During the 1960s and 1970s there were few writers who could outsell Alistair MacLean. His novels, almost all thrillers or war stories where secret agents and betrayal are integral to the plot, have sold more than 150 million copies. Nearly 20 films have been made from his stories.
MacLean never pretended to be a great or literary writer. His forte was telling a ripping yarn that held the attention of reader and audience, keeping them on the edge of their collective seat. His best stories were usually set in World War II, but novels like Breakheart Pass and Ice Station Zebra were almost as good. What follows are the most popular movies according to IMDb that are written by MacLean or based on one of his works.
10 'Puppet on a Chain' (1971)
IMDb Score: 5.9/10
In this 1970 film, agent Paul Sherman is sent by the US government to Amsterdam to track down a source of heroin that has set off a drug war. Despite many of his contacts, suspects and allies being knocked off, Sherman eventually uncovers the drug boss and his spy in the Dutch police force.
Most famous for its exciting motorboat chase through the canals of Amsterdam towards the end of the film, and a star performance from Vladek Sheybal as villain Meegeren, Puppet on a Chain is a competent thriller with some dark twists to keep the audience guessing.
9 'When Eight Bells Toll' (1971)
IMDb Score: 6.0/10
When cargo ships are hijacked in British waters, agent Phillip Calvert (Anthony Hopkins) travels to Scotland to find out what's going on. His investigations zero in on a Cypriot shipping magnate. After several deaths, the expected twist ending and some underseas action, the baddies get their comeuppance.
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The biggest mystery about this 1971 film is how Anthony Hopkins came to play an action hero in the mold of James Bond. The producers intended it to be the start of several Phillip Calvert films, but the plan fell through when the expected demise of the James Bond franchise after Sean Connery's departure didn't materialize. Who knows what course Hopkins' career might have followed if he'd stayed with the role?
8 'The Satan Bug' (1965)
IMDb Score: 6.1/10
A reclusive millionaire threatens to release a bioweapon called the Satan Bug that could destroy all life on Earth unless the lab that developed it is closed down. Secret agent Lee Barrett (George Maharis) is called in to track down the culprit and recapture the bug.
While the millionaire's logic is stretched a little thin - threatening to destroy humanity to save it - 1965's The Satan Bug, based on a MacLean novel first published in 1962, deserves at least some credit for raising the ethical issues surrounding the creation of biological weapons long before it became a mainstream topic.
7 'The Secret Ways' (1961)
IMDb Score: 6.2/10
This 1961 film tells the story of an attempt to smuggle and important scholar, Jancsi, out of Hungary after that country's failed 1956 uprising against communism. The rescuer, American Michael Reynolds (Richard Widmark), Jancsi and his daughter Julia are captured by Hungarian secret police not long after Reynolds reaches Budapest, and are tortured by a Colonel Hidas. With the help of resistance fighters, Reynolds eventually rescues Jancsi and Julia, and Hidas receives his just deserts.
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Far from the best film about the Cold War, it's still worth watching because of Widmark - an actor sadly neglected today who made a career out of playing tough guys through sheer force of character.
6 'Fear is the Key' (1972)
IMDb Score: 6.3/10
A convoluted story where the protagonist, John Talbot (Barry Newman), initially comes across as a violent, cop-killing psychopath. But it's all a ruse to root out and punish the real criminals who are after a cargo of uncut diamonds worth millions.
Made in 1972, Fear is the Key performed well in Europe, particularly the UK, but not so well in the US. Barry Newman plays a serviceable hero, and ever-reliable John Vernon a better than serviceably villain. Of special note is that one of the secondary villains in Fear is the Key was played by Ben Kingsley in his first film role.
5 'Force 10 from Navarone' (1978)
IMDb Score: 6.4/10
A sequel of sorts to 1961's The Guns of Navarone, this 1978 film brings back special forces soldier Major Mallory (Robert Shaw, in his last film before his death) and explosives expert Sergeant Miller (Edward Fox), who are sent to Yugoslavia to kill a German spy; to get there they have to team up with 'Force 10', an American unit specializing in sabotage led by Lieutenant Colonel Barnsby (Harrison Ford in his first movie after Star Wars).
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Quickly changing fortunes, double agents and spies, Yugoslav partisans and Chetniks and Germans, all go to make up a surprisingly conventional war film. Force 10 from Navarone seemed to possess all the necessary elements of an exciting story, but in the end the best that can be said for it is that it's reasonably entertaining.
4 'Ice Station Zebra' (1968)
IMDb Score: 6.6/10
In a race to retrieve the film from a Soviet spy satellite that malfunctioned and landed on the ice in the Arctic, an American nuclear submarine under the command of James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), races north with two spies (Patrick McGoohan and Ernest Borgnine) and a platoon of marines. The submarine manages to get through despite someone sabotaging one of the torpedo tubes. After some double-crossing shenanigans from Borgnine (playing a Soviet defector who's not really a defector at all), and the sudden appearance of Soviet MiGs and a team of paratroopers, the film from the satellite is retrieved and then destroyed by Ferraday, so everyone can go home equally empty-handed.
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A better film than critics at the time allowed, 1968's Ice Station Zebra kept audiences guessing about who in the end would survive, and who in the end would win: and that makes for a good thriller. (The story has also recently been picked up for a remake.)
3 'Breakheart Pass' (1975)
IMDb Score: 6.7/10
There is something intriguing about a Scottish writer penning a Western about smuggling guns and ammunition to a cabal of Native Americans in cahoots with a criminal gang under the guise of delivering medical supplies to a fort with a garrison suffering from a diphtheria epidemic. It would be even more intriguing to learn why the story then went on to be filmed.
Unsuccessful at the box office, and unremarkable as a Western, the saving grace of 1975's Breakheart Pass is outlaw John Deakin who turns out to be a Secret Service agent who saves the day, and is played by Charles Bronson: no matter which side of the law he stands, Bronson's always worth cheering on.
2 'The Guns of Navarone' (1961)
IMDb Score: 7.5/10
In this 1961 film a group of British soldiers in WWII are stuck on the Greek island of Leros and can only be rescued by sea, but ships cannot get past large German guns sited on the island of Navarone; a special team of commandos is sent to the island to destroy them. The Germans, with the aid of a traitor in the Allied party, track and eventually catch the team. But in the end all comes good as the team escapes and its surviving members blow up the guns.
MacLean's usual double-cross subplot is the least interesting thing about The Guns of Navarone. It's the great action scenes and wonderful performances from Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas and David Niven that make this a great war film.
1 'Where Eagles Dare' (1968)
IMDb Score: 7.6/10
As with The Guns of Navarone, a team of commandos is sent into enemy territory to do what conventional forces could not possibly achieve. The team's mission is to rescue a vitally important American general captured by the Germans. Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood share top billing as the team's leaders, British Major John Smith and American Lieutenant Morris Schaffer, and pull off a grand double act.
Given that this is a MacLean story, the audiences will be expecting the usual traitor in the woodpile, but there are twists and surprises in store as things don't go as the audience - and certainly not the Germans - might expect. A better narrative and a better film than the other movie based on a MacLean story from 1968 - Ice Station Zebra - and with even more exciting action scenes than The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare deserves its top billing as the best Alistair MacLean movie.
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