The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

November 10, 1966 (United Kingdom), December 15, 1966 (United States), release dates

Directed by Michael Anderson

Screenplay by Harold Pinter

Based on the novel The Berlin Memorandum by Elleston Trevor

Music by John Barry

Edited by Frederick Wilson

Cinematography by Erwin Hillier

George Segal as Quiller

Alec Guinness as Pol

Max von Sydow as Oktober

Senta Berger as Inge Lindt

George Sanders as Gibbs

Robert Helpmann as Weng

Robert Flemyng as Rushington

Peter Carsten as Hengel

Edith Schneider as the headmistress

Günter Meisner as Hassler

Ernst Walder as Grauber

Philip Mados as Oktober’s assistant wearing brown trousers

John Rees as Oktober’s assistant with the black-rimmed glasses

Distributed by Rank Organisation (United Kingdom), 20th Century Fox (United States)

Wikipedia describes The Quiller Memorandum as “a 1966 British-American neo-noir eurospy film,” which is part of the reason that I decided to see it. The other part was George Segal. I was intrigued to see him in this type of film because I think of him as a comedic actor, but The Quiller Memorandum is really one of many of his dramatic roles. And he is great as the reluctant spy Quiller.

Like many noir films, details are important, and for The Quiller Memorandum, they are important from the very beginning. Every character, even the ones you might think are extraneous to the plot, mentions something or points out a detail or does something that turns out to be important later in the film.

For instance, the opening credits appear over a still shot of an empty city street in nighttime West Berlin. When the last credit, the director’s credit, appears, the film cuts to a live shot of the same street and a figure, a man, walking into the scene from deep in the background. The man walks cautiously down the middle of the street, his footsteps most audible on the soundtrack. They echo a bit, making his approach sound ominous. He walks into the foreground past a glass walk-in phone booth and into a close-up. He lights a cigarette and then decides to make a call in the phone booth, which is now just behind his right shoulder. He walks back a few steps and enters the booth. As he starts to dial, a gunshot rings out. The glass in the phone booth is shattered and he is dead.

The film cuts to a parade in England, then to two men having dinner. They discuss sending an unnamed man who is currently on vacation to Berlin. They discuss K.L.J., who was the second agent to be killed working in Germany. Metzler was the first agent killed, and he and K.L.J. were shot in the same manner. So viewers learn the identities of two agents working on the mission and that the mission is dangerous. The initials K.L.J. are mentioned for a reason, although at this point there is nothing to explain why.

The film cuts back to Germany. Quiller, an American agent, meets his boss Pol, who is British, in the stadium built for the 1936 Olympics in West Berlin. Quiller takes out a cigarette before approaching Pol, who is the only person seated in the empty stadium seating. A discussion about cigarettes and smoking is their coded way of identifying themselves to one another and avoiding having anyone else understand their true intentions.

• Quiller: “Excuse me. Do you have a light?”

• Pol: “Certainly.”

• Quiller: “Do you smoke this brand?”

• Pol: “No, I don’t think I know that brand.”

• Quiller: “Perhaps I might introduce it to you.”

• Pol: “Thank you. [Pol takes the cigarette and puts it onto the breast pocket of his suit jacket.] Ever been here before?”

• Quiller: “No.”

The speech of both men is clipped and comes across as rather odd because both have a stilted way of talking. This conversation about cigarettes and smoking becomes a theme of sorts because Quiller uses it to introduce himself to other agents throughout the film. I couldn’t help but think that it dated the film a bit: A lot more people smoked in the 1960s, and two men discussing cigarettes and smoking wouldn’t have attracted as much attention then as they would today.

Quiller and Pol eventually discuss neo-Nazism in Berlin. Pol talks about Metzler’s and Kenneth Lindsay Jones’s (K.L.J.’s) deaths. K.L.J. died in the phone booth in West Berlin two days before the conversation between Pol and Quiller. Although the full name is used in this conversation, viewers should put two and two together: K.L.J. and Kenneth Lindsay Jones are the same person.

In the last scene of the film, Jones’s name—only his last name—comes up again. Quiller asks the woman he was working with, Inge Lindt, if she ever met a man called Jones. I think he already knows the answer to this question, but he asks it to see what Lindt will say. She denies it, but he knows better. And viewers should, too! Quiller’s investigation actually followed Jones’s, but Quiller survives because the neo-Nazis wanted to know who sent him, and he is able to outwit them and Inge Lindt.

After talking to Pol, Quiller reluctantly accepts the assignment of finding the Nazis—the new Nazis—working in postwar Berlin. They don’t wear brown shirts, as Pol says, but they are working to insinuate themselves into the political system, which makes them at least a little bit like the old Nazis and just as dangerous. In the immediate postwar era, the attempts by Nazis and neo-Nazis to subvert national governments and the world order once again would be met with fear by most. Democracy and freedom must prevail: The alternative could mean another horrible world war. Most of The Quiller Memorandum takes place in West Berlin, and it is very much situated in the drama and fear of the postwar world.

The postwar context does indeed give The Quiller Memorandum noir credibility, but I’m not so sure that I would call it a neo-noir—and I don’t care about film categories all that much! Wikipedia may describe it as “a 1966 British-American neo-noir eurospy film,” but I think the emphasis is more on “eurospy” than on “neo-noir.” But don’t expect all the gadgetry of a James Bond film. Quiller drives a sportscar, and he does find a beautiful girl to give him some information and a place to stay one night. Other than that, I never once felt like I was watching a typical spy film.

(This discussion in the blog post about the DVD commentary for The Quiller Memorandum contains the most important spoilers.)

My copy of the DVD came with commentary by film historians Eddie Friedfeld and Lee Pfeiffer, and they were very entertaining and informative. They spend some time at the start of the film explaining the origins of the Cold War and some history about Hitler and Stalin, which is very helpful for viewers who don’t know a lot about World War II and the origins of the Cold War. For instance, Hitler used the 1936 Olympics and the new Olympic Stadium, where Quiller and Pol meet, as public relations tools to impress the Western democracies.

But I don’t agree with their assessment of George Segal’s performance (he “plays the role bewildered”) or with their belief that Senta Berger portrays Inge Lindt as an innocent woman and a romantic interlude for Quiller. I think Quiller suspected that Lindt was working with the neo-Nazis from the beginning, but I think this point is made clearer when he goes back for his second visit to her apartment. When they start kissing, he gives her an odd compliment: “You’re so white.” In the final scene (called “Most of Them” on the DVD), Quiller confronts Lindt after he was captured by the neo-Nazis and escapes to finish the mission. He returns to the school where she teaches and they have the following conversation, which is also a bit stilted, much as Quiller’s conversation with Pol was at the start of the film:

• Lindt: “Hello.”

• Quiller: “Hello. How are you?”

• Lindt: “I’m all right. I was very lucky.”

• Quiller: “What? Sorry?”

• Lindt: “I said I was very lucky.”

• Quiller: “Oh? How?”

• Lindt: “They let me go.”

• Quiller: “Did they?”

• Lindt: “Yes. Yes, suddenly they told me to go.”

• Quiller: “Well, you must have felt pretty relieved.”

• Lindt: “I did.”

• Quiller: [takes four steps closer to Lindt; she regards him a bit fearfully] “We got all of them.”

• Lindt: “Oh, really? Good.”

• Quiller: “Well, not all of them, perhaps. Most of them.”

• Lindt: “You seem tired.”

• Quiller: “I had a heavy night.”

• Lindt: “Oh. Uh, I tried to phone that number, by the way, after I got out. You remember the number you gave me?”

• Quiller: “Oh, yes.”

• Lindt: “Yes, that’s right. But it didn’t exist.”

• Quiller: “Oh, really? I must have made a mistake. [a brief pause] Well, I’m leaving Berlin.”

• Lindt: “Are you?”

• Quiller: “I’m a little tired.”

• Lindt: “You work too hard.”

• Quiller: “Well, you too. I’m sure you could take things a little easier, you know.”

• Lindt: “Oh no I— I have my work to do. I must do it. I want to do it.”

• Quiller: “Well, if I ever get back to Berlin, I’ll look you up.”

• Lindt: “Yes, please. That would be nice.”

• Quiller: “By the way, did you ever meet a man called Jones?”

• Lindt: “No. No, I don’t think so.”

• Quiller: “Good-bye.”

Remember my example about Kenneth Lindsay Jones (K.L.J.)? Jones, of course, is a reference to K.L.J., Kenneth Lindsay Jones, who was the second agent to be killed for the mission.

Inflection and nuance are very important in almost every conversation in The Quiller Memorandum, and this is especially true for this last conversation in the film, the one between Quiller and Lindt. Reading it in print really can’t do it justice. After seeing the film more than once, I now believe that Quiller was aware of Lindt’s work, maybe not the extent of it, but he still knew, and he was using her just as she was using him. Lindt is defiant about her work (“I must do it. I want to do it.”). She and Quiller are verbally sparring with one another, issuing veiled threats. Perhaps Quiller has the upper hand because so many of the neo-Nazis have been captured, and perhaps that is why he feels safe enough to confront Lindt. His fellow agents know about her and they know where to find her. Quiller may want to look up Lindt if he should ever return to Berlin, but I doubt it’s because he is attracted to her. I think his only interest is to make sure that another agent completes the mission that he, Metzler, and Jones started.

The film is a lot of fun to watch, whether you call it a spy film or a neo-noir. George Segal is intriguing as the spy Quiller, who doesn’t really want this assignment, with all its early 1960s pessimism and spy talk that was so new, so groovy, and so far-fetched. I have always liked George Segal, and he really does a wonderful job as the seemingly befuddled but truly resourceful Quiller.