From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

I have been making my way through the James Bond franchise. I thought I
would share some thoughts on the movies I watched so far.


I have a new 4K box set of all the Eon produced Sean Connery movies.
All the movies have commentary tracks, but they also have new Dolby
Atmos sound. I decided to skip the commentaries and listen to the Dolby
Atmos tracks, but I did occasionally sample bits of the commentaries.
The rest of the movies I have on blu-ray. They all have commentaries.
Some I listened to the commentary, some randomly have text commentaries
and some I just watched with movie audio while occasionally sampling the commentaries. I'll be referencing both my thoughts on some of the movies
and the trivia from the commentaries.


"Dr. No." and "Goldfinger" were watched, but I have no comments.

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan,
a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a
movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could
have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.


In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that
would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.


I already mentioned I watched the 1967 Casino Royale in a different thread.


"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score
instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg


"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond"
and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.


"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites
growing up. It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it. I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia. Yaphet Kotto, who played the
Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head. He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his
senses and stopped wasting money. Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No." That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery. That blew my mind
to hear.


"The Man with the Golden Gun" - Another Bond flick I've only ever seen
about twice. For some reason it always feels to me like it was the
first Roger Moore, "Bond" movie. Maybe because both this and "Live and
Let Die" were both released before I was born, so their release order
didn't make a difference to me and I just never saw this one until much
later so it felt like an earlier movie. The commentary on this one was
really good because it had Christopher Lee himself talking about the
making of the movie.


"The Spy Who Loved Me" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire
who plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him,
he has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.
After the movie, I thought wasn't this the same plot as "You Only Live
Twice" and googled if it was a remake. According to google it's not a
remake but simply has the same director. So, I learned my lesson and
will never again question if two Bond movies have the same plot or not.


"Moonraker" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed
this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who
plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him, he
has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel. No
comment. OK, a few comments. This was one of my favorites growing up.
Or at least I love the pre-title opening sequence when Bond jumps out an airplane without a parachute, beats up the bad guy and takes the bad
guy's chute. One other thing I'll say, I was eating when they
introduced the "Bond girl," "Dr. Holly Goodhead," I nearly spit my food
out when they said the name.


"For Your Eyes Only" - This one stands out to me as the first Bond I can remember watching on TV when I was a kid. I remember the pre-title
opening where Bond kills "Blofeld" even though he's never acknowledged
to be "Blofeld" it wouldn't be until many, many, years later before I understood the connection of who Blofeld was and why Bond killed him,
other than the obvious self-defense. The other thing that stood out for
me as my first Bond movie, was the wonderful theme song, and opening
credits. That was definitely a way to get a young boy hooked on Bond.

This has to be the very first time I have ever watched this movie and
noticed that "M" was not in it. The actor who played him, Bernard Lee,
had passed away. This might also be the movie where I first realized
that Lois Maxwell who plays "Miss Moneypenny" had been reprising the
role since "Dr. No." Because I came into the series so much later in
life, my perspective on "Miss Moneypenny" growing up was that they
changed the actress every other movie. I just never realized it was the
same actress just getting older.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNksLL0sv4


"Never Say Never Again" - Not a "Eon" produced Bond movie, but I was
hardly going to skip it! It was directed by the same guy who directed
The Empire Strikes Back, how bad can it be? Sean Connery is back in
this remake of "Thunderball" although I certainly didn't see many similarities. In spite of Bond showing his age (I'm telling you,
Connery's Bond, *is* older than Moore's Bond!) it's still a fun outing.

And the video game scene still holds up today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUT5CpgYXMM

And I still love the catchy theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_aJbGrgH-Y


"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever. I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again. I used to watch this
all the time on cable when I was a kid. When they stopped airing "For
Your Eyes Only" in constant rotation, it was replaced by "Octopussy."
On the commentary they said the new "M" was replaced Bernard Lee was a
friend of Roger Moore and Moore recommended him for the part. I
honestly thought maybe the same actor played "M" for all the pre Judi
Dench Bond movies, so this viewing is the first time I learned the
original actor died and they replaced him half way through.

I still remember way back when, watching both "Never Say Never Again"
and "Octopussy" back to back on TV with the host comparing the two
movies and the two Bonds. That was probably the first time the
comparison was brought to my attention and I actually thought about it.
And I'm pretty sure "Never Say Never Again" was the first time I ever
saw a Sean Connery "Bond" movie.


"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one. Overall, I
guess I will finally admit, maybe, just maybe, this isn't a good Bond
movie. OK, there I said it. But, I lived in San Francisco when they
filmed this movie. It was a *huge* deal, especially to a 7-year-old
child. So, it will always hold a special place in my heart.


"The Living Daylights" - Timothy Dalton takes over as Bond. This is one
that for whatever reason I sort of glossed over growing up. I
definitely remember the news stories about Dalton taking over as Bond,
but the movie itself seemed to just come and go so quickly that it never registered with me and fell through the cracks. Watching it again I
think it holds up pretty well.


"License to Kill" - Now this one on the other hand, it seemed to
overshadow "The Living Daylights" perhaps because it's just so much
better that everyone forgot "The Living Daylights" even existed. I
think I appreciate this one much more as an adult than I ever did as a
kid. Basically Bond goes on a rage fueled killing spree after his best
friend Felix (David Hedison who reprised the role from "Live and Let
Die") is fed to a shark. There is so much more that I noticed about the
movie that I never noticed before, especially when it comes to the cast.
The movie full of so many recognizable actors, whose names I didn't
know in 1989, but I know today. And this might be the first time I
noticed Benicio del Toro played a lead henchman. I *knew* I recognized
the face, but not that the face was del Toro's.


And that's as far as I've gotten so far. I should have the rest of the
movies finished by the end of the month.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 2025-08-25 11:43 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

I have been making my way through the James Bond franchise.-a I thought I would share some thoughts on the movies I watched so far.

I have a new 4K box set of all the Eon produced Sean Connery movies. All
the movies have commentary tracks, but they also have new Dolby Atmos sound.-a I decided to skip the commentaries and listen to the Dolby Atmos tracks, but I did occasionally sample bits of the commentaries. The rest
of the movies I have on blu-ray.-a They all have commentaries. Some I listened to the commentary, some randomly have text commentaries and
some I just watched with movie audio while occasionally sampling the commentaries. I'll be referencing both my thoughts on some of the movies
and the trivia from the commentaries.

"Dr. No." and "Goldfinger" were watched, but I have no comments.

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan,
a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only vaguely remember.-a "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember.-a I could have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train.-a I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him.-a By modern standards, that would be rape.-a Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

I already mentioned I watched the 1967 Casino Royale in a different thread.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond movie.-a Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis?-a Bond skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward.-a I sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics.-a That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it.-a I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites growing up.-a It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it.-a I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia.-a Yaphet Kotto, who played the Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head.-a He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his senses and stopped wasting money.-a Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No."-a That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery.-a That blew my mind
to hear.

"The Man with the Golden Gun" - Another Bond flick I've only ever seen
about twice.-a For some reason it always feels to me like it was the
first Roger Moore, "Bond" movie.-a Maybe because both this and "Live and
Let Die" were both released before I was born, so their release order
didn't make a difference to me and I just never saw this one until much later so it felt like an earlier movie.-a The commentary on this one was really good because it had Christopher Lee himself talking about the
making of the movie.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed this one.-a The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who plots to wipe out human civilization.-a But before Bond can stop him,
he has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.
After the movie, I thought wasn't this the same plot as "You Only Live Twice" and googled if it was a remake.-a According to google it's not a remake but simply has the same director.-a So, I learned my lesson and
will never again question if two Bond movies have the same plot or not.

"Moonraker" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed
this one.-a The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who
plots to wipe out human civilization.-a But before Bond can stop him, he
has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.-a No comment.-a OK, a few comments. This was one of my favorites growing up.
Or at least I love the pre-title opening sequence when Bond jumps out an airplane without a parachute, beats up the bad guy and takes the bad
guy's chute.-a One other thing I'll say, I was eating when they
introduced the "Bond girl," "Dr. Holly Goodhead," I nearly spit my food
out when they said the name.

"For Your Eyes Only" - This one stands out to me as the first Bond I can remember watching on TV when I was a kid.-a I remember the pre-title
opening where Bond kills "Blofeld" even though he's never acknowledged
to be "Blofeld" it wouldn't be until many, many, years later before I understood the connection of who Blofeld was and why Bond killed him,
other than the obvious self-defense.-a The other thing that stood out for
me as my first Bond movie, was the wonderful theme song, and opening credits.-a That was definitely a way to get a young boy hooked on Bond.

This has to be the very first time I have ever watched this movie and noticed that "M" was not in it.-a The actor who played him, Bernard Lee,
had passed away.-a This might also be the movie where I first realized
that Lois Maxwell who plays "Miss Moneypenny" had been reprising the
role since "Dr. No."-a Because I came into the series so much later in
life, my perspective on "Miss Moneypenny" growing up was that they
changed the actress every other movie.-a I just never realized it was the same actress just getting older.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNksLL0sv4

You might be interested in knowing that Lois Maxwell was born in
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, a place I know quite well since it's the
town I consider home, even if I wasn't born there. Maxwell came back to
Canada later in life and wrote a column called Moneypenny for the
Toronto Sun. She shared reminiscences of her film career there. I
remember reading them a time or two but I was never a subscriber to the
Sun so didn't see it very often.

I wonder if anyone in Kitchener knows she's a native or if anyone has
put up a historical plaque to commemorate her birthplace? I only just
learned of her Kitchener connection just now when I looked her up in
IMDB. (I *have* seen a commemorative plaque for Mary Pickford, who was actually born in Toronto, although the house is long gone. It's not unthinkable that Maxwell might be remembered similarly, although she was
never nearly as big a star as Mary Pickford had been.) >

"Never Say Never Again" - Not a "Eon" produced Bond movie, but I was
hardly going to skip it!-a It was directed by the same guy who directed
The Empire Strikes Back, how bad can it be?-a Sean Connery is back in
this remake of "Thunderball" although I certainly didn't see many similarities.-a In spite of Bond showing his age (I'm telling you,
Connery's Bond, *is* older than Moore's Bond!) it's still a fun outing.

And the video game scene still holds up today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUT5CpgYXMM

And I still love the catchy theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_aJbGrgH-Y

"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever.-a I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again.-a I used to watch this
all the time on cable when I was a kid.-a When they stopped airing "For
Your Eyes Only" in constant rotation, it was replaced by "Octopussy." On
the commentary they said the new "M" was replaced Bernard Lee was a
friend of Roger Moore and Moore recommended him for the part.-a I
honestly thought maybe the same actor played "M" for all the pre Judi
Dench Bond movies, so this viewing is the first time I learned the
original actor died and they replaced him half way through.

I still remember way back when, watching both "Never Say Never Again"
and "Octopussy" back to back on TV with the host comparing the two
movies and the two Bonds.-a That was probably the first time the
comparison was brought to my attention and I actually thought about it.
And I'm pretty sure "Never Say Never Again" was the first time I ever
saw a Sean Connery "Bond" movie.

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one.-a Overall, I guess I will finally admit, maybe, just maybe, this isn't a good Bond movie.-a OK, there I said it.-a But, I lived in San Francisco when they filmed this movie.-a It was a *huge* deal, especially to a 7-year-old child.-a So, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

"The Living Daylights" - Timothy Dalton takes over as Bond.-a This is one that for whatever reason I sort of glossed over growing up.-a I
definitely remember the news stories about Dalton taking over as Bond,
but the movie itself seemed to just come and go so quickly that it never registered with me and fell through the cracks.-a-a Watching it again I think it holds up pretty well.

"License to Kill" - Now this one on the other hand, it seemed to
overshadow "The Living Daylights" perhaps because it's just so much
better that everyone forgot "The Living Daylights" even existed.-a I
think I appreciate this one much more as an adult than I ever did as a kid.-a Basically Bond goes on a rage fueled killing spree after his best friend Felix (David Hedison who reprised the role from "Live and Let
Die") is fed to a shark.-a There is so much more that I noticed about the movie that I never noticed before, especially when it comes to the cast.
-aThe movie full of so many recognizable actors, whose names I didn't
know in 1989, but I know today.-a And this might be the first time I
noticed Benicio del Toro played a lead henchman.-a I *knew* I recognized
the face, but not that the face was del Toro's.

And that's as far as I've gotten so far.-a I should have the rest of the movies finished by the end of the month.

--
Rhino
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Aug 25, 2025 at 8:43:41 AM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one.

The only thing you can say about it is: Tanya Roberts.


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan,
a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only >vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a >movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could >have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.

This was a great movie. It was produced from one of the later novels
because John F. Kennedy said publicly that he'd just read that novel and thought it would make a good movie.

This has the epic fight with Red Grant, and damn, that was one of the
best choreographed movie fights we've ever seen (but the fight in the
elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, with the same stuntman, is just as
good). Lotte Lenya was terrific as the the henchwoman. Audiences at the
time who were too young to remember saw her made up as an evil-looking
hag but she was truly a great beauty in her younger days.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that >would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

So what was your opinion of the underwater set piece action sequence?
I've always loved it, but this movie has severe critics that the
sequence goes on far too long and should have been better edited.

Did you notice that, because he lost the copyright battle to Kevin
McClory, Ian Fleming received no credit for Thunderball?

James Bond, despite being dressed in the finest evening clothes (that transformed Sean Connery from working class to someone who could move
around in the circles of power), is a thug. He assasinates and murders
people, and he fails to assist at times if it could delay or derail the mission. He outright murdered Prof Dent in Dr. No. In the pre-credit
revenge sequence in Diamonds Are Forever, which was mostly a comedy with
high camp and farcical elements, he tortured a woman for information by strangling her with the top of her two-piece bathing suit till she was convinced to talk.

Roger Moore used one of Q's gadgets to start stripping a woman naked,
clearly misappropriation of British taxpayers' monies.

But the most shocking of all was Daniel Craig romancing the neglected
wife of the terrorist, who desperately wanted to boink him, then failing
to do his duty and satisfy the lady. Her husband murdered her anyway. I shouldn't joke about this one as she was set up to be liked by the
audience. Her death was upsetting and we felt her interaction with James
Bond led to her demise and would have wanted hin to save her.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond >movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score >instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work
at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

Yes, the skiing sequence was a first for James Bond. Skiing in the
tobaggan run was an incredible action sequence. The same stunt team was
used for the excellent skiing action sequences in For Your Eyes Only.

I will also point out that OHMSS would not have been a straight
adaptation of the novel if Sean Connery hadn't resigned after You Only
Live Twice. Things were in disarray. Peter Hunt, a second-unit director,
was given the opportunity to direct. He wanted to avoid another
Goldfinger and the excesses of YOLT, and wasn't given a production
budget large enough to induldge in YOLT's excesses anyway.

If it had been Connery, Hunt wouldn't have directed and it would have
been along the lines of Goldfinger.

The Blofeld trilogy of novels -- FRWL, OHMSS, and YOLT -- were filmed
out of sequence. The winter that year in Switzerland was so bad they put
off production of OHMSS and moved up production of YOLT. The audience
was supposed to ignore Bond and Blofeld not having met. Hell, Blofeld is
dead at the end of YOLT. Yes, I know he got better for DAF.

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond"
and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood? WHy did the car flip
in the alley? Just how the hell was putting Bond in the oil pipe
supposed to kill him? Didn't we just see much of this plot in YOLT? What
was the creamation scene about? And the "Alimentary, Mr. Leiter" gag
doesn't work at all because that means that James Bond had to...

All that being said, the broad comedy largely works. Mr. Wynt and Mr.
Kidd steal every scene they were in. The biggest gag is seeing them
murder so many of the intermediaries when shutting down the diamond
smuggling pipeline, which doesn't faze the audience, but watching them
skip away holding hands is shocking.

"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites >growing up. It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it. I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia. Yaphet Kotto, who played the >Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head. He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his >senses and stopped wasting money. Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No." That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery. That blew my mind
to hear.

You have to understand that Moore was a very good friend of Albert
Broccoli's. Also, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan was considered years earlier.

I don't remember why Moore wasn't considered for OHMSS.

From Broccoli's and Saltzman's perspective, it worked out that Moore
came later. By then, he was an internationally known and well liked
tv star thanks to The Saint.

Interesting story about Kotto.

What do you think about the chase in the bayou? This is criticized for
going on way too long. This time, I agree.

It's simply got the greatest pre-credit sequence in any James Bond
movie.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

"The Man with the Golden Gun" - Another Bond flick I've only ever seen
about twice. For some reason it always feels to me like it was the
first Roger Moore, "Bond" movie. Maybe because both this and "Live and
Let Die" were both released before I was born, so their release order
didn't make a difference to me and I just never saw this one until much >later so it felt like an earlier movie. The commentary on this one was >really good because it had Christopher Lee himself talking about the
making of the movie.

Casting Lee as a villain was both obvious and brilliant. It's too bad it
wasn't a better movie.

This had huge problems. Fleming was dying when he wrote this. He didn't
have a lot of new ideas and essentially redid the train sequence from
FRWL in this novel. The novel opened with a James Bond who had lost his
mind trying to kill Blofeld at the end of YOLT; he'd been shot and
poisoned, as I recall, and abandoned by his service. The opening was interesting but not used in the movie.

The draft novel needed a major rewrite that Fleming couldn't do. It
wasn't completed. Kingsley Amis, who would be assigned to write several
Bond novels by Fleming's estate, finished the novel to the extent it
could be published. This and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a short story collection with an added story that I think hadn't been published in
Playboy were published posthumously.

The solar energy stuff was original to the movie.

The Mary Goodnight character doesn't work too well in the plot, but
Britt Ekland is in a bikini and spends more time in it as her costume
than Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) did in DAF. It's impossible to dislike
her.

The most serious problem is that the plot doesn't know what to do with
Andrea Anders (Maud Adams). She's just sort of meh about whether she's Scaramanga's lover. She doesn't exactly commit to being on the side
of, er, light. She's afraid to leave him and tries to get Bond to kill
him for her. When Scaramanga kills her, it should have meant more to
the audience. It doesn't help that she's gotten the Maguffin away from Scaramanga and into Bond's hands in an absurd plot development, despite
having already been killed.

They brought her back for Octopussy and she's the best thing in that
movie.

I just spotted a mean-spirited article criticizing her for having the
nerve to turn 80 and not looking like the Swedish model and actress she
had been in her heyday. I think she still looks good.

After TMWTGG, Harry Saltzman sold his half of EON to United Artists. In
part, he wanted to fuck with Broccoli, but the studio would have outbid Broccoli regardless. This action accounts for the huge gaps between
certain Bond movies. The Heaven's Gate (1980) destroyed UA. Its
conglomerate wanted out of movies in the worst way. Kirk Kerkorian, who
had already bought MGM out of bankruptcy, bought UA and would merge it
into MGM. MGM would then go bankrupt again... and again. This tied
Bond's future to the disaster that was MGM and there were a lot of years
that MGM just didn't have the cash for a big-budget production. This is
why the John Glen directed Moores tended to have smaller budgets after Moonraker, although I didn't miss the excess, Timothy Dalton "played"
James Bond for six years waiting for his third script to get produced
(it never would be), then the very long delay when Pierce Brosnan
wouldn't get his fifth script produced (I believe there was a script)
and Columbia Studios financed the first two Daniel Craig's. Getting
Columbia on board prevented them from suing MGM over Casino Royale
rights, which Columbia owned, or maybe it didn't. It's confusing.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" >directed this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire
who plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him,
he has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.
After the movie, I thought wasn't this the same plot as "You Only Live >Twice" and googled if it was a remake. According to google it's not a >remake but simply has the same director. So, I learned my lesson and
will never again question if two Bond movies have the same plot or not.

I'm with you. It's a remake. Stromberg (Curt Jurgens) is Blofeld from
YOLT. However, he's a great villain and I don't mind. And yeah, I always confuse which aspects of the space sequences were in YOLT and Moonraker,
and did they just substitute submarines for space craft.

Also, Jaws is a super-human version of Oddjob.

The movie's biggest problem was the obvious dubbing of Barbara Bach, a disservice to her as American audiences just assumed she couldn't act.
There are recordings of her doing the Russian accent in character as
Anya and there's a certain warmth to it.

The second problem was John Barry was effectively fired by Broccoli.
They brought in Marvin Hamlisch who had (undeservedly) won an Oscar for orchestrating Scott Joplin's piano rags for The Sting. Hamlisch's score
is big orchestrated music with a disco beat. It's stuck in the movie era
of Vinnie playing Tony in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Even though
Barry's music is of the '60s, it's iconic. Hamlisch is derivative here.

I like Carly Simon singing the theme song even though, yet again, the
novel's title got forced into it.

You may know that when Fleming sold his (remaining) adaptation rights to Saltzman and Broccoli, he did not sell them rights to this novel. They
could use the title, only. Fleming's novel was a woman's revenge story
that's got James Bond forced into the novel's final third. Fleming
considered the novel to be a failure.

The opening stunt with the parachute is just the greatest such movie
stunt ever. Hell, the story of performing the stunt would make an
exciting movie.

"Moonraker" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed
this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who
plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him, he
has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel. No >comment. OK, a few comments. This was one of my favorites growing up.
Or at least I love the pre-title opening sequence when Bond jumps out an >airplane without a parachute, beats up the bad guy and takes the bad
guy's chute. One other thing I'll say, I was eating when they
introduced the "Bond girl," "Dr. Holly Goodhead," I nearly spit my food
out when they said the name.

Oh, c'mon. You never spotted Fleming's double entendre with Pussy
Galore, which became a triple entendre the way Connery pronounced it?

Sorry but I despise this movie. The novel, with a plot that was stuck in
the 1950s, was Fleming's best novel. I've always wanted the novel
adapted straight, set in the 1950s, maybe for television.

"For Your Eyes Only" - This one stands out to me as the first Bond I can >remember watching on TV when I was a kid. I remember the pre-title
opening where Bond kills "Blofeld" even though he's never acknowledged
to be "Blofeld" it wouldn't be until many, many, years later before I >understood the connection of who Blofeld was and why Bond killed him,
other than the obvious self-defense.

Ahem. It wasn't Blofeld. It wasn't supposed to be Blofeld. It was Kevin
McClory being murdered as he has just filed it 923rd nuisance lawsuit.
McClory had hired Len Deighton to write a James Bond script and Broccoli prevented him from producing it. McClory is an evil bastard (well, all producers are) but Deighton was a great writer and I would have wanted
to see the movie. Instead, McClory produced Never Say Never Again, the Thunderball remake. McClory didn't own anything else.

The other thing that stood out for
me as my first Bond movie, was the wonderful theme song, and opening >credits. That was definitely a way to get a young boy hooked on Bond.

Sheena Easton performing the song naked made it even better.

This has to be the very first time I have ever watched this movie and >noticed that "M" was not in it. The actor who played him, Bernard Lee,
had passed away. This might also be the movie where I first realized
that Lois Maxwell who plays "Miss Moneypenny" had been reprising the
role since "Dr. No." Because I came into the series so much later in
life, my perspective on "Miss Moneypenny" growing up was that they
changed the actress every other movie. I just never realized it was the >same actress just getting older.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNksLL0sv4

Even though Moonraker had a very large gross which justified its very
high production values, the studio had no money for another MR-sized
budget. This movie showed that you could get a hugely-entertaining Bond
movie without the huge budget, and in my opinion, saved the series for
the long run.

It's sort of a remake of FRWL, and I've always joked that Bond simply
returned the same LEKTOR.

With regard to acting, Moore always relied upon wink wink nudge nudge
raise the eyebrow higher back to his days playing The Saint. Well, there
are certain scenes in this movie in which Moore isn't playing his Bond
from TSWLM but Fleming's Bond, especially when he kicks the car the
henchman is in off the ledge so very coldly.

It makes you wish that Moore had had more confidence in his ability to
act over the years.

John Glen yelled at Moore to force him to act.

The parrot is unforgiveable. Otherwise, this was a great movie.

"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever. I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again. . . .

I have fond memories of this as I saw it with my father in theater when
it first came out.

I like Maud Adams a lot in this.

This movie is heavily criticized for putting James Bond in a clown
costume. The critics are wrong. The movie has a circus theme, so it's
part of the circus theme. What, you forgot Sean Connery in the alligator
suit in the stupid Goldfinger pre-credit sequence?

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work, and again, he has another superduper henchman. Note that the villain's backstory gets re-used for Goldeneye.

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one. Overall, I >guess I will finally admit, maybe, just maybe, this isn't a good Bond
movie. OK, there I said it. But, I lived in San Francisco when they
filmed this movie. It was a *huge* deal, especially to a 7-year-old
child. So, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I've mentioned before that a long-ago Usenet poster, who was a real-life
film editor, explained that this movie could have been saved in editing.
There was enough good stuff to edit it into a good movie.

Why would you have John Steed in your movie, only to kill him off early?

Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny, a real life friend of Moore's, leaves the
series.

"The Living Daylights" - Timothy Dalton takes over as Bond. This is one >that for whatever reason I sort of glossed over growing up. I
definitely remember the news stories about Dalton taking over as Bond,
but the movie itself seemed to just come and go so quickly that it never >registered with me and fell through the cracks. Watching it again I
think it holds up pretty well.

Note that Broccoli did not want to recast Bond. This started out as a
script for Moore. Then Pierce Brosnan was considered but as we know
couldn't get out of his Remmington Steele contract, which is some
serious fuck. If you weren't a studio executive, whose main job is to
fuck over rival studios, but instead thought like a normal person, it
might occur to you that if the male lead of your tv series was cast as
the next James Bond that it would bring huge viewership to your tv
series, you'd coordinate production schedules so he could appear in
both. Then there was crap about not wanting a tv actor to play Bond.
What the hell was Roger Moore?

In any event, since they weren't doing Casino Royale at this point,
Brosnan was too young.

Dalton is a great actor. The script's a bit weak and his performance is
so much better than the script. He wears evening clothes in every single
scene.

Walter Gotell's last time playing General Gogol. For reasons I've never understood, the character was not used in the Pierce Brosnan movies.

"License to Kill" - Now this one on the other hand, it seemed to
overshadow "The Living Daylights" perhaps because it's just so much
better that everyone forgot "The Living Daylights" even existed. I
think I appreciate this one much more as an adult than I ever did as a
kid. Basically Bond goes on a rage fueled killing spree after his best >friend Felix (David Hedison who reprised the role from "Live and Let
Die") is fed to a shark. There is so much more that I noticed about the >movie that I never noticed before, especially when it comes to the cast.
The movie full of so many recognizable actors, whose names I didn't
know in 1989, but I know today. And this might be the first time I
noticed Benicio del Toro played a lead henchman. I *knew* I recognized
the face, but not that the face was del Toro's.

I love this movie. I love the set-piece chase... with tanker trucks!
Spell it the British way! Licence! (This was controversial at the time.)

John Glen's last time directing Bond. Robert Brown's last time playing
M. Caroline Bliss would not return to play Moneypenny in the Brosnan
movies. What was that asshole Wayne Newton doing in this movie?

Felix Leiter getting married then losing his arm was from the novel
Live and Let Die, so it made sense not to recast Leiter for the 274th time.

You've now got six years to wait for Brosnan's movie to be released into theaters! MGM has gone bankrtupt again!
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

Aug 25, 2025 8:43:41 AM PDT Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>:

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one.

The only thing you can say about it is: Tanya Roberts.

Who was She?
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 2025-08-25 15:43:41 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:

I have been making my way through the James Bond franchise. I thought
I would share some thoughts on the movies I watched so far.

I have a new 4K box set of all the Eon produced Sean Connery movies.
All the movies have commentary tracks, but they also have new Dolby
Atmos sound. I decided to skip the commentaries and listen to the
Dolby Atmos tracks, but I did occasionally sample bits of the
commentaries. The rest of the movies I have on blu-ray. They all have commentaries. Some I listened to the commentary, some randomly have
text commentaries and some I just watched with movie audio while occasionally sampling the commentaries. I'll be referencing both my
thoughts on some of the movies and the trivia from the commentaries.

My Bond DVD collection consists of all the Connery movies, "The Spy Who
Loved Me," and the Craig movies with the exception of "No Time To Die"
which I haven't gotten around to buying yet.

"Dr. No." and "Goldfinger" were watched, but I have no comments.

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond
fan, a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many
I only vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the
category of a movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond and a female villain on top of a train. I was
actually looking forward to seeing that ending and was genuinely
surprised when it didn't happen.

I believe when United Artists released "From Russia With Love" they
bundled it with the previous year's "Dr. No," for those who didn't get
on the Bond train at the very start. Or maybe some of the theaters in
smaller markets like mine didn't even screen "Dr. No." in 1962. At
least I have a vivid memory of seeing both of them together in the
theater.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards,
that would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever
seen maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

Nah she was just playing hard to get, lol. Very pretty but still not as gorgeous as Goldfinger's "golden girl."

I already mentioned I watched the 1967 Casino Royale in a different thread.

That's more attention than it deserves IMO, lol.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this
Bond movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis?
Bond skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward.

I don't recall a previous one that involved skis. Or bobsleds, lol.

I sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a
score instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to
make a good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics.
That being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Yes I like the score too, great John Barry opening theme. I even had
the soundtrack on vinyl at one point.

I remember watching this one time on ABC and they totally screwed
around with it -- putting scenes in a different sequence and maybe even
adding narration -- in an apparent attempt to improve it. I can't
believe the studio consented to this.

"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever. I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again. I used to watch this
all the time on cable when I was a kid. When they stopped airing "For
Your Eyes Only" in constant rotation, it was replaced by "Octopussy."

It was TBS that used to air the Bond movies regularly in the '90s,
IIRC. TBS is pretty worthless now, at least to me. Although they (and
sister TNT) do show some playoff basketball and baseball games I'll
watch.

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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan,
a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only
vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a
movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could
have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.

This was a great movie. It was produced from one of the later novels
because John F. Kennedy said publicly that he'd just read that novel and thought it would make a good movie.

This has the epic fight with Red Grant, and damn, that was one of the
best choreographed movie fights we've ever seen (but the fight in the elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, with the same stuntman, is just as
good). Lotte Lenya was terrific as the the henchwoman. Audiences at the
time who were too young to remember saw her made up as an evil-looking
hag but she was truly a great beauty in her younger days.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that
would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

So what was your opinion of the underwater set piece action sequence?
I've always loved it, but this movie has severe critics that the
sequence goes on far too long and should have been better edited.

The underwater sequence was OK. Going in, the underwater sequence was
the only thing I even vaguely remembered about Thunderball.

Did you notice that, because he lost the copyright battle to Kevin
McClory, Ian Fleming received no credit for Thunderball?

No. I was watching the opening credits for all the movies, but more for
the music and visuals. I wasn't really paying attention to the cast and
crew.

James Bond, despite being dressed in the finest evening clothes (that transformed Sean Connery from working class to someone who could move
around in the circles of power), is a thug. He assasinates and murders people,

Yeah, the said almost exactly that on one of the commentary tracks. It
might have been for this movie. LOL. But I didn't watch any of the
Connery movies with the commentaries, only snippets for specific scenes
I was curious what they had to say about.


and he fails to assist at times if it could delay or derail the

mission. He outright murdered Prof Dent in Dr. No. In the pre-credit
revenge sequence in Diamonds Are Forever, which was mostly a comedy with
high camp and farcical elements, he tortured a woman for information by strangling her with the top of her two-piece bathing suit till she was convinced to talk.

Roger Moore used one of Q's gadgets to start stripping a woman naked,
clearly misappropriation of British taxpayers' monies.

If you are referring to the scene with the magnetic watch, they talked
about that on the commentary. They said it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable to film. I don't get why, all they did was lower a
zipper. But apparently to hide the mechanics of lowering the zipper in
a confined space it was harder than it looked.

But the most shocking of all was Daniel Craig romancing the neglected
wife of the terrorist, who desperately wanted to boink him, then failing
to do his duty and satisfy the lady. Her husband murdered her anyway. I shouldn't joke about this one as she was set up to be liked by the
audience. Her death was upsetting and we felt her interaction with James
Bond led to her demise and would have wanted hin to save her.

I don't remember this. I should hopefully get to the Craigs really soon.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond
movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score
instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work
at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.


But they could have tried lyrics for Dr. No. How about, "Doctor Nooo.
He's the man, the man with the iron hand. A grip of death..." LOL

Yes, the skiing sequence was a first for James Bond. Skiing in the
tobaggan run was an incredible action sequence. The same stunt team was
used for the excellent skiing action sequences in For Your Eyes Only.

I will also point out that OHMSS would not have been a straight
adaptation of the novel if Sean Connery hadn't resigned after You Only
Live Twice.

They mentioned on the commentary that it was a straight adaptation. I
think they said the director wanted it that way.

Things were in disarray. Peter Hunt, a second-unit director,

was given the opportunity to direct. He wanted to avoid another
Goldfinger and the excesses of YOLT, and wasn't given a production
budget large enough to induldge in YOLT's excesses anyway.

If it had been Connery, Hunt wouldn't have directed and it would have
been along the lines of Goldfinger.

The Blofeld trilogy of novels -- FRWL, OHMSS, and YOLT -- were filmed
out of sequence. The winter that year in Switzerland was so bad they put
off production of OHMSS and moved up production of YOLT. The audience
was supposed to ignore Bond and Blofeld not having met. Hell, Blofeld is
dead at the end of YOLT. Yes, I know he got better for DAF.

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond"
and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

WHy did the car flip in the alley?

Now for that scene, I went back wand rewatched with the commentary!!! LOL
They said they didn't notice the error until after they had wrapped up
filming and left the location and by that time it was too late to
anything about it, so they dubbed in a line where Bond says to lean the
other direction.


Just how the hell was putting Bond in the oil pipe

supposed to kill him? Didn't we just see much of this plot in YOLT? What
was the creamation scene about? And the "Alimentary, Mr. Leiter" gag
doesn't work at all because that means that James Bond had to...

All that being said, the broad comedy largely works. Mr. Wynt and Mr.
Kidd steal every scene they were in. The biggest gag is seeing them
murder so many of the intermediaries when shutting down the diamond
smuggling pipeline, which doesn't faze the audience, but watching them
skip away holding hands is shocking.

I turned the commentary on for that too. They said the actor, Bruce
Glover (Crispin Glover's father) played a prank on Sean Connery and
convinced him they were really gay. And Connery didn't learn the truth
until much later after the film wrapped and he saw Glover hitting on a
woman.

"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites
growing up. It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it. I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia. Yaphet Kotto, who played the
Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head. He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his
senses and stopped wasting money. Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No." That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery. That blew my mind
to hear.

You have to understand that Moore was a very good friend of Albert Broccoli's. Also, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan was considered years earlier.

I don't remember why Moore wasn't considered for OHMSS.

From Broccoli's and Saltzman's perspective, it worked out that Moore
came later. By then, he was an internationally known and well liked
tv star thanks to The Saint.

Interesting story about Kotto.

What do you think about the chase in the bayou? This is criticized for
going on way too long. This time, I agree.

Maybe it's a bit long, but I don't care.

It's simply got the greatest pre-credit sequence in any James Bond
movie.

For me "Moonraker" has the best pre-credit sequence. But I do love the
Paul McCartney theme song.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character? I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

"The Man with the Golden Gun" - Another Bond flick I've only ever seen
about twice. For some reason it always feels to me like it was the
first Roger Moore, "Bond" movie. Maybe because both this and "Live and
Let Die" were both released before I was born, so their release order
didn't make a difference to me and I just never saw this one until much
later so it felt like an earlier movie. The commentary on this one was
really good because it had Christopher Lee himself talking about the
making of the movie.

Casting Lee as a villain was both obvious and brilliant. It's too bad it wasn't a better movie.

This had huge problems. Fleming was dying when he wrote this. He didn't
have a lot of new ideas and essentially redid the train sequence from
FRWL in this novel. The novel opened with a James Bond who had lost his
mind trying to kill Blofeld at the end of YOLT; he'd been shot and
poisoned, as I recall, and abandoned by his service. The opening was interesting but not used in the movie.

The draft novel needed a major rewrite that Fleming couldn't do. It
wasn't completed. Kingsley Amis, who would be assigned to write several
Bond novels by Fleming's estate, finished the novel to the extent it
could be published. This and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a short story collection with an added story that I think hadn't been published in
Playboy were published posthumously.

If I'm not mistaken, I think Lee on his commentary said something along
the lines that the plot in these movies didn't matter or make sense.
That once you got the opening exposition out of the way the rest didn't
really matter any more. Or words to that effect.

The solar energy stuff was original to the movie.

I completely missed what they were trying to do and didn't care enough
to go back and find out.

The Mary Goodnight character doesn't work too well in the plot, but
Britt Ekland is in a bikini and spends more time in it as her costume
than Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) did in DAF. It's impossible to dislike
her.

The most serious problem is that the plot doesn't know what to do with
Andrea Anders

She looks a lot like Octopussy. ;-)


(Maud Adams). She's just sort of meh about whether she's

Scaramanga's lover. She doesn't exactly commit to being on the side
of, er, light. She's afraid to leave him and tries to get Bond to kill
him for her. When Scaramanga kills her, it should have meant more to
the audience. It doesn't help that she's gotten the Maguffin away from Scaramanga and into Bond's hands in an absurd plot development, despite having already been killed.

They brought her back for Octopussy and she's the best thing in that
movie.

I just spotted a mean-spirited article criticizing her for having the
nerve to turn 80 and not looking like the Swedish model and actress she
had been in her heyday. I think she still looks good.

After TMWTGG, Harry Saltzman sold his half of EON to United Artists. In
part, he wanted to fuck with Broccoli, but the studio would have outbid Broccoli regardless. This action accounts for the huge gaps between
certain Bond movies. The Heaven's Gate (1980) destroyed UA. Its
conglomerate wanted out of movies in the worst way. Kirk Kerkorian, who
had already bought MGM out of bankruptcy, bought UA and would merge it
into MGM. MGM would then go bankrupt again... and again. This tied
Bond's future to the disaster that was MGM and there were a lot of years
that MGM just didn't have the cash for a big-budget production. This is
why the John Glen directed Moores tended to have smaller budgets after Moonraker, although I didn't miss the excess, Timothy Dalton "played"
James Bond for six years waiting for his third script to get produced
(it never would be), then the very long delay when Pierce Brosnan
wouldn't get his fifth script produced (I believe there was a script)
and Columbia Studios financed the first two Daniel Craig's. Getting
Columbia on board prevented them from suing MGM over Casino Royale
rights, which Columbia owned, or maybe it didn't. It's confusing.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice"
directed this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire
who plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him,
he has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.
After the movie, I thought wasn't this the same plot as "You Only Live
Twice" and googled if it was a remake. According to google it's not a
remake but simply has the same director. So, I learned my lesson and
will never again question if two Bond movies have the same plot or not.

I'm with you. It's a remake. Stromberg (Curt Jurgens) is Blofeld from
YOLT. However, he's a great villain and I don't mind. And yeah, I always confuse which aspects of the space sequences were in YOLT and Moonraker,
and did they just substitute submarines for space craft.

Also, Jaws is a super-human version of Oddjob.

The movie's biggest problem was the obvious dubbing of Barbara Bach, a disservice to her as American audiences just assumed she couldn't act.
There are recordings of her doing the Russian accent in character as
Anya and there's a certain warmth to it.

The second problem was John Barry was effectively fired by Broccoli.
They brought in Marvin Hamlisch who had (undeservedly) won an Oscar for orchestrating Scott Joplin's piano rags for The Sting. Hamlisch's score
is big orchestrated music with a disco beat. It's stuck in the movie era
of Vinnie playing Tony in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Even though
Barry's music is of the '60s, it's iconic. Hamlisch is derivative here.

I like Carly Simon singing the theme song even though, yet again, the
novel's title got forced into it.

You may know that when Fleming sold his (remaining) adaptation rights to Saltzman and Broccoli, he did not sell them rights to this novel. They
could use the title, only. Fleming's novel was a woman's revenge story
that's got James Bond forced into the novel's final third. Fleming
considered the novel to be a failure.

The opening stunt with the parachute is just the greatest such movie
stunt ever. Hell, the story of performing the stunt would make an
exciting movie.

They mentioned briefly the guy almost died when the ski nearly hit the parachute. You can see it happen during the stunt.

"Moonraker" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed
this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who
plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him, he
has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel. No
comment. OK, a few comments. This was one of my favorites growing up.
Or at least I love the pre-title opening sequence when Bond jumps out an
airplane without a parachute, beats up the bad guy and takes the bad
guy's chute. One other thing I'll say, I was eating when they
introduced the "Bond girl," "Dr. Holly Goodhead," I nearly spit my food
out when they said the name.

Oh, c'mon. You never spotted Fleming's double entendre with Pussy
Galore, which became a triple entendre the way Connery pronounced it?

I didn't watch the movies in release order. I wasn't even born when the
the Connery and a chunk of the Moore movies were released. I was only 2
when Moonraker came out and however old I was when I saw it for the
first time, I assure you the entredre went right over my head. LOL

Sorry but I despise this movie. The novel, with a plot that was stuck in
the 1950s, was Fleming's best novel. I've always wanted the novel
adapted straight, set in the 1950s, maybe for television.

"For Your Eyes Only" - This one stands out to me as the first Bond I can
remember watching on TV when I was a kid. I remember the pre-title
opening where Bond kills "Blofeld" even though he's never acknowledged
to be "Blofeld" it wouldn't be until many, many, years later before I
understood the connection of who Blofeld was and why Bond killed him,
other than the obvious self-defense.

snip

With regard to acting, Moore always relied upon wink wink nudge nudge
raise the eyebrow higher back to his days playing The Saint. Well, there
are certain scenes in this movie in which Moore isn't playing his Bond
from TSWLM but Fleming's Bond, especially when he kicks the car the
henchman is in off the ledge so very coldly.

Yes! I noticed that as well.

It makes you wish that Moore had had more confidence in his ability to
act over the years.

John Glen yelled at Moore to force him to act.

The parrot is unforgiveable. Otherwise, this was a great movie.

"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever. I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again. . . .

I have fond memories of this as I saw it with my father in theater when
it first came out.

Because of my age and when they were released, I don't think I was ever
taken to a Bond movie by my father. :-(

I like Maud Adams a lot in this.

This movie is heavily criticized for putting James Bond in a clown
costume. The critics are wrong. The movie has a circus theme, so it's
part of the circus theme. What, you forgot Sean Connery in the alligator
suit in the stupid Goldfinger pre-credit sequence?

I don't get what's to complain about. Bond in the clown costume is one
of the most memorable aspects of the movie.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?


and again, he has another

superduper henchman. Note that the villain's backstory gets re-used for Goldeneye.

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one. Overall, I
guess I will finally admit, maybe, just maybe, this isn't a good Bond
movie. OK, there I said it. But, I lived in San Francisco when they
filmed this movie. It was a *huge* deal, especially to a 7-year-old
child. So, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I've mentioned before that a long-ago Usenet poster, who was a real-life
film editor, explained that this movie could have been saved in editing. There was enough good stuff to edit it into a good movie.

Why would you have John Steed in your movie, only to kill him off early?

This viewing was the first time while watching that I actually
recognized him. Although, never seeing "The Avengers" before I
recognized him as the actor from "Waxwork."

Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny, a real life friend of Moore's, leaves the
series.

"The Living Daylights" - Timothy Dalton takes over as Bond. This is one
that for whatever reason I sort of glossed over growing up. I
definitely remember the news stories about Dalton taking over as Bond,
but the movie itself seemed to just come and go so quickly that it never
registered with me and fell through the cracks. Watching it again I
think it holds up pretty well.

snip

Dalton is a great actor. The script's a bit weak and his performance is
so much better than the script. He wears evening clothes in every single scene.

I don't think I noticed that.

Walter Gotell's last time playing General Gogol. For reasons I've never understood, the character was not used in the Pierce Brosnan movies.

"License to Kill" - Now this one on the other hand, it seemed to
overshadow "The Living Daylights" perhaps because it's just so much
better that everyone forgot "The Living Daylights" even existed. I
think I appreciate this one much more as an adult than I ever did as a
kid. Basically Bond goes on a rage fueled killing spree after his best
friend Felix (David Hedison who reprised the role from "Live and Let
Die") is fed to a shark. There is so much more that I noticed about the
movie that I never noticed before, especially when it comes to the cast.
The movie full of so many recognizable actors, whose names I didn't
know in 1989, but I know today. And this might be the first time I
noticed Benicio del Toro played a lead henchman. I *knew* I recognized
the face, but not that the face was del Toro's.

I love this movie. I love the set-piece chase... with tanker trucks!
Spell it the British way! Licence! (This was controversial at the time.)

John Glen's last time directing Bond. Robert Brown's last time playing
M. Caroline Bliss would not return to play Moneypenny in the Brosnan
movies. What was that asshole Wayne Newton doing in this movie?

Felix Leiter getting married then losing his arm was from the novel
Live and Let Die, so it made sense not to recast Leiter for the 274th time.

You've now got six years to wait for Brosnan's movie to be released into theaters! MGM has gone bankrtupt again!

Brosnan was the first Bond I saw in the theaters. I was old enough to
take myself by that point. At the time, Bond being back was a huge deal.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan,
a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only
vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a
movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could
have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.

This was a great movie. It was produced from one of the later novels
because John F. Kennedy said publicly that he'd just read that novel and thought it would make a good movie.

This has the epic fight with Red Grant, and damn, that was one of the
best choreographed movie fights we've ever seen (but the fight in the elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, with the same stuntman, is just as
good). Lotte Lenya was terrific as the the henchwoman. Audiences at the
time who were too young to remember saw her made up as an evil-looking
hag but she was truly a great beauty in her younger days.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that
would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

So what was your opinion of the underwater set piece action sequence?
I've always loved it, but this movie has severe critics that the
sequence goes on far too long and should have been better edited.

The underwater sequence was OK. Going in, the underwater sequence was
the only thing I even vaguely remembered about Thunderball.

Did you notice that, because he lost the copyright battle to Kevin
McClory, Ian Fleming received no credit for Thunderball?

No. I was watching the opening credits for all the movies, but more for
the music and visuals. I wasn't really paying attention to the cast and
crew.

James Bond, despite being dressed in the finest evening clothes (that transformed Sean Connery from working class to someone who could move
around in the circles of power), is a thug. He assasinates and murders people,

Yeah, the said almost exactly that on one of the commentary tracks. It
might have been for this movie. LOL. But I didn't watch any of the
Connery movies with the commentaries, only snippets for specific scenes
I was curious what they had to say about.


and he fails to assist at times if it could delay or derail the

mission. He outright murdered Prof Dent in Dr. No. In the pre-credit
revenge sequence in Diamonds Are Forever, which was mostly a comedy with
high camp and farcical elements, he tortured a woman for information by strangling her with the top of her two-piece bathing suit till she was convinced to talk.

Roger Moore used one of Q's gadgets to start stripping a woman naked,
clearly misappropriation of British taxpayers' monies.

If you are referring to the scene with the magnetic watch, they talked
about that on the commentary. They said it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable to film. I don't get why, all they did was lower a
zipper. But apparently to hide the mechanics of lowering the zipper in
a confined space it was harder than it looked.

But the most shocking of all was Daniel Craig romancing the neglected
wife of the terrorist, who desperately wanted to boink him, then failing
to do his duty and satisfy the lady. Her husband murdered her anyway. I shouldn't joke about this one as she was set up to be liked by the
audience. Her death was upsetting and we felt her interaction with James
Bond led to her demise and would have wanted hin to save her.

I don't remember this. I should hopefully get to the Craigs really soon.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond
movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score
instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work
at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.


But they could have tried lyrics for Dr. No. How about, "Doctor Nooo.
He's the man, the man with the iron hand. A grip of death..." LOL

Yes, the skiing sequence was a first for James Bond. Skiing in the
tobaggan run was an incredible action sequence. The same stunt team was
used for the excellent skiing action sequences in For Your Eyes Only.

I will also point out that OHMSS would not have been a straight
adaptation of the novel if Sean Connery hadn't resigned after You Only
Live Twice.

They mentioned on the commentary that it was a straight adaptation. I
think they said the director wanted it that way.

Things were in disarray. Peter Hunt, a second-unit director,

was given the opportunity to direct. He wanted to avoid another
Goldfinger and the excesses of YOLT, and wasn't given a production
budget large enough to induldge in YOLT's excesses anyway.

If it had been Connery, Hunt wouldn't have directed and it would have
been along the lines of Goldfinger.

The Blofeld trilogy of novels -- FRWL, OHMSS, and YOLT -- were filmed
out of sequence. The winter that year in Switzerland was so bad they put
off production of OHMSS and moved up production of YOLT. The audience
was supposed to ignore Bond and Blofeld not having met. Hell, Blofeld is
dead at the end of YOLT. Yes, I know he got better for DAF.

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond"
and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

WHy did the car flip in the alley?

Now for that scene, I went back wand rewatched with the commentary!!! LOL
They said they didn't notice the error until after they had wrapped up
filming and left the location and by that time it was too late to
anything about it, so they dubbed in a line where Bond says to lean the
other direction.


Just how the hell was putting Bond in the oil pipe

supposed to kill him? Didn't we just see much of this plot in YOLT? What
was the creamation scene about? And the "Alimentary, Mr. Leiter" gag
doesn't work at all because that means that James Bond had to...

All that being said, the broad comedy largely works. Mr. Wynt and Mr.
Kidd steal every scene they were in. The biggest gag is seeing them
murder so many of the intermediaries when shutting down the diamond
smuggling pipeline, which doesn't faze the audience, but watching them
skip away holding hands is shocking.

I turned the commentary on for that too. They said the actor, Bruce
Glover (Crispin Glover's father) played a prank on Sean Connery and
convinced him they were really gay. And Connery didn't learn the truth
until much later after the film wrapped and he saw Glover hitting on a
woman.

"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites
growing up. It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it. I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia. Yaphet Kotto, who played the
Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head. He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his
senses and stopped wasting money. Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No." That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery. That blew my mind
to hear.

You have to understand that Moore was a very good friend of Albert Broccoli's. Also, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan was considered years earlier.

I don't remember why Moore wasn't considered for OHMSS.

From Broccoli's and Saltzman's perspective, it worked out that Moore
came later. By then, he was an internationally known and well liked
tv star thanks to The Saint.

Interesting story about Kotto.

What do you think about the chase in the bayou? This is criticized for
going on way too long. This time, I agree.

Maybe it's a bit long, but I don't care.

It's simply got the greatest pre-credit sequence in any James Bond
movie.

For me "Moonraker" has the best pre-credit sequence. But I do love the
Paul McCartney theme song.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character? I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

"The Man with the Golden Gun" - Another Bond flick I've only ever seen
about twice. For some reason it always feels to me like it was the
first Roger Moore, "Bond" movie. Maybe because both this and "Live and
Let Die" were both released before I was born, so their release order
didn't make a difference to me and I just never saw this one until much
later so it felt like an earlier movie. The commentary on this one was
really good because it had Christopher Lee himself talking about the
making of the movie.

Casting Lee as a villain was both obvious and brilliant. It's too bad it wasn't a better movie.

This had huge problems. Fleming was dying when he wrote this. He didn't
have a lot of new ideas and essentially redid the train sequence from
FRWL in this novel. The novel opened with a James Bond who had lost his
mind trying to kill Blofeld at the end of YOLT; he'd been shot and
poisoned, as I recall, and abandoned by his service. The opening was interesting but not used in the movie.

The draft novel needed a major rewrite that Fleming couldn't do. It
wasn't completed. Kingsley Amis, who would be assigned to write several
Bond novels by Fleming's estate, finished the novel to the extent it
could be published. This and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a short story collection with an added story that I think hadn't been published in
Playboy were published posthumously.

If I'm not mistaken, I think Lee on his commentary said something along
the lines that the plot in these movies didn't matter or make sense.
That once you got the opening exposition out of the way the rest didn't
really matter any more. Or words to that effect.

The solar energy stuff was original to the movie.

I completely missed what they were trying to do and didn't care enough
to go back and find out.

The Mary Goodnight character doesn't work too well in the plot, but
Britt Ekland is in a bikini and spends more time in it as her costume
than Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) did in DAF. It's impossible to dislike
her.

The most serious problem is that the plot doesn't know what to do with
Andrea Anders

She looks a lot like Octopussy. ;-)


(Maud Adams). She's just sort of meh about whether she's

Scaramanga's lover. She doesn't exactly commit to being on the side
of, er, light. She's afraid to leave him and tries to get Bond to kill
him for her. When Scaramanga kills her, it should have meant more to
the audience. It doesn't help that she's gotten the Maguffin away from Scaramanga and into Bond's hands in an absurd plot development, despite having already been killed.

They brought her back for Octopussy and she's the best thing in that
movie.

I just spotted a mean-spirited article criticizing her for having the
nerve to turn 80 and not looking like the Swedish model and actress she
had been in her heyday. I think she still looks good.

After TMWTGG, Harry Saltzman sold his half of EON to United Artists. In
part, he wanted to fuck with Broccoli, but the studio would have outbid Broccoli regardless. This action accounts for the huge gaps between
certain Bond movies. The Heaven's Gate (1980) destroyed UA. Its
conglomerate wanted out of movies in the worst way. Kirk Kerkorian, who
had already bought MGM out of bankruptcy, bought UA and would merge it
into MGM. MGM would then go bankrupt again... and again. This tied
Bond's future to the disaster that was MGM and there were a lot of years
that MGM just didn't have the cash for a big-budget production. This is
why the John Glen directed Moores tended to have smaller budgets after Moonraker, although I didn't miss the excess, Timothy Dalton "played"
James Bond for six years waiting for his third script to get produced
(it never would be), then the very long delay when Pierce Brosnan
wouldn't get his fifth script produced (I believe there was a script)
and Columbia Studios financed the first two Daniel Craig's. Getting
Columbia on board prevented them from suing MGM over Casino Royale
rights, which Columbia owned, or maybe it didn't. It's confusing.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice"
directed this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire
who plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him,
he has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel.
After the movie, I thought wasn't this the same plot as "You Only Live
Twice" and googled if it was a remake. According to google it's not a
remake but simply has the same director. So, I learned my lesson and
will never again question if two Bond movies have the same plot or not.

I'm with you. It's a remake. Stromberg (Curt Jurgens) is Blofeld from
YOLT. However, he's a great villain and I don't mind. And yeah, I always confuse which aspects of the space sequences were in YOLT and Moonraker,
and did they just substitute submarines for space craft.

Also, Jaws is a super-human version of Oddjob.

The movie's biggest problem was the obvious dubbing of Barbara Bach, a disservice to her as American audiences just assumed she couldn't act.
There are recordings of her doing the Russian accent in character as
Anya and there's a certain warmth to it.

The second problem was John Barry was effectively fired by Broccoli.
They brought in Marvin Hamlisch who had (undeservedly) won an Oscar for orchestrating Scott Joplin's piano rags for The Sting. Hamlisch's score
is big orchestrated music with a disco beat. It's stuck in the movie era
of Vinnie playing Tony in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Even though
Barry's music is of the '60s, it's iconic. Hamlisch is derivative here.

I like Carly Simon singing the theme song even though, yet again, the
novel's title got forced into it.

You may know that when Fleming sold his (remaining) adaptation rights to Saltzman and Broccoli, he did not sell them rights to this novel. They
could use the title, only. Fleming's novel was a woman's revenge story
that's got James Bond forced into the novel's final third. Fleming
considered the novel to be a failure.

The opening stunt with the parachute is just the greatest such movie
stunt ever. Hell, the story of performing the stunt would make an
exciting movie.

They mentioned briefly the guy almost died when the ski nearly hit the parachute. You can see it happen during the stunt.

"Moonraker" Lewis Gilbert, director of "You Only Live Twice" directed
this one. The plot has Bond trying to stop an evil billionaire who
plots to wipe out human civilization. But before Bond can stop him, he
has to get past a henchman called "Jaws" played by Richard Kiel. No
comment. OK, a few comments. This was one of my favorites growing up.
Or at least I love the pre-title opening sequence when Bond jumps out an
airplane without a parachute, beats up the bad guy and takes the bad
guy's chute. One other thing I'll say, I was eating when they
introduced the "Bond girl," "Dr. Holly Goodhead," I nearly spit my food
out when they said the name.

Oh, c'mon. You never spotted Fleming's double entendre with Pussy
Galore, which became a triple entendre the way Connery pronounced it?

I didn't watch the movies in release order. I wasn't even born when the
the Connery and a chunk of the Moore movies were released. I was only 2
when Moonraker came out and however old I was when I saw it for the
first time, I assure you the entredre went right over my head. LOL

Sorry but I despise this movie. The novel, with a plot that was stuck in
the 1950s, was Fleming's best novel. I've always wanted the novel
adapted straight, set in the 1950s, maybe for television.

"For Your Eyes Only" - This one stands out to me as the first Bond I can
remember watching on TV when I was a kid. I remember the pre-title
opening where Bond kills "Blofeld" even though he's never acknowledged
to be "Blofeld" it wouldn't be until many, many, years later before I
understood the connection of who Blofeld was and why Bond killed him,
other than the obvious self-defense.

snip

With regard to acting, Moore always relied upon wink wink nudge nudge
raise the eyebrow higher back to his days playing The Saint. Well, there
are certain scenes in this movie in which Moore isn't playing his Bond
from TSWLM but Fleming's Bond, especially when he kicks the car the
henchman is in off the ledge so very coldly.

Yes! I noticed that as well.

It makes you wish that Moore had had more confidence in his ability to
act over the years.

John Glen yelled at Moore to force him to act.

The parrot is unforgiveable. Otherwise, this was a great movie.

"Octopussy" - I have not seen this one in forever. I was really,
really, looking forward to seeing this one again. . . .

I have fond memories of this as I saw it with my father in theater when
it first came out.

Because of my age and when they were released, I don't think I was ever
taken to a Bond movie by my father. :-(

I like Maud Adams a lot in this.

This movie is heavily criticized for putting James Bond in a clown
costume. The critics are wrong. The movie has a circus theme, so it's
part of the circus theme. What, you forgot Sean Connery in the alligator
suit in the stupid Goldfinger pre-credit sequence?

I don't get what's to complain about. Bond in the clown costume is one
of the most memorable aspects of the movie.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?


and again, he has another

superduper henchman. Note that the villain's backstory gets re-used for Goldeneye.

"A View to a Kill" - There's not much to say about this one. Overall, I
guess I will finally admit, maybe, just maybe, this isn't a good Bond
movie. OK, there I said it. But, I lived in San Francisco when they
filmed this movie. It was a *huge* deal, especially to a 7-year-old
child. So, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I've mentioned before that a long-ago Usenet poster, who was a real-life
film editor, explained that this movie could have been saved in editing. There was enough good stuff to edit it into a good movie.

Why would you have John Steed in your movie, only to kill him off early?

This viewing was the first time while watching that I actually
recognized him. Although, never seeing "The Avengers" before I
recognized him as the actor from "Waxwork."

Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny, a real life friend of Moore's, leaves the
series.

"The Living Daylights" - Timothy Dalton takes over as Bond. This is one
that for whatever reason I sort of glossed over growing up. I
definitely remember the news stories about Dalton taking over as Bond,
but the movie itself seemed to just come and go so quickly that it never
registered with me and fell through the cracks. Watching it again I
think it holds up pretty well.

snip

Dalton is a great actor. The script's a bit weak and his performance is
so much better than the script. He wears evening clothes in every single scene.

I don't think I noticed that.

Walter Gotell's last time playing General Gogol. For reasons I've never understood, the character was not used in the Pierce Brosnan movies.

"License to Kill" - Now this one on the other hand, it seemed to
overshadow "The Living Daylights" perhaps because it's just so much
better that everyone forgot "The Living Daylights" even existed. I
think I appreciate this one much more as an adult than I ever did as a
kid. Basically Bond goes on a rage fueled killing spree after his best
friend Felix (David Hedison who reprised the role from "Live and Let
Die") is fed to a shark. There is so much more that I noticed about the
movie that I never noticed before, especially when it comes to the cast.
The movie full of so many recognizable actors, whose names I didn't
know in 1989, but I know today. And this might be the first time I
noticed Benicio del Toro played a lead henchman. I *knew* I recognized
the face, but not that the face was del Toro's.

I love this movie. I love the set-piece chase... with tanker trucks!
Spell it the British way! Licence! (This was controversial at the time.)

John Glen's last time directing Bond. Robert Brown's last time playing
M. Caroline Bliss would not return to play Moneypenny in the Brosnan
movies. What was that asshole Wayne Newton doing in this movie?

Felix Leiter getting married then losing his arm was from the novel
Live and Let Die, so it made sense not to recast Leiter for the 274th time.

You've now got six years to wait for Brosnan's movie to be released into theaters! MGM has gone bankrtupt again!

Brosnan was the first Bond I saw in the theaters. I was old enough to
take myself by that point. At the time, Bond being back was a huge deal.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut
from the movie.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

. . .

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work
at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three >>Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for >>Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and >>Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91d8p7rry0
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut
from the movie.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

Oh! I was thinking of the Disney's Beauty and the Beast. To mean Louis Jordan will always be Anton Arcane from "Swamp Thing."
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/25/2025 10:11 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

. . .

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work >>> at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91d8p7rry0

Thanks! Interesting, but I'm so use to the Dionne Warwick version that
this version sounds wrong. And the music in the Bassey version sounds a
bit more...jazzy.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 10:11 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

. . .

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever >>>> are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work >>>> at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three >>>> Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it. >>>> That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91d8p7rry0

Thanks! Interesting, but I'm so use to the Dionne Warwick version that
this version sounds wrong. And the music in the Bassey version sounds a
bit more...jazzy.

Yes although it's still obviously arranged for Barry's orchestra for the
movie soundtrack. But Warwick's arrangement incorporates more hints of
the James Bond Theme. Maybe Warwick's would have worked a touch better
for the movie soundtrack.

I just rewatched the opening credits to hear Tom Jones singing the theme actually used in the movie. There's nothing wrong with her performance,
but the lyrics are terrible.

I take it back. I did spot Fleming's credit twice but he is not given
sole credit for the novel which was written as a screenplay for McClory,
but being the fraud he was, McClory couldn't finance it. Fleming
released it as a novel failing to buy out McClory's rights or at least
buying adaptation rights. Those who are familiar with the copyright infringement case have pointed ouit that FLeming really did write the
whole damn thing, and then spent way too much of the last two years of
his life, dying of tuberculosis, fighting McClory in court.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut
from the movie.

First she got thrown out of the high rise into a pool. (The mobster who ordered it told Bond he didn't know there was a pool there.) A cut
scene was filmed that showed her coming back into the room while he's
seducing Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). Then when Bond is waiting for
Case at her house, O'Toole's body is in the pool there.

(I watched the 50th anniversary box set plus the last two movies just a
couple months ago.)

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected
for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the Broccoli children talking about that.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. >Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene
in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker --
were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly
all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights
was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie
titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut
from the movie.

First she got thrown out of the high rise into a pool. (The mobster who ordered it told Bond he didn't know there was a pool there.)

What kind of wood doesnrCOt float?

A cut

scene was filmed that showed her coming back into the room while he's seducing Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). Then when Bond is waiting for
Case at her house, O'Toole's body is in the pool there.

So who killed her and why?

And does Tiffany case have a house in Las Vegas?

(I watched the 50th anniversary box set plus the last two movies just a couple months ago.)

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected >>>> for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another
character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the Broccoli children talking about that.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut
from the movie.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected >>>> for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order
they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another
character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

Oh! I was thinking of the Disney's Beauty and the Beast. To mean Louis Jordan will always be Anton Arcane from "Swamp Thing."

To me, herCOll always be the most faithful version of Dracula.
--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan, >>> a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only >>> vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a
movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could >>> have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond
and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward
to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen.

This was a great movie. It was produced from one of the later novels
because John F. Kennedy said publicly that he'd just read that novel and
thought it would make a good movie.

This has the epic fight with Red Grant, and damn, that was one of the
best choreographed movie fights we've ever seen (but the fight in the
elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, with the same stuntman, is just as
good). Lotte Lenya was terrific as the the henchwoman. Audiences at the
time who were too young to remember saw her made up as an evil-looking
hag but she was truly a great beauty in her younger days.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when
Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that >>> would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

So what was your opinion of the underwater set piece action sequence?
I've always loved it, but this movie has severe critics that the
sequence goes on far too long and should have been better edited.

The underwater sequence was OK. Going in, the underwater sequence was
the only thing I even vaguely remembered about Thunderball.

Did you notice that, because he lost the copyright battle to Kevin
McClory, Ian Fleming received no credit for Thunderball?

No. I was watching the opening credits for all the movies, but more for
the music and visuals. I wasn't really paying attention to the cast and crew.

James Bond, despite being dressed in the finest evening clothes (that
transformed Sean Connery from working class to someone who could move
around in the circles of power), is a thug. He assasinates and murders
people,

Yeah, the said almost exactly that on one of the commentary tracks. It might have been for this movie. LOL. But I didn't watch any of the
Connery movies with the commentaries, only snippets for specific scenes
I was curious what they had to say about.

and he fails to assist at times if it could delay or derail the

mission. He outright murdered Prof Dent in Dr. No. In the pre-credit
revenge sequence in Diamonds Are Forever, which was mostly a comedy with
high camp and farcical elements, he tortured a woman for information by
strangling her with the top of her two-piece bathing suit till she was
convinced to talk.

Roger Moore used one of Q's gadgets to start stripping a woman naked,
clearly misappropriation of British taxpayers' monies.

If you are referring to the scene with the magnetic watch, they talked
about that on the commentary. They said it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable to film. I don't get why, all they did was lower a
zipper. But apparently to hide the mechanics of lowering the zipper in
a confined space it was harder than it looked.

But the most shocking of all was Daniel Craig romancing the neglected
wife of the terrorist, who desperately wanted to boink him, then failing
to do his duty and satisfy the lady. Her husband murdered her anyway. I
shouldn't joke about this one as she was set up to be liked by the
audience. Her death was upsetting and we felt her interaction with James
Bond led to her demise and would have wanted hin to save her.

I don't remember this. I should hopefully get to the Craigs really soon.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond >>> movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score
instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work
at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.

But they could have tried lyrics for Dr. No. How about, "Doctor Nooo.
He's the man, the man with the iron hand. A grip of death..." LOL

Yes, the skiing sequence was a first for James Bond. Skiing in the
tobaggan run was an incredible action sequence. The same stunt team was
used for the excellent skiing action sequences in For Your Eyes Only.

I will also point out that OHMSS would not have been a straight
adaptation of the novel if Sean Connery hadn't resigned after You Only
Live Twice.

They mentioned on the commentary that it was a straight adaptation. I
think they said the director wanted it that way.

Things were in disarray. Peter Hunt, a second-unit director,

was given the opportunity to direct. He wanted to avoid another
Goldfinger and the excesses of YOLT, and wasn't given a production
budget large enough to induldge in YOLT's excesses anyway.

If it had been Connery, Hunt wouldn't have directed and it would have
been along the lines of Goldfinger.

The Blofeld trilogy of novels -- FRWL, OHMSS, and YOLT -- were filmed
out of sequence. The winter that year in Switzerland was so bad they put
off production of OHMSS and moved up production of YOLT. The audience
was supposed to ignore Bond and Blofeld not having met. Hell, Blofeld is
dead at the end of YOLT. Yes, I know he got better for DAF.

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other
than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

WHy did the car flip in the alley?

Now for that scene, I went back wand rewatched with the commentary!!! LOL They said they didn't notice the error until after they had wrapped up filming and left the location and by that time it was too late to
anything about it, so they dubbed in a line where Bond says to lean the other direction.

They always say that in interviews and yet thererCOs a shot where they
actually show the car reversing directions from the inside.
--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the
Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene
in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker --
were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly
all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights
was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. >>>Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started >>life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had >>changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain. >>SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the >>Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of >>SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians >>fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond >communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be >communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

You are absolutely right, but the novel's plot was worse.

Those are real servicemen on active duty serving the needs of a movie production and not getting paid as extras.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene
in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

Yes, it's a Fleming title.

There were two short story collections, For Your Eyes Only and
Octopussy. The collection names are also one of the stories in each
collection. If you track down Octopussy, you have to look for the third
edition which has more short stories in it.

. . .

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the
Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started >> life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are
Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians
fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene
in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

Actually, the full title is

Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Wikipedia elaborates

The book originally contained two stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights"; subsequent editions also included "The Property of a Lady" and
then "007 in New York".

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker --
were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly
all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights
was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity >> (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie
titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

anim8rfsk <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut >>> from the movie.

First she got thrown out of the high rise into a pool. (The mobster who
ordered it told Bond he didn't know there was a pool there.)

What kind of wood doesnrCOt float?

A cut

scene was filmed that showed her coming back into the room while he's
seducing Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). Then when Bond is waiting for
Case at her house, O'Toole's body is in the pool there.

So who killed her and why?

And does Tiffany case have a house in Las Vegas?

(I watched the 50th anniversary box set plus the last two movies just a
couple months ago.)

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected >>>>> for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order >>>>> they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another
character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the
Broccoli children talking about that.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

anim8rfsk <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 8:59 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

"I'm Plenty. Plenty O'Toole." She vanishes from the movie and then
someone tells Bond she's been murdered. There's a big scene that got cut >>> from the movie.

And you gotta ask, How were characters killed off in Dr. No resurrected >>>>> for this movie? Once again, they didn't film the novels in the order >>>>> they were written in.

Which character?

Quarrel. The character got replaced by Quarrel Junior. There's another
character from the novels I've forgotten.

I don't recall any particular ties to the other movies
in this one. Although I thought the guy who drove the boat looked a
little familiar, was that supposed to be the same character?

It should been, yes.

Gaston as a supervillain doesn't quite work,

Gaston?

Louis Jordan's most famous character, from Gigi

. . .

Oh! I was thinking of the Disney's Beauty and the Beast. To mean Louis
Jordan will always be Anton Arcane from "Swamp Thing."

To me, herCOll always be the most faithful version of Dracula.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

anim8rfsk <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/25/2025 12:53 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"From Russia with Love" - While I consider myself a huge James Bond fan, >>>> a lot of the movies I've only ever watched 2 or 3 times, and many I only >>>> vaguely remember. "From Russia with Love" falls into the category of a >>>> movie I only ever saw maybe twice, and I only vaguely remember. I could >>>> have sworn that this movie ended with a fight scene between James Bond >>>> and a female villain on top of a train. I was actually looking forward >>>> to seeing that ending and was genuinely surprised when it didn't happen. >>>

This was a great movie. It was produced from one of the later novels
because John F. Kennedy said publicly that he'd just read that novel and >>> thought it would make a good movie.

This has the epic fight with Red Grant, and damn, that was one of the
best choreographed movie fights we've ever seen (but the fight in the
elevator in Diamonds Are Forever, with the same stuntman, is just as
good). Lotte Lenya was terrific as the the henchwoman. Audiences at the
time who were too young to remember saw her made up as an evil-looking
hag but she was truly a great beauty in her younger days.

In one of the Connery movies, maybe "Thunderball" I was surprised when >>>> Bond extorted a woman into sleeping with him. By modern standards, that >>>> would be rape. Thunderball is another Bond movie I've only ever seen
maybe twice and was really unfamiliar with the plot going in.

So what was your opinion of the underwater set piece action sequence?
I've always loved it, but this movie has severe critics that the
sequence goes on far too long and should have been better edited.

The underwater sequence was OK. Going in, the underwater sequence was
the only thing I even vaguely remembered about Thunderball.

Did you notice that, because he lost the copyright battle to Kevin
McClory, Ian Fleming received no credit for Thunderball?

No. I was watching the opening credits for all the movies, but more for
the music and visuals. I wasn't really paying attention to the cast and
crew.

James Bond, despite being dressed in the finest evening clothes (that
transformed Sean Connery from working class to someone who could move
around in the circles of power), is a thug. He assasinates and murders
people,

Yeah, the said almost exactly that on one of the commentary tracks. It
might have been for this movie. LOL. But I didn't watch any of the
Connery movies with the commentaries, only snippets for specific scenes
I was curious what they had to say about.


and he fails to assist at times if it could delay or derail the

mission. He outright murdered Prof Dent in Dr. No. In the pre-credit
revenge sequence in Diamonds Are Forever, which was mostly a comedy with >>> high camp and farcical elements, he tortured a woman for information by
strangling her with the top of her two-piece bathing suit till she was
convinced to talk.

Roger Moore used one of Q's gadgets to start stripping a woman naked,
clearly misappropriation of British taxpayers' monies.

If you are referring to the scene with the magnetic watch, they talked
about that on the commentary. They said it was extremely difficult and
uncomfortable to film. I don't get why, all they did was lower a
zipper. But apparently to hide the mechanics of lowering the zipper in
a confined space it was harder than it looked.

But the most shocking of all was Daniel Craig romancing the neglected
wife of the terrorist, who desperately wanted to boink him, then failing >>> to do his duty and satisfy the lady. Her husband murdered her anyway. I
shouldn't joke about this one as she was set up to be liked by the
audience. Her death was upsetting and we felt her interaction with James >>> Bond led to her demise and would have wanted hin to save her.

I don't remember this. I should hopefully get to the Craigs really soon.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - I've always really enjoyed this Bond >>>> movie. Was this the first Bond movie to involve Bond on skis? Bond
skiing would definitely become a regular occurrence going forward. I
sample a bit of the commentary and they mentioned this one had a score >>>> instead of a song because they didn't think it was possible to make a
good song with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the lyrics. That
being said, I actually really like the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dkxFH9hFg

Forcing the novel's title into the lyrics of the main theme was a
terrible decision. Now, From Russia With Love and Diamonds Are Fovever
are lyrical and do work, but plenty of the other novel titles don't work >>> at all. The main theme for Dr. No has no lyrics; I'm not counting Three
Blind Mice.

I think it was in reaction to the idiotically stupid lyrics for
Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written for that movie, and
Shirley Bassey recorded it. There's also a Dionne Warwick cover of it.
That it was rejected was a disappointment.

I have a CD set of James Bond songs, with the Dionne Warwick version of
Mr. Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang. I don't think I knew there was a Shirley
Bassey version.


But they could have tried lyrics for Dr. No. How about, "Doctor Nooo.
He's the man, the man with the iron hand. A grip of death..." LOL

Yes, the skiing sequence was a first for James Bond. Skiing in the
tobaggan run was an incredible action sequence. The same stunt team was
used for the excellent skiing action sequences in For Your Eyes Only.

I will also point out that OHMSS would not have been a straight
adaptation of the novel if Sean Connery hadn't resigned after You Only
Live Twice.

They mentioned on the commentary that it was a straight adaptation. I
think they said the director wanted it that way.

Things were in disarray. Peter Hunt, a second-unit director,

was given the opportunity to direct. He wanted to avoid another
Goldfinger and the excesses of YOLT, and wasn't given a production
budget large enough to induldge in YOLT's excesses anyway.

If it had been Connery, Hunt wouldn't have directed and it would have
been along the lines of Goldfinger.

The Blofeld trilogy of novels -- FRWL, OHMSS, and YOLT -- were filmed
out of sequence. The winter that year in Switzerland was so bad they put >>> off production of OHMSS and moved up production of YOLT. The audience
was supposed to ignore Bond and Blofeld not having met. Hell, Blofeld is >>> dead at the end of YOLT. Yes, I know he got better for DAF.

"Diamonds are Forever" - I don't have much to say about this one, other >>>> than I never cared much for it. I grew up watching Roger Moore's "Bond" >>>> and was always more of a fan of his "Bond" films.

You're supposed to ask, What happened to Lana Wood?

Who?

WHy did the car flip in the alley?

Now for that scene, I went back wand rewatched with the commentary!!! LOL >> They said they didn't notice the error until after they had wrapped up
filming and left the location and by that time it was too late to
anything about it, so they dubbed in a line where Bond says to lean the
other direction.

They always say that in interviews and yet thererCOs a shot where they actually show the car reversing directions from the inside.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

anim8rfsk <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians
fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond
communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be
communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene >>> in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

Actually, the full title is

Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Wikipedia elaborates

The book originally contained two stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights"; subsequent editions also included "The Property of a Lady" and then "007 in New York".

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker -- >>> were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly >>> all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights >>> was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity >>> (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie
titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 25 Aug 2025 08:43:41 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

"Live and Let Die" the first Roger Moore movie and one of my favorites >growing up. It doesn't really hold up that well as an adult, but I
still like it. I watched with the cast and crew audio commentary track
and there was lots of good bits of trivia. Yaphet Kotto, who played the >Bond villain was on the commentary and discussed how playing a Bond
villain went to his head. He said he started to act like James Bond,
and for several years after the movie, he was still acting like Bond in
real life, living a very extravagant life, until he finally came to his >senses and stopped wasting money. Another bit of trivia that caught me
by surprise was when they mentioned Roger Moore being in the running to
play Bond since "Dr. No." That made *no* sense to me until they also
said Roger Moore is actually older than Sean Connery. That blew my mind
to hear.

That was one of the first Bond movies I saw and mostly remember Jane
Seymour most especially her seduction by Roger Moore.

Hard to believe that was my high school grad year!
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the
Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started >> life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are
Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians
fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene
in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker --
were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly
all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights
was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity >> (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie
titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/29/2025 10:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians
fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond
communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be
communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

Um, where did Bond get the knockout gas from?

And if it's not too much trouble, I have one more question. How did he replace the real stuff with the knockout gas without anyone noticing,
and where did he store the reason gas where no one would notice, after
he replaced it?

OK, maybe that was two more questions. And since I'm asking questions,
if I could ask just one more. Those canisters were pretty large, and presumably heavy. Even if Bond had a nearby source of fake gas and
somewhere to hide the real gas after he swapped it out, how in the world
did he ever lift the fake and real canisters to make this swap without
either using heavy equipment or Goldfinger's henchman?

I'm sorry, if I could ask just one more question. So did the fake gas
come in canisters that looked exactly like the real gas or did no one
notice the swap? :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYgUPD2khtw

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

Plot elements from the short stories got moved around. The auction scene >>> in Octopussy was from "Property of a Lady" (a short story in the
Octopussy collection), for instance.

Wait, the actually book was called "Octopussy?"

The movies with heavy science fiction and space elements -- You Only
Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker -- >>> were essentially written directly for the screen with minor bits of
FLeming plots kept.

After the Moore era, they had used all of the titles of novels and nearly >>> all the short story titles. Quantum of Solace (one of the worst Bond
movies) was used as the title of a Craig movie, and The Living Daylights >>> was used as a title in the Dalton era.

Refreshing my memory, in the For Your Eyes Only collection, the story
titles Risico (characters used in the movie FYEO) and The Hildebrand Rarity >>> (characters used in Licence to Kill movie) have not been used as movie
titles. The third edition of the Octopussy collection also has "007 in
New York", which is kind of about Bond warning another spy but just
wandering around New York.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/29/2025 10:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books.
Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had
changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the
Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of
SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians
fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as
it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie.

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond
communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be
communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on
the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

No, he substituted something harmless for the poison gas.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/29/2025 10:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. >>>>> Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for
their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had >>>> changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain.
SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the >>>> Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of >>>> SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy,
which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians >>>> fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as >>>> it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie. >>>>

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond >>> communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas
will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be
communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on >>> the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

No, he substituted something harmless for the poison gas.

Right, but I figured it was harmless knock out gas.
--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 8/29/2025 7:15 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/29/2025 10:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. >>>>>> Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for >>>>>> their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had >>>>> changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain. >>>>> SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the >>>>> Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of >>>>> SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>>>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy, >>>>> which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians >>>>> fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as >>>>> it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie. >>>>>

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond >>>> communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that
they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas >>>> will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the
plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be
communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on >>>> the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to
Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of
course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

No, he substituted something harmless for the poison gas.

Right, but I figured it was harmless knock out gas.

And how would they be able to set the knock out gas dose to just the
right amount for the troops to wake up at the right time? Also the
senior officer was the one to order everyone up once the Chinese troops
had entered the compound.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Sat, 30 Aug 2025 12:10:56 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/29/2025 7:15 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/29/2025 10:33 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 8/26/2025 8:57 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

In general none of the movies were straight adaptations of the books. >>>>>>> Especially after Connery Eon would use the books as inspiration for >>>>>>> their own stories to film. A number of the extras I watched showed the >>>>>>> Broccoli children talking about that.

Of course I agree. Even Thunderball had a few changes despite having started
life as a movie script. On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No had >>>>>> changes but both were nearly straight adaptations.

The most important change was making SPECTRE the all-purpose villain. >>>>>> SPECTRE was in Thunderball, only, and not in the two later books in the >>>>>> Blofeld trilogy. Technically EON had no rights for this expanded use of >>>>>> SPECTRE and McClory kept suing so SPECTRE was dropped after Diamonds Are >>>>>> Forever, till the Daniel Craig movie.

From Russia With Love failed to keep the Russians at the main enemy, >>>>>> which was really stupid considering the plot. They became fake Russians >>>>>> fronting for SPECTRE.

Goldfinger threw out quite a lot of Fleming's plot... for the better as >>>>>> it was one of the weaker novels. It made for a very entertaining movie. >>>>>>

Yeah, but the one thing that always bugged me about "Goldfinger" is Bond >>>>> communicates Goldfinger's plan to the CIA. And the CIA then
communicates this to the government / military. They all agree that >>>>> they will allow Goldfinger to gas them, on the assumption that the gas >>>>> will be swapped out for something nonlethal. Then on top of that
everyone will (presumably without practice) faint in unison when the >>>>> plane flies overhead. And the fake fainting in unison also has to be >>>>> communicated to any random civilians or visitors who may happen to be on >>>>> the base that day. And presumably they communicate the plan back to >>>>> Bond so he's in on it. And it all happens off screen, except for of >>>>> course the fake fainting in unison.

I always thought bond substituted knockout gas

No, he substituted something harmless for the poison gas.

Right, but I figured it was harmless knock out gas.

And how would they be able to set the knock out gas dose to just the
right amount for the troops to wake up at the right time? Also the
senior officer was the one to order everyone up once the Chinese troops
had entered the compound.

Because the writer said so. It's like this video I just watched with
Michael Shanks of STARGATE: SG1 talking about this one episode in
season 1 of the show. They were going through this alien ship or base
taking out guards left and right using the zat guns since one shot
knocks people out and two shots killed people.

Someone brought the issue of all these bodies laying around and the
possibility of someone noticing the bodies and sounding an alarm. So
the writer (or whomever) came up with the idea that what if.. 3 shots disintegrated the bodies. Problem solved by writer fiat.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:07:57 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

I don't know. That scene takes a whole heck of a lot of willing
suspension of disbelief.

And then there's that scene at the end of Moonraker where Q is asked
what Bond is doing......
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

And then there's that scene at the end of Moonraker where Q is asked
what Bond is doing......

The Spy Who Loved Me

The three spy bosses admonish our two heroic lovers; Q is impressed, if
not awe struck.

And Bond says the line

Bond: Keeping the British end up, sir.

followed by a reprisal of the theme song.

Moonraker

This time, Q gets to make the scene-stealing double-entendre.

I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.
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