THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: John Sturges
SCREENWRITER: James Clavell and Edward Anhalt
FILM STARS: George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, John Larkin, Richard Bull, Frank Sutton, Ed Asner, Simon Oakland, John Anderson, John Clarke, Hari Rhodes, Martin Blaine, Henry Beckman, Harry Lauter, James Hong
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Alistair Maclean
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Fontana
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1965
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Thriller
WORDS: Alistair MacLean is always a good read and John Sturges is always a good watch. In the case of The Satan Bug, apart from the title, this is almost all they have in common.
This is an early MacLean (and written and released originally under the pseudonym Ian Stuart, and later republished under MacLean’s own name). Being an early MacLean (1962) it is generally a better novel than some of his later ones, though some of those have their merits. Like most MacLean it is a sophisticated “catch the bad guy before he creates havoc” story. And like most MacLean there is deception, thrills and spills.
The film has those elements but, being American, goes off on its own way. There are name changes (the hero), place changes (England in the book, the US in the film) and even narrative changes. In the film, Barrett, the hero, is a Korean war veteran, who is working in sophisticated espionage territory like a less gadget-ed and less superhuman James Bond while in the book, Cavell the same hero, is a detective trying to nut out what’s going on. Both are on the trail of a madman who has created a virus (bug) that can kill many all at once, the many being everyone in London as the target in the book and the everyone in the world in the film. Either way, given recent events a virus on the loose makes eerily compelling reading watching and makes the film less the sci-fi as it was sometimes called in the 60s.
Being still in the midst of the cold war, with talk about germ warfare and just after the 1957-1958 Pandemic (the Asiatic Flu) which killed 1.1 million worldwide and 116000 in the US the film generates more paranoia in its race against time story than the book. The one person behind the potential mayhem, like some sort of a Dr. Mabuse, is always a little bit of a let down but the far reach of the powerful, like Mabuse, is still frightening. Though The Last Man On Earth (1964) is similar (though after the fact) Sturges was ahead of the curve on other virus movies that threatened to leave swathes of the population dead such as The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Black Sunday (1977) and Outbreak (1985), The Happening (2008), Contagion (2011), World War Z (2013). I suspect the film isn’t as well known as it should be because the lead, George Maharis, popular at the time, isn’t well known now. A pity, Maharis is excellent, and is an actor who should have been a lot bigger than he was. He is good, and is good across many films and his Route 66 is one of my favourite shows from the 60s. When he is backed by Richard Basehart, Dana Andrews, and Anne Francis as well as future familiar television faces Ed Asner, Simon Oakland, Frank Sutton, John Larkin and James Doohan (and Lee Remick in a cameo) why complain. Spot the stars (minor or otherwise) is always a favourite pastime in watching Old Hollywood. Director John Sturges holds it all together. He was no slouch and could balance action and drama perfectly … The People Against O’Hara (1951), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), McQ (1974), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and he was on a roll in the 60s … The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Ice Station Zebra (1968)(another Alistair MacLean), Marooned (1969).
Read it, watch it.
LINKS
TRAILER
I haven’t seen the movie but I read the book when I was about 14.
I don’t know if it was a conscious choice on MacLeans part, but his books all had a very cinematic feel. They all feature little or no characterisation, terse dialogue and very good descriptions of action scenes ( which is not an easy thing to do). I think Ice Station Zebra came out a few years after the Satan Bug (MacLean had a remarkable work ethic and was churning a book out in the 50 s and 60 s every year or thereabouts) and it written such that you can almost visualise a movie as you read the text. Where Eagles Dare has the same quality.
I agree. I think MacLean’s earlier books were more “book-ish”” … when he realised how much could be made if they were sough for films I think he started tailoring them to that. But, they are always readable.