Octopussy And The Living Daylights!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

Octopussy and The Living Daylights close out the saga with a quartet of adventures. "Octopussy" is the story of a WWII British vet who has a golden and deadly secret from WWII and who is found out by Bond. The end is garish to say the least. "The Property of a Lady" is a neat little spy tale about Fabrege jewelry and double agents. 

"The Living Daylights" reveals that Bond's cold-blooded nature is challenged when the target is a beautiful woman, one he has fantasized about to boot. It's a delightful story set in what was to become Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. 

Finally, there's the offbeat very short story titled "007 in New York" which is exactly what it says as we get a small tour of the city as Bond has come to break up a love affair since one of the parties is a foreign agent. It originally appeared in Fleming's travelogue book Thrilling Cities. 

The 1983 Roger Moore offering Octopussy adapted elements of both "Octopussy" and "Property of a Lady". You'd think with Louis Jourdan as the top villain this Bond effort would be better. But it's not that good. Maud Adams returns as the titular Octopussy, after having revived after being killed in The Man with the Golden Gun. The states are pretty high as our baddie seeks to cover up stealing a bodacious amount of very famous jewels by agreeing to start World War III for a corrupt Soviet officer.

 

The elements are here, but somehow the silliness factor is high enough to squash any sense of danger. I thought the equipment being tested in the Q sequence was especially stupid and rather offensive this time out. But you cannot fault the film for failing to provide lots of lovely dames to gawk at, as Octopussy herself commands a bevy of ladies, many with unusual and dangerous skill sets. 

The Living Daylights featured Timothy Dalton in his debut as Bond from 1987. I'm a big fan of Dalton's Bond, though alas it seems the larger public was less enthusiastic. He only made one more Bond film in 1989 titled License Renewed. They took this opportunity to recast Moneypenny as well. All of this was necessary to maintain the illusion that Bond was indeed an effective agent. 

This is a wild plot with Bond refusing to shoot a sniper who turns out to be Maryam d' Abo, a pretty actress who I saw for the first in Conan the Destroyer. Her acting has improved somewhat and she's an adequate love interest for Bond. We get two main villains, a deceitful Soviet officer and a mercenary arms dealer. There's lots of mayhem in this one as it sprawls across the globe and even into Afghanistan which at the time was invaded by the Soviets and we were on the side of the Muslim Mujahadin. There are lots of things I like about The Living Daylights, but I cannot say it has aged especially well. But in an attempt to cleave closer to the headlines of the day, it has not aged as well as other Bond outings which exist in a more fantastical arena. 

And that wraps up my month-long look at Bond...James Bond. Not all the movies were reviewed because not all of them are derived from Fleming's original source material. Goldeneye for instance gets its name from Fleming's Jamaican estate, but that's it. A few more bits of silly spy business tomorrow then in October something completely different. 

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The Man With The Golden Gun!

The Man With the Golden Gun brings Bond back for one final bow, and this time he has to try and find and kill a notorious assassin for the other side. It's another jaunt into the Caribbean, clearly Fleming's favorite location for a wild adventure which doesn't make sense all the time, but is a lot of fun. The mission is meant to in many ways rehabilitate Bond after the weird ending of the Shatterhand confrontation in Japan from the previous book have left him a questionable agent. I won't say too much so as not spoil a surprise or two. 

But in this last James Bond novel, published after Fleming's death, our hero is sent to seek out the deadly killer, a cold-blooded maniac who was perhaps driven mad by a tragedy in the circus in which he grew up. Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga is a contract killer with a tremendous reputation who employs a gold-plated Colt pistol and hand-crafted bullets made of gold inside silver jackets.  

Bond makes contact with Scaramanga rather quickly in the book, pretending himself to be a man named "Mark Hazard", a chap good with guns and looking for a payday. Scaramanga takes him on, though Bond doesn't know if he's being led into a trap or not. Turns out he's put his foot into a mob of gangsters from across the world who have formed a syndicate of sorts and are trying to get a foothold in Jamaica with a hotel which is still only half built. Old allies turn up and the whole thing ends in a bizarre shoot out in the deadly swamps, which are full of twists of all kinds. 

The Man with the Golden Gun is one of my favorite Bond flicks. It's probably my favorite Roger Moore effort. Britt Ekland is both charming and funny as a daffy Bond Girl who brings a bit of slapstick to the project. Herve Villachaize does a dandy job as the secondary villain Nick Nack. The big draw is Christopher Lee as the titular villain. He's fantastic and is probably my all-time favorite Bond baddie. Lee has the stature for such a role and his cold, cruel delivery is compelling. The plot gets a tad goofy when they try to inject a world-beating element to the story. It wasn't needed. The duel between Scaramanga and Bond had sufficient gavitas for my tastes. 

The theme from this one by John Barry gets in my head and tumbles around for days at a time. I'm humming it even now. The attempts to squeeze in some legit martial arts into the movie gets my nod of approval as well. I don't much expect Moore to be adept at it, and neither does the movie. The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu editors had a different idea. All in all, a winner. 

James Bond Returns one final time in Octopussy and The Living Daylights! 

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You Only Live Twice!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

You Only Live Twice is the final of the three Blofeld stories and the most outlandish. Bond ends up in Japan for other reasons, becomes a faux-Japanese only to discover that his enemy is on the spot traveling under the name of "Shatterhand". The coincidence hurts this story a lot, but the action is so over the top that it's hard not to be sucked in. The Garden of Death is a lurid and fascinating invention. The ending is a hoot and a half. The Japanese culture comes in for a lot of knocks, and I can't imagine they feel very warm to this presentation.

Once again, the relationship that Bond has with another man is the key to this story, this time with the head of Japanese secrets named Tiger Tanaka. Bond has been sent to get access to Japanese espionage information, and since he's been in an understandable funk since the death of his wife, this is M's last-ditch effort to save his career. The process by which slowly becomes Japanese in the novel goes down a bit better than the movie which is openly ludicrous. The story makes much more sense than its cinematic offspring. Dr. No had hit the screens before this novel was written and apparently Fleming tried to inject a bit of Sean Connery's lighter-hearted charm into his iconic character. 

You Only Live Twice was the final novel written and published in Fleming's lifetime. He'd already written one more and there were a few short stories still to be published. Those in due course. 

I was very much surprised to discover that You Only Live Twice is my second favorite Bond movie. The movie itself is such a mess in terms of narrative and its painful transformation of Sean Connery into an utterly unconvincing Japanese man is more than a little bit embarrassing. All that said, no Bond movie before or since has a more dynamic finale and the utterly awesome volcano secret rocket base is my favorite set in all the history of film. Roald Dahl is credited with the screenplay, but the haphazard nature of the story makes me imagine things were wildly off the original outline.

This movie is really what most people think of when they imagine the movies of super spies. We have a strong heroic lead who tumbles into a bizarre twisting impossible scheme to hold the world in fear and who by dint of strength, skill and a lot of luck defeats the villains in the most bombastic ways conceivable. That's what defines this movie, a series of strange and sometimes confusing set pieces which eventually add up to a plot to destroy the world. The villain too is a bit weak as we finally meet Blofeld, but as portrayed by Donald Pleasance is not as awesome as the character was in the shadows. Karin Dor is lovely and dies much too soon in this story, but then that's the way this unravels.

We get the ironic Bond in this one, the one who realizes there's some absurdity in all this mishegoss, but when the action starts it's full on and the tempo is wonderful. I realized watching it this time that the story itself makes almost no sense, but the pacing is so good that you have little time to realize it. The idea that SPECTRE could build an entire volcano facility with apparently no hint of it to people on the island is bewildering, but then the decision to invade the island by posing as fishermen is equally absurd. It serves to give the viewer glimpses of Japanese culture, but little beyond that.

And finally in a movie in which Bond is supposedly killed to make his secret agent status a bit more secret, he gets found out and attacked with regularity, though of course as usual others pay the freight. All that said, this one is a blockbuster which despite its myriad flaws offers up a thrill ride of a movie that pays off completely. Watching it now, I see the lines and shapes which informed Jim Steranko in his memorable SHIELD work.

James Bond Returns in The Man with the Golden Gun. 

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The Spy Who Loved Me!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

The Spy Who Loved Me from 1962 is a very peculiar Bond novel told from the point of view of a young woman who has had several dalliances but is seeking a new life when she gets essentially shanghaied into an insurance swindle to burn down a motel in the Adirondacks. Bond shows up to save the day in the midst of his quest to find Blofeld who escaped after the events of Thunderball. He will save the day and even eventually follow through on the title's promise. It's likely not what most Bond fans expected at the time, nor now, but it's not bad. The perspective is different and that's flavorful to say the least.

The novel is divided into three parts -- "Me", "Them" and "Him". Because of the changes in perspective and the fact that Bond doesn't show up until well into the novel, this one manages to capture the reader with a refreshing take. Fleming was clearly grinding these out at this point, looking for any way to drop a fresh Bond onto the ready marketplace. I like this one quite a bit. 

The 1977 film The Spy Who Love Me has absolutely nothing to do with the novel, save for lifting the title. We are presented with a typical Bond adventure with 007 trying to stay alive long enough to track down a rich madman who threatens the world by capturing nuclear subs and blowing up civilization as we know it. The titular "Spy" is actually a Soviet agent who Bond kills in the very beginning of the movie and later unknown to either of them he is partnered with the lover. Barbara Bach is gorgeous in the role of the vengeful lover while Roger Moore is showing even more signs of creakiness in the part. 

Kurt Jurgens is the master villain, and he's assisted by Richard Kiel in his first turn as the killer Jaws. Jaws is actually quite deadly in this movie, not yet reduced to a clownish echo of himself as will be the case in Moonraker, the next Bond project. (Which I have to say has the exact same plot, save that it's all in space rather on the high seas.) This one isn't a bomb, but the viewer can see the rot in the superstructure. 

The movie is helped quite a bit by the fact much of it takes place in Egypt and the viewer gets a pretty good tour of the most famous icons from that ancient territory. The dry desert contrasts well with the oceans which dominate the finale.

James Bond Returns in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. And Blofeld is back! Who loves ya baby?

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Thunderball!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

Thunderball begins the high-voltage Bond adventures and the is the first of what is dubbed the "Blofeld Trilogy". The plot is pretty well known as the movie does a first-rate job of translating it pretty completely. This one began life as a movie script and shows it. More on that below. This first SPECTRE story is a cracking good super-spy adventure.

Bond's encounter with a SPECTRE agent at the Shrublands where he's been sent for a health cure is more realistic than in the movie which depends much too much on coincidence to put Bond at the core of the events too soon. I like that going to the Carribean is M's idea and not Bond's. Fleming gets off a few neat jabs at health spas, it's almost like he has a grudge. 

The novel depends less on coincidence than the inevitable movie will and so seems more naturalistic. There's some, but not so much as to break all credulity which the movie does, but at a tempo which doesn't allow for reflection until it's all over. Felix Leiter is back, pressed back into government service due to the international threat. In the novel we are given histories of both Blofeld and Largo as the SPECTRE organization is detailed. And as is typical in the novels, Bond suffers a lot more from his wounds, they leave mark. 

Thunderball is a movie which should be so much better than it is. It has all the elements, but somehow, someway the thing always shakes apart a bit when I watch it. The first problem is that already Connery is getting a bit paunchy to sell the role, something a little bit evident in Goldfinger. The glimmer of a virile energy he projected on the screen in the first two Bond movies is missing a bit. That said, the plot rumbles around a bodacious scheme by SPECTRE.

The movie begins with blazing coincidence when James Bond, the arch-enemy of SPECTRE just so happens to be healing up at the same facility at which the schemers are hiding their fake pilot who will infiltrate NATO defenses and make off with an atomic-laden plane. Bond gets onto the scheme before it really gets going and that makes for some weird connections to what is happening, an almost too personal relationship which undermines the professional nature of his work. It's an action-movie thing, but not a Bond thing, if you follow my meaning.

We do get to go to the Caribbean again, which is good, but this trip unlike that in the first movie lacks novelty and the helpers are less interesting. Paula (Martine Beswick) is Bond's aide and like most of them gets killed off, but not in any particularly memorable fashion. The guy playing Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) this time looks like a member of the Beach Boys and not a spy. It all feels lightweight somehow. Bond finds the villains almost immediately, but his superiors never seem to send him any real help to fend off the threat to world order until the very finale. Domino (Claudine Auger) is beautiful to look at, but seems to lack the snap of earlier dames in the series. More interesting is Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) but she gets killed off too soon.

The final battle underwater was more enjoyable for me this time. In the past I've found it a bit too difficult to decipher, but somehow it worked for me as I watched it. The battle aboard the yacht is still a low-point for the series, the weird fast-action outside the windows is like something from an old silent comedy and almost completely undermines the rough and tumble of the fight. All in all, this one has all of the moving parts, but they just don't hang as well as they ought.

Thunderball is adapted again in 1983 as Never Say Never Again and featured a somewhat older Sean Connery return to the role he'd originated two decades before. This came about because of a complicated haggle over the rights to film the movie which led to litigation. This was because Thunderball began as a film script and then when Ian Fleming decided to just make it a novel without consulting his co-authors, and didn't give credit to the guys he'd been working with. They won and got the chance to make their own version of the movie. Despite a great cast including Barbara Carrera and Kim Basinger, this one just muddles along. 

James Bond Returns in The Spy Who Love Me. 

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For Your Eyes Only!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

For Your Eyes Only is the first Bond short story collection and it's pretty uneven. In "From a View to a Kill" Bond investigates the assassination of a motorcycle dispatch-rider and the theft of his top-secret documents. Pretty standard stuff, though the enemy plot seems a bit overly super-spyish. In "For Your Eyes Only" Bond avenges the murder of a friend of his boss alongside the murdered man's daughter. This one is pretty solid. In "Quantum of Solace" Bond is told a story of a failed marriage with a few twists and turns, but alas this one comes up a bit dry. In "Risico" Bond investigates a drug-smuggling operation run by the Russians and takes steps to stop it. Pretty basic. "The Hildebrand Rarity" deals with a rare fish and the obnoxious man who is seeking it. This one has a real grotesque quality to it, and as a result is pretty memorable.

These are short stories and as such can only offer an inspiration for movie adaptations. When the filmmakers ran out of novels they turned to the short stories for titles and sometimes that's about all. 

A View to a Kill was adapted in 1985 and stars Roger Moore as Bond. The movie is probably most notable for its cast. Tanya Roberts was a vivacious Bond Girl in this one. Patrick MacNee gets some big screen time in a Bond movie, the second member of The Avengers to land a role in the franchise that inspired the outstanding TV show. Grace Jones was unleashed upon the world yet again, fresh from her memorable role in Conan the Destroyer. The great Christopher Walken was the villain in this one, and darn good at that. He chewed the scenery with glee and giggled all the way to his death. The Bond series was in the doldrums when this one landed. I remember seeing it and for some reason a whole reel was dropped. When the movie was over only me and one other couple asked for a refund. I don't think anyone else noticed, or perhaps they just didn't care. 

 

For Your Eyes Only from 1981 of course has only one story and features Roger Moore as well. But it was one stitched together from two of the stories in the collection -- "Risico" and or "For Your Eyes Only" -- along with various bits and bobs from other Bond yarns. But the question with this kind of operation is always, is the whole greater than the sum of its parts. It's by and large a seamless whole, but also a somewhat unexciting one. The previous movie was Moonraker, a hard one to recover from, but to its credit this movie does return to the more spy-laden tropes of its 1960's predecessors. Though like so many of Moore's movies, without the sense of urgency and threat which marked early Bond films with Connery. (To be fair, Connery himself fell victim to this in Diamonds are Forever, so it's not necessarily the actor.) Carole Bouquet is a splendid addition to the Bond-Girl cast, and one who can take care of herself. Lynn Holly-Johnson is too young to be a true Bond-Girl, as having sex with her is out of the question given the fact she's presented as a precocious teen. Perhaps the strongest performance was turned in by Topol as the head of a smuggling ring. 

Quantum of Solace lends its name to the second Daniel Craig outing as Bond in 2008. Craig had revitalized the role in his first outing. This one was less impressive, but it's not the fault of anyone in it. It's a sturdy case with Olga Kurylenko offering a heartfelt performance that rose above that of just a Bond Girl. I much enjoyed Gemma Atterton in this one as well. With this one it was clear the creators were insisting on a more coherent continuity for the revived Bond. This is hurt an underwhelming finale. There's a lot of explosions and that's about it. 

"The Hildebrand Rarity" supplies some key characters for Timothy Dalton's debut as James Bond in 1989's Licence to Kill. Bond is tracking down drug smugglers in his first outing as Bond. There was a smart attempt to inject some more reality into the proceedings. Bond had gotten dull because there was little sense of real danger. The show had become too familiar and a bit bloodless. In this one Dalton's Bond was hurt and had to sweat quite a bit to win the day against Robert Davi, the drug kingpin. Talisa Soto is exotic, and Carey Lowell is exceedingly pretty, but somehow the spark was missing in the Bond Girl corner this time. Anthony Zerbe is a fave of mine and he's delightful as the doomed henchman who actually has the yacht that ties the movie to its source material. 

James Bond Returns in Thunderball. 

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Goldfinger!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

Goldfinger is a great movie, but only a so-so novel. The movie and the novel though both offer up a great villain, the titular "Goldfinger", but both alas share the terrible ending which requires hundreds if not thousands of people to pretend to die. It's somewhat ludicrous that this could be accomplished and seems frankly to be a writer trying to get out of a hole. The novel also has the peculiar lesbian myth that men like Bond can turn such women. It's pretty ludicrous.

In the novel Bond has just wrapped up taking down a heroin smuggling outfit and is headed home for America when a rich American who sat next to Bond at the Casino Royale asks him to help him to discover how a fellow Brit is cheating him at Canasta. With a few days on his hand and being offered a good paycheck for light work, Bond takes up the case.  He encounters Auric Goldfinger for the first time and ruins his scheme. It is of note that the infamous golden girl of the movie does exist, but we only hear about it second hand from her sister Tilly Masterson. Bond finds himself looking to scotch the schemes of Goldfinger and we meet the gruesome Oddjob, a terrifying Koran martial arts master. As in the movie there is a plot to rob the mint at Fort Knox and there is a woman named Pussy Galore. Tilly and Pussy supply the sexual tension in this novel. It's a wild ending for certain, if implausible. 

Goldfinger is often tagged as the gold standard of Bond movies, but for my tastes it falls short in many respects, though still quite diverting in many ways and so comes in as my fourth favorite Bond film. The notion of Bond taking on someone other than SPECTRE is fine and dandy, but the lack of that secret organization's shadow on this story hurts the motivations for me personally. If Goldfinger (portrayed by portly Gert Frobe) had been working for them all along and making monkeys out of the Chinese who seem to be his benefactors, then I'd have liked this one more.

The high points in this are the girls. Both Masterson girls end tragically in this tale, but both go out in memorable fashions. Jill (Shirley Eaton) gets painted gold and has become an icon for the Bond films and Tilly (Tania Mallet) out for revenge gets knocked in the noggin by Oddjob's deadly hat. But the star of the show is the insanely named Pussy Galore played by Honor Blackman, the first woman in the Bond series who can occupy the screen with Connery on equal footing.

The flaw in this one is the finale which is downright stupid. Somehow, we are to think that Bond after converting Pussy to his side with his awesome maleness uses her to undermine Goldfinger's scheme by having hundreds and hundreds of soldiers and others fall down (rather unconvincingly) as the supposed deadly gas passes through them. They all then stay still as legions of Red Chinese soldiers motor into Fort Knox. Then they all jump up and knock down the bad guys when the atomic bomb shows up. The battle between Bond and Oddjob is a classic but the tag ending with Goldfinger while perhaps fitting undercuts the potency of end.

This is the one in which a gleam gets in the eye of the producers, and they start to treat Bond with more humor than is really necessary. It's not readily noticeable in this installment, but the trend will continue until the whole shebang becomes open farce in the post-Connery years. Goldfinger has some dandy scenes, but its overall impact is diminished mightily by its impossible ending. But I do always like to see scenes of Kentucky in a movie of this scale.

James Bond Returns in For Your Eyes Only.

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Doctor No!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

Dr. No is the Bond novel I'm most familiar with, having read it several times. I really like this adventure and enjoyed it a great deal this time, especially in the context of the other stories. Quarrel who alas meets his maker is a great helper for Bond, but his demise has much more weight knowing that he helped Bond in the earlier case against Mr. Big in the earlier novel Live and Let Die. 

One character who gets famously realized on the big screen is Ursula Andress in the star-making role of "Honey Ryder". In the novel her full name is "Honeychild Ryder", and the young lady is rather younger than the statuesque and robustly adult Andress. Honeychild is nearly a feral being, raised by a deceased native who took her on when her parents were killed. Honeychild is a creature of natural beauty who lives in nature, among animals in a den-like home. She is first seen by Bond from behind and is completely naked, and fully comfortable in that capacity. Fleming even refers to this ferocious young woman as a female Tarzan at one point. She even has a distinctive broken nose which reminded me of Tarzan's tell-tale scar, evidence of a deadly struggle in the character's past.

But what really suggestive to me that Fleming was doing an homage of the classic ERB hero is how Honeychild escapes the death-dealing clutches of Dr. No at the end of the novel. Spoilers for those who haven't read the book, since nothing like this happens in the movie. Honeychild escapes her doom by simply knowing nature and trusting in the creatures who are part of it. She is strapped down by the insidious Dr. No so that crabs can lustily nibble at her helpless body, but Honeychild is more familiar with the crabs, and so simply remains motionless as they crawl over her and away. She is never really all that much in danger because of her special understanding of the world hidden from the overly civilized Dr. No. It's interesting to note that Bond himself survived an earlier threat by centipede, though for him it was a supreme test of will and not merely being one with nature.

It's easy enough to see Dr. No as a variation on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu, that's obvious. But Honeychild as a version of Tarzan is a slightly bit more obscured. Though clearly the designers of the cover to the first edition picked up on it rightly enough. So, what you have in this wonderful little pulp feast is James Bond battling Fu Manchu alongside the progeny of Tarzan. It's a right good yarn that.

My all-time favorite James Bond movie hands down is Dr. No. It's a great story well told with a rugged and virile Connery forging a role which had rarely been seen on the big screen. Bond in this movie is not a nice fellow, though often a charming one. He kills in cold blood, the killing of the henchman Professor Dent makes Bond different than other protagonists in movies, he's a killer through and through and his lack of any hesitation or remorse for his victim is stunning. Love the music in this one, the small bits of character, especially in regard to Quarrel, the cantankerous islander who helps Bond despite his superstitions. Felix Leiter never looked better as when he was portrayed by Jack Lord. 

This one has it all, a super-spy luster as Bond races across the world to a remote and exotic location to save world peace when the vile Dr. No is "toppling" U.S. rockets. (It's the same plot used in the Jonny Quest debut episode too, so maybe that's why I love it so.) Dr. No as portrayed by Joeseph Wiseman is a great super-villain, a weirdo with credible but bizarre artificial hands. The Bond of his movie is vulnerable, and Honey Wilder as portrayed by Ursula Andress. She's beautiful for certain and set the standard for future Bond girls.

This one holds up. The subsequent Bond movies only ever struggle to achieve the delightful balance of danger and high romance and frolic this one establishes so effectively. This is my favorite Bond movie starring any of the fine actors who have portrayed the character. It's a product of a time and moment when such conceits were not ironic in the least, just exceedingly cool. They got it right the first time and they never bettered it. 

James Bond Returns in Goldfinger. 

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