The Quiller Memorandum (1966) is another spy film that makes use of name/paperwork title scheme. Other examples include The Holcroft Covenant, The Ipcress File, The Odessa File, The Bourne Ultimatum and maybe even The Parallex View…
The Quiller Memorandum sees an American spy travel to West Berlin to assist the British in hunting down a neo-Nazi group. Ah, the good old days, when Nazis were an actual group instead of a vague term used to describe anyone who doesn’t tow the politically-correct line.
Let’s take a look at The Quiller Memorandum. It has some neat elements, but since it doesn’t transcend the genre, major spoilers will happen…
The Quiller Memorandum
The best way to describe The Quiller Memorandum is something like From Russia With Love with most Bondian elements removed (action, excitement, gadgets, over-the-top characters, etc.). This may sound like an insult, but The Quiller Memorandum manages to be interesting despite being stripped of all the things Bond movies conditioned spy-film fans to expect.
The only Bond element The Quiller Memorandum somewhat retains is humor. The variety found in The Quiller Memorandum is much milder, however. It stems more from exasperated weariness than wry one-liners.
Michael Anderson directed The Quiller Memorandum. He is best known for The Dam Busters, Around the World in Eighty Days, and Logan’s Run. Anderson also helmed Orca, The Martian Chronicles and Millennium. He has a solid list of credits that crosses a variety of genres, film and TV work and work in both American and British cinema.
I recently mocked a movie that had too many characters walking after each other (Subspecies 2: Bloodstone). Interestingly enough, The Quiller Memorandum also has a lot of characters walking after each other. The difference is, The Quiller Memorandum pulls it off.
It helps that the 1960s style and West Berlin scenery are easy to look at, and Anderson does a nice job grounding everything in that world. Plus, Anderson manages to attach stakes to the walking, even if the stakes in The Quiller Memorandum are relatively low.
The Quiller Pen
The Quiller Memorandum is based on a novel by Elleston Travor, whose best-known work is The Flight of the Phoenix, along with his 19 books featuring the character of Quiller. Famous British writer Harold Pinter adapted the screenplay. Pinter delivers a breezy script. The plot may not be exceptional, but the overall package flows nicely.
Quiller: Met a man called Oktober.
Pol: Oh yes?
Quiller: Know him?
Pol: We’ve never actually met.
Quiller: At the end of our conversation, he ordered them to kill me.
Pol: And did they?
This exchange is the kind of subtle wit that Pinter brings to the proceedings. The Quiller Memorandum almost plays like a romantic comedy rather than a spy film. Quiller treats most of the situations he finds himself in with a watered-down Cary Grant/Fletch-like manner.
A Quiller Cast
George Segal plays Quiller. My knowledge of Segal is limited mostly to Just Shoot Me. Segal always seemed like a bit of a dandy, and he is a bit of dandy in The Quiller Memorandum. Yet, it works. Segal displays a flippant exterior, but he is dedicated to the cause. Saving his skin may take top priority, but when faced with potential death, Segal displays the courage to handle it.
Alec Guinness plays Quiller’s British handler. It is a small role, but Guinness navigates it with a droll pragmaticism. The juxtaposition between the game of life and death that he plays with agents and his jolly-good demeanor while doing so works well.
Max Von Sydow is Mr. Oktober, leader of the neo-Nazi group. Von Sydow doesn’t have a lot to do besides interrogate Segal. He never achieves the cold, merciless psychopathy Laurence Olivier does in Marathon Man, but The Quiller Memorandum is not that kind of movie.
Austrian-German actress Senta Berger plays Segal’s love interest. Her character is a teacher at a German school. Segal questions her as he tries to get a line on the neo-Nazi group because a former war criminal was found teaching at her school.
Berger is suitably desirable in the role, while also maintaining a degree of iciness. She maybe could have been a brunette Hitchcock kind of woman, if given more screentime.
Some other familiar character actors also appear, such as George Sanders (A Shot in the Dark) and Peter Carsten (Dark of the Sun). The most fun surprise was Gunter Meisner, who played Slugworth in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Quelling The Plot
The bulk of the film is Segal evading tails, with a few briefings from Guinness and confrontations with Von Sydow thrown in. In between, Segal falls hopelessly in love with Berger the way only two movie characters within the limits of a 105-minute runtime can.
Segal and Berger do what they can with the relationship, which doesn’t seem like much, but it is ultimately the hinge the movie swings upon. I would not have reviewed The Quiller Memorandum, as it is not particularly noteworthy, except for how well it stuck its landing.
Major spoiler warning…
A Quiller Ending
The end of The Quiller Memorandum sees Segal reveal the location of the neo-Nazi group to Guinness. Guinness sends men to round the Nazis up. Upon hearing the news that they were all captured, Segal asks, “What about the girl?”
(Von Sydow kidnapped Berger as a way to gain leverage on Segal.)
In answer to his question, Segal is hit with this reply: “There was no girl…”
Segal does a great job reacting to what that news means. No outlandish response. No wailing emotions. Just simple, contained, hurt realization.
The Quiller Memorandum ends with Segal going to see Berger at the school. He knows she is a neo-Nazi. She knows he knows she is a neo-Nazi.
Yet, Segal does nothing, only telling Berger that if he ever returns to Berlin, “maybe he will look her up.” The statement contains a subtle threat. Plus, Segal is giving her a chance. Part of it is because he genuinely loves her. The other part is more of a gut-punch, however.
It is not spelled out, but the implication is that Quiller realizes his mission is all for naught. He caught some neo-Nazis, yes, but his success means nothing in the big picture.
As Berger has her students line up in formation, the viewer realizes the neo-Nazi movement is a lot bigger than a few henchmen in a hidden headquarters. The neo-Nazis actually control the school and are shaping the next generation to reflect their ideology.
The end of the film sees Quiller walk off the school campus as more students move past him in small groups that are meant to loosely resemble marching soldiers.
The Quiller Memorandum
The Quiller Memorandum is a good example of a movie doing a workman’s job with its elements. The plot is nothing special. There is no action. But the performers do their job. The script does its job. The director does his job. And the movie nails its ending.
It should also be noted that Bond alum John Barry did the score. Barry is usually somewhat recognizable, but I would have had no idea he did the music if I hadn’t seen his credit. Here is the tune Barry composed for the ending…
The Quiller Memorandum may not be great, but a viewer can respect its workmanlike competence. Take a “memorandum”, make a “covenant”, give an “ultimatum”, “view” the movie, and “file” it under “Solid Effort…”
