ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

In some ways this is the best Bond film since Goldfinger (which Guy Hamilton also directed), even though the climactic battle scene is small potatoes compared to the one in You Only Live Twice.

But there's plenty of action, humor, and girls — including Jill St. John as Tiffany Case, and Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole.







The villain is Blofeld again, portrayed with decadent charm by Charles Gray — who, ironically, played a British secret agent in the 5th Bond film, You Only Live Twice — which, ironically, was the first Bond film to show Blofeld's face (Donald Pleasence).





The most memorable stunt is probably when Bond drives the Mustang through a narrow alley on two-wheels. Not bad.





Blofeld steals a fortune in diamonds and uses them in the laser cannon of a killer satellite. Plenty of humor sparks the story, some of which is provided by two sissy hit men who prance in and out of the story. But the best laughs come from Connery himself, who portrays Bond not just as a suave agent but as a sly con man.

Since so much of the story takes place in Las Vegas, the producers elected to Americanize the cast by having Jimmy Dean play a kidnapped millionaire. The title theme is sung by Shirley Bassey of "Goldfinger" fame.

After Diamonds are Forever Connery avowed publicly that he'd never play Bond again, but in 1983 he succumbed to a generous offer to portray 007 one more time — and the producers gloated over their success in winning Connery back by titling the film "Never Say Never Again". Please note that Never Say Never Again was not produced by the same people who gave us all the other Bond films — and it shows.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Sean Connery was really out of shape in this movie. A few years ago TCM was showing the Bond movies, in order on Friday nights. The first four Bond movies came out a year apart. The next two he did were two years apart.

It was interesting to watch the films so close together, and watch Sean Connery change as the series progressed. You could see his hair thin and his body thicken with each film. Although he was a former bodybuilder, I would think that it was hard to maintain a physical fitness schedule, with the schedule of a Bond film each year. He did a lot of world traveling in those movies.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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The quality of the Connery films forms a lop-sided bell curve, in my opinion, with a sharp upward slant on the left side, and the peak at Goldfinger, after which the whole spy craze slowly faded.

It was a wild and wonderful time for a 16-year-old guy who was dating like there was no tomorrow and who desperately wished he could be as cool as a certain British secret agent who had gadgets in his car that did real practical stuff like spray oil on the road behind him and throw unwanted passengers through the sun roof.

I spent a few hours one Saturday evening in the mid-sixties constructing a handmade shoulder holster out of cardboard covered with electrical tape, attached to a strip of elastic I snitched from Mom's sewing box.

I secretly wore it to church the next day under the coat of my Sunday suit -- with a small starter pistol, the kind used for races. I don't remember where I got it -- but I still have it somewhere, complete with a three-inch piece of aluminum tubing taped to the top as a "scope".

A scope . . . on a pistol.

I'll dig it out soon and take a picture of it. You'll die laughing. But they can't arrest me for it, because I have a license to kill. I made it myself.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Every guy then wanted to be 007 & spending time with Jill & Lana.

[Bud Brewster]

Obviously I was consumed by that very idea when I was a teen. Bond was the ultimate example of ability + confidence . . . while teens like me lacked both of those qualities, and we knew it.

The franchise was never intended to be taken seriously, but the producers stopped trying to walk the fine line between realism and wish-fulfillment. Until the Pierce Brosnan films brought the whole thing back from the Land of Total Silliness, the later Bond movies made no attempt to do what the early ones did so well.

But by the time the Brosnan's movies came out I was well past my awkward teenage years . . . and well into my awkward middle aged years.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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A sexy trailer for a sexy Bond movie. Just what this thread needs!
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_______ Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Skullislander]

I found this movie a bit of a let-down, although the Shirley Bassey theme song is still evocative.

Also features 'Jack Driscoll', or Bruce Cabot from the '33 King Kong in his last role.

A confusing mess, to me, this film: possibly the worst in the franchise — weak setpieces but I am sure it has it's fans.

[Bud Brewster]

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I do agree it's weak, but I think it beats out all but a few of the Roger Moore films. However, this one looks really bad compared to all of the Pierce Brosnan movies.

The Brosnan movies managed to do the "Sean Connery" type of Bond films while dialing up the action and FX considerably.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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As I mentioned in a post I made today for both Dr. No and Goldfinger, I watched Angelina Jolie in Salt recently, and it was actually a good "female Bond" movie. So I went looking for things to say about some of my favorites Bond movies.

IMDB trivia has a few nice items for this film (the blue text below). This first one is hysterical!
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During a late 1990s airing of the movie on TBS's Dinner and A Movie, Bruce Glover recalled that while filming their scenes together, he and Putter Smith had Sean Connery convinced that the two were actually openly homosexual. Glover added that a few years later while on an airline flight he was flirting with a female flight attendant, and suddenly heard a Scottish accented voice saying "You son of a bitch..." Glover turned around and saw the man was Connery.

Reportedly, the final scene Sean Connery filmed as Bond (at least in the official movie series) was the one in which an unconscious Bond is loaded into a coffin at the funeral home. So, Connery's last ever day of playing James Bond for EON Productions was Friday, August 13, 1971.

(Note from me: And that, folks, is proof that irony is not just a five-letter word that (almost) rhymes with Connery!)

According to Lana Wood's autobiography, she was the victim of a prank when she first met Sean Connery. Someone on the set told her to meet Sean at his Las Vegas hotel room. The door was open and she sat down in a chair. Sean called from the bathroom that he'd be there in a minute. He then walked out stark naked. They had a brief fling during filming, until she was abruptly dumped by Sean, who decided to carry on with Jill St. John instead.

(Note from me: And, my friends, should put to rest any doubts that Sean Connery was not as irresistible to women as James Bond was!

The original plot had Gert Fr??be returning as Auric Goldfinger's twin from Goldfinger (1964) seeking revenge for the death of his brother.

(Note from me: This would have been tricky, wouldn't it? This film is about diamond smuggling, not gold smuggling. So, what would the brother of Auric Goldfinger's name be?

Adam Goldfinger? After all, the Latin word for diamond is . . . adamantem!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Skullislander]

I recently got the Bond box-set with 23 films I think it is and I will get around to viewing them all over time.

It took ages for me just to check all the discs worked OK.

This one from 1971 will entertain on a different level: its' ALMOST so bad it is good.

I have no TV at home any more and only project discs onto a reflective screen instead: DR NO and OHMSS work particularly well like this.

[Krel]

My parents wouldn't let me go see this film because of the Playboy layout, they thought there was nudity in the movie. Little did they know that ship had already sailed.

Three years earlier I was ten, and went see "King Kong Escapes", which was doubled with "Coogan's Bluff", which did have nudity! You have to wonder about the reasoning with teaming a Clint Eastwood movie, with a children's movie.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

[Krel]