THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson
SCREENWRITER: Carl Foreman
FILM STARS: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, James Darren, Richard Harris, Bryan Forbes.
COUNTRY: Great Britain / USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Alistair Maclean
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Fontana
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1961
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War
WORDS: Which male didn’t like this book and film? One of the great war films. A great cast combined with action, adventure and a literate script of twists and turns. It’s been a long while since I read the novel but I suspect there was a lot of it in the film … Maclean writes so “film-ably”. Producer / screenwriter Carl Foreman displays his philosophical leaning on the back cover quote.
LINKS
TRAILER
MUSIC
The great Dimitri Tiomkin
It’s a great movie, and in some ways the movie is better than the book. Some of the actors , particularly David Niven, were perhaps too old for their roles but nevertheless the cast does a cracking job.
I believe Anthony Quayle served in the special forces during the war. I think Niven served in the commandos, I’m not sure if Gregory Peck was in the military.
Maclean very much wrote with a view to his books being made into films. It’s very pronounced with ‘When Eagles Dare”, which reads like a novel based on a film.
I agree, a great film … and, I think, better than the book. Though I am biased … Anthony Quinn. All those big budget American – UK films made in the UK in the late 50s and 60s, on US money (I think the money was profits from the UK that had to be spent on productions there) are great almost old fashioned entertainments. I see your point on the characters ages. Of course in reality the group would have been all around James Darren’s age or younger but in war movies the gravitas comes with age.
peck wasn’t in the military (a pre existing injury) and neither was Quinn (he did not become an American citizen until 1947), Quayle, Niven and James Robertson Justice were, though I don’t think Quayle saw combat (Niven did and Justice did, I think). James Robertson Justice was also in the Spanish Civil War ( Sir Lancelot Spratt! was a red …in more ways than one!) . Stanley Baker wasn’t in the war (though, oddly, he was in a pro Chetnik film made during the war in England, Undercover, 1943). The rest were too young to participate.
I agree re MacLean re his style. You can also see that in most of his books. The earlier ones especially, he cluttered some of the later ones up with detail. And the same applies to his sequel “Force 10 from Navarone” which is written in mind with a film, so much so that the characters follow events from the “Guns of Navarone” film rather than the book. Of course it was made later (it will be appearing on this blog at some stage), and i saw the same at the movies …. no one will argue it was not as successful as its predecessor.
Should be’Where Eagles Dare”- getting brain fog.
I get it ….Monday-itis also