Friday 5 November 2010

1951 Roger Moore as James Bond

Last week and in Monday ITV 4 showed all the films in which Roger was James Bond, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy who loved me, Moonraker, For your Eyes only, Octopussy, A View to Kill. They were fist shown on the big screen between 1973 and 1985, numbers 8 to 14 of the 22 Bond Films, all of which I have seen in Theatre except the most recent, and on Television time and time again. The films are all based on the original novels and short stories of Ian Fleming. Fleming had a standard upper class background attending Eton and Sandhurst, but then failed to gain entry to the Foreign Office despite going to Austria and Switzerland to improve his German and French speaking. He became a journalist and it was during World War II that he gained his knowledge of the secret services working for Naval Intelligence. His life ended early suffering two heart attacks, the later fatal, in 1961 and 1964 at the age of 56 and tragically his only son committed suicide in his early twenties. He was a notorious womaniser, able to seduce in four languages his marriage physically violent as well as passionate, with his aristocratic previously married wife able to retaliate.

Thus we have in his life the components of his character James Bond, upper middle class, at ease with the aristocracy and politicians, seducing every attractive woman in his path, used to living dangerous and often the subject of physical torture, a former Naval officer with the Licence to kill on behalf of his country.

The plot of Live and Let Die broke away from the super villains of the first seven films and fitted in to Black exploitation film era personified by Shaft. The villain is modest in his ambitions, not holding the world to ransom or destroying all except a selected few of mankind, but seeking to dump two tons of free heroin on the market to put rivals out of business. British Government interest is provoked because of the death of three British agents. The film is set in the Caribbean and the downtown USA. The main sex interest is Solitaire (Jane Seymour) a virgin able to foresee the future using Tarot cards, an ability she loses after seduction by Bond. He has two other sexual relationships, encounters a snake, crocodiles and sharks and a man with a hand claw device. There is not much spectacular but good shots of the West Indies. The box office receipts and merchandising came to over 15 times the cost.

The Man with the Golden Gun was created during the 1973 energy crisis hence the villain Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) being able to harness the power of the sun through his device, the Solex Agitator. As with many of the villains he inhabits an Island set in Asia and the film is set in Hong Kong and Thailand and exploited the growing interest in King Fu. Bond’s becomes involved after the villain’s mistress sends him a golden bullet with 007 etched on its side in the hope Bond will kill the man. Bond as might be anticipated spends the night with the woman as well as his assistant in the Far East played by Britt Ekland. The odd ball in the film is a height challenged man servant Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize). Clifton James also continues his role as Sheriff J W Pepper from his role in the first Roger Moore film, being on holiday in Thailand when he encounters Moore and becomes involved in the ubiquitous car chase. The film only made 12 times its cost at the box office!

In the Spy who loved me. the villain, Stromberg, is a megalomaniac and who like Hugo Drax in Moonraker which followed, plans to destroy the world and create a new civilization in his own image. In the Spy who loved me Stromberg, who runs a shipping line, creates an underwater community and uses a giant tanker to capture nuclear missile submarines from the Russians and the US with a view to launching World War III. The idea of using a ship as a base for submarines was used in World War II by the Italians who had a special cargo vessel deployed at Algerceras from which they used mini submarines to attack allied vessels using the port of Gibraltar and is featured in the film The Silent enemy in which Laurence Harvey played then Lieutenant Lionel Crabb.

I cannot remember if this was the first of the Bond films in which Russia joined forces with the British Intelligence but in this film, it is the Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) (I seem to remember a documentary about the Bond girls and what happened to them). The film also featured Richard Kiel as Jaws, the tall man with a killer mouth of steel. Bond and the girl are captured but Bond escapes and manages to divert the missles so that they destroy the submarines now crewed by Stromberg’s men. Bond and the crew escape using the third submarine which was also captured by paralysing the technology. The freighter blows up as they depart

Stromberg and Jaws had departed with the Russian girl and returned to the underwater centre. Bond manages to rescue the girl before it is destroyed having killed Stromberg and narrowly escaped Jaws. The film ends as the escape pod is reached by the British forces with the Russians watching as Bond and Anya celebrate in his usual manner. Jaws is seen swimming in an endless Ocean.

In Moonraker, the basic plot is similar with the villain a space shittle mnufacturer, Hugo Drax who has created a orbital space station which is cloaked from earth technology. The film was distributed in the era of Star Wars and although its production costs were high at $34 million it made over $200millon, the highest return to that date. Bond on another assignment finds himself pushed out of a plane by Jaws. He manages to take the parachute from the pilot while Jaws lands on a circus tent.

The action moves to Venice where Bond discovers a laboratory manufacturing nerve gas which is then moved to Rio Janeiro, Bond survives several attempts on his life and one of his sexual conquests, an assistant to Drax meets a nasty end for her trouble. His main sexual interest is Holly Goodhead (Louis Chiles) an astranaut CIA operative. Bond and Holly survive to take control of one of the shuttles filled with physically beautiful young people selected by Drax to form the new civilization after all other human life on earth is destroyed by nerve gas is deposited into the earth’s atmosphere. Bond manages to stop this except for the first three capusles which if not destroyed before reaching the earth’s atmosphere will kill millions of unsuspecting people.

The couple escape before the space station is destroyed with the help of Jaws who with his short girlfriend realises they are expendable as they do not fit the standard required by Drax. A feature of every Bond film is the sexual quip. In this instance having destroyed the capsules Bond and Holly are celebrating above the earth they are greeted on televisual link by the Minister, played by Geoffrey Keen, who exclaims, My God, what’s Bond doing? Q, the creator of the devices replies without looking at the monitor, I think he is attempting re-entry, Sir.

For your eyes only has a more traditional Bond theme witha strong story line involving Carole Bouquet who plays the daughter of a marine archaeologist who is murdered with his wife, in front fo her on their ship as he goes in search of an Automatic Attack Communicator device which has sunk when a British Spy ship is destroyed. Her interest is revenge. The film is set in Spain where Bond commences the trail and continues to Greece where they are assisted by Topol who in the story has been a smuggling partner of Kristatos who has stolen the ATAC device to sell to the Russians. Part of the action also takes place in the Winter sport’s centre of Cortina in Northern Italy where Bond encounters a 15 year old figure skating progidy played by Lynn Holly Johnson, then in her early 20’s. But for once he does not accrpt th advances of the young woman because of her age. She is being financed by Kristatos. The film ends with Bond destroying the device so that it cannot be used by any of the nuclear powers against each other. Well not quite the end as Bond and Melina have a romantic time on father’s yaught and prepare for a nude swim, which leads to the film title, For your eyes only, James. Meanwhile Margaret Thatcher the Prime Minister played by Janet Brown, has been patched through to congratulate Bond on his latest triumph. She is greeted by a talkative imitating parrot who calls to the P.M to give him a kiss.

By this stage in the Bond saga there are scenes in which there many beautiful young women acting as assistants. It is in Octopussy their role is developed into a combative defence army. As with several of the previous film the action preamble has nothing to do with the rest of the film, Bond is sent to find out about the disappearance of important jewels starting with a Faberge egg where a British agents finds a fake before being killed. When the original turns up for sale Bond bids as a means to switch the fake for the original as a means to finding out what is going on.

The fake is purchased by an Afghan played by suave playboy Louis Jordan who uses his associate Octopussy to smuggle the real jewels out of Russia using one of her commercial interests, a circus. Octopussy lives on a island fortress with her youing woman in India across from the Palace of Jordan who is an Afghan prince. Their interest is money and Octopussy sleeps with Bond as a means of stealing back the original egg in which a tracking device and microphone has been hidden.

However the real purpose of smuggling the jewels out of Russia, replacing them them with quality fakes is to detonate a nuclear device by a disaffected Russian Colonel. Bond escapes an assassination attempt while visiting Octopussy on her Island and she believes he is dead when she joins her Circus, the jewels and unknown to her the nuclear device which is fited to the base of a human Cannon Ball device adn will detonate during a show at a USAAF base. The idea is that such a accident will result in the unilateral disarmaent of Nato in Europe providing the opportunity for Russia to expand its borders. Octopussy now seeks revenge having been left to die by Khan, but she is captured as he makes his escape from his Indian Palace. The film ends with one of several aerial situations in Bond films in which Bond has to cling to the outside of craft before freeing Octopussy and managing to drop safety on a grass topped cliff before the plane with Khan explode on the side of a mountain. The two recuperate on a a vessel reminiscent of the Cleopatras’s barge.

The final Moore film, A view to Kill, makes no attempt to follow the short story with the same title but is an original screen play based on the post Flemming development of Silicon valley. Max Zorin produces silicon chips and determines to control the world market by a plan to destroy Silcon valley. Christopher Walken is believable as Zorin the villain but Moore realised he was getting too old to continue to play the action hero. The film begins with a recovery of the a very special chip from the body of 003 in the Russian Artic. The film features Grace Jones as May Day, a brutal assassin who is the least sexy of all the Bond girls. The action takes places in France including the Eifel Tower and Chantilly where Zorin breeds horses which win races because of a special drugs inserted into the animal and which is released by the jockey via a transmitter. We also find General Gogal of KGB involved as financing Zorin who is become increasingly independent from his commercial consortium. He discloses his plan on board an airship demanding $100million for participation. One is reluctant and is shortly ejected into the sky leading to the Zorin asking if anyone else wants to drop out of his latest scheme. Bond meets up with state Geologist Stacey Sutton (Tanya Robert’s) whose inherited oil company Zorin wants to buy. There is an action sequence at City Hall before the two go to the Zorin mine which is located between the Hayward and San Andreas Faults, which Zorin is intending to bring together via a major exploision to causes a major earthquake which will destroy the Valley. They stops this and escape only for the girl to be captured by Zorin, leading Bond to cling to the the Airshop which he manages to tie to the Golden Gate Bridge before bringing down. Bond earns the Soviet Order of Lenin for his efforts and the film and Moore as Bond closes having sex with the girl in her shower.

All the films, that is all the Bond films, have their trade marks including the opening title known as the Gun Barrel sequence.

There is then the mini film which as I have mentioned is sometimes unrelated to the rest of the action and then the main titles which usually includes a scantily clad young female with the silhouette of a naked woman and the commencement of the title song usually with an established artists such as Carly Simon, Rita Coolidge, Sheena Easton, Paul McCartney and Shirley Bassey.

Every film has Bond flirting with the secretary to the head of the Secret Services, Miss Moneypenny, and where she is offering herself and Bond placates with banter. There is always a statement about the assignment explained by the head of the service in the presence of the Minister.

There is also always a technical briefing by Q during which some of the latest tricks are introduced although the best are left until the action. The famous Aston Martin DB5 previously bought for a quarter of million dollars and sold in for £5000 in 1970 was bought at auction recently for just over $2 million. There is also the meting up with allies, usually local agents,sometimes the CIA and in the later films the KGB.

Most of the villains are one off but in the early films the battle was with SPECTRE Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, Terorism, Revenge and Extortion headed by Enrst Stavron Blofield. His life ends in the opening sequence of a Moore film unrelated to the rest of the story. There is always an exciting and scenic chase, the romantic seduction of the lead Bond girl compared to the instant bedding of others, some of whom are plants by the opposition although both kinds are killed to make way for the main female on the menu. Bond does marry one, but she dies. There are fights with henchmen and woman, sizing up and some sparring with the arch villain before the final confrontation.

The ability of the Bond films to attract large audiences and huge profits has led to several attempted look alikes witht the Man from Uncle on film and TV series. Harry Palmer with Michael Caine was a more serious series films unlike Our Man Flint and Mike Myers Spoofs Austen Powers with Mini Me. George Lucas also admits to using Bond ideas for the Indiana Jones series.

There is always mass gratuitous killings where the ememy are treated a soulless mercenaries without parents, partners or children. The females are usually treated a sex expendable toys. They provide an interesting insight into Western popular culture during the latter half of the 20th century now continuing into the 21st.

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