The Quiller Memorandum [DVD]

This is a splendid counterpoint to the overly glamourous, lighthearted and clearly incredible spy movies which tried to cash in on the James Bond phenomenon in the mid-60s. Here we see the dark and gritty side of espionage, in a plot which carries at least a reasonable degree of credibility.I first saw the movie and then read the book. I loved the style of the book and read the subsequent 18 Quiller novels as they were published over the following 29 years.The author subsequently made it clear that he did not like the movie, but my view is that he was being oversensitive. As with any movie adaptation they changed a few things: some of the more melodramatic aspects of the book's plot were cut out and the personality and background of the female lead - Inga - were changed radically.My view is that the author should have been grateful for the stunning talent that was put into the movie (Harold Pinter writing the script, Alec Guinness and Max von Sydow accepting secondary, rather than lead, roles and expensive location shooting) and should have been relieved that they were as faithful to his book as they were.My principal complaint is that Quiller, despite working for an obviously British organisation (the scenes with George Sanders and Robert Flemyng in a London gentlemen's club were Pinter at his best) was inexplicably American.My minor criticism is that Senta Berger was so jaw-droppingly beautiful that she eroded some of the credibility of the plot. Perhaps not quite as good as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, but an excellent companion to it.

The Quiller Memorandum is a 1960s spy thriller. It features George Segal as Quiller. He’s recruited by Pol (Alec Guiness) to deal with a neo-Nazi threat in Germany.The movie gets right down to business. Quiller is followed right from the start and runs into one bad guy after another. There’s a love story thrown in towards the middle as Quiller meets a German teacher Inge (Senta Berger). Fortunately that doesn’t drag the movie down, and they actually play with it so it’s not your usual romance.What’s strong about this film is that Quiller is never sure who is for him and who is against him. There are people constantly following him, some for his agency and some are the Nazis, but even then he’s not sure whether his people are really his people or not. The ending is very strong as well playing upon the love story between Quiller and Inge. Perhaps the best part is that the conclusion is actually inconclusive. Did Quiller actually make a difference? Were the Nazis rounded up? What exactly was he doing in Germany in the first place? It’s all a mystery making this a better than usual spy story.C

I love spy novels and movies, and the 60s era produced a bunch ranging from excellent to execrable. This is definitely one of the better ones--a serious spy story, with more of an emphasis on suspense than action. I'm less enthusiastic than the film critics on the commentary track, though they also point out some of the plot holes and inexplicable motives. But still, George Segal's charm, Senta Berger's beauty, Alec Guiness's and Max Von Sydow's presence all make it very watchable.

Plot is well worked through, performance of George Segal provides action extension of gentlemanly British spy game. Actions are performable by humans not only by superman like in the latest James Bond movies. You may have to see some part of the movie two times to understand what is implied in dialogs. Presence of Senta Berger is icing on the cake.

This 1966 film is a classic of its kind. At the height of the James Bond craze, it dared to be different. Using Adam Hall's bestselling novel as a blueprint, director Michael Anderson (AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN) came up with a dark, twisty, ironic look at the real spy trade, as opposed to Hollywood's usual version of it. To do this, he kept his direction and his actors very low-key, but his secret ingredient was the screenplay by...Harold Pinter! Yes, Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning British playwright.Pinter didn't usually do this sort of thing--a slick, commercial secret agent movie--but he accepted the challenge because he had something to say about the world in 1966, and this story was a perfect way to say it. Spying is a (mostly) dull, tedious business, and the people in charge of the agents aren't always on top of things. But they're devious--everyone lies, and everyone uses whatever means necessary to get the job done. In this case, a bumbling "control" (Alec Guiness) throws a clueless American agent (George Segal) to the wolves in an attempt to locate and destroy a ring of neo-Nazis in Berlin. The villain (Max Von Sydow) is equally ruthless, and poor Segal may not stand a chance of succeeding--or surviving. He wanders through the city, shadowed by a sinister (and laughably obvious) group of bad guys, using code names and passwords and a lot of other silly devices to find his quarry. He even meets the requisite beautiful woman (Senta Berger), who--of course--becomes a pawn in the game. All these clichés are there for a reason--a terrific, powerful punchline at the end of the film.Pinter's dark sense of humor and Anderson's no-frills direction (Berlin in 1966 seems remarkably underpopulated) make this a real gem among spy movies of the period. It's a sober--and sobering--look at the unglamorous realities of this "glamorous" profession. The Fox DVD is in great shape, with the original trailer and interesting commentary by 2 film historians. Highly recommended.

This movie is well-done on location film of spies and counter-spies. It's a nice alternate to the hyper-active big explosions type films of that era. It's very low key and the hero is calm and almost ordinary. A refreshing change from the James Bond type spy. George Segal's slightly jaded personality shows itself and he does a good job. The on-location filming of 1960s Berlin is great.

A lot has been written about the quality of transfer and the bad reviews did deter me from buying this Bluray for quite a while, only finally opting to get it because it is such a stonkingly good movie! I am glad I did.I already owned the DVD which was atrocious. It was a 4:3 transfer with the widescreen picture across the middle so in order to avoid black bars left, right, above and below, one had to zoom in. Consequently the picture was not sharp at all.This Bluray does improve upon that. It IS a better picture than the DVD at least. It is true that there is some colour flicker. Of course, if you compare the quality of transfer with say that of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which I use to demonstrate my home cinema setup at its very best) there is no comparison but the film is eminently watchable and I enjoyed seeing a lot more detail than ever before.The grainy dark scenes are admittedly poor but shooting in the dark with a wide aperture makes a picture grainy in any case. I found that it was intrusive when I had the sharpness turned up but when I took that down, the graininess pretty much disappeared.In short, it is a high definition picture that is a little softer than average but not enough to make me discourage you from buying it. I love having the film on Bluray. If they brought out a better mastered version, I would probably buy it but for now it is a big step up from the DVD and I am happy.There is another feature which I really liked about this Bluray: the subtitles. Nearly all of the German dialogue is translated into English subtitles so at last you can find out what Quiller is saying when he asks the bespectacled man if he is following him. The whole exchange is translated. What a treat. I had always wondered what was being said but the DVD only subtitled the English dialogue.Highly recommended despite the shortcomings. The transfer is not as good as it should be but it really isn't THAT bad. Tweak your viewing screen and you'll be fine. It is worth getting because the film itself is sooooo good - brilliant, intelligent script, subtle hints of the callousness of the establishment with its contempt for and ingratitude to those who work for it. Not an action packed, spy flick and so much better for it. Nice twist at the end as the penny drops for Quiller - and for us.Oh - and the extras. Lots of them, varied and interesting. No director's commentary but a load of mini film interviews with various members of staff which are meaty enough.UPDATE: Having written this review after viewing the film on an 8 foot projector screen, I played it on a flat screen TV. Oh my! At first it was dreadful. There were loads of little white dots all over the picture like snow and terrible white edges on any details. It was atrocious and I began to see where other reviewers were coming from.HOWEVER, I turned down sharpness as I had on my projector. Only minimal improvement. Then I turned up digital noise reduction and motion smoothing within the TV menu. It TOTALLY cured the problem and I found myself looking at an image which was OK, not wonderful but good enough for me not to have regretted my purchase.I still recommend this Bluray with the sole caveat that you may need to tweak your playback settings. It is possible to get a good picture, honest!

Secret agent George Segal sniffs out a neo-Nazi group in Berlin, still being rebuilt 20 years after the war. Atmospheric and haunting thriller with superior roles for Max von Sydow as the Aryan leader Oktober, Senta Berger as an ambivalent schoolteacher and best of all, Alec Guinness, who’s creepily funny as an espionage executive called Pol. In a flat London accent and from behind a range of distantly amused expressions, Guinness in his handful of scenes brings to mind the deadpan comic timing of Peter Cook. Especially when he outlines the problem to George Segal’s Quiller in Berlin’s Olympic stadium: “Nobody wears a brown shirt now, you see. No banners. Consequently they’re difficult to recognise. They look like everybody else. They move in various walks of life but they’re very careful, and quite clever. And they look like everybody else.” Along with 1970’s The Go-Between, this is the best film script Harold Pinter ever wrote, clearly relaxing with ‘pulp’ fiction. The fact that it’s got a serious point to make seems almost incidental. And it beats Bond all ends up. The ending in particular is understated, both poignant and chilling. Subtle, like so much of the film. And ultimately that’s down to Pinter’s script. Just compare it for a fleeting moment with the post-modern dross of Kingsman: The Secret Service. The evocative music’s great too. It’s by John Barry who, funnily enough, also scored all the early Bond movies. This one’s more in line with his work on Harry Palmer’s Ipcress File.

Only just got around to viewing the itv studios Blu Ray which I bought in 2014. I agree with others - AVOID buying this version. It is without doubt the worst presentation of any film on DVD or Blu Ray I have ever seen. Full of interference, shimmering shadows and black vivid graininess. A disgrace.So the 4 stars are for the movie NOT for the so-called Blu Ray.As for the movie - it seems to have a reputation greater than it deserves, but as a gently plodding Cold War thriller it serves it's purpose.The performances are its strong points, rather than the actual story. Alec Guinness is brilliant as ever in a restrained but authoritative way, Max Von Sydow is stylishly menacing, and George Segal, who I had only known previously from the highly recommended THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN, carries the film with his wit and charm.The love interest, all films seem to have one, comes from the stunningly beautiful Senta Berger, and her association with Segal seems like a dream made in heaven. Or is it? Despite having seen the movie 3 times now I am still unsure on this point and would love to know what others think. KAN

I'm giving this Blu-ray only three stars only because the picture quality is patchy. I've always liked The Quiller Memorandum and this genre of sixties spy movie. As a production I think it's pretty good. BUT, the picture quality is variable. In outdoor locations and in broad daylight the picture is bright and sharp, but this only makes up about 20% of the movie. Indoor shots and night-time ones display a lot of graininess and flicker. I don't remember this lack of quality when I videoed the film off the telly onto VHS tape in the 1980s.It's not the lighting as some of this is very good almost to the point of over-exposure. Also, when looking through the extensive collection of stills photos of those indoor scenes (in the extras section), many are perfectly clear when in fact they are still photos taken from the actual film. Therefore, the problem lies in the film's transfer to DVD / Blu-ray. It's very disappointing as I bought this as the ultimate version of the film. I don't know if it needs more remastering, but in the odd scene or two, the picture quality is downright poor. Ironically and in contrast, the original trailer (available in the extras section) is remarkably good quality for films of this period.

I haven’t seen this film in over 40 years, so my memory of it were vague. I am very familiar with the title and I don’t know why I haven’t checked this out before now. It came up in relation to my search history. I was keen to see if it was a neglected classic or a if the reason I hadn’t come across it was because it was best forgotten. Thankfully it tend much more to the former than the latter.It is a well constructed story of a search for the leaders of a Neo-Nazi group in Germany. It is subtle in the way it makes the audience keep asking if people are who they appear to be (friend or foe) and, for the period and genre it treats the women in it as more three dimensional characters.I enjoyed it and will, no doubt return to it for repeated viewings.