent, with a new, very important assignment. I'm generally pretty forgiving of film adaptations of novels, but the changes that were made just do not make sense. George Segal provides us with a lead character who is somewhat quirky in his demeanor, yet nonetheless effective in his role as an agent. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. Try as he might though, he can't quite carry the lead here, lacking as he does the magnetism of Connery or the cynicism of Caine. Oktober informs Quiller that if he does not disclose secret information this time, both he and Inge will be killed. Apparently, it was made into a classic movie and there is even a website compiled by Trevor devotees. Or was she simply a lonely Samaritan who altruistically beds the socially awkward American spy to help prevent a Fourth Reich? The casting of George Segal in the lead was a catastrophe, as he is so brash and annoying that one wants to scream. 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). Hall is not trying be a Le Carre, hes in a different area, one he really makes his own. I enjoyed the book. 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. Von Sydow (one of the few actors to have recovered from playing Jesus Christ and gone on to a varied and lengthy career) is excellent. This is one of the worst thriller screenplays in cinema history. A spy thriller for chess players. In fact, he is derisory about agents who insist on being armed. 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. A highly unusual and stimulating approach that draws us into the story. The setting is Cold War-divided Berlinwhere Quillertackles a threat from a group ofneo-Nazis whocall themselves Phoenix. The characters and dialog are well-written and most roles are nicely acted. I listened to the audio version narrated by Andrew B Wehrlen and found it an utterly engaging tale. Quiller Series by Adam Hall - Goodreads Conveniently for Quiller, shes also the only teacher there whos single and looks like a Bond girl. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed. George Segal is a fine and always engaging actor, but the way his character is written here, he doesn't really come across as "a spy who gets along by his brains and not by his brawn"; he seems interested almost exclusively in the girl he meets, not in the case he's investigating, and (at least until the end) he seems to survive as a result of a combination of his good luck and the stupidity of the villains. I had to resist the temptation to fast forward on several occasions. Is Quiller going to wind up dead too? 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. I thought the ending was Quller getting one last meeting with the nice babe and sending a warning to any remaining Nazis that they are being watched. 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. 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. Just watched it. How did I miss this film until just recently? The Quiller Memorandum Ending Explained 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 . 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. A Twilight Time release. True, Segal never seems to settle into the role of Quiller. The burning question for Quiller is, how close is too close? 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. I recall being duly impressed by the menacing atmospherics, if much of it went over my head. 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. 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. Which is to say that in Quillers world, death is dispensed via relatively banal means like bombs and bullets instead of, say, dagger shoes and radioactive lint. Mind you, in 1966-67 the Wall was there, East German border guards and a definite (cold war) cloud hanging over the city. talula's garden happy hour 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. 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. . The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall | Goodreads Michael Anderson directs with his usual leaden touch. When they find, Quiller gives the phone number of his base to Inge and investigates the place. 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. We never find out histrue identity or his history. Blu-ray, color, 105 min., 1966. Alec Guiness and George Sanders have brief roles as Segal's Control and Home Office head, respectively, and both rather coldly and matter-of-factly pooh-pooh over the grisly death of Segal's agent predecessor. Quiller then returns to his hotel, followed by the men who remain outside. His book. An American secret agent called Quiller (George Segal) working for MI6 (whose chief is George Sanders) travels to Berlin to uncover a deadly Neo-Nazi band . 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. Quiller Memorandum, The (Blu-ray Review) - The Digital Bits The Quiller Memorandum | Mountain Xpress Sadly the Quiller novels have fallen out of favour with the apparentend of the Cold War. The Quiller Memorandum - Variety 42 editions. Amazon.com: The Quiller Memorandum eBook : Hall, Adam: Books Quiller's assignment is to take over where Jones left off. The thugs believe him dead when they see the burning wreckage. This isachievedviaQuillers first person perspective. He published over 50 novels as Elleston Trevor alone. It keeps the reader engrossed right up to the last couple of lines. 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. This was a great movie and found Quillers character to be excellent. Widescreen viewing is a must, if possible, if for no other reason than to fully glimpse the extraordinary stadium built by Hitler for the 1936 Olympic games. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. 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 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. 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. In terms of style The Quiller books aretaut and written with narrative pace at the forefront. And of course, no spy-spoof conversation would be complete without mentioning 1967s David Niven-led piss-take on the Bond films, Casino Royale. Meanwhile , Quiller befriends and fall in love for a teacher , Inge Lindt (Senta Berger) , and both of whom suffer constant dangers . He is the true faceless spy. This well-drawn tale of espionage is set in West B. 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. Quiller's primary contact for this job is a mid level administrative agent named Pol. The book is more focused on thinking as a spy and I found it to be very realistic. 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 whole thing, including these two actors, is as hollow as a shell. But admittedly its a tricky business second-guessing his dramatic instincts here. The Quiller Memorandum - DVD Talk The novel was titledThe Berlin Memorandum and at its centre was the protagonist and faceless spy, Quiller. She claims she turned in the teacher from the article, and points out the dilapidated Phoenix mansion. But good enough to hold my interest till the end. Don't bother watching it, except to see the many scenes shot on location in West Berlin at that time, with its deserted streets and subdued mood. In the process, he discovers a complex and malevolent plot, more dangerous to the world than any crime committed during the war.
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