10 replies to this topic

[Napoleon Solo]

There's not a lot of Donald Hamilton's writing in the Matt Helm movies, but there is some. For those unfamiliar with the books, they're a cross between Ian Fleming and Mickey Spilliane (the plots can be fanciful, but they're presented in a first-person narrative that can get pretty grim at times). A few examples of what did make it on the screen.

THE SILENCERS
Based on Death of a Citizen and The Silencers

--Tina, in Death of a Citizen, worked with Helm on an assignment in World War II. In the book, Tina was a code name, it's turned into the character's real name in the movie. In the novel, Tina shows up in Sante Fe, N.M., at a party Matt Helm (married with three kids) is attending. She masquerades as an agent in Helm's old outfit. In reality, she joined the Soviets after the war. In the film, Tina briefly uses Matt's code name, Eric.
-- Mac, Matt's boss. James Gregory, while physically resembling Mac, is a bit too friendly. His full name is given as Macdonald. That's from a scene in The Silencers novel, where Mac introduces himself to Gail Hendrix using the Macdonald name. We're told that's a fake, but the movies adopted it anyway. Mac's full name wasn't revealed until the 14th book in 1972. (Arthur M. Borden).
-- Gail Hendrix. In The Silencers novel, she's tough and unsentimental. In the movie, she's comedic relief. In the novel, Matt falls in love with her. She'll be killed off at the start of the seventh novel, The Shadowers.
In the movie, Matt drives a station wagon with special accessories (a bar). In the novel, he drove a 1951 Chevrolet pickup truck with an enclosed rear. It gets trashed at the end of the novel.
-- The Weggman and Sam Gunther characters are referenced in The Silencers novel, with Weggman being the main villain. The film's scene in the Slaygirl club is sort of taken from the novel, in which the corresponding scene was set in a dingy strip club in Mexico near El Paso.
-- A "touch." That's what Helm's outfit does when it kills a target. The film actually uses the term, the only one of the four Helm films to do so.

MURDERERS' ROW
-- The film's missing scientist, Solaris, is based on a missing scientist in the book named Michaelis. Both versions have a daughter who figures into the proceedings. She's called Suzie in the film, Teddy (short for Theordora) in the novel.
-- In the film, Matt goes to the Monte Carlo home of Dominique, an agent. In the novel, Helm goes to a hotel near Baltimore, assigned to beat up an agent posing as a potential defector (this will make her story more convincing). She dies in the midst of the beating. Helm wonders whether his hand slipped or worse happened. (We're told at the end she died of alcohol poisoning).
-- In the film, Matt's cover identity is Jim Peters. If someone runs a check on that, they're told he's really Lash Petrone, a Chicago hood. This more or less corresponds to the novel, except the "real" hoodlum name is Jimmy "the Lash" Petroni.
-- "Nobody dies for nothing." Matt tells Suzie this in the film. It's a comment that the first-person narrator makes in the novel. In the latter, it's what Helm tells himself as he takes over the mission.

THE AMBUSHERS
-- The novel's villain is Von Sachs, former Nazi officer who has a scar. The film's villain is Caselius (actually the name of the villain from The Wrecking Crew novel), who sports a weird scar.
-- Shiela Summers. In both versions, she's an agent who has been abused on a mission. In the novel, it turns out she was abused because she couldn't bring herself to kill.
-- The Senta Berger character of the movie is based on the femme fatale of The Ambushers novel. The novel's character is named Vadya (she ends up surviving, returning in The Devastators novels and then again at the start of The Menacers, where she ends up being killed by her own people).


THE WRECKING CREW
Almost nothing, except for being set in Scandanavia. The book was in Sweden, the movie (supposedly) in Denmark.

[Napoleon Solo]

Quick note about Murderers' Row: the film also mentions Helm's code name (Eric). This is the last reference in the film series to that.

[TheSaint]

Nicely put together. I've read all 26 Helm novels. In case you hadn't heard, Hamilton actually likes the first film. He HATES the '70s short-lived tv series.

[Napoleon Solo]

Nicely put together. I've read all 26 Helm novels. In case you hadn't heard, Hamilton actually likes the first film. He HATES the '70s short-lived tv series.

I had not heard that. What I had read was that a) Hamilton's personal choice was Richard Boone but that he was reasonably thrilled with the choice of Dean Martin (presumably meaning it would help ensure a movie would get made).
I have to admit I like both the novels and the movies, albeit for different reasons. In fact, I don't know if I'd have discovered the books if not for the movies. I bought my first Helm novels in 1971, when Fawcett released most of them in connection with publication of The Poisoners, the 13th novel.
The pilot for the 1975 series was produced by Irving Allen, but he bowed out of the series itself. The script for the pilot was written by Sam Rolfe, who also wrote the pilot for The Man From UNCLE.
Finally, Hamilton finished a new Helm novel a few years ago, but has been polishing it while having trouble getting a publisher.

[TheSaint]

In the 90's, when I started getting the novels, I wrote to him in care of his book rep, and he told me about wanting Boone.
I, too, love the books and the movies. Sure, I'd love to see truer adaptations of the novels but, the Dino films are cool in their own way. Having seen Dean do serious acting, I do think he could've done a truer adaptation justice, and he's better looking than Boone.
His son thinks that, if the Dreamworks' Helm project ever gets off the ground, that would make it easier for Helm #27 to see the light of day. I'm hoping the novel sees print before Hamilton joins Fleming & Charteris in the hereafter.

Don't know if you ever ran across this online article comparing the novels to the films but, it's a great read...
http://www.teleport-...ld-to-dean.html

[Napoleon Solo]

In the 90's, when I started getting the novels, I wrote to him in care of his book rep, and he told me about wanting Boone.
I, too, love the books and the movies. Sure, I'd love to see truer adaptations of the novels but, the Dino films are cool in their own way. Having seen Dean do serious acting, I do think he could've done a truer adaptation justice, and he's better looking than Boone.
His son thinks that, if the Dreamworks' Helm project ever gets off the ground, that would make it easier for Helm #27 to see the light of day. I'm hoping the novel sees print before Hamilton joins Fleming & Charteris in the hereafter.

Don't know if you ever ran across this online article comparing the novels to the films but, it's a great read...
http://www.teleport-...ld-to-dean.html

I've bookmarked the article and will give it a read. Here's an article I did for the HMSS site about the Matt Helm movies:

http://www.hmss.com/...spies/matthelm/

[TheSaint]

Yes, I had read your article before I discovered CBn.

[spynovelfan]

This is a very good (if somewhat prolix) article on Donald Hamilton:

http://www.jottings....ller_writ1.html

Some websites:
http://www.benish-in...on/hamilton.jsp
http://members.aol.com/MacBorden

A discussion group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MattHelm

I think Hamilton is one of the greatest writers of the last 100 years or so, up there with the likes of Fleming, Chandler, Hammett, Charteris, Ambler and Greene. I think one reason he hasn't been more recognised is because of the misperceptions the films created about his work.

He's a lovely man, too! As several people here have mentioned, he often replies to letters from fans, even though he's now in his late 80s and pretty frail. He granted me a phone interview a couple of years ago and was charming and laconic and funny, though he sometimes lost his train of thought. It'll be a very sad day when he goes. He invited me to look him up if I'm ever in Visby, and as my mother-in-law's family is from there, I hope to take him up on that one day.

I think a lot of Fleming fans would like Hamilton's work if they tried it.

[spynovelfan]

In the 90's, when I started getting the novels, I wrote to him in care of his book rep, and he told me about wanting Boone.
I, too, love the books and the movies. Sure, I'd love to see truer adaptations of the novels but, the Dino films are cool in their own way. Having seen Dean do serious acting, I do think he could've done a truer adaptation justice, and he's better looking than Boone.
His son thinks that, if the Dreamworks' Helm project ever gets off the ground, that would make it easier for Helm #27 to see the light of day. I'm hoping the novel sees print before Hamilton joins Fleming & Charteris in the hereafter.

Don't know if you ever ran across this online article comparing the novels to the films but, it's a great read...
http://www.teleport-...ld-to-dean.html

Thanks for that link, The Saint. Interesting article. I might be able to shed light on this bit:

'But years of Martin and Lewis comedies meant people couldn't -- and perhaps didn't want to -- see Martin as anything other than his signature character: the cool, laid-back boozehound with a great crooner's voice and a twinkle in his eye. Dean Martin ambled through almost fifty movies after his split with Jerry Lewis, generally playing the same character in them -- a character instantly identifiable as Dean Martin. A consummate actor, Martin shone in dramatic roles on the rare occasion he was given the opportunity, but he was better known as a loveable lush with an eye for the ladies. It certainly wasn't what people thought of when they thought of Matt Helm. But maybe these film producers would give Martina chance to do something more than be silly. Dean Martin had certainly led the sort of life that gave him enough experience to conjure up a tortured, complex secret agent...'

From what Hamilton told me, it was Martin's choice, not the producers'. The producers had optioned the films and intended to make faithful adaptations of the books. Martin was looking around for a suitable vehicle for a series of films and expressed interest. So the producers went to Hamilton and said "Here's the deal. We can go ahead with the original plan and make faithful adaptations of the books. In which case the budgets will be relatively low, but we have a good shot at doing something like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. We may even get some Oscars. But we probably won't make much money." (I'm paraphrasing all this from Hamilton). "Or we get back to Dino and say we're on. In which case the budget will rocket and the film or films will have little resemblance to your books, but they'll probably be big hits and we'll all be rich. Your call." Hamilton decided to go with Dino.

Hamilton also told me that the latest book (28, I think?) is about an attempt to assassinate the US president.

[delfloria]

Well there is always the new films in developmeent at dreamworks. They just announced new writers this week and the project to do Helm like the novels is gaining momentum.

[Napoleon Solo]

From what Hamilton told me, it was Martin's choice, not the producers'. The producers had optioned the films and intended to make faithful adaptations of the books. Martin was looking around for a suitable vehicle for a series of films and expressed interest. So the producers went to Hamilton and said "Here's the deal. We can go ahead with the original plan and make faithful adaptations of the books. In which case the budgets will be relatively low, but we have a good shot at doing something like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. We may even get some Oscars. But we probably won't make much money." (I'm paraphrasing all this from Hamilton). "Or we get back to Dino and say we're on. In which case the budget will rocket and the film or films will have little resemblance to your books, but they'll probably be big hits and we'll all be rich. Your call." Hamilton decided to go with Dino.

Hamilton also told me that the latest book (28, I think?) is about an attempt to assassinate the US president.

Fascinating. Well, Don got his wish. When the final Helm film came out, there was an advertisement in Variety aimed at theater owners. It stressed all the cross-promotion that would be going on, including "8 million Matt Helm novels in print" plus exposure through the Dean Martin variety show on television. And the different tone of the films certainly didn't stop Fawcett from putting out new movie tie-in editions of the books. Murderers' Row, for example, had a still from the movie of Dino finding a dead agent in a refrigerator, along with the original text on the back cover (a supposed report by Helm's agency).

I agree with the earlier post about the high quality of Hamilton's writing.