Adapting Andrew Garve’s The Megstone Plot and retitling it A Touch of Larceny, Hamilton’s screenplay hints he’s radically departed from the novel. Instead of Garve’s somber noir, Hamilton’s is a comedy. Easton’s ruse is to cast the suspicion that he’s traded British Navy intelligence to the Soviets and has gone over to their side. He plans to hide on some uninhabited island and wait until he’s accused of treachery in the tabloid press, then return and sue for libel. He’s also betting that he can turn the affections of Virginia Killian away from the fiancé of an old acquaintance.
Killian is impressed that Easton would risk his reputation for her and tacitly agrees to help him. The promise of notoriety and money seem to be the new ingredients for “true” love.
Garve’s humorless narrative is about adultery and betrayal. Matters end badly for Easton. His picnic is frugal; he dines on bread, cheese, bacon, sausages, tinned meats, chocolate and biscuits. On his return, things go wrong; his married lover betrays him, and he suffers such complications that he must flee the police. “it cost me friends, career, reputation. The price was high,” he says.
A blithe humor is at the heart of Hamilton’s version of the scam. Easton splurges in style, making on a rocky islet a posh getaway furnished with a tent and a lounge chair, charcoal grill, whisky, gin, wine, and champagne. It has a charcoal grill and cooking fuel.
Guy Hamilton. A Touch of Larceny (1960)
The plan follows its intended course until he is genuinely marooned and mildly suffering (very mildly) until he’s rescued.
Though Easton’s hoax is revealed, he sells his story anyway. With notoriety and money, the film narrative ends happily.
* Paul Winterton, under the name Andrew Garve, is the author of The Megstone Plot.
Featured Image: Easton ( James Mason ) has a portable radio and fishing gear for entertainment.
See Guy Hamilton. A Touch of Larceny (1960). The screenplay by Roger MacDougall, Ivan Foxwell, and Guy Hamilton is based on Andrew Garve’s The Megstone Plot; Paul Winterton [Andrew Garve] The Megstone Plot. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.