RETRO ACTIVE: The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
by Nick Schager 
What's new is always old, and in this recurring column, I'll be taking a look at the classic genre movies that have influenced today's new releases. In honor of Tomas Alfredson's John le Carr� adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this week it?s Michael Anderson's secret-agent thriller The Quiller Memorandum. The Quiller Memorandum has many things going for it, but a compelling lead performance is, alas, not one of them. Headlining this 1966 tale of Cold War espionage in austere Berlin (adapted from Trevor Dudley Smith's novel by famed playwright
Harold Pinter) is
George Segal as Quiller, an American spy called into service by the British after his predecessor is gunned down in the dead of night by a mysterious sniper. Quiller?s mission is to uncover a secret cabal of neo-Nazis who?in a plot that's practically defined by its sketchiness?are seeking to re-establish political dominance by secretly infiltrating government corridors of power. How these National Socialists plan to actually execute this nefarious scheme is never explicated, but that unanswered narrative question at the center of Pinter's script is still secondary to the unctuousness of Segal, who embodies his secret agent with a smarminess matched only by his air of lackadaisical invincibility. Accepting and carrying out his undertaking with a smug smirk tattooed on his face, he's a pseudo-Bond defined by imperviousness to fear and danger, nonchalant cool in the face of peril, and a magical way with women?all qualities that Segal, unlike Sean Connery, fails to sell as charming, thereby turning his Quiller into a phony caricature of a dashing intel superhero.
Segal's counterfeit suave routine is a nagging problem throughout director
Michael Anderson's film, albeit not a wholly fatal one, as the star's arrogance does gradually retreat into the background once Quiller begins taking lumps from adversaries and, as a result, is forced to take matters semi-seriously. Moreover, Segal's unconvincing turn is offset by the atmosphere of futility and desolation that builds courtesy of Pinter's generally sturdy screenplay, which offers up a rather straightforward plot notable for its deliberate lack of urgency. That laid-back attitude is embodied not just by Segal's Quiller but also, more evocatively, by his boss Pol (
Alec Guinness), who delivers orders and comments on Quiller's progress with a tranquility that suggests he views this Nazi-hunting assignment as merely work, and part of a much larger bureaucratic structure that will continue on after this particular task is resolved. Whether he?s using muffins to visually explain Quiller?s caught-between-two-sides position (which receives a justified "are you kidding me?" stare from Quiller himself), or closing the case while in his bathrobe and on his way to breakfast, Guinness' Pol exhibits a reserved outlook on espionage as routine business, thereby bringing a subtle undercurrent of hopeless resignation to
The Quiller Memorandum's cloak-and-dagger shenanigans.
If Guinness is the preternatural calm of this clandestine-action storm, then
Max von Sydow is its epicenter of over-the-top menace as Oktober, the head of the neo-Nazi ring that Quiller aims to infiltrate. After a villain delivers a dose of knockout drugs by bumping into him with a suitcase, Quiller awakens in a room that Anderson?in the sole moment not directed with perfunctory blandness?introduces through a prolonged pan that reveals initially bewildering, and then increasingly ominous, sights: a glittering chandelier, a painting of a nude woman, guards stationed at doors, and a surgical tray of syringes and straps located next to Quiller's head. Oktober?s subsequent interrogation of his captive is a thing of fitful stops and starts, and one energized by von Sydow's malevolent sophistication. Decked out in a dark suit, his blonde locks slicked back, the towering von Sydow commences with a politeness laced with viciousness, his smiles seeping poison and his pretend-kind eyes masking a hardness that, eventually, comes to the fore as the smartass Quiller refuses to cooperate. A figure of relaxed evil, von Sydow's baddie briefly elevates
The Quiller Memorandum to a superior plane of espionage suspense, though as befitting a film that seems unsure of itself at regular intervals, he only appears in one more scene, and?most stunning of all?doesn't even make an appearance during a finale that directly involves him.
That the story's conclusion occurs off-screen, only to be described afterwards by others, is part and parcel of a film marked by anti-dramatic inclinations?far more tense are the many moments filled with anticipatory dread than the dutiful car chases, fisticuffs and romantic intrigue generated by Quiller's romance with schoolteacher Inge (
Senta Berger), who has information regarding the Nazis' whereabouts. Enveloped by ultra-soft lighting in her numerous close-ups, Berger is a blank whose suspiciousness is immediately apparent, and her amorous encounters with Segal fall somewhere between stilted and downright silly. Again, however, the absence of pulse-pounding excitement seems at least partially intentional, with director Anderson muting his material in a manner in harmony with his tale's depiction of truth as both slippery and, once exposed, apt to affect little change. It?s a decidedly pessimistic worldview, and one most compellingly suggested by a few brief scenes between two unnamed upper-echelon British government officials who discuss Quiller's escapades with the same ho-hum casualness that characterizes their talk about daily lunch delicacies?conversations that, with pitch-perfect drollness, encapsulate the film's overriding assessment of spy games as just another humdrum aspect of the government apparatus.
Posted by ahillis at December 10, 2011 9:22 AM
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