Spent the afternoon watching 1966 cold war film The Quiller Memorandum a nifty euro spy thriller and a particularly good tale of this type set in cold war Berlin. Starring American actor George Segal the leading lady was Senta Berger (crush alert).
The film has a very close similarity with the second Harry Palmer film Funeral in Berlin (1966) - the same dirty unglamorous post war Berlin and of course, Caine and Segal's very laid back performances. It was rumoured at the time Quiller would take over from Harry Palmer has the anti-Bond kind of spy
All the acting is understated, Segal's fits the roll well with the baddie Max Von Sydows 'I'm not a barmen Mr. Quiller I'm a German gentleman' is menacing without being overly dramatic or cartoony. Alec Guinness plays the head of the good guys and there are a host of faces you would recognise from films of the era.
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| My Crush |
George Segal plays an American spy who is brought to Berlin by British secret service to help track down a group of neo-Nazis after two British agents have been killed. There contact was a schoolteacher who hung himself leaving Quiller questioning his replacement played by Berger. They soon become romantically involved but is it all too easy. There is a lot of dialogue and not an overabundance of action, which made a change for this type of film.
Even when the leader of the Nazis (Max Von Sydow) captures Segal, they have a calm, lengthy conversation. No shootouts and the only bang is when Quiller finds a getaway car rigged to exploded soon as he starts the engine but comes up with ingenious way to fake his death so to make is escape. In the last half hour, I wouldn't say it really picked up, but it got very interesting.
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