The Satan Bug

One of umpteen Alistair MacLean paperback thrillers (this one written under the pseudonym of Ian Stuart) definitively pulped in their transition to celluloid, this is the would-be Dr Strangelove of biological warfare, with rebel scientist Basehart legging it alone with a stolen vial of deadly virus, threatening global annihilation. Half-hearted and dull, despite the contributions of heavyweight adaptors James Clavell and Edward Anhalt, working at odds with an out-of-his element Sturges.