WW II Spy Novels discussion

Will flesh this out later.

For now, just take this one example:
The Small Back Room

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sma...

fascinating film, I can tell you that much. Have not yet read the novel.

Another one I might mention is 'The Dam Busters', however I don't know from what source that screenplay came from...not yet anyway!

Anyway, feel free to add your own!

Two of the first that comes to mind for me come from the sixties though they arn't spy/WWII:
The Sand Pebbles, a most excellent book, and great movie.
The Sand Pebbles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand...


Dark of the Sun, pretty good read, and quasi ok movie.
The Dark of the Sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_of_...

We're of like mind again. Two of my faves. Love that nastiness in 'Dark of the Sun'! Lot of beefcake in that flick. And a mano a mano battle where a guy chases his enemy down a creekbed in a jeep and then they go at it --with chainsaws! You can't find an offensive, no-excuses flick like that these days...

And this was before The Wild Bunch..

okay how about..

James Clavell's 'King Rat' and the corresponding Brian Forbes movie?

I always say it is one of the best book-to-film adaptations in my experience.

'Battle Cry' by Leon Uris and the Raoul Walsh movie

I heard this flick and 'Sands of Iwo Jima' were shown to Marines in boot camp regularly as part of their indoctrination

Yep the book and movie Battle Cry are classics..
Battle Cry embarked me on a Leon Uris kick for a number of years.

Thought the book and movie The Odessa File was pretty good.

one that failed for me: 'The Formula' with Brando vs George C. Scott

never did figure out what the formula was

or why those two fine actors even starred in such a film

unless just to make a buck

author has interesting career

wrote an academy award winning movie

as well as a Burt Reynolds flick..all over the place, seemingly...

I may have to revist that one again, the book and the movie..

Double, thank goodness you were out-of-town last week when I joined a recent trivia contest in one of the groups we both belong to. I was able to blitz everyone except one guy who knew one answer. And he was the moderator of the group so he was better prepared. Can't recall the group, one of the mystery/ crime thriller bunches.

I am starting to add more polls to all my groups, so please check the poll page for some film trivia challenges--that is, if you're man enough to step up!

Huzza :D

I do actually like polls, keep them coming..

Morituri a well written, taut WWII espionage drama with great dialog and even better cinematography, with outstanding performances by Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner--Brando and Brynner.

You ain't tellin me nothing new! Preachin' to the choir. I love that flick so much I bought the DVD.

But I don't think the book was exactly a big splash. Kinda obscure.

Anyway glad to see another fan. Boy, if all of us could write scenes like that eh?

For Connery lets try Trevor Howard.
Sword of the Valiant
Meteor
The Offence
Battle of Briton.

Oooopsss wrong place..

You're getting warmer

Feliks wrote: "...Boy, if all of us could write scenes like that eh?"

You said it, Feliks. Great writing.

Brando tossed that role off as if it was nuthin'. To him, it was. He was only fulfilling a contractual clause, he had no real interest in the role. It was negligible. He was impatient with it.

Think of it. That's how good he was when he didn't give-a-damn. Even Yul Brynner was eclipsed when Brando was in the room, which is no small feat.

The film is edge-of-the-seat stuff. Sneaking into the engine room to plant the charges. Look at how rapt his reactions are to the noises around him. See him punch the cabin wall in that one scene? Or when he slaps Janet Margolin? The guy was just uncanny.

People forget how --like Olivier--he could take on any accent and any idiom, no matter how foreign, no matter what timeperiod. But in his prime, he *was* the American Olivier. You can't describe this to people these days, they just do not get it. Today's stars do no acting of their own, the computers do it for them.

Today's audiences have no need for actors like Brando, Spencer, or Olivier.

Spencer? You mean Spencer Tracy?

And no more tough guys, like Bogart, Marvin, Coburn, Bronson, McQueen, Eastwood, Oates, thought Burton did well in the war movies I watched, liked Heston in Major Dundee, and a host of others..

Genuine tough guys who actually served in war such as Lee Marvin, Neville Brand, heck even Jimmy Stewart.

Or guys who grew up during the Depression; worked all over the country fending for themselves. Mitchum, Garner.

Yep

Feliks wrote: "Spencer? You mean Spencer Tracy?"

Yep...Tracy.

My wife used to serve Neville Brand coffee. She worked at the Tucson Hilton in the coffee shop. They were filming at Old Tucson. She said the most unapproachable was Jack Palance, a genuine tough guy. Standing orders were to get him his order and leave him alone.

Ha! Great story. He was probably shooting 'The Cowboys' with John Wayne at the time.

Yeah Bronson and Palance both were said to have surly tempers on location shoots.

What they needed was maybe some more Robert Ryan or Tom Neal to cut them down to size.

As for Neville Brand: good-looking guy in his youth but boy did he ever not age well. That mug of his in later life was enough to cause women to miscarry.

It may have been The Cowboys. She was there in the early '70s. The Hilton also outfitted shoots as well. She went on a couple of those but made more more money at the hotel. Petrocelli with Barry Newman would film in the Hilton restaurants and around town in those days.

She said that Lee Marrvin would come in to the Carriage Room (lounge) in the hotel and drink for hours. He wouldn't let the staff remove any of the glasses. They would just pile up at his table. Funny.

Struther Martin nicknamed my wife "Buttons" because she had (and still does) this amazing antique button collection and was always looking for unusual buttons.

She sure met a lot of people there, and then she quit.

Fab stories!

I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but Graham Greene's 'This Gun for Hire' paired with its American adaptation. It's fascinating to see the prewar sentiments of a British author, and then the twisty American Propaganda of the film. Lake and Ladd are a great bonus (blue Dahlia anyone?)

I agree the different book/movie country versions are fascinating. But guess what? My favorite interpretation is a TV movie of the story starring Robert Wagner and Nancy Ebersole.

Now, Nancy was never a famous star but she sure had the figure for the role, plus a very natural, non-made-up, girl-next-door face. And Wagner is perfect. Icy, an emotionally damaged individual who throws himself into his professionalism. But then he starts to become inwardly torn as the plot develops.

The script in this case is great--no propaganda; the focus is on Raven and the girl.

Perhaps because he did so much television, people forget that Wagner was actually quite a talented and experienced actor. He honed his skills under the studio system. Started out as one of a bunch of young firebrands along with George Peppard, George Hamilton, etc. Wagner once before played a cold-blooded killer in the 50s and so he knows the ropes. He nails this role (I think Alan Ladd, was a hero of his growing up).

Any love for 'The Bedford Incident'? Probably a nondescript book by one-off, never-heard-from-again Mark Rascovich but it made a kick-ass movie.

Its not a war movie, just finished watching the 1982 British thriller about a hostage situation, "Who Dares Win" or "The Final Option" the US version.
Pretty good flick, featuring some elite forces, lots of dialog with with some good action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dare...

Double, I am not sure that will ever really be a 'cult' movie. Kinda obscure.

Anyway nevermind, how does this grab ya?

Dogfight!
When I was a wee lad I had a board game called Dogfight.

We'll have to nickname you 'Biggles' of Goodreads then

Anyway the poster is from 'The Blue Max'

Was just thinking this week how awesome that flick is. (I love WWI aerial movies). Forgotten hit of 1960 or whenever.

Then, when Googling the film, I was stunned to see the freakishly excellent poster art! Heck yeah! Lookit that madness

How about that George Peppard playing a 19 yr old pilot when he himself was 37. And getting to noodle with Ursula Andress.

Not a bad trade-off for the character in the film either. He got everything he wanted and THEN some.

Yep the weekend it was shown at our small town, I went to see it twice, damn fine flick..

Though it's not a WWI movie, another favorite movie of mine featuring bi-planes is Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper.

a beaut!

How about this one: 'Von Richthofen and Brown' (1971)?

Don Stroud co-starred in Roger Corman’s film opposite John Phillip Law’s Baron von Richthofen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Stroud

Stroud seemed like a pretty intense actor..

He sure was. I always thought of him as just some surly young henchmen Eastwood would kick around in one of his westerns.

But he was tough. A badass. See him in 'Search and Destroy' with Perry King, doing all sorts of fight choreography.

And the anecdote about him being a bouncer at 'Whisky-a Go Go' and meeting Sidney Poitier is hilarious.