Photoplay Editions & Movie Tie-Ins
The Golden Years [1912-1969] ... Espionage Films

Espionage films were not plentiful in the silent era, perhaps an example of spoken dialog being more critical to advancing a plot with spy communications.  The best example would be Spies/Spione (1928), a Fritz Lang German film with the novel being penned by his wife Thea von Harbou.  There are two British Readers Library editions and one edition by Putnam here in the United States, all having interior stills.  There also happens to be a spy subplot in another earlier and better known Lang / Harbou combo, Metropolis (1927).

Spy novel publishing in the 1930s was stronger in London than in New York City.  The exploits of WW1 spy, Mata Hari (1931) played by Greta Garbo are available in at least four film editions, with only the Blue Ribbon Books edition being published in the United States.  Other nice examples include The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Thirty Nine Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936) from the novel Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham, and The Lady Vanishes (1938).  All of these films were directed by Alfred Hitchcock, who firmly established his worldwide fame via his espionage films.

The 1940s offered a few more with The Ministry of Fear (1944) and The Third Man (1949) both from the pen of Grahame Greene, who made espionage a specialty being that he had some personal experience.  As an already established novelist, Grahame was recruited into Britain’s M16 in 1941 and was posted to Sierre Leone until 1944.  His wartime service gave background to his spy novels.

We did not see any expansion in this genre until the 1960s, where an explosion occurred.  Ian Flemming’s 007 (James Bond) made his film debut in Dr. No (1962).  The paperbacks ruled at this time and the Pan editions were vastly superior to the Signet series of Bond novels.  From Russia with Love (1964), Goldfinger (1964), and Thunderball (1965) came in quick succession and Sean Connery became a superstar and most revered of all the actors to portray 007 (this writer feels Daniel Craig to be equal).

The Bond phenomena gave rise to competitors with the novels of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm series.  Matt was played by Dean Martin in Murderer’s Row (1966), The Silencers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1968), all are available as movie tie-ins.   An original screenplay created secret agent Derek Flint played by James Coburn (In Like Flint 1966 a play on the antics of Errol Flynn) and Our Man Flint (1967).  Both are available only as United States paperback tie-ins.

Other titles popular with collectors include The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966), and The Quiller Memorandum (1966).  The actor Michael Caine gained some status in his early spy roles.  Additional James Bond films rounded out the decade.

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Last Revision:  May 6, 2021 11:28 AM