The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark

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Movie
German title The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark
Original title The Quiller Memorandum
Country of production Great Britain
original language English , German
Publishing year 1966
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Michael Anderson
script Harold Pinter
production Ivan Foxwell
music John Barry
camera Erwin Hillier
cut Frederick Wilson
occupation
synchronization

The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark , also known as Death in Berlin (Original title: The Quiller Memorandum ), is a British espionage film by Michael Anderson from 1966. A novel by Elleston Trevor was used as a literary model .

action

When two British agents are murdered in Berlin , the US secret agent Quiller is tasked with finding the leader of a neo-Nazi organization in the divided city . The first lead leads Quiller to a school where a teacher with a Nazi past recently committed suicide. There he pretends to be a journalist and wants to write an article about Nazis in post-war Germany. The director of the school introduces Quiller to the young teacher Inge Lindt, who is supposed to help him with his research. Quiller drives Inge home later and she allows him to carry her bag into her apartment. There he asks Inge, whose family was killed in World War II , further questions and invites her to go out together.

In front of his hotel, Quiller is jostled with a suitcase by a man named Grauber. Then he gets dizzy in his car on the highway. At a traffic light a man gets into his car and drives on with him. In the hiding place of the underground organization from October, the leader of the Nazi gang, Quiller comes to. It turns out that Grauber had injected him with a drug with his suitcase. When asked who he is, Quiller poses as an employee of a New York publishing house. When October tries to give him an injection, Quiller tries in vain to flee. After the injection, Quiller is no longer in control of his senses. But instead of revealing what mission he is on and where his superior Pol is, he only talks about Inge, confused. After another syringe, Quiller is surprisingly released. He takes a taxi, which he steals unceremoniously when October's men prepare to chase him. He can, however, hang out and take a room in a small guesthouse.

The next day a middleman takes him to his superior Pol, to whom he reports that he has been held prisoner since October. He then explains to Inge in her apartment that he is not a journalist at all. They kiss and spend the night together. Inge thinks a friend of her father's might know something about October's gang. One evening he drives them into a street, where the headmistress of Inge's school tells them that October's hiding place is in a nearby house. While Inge is supposed to wait for him in the car, Quiller goes in to find out whether it is actually the hiding place. However, Oktober and his followers take Quiller prisoner again and take him to the basement of the building, where they are already holding Inge prisoner. Should Quiller refuse to reveal where the Berlin headquarters of the British secret service is, October wants to kill him and Inge. October gives Quiller time to reflect until sunrise. He then leaves the hiding place, but is followed by October's men and always prevented from making calls. In the pension, however, he manages to sneak unnoticed to a garage, where he finds a bomb under a potential getaway car. He detonates them, thus faking October's men into having perished. After he informed Pol of his whereabouts, he and his men were immediately arrested. Inge is not among their prisoners. Quiller finally meets her again at her school and she tells him October let her go. After Quiller said goodbye to her, Inge turned back to her students.

background

The Olympic Stadium in Berlin, a location for the film

For the literary model Das Berlin-Memorandum ( The Berlin Memorandum , 1965), the writer Elleston Trevor received both the French Grand prix de littérature policière and the US Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Novel category in 1966 . Thereupon Trevor wrote further Quiller novels under the pseudonym "Adam Hall", with which he also became famous in Germany.

The script for the film was written by Harold Pinter , who later won the Nobel Prize . The film was shot in the English Pinewood Studios with film structures by Maurice Carter and at original locations in Berlin , where the Olympic Stadium , Rüdesheimer Platz , Wittenbergplatz , Schlesisches Tor , Stadtbad Neukölln and the city ​​motorway served as backdrops.

The world premiere of The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark took place on November 10, 1966 in London . In Germany, the film was released on February 24, 1967. In 2014 it was released on DVD under the title Tod in Berlin .

Reviews

For the lexicon of international films , The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark was a "[i] ambitious, but conventional spy film", which was "[s] exciting and well cast". Also Cinema found the film "[s] harnessing" and "good busy". The German version, however, is "defused" by making "communist agents" out of old Nazi conspirators. All in all, it is a "[n] ostalgische [n] agent crime". According to the evangelical film observer , the film tries “if not completely convincing, to a high level” and is “bearable from 16”.

Awards

In 1967 the film was nominated for the BAFTA Award in the three national categories of Best Production Design ( Maurice Carter ), Best Editing and Best Screenplay . The production received another nomination in the category Best Screenplay for the Edgar Allan Poe Award .

German version

The German dubbed version was created in 1967 at Union Film GmbH in Berlin under the dialogue direction by Karlheinz Brunnemann based on the dialogue book by Ursula Buschow .

role actor Voice actor
Quiller George Segal Gert Günther Hoffmann
pole Alec Guinness Friedrich Schoenfelder
October Max von Sydow Heinz Petruo
Inge Lindt Senta Berger Senta Berger
Gibbs George Sanders Curt Ackermann
Weng Robert Helpmann Wolfgang Amerbacher
Rushington Robert Flemyng Karlheinz Brunnemann
Hengel Peter Carsten Peter Carsten
Director Edith Schneider Edith Schneider
Hassler Günter Meisner Günter Meisner
October's retainer John Rees Gerd Martienzen
Kenneth Lindsay Jones Herbert Stass Herbert Stass

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 2, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ cf. cinema.de
  3. ↑ Protestant film observer . Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 70/1967.
  4. ↑ The Quiller Memorandum - Danger from the Dark. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on October 2, 2019 .
  5. ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de