The Wild Eye

The EuroSpy Guide, by David Deal and myself, has now been published! You can buy a copy at Amazon.com.

The contents of the book are (briefly) as follows:

1. Introduction (c8 pages)
- The history of espionage films in the cinema
- An overview of the 60s EuroSpy genre
- Criteria for inclusion

2. Acknowledgements (1page)

3. The Films (c.253 pages)
- An A-Z listing of Eurospy over 200 EuroSpy films, from the notorious (MODESTY BLAISE to the obscure (FBI OPERAZIONE VIPERA GIALLA), from the intelligent (THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM) to the absurd (OPERATION ATLANTIS)
- Each listing includes a full review, cast and selected crew details
- Appropriate images (posters, stills, adsheets etc) are included for most films

4. Bibliography (1 page)

5. Appendix 1: Series Films (c4 pages)
- A brief look at 16 major film series (OSS117, Kommissar X etc etc)

6. Appendix 2: Spy Biographies (c10 pages)
- Biographical information for c27 major spy film stars (Tony Kendall, Roger Hanin, Ken Clark etc etc)

7. Appendix 3: Authors Lists (1 page)
- Top films, actors, villains, funny films, henchmen etc etc

8. Appendix 4: Actor/Director/Composer cross references (c18 pages)
- Alphabetical listing of which actors, directors and composers appear in whic featured films

9. Appendix 5: Original title index (3 pages)

Total length is 306 pages, book size will be 6*9 inches. We don’t have the cover through as yet, but I’ll will post it as soon as it arrives…

Some comments from Amazon:

Matt Blake and David Deal have written an excellent book about the european spy-movies (without the 007-James Bond Films, which are covered in many other books). The encyclopedia is very complete and covers also the films with spys like Jerry Cotton, Agent 3S3, Lemmy Caution, OSS 117, 077, Harry Palmer and many others. Definitively a brilliant reference-book for the serious filmbook- or moviecollector ! [Cyberbambi123 (Zürich - Switzerland / Europe]

Matt Blake’s and David Deal’s “Eurospy Guide” is a wonderful reference book that lists and reviews these films. Even Limiting itself to the 1960′s (When the whole Bond fad hit it’s peak with the film “Thunderball”) you’ll find this book lists hundreds of films, sorted by their English-language titles (and how quick you’ll discover how these of these films had multiple titles!) [Henry Chmielefski (North of Harrisburg, Pa)]

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan. The reviews are quirky, enlightening, funny, and laced with references to what we remember even if we’ve let it slip a little. This is less a reference book than an overview of a difficult time when some really goofy things happened on film, some of them awful, some less so, some pretty magnificent. Even if you never rent or buy any of these films, you’ll get hours of enjoyment from just reading about what it was. This is one for the library, or maybe the bedroom, or possibly the bathroom. [Charles A. Sigars]