posted
I started watching the 007 films again from the beginning. The 1st, DR. NO, while flawed, has grown on me slowly, and probably most resembles an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. Sean Connery is his youngest, thinnest, and most cold-blooded-- both with the women and the baddies.
"Let me put something on." "Oh don't go to any trouble on my account." (he suddenly grabs the girl and kisses her) "Please!" "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was invited up here to enjoy the view."
Later, after he has the woman hauled away by the cops (presumably for conspiracy to commit murder, as 3 Jamaicans in a hearse tried to run him off the road she gave him directions to drive on), someone shows up and pumps 6 bullets into what looks like an occupied bed. Bond gets the drop on him. When the guy goes for his gun and tries to shoot Bond again, we see something that may have inspired Clint Eastwood...
"That's a Smith & Wesson. And you've had your six."
BLAM!
BLAM!
(Yeah-- he shot the guy a 2nd time, IN THE BACK, after he was lying on the floor!)
I keep having these fantasies about how these films COULD have or should have been made, in some better, alternate, reality. DR. NO's big "mystery" is the villain is using a nuclear-powered radar beam to "topple" missiles, screwing up their guidance systems. In the book, this is revealed in a single paragraph 75% of the way into the book. Bond's boss tells him 10 minutes into the film, destroying any hope for a "mystery".
The story began as an aborted film project that was then turned into a novel. The villain was created so author Ian Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, could play an evil oriental. (The FU MANCHU movies were quite a few years later!) Lee would have been more menacing than Joesph Wiseman-- but perhaps not as "cool" and "slick" as the producers tended to be over the years, sadly almost always going for "style" over "substance".
I'm probably one of the only men on Earth who DOESN'T think Ursula Andress as "Honey Rider" is THE sexisest Bond girl of all time. She doesn't even rank in my top 10-- maybe not even 20. The character Honeychile Rider in the book was possibly my favorite Bond girl, but Andress just isn't cutting it with me! Plus, it turns out they had to dub her entire performace with another actress' voice. Shame!!! Given the early 60's, I'm not really sure who could have been right for it, but then, producers Broccoli & Saltzman had a running habit of casting unknown or just foreign actors, to make things more "exotic" while also keeping the BUDGETS down.
Finally, the climax is a let-down. Bond escapes a cell, fighting thru an electric grill, a tube filled with boiling water & steam, only to find the reactor room, set something to overload and fight it out with the villain. But Dr. No in the book was MUCH sicker than the guy in the film. He liked doing warped psychological studies on human victims, and the whole thing of Bond crawling thru the pipe was PLANNED to study his reactions to different stresses, and to see how long he could survive before-- invevitably-- buying the farm. At the end of tube, Bond falls into a fenced-in lagoon, and finds himself fighting for his life against a GIANT OCTOPUS!!! (When Fleming wrote the story in '56, he'd just seen 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, which came out 2 years earlier.) Broccoli & Saltzman didn't have the budget for that. So-- no octopus.
Then of course there's the score... Monty Norman was contracted, but his music was deemed unsatisfactory. Orchestra leader John Barry was asked to write additional material, but because of the existing contract, he had to do it UNCREDITED, on the promise that if the film was a success, he'd have a steady job on the series.
Half of the score is by Barry-- NONE of his work is on the soundtrack LP, which is all Norman-- and half of that was cut from the film. "Soundtrack album" is really a misnomer in that case!
But "The James Bond Theme" has LONG been in dispute, mostly by fans, sometimes by Barry. It's been said by some that Barry wrote a "new arrangement" for Norman's theme. I don't think that's quite right. Something I've never seen mentioned is a track on the LP titled "The James Bond Theme" (on side 2) which is a completely different melody-- but has a suspiciously-similar musical arrangement to the famous tune. I suspect this different melody was what Norman wrote-- and Barry kept the arrangement but wrote a new melody to go with it.
But Norman continues to get credit-- and presumably, the royalties. Pretty good deal for something he may not have even done, eh? But then, the music biz is littered with songs credited to producers because some songwriters were just "hired hands".
Registered: Aug 2003
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I would love to see the Fleming Bond novels refilmed in the proper sequence and done as period pieces. In other words, no lame gadgets, stale one liners or other bits of junk that have attached themselves to the film series over the years.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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The books were actually much better than the movies. The closest one to the book was From Russia With Love, and it was also the best, in my opinion.
Still, you have to admit that it took two factors to make the character stay alive this long, the Sean factor, and the fact that it was almost non-existant when JFK said Fleming was his favorite spy author.
Does anyone remember the "playhouse" with the americanized "Jimmy Bond"?
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
posted
Never saw it but I've heard of it. Isn't there a remake of Casino Royale afoot? I can't say for sure but I thought somebody wanted to redo it without the comedy elements in the 1st theatrical version. I hate to say, because I realize it's the first of the novels but CR is pretty tedious reading in parts. Unless you really like to read about people playing cards.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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It was much more of an intellectual suspense type of thing. I think, and this is just my opinion, he culled the slower elements and amped it up in the other books. And the movies took the parts that worked best with movie-goers and amped them up. Thus, you have two variations working. Both worked well for the different mediums. But the movie formulas had grown a little worn by the time the best Brosnan was made, and that was goldeneye. Not so many farfetched "hideouts", and the action was very intense, especially the last fight with Bean.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
posted
I was in the unusual sitiation of having started reading the novels at least 3 years before seeing my first 007 film. As a result, a number of them were colored for me regarding how accurate translations they were-- or not. I didn't have trouble with GOLDFINGER, the 1st run by ABC, because I hadn't read that far yet.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was a relatively simple revenge plot, with the KGB plotting to kill Bond for his interfering in various money-raising schemes in 3 previous books (CASINO ROYALE, LIVE AND LET DIE and DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER). Fleming took greate pains to craft something that could be more respected in literary circles, after many labeled his first 4 books the work of a "hack". It was also Bond's version of Sherlock Holmes' "The Final Problem", as Fleming was tired of Bond and decided to KILL HIM OFF as a surprise ending. Luckily, like Conan Doyle (and even ERB on TARZAN), he changed his mind after-the-fact. Good thing, the next book, DR. NO, has long been one of my favorites!
As far back as '59, it was felt for the sake of international sales on a potential film series, that Russians should NOT be recurring villains, hence the creation by Fleming & McClory of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and its leader, Ernst Stavros Blofeld. The initial project fell apart, but Fleming published their film treatment as a novel, THUNDERBALL-- and was subsequently sued by McClory! While things were up in the air (the suit dragged on at least 2 years) the deal with Broccoli & Saltzman came together, and with THUNDERBALL unavailable, they picked the PREVIOUS film proposal, DR. NO, to start with-- tacking on S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in the process.
I believe the lawsuit was STILL unresolved when FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was made, and the film is TWICE as complex as its book source, mainly for adding S.P.E.C.T.R.E. as the real villains. I had trouble following it originally-- I had the novel in my mind (and I don't LIKE changes!); on TV, commercial breaks got in the way; and on reruns, ABC cut the film mercilessly, whole scenes yanked out to fit more commercials in. BLASPHEMY!
But around 1978 I got the chance to see FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER on a double-feature at the Woodcrest Cinema (I think it's a pizza parlor now). Uncut! Uninterrupted! On a BIG SCREEN as God and Cubby Broccoli intended! Something happened that night-- my appreciation for the film rose IMMENSELY, it surpassed GOLDFINGER in my eyes (which until then had been my favorite 007 film), and it became my favorite Sean Connery film. It still is!
Robert Shaw almost reminds me of HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers in this. He appears throughout the movie, but until he joins Bond on the train in the guise of "Nash", he NEVER utters a word! He just keeps turning up, KILLING people, and disappearing.
"The first one won't kill you. Nor the second. Not even the third. Not until you crawl over hear and KISS my FOOT!" (As Bond asked-- "What lunatic asylym did they find YOU in?")
So... sweeping changes from the book aside, I've come to feel this film is SO good-- SO close to perfect-- I would only change ONE thing if it were physically possible.
You have to see this uncut & uninterrupted to notice that almost every scene "fades" into the next. The film story "flows" so naturally, it overcomes its own complexity. But there was always ONE abrupt "cut", when Bond meets Tania on the ferry boat. Decades later, I found out WHY. There's an entire scene missing! En route to the ferry, Bond & Kerim Bey are once again followed by the Bulgars (working for the Russians). In an alley, the lead car jams its breaks, the Bulgar crashes into it. A 3rd car crashes into that, jamming it in. A 4th car drives up, Bond & Kerim transfer to it. But before leaving, Kerim leans over the Bulgar driver, taps his cigar ash on the guy's suit, smiles, and says, "That, my friend-- is life!"
Reportedly this was considered Pedro Armendariz' best scene in the film as Kerim Bey. But at the initial preview, one of the children of a production team member commented, "Hey! That driver was KILLED earlier at the mosque!" Yep-- I'm guessing the film was shot out-of-sequence, and NOBODY noticed this discepency until that moment. As the guy at the mosque was referred to as having been KILLED more than once later in the film, I guess they felt it couldn't be brushed off. They yanked the scene-- and the "flow" of the film has always been disturbed slightly ever since.
Damn shame-- as, on the soundtrack album, one of my favorite tracks is a light, upbeat piece titled "The Golden Horn". It took multiple viewings of the film before I realized it's NOT in the movie. I'll bet it was written for that car-crash scene-- which is why it's missing, too.
What's funny about this is, I'd SWEAR I see Krelenco (the man who "kills for pleasure") at the train station when Bond, Kerim Bey & Tania flee Instanbul. He's standing right next to Benz, the Russian security man, who runs to catch the train. But Krelenco was shot and killed by Kerim Bey SEVERAL scenes earlier. Maybe the train scene was ALSO shot out-of-sequence?
John Barry (with Lionel Bart, who wrote the title song) did, in my opnion, one of the BEST scores in the entire series, and really set the tone and style for almost everything to follow. There's a lot of variety in it-- unlike some later scores built around one song-- to the point where the original soundtrack LP may be the best in the series, as it works on its own even without the movie. Possibly my single favorite opening title music is this one-- "James Bond Is Back--From Russia With Love"-- which actually combines 3 different pieces, a new one by Barry, a dynamic, instrumental version of the Bart song, and the "James Bond Theme" (credited to Norman, natch). Maybe more 007 films should have INSTRUMENTAL title sequences?
Registered: Aug 2003
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Your pop culture knowledge never fails to impress, prof. This is a lot of stuff I never knew.
I've got to admit, as much as I like the movies, I preferred the books as well. Remakes that stuck close to those books could work. The only problem I see is the fact that the Bond of the books is in some ways less likable than the movie versions, because the Book bond is more honest about and aware of his manipulation of people.
posted
"Your pop culture knowledge never fails to impress, prof. This is a lot of stuff I never knew."
Thanks!
"I've got to admit, as much as I like the movies, I preferred the books as well. Remakes that stuck close to those books could work."
I've felt that way for AGES!
"The only problem I see is the fact that the Bond of the books is in some ways less likable than the movie versions, because the Book bond is more honest about and aware of his manipulation of people."
See the 2 TIMOTHY DALTON films-- especially THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. My God-- THAT's the Ian Fleming version of James Bond!!! His 1st film became the biggest-seller of the series at the time, and both were HUGE worldwide-- but NOT in America, where people don't know how to read. It's similar to what happened with MIKE HAMMER-- the Stacy Keach version is possibly the LEAST like the books, yet, JUST like Sean Connery, his characterization was specifically tailored for general audiences. It's funny-- back in '86, my brother told me, "Until now, George Lazenby was my favorite Bond." (Amazing what even a 1st-time actor can do if the SCRIPT is good enough!)
By the way-- LIVE AND LET DIE is the only Bond book I read TWICE. The film MUST be appreciated strictly on its own terms, and if you do that, it's funny as hell. But as a "Bond" film, it's an abomination-- yet not nearly as much as DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and MOONRAKER. It's the only one of the "comedy Bonds" that's actually FUNNY. Meanwhile, so little of the book was utizlized, that the unused bits later turned up in both FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (my favorite Roger Moore film, a real tribute to Ian Fleming!) and LICENSE TO KILL ("He disagreed with something that ate him.").
Registered: Aug 2003
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"Does anyone remember the "playhouse" with the americanized "Jimmy Bond"?"
Regardless of what some have said... EXCELLENT!!! Sure, they made Bond an American, and Leiter a Brit, but PETER LORRE as Le Chiffre was one of the BEST Bond villains EVER!!! What a shame CASINO ROYALE wasn't the start of a big-budget FILM series instead of a live TV broadcast. Also, they LEFT OUT the 2nd half of the book-- which, frankly, I found a HUGE improvement! The climax of the story takes place halfway in-- after that, Bond spends the entire 2nd half of the novel recovering and having a love affair with Vesper... until he discovers she was a double agent all along.
On the phone: "Yes, I said WAS. The bitch is DEAD now!"
Clearly this was Fleming's tribute to Mickey Spillane's climax of the 1st Mike Hammer, I THE JURY.
BLAM!!! "How COULD you?" "It was EASY."
Registered: Aug 2003
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Thanks for the commentaries and book-to-film contrasts, Prof. I've been a fan of the films for 30 years, but only managed to read two of the novels. (Well, one novel, "From Russia With Love," and the set of short stories that was "For Your Eyes Only.")
From all I can see, Dalton -- who was not intended as Bond originally, but was pulled in for the unavailable Brosnan -- has the cruel edge and cynicism that Fleming's creation possessed, and which no one else (except "You've had your six" Connery in "Dr. No") has quite managed to convey. It's a shame that he only did two films.
Connery and, slightly behind him, Dalton are my own favorite Bonds. Moore and, again slightly behind him, Lazenby are the second echelon. Brosnan is competent and charming, but never had quite the same spark.
Here's my own ranking of the films I've seen, favorite first, with their Bonds, and some of what's memorable about them:
1 "Dr. No" (Connery) ... the perfect cool, Ursula Andress 2 "Goldfinger" (Connery) ... the silly laser, the car, the hat, Honor Blackman 3 "The Living Daylights" (Dalton) ... the insurgents, the cello, Maryam d'Abo 4 "From Russia With Love" (Connery) ... Venice, Karim Bey, Lotte Lenya 5 "The Spy Who Loved Me" (Moore) ... Barbara Bach, that sea-castle, the flag parachute 6 "For Your Eyes Only" (Moore) ... the kid, the aerie, the professional (spy) courtesy 7 "You Only Live Twice" (Connery) ... the pearl divers, Bond dying in the first scene 8 "Tomorrow Never Dies" (Brosnan) ... Michelle Yeoh, villain hoisted on his own missile 9 "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (Lazenby) ... Diana Rigg -- 'nuff said 10 "Diamonds Are Forever" (Connery) ... Jill St. John, the two gay assassins 11 "Thunderball" (Connery)* ... underwater scenes 11 "Never Say Never Again" (Connery)* ... he still looked great! 12 "Live and Let Die" (Moore) ... the bayou chase 13 "License to Kill" (Dalton) ... that underground lair, Bond's revenge motive 14 "Octopussy" (Moore) ... the reverse harem, the circus 15 "GoldenEye" (Brosnan) ... the Russian settings, Judi Dench as "M" 16 "Die Another Day" (Brosnan) ... Halle Berry 17 "The World Is Not Enough" (Brosnan) ... y'know, I can't remember, but still liked it
* Essentially the same film, but each has its charms
I never saw -- yet, or in full -- "The Man With the Golden Gun" (the villain was strange), "Moonraker" (it shouldn't have gone into orbit), or "A View to a Kill" (too preposterous a geology plot, even for Bond films).
I thought the parody "Casino Royale" was a hoot, but it's really not on the same planet as those above. Did I hear correctly that the Broccoli family is considering a straight-faced remake? I hope it happens. (I wonder how that book escaped their grasp originally.)
Here are the best Bond original songs or music:
1 "Nobody Does It Better," Carly Simon 2 "Live and Let Die," Paul McCartney & Wings 3 "Goldfinger," Shirley Bassey 4 "You Only Live Twice," Nancy Sinatra 5 Combined score to "Dr. No" 6 "Diamonds Are Forever," Shirley Bassey 7 "We Have All the Time in the World," Louis Armstrong 8 "Tomorrow Never Dies" ... no, not Sheryl Crow, but k.d. lang under the END credits 9 John Barry score to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" 10 "Thunderball," Tom Jones 11 "All Time High," Rita Coolidge 12 "From Russia With Love," Matt Monro 13 "For Your Eyes Only," Sheena Easton
And all-time kudos to Bernard Lee as "M," Desmond Llewelyn as "Q," Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny, and the Monty Norman (or whoever's-it-was) plucked-string theme, all of whom and which are irreplaceable. In this 007 fan's mind, anyway. (Okay, Judi Dench comes close. Very close.)
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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You know Tom Jones almost passed out recording Thunderbal. He insisted that he couldn't possibly get the note towards the end and hold it for as long as they wanted him to but they kept at him until he did it. The sustained note almost caused him to faint from lack of oxygen though, and he said he barely managed to finish recording the song. As with most really good artists though the final version is all from one take despite that, which is quite cool.
Plus I like the fact that Shirley is the only artists to do multiple Bond theme songs.
-------------------- Truth and Justice shall Prevail! (Unless Tamper Lad Screws it up...)
From: Manchester, UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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The funny thing is, Bevis, i think he would make an Excellent Bond villian. The one i am thinking of is the Laird of Murcaldy, in Gardner's first Bond book, License Renewed. Granted, the villians discriptionin the book is vastly different than Jones, but now he has the seasoned, matured look to him that could play well.
I have to say, though, that so far, i am preferring Benson's Bond to Gardners. Though he did good stuff in his first bond novels, his later books seemed a little to "desperate" for a breakout star villian. I think Benson manages to capture the more realistic, human side, but at the same time there is an element of the surreal in some of his stuff, like the brain lession thing. But he mixes in the brutal side of Bond well.
Just some thoughts, anyway.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
posted
Growing up in the 60's, I watched THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., GET SMART!, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, and later on, reruns of THE WILD WILD WEST. But because my parents didn't want to expose their kids to "SEX and VIOLENCE!!!", I never saw a Bond film-- until ABC ran GOLDFINGER for the first time in 1973. WOW!!! What a COOL movie!!! Sean Connery is SO cool. The villains! The gadgets! That CAR!!! Etc.
Eventually, I read the book. Like many others, the film made DRASTIC changes. Like, Jill Masterson-- my favorite of all the Connery Bond girls (despite her being onscreen maybe 5 whole minutes-- i just loved her personality) is killed while Bond is there, which really hurts. In the book, he doesn't find out about it until Tilly tells him-- weeks or months (?) later.
2/3rds of the book passes before Bond becomes a prisoner, and is almost killed by a ROTATING BUZZ-SAW (YIPES!!!). But Bond is a prisoner for more than half-- almost 2/3rds of the film.
Pussy Galore (the ULTIMATE Fleming Bond-girl-name!) has much more screen-time in the film and becomes more of a full partner with Goldfinger, instead of being one of many gang leaders. She's also specified as a lesbian in the book, and apparently gets involved for some time with Tilly, who doesn't get killed until the raid on Fort Knox at the book's climax.
The gangsters are NOT butchered wholesale in the book-- and Mr. Solo gets bumped off by falling down a flight of steps! This scene turned up in A VIEW TO A KILL. An unused sequence involving a "Picto-graph" machine later appeared instead in the film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. The climax, where Oddjob is SUCKED OUT of the decompressing airplane, while Goldfinger GOES DOWN when the plane crashes, was used somewhat more authentically in OCTOPUSSY.
The BIGGEST change to the film, however, was the result of fans & critics complaining BITTERLY about the "implausability" of the main plot. For GOLDFINGER stands apart from most 007 stories, as unlike most (which are "espionage" tales of some sort), this one's a HEIST film-- of the grandest order!!! The film-makers actually took the specific criticisms about how IMPOSSIBLE it would be to actually ROB FORT KNOX-- and included it in the script when Bond tells Goldfinger, "It won't work, you know." And the villain smiles and says...
"Who mentioned anything about removing it?"
At the time GOLDFINGER was being made, THUNDERBALL was still in the hands of Kevin McClory. Apparently, by the time the 3rd film hit theatres, he'd seen the hand-writing on the wall and made a deal with Broccoli & Saltzman, because in the end credits it says, "James Bond will return in 'Thunderball'". But this may not have happened until late in the game. By having Goldfinger plan to use an atomic bomb to contaminate America's gold supply-- and mention the threat that if the authorities try searching for it, it may go off elsewhere-- like Miami, etc.-- the film is actually stealing the "McGuffin" of THUNDERBALL, and to some degree undercuts the main point of what eventually became the following film! (Like the 1940's Sherlock Holmes series, you wind up needing a score card to remember what bits of which movie came from which book.)
Like THE MALTESE FALCON, GOLDFINGER is a case of near-PERFECT casting. Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger; Harold Sakata as Oddjob; Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore; Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson; Burt Kwouk as the Red Chinese spy. Despite my normal loyalty to books over film versions, this film is SO DAMN GOOD, in a different universe I'd leave it just as it is-- with one minor exception. Cec Linder is terrible as Felix Leiter.
My favorite Felix has long been David Hedison (imagine my joy & shock when he became, bizarrely, the only actor to play the part twice). But Jack Lord was damn good in DR. NO. What the HELL kept them from getting Jack Lord to come back as Felix? WHY have they consistently cast a different actor EVERY time Felix appears? I'm a bit up in the air about this-- Hedison or Lord? But since Lord played it first, I guess I'll stick with him. Next time you watch the film, just picture "Steve McGarrett" in place of the guy they're trying to pass off as Bond's "CIA counterpart".
I can't close without a comment about Shirley Bassey's SCARY vocals on that title song. Without this, we may have seen more instrumental 007 themes. It's not my favorite Bond theme by a mile, but it suits the picture. Anybody ever hear writer Anthony Newley's "demo" version? It turned up on the "25th Anniversary" CD set, and ever since I heard his wimpy, limp-wristed vocals, I've jokingly called it the "GAY" version of "Goldfinger". Oh yeah-- HE'S THE MMMMAN-- who LLLLOVES ONLY GOLLLLD (not women). And here, we all thought Pussy Galore was supposed to be the gay character in the story?
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