The Quiller Memorandum
Today's New York Times had a little article on the 1966 film of Adam Hall's novel The Quiller Memorandum, interestingly looking at the film as an artifact of a 60's Berlin digging itself out of the rubble of World War II.
I'm basically mentioning this as a heads up to Derek, who I know likes the Quiller books as much as I do. They fall almost exactly in between Fleming and Le Carre, also reminiscent of Deighton's Harry Palmer books---action-packed spy novels, but with a smartly introspective protagonist. One of Hall's quirks that catches me up each time I read one of his novels is his tendency to cut away in the middle of a scene, usually to reflect damage to Quiller--if I remember right there is one book in which he is in a hotel room about to open a door, next sentence he's in a hospital bed, and only slowly do you get that there was a bomb behind the hotel room door.
Anyway, the movie looks pretty cool, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and an international cast of stars. George Segal as Quiller is a little off putting, but Segal was a pretty good actor back then--I think I'll have to put this one on my Netflix list and check it out.
posted by Paul Miles at
10:36 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Paul, thanks for posting this. I'd seen the movie before, and never mentioned it because I'd thought you'd already seen it. I never thought it great, but I did think it worked well enough for its time, despite the casting of George Segal. In fact, a few years ago, I would have told you that one could easily do a contemporary Quiller spy series, with Quiller being played by the lead in Layer Cake (who was rumored to be on the shortlist of actors to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond).
Also, check Amazon. Two later Quiller books appear to be available, as is The Quiller Memorandum itself.
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