Movie tie-ins continue to pop up on my many journeys through second hand book shops and memorabilia shows that I frequent. Some I pick up for my own collection of movie related articles, while others I just sneak a pic while the vendor looks on wondering just what the heck I’m up to.
So let’s have some fun and pick out something to read.
Up for a good thriller? The movie had me on pins and needles…..
Remarque’s novel back in print for readers circa 1979 to back up the telefilm/remake starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.
Perhaps a dash of Caan and Arkin is more to your liking.
Here’s another classic of both literature and the movies for us fans of Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling.
I’d like to think any movie with The Duke has a good read to accompany it.
I’ll admit to not thinking all that much of this Hitch film with Newman and Andrews. Maybe the book is better?
A blonde Sophia never did sit well with me. But then I’ll watch anything with her or Anthony Quinn.
How about a double helping of Tony Curtis tie-ins?
Duke and Douglas. A match made in western movie heaven but does the magic translate to the written page?
Rewrite Stoker? Here’s the proof to tie-in with Herzog and Kinski’s take on Murnau’s silent classic.
Keeping up my love for all things Hammer, I picked up this Dennis Wheatley novel that features lovely Suzanna Leigh on the jacket.
Noir fans? Here’s 35 cents well spent to read up on just what Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan are up to in this 1959 thriller.
Oliver Reed and Candice Bergen are on the run from Gene Hackman in this violent western.
This time Gene makes the cover and why not, it’s a sequel to one of his greatest films.
Now here’s one I’d never pass on. Awesome artwork with Charles Bronson on the cover. “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Remember. Miles to go before I sleep.”
Perhaps Moore and Marvin on the cover might get you to part with some cash.
Still hooked on westerns? Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in a Louis L’Amour oater might fit the bill.
Now here’s a curio that I’m thinking I should have picked up as opposed to stealing a snapshot. Correct me if I’m wrong but that IS Marilyn isn’t it?
Here’s something a bit different and sure to put a smile on the faces of Janet Leigh fans.
So grab your library cards and sign one out for the week. Just remember late charges will apply. Movie tie-ins will return once I round up another 15 or 20 book covers.
Mike's Take On the Movies 
Great selection. I do an occasional blog where I compare the book to the movie and I also did a blog on the boom in movie tie-ins – i.e. those books that were written from the screenplay, sometimes by the screenwriter, sometimes by a relatively famous author. They were seen by Hollywood studios as a new and free marketing tool given there were in the 1960s over 120,000 book outlets including drugstores and newsvendors. For the publisher, a film star on the cover – also for free – boosted sales. Like you I collect books with movie adverts on them. Heller with a Gun was filmed as Heller in Pink Tights. Telefon, Shout at the Devil and Catlow were original books adapted for the screen. Rat Race, Torn Curtain and The Train Robbers were novelisations of screenplays. Some films bore no relation whatsoever to the films on which they were based – Blindfold is a classic example – and others lose everything in translation. Penelope which I am reviewing shortly has a much sassier heroine than the film.
I used to read some of these age ago when I was in my teens and novels were much more complete if you will then books written based on the scripts of the movie itself. Plenty of comic book adaptations as well from the 50’s and 60’s.
You would also see paperbacks with “Soon To Be a Major Motion Picture” slammed on the cover but you could wait forever or it to appear.
Yeah that’s right. I guess in some cases the studios were buying the novels pre-publication so they could put that on the covers from the get go.
Book stores were a great source of free publicity for studios. And it always seemed to be a mark of quality for a publisher to be able to advertise the fact that a book was going to be come a movie.
Very cool list and collection there Mike. Book to film can be a little tricky cause they either take stuff out or change the plot completely. The Agatha Christie adaptations are the only ones so far that truly did stick to what the author wrote, primarily cause a lot of them came out when Ms. Christie was still alive. I’ve a heard a lot of good things about Louis L’Amour’s work, his stuff got pretty decent adaptations. A friend of my Dad’s loved reading his material. Rewriting the Stoker classic eh? Well, I guess it must’ve been that good if they novelized it.
I think it’s safe to say that fans of novels generally are harsh critics on movies vs. someone who never bothered to read the book(s). Always something left out including characters one may have liked.
Marilyn in Boris Vallejo style art, never thought I’d see it. Very cool covers, many would look great blown up and on the wall. Some better than the movie posters even. Novelizations can be fascinating when they include script stuff that got cut or have totally new/ extra material.
I haven’t read one in years but keep thinking it might be fun for a post to read a book adapted from the screenplay vs. a novel turned into a flick. One of these days.
I used to collect them! The first one I bought was the paperback version of Grease (1978).
Not sure what my first was but it might have been Grizzly. I know my Mom picked it up as we’d seen the film at the drive-in and I loved it.
I used to buy these all the time when I was a kid…my first was either ‘Orca’ or Eastwood’s ‘The Enforcer’. Of the ones above, the only I’ve read is ‘Farewell, My Lovely’, which of course was NOT based on a movie! And I’ve always liked the ‘Telefon’ poster…nice to see them use it on the paperback as well.
I had that Orca one. Forgot about that. Mom took me to see that one at the theater as well. Love that Telefon poster. Wish the film had been a bigger hit than it turned out to be. Needed more action down the stretch with Bronson vs. Pleasence.