WW II Spy Novels discussion

List as many of his WWII books which you're familiar with, as you ably can.
a) Sort them in descending order. Scale them in terms of what you consider 'good' to 'poor'.
b) For books of his which you haven't read, just state your reaction to the plot blurb/summary (for example, 'there's no way in hell I'm reading 'Thunder Point' because it sounds silly, contrived, and over-cooked')

You're really willing to raise the temperature in here, Feliks. Because of The Eagle Has Landed, I have a certain soft spot for Higgins, but then again, I was in my early teens when it was published and together with several friends eagerly read and discussed it.( The movie was a letdown. )Anyway, here goes: The Eagle Has Landed - rather good, The Eagle Has Flown - not so good, but not really bad either...The Night of The Fox - not good, Storm Warning - even more so... Flight of Eagles - give it a rest...

Love that movie. Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter, Barbara Shelley, John Standing, Treat Williams, Larry Hagman..what a cast. Directed by John Sturges ('The Great Escape', and 'The Magnificent Seven'...yes, THAT Sturges)..one can hardly ask for better. Without looking it up, I bet it was probably even Jerry Fielding who did the soundtrack, I wouldn't be surprised. Totally badass!

Feliks wrote: "Love that movie. Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter, Barbara Shelley, John Standing, Treat Williams, Larry Hagman..what a cast. Directed by John Sturges ('The Great Esca..."

I second that!

Sorry to differ, I'm a huge fan of Michael Caine, (as anyone who has seen him play Harry Palmer must be), but in The Eagle Has Landed he is miscast.

They *could* have gotten someone else, certainly. Someone like, Dirk Bogarde perhaps...Caine's accent is something the viewer has to make a mental adjustment to. But he fit the needs of the role; he can act and he is one of the 'tougher' English actors (unlike Bogarde or John Hurt, etc) he was hot at the box office; and a film always needs top stars. From among the shortlist of stars the prodco would have wanted to select from, he was certainly a not a terrible prospect. This role in particular needed someone with flair; even an Anthony Hopkins might have been swallowed up and lost in that German uniform. Not Caine; not with that red hair and shrill voice.

True about mental adjustment, Feliks. But Michael Caine in a German uniform craved too much in way of suspension of disbelief. Most of the rest of cast is fine, and Donald Sutherland is excellent!

Caine did a fine job as J.O.E. Vandeleur in 'A Bridge too far' - but then again, that uniform suited him better!

Yet the character he plays is a rebellious and unorthodox soldier, and so it fits, there.

Who else might have played COL Steiner?
Perhaps Maximilian Schell or Robert Shaw..

+1 Schell
-1 Shaw

How about...Sir Alan Bates? He could play tough guys when he wanted to ('The Shout'; 'The Rose').

ummm..tricky though.. (as I said its not only about who *could* portray the role well; but its about who was also a big *marketing draw* at the time)

One more remark about British accents, they had to do it also for "Went the Day Well?" which is what Higgins based all this on. I guess they just hoped the audience would go-with-the-flow. Robert Duvall didn't sound very German, either, naturally.

I think the best acting in the film is when Steiner is first introduced at the railhead; when he shows what he thinks of the SS scum ordering him and his men around. Boy, was that raw.

Ya, i really enjoy the rail head scene as well, he's probably just got back from the from eastern front ( line dog) and has total distain for the political lackeys.

Good man. Sturges handled that well. Editing is choppy in some prints but still, you could see they thought about that sequence carefully beforehand. Great example of matching a key scene in the source novel. After all, if they bungled it we might not ever have accepted the story premise either in book or movie.

There are a number of Films by Sturges that are pretty damn gooooood.

Right now I'm trying to compose a Goodreads review of Jack Higgins' 'The Eagle Has Landed'. Tough to do! Where to start? What to say? H'mmm.

I'm currently reading

ah yah? How's it goin?

So far, so good.

Finished the book (Luciano's Luck). A nice little potboiler of a story. I enjoyed it.

Does anybody know if the cracking WWII movie The Train (set in France in the front days of the War) was based on a book? It feels like it is. Burt Lancaster plays the train driver and Paul Scofield the evil German officer trying to mastermind the pillaging of France's great artworks.

oh hell yeah I know that film and yes I do believe it is based on a book but I recall it is based on a nonfiction work, and that Ernest Lehman probably did the screenplay

the film though, is by John Frankenheimer, one of my personal fave directors and flat-out one of the best thriller directors in the field

Look at these triumphs of his:
Seven Days in May
The Manchurian Candidate
The Train
Black Sunday

Seemed like he liked working with Burt.

Who didn't? Better than working with that maniac Kirk Douglas lol