The only redeeming features of The Quiller Memorandum are the scenes of Berlin with its old U-Bahn train and wonderful Mercedes automobiles, and the presence of two beautiful German women, Senta Berger and Edith Schneider; those two females epitomize Teutonic womanhood for me. As for the rest of the movie, the plot, acting, and dialog are absolutely atrocious; even the footsteps are dubbed - click, click, click.
George Segal is horribly miscast as a spy; he comes across as nothing more than an American smartaleck - though his German is pretty darn good. But it's laughable that the guy he plays could ever bed the likes of Senta Berger. Alec Guiness can't do anything with his role and looks like an ineffectual spy controller - I haven't ever seen him perform this badly - and Max Von Sydow looks like a poorly made up Hermann Munster. In fact, there's a certain air of campness that pervades this entire film; the actors don't appear to take their roles seriously at all.
There was a whole raft of spy films that came out in the 60's, but absolutely none of them can hold a candle to LeCarre's "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" with Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. The Quiller Memorandum is way back in the pack of those movies, and if it's worth a look at all it's only for the sake of 1960's German nostalgia.
George Segal is horribly miscast as a spy; he comes across as nothing more than an American smartaleck - though his German is pretty darn good. But it's laughable that the guy he plays could ever bed the likes of Senta Berger. Alec Guiness can't do anything with his role and looks like an ineffectual spy controller - I haven't ever seen him perform this badly - and Max Von Sydow looks like a poorly made up Hermann Munster. In fact, there's a certain air of campness that pervades this entire film; the actors don't appear to take their roles seriously at all.
There was a whole raft of spy films that came out in the 60's, but absolutely none of them can hold a candle to LeCarre's "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" with Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. The Quiller Memorandum is way back in the pack of those movies, and if it's worth a look at all it's only for the sake of 1960's German nostalgia.