In the midst of all the James Bond/Derek Flint spy films of the sixties, this interesting little espionage thriller must have been an unusual entry in the genre.
THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM takes place in West Berlin, where two British agents have been killed when they got too close to the truth.
Alec Guinness (Star Wars, The Bridge on the River Kwai) plays senior British secret service leader Pol, a quirky "M" who thinks their best answer lies with agent Quiller.
George Segal (A Touch of Class, TV's The Goldbergs) is all cool composure as Quiller, who soon finds himself knee deep in Neo-Nazis and extremists.
Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, Minority Report) is Oktober, the slick, manipulative leader of the group. He oozes Euro-cool even as he interrogates Quiller, pumps him with drugs and dumps him for dead.
Quiller keeps coming back for more, while juggling a beautiful teacher (Senta Berger) and a never ending parade of agents from both sides trailing him around Berlin.
John Barry wrote this spy music score between the OO7 flicks 'Thunderball" in 1965 and "You Only Live Twice" in 1967. It's terrific but very non-Bond.
The location photography in Europe is great as is the screenplay by the legendary Harold Pinter (The French Lieutenant's Woman).
It's confusing, hard to penetrate and well acted by all.
One scene with Quiller trying to escape the three men trailing him, to find another three always ready to take his place is a near perfect exercise in style and desperation.
Segal is laid back and terrific, Guinness is having a lot of fun, Berger is gorgeous and interesting and Sydow throws the whole film on his back and walks away with it.
Complicated and cool, QUILLER gets a B.
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