Journey into Fear (novel)

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Journey into Fear

First edition cover (Hodder & Stoughton)
Author	Eric Ambler
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date	1940
Media type	Print
OCLC	856283727
Preceded by	Cause for Alarm
Followed by	Judgment on Deltchev

Journey into Fear is a 1940 spy thriller novel by Eric Ambler. Film adaptations were released in 1943 and 1975.

Plot summary[]

The book opens with a cameo appearance by Colonel Haki, the dour but basically likable head of Turkish Security from Ambler's novel The Mask of Dimitrios who returns in later Ambler stories as a general.^[1]

The protagonist Graham is a British armaments engineer traveling back from Turkey, where he had completed high-level technical talks which could help cement a Turkish-British alliance in the recently started Second World War. German spies seek to assassinate him. Most of the plot takes place on board an Italian ship, where the protagonist travels in company with a German intellectual spymaster accompanied by a Romanian hired killer, who seek to prevent him returning to England with plans for a Turkish defence system. Also on board are a rich cast of other characters, including a Turkish secret agent, a Hungarian dancer and her Spanish partner/pimp, and a French couple of which the husband is left-leaning and his wife is a staunch reactionary.

Analysis[]

As common in Ambler's books, the protagonist is not a professional spy, and is clearly out of his depth. Indeed, the chief Nazi treats him with open contempt, which for much of the book seems amply justified. Yet ultimately the German professional pays dearly for underestimating this amateur — another plot element which was to be repeated in later Ambler books. The book came to be regarded as a classic among spy thrillers, setting out what became some of the genre's basic conventions and immensely influencing later works including the James Bond series.

Part of the book's lasting charm is its capturing the atmosphere and mindset of the "Phony War" phase during which it was written: France is standing strong and nobody predicts the fall of France within a few months; the Italians are strictly neutral and there is no suggestion that they are about to ally with Germany against Britain; and so on. From the book it seems that Ambler—like many Britons at the time of writing—expected the war to be more or less a replay of the First World War.

Adaptations[]

A 1943 film adaptation starred Joseph Cotten, with Orson Welles acting and producing.

A television adaptation was produced in 1966, starring Jeffrey Hunter as Graham.

Another film adaptation was made in 1975, Journey Into Fear, directed by Daniel Mann and starring Sam Waterston and Vincent Price. The film was the first major Hollywood production to be filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 2001, a Vancouver-based artist, Stan Douglas, remade the movie as a film installation with a recombinant soundtrack.^{[clarification needed]}

See also[]

• MAH (Milli Emniyet Hizmeti - the Turkish National Security Service, Colonel Haki's real-life organization.) The actual head of the agency was Şükrü Âli Ögel.

References[]