FILM STARS: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field, Gary Cockrell, Michael Crawford, Bill Edwards
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: John Hersey
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1959
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War
WORDS: A great film. Part war movie, part psychological drama, part soap opera. It’s not one for historical minded war movie buffs but it is one that captures some of the emotion in war (I imagine). McQueen is excellent as the central character, a B17 pilot obsessed with war (err hence the title), as is Robert Wagner (much underrated) as his co-pilot, in the air and on the ground. Screenwriter Koch was a blacklisted American screenwriter who lived in England through the 1950s.
The novel, I read many years ago and I loved. I don’t recall now how close it is to the film. It is vivid in its depictions of the title character, amid much philosophising and jabs at authority and war. I highlighted some passages (in pencil of course) as I’m wont to do …
FILM STARS: Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Karl Boehm, Paul Henreid, Paul Lukas, Nestor Paiva, George Dolenz
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Four Square
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1916
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War, Drama
WORDS: The famous novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez updated from just before and during World War 1 to just before and during World War 2. The book, written in 1916 was a best seller in the US in 1919 and was made into a famous silent film with Rudolph Valentino in 1921. The film is a big scale domestic drama with a war backdrop (it tells a tangled tale of the French and German sons-in-law of an Argentinian landowner who find themselves fighting on opposite sides during the war which is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse: Plague (or Conquest), War, Famine, and Death. It is multi charactered with lots of drama and colour … which director Minelli was an expert on. It’s not perfect. I love Glenn Ford though he may be miscast. Glenn’s persona, outside the western, is “modern” and twitchy, and not without a contemporary neurosis or two which doesn’t work is this sort of (wartime) soap. Though if the four horsemen of the apocalypse were coming you’d by twitchy. (I’m undecided – I will have to watch it again). It’s also way long but it is engrossing and I don’t mind a heightened multi character soap opera. I haven’t read the novel.
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson, Christopher George, Bobby Vinton, Jerry Gatlin, Ricardo Montalban
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Sam Bowie (Todhunter Ballard)
TYPE: Novelization
PUBLISHER: Ace
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1973
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1973
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: A straight novelization. The film is light, escapism but with stunning photography from William Clothier. The selling point is the cast. John Wayne (always good), Rod Taylor (always underrated), Ben Johnson (hilarious), Ann-Margret (beautiful), Christopher George (love him), Bobby Vinton (good, and without a song), western regular Jerry Gatlin and in a role against type Ricardo Montalban. A hoot of a film. It’s lazy in Burt Kennedy’s late period style, and ambles along without much drama, but it looks good and the cast are having fun.
Many times, the author of a novelization writes, under the belief, that the reader has seen the movie and can visualize the main character(s) delivering their lines with very little writing around that. Here Bowie actually delves deeper into defining the characters. Sam Bowie was a pseudonym for Todhunter Ballard (1903 – 1980), a Cleveland, Ohio-born American author, known for his Westerns and mystery novels. He also wrote numerous screenplays and teleplays and many novels under his names and other pseudonyms (aka Brian Agar, P D Ballard, W T Ballard, Parker Bonner, Sam Bowie, Walt Bruce, Hunter D’Allard, Brian Fox, John Grange, Harrison Hunt, John Hunter, Neil MacNeil, Clint Reno, John Shepherd, Jack Slade, Clay Turner)
FILM STARS: Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Margaret O’Brien, Steve Forrest, Eileen Heckart, Ramon Novarro, Edmund Lowe, Frank Silvera
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Louis L’Amour
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Gold Medal Book
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960
COUNTRY: Great Britain COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1956
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Heller with a Gun
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: A straight Louis L’Amour western becomes an odd (but excellent) western directed by George Cukor (his only western). As much a comedy as a western it ditches with some characters and focuses instead on the relationship between the manager of a ramshackle theatrical touring company in the old West and his leading lady, a flighty Italian beauty. The “heller”* in the book was the guy with the gun. The “heller” in the film is the woman in pink tights (not a guy with a gun in pink tights, though it could be, if the film was made today). If you want your westerns straight, read the book, it you like them quirky and outside the box, watch the film. Both work for me … but, then again, I have read a lot of Louis L’Amour and watched a lot of Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren.
*Heller – a noisy, rowdy, troublesome person; a hellion.
FILM STARS: Richard Burton. Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Kruger, Stewart Granger, Winston Ntshona, John Kani, Jack Watson, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, Ronald Fraser, David Ladd, Jeff Corey
COUNTRY: Great Britain – Switzerland
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Daniel Carney
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Corgi
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1978
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1977
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Action, Adventure
WORDS: I saw this film in the cinema as a kid. I loved it. Look at the cast … Moore, Burton, Harris, Kruger, Granger – what’s there not to love? Perhaps because of this film those actors all became favourites of mine. This is a high adventure mercenary film set in Africa. Author Carney, had an an unpublished novel titled The Thin White Line which he could not get published until a chance meeting with film producer Euan Lloyd. Lloyd loved the story, and purchased the film rights. Carney’s novel was then published as The Wild Geese just before the film’s release. The film (and the book) is high on action (with some philosophising) and not politically correct, though luckily, the mission they are on, is a noble one. Well, “noble” by mercenary standards. Of course, after seeing the film, I went out and bought the book (new, from a book store … most unusual for me). It’s a great read or at least it was for a boy in his early teens. The screenplay was by Reginald Rose who wrote the very different “12 Angry Men” twenty years earlier.
FILM STARS: Peter Finch, Michael York, Hildegarde Neil, Joss Ackland, Michael Hordern, Tessa Wyatt
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Graham Greene
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1974
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1935 (republished as “The Shipwrecked” in 1953)
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: Neither seen nor read though I can say that the book’s locale is changed from Stockholm, Sweden to Nazi Germany circa 1935, and the tone of the book is changed from dramatic, comic and satirical to melodramatic (apparently). I note some of the locations were filmed in my father’s neck of the woods, Opatija, Croatia (then Yugoslavia). That has nothing to do with the book.
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Jordan, John McIntire, Richard Romancito, Paul Koslo, Strother Martin, Tommy Lee, Jack Colvin, Jon Lormer, Lane Smith, Jerry Gatlin, Chuck Hayward, Andrew Prine.
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Martin Julien
TYPE: Screenplay
PUBLISHER: Signet
THIS EDITION
PUBLISHED: 1975
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1975
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Rooster Cogburn (… and the Lady)
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: The screenplay of the film (with photos!). The sequel to True Grit of sorts, with John Wayne reviving the lead character, Rooster Cogburn. The author of True Grit, Charles Portis, had nothing to do with this. The screenplay was written by (the great) actress Martha Hyer, the wife of producer Hal B. Wallis, under the pen name Martin Julien. It was decided to pair two icons of film who had never worked together before, John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. Wayne plays the role that won him an Oscar and Kate plays a variation of her character in the The African Queen with scenes and set ups reminiscent of that and of True Grit. The film was promoted as an “African Queen goes west” sequel to True Grit. Slickly produced by Hal Wallis (who also produced True Grit) the film is directed loosely but the two leads are great as is the supporting cast. As long as you know their film histories, there is a joy in watching their effortless acting and bouncing around off each other. Despite the films title this is a two starring role film. The original title of the film was to have been “Rooster Cogburn (…and the Lady)”, which it was called for some time and in some markets. And, despite different outlooks to all sorts of things by all accounts (reports at the time, Wayne’s comments, Kate autobiography) they got on fabulously … and it shows. Their different positions in Hollywood and philosophical outlooks were used to promote the film. There are many times, in the film, where the movie dialog crosses into the real word, or at least the movie personas they have created: Rooster Cogburn’s (John Wayne) line to Eula Goodnight (Hepburn) towards the end, “Ma’am, I don’t know much about thoroughbreds, horses or women. Ones I did know, I never liked. They are nervous and spooky – and they scare me. But you are one high-bred filly that don’t. Course I don’t know what you are talking about half the time – but it don’t matter. Being around you pleases me.” Eula Goodnight’s (Katharine Hepburn) last lines in the film, “Reuben, I have to say it. Livin’ with you has been an adventure any woman would relish for the rest of time. I look at cha, with your burnt-out face, and your big belly, and your bear-like paws and your shining eye, and I have to say you’re a credit to the whole male sex, and I’m proud to have ya for my friend”.
LINKS
PHOTOS
Katherine Hepburn on working with John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn (unsourced though she says something similar in her biography): “He has confidence in himself, which gives him enormous charisma. He’s quick, he’s sensitive. He knows all the techniques. I think he’s an awfully good actor—and a terribly funny man. We laugh all day. What a goddamn fascinating personality!”
SCREENWRITER: James Griffith (as J.J. Griffith), Hal Hopper, Scot Finch, Clarke Reynolds
FILM STARS: Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Peter van Eyck, Honor Blackman, Woody Strode, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox, Valerie French, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Rodd Redwing
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Louis L’Amour
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Corgi
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1968
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1962
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: Probably the best of the British westerns (there aren’t many good ones) and even then it’s more interesting than good. The bonus is Sean Connery who loved westerns as a kid, was keen to make one, and was happy to get away from James Bond. Once he was on board there was enough money to flesh out the cast and get Dmytryk to direct, who was on a downhill slide in terms of film results, though there are always moments in his later films. I saw this film so long ago so I really need to watch it again … I recall there being some really nasty characters and a lot of out of place accents (though the central group are meant to be Europeans on a hunting trip in the old west (filmed in Spain) – so, they are not entirely out of place). Brigitte Bardot is worth the price of admission. The film did well in Europe. Englishmen, producer Euan Lloyd and co-screenwriter, Scot Finch, made two other European westerns based on L’Amour novels – The Man called Noon (1973) (in which Stephen Boyd co-starred again) and Catlow (1971). L’Amour’s novel is straight with an upstanding hero, who would not be troubled by post war neurosis, international casts, European sensibilities or a Spanish locale.
FILM STARS: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, Alex Rocco, Joe Santos
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: George V. Higgins
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1973
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1970
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Crime
WORDS: The book is written by Massachusetts born George V. Higgins. He went to college in Boston, practiced law in Boston and had an ear for accents and dialogue. His books capture the time (post war), place (Boston) and the milieu (the Boston criminal underworld – specifically the lower tier criminals). His book is heavy on dialogue … the dialogue propels the narrative. The film captures the book perfectly. Mitchum, always underrated with accents (and this is a subtle one), does a great job as Eddie Coyle, a low-level criminal without friends (the title is ironic). The supporting cast are authentic.
FILM STARS: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Patricia Highsmith
TYPE: Novel PUBLISHER: Vintage
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1999
COUNTRY: Australia
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1955
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama, Crime
WORDS: Patricia Highsmith, perhaps the greatest of the female crime (specifically psychological thrillers – she also wrote “Strangers on a Train”) writers. The film by Minghella is (surprisingly) good though I still prefer the first film version of the book, Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) (1960), directed by (the great) Rene Clement in France, with Alain Delon. That captures the Mediterranean, the characters and the mid century mood perfectly
THE FILM 
It’s an entertaining movie. I saw it when it first came out, and I think it was on tv from…