The Quiller Memorandum (1966) 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. Harold Pinter was nominated for the Edgar Award for writing. Nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards.[1]
The film is a spy-thriller situated to 1960s Cold War-era West Berlin, where agent Quiller is sent to investigate a neo-Nazi organization.
Plot summary
In the dead of the night a man walks down a deserted Berlin street. He enters a phone booth, but as he dials a number, he is quietly killed by an unseen sniper. The calm and darkness recurr throughout the film.
Jones was the second British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) operative to be murdered in Berlin by a secret neo-Nazi organization, Phoenix. SIS send Quiller (George Segal) to Berlin where, at the Nazis' 1936 Olympia Stadium, his controller Pol (Alec Guinness) quietly explains that "a new generation of Nazis has grown up, difficult to recognise because they don't wear uniforms any more", and orders him to find the Phoenix HQ. Pol's SIS superiors in London, Gibbs (George Sanders) and Rushington (Robert Flemyng), are occasionally seen being even more British than Pol, laconically directing the operation from their gentlemen's club.
Back in Berlin, Quiller shakes off someone following him, then confronts the tail in a pub, only to discover that the man is his SIS minder, Hengel (Peter Carsten). Hengel gives him a bowling alley ticket, a swimming-pool ticket and a newscutting, all found on Jones's body.
Quiller asks after Jones at the bowling alley without success; the swimming pool manager Hassler (Günter Meisner) also sends him packing. Pretending to be a reporter, Quiller visits the school in the newscutting, where a teacher had been unmasked as a Nazi. There he meets the beautiful teacher Inge Lindt (Senta Berger), whom he interviews about her colleagues, then drives her home. They are obviously attracted to one another.
On leaving, Quiller confronts a man who seems to be following him. Having told Hengel that he understands no German, Quiller surprises us by speaking it fluently: there is more to him than meets the eye. The man strenuously denies following him and is supported by passers-by.
As Quiller is leaving his hotel, a porter bumps into his leg with a heavy suitcase. Quiller drives off, managing to shake off his minder Hengel, but then becomes semi-conscious, clearly poisoned by the suitcase knock. At traffic lights a man steps into the driving seat, pushes Quiller over, and kidnaps him. He wakes in a chair in a palatial room, surrounded by many of the previous incidental characters, who are all Phoenix members led by a German aristocrat, Oktober (Max von Sydow). Quiller refuses to answer Oktober's questions about the SIS operation and how much they know about Phoenix, and makes a dash to escape from the room but is easily overpowered. A doctor injects Quiller with a truth serum, but although in his delirium he utters a few clues Quiller is just able to deflect Oktober's questions. Oktober orders Quiller to be killed.
Quiller comes round lying half in the river: Oktober was only giving a warning. Soaked and shoeless, Quiller climbs into the back of a cab, steals it, evades a pursuing Mercedes and books into a dingy hotel. He telephones Inge from the hall and they arrange to meet the following evening.
In a car park an SIS operative, Weng (Robert Helpmann), brings an order to meet Pol in a pub, who simply explains that each side is trying to discover and annihilate the other's base: Quiller alone will know both.
After sleeping together, Inge admits to Quiller that she has a friend who might know of Phoenix's HQ. Inge takes Quiller to the swimming pool manager, Hassler, who is now much more friendly. He drives Quiller, Inge, and Inge's headmistress - who had originally introduced them to each other at the school - to a ruinous old building. Quiller wants to investigate the house on his own; Inge says she will wait for Quiller, and the pool manager and headteacher leave the car for Quiller to drive Inge home. When they are finally alone together in the car Inge tells him she loves him. Quiller looks pleased, but does not reply.
The street is the same one on which Quiller's predecesor was murdered at the start of the film. Quiller enters the house which seems deserted, until he notices Oktober's henchmen standing all around him. They take Quiller into the same room where he was held captive, and Oktober is expecting him again. They walk Quiller down to the cellar, where removal men are organising the move to some new Phoenix HQ. Quiller is horrified to see that Inge has been brought there too. Oktober offers Quiller an ultimatum: either he reveals the SIS base by dawn, or both will die. Quiller is released back onto the dark streets to walk and ponder, surrounded by Oktober's armed men, who - while they keep their silent distance - make it impossible for him to escape (though he does try to make a failed dash for the nearest Berlin U-Bahn station, Schlesisches Tor), nor use any public telephone to call his controller.
As the sky lightens he returns to his dingy hotel for a wash and a think, while Oktober's men stand guard outside in the street. The hall phone has already been destroyed to prevent him using it, but he escapes into a courtyard of lock-up garages. Noticing a piece of wire on the ground, he finds that the car has been booby-trapped in case Quiller attempted this method of escape. He leaves the engine running to explode the bomb, so that Oktober's men conclude that he has been killed.
The exhausted Quiller reports to the SIS office with the Phoenix's location. Pol appears calmly indifferent, even ungracious, as he arranges to round up the gang; they are all arrested, yet Inge turns out not to be among them.
Well groomed and dressed, Quiller walks into Inge's classroom. He has worked out the truth. Inge is astonished to see him; but why, realises Quiller, should she think him dead? Inge explains that she "was lucky they let me go", but Quiller recognizes that she is not who she seems, and she hints as much. Feeling for each other as they do, he probably will not inform against her, but he says that if ever he comes to Berlin again he will call her. One doubts that he will. Mission accomplished, he strides away purposefully, and from her classroom window Inge wistfully watches him depart before returning to her schoolchildren.
Quiller never carries a gun, there is minimal violence and his approach is thoughtful; he is a world-weary, cynical and insubordinate loner, but he shows himself ultimately to be a superb - if enigmatic - secret agent.
Cast
The following are the cast members in the film and their roles:
Awards and critical reception
At the 1967 BAFTA Awards the film had nominations in the best "Art Direction", "Film Editing" and "Screenplay" categories, but didn't win. Harold Pinter was nominated for an Edgar Award in the "Best Motion Picture" category, but also didn't win.[2]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 7 reviews, with an average score of 7.1/10. Variety magazine commented that "it relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters." Ian Nathan of Empire Magazine described the film as "daft, dated and outright confusing most of the time, but it undeniably fun" and rated it with 3/5 stars.[3]
Score and soundtrack
The mainly orchestral atmospheric soundtrack was composed by John Barry was released by Columbia in 1966. Performed by Ray Conniff, "Wednesday's Child" was released also as a single.[4][5]
- "Wednesday's Child" - Main Theme (Instrumental)
- "Quiller Caught" - The Fight
- "The Barrel Organ"
- "Oktober" - Walk from the River
- "Downtown" (composed by Tony Hatch)
- "Main Title Theme"
- "Wednesday's Child" - Vocal Version (Lyrics: Mack David / Vocals: Matt Monro)
- "The Love Scene" - The Old House
- "Autobahn March"
- "He Knows The Way Out"
- "Night Walk in Berlin"
- "Quiller and the Bomb"
- "Have You Heard of a Man Called Jones?" - End Theme
References
External links
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Harold Pinter |
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Apart From That · Applicant · The Black and White · Dialogue for Three · "God's District" · Interview · Last to Go · The New World Order · Night · Precisely · Press Conference · Request Stop, Special Offer · That's All · That's Your Trouble · Trouble in the Works
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