I have, as my recent posts indicate, been reading far more than watching films. I find reading to be much…
Classic Spy Novel – “Cause for Alarm” by Eric Ambler
Partial spoilers present: Ambler is the father of the literary spy novel. That much is long settled by the testimony…
Spy Novel Review – Zoo Station by David Downing
This is a colorful spy story that has fans of the genre on either side of the fence. For some,…
Classic Mystery/Spy Book – A Coffin For Dimitrios
A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler is a true gem in the spy and mystery genre, though its really…
WWII Spy Book Review – The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
The reviews on this site are more and more bookish, which I really don’t mind but perhaps you do. For…
Classic Book Review – ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Ernest Hemingway
I began, and finally finished Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.’ (Spoilers ahead) I can see the benefits of…
Biography Book Review Father Of The Submarine: The Life Of The Reverend George Garrett Pasha by William Scanlan Murphy
I must document this enjoyable tale. I really did gain a lot of insight and wisdom from reading this book.…
Mystery Book Review – The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes
High-level spoilers ahead. The Wreck of the Mary Deare, written in 1956 by Hammond Innes, belongs to the genre of…
WWII Spy Book Review – Dark Star by Alan Furst
Alan Furst is a magnificent teller of tales. But his tales are so intricately woven, finely detailed and endlessly researched…
WWII Film Review – Where Eagles Dare (1968)
No real plot spoilers ahead. Here is simply a rollicking classic shoot ‘em up war flick with all the ingredients…
WWI Film Review – Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
Beneath Hill 60 is a 2010 war film by Australian director Jeremy Sims. I have had this DVD in my…
WWII Spy Book Review – Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
No real spoilers ahead. From the small town of Vidin in Bulgaria, on the eddy-filled Danube, a teenaged boy called…
WWII Spy Book Review – Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes
Helen MacInnes was a remarkable woman. She was a Scots Presbyterian young lady of Glasgow (my mother’s stomping grounds), degreed…
Classic Spy Book Review – The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan
I had heard of John Buchan’s novels in my history studies, and Greenmantle was one of the required reading selections…
WWI Film Review – The Lost Battalion (2001)
The Lost Battalion (2001), directed by Russell Mulcahy, was aired on telvision’s A&E network in 2001. It is a historical…
WWII Film Review – Das Boot (1981)
What to say about the now-classic film Das Boot (1981)? This is director and screenplay writer Wolfgang Petersen’s most iconic…
WWI Film Review – The Silent Mountain (2014)
As is usually the case, there are spoilers. Ernst Gossner directs this WWI tale written by Clemens Aufderklamm about the…
Classic Adventure & Romance – African Queen (1951)
African Queen (1951) directed by John Huston is a classic. I love this movie. It is a wonderful adventure and…
WWII Film Review – Downfall (2004)
When executed with craft and excellence, a historical film puts meat on the bones of historical texts. They illustrate dry…
WWII Film Review – Against the Sun (2014)
Against the Sun (2014), directed by Brian Falk, happened to be available to me for free, so I watched it…
WWII Film Review – When Trumpets Fade (1998)
When Trumpets Fade is a gruelling TV movie directed by John Irvin, featuring Ron Eldard in the leading role. I viewed this…
WWII Film Review – Edge of Darkness (1943)
Edge of Darkness is a Warner Brothers film created in the midst of WWII by Lewis Milestone, best know for…
WWII Film Review – Anthropoid (2016)
Anthropoid (2016), directed by Sean Ellis, is a tension-packed film based on true events. I watched it twice before reviewing.…
WWII Film Review – Saints and Soldiers (2003)
Saints and Soldiers (2003), directed by Ryan Little, was an enjoyable film that carried with it some minor groan-worthy plot…
Film Review – The Road (2009)
I read The Road when it had already become a best seller. I purchased the book because it was listed…
Book Review – King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
In the ground-breaking King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard tells of Allan Quatermain’s adventure through the greatest trials southern Africa…
Film Review – The Siege of Jadotville (2016)
In the Cold War, the war got hot in a number of African bush wars. These were, generally, proxy wars…
Cold War Film Review – The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (1966)
The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (1966) is a rollicking comedy set in the fictional sleepy little Massachusetts…
WWII Film Review – Son of Saul (2014)
Son of Saul (2014), a Hungarian film directed by László Nemes and written by László Nemes and Clara Royer is…
Tour Berlin with Joseph Kanon, get a summary of the book “Leaving Berlin”
This, Leaving Berlin, is on my short list of books to read. Cold War tension in the pre-wall city of…
Book Review: Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler
Set just before WWII, a British heavy arms designer finds himself in Turkey finishing up a contract when he is…
Spy Film and Book Double Review: Our Man in Havana (1959)
Our Man in Havana (1959) takes us to pre-revolution Cuba on an enjoyable romp through the seedy capital city and epicenter…
WWII Film Review – Sophie Scholl, The Final Days (2005)
Sopie Scholl, The Final Days (2005) is a stunning drama of great conviction and courage. Julia Jentsch plays the main…
The Importance of Books… (and my daughter’s book tag)
My daughter is a book lover. I mean a real lover of books. Not just one who reads just to…
WWII Film Review – Generation War (Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter) 2013
“Father? What did you do during the war?” This is the question that WWII German fathers did not desire to…
WWII Film Review – Europa, Europa
Europa, Europa (1990) was definitely a different kind of film. The story recounts the true memoirs of Solomon Perel, a…
WWII Film Review – Desperate Journey (1942)
Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan star in this war-time romp through propaganda film camp. Directed by Raoul Walsh and released…
Adventure Film Review – Hatari (1962)
Its pretty hard to go wrong with a film that features John Wayne, lots of testosterone, wild animals, old trucks…
WWII Film Review – The Guns of Navarone (1961)
The Guns of Navarone (1961) is a winner. J. Lee Thompson directs this mid-century classic WWII special forces adventure in…
WWII Film Review – Ghetto (2006)
Apparently, its popular to like this film. I watched Ghetto (2006) and was not really able to get on the…
WWII Film Review- The Grey Zone (2001)
Book recommendations included in this review. Director Tim Blake Nelson adapted his play of the same name for the screen.…
WWII Film Review – Winter in Wartime (2008)
Winter in Wartime was a very enjoyable movie that had me invested in the young main character very soon. Directed…
Book Review: The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
This novel was written in 1903 and was one of the first adventure/espionage novels that had a patriotic purpose. Written…
WWII Film Review – The Last Lieutenant (1993)
(Spoilers and ethical-religious rant ahead) Stories about kind old men and their old-school ways are compelling because most of us…
WWII Film Review – The Bomber (2011)
The Bomber (2011) – Vitaliy Vorobyov directs this colorful adaptation of Mikhail Veller’s short story, and Arkadiy Tigay brings it…
Continuation War film – Schlacht um Finnland (2007)
Schlacht um Finnland (2007) is a docu-drama, an action film that documents the intense Battle of Tali-Ihantala in 1944 between…
WWII Film Review – Flame and Citron (Flamen & Citronen, 2008)
Here’s a film that’s a well-made story of two friends, close friends, who happen to also be Danish resistance fighters…
WWII Film Review – Above and Beyond (2006, 2 Part Mini-series)
Above and Beyond (2006, 2 Part Mini-series) is a Canadian drama that was a pretty good effort to show an…
Polish-Soviet War Film Review – 1920 Bitwa Warszawska (2011)
1920 Bitwa Warszawska (Battle for Warsaw, 1920) is one of the more epic period productions to come out in the…
Upcoming Reviews
Since this is a new blog and I’m working up more content, I am backdating some of my reviews, generally…
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