Alistair MacLean: King of the Action Thriller

Films from the mind of Alistair MacLean was the subject of a talk by film historian, Brian Hannan, to a recent meeting of Largs Probus Club. Born in Scotland in 1922, English was MacLean’s second language as his father, a Minister, insisted on the family speaking Gaelic. His father died when he was young and after serving five years in the Royal Navy, he became a teacher. In early 1954, he won a short story contest run by the Glasgow Herald and was asked to write a novel. Given his Royal Navy experience, it was no surprise that the novel H.M.S. Ulysses was based on the sea. Published in October 1955, the novel became a best seller and achieved such wide acclaim that it was turned into a film. Alistair soon became a full-time writer and a new name for Hollywood.

His second novel, The Guns of Navarone, brought him international fame and caught the eye of movie producers with the film of the book becoming the top-grossing film of 1961. This inspired MacLean who changed his style in favour of script writing and he set himself a task of writing one book a year which led to some great films, with Where Eagles Dare widely considered the best as MacLean wrote the film script himself.

From 1955 to about 1970, MacLean produced his best work, writing fifteen novels in that time to the benefit of the film industry and to himself. With his name appearing before the film title, he could command substantial payments leading to him becoming the highest paid screen writer in Hollywood. 

MacLean died in 1987 with his popular thrillers and adventure stories having sold over 200 million copies and with modern writers such as Lee Child singing his praise.

Brian has written several books on the film industry, including The Magnificent 60s; Coming Back to a Theatre Near You; Paisley at the Pictures; The Glen Cinema Disaster: Paisley 1927 and the Making of the Magnificent Seven.

New members are always welcomed at the Club. If you are 50 or over, retired, or nearing retirement, (men only, I’m afraid) you can attend three meetings as a guest and find out what a relaxed and friendly time we have. That’s plenty of time to decide whether to become a Club member or not. Please check out our programme and then use our Contact Form if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.

Largs Probus Club will next meet on Wednesday 22nd January in the Willowbank Hotel at 10am when Ron Copeland will speak on the History of the RNLI.