I am not saying he was bad in the filmor at least that bad. Sadly, Von Sydows formidable acting chops are never seriously challenged here, and his lines are limited to fairly standard B-movie Euro-villain speak. 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. 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. He was the author of. 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. Really sad. Hall alsopeppered the text with authentic espionage jargon and as you read you get to live the part of Quiller. His romantic interest is Senta Berger, whose understated and laconic dialog provides the perfect counterpoint to Segal's character. In conclusion, having recently watched "Quiller's" almost exact contemporary "The Ipcress File", I have to say that I preferred the latter's more pointed narrative, down-home grittiness and star acting to the similar fare offered here. In . As usual for films which are difficult to pin down . For example operatives are referred to as ferrets, and thats what they are. Quiller confronts a man who seems to be following him, revealing that he (Quiller) speaks German fluently. Quiller also benefits from some geographically eclectic West Berlin location shooting from master cinematographer and Berlin native Erwin Hillier. His understated (and at times simply wooden) performance here can be a tough sell when set against the more expressive comedic persona he cultivated in offbeat 1970s comedies like Blume in Love, The Owl and the Pussycat, Wheres Poppa?, California Spilt, and Fun With Dick and Jane. There was also a TV series in 1975. It keeps the reader engrossed right up to the last couple of lines. 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. Quiller asks after Jones at the bowling alley without success and the swimming pool manager Hassler tells him spectating is not allowed. Analismos este filme no 10. episdio de TRS J COMPANHIA. He accepts the assignment and almost immediately finds that he is being followed. This isn't your average James Bond knockoff spy thriller; the fact that the screenplay is by playwright Harold Pinter is the first clue. If you've only seen the somewhat tepid 1966 film starring George Segal which is based on this classic post-WWII espionage novel, don't let it stop you from reading the original. His investigations (and baiting) lead him to a pretty schoolteacher (Berger) who he immediately takes a liking to and who may be of assistance to him in his quest. Quilleris a code name. It was from the quiller memorandum ending of the item, a failed nuclear weapons of Personalized Map Search. movies. Keating. 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. Watched by Rui Alves de Sousa 04 Jun 2022. Thanks in advance. 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? closing theme, This page was last edited on 26 January 2023, at 11:13. He notices the concierge is seated where he can see anyone leaving. His virtual army of nearly silent, oddball henchmen add to the flavor of paranoia and nervousness. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The Quiller Memorandum is the third Quiller novel that I have read, and it firmly establishes my opinion that Quiller is one of the finest series of espionage novels to have ever been written. The film is ludicrous. And the legendary John Barrycomposer of the original Bond themeprovides appropriately haunting incidental music here. 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 . Guinness appears as Segal's superior and offers a great deal of presence and class. He published over 50 novels as Elleston Trevor alone. 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. I found it an interesting and pleasant change of pace from the usual spy film, sort of in the realm of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (but not quite as good). George Segal was good at digging for information without gadgets. An almost unrecognizable George Segal stars in "The Quiller Memorandum," set in Berlin and made 40 years ago. 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. For Quiller, it's a question of staying alive when he's not in possession of all of the facts. 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. 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. Summaries 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. Hall (also known as Elleston Trevor and several other pseudonyms) seemed really to hate the Germans, or at least his character did. We never find out histrue identity or his history. Instead, the screenplay posits a more sinister threat: the nascent re-Nazification of German youths, facilitated by an underground coven of Nazi sympathizing grade-school teachers. When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. Thank God Segal is in it. Quiller, however, escapes, and with Inges help, he discovers the location of Phoenixs headquarters. In the mid-Sixties, the subgenre of the James Bond backlash film was becoming a crowded market. I was really surprised, because I don't usually like books written during the 50s or 60s. Press J to jump to the feed. The Phoenix group descend and take Quiller, torturing him to find out what he knows. Harold Pinter's fairly literate screenplay features . Quiller drives off, managing to shake Hengel, then notices men in another car following him. 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. 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. On its publication in 1966, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM received the Edgar Award as best mystery of the year. Hassler drives them to meet an old contact he says knows a lot more, who turns out to be Inge's headmistress. It's not often that one wishes so much for a main character to get killed, especially by NAZI's. The only really interesting thing is the way we're left spoiler: click to read in the end. The friend proves to be Hassler, who is now much more friendly. Quiller has a love affair with Inge and they seek out the location of Oktober. 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. Performed by Matt Monro, "Wednesday's Child" was also released as a single. The plot holes are many. 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. 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. Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol ( Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. 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. Newer. With George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger. I can see where some might find it more exhausting than anything else, though--he does get tired :). 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. 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. For my money, the top three cold war spy novelists were Le Carre, Deighton, and Adam Hall. That makes the story much more believable, and Adam Hall's writing style kept me engaged. 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. International in its scope its contributors include scholars from Australia, Quiller . 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). The film illustrates the never-ending game of spying and the futility that results as each mission is only accomplished in its own realm, but the big picture goes on and on with little or no resolution. 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. He is shot dead by an unseen gunman. This is the first in the series, and it seems to have a reputation for being a little different from what would become the typical Quiller novel. On the other hand, the female lead is played by the charming Senta Berger, then aged 25, who does very well, and manages to be enigmatic, and gets just the right tone for the story. Quiller enters the mansion and is confronted by Phoenix thugs. First isthe protagonist himself. The intense first person narration which is the defining characteristic of the Quiller books comes into its own during this interrogation scene, and also during the latter chapters of the books as events begin to come to a head. If you have seen this movie, and it leaves you very dissatisfied or with a bunch of bright orange question marks, don't worry ! Much quieter and understated than most spy flicks. As explained by his condescending boss Pol (Alec Guinness), Quillers two unfortunate predecessors were getting too close to exposing the subterranean neo-Nazi cell known as Phoenix (get it? 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.
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