Really enjoyed that, though, wild horses could not drag me to a viewing. Like you, I rather love the novels, but the movies, even the early ones, are really not worth the bother of watching any more, if they ever really were.
A great summation, Luke, of this end of an era (two eras, perhaps, if we count Roger and Sean as a hybrid 'one') for Bond, though it would be five years and two more 007 outings for Moore before the license to thrill passed into the hands of a younger man who was not so intrinsically linked to Fleming's original books.
It is, though, one of my least favourite Bonds, Lois Chiles and Michael Lonsdale notwithstanding, as it seemed so obviously to pander to the moronic herds of Star Wars casualties who would watch anything if it had any kind of tenuous 'space' component.
Richard Kiel's Jaws was much more effective as a villain than as an ally of Bond's, and his inclusion here smacks of desperation and a dire lack of imagination from the Eon team.
But it has a Barry/Bassey/Hal David (!!) song combo that does what every great Bond song should do, ie provide the aural backdrop to Maurice Binder's fabulous titles, which are very often better than the films they introduce!
And, yes, Ken Adam, too.
But Roger looks flabby here, even more so than he does in 1985's A View To A Kill, when he really is way too old for this malarkey, so it was very disappointing for me.
But Timmy was limbering up, so there was hope in the new day dawning...ha-ha!
Why thank you, Kind Sire. I should have mentioned Hal David, alongside John Barry. I'm in agreement with you over Star Wars (1977). Most probably my least favourite film after the dreadful Titanic (1997). Star Wars is where it all went wrong, I think.
Personally, I would eliminate Jaws from the entire franchise, altho' I accept that he might have some appeal to orthodontists.
But is this right re Roge? Seriously, I thought he was looking kinda svelte? Not at all bad for 51, and he's only 20 years or so older than Lois, who can do no wrong? Old enough to be her father, but at least not her grandfather. And certainly a little bit trimmer than in Octopussy, but then that was made four years later.
Ah, by flabby, I meant just a bit loose, and not, ahem, tight. You’re right, though, Roger is most definitely less fighting fit in View to A Kill.
Liked your observation on Lois Chiles in Gatsby, and though I agree with you about her being just too beautiful for the role of Jordan Baker, the real problem with that, and Luhrmann’s Gatsby, too, is that both the actresses playing Daisy are simply not beautiful enough to convince us that Gatsby would do all that he does for them because of their beauty. Gatsby is insane, and I don’t think either Mia Farrow or Carey Mulligan drive anyone mad…
Pretty sure she's from Louisville, Kentucky. The point is that the newly commissioned Gatsby (do they have commissions in the US Army?) mingles with the local gentry when he's stationed there.
It's a valid question. Gatsby buys a house in West Egg, just across the bay from Daisy's house in East Egg. Obsessed and delusional, yes. Possibly stalkerish. But not convinced that's insanity.
Yes... but isn't Daisy Fay a bit more than that? I rather liked Mia's neurotic and highly strung Daisy (cf. Zelda Fitzgerald?). But agree - as much as I rate Carey as an actress, she was completely miscast as Daisy. Who's supposed to be a Southern Belle, I think? Really just Zelda in disguise?
A really fine review as ever.It was at this point I thought,on first seeing it,this is becoming rubbish.I didn't like jaws in it again.As you say Lois Chile's was stunning,first having seen her in 'Death on the Nile'.I'm glad you're reading them,I always thought in fact that "Moonraker"was the best book .I hope you'll forgive me plugging a friend's book called the "Visitors book"by Jon lys Turner.He was a big friend of Richard Chopping,who illustrated all the Bond covers.Jon's book covers his life with his fellow artist With Miller and their friendship with Francis Bacon.What a booky post !
Yes. It’s probably the last Bond review I’m going to do. My plan was to cover all the films, at least up to Moonraker (1979) — as it’s the last gasp of the grand old Bonds, the Ken Adam sets et al, and really an anachronism by 1979. So quite a bit to say. But WEEKEND FLICKS. is meant to be about recommendation. Still, Michael Lonsdale is an excellent villain, and Lois is hot. And I like the cut of Bond’s Frank Foster shirts. I’m halfway through Moonraker now, and it’s probably Fleming’s best-written Bond novel so far- the bridge game at Blades! The Hell-Fire Club engravings on the wall- presumably a nod to Knapton’s Dillettanti portraits at Brooks’s.
So pleased you're enjoying it Luke.You're spot on re the last gasp,as you say the sets and locations.It was the first time I'd seen Michael Lonsdale,I will definitely re watch it,in fact I haven't seen it since the first time and saw it at what we called the "Bioscope"in Africa.Always came out and had a knickerbocker glory at the "Wimpy".Remember those Luke..Happy reading.
Watch out for the bit in the novel where Bond operates a blowtorch with his teeth! Makes me want to book in with my dentist just thinking about it.
The motorised gondola car is bloody awful - and the pigeon doing a double-take. Ye Gads!
I've read some of Fleming's letters to Noël Coward and he jokingly signs off one with a reference to spanking. Of course, we know from Nicholas Shakespeare's bio that Fleming didn't just joke about it. As if that wince-inducing scene in "Casino Royale" hadn't clued us in!
Yes. I should have mentioned that wretched pigeon- about to break into a cha cha cha dance routine. Too right. I'm rereading the entire Fleming works, and now halfway through Live and Let Die. Highly amusing. Reading between the lines, there's more than one kink. I enjoyed the Shakespeare bio. Have you read the original Pearson biography?
I agree with your mother on this particular Bond film: boring. At least that’s how I felt the one and only time I watched it however long ago. Might have to give it another look. Love how you described NSNA as “the maverick cuckoo in the nest”!
From what you've written, I'm left wondering if I've ever seen this.
It's one of my favourite Bond books, being set in Kent, so knowing through the publicity that this bears no relation whatsoever to the book would probably have led me to save my precious pocket money for something more useful back in 1979.
I don't even remember seeing it later on TV, but that may well tally with my university years & having no TV (or time for TV).
So maybe one day, when my defences are down, I'll give it a whirl. But until then, thank you. I feel now that I know enough to know that, Lois Chiles & Venice aside, this isn't a Bond film for me.
Incidentally, doesn't 'Mr' Drax look oddly like Mother from The Avengers? Or maybe it's just the prominence of telephones on his desk?
I saw this when it came out, too. I recall thinking it was stupid but amusing and that Lois Chiles was beautiful. I read the book a few years ago, and it was enjoyable, and interesting that there was a sense of security that Winston Churchill was Prime Minister during a crisis. Few people now remember Churchill’s second term in the 1950s. It’s an odd book, the idea that a massive missile base could be built in England without anybody noticing seems silly now, and it must’ve been at least a little bit silly even then.
Really enjoyed that, though, wild horses could not drag me to a viewing. Like you, I rather love the novels, but the movies, even the early ones, are really not worth the bother of watching any more, if they ever really were.
A great summation, Luke, of this end of an era (two eras, perhaps, if we count Roger and Sean as a hybrid 'one') for Bond, though it would be five years and two more 007 outings for Moore before the license to thrill passed into the hands of a younger man who was not so intrinsically linked to Fleming's original books.
It is, though, one of my least favourite Bonds, Lois Chiles and Michael Lonsdale notwithstanding, as it seemed so obviously to pander to the moronic herds of Star Wars casualties who would watch anything if it had any kind of tenuous 'space' component.
Richard Kiel's Jaws was much more effective as a villain than as an ally of Bond's, and his inclusion here smacks of desperation and a dire lack of imagination from the Eon team.
But it has a Barry/Bassey/Hal David (!!) song combo that does what every great Bond song should do, ie provide the aural backdrop to Maurice Binder's fabulous titles, which are very often better than the films they introduce!
And, yes, Ken Adam, too.
But Roger looks flabby here, even more so than he does in 1985's A View To A Kill, when he really is way too old for this malarkey, so it was very disappointing for me.
But Timmy was limbering up, so there was hope in the new day dawning...ha-ha!
Why thank you, Kind Sire. I should have mentioned Hal David, alongside John Barry. I'm in agreement with you over Star Wars (1977). Most probably my least favourite film after the dreadful Titanic (1997). Star Wars is where it all went wrong, I think.
Personally, I would eliminate Jaws from the entire franchise, altho' I accept that he might have some appeal to orthodontists.
But is this right re Roge? Seriously, I thought he was looking kinda svelte? Not at all bad for 51, and he's only 20 years or so older than Lois, who can do no wrong? Old enough to be her father, but at least not her grandfather. And certainly a little bit trimmer than in Octopussy, but then that was made four years later.
A View to a Kill. Shall I do that one?
Ah, by flabby, I meant just a bit loose, and not, ahem, tight. You’re right, though, Roger is most definitely less fighting fit in View to A Kill.
Liked your observation on Lois Chiles in Gatsby, and though I agree with you about her being just too beautiful for the role of Jordan Baker, the real problem with that, and Luhrmann’s Gatsby, too, is that both the actresses playing Daisy are simply not beautiful enough to convince us that Gatsby would do all that he does for them because of their beauty. Gatsby is insane, and I don’t think either Mia Farrow or Carey Mulligan drive anyone mad…
And yes; do A View To A Kill, please.
and p.p.s. Is Daisy Fay from the South, or the Midwest, like the rest of them?
Google says a mix of both, but I always read her as coming from Gatsby’s place.
Pretty sure she's from Louisville, Kentucky. The point is that the newly commissioned Gatsby (do they have commissions in the US Army?) mingles with the local gentry when he's stationed there.
Must re-read it. I’ve only read it once, perhaps twice, but that was such a long time ago.
And given that I regularly cite it as one of the greatest English language novels of all time, you’d think I’d remember more about it…!
And p.s. Is Gatsby insane? That has never occurred to me before. Certainly obsessed?
You say potato, and I say potato…ha-ha!
Are they not both a form of madness?
It's a valid question. Gatsby buys a house in West Egg, just across the bay from Daisy's house in East Egg. Obsessed and delusional, yes. Possibly stalkerish. But not convinced that's insanity.
I think if you were being stalked, you might think differently…!
Yes... but isn't Daisy Fay a bit more than that? I rather liked Mia's neurotic and highly strung Daisy (cf. Zelda Fitzgerald?). But agree - as much as I rate Carey as an actress, she was completely miscast as Daisy. Who's supposed to be a Southern Belle, I think? Really just Zelda in disguise?
Yes. And yes. But if the surface is inadequate, what lies beneath won’t cut it either.
A really fine review as ever.It was at this point I thought,on first seeing it,this is becoming rubbish.I didn't like jaws in it again.As you say Lois Chile's was stunning,first having seen her in 'Death on the Nile'.I'm glad you're reading them,I always thought in fact that "Moonraker"was the best book .I hope you'll forgive me plugging a friend's book called the "Visitors book"by Jon lys Turner.He was a big friend of Richard Chopping,who illustrated all the Bond covers.Jon's book covers his life with his fellow artist With Miller and their friendship with Francis Bacon.What a booky post !
Yes. It’s probably the last Bond review I’m going to do. My plan was to cover all the films, at least up to Moonraker (1979) — as it’s the last gasp of the grand old Bonds, the Ken Adam sets et al, and really an anachronism by 1979. So quite a bit to say. But WEEKEND FLICKS. is meant to be about recommendation. Still, Michael Lonsdale is an excellent villain, and Lois is hot. And I like the cut of Bond’s Frank Foster shirts. I’m halfway through Moonraker now, and it’s probably Fleming’s best-written Bond novel so far- the bridge game at Blades! The Hell-Fire Club engravings on the wall- presumably a nod to Knapton’s Dillettanti portraits at Brooks’s.
So pleased you're enjoying it Luke.You're spot on re the last gasp,as you say the sets and locations.It was the first time I'd seen Michael Lonsdale,I will definitely re watch it,in fact I haven't seen it since the first time and saw it at what we called the "Bioscope"in Africa.Always came out and had a knickerbocker glory at the "Wimpy".Remember those Luke..Happy reading.
Watch out for the bit in the novel where Bond operates a blowtorch with his teeth! Makes me want to book in with my dentist just thinking about it.
The motorised gondola car is bloody awful - and the pigeon doing a double-take. Ye Gads!
I've read some of Fleming's letters to Noël Coward and he jokingly signs off one with a reference to spanking. Of course, we know from Nicholas Shakespeare's bio that Fleming didn't just joke about it. As if that wince-inducing scene in "Casino Royale" hadn't clued us in!
Yes. I should have mentioned that wretched pigeon- about to break into a cha cha cha dance routine. Too right. I'm rereading the entire Fleming works, and now halfway through Live and Let Die. Highly amusing. Reading between the lines, there's more than one kink. I enjoyed the Shakespeare bio. Have you read the original Pearson biography?
I agree with your mother on this particular Bond film: boring. At least that’s how I felt the one and only time I watched it however long ago. Might have to give it another look. Love how you described NSNA as “the maverick cuckoo in the nest”!
From what you've written, I'm left wondering if I've ever seen this.
It's one of my favourite Bond books, being set in Kent, so knowing through the publicity that this bears no relation whatsoever to the book would probably have led me to save my precious pocket money for something more useful back in 1979.
I don't even remember seeing it later on TV, but that may well tally with my university years & having no TV (or time for TV).
So maybe one day, when my defences are down, I'll give it a whirl. But until then, thank you. I feel now that I know enough to know that, Lois Chiles & Venice aside, this isn't a Bond film for me.
Incidentally, doesn't 'Mr' Drax look oddly like Mother from The Avengers? Or maybe it's just the prominence of telephones on his desk?
And you might like Vaux-le-Vicomte?
I do. It's amazing on the outside but, other than the central dome lobby, the rooms felt curiously dark & small.
But seriously, yes, take your point, I should give it a whirl. I honestly can't understand why I never have...
Go on. Be a devil. And re Mister Drax? Not really- I think that my just be the screenshot?
I saw this when it came out, too. I recall thinking it was stupid but amusing and that Lois Chiles was beautiful. I read the book a few years ago, and it was enjoyable, and interesting that there was a sense of security that Winston Churchill was Prime Minister during a crisis. Few people now remember Churchill’s second term in the 1950s. It’s an odd book, the idea that a massive missile base could be built in England without anybody noticing seems silly now, and it must’ve been at least a little bit silly even then.
Another great article…I largely agree with your first paragraph ranking, though I have a soft spot for Thunderball too.
Yes, I like Thunderball too- especially Shrublands, the sharks and all the nautical stuff. I need to add it to the list.
At your sarcastic best, Luke
Actually, I quite like Moonraker (1979). Sort of.