The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

After one of their agents (Herbert Stass) is murdered in Berlin, the British Secret Service sends a new agent (George Segal) to take over the mission. The mission is to ferret out a neo-Nazi organization working undercover in West Berlin. Ah, the 1960s and the proliferation of Cold War films. Technically, this isn't a Cold War thriller as it's not the Soviets but neo-Nazis in West Berlin that are the enemy but the style and atmosphere are the same though Harold Pinter's taut and literate script (based on the novel by Trevor Dudley Smith) owes a lot to Graham Greene. Michael Anderson (AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) is a director without a distinct style or personality which makes most of his films rather generic. But this movie, along with SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL, shows that he could make a solid intense drama that can hold its own. One thing that is never explained is what is an American doing working for the British Secret Service? No explanation is given as to why, we're just meant to accept it. That aside, this is one of the better anti-James Bond spy thrillers of the 1960s along with THE IPCRESS FILE and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD though we're often one step ahead of its hero. The end comes as no surprise. The atmospheric underscore is by John Barry (how he is missed). With Alec Guinness, who makes the most of his brief screen time as Segal's superior, Max Von Sydow, lovely Senta Berger, George Sanders and Robert Helpmann.