The Quiller Memorandum

George Segal

Michael Anderson's The Quiller Memorandum, from 1966, is a spy thriller set in Berlin. It is part of a wave of 'serious' espionage films (and spoofs) released in the wake of the James Bond films such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Ipcress File, The Counterfeit Traitor, Torn Curtain, etc. The British station chief (Alec Guinness) in Berlin hand picks Quiller (George Segal) to flush out a cadre of neo-Nazis led by Max von Sydow

The film was based on a novel by Adam Hall, one of the many pseudonyms of Elleston Trevor, and was adapted by Harold Pinter. Among Pinter's strengths was his ability portray the evasiveness of identity and the tendency of alpha males to vie for dominance, so the spy thriller is a good fit for his talents. I won't soon forget Guinness illustrating Segal's mission with a pair of currant buns. Pinter's script is a plus, but the film as a whole is a mixed bag. The plot is nonsensical with a plethora of holes. In the novel, Quiller is a British agent and there is no attempt in the film to explain why an American is under the command of British intelligence. It is probably for the best that Segal was not made to portray an Englishman.

Segal, who died last year, is a neglected actor. He isn't even included in David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film. Yet, he had a very good stretch as a leading man from 1965's King Rat to 1974's California Split; an era in which Hollywood embraced quirky leads. He is not up to the challenges of the torture sequence in The Quiller Memorandum, but his hipster twinkle provides an interesting contrast to the European hauteur of Guinness and von Sydow and Segal is up to the verbal demands of the script. Both von Sydow and Guinness are predictably superb. The German supporting players are also exemplary. Older viewers will recognize the scarred visage of Gunther Meisner who played Arthur Slugworth in the original Willy Wonka... film.

Unfortunately, Michael Anderson was a journeyman director. The Quiller Memorandum's action and suspense scenes are rote. Segal's hallucinations after being dosed by von Sydow's minions would look silly in a student film. The romantic scenes between Segal and Senta Berger are listless. Ms. Berger, not the strongest actress, is not as out of place here as a German teacher than she is in something like Major Dundee. Her inexpressiveness actually suits a character who is not all she seems. John Barry's score is a highlight, evoking the paranoia of the plot better than Anderson's camera does with an interesting use of celeste and theremin.