Thriller Titles by Alistair MacLean Quiz

Answer: Force Ten from Navarone

The author faced the problem of dealing with the enormous success of the film made from his book. As always the screenplay writer, Carl Foreman, thought it necessary to change many things including some of the vital characters and their fate. MacLean mostly opted for writing the sequel to the film rather than his original book.

Answer: The Last Frontier

In other editions around the world the title "The Secret Ways" was translated into many languages. e.g. "Caminos Secretos" in Spanish. A film was made of this book and released under the title of "The Secret Ways".

Answer: Chain

This story was about drug smuggling and set mostly in Amsterdam. In the film version one of the most notable sequences was a chase up and down the narrow canals on high-speed boats. "Puppet on a String" was a popular song which won the Eurovision Song Contest.

Answer: The Black Shrike

The "Crusader" in question was a missile developed in secret by the British Government. The story included action on an island with a secret base and deception in the highest reaches of the British Secret Service.

Answer: South

This story starts in Singapore just as the Japanese are about to take over. A mismash of the usual MacLean "dodgy" characters heads out to sea in a series of boats and ships. Some of them just want to reach safety; some however are trying to carry away important secrets.

Answer: Key

When interviewed on British television MacLean once declared that "Fear is the Key" was the best of his thriller stories. He placed "H.M.S. Ulysses" in a different category of story.

Answer: Night

The action in "Night Without End" is set in Greenland which is in the middle of the polar night. A crashed airliner has the usual motley crew of suspicious characters that have to be sorted into "goodies" and "baddies" by the men from the International Geophysical Year Station.

Answer: Golden

"Golden" appears in the title of one of the other MacLean thrillers. That is called "The Golden Gate". The difference is that "The Golden Rendezvous" was written in the middle of his most creative period when, arguably, his best thrillers were being produced. By the time of "The Golden Gate" screenplays dominated his writing.

Answer: Caravan

In the film that was made from this story the director allocated a bit part to Graham Hill, the British World Champion racing driver. He played a helicopter pilot. MacLean himself was a good friend of that other champion Jackie Stewart, another Scot and probably the inspiration for "The Way to Dusty Death".

Answer: Breakheart Pass

Most of the action in this story took place on a train climbing through the Rocky Mountains. Thus in the film there was an interesting mixture of the wide open spaces and the claustrophobic inside of the railway carriages.

Answer: Ice Station Zebra

This was made into a film starring Rock Hudson and Patrick McGoohan. The British pronounced it "Zebra" with the "e" as in "bet" and the Americans pronounced it "Zeebra" with the "e" as in "beet". As usual, however, the book was 100 times better than the film.

Answer: California

Lots of technical material about earthquakes and the San Andreas fault was crammed in. This was competent stuff by MacLean but the ground had already been covered (and shaken) by other authors.

Answer: "The Dark Crusader" and "The Satan Bug"

In fact 4 of his best thrillers were written in a brief two year period. "The Golden Rendezvous" and "Fear is the Key" were under his own name and, at the same time, "The Satan Bug" and "The Dark Crusader" under the name Ian Stuart. Of these only "The Dark Crusader" has not been made into a film.

Answer: Eight

In Spanish this title translated as "When Two is Sounded on the High Seas" or "Cuando Dan Los Dos en Alta Mar". The film starred Anthony Hopkins when he was still young enough to play the dashing hero and long before Hannibal was even thought of.

Answer: Macbeth

This line comes in the famous "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech which has provided titles for quite a few books by different people. "All our yesterdays" was the title of a television series about newsreels of the past. It is appropriate that a Scottish writer should choose the famous "Scottish play" for this title.