MovieChat Forums > Ministry of Fear (1945) Discussion > the average guy spy

the average guy spy

posted 18 years ago by zygimantas
3 replies | jump to latest

Another thread in this sparsely populated board made me curious about something. So it's a call to aficionados of 20th century British literature, I know the spy novel is very important as the 20th century gets into swing, and with major wars with Britain at the center it's no wonder.

I'm just curious about the brand of agent I am calling "the average guy spy" (not James Bond) who stumbles into a conspiracy against his country during or just before wartime and despite having to do most everything himself foils the plot.. there is this, there is the 39 steps.. any others? I think I'd like novels that have been made films, but not necessarily.

[–] sherlock-37 18 years ago

I read the original book by Buchannan (probably didn't spell it right) but watching the movie and reading the book is a wonderful lesson in how to take something that has the kernel of an idea and make it great - that's Hitchcock I'm talking about. I believe he did the screenplay, practically reinvented the characters, used the Scottish setting idea and re-did the "39 steps" enigma.

Doug
Toronto

My accountant says, "1 + 1, 40% of the time, equals divorce".

[–] AlanSquier 18 years ago

I'd say that Hitchcock's two versiohns of The Man Who Knew Too much fits this category too.

I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money... and I didn't get the woman.

[–] jdw50 15 years ago

Probably the first of these was Riddle of the Sands, written by Erskine Childers in 1903 (he was later executed as an Irish republican). It foretold the German build-up to World War One, as detected by two young Englishmen sailing the Frisian coast. It was filmed in 1979. The 39 Steps was written during the war and is also one of the pioneering novels in this genre. It's been filmed three times, the first by Hitchcock. John Buchan wrote several sequels with the same hero, Richard Hannay, none of them filmed as far as I know (Greenmantle certainly should be).