ASSAULT ON A QUEEN [Paperback]

Jack Finney (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: DELL PUBLISHING COMPANY (1980)
• ASIN: B000QAUDS8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Submarine Service vets turn rogue, February 11, 2002

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Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assault on a queen

This was the original novel turned into a movie starring Virna Lisi, Tony Franciosa and Sinatra himself as the hero. In the film, Sinatra and crew accidentally happen upon the sunken but intact U-Boat, a WWII relic, and come up with the idea of using it to hijack the liner Queen Mary. In this novel, the characters hunt the U-Boat down, learning of its location from the WWII U-Boat ace who once served aboard it, with the intention of hijacking the Queen at the start. The U-Boat itself is older in the book than the film - a WWI relic here - and a jury-rigged arrangement using car batteries barely substituting for the boat's originals allows the crew only a single short dive. The biggest difference between book and film is the brat-pack, devil-may-care attitude of the film. The moral ambiguity of the film's main characters are substitued for otheriwse upright if flawed characters in the book, lured into the plot less for the prospect of riches than adventure, and another crack at driving submarines without a six-year hitch. Author Jack Finney highlights this with the hero's girlfriend, a pure minded and loving woman the hero knows he'll have to lose. He can't bear to have her chained to him when his prospects of a life on the run are probably a sure bet. The moral darkness of the German character stand out even further. Though lacking the snappy dialog and jazzy score of the film, the adventure of the story contrasted with the unadventurous characters is something not to miss.