(pb; 1964: twelfth book in the original 007/James Bond series)
Review:
Caveat: spoilers in this review.
It's been nine months since Ernesto Stavro Blofeld and Fraulein Irma Bunt gunned down Tracy di Vincenzo, Bond's bride of a few hours, on their honeymoon. Bond is an emotional and professional wreck.
M., concerned about one of his best agents, figures 007 needs a real challenge to kick him out of his doldrums. So M. sends Bond to Japan to get additional intel on the Russian drug trade from Tiger Tanaka, the samurai-hearted head of the Japanese Secret Service.
Tanaka agrees to give Bond unofficial access to the Russian files (dubbed "MAGIC 44"), if Bond will do him a big favor -- also off the record.
The favor: kill Doctor Guntram Shatterhand, a Swiss multimillionaire and amateur botanist, whose remote island castle in Kyushu houses a "garden of death," where five hundred or more Japanese people have gone to commit culturally-approved suicide. This garden is full of rare poisonous plants and animals; one wrong move there means instantaneous, painful expiration.
Tanaka considers Shatterhand, as well as Shatterhand's wife, the ugly Emmy, a mass murderer. And he sees no end to these "honorable" killings, so the only way to stop them is by killing the Shatterhands. Since Tanaka would face repercussions for such actions, it falls to Bond to do the deeds.
Bond accepts the secret assignment: the intel is too important. Also, more importantly, Bond is startled when he recognizes the Shatterhands from their photos -- they're Ernesto Stavro Blofeld and Fraulein Irma Bunt, who killed Tracy at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Helped by Kissy Suzuki, a one-time Hollywood film star and Ama awabi shell diver, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's private garden. Once inside the garden, Bond confronts Blofeld and Bunt, once and for all...
Structurally, You Only Live Twice is a template replica of Doctor No, but Twice's location -- Japan, with its distinctive social mores -- renders that (possible) complaint moot. Not only that, but Bond's attitude is different; he's resumed his womanizing ways, but he's less cool in how he handles his women: his dead bride has humanized him a bit more.
You Only Live Twice is not as radical, tone-wise, as On Her Majesty's is, nor is the cliffhanger ending as shocking, but it is a stand-out entry in a consistently-pleasing series.
Followed by The Man with the Golden Gun.
#
You Only Live Twice was released stateside as a film on June 13,1967.
Sean Connery played Bond. Mie Hama played Kissy Suzuki. Tetsuro Tamba played Tiger Tanaka. Donald Pleasence played Ernesto Stavro Blofeld. Charles Gray (who later played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever) played Dikko Henderson.
Bernard Lee played M.. Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny. Desmond Llewelyn played Q (whose character is not in the novel). Burt Kwouk played "SPECTRE #3".
Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay.
Lewis Gilbert (who also lensed The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) directed.
(Side-note: Fleming gives a shout-out to David Niven, who would later play one of the James Bonds in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, when Kissy Suzuki, talking about her Hollywood experiences, tells Bond: "They were all disgusting to me in Hollywood... Nobody treated me honourably except for [David] Niven.")
Showing posts with label Bernard Lee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bernard Lee. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming
(pb; 1962: tenth book in the original 007/James Bond series)
Review:
Less than a year after putting down Emilo Largo’s atomic bomb threat in Nassau (in Thunderball), Bond is pitched against two cruder nemeses, Sluggsy Morant and Sol “Horror” Horowitz in a rundown motel in the Ozarks. Morant and Horowitz are would-be arsonists in an insurance scam. Problem is, they’re also threatening to rape, murder then use Vivienne (“Viv”) Michel, short-term motel clerk, as the scapegoat for the “accidental” blaze.
The story is told through Viv’s eyes. As a narrator, she’s chatty, her backstory taking up almost half of the 131-page novel. When Bond appears to rescue her from her canny assailants, whom she’s been fending off for a better part of a night, it’s not the usual Bond tale, with geopolitical ramifications ensuing if Bond fails; it’s Bond on a more personal level, being an honorable man in a nasty fight.
Good, different take on Bond. Thematically, it reminds me of the short story “The Hildebrand Rarity” (from For Your Eyes Only).
Followed by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The Spy Who Loved Me became a film in 1977. Story- and character-wise, it's way different from its source novel.
Roger Moore starred as James Bond. Barbara Bach starred as Major Anya Amasova. Curt Jurgens played Karl Stromberg. Richard Kiel played the comically villainous Jaws (who appeared in the next Bond film, Moonraker). Caroline Munro played Naomi. Bernard Lee played M.
A light-hearted remake, titled Never Say Never Again, hit the silver screen in 1983. Sean Connery reprised his role as James Bond. Klaus Maria Brandauer played Maximilian Largo. Max von Sydow played Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Barbara Carrera played Fatima Blush. Kim Bassinger played Domino Petachi. Bernie Casey played Felix Leiter. Edward Fox played M.
Irvin Kershner directed the film.
Review:
Less than a year after putting down Emilo Largo’s atomic bomb threat in Nassau (in Thunderball), Bond is pitched against two cruder nemeses, Sluggsy Morant and Sol “Horror” Horowitz in a rundown motel in the Ozarks. Morant and Horowitz are would-be arsonists in an insurance scam. Problem is, they’re also threatening to rape, murder then use Vivienne (“Viv”) Michel, short-term motel clerk, as the scapegoat for the “accidental” blaze.
The story is told through Viv’s eyes. As a narrator, she’s chatty, her backstory taking up almost half of the 131-page novel. When Bond appears to rescue her from her canny assailants, whom she’s been fending off for a better part of a night, it’s not the usual Bond tale, with geopolitical ramifications ensuing if Bond fails; it’s Bond on a more personal level, being an honorable man in a nasty fight.
Good, different take on Bond. Thematically, it reminds me of the short story “The Hildebrand Rarity” (from For Your Eyes Only).
Followed by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The Spy Who Loved Me became a film in 1977. Story- and character-wise, it's way different from its source novel.
Roger Moore starred as James Bond. Barbara Bach starred as Major Anya Amasova. Curt Jurgens played Karl Stromberg. Richard Kiel played the comically villainous Jaws (who appeared in the next Bond film, Moonraker). Caroline Munro played Naomi. Bernard Lee played M.
A light-hearted remake, titled Never Say Never Again, hit the silver screen in 1983. Sean Connery reprised his role as James Bond. Klaus Maria Brandauer played Maximilian Largo. Max von Sydow played Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Barbara Carrera played Fatima Blush. Kim Bassinger played Domino Petachi. Bernie Casey played Felix Leiter. Edward Fox played M.
Irvin Kershner directed the film.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Thunderball, by Ian Fleming
(pb; 1961: ninth book in the original 007/James Bond series)
Review:
A new terrorist group, SPECTRE – acronym for “The Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion” – headed by Ernesto Stavro Blofeld (who directly battles Bond in two later novels, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice), has two atomic bombs and is threatening to use them on the United States and England… that is, of course, unless the two superpowers pay mad cash.
M, vexed, unofficially sends Bond to Nassau, in the Bahamas, to investigate the area as a possible stash spot for the bombs. There, Bond sniffs out (and later matches wits with) Emilio Largo (aka, SPECTRE associate “No. 2”), an urbane “treasure hunter” who means to make good on SPECTRE’s bomb threats, if necessary.
Bond also meets, and aligns with, Largo’s bored mistress, Domino – born Dominetta Petacchi – whose calid temper and cool intelligence makes her Bond’s compeer, in the ways of survival.
Felix Leiter, Bond’s friend and ex-Pinkerton detective, is back in action, too. Leiter has been reinstated in the CIA (serving as Bond’s American counterpart).
Ninth in the series, following the anthology For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball has a meant-to-be-funny but maladroit set-up in the first forty pages (Bond goes to Shrublands, an English health clinic, to detox from all his boozing and smoking, and ends up pissing off a SPECTRE hitter, Count Lippe). After that, it’s all systems go, and what a “go” it is!
There’s not a whole lot that’s new here, but it is a fun read – Fleming’s Bond novels are always a pleasure to peruse – and Fleming employs some effective foreshadowing – SPECTRE, replacing SMERSH; Blofeld – for future Bond tales.
Followed by The Spy Who Loved Me.
Thunderball was released stateside as a film on December 29, 1965.
Sean Connery played Bond. Claudine Auger played Dominique “Domino” Derval – the altered version of Dominetta Petacchi. Adolfo Celi played Emilio Largo/SPECTRE #2. Rik Van Nutter played Felix Leiter. Guy Doleman played Count Lippe.
Bernard Lee played M. Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny. Desmond Llewelyn played Q.
Terence Young directed the film, from a script by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.
Review:
A new terrorist group, SPECTRE – acronym for “The Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion” – headed by Ernesto Stavro Blofeld (who directly battles Bond in two later novels, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice), has two atomic bombs and is threatening to use them on the United States and England… that is, of course, unless the two superpowers pay mad cash.
M, vexed, unofficially sends Bond to Nassau, in the Bahamas, to investigate the area as a possible stash spot for the bombs. There, Bond sniffs out (and later matches wits with) Emilio Largo (aka, SPECTRE associate “No. 2”), an urbane “treasure hunter” who means to make good on SPECTRE’s bomb threats, if necessary.
Bond also meets, and aligns with, Largo’s bored mistress, Domino – born Dominetta Petacchi – whose calid temper and cool intelligence makes her Bond’s compeer, in the ways of survival.
Felix Leiter, Bond’s friend and ex-Pinkerton detective, is back in action, too. Leiter has been reinstated in the CIA (serving as Bond’s American counterpart).
Ninth in the series, following the anthology For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball has a meant-to-be-funny but maladroit set-up in the first forty pages (Bond goes to Shrublands, an English health clinic, to detox from all his boozing and smoking, and ends up pissing off a SPECTRE hitter, Count Lippe). After that, it’s all systems go, and what a “go” it is!
There’s not a whole lot that’s new here, but it is a fun read – Fleming’s Bond novels are always a pleasure to peruse – and Fleming employs some effective foreshadowing – SPECTRE, replacing SMERSH; Blofeld – for future Bond tales.
Followed by The Spy Who Loved Me.
Thunderball was released stateside as a film on December 29, 1965.
Sean Connery played Bond. Claudine Auger played Dominique “Domino” Derval – the altered version of Dominetta Petacchi. Adolfo Celi played Emilio Largo/SPECTRE #2. Rik Van Nutter played Felix Leiter. Guy Doleman played Count Lippe.
Bernard Lee played M. Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny. Desmond Llewelyn played Q.
Terence Young directed the film, from a script by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming
(pb; 1959: seventh book in the original 007/James Bond series) Review
Bond battles Auric Goldfinger, a wealthy gold bullion collector and SMERSH agent. Bond first encounters Goldfinger when he busts the polite but petty millionaire as a card cheat, fleecing millions from Junius Du Pont (a Bond acquaintance from Casino Royale). Not long after that – coincidentally – Bond finds himself investigating Goldfinger again, this time because Goldfinger's bullion fever (illicitly indulged in) threatens to break the Bank of England while funding the Russian Secret Service known as SMERSH.
Goldfinger is Bond by the numbers. It's still hard to put down, because Fleming's lean, action-minded prose keeps the humor-spiced plot percolating at a decent pace. However, Goldfinger is a bland bad guy, when compared to past Bond villains, and Pussy Galore – a lesbian flirtatious cat burglar – is an unlikely romantic match for Bond, given her sexual predilections. Not only that, but there's not much build-up between Bond and Galore, who doesn't appear until midway through the novel. In his dealings with Galore, Bond is not the gentleman/take-things-slowly Bond of the previous six books─this is Bond's cinematic/slutty version.
These nits aside, there are other saving graces in Goldfinger, other than Fleming's able writing. One of the graces is Oddjob, Goldfinger's razor-edged bowler-throwing Korean assassin-handy man, who's quite a character, despite his ape-like speech: the scenes where Bond baits the stoical Oddjob are priceless. There's also Fleming's constant referencing of past Bond adventures – most, if not all, of the books are well represented here.
Felix Leiter, the CIA-agent-turned-Pinkerton who appeared in Casino Royale, Live And Let Die, and Diamonds Are Forever, is also back.
While Goldfinger is not one of the better Bond novels, it's still a fun read.
Followed by For Your Eyes Only.
#
The film version of Goldfinger was released stateside on January 9, 1965. Guy Hamilton directed, from a script by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn.
Sean Connery played Bond. Honor Blackman played Pussy Galore. Gert Fröbe played Goldfinger. Harold Sakata, billed as Harold Sakata {Tosh Togo}, played Oddjob. Cec Linder played Felix Leiter.
Bernard Lee played 'M.' Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny. Desmond Llwellyn played 'Q.'
Burt Kwouk played Mr. Ling. Bill Nagy played Midnight. Martin Benson played Solo.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming
(pb; 1957: fifth book in the original 007/James Bond series)
From the back cover:
“Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia’s lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH has the perfect bait in the irresistable Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor cypher machine. But when Bond walks willingly into the trap, a game of cross and double-cross ensues, with Bond as both the stakes and the prize...”
Review:
It’s been a year since the events of Diamonds Are Forever. Bond is bored with office work and slightly depressed, living “the soft life.” Tiffany Case, his lover from the previous novel, has recently left him for another man.
That’s the least of Bond’s problems. The Russians have put a hit out on him, a hit that would not only end his life, but publicly embarrass the British Secret Service. Enter Donovan “Red” Grant, aka, the “Moon Killer,” a serial-killer-turned-SMERSH-assassin, who’s set to fulfill that fatal contract.
There is also Tatiana Romanova, whose allegiances are questionable...
This has always been one of my favorite Bond novels: it has lots of action (compared to the earlier novels), tons of plot twists (many of them born of well-established character quirks), perverse characters (even for a Bond novel) and an ending that absolutely electrifies.
The plot set-up is different, also (a refreshing change). The first quarter of the novel shows the Russians – military politicians, Grant, Rosa Krebs (a SMERSH torturer with sapphic leanings) and Tatiana – gearing up for Bond’s violent, public death trip. Then the action kicks in, when Bond goes to Turkey to meet Tatiana, where Kerim “Darko” Bey, an outgoing gipsy and Head of the Turkish Secret Service, helps Bond with his mission: transporting Tatiana and the Spektor machine to France, via the Orient Express.
(Side-notes: Rene Mathis, a French government agent in Casino Royale, makes an appearance in From Russia... as the Head of the Deuxieme, the French equivalent of the CIA... Espionage gadgetry, a hallmark of the Bond films, is also in evidence, employed mostly by the Russians.)
Exotic, clever, action-packed and romantic, this is one of the best Bond novels, up there with Live And Let Die.
Followed by Doctor No.
From Russia With Love was released stateside as a film on May 27, 1964.
Sean Connery played Bond. Daniela Bianchi played Tatiana. Robert Shaw played Donald “Red” Grant. Lotte Lenya played Rosa Klebb.
Bernard Lee played M. Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny.
Terence Young directed the film, from a script by Richard Maibaum, which was adapted from the novel by Johanna Harwood.
From the back cover:
“Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia’s lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH has the perfect bait in the irresistable Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor cypher machine. But when Bond walks willingly into the trap, a game of cross and double-cross ensues, with Bond as both the stakes and the prize...”
Review:
It’s been a year since the events of Diamonds Are Forever. Bond is bored with office work and slightly depressed, living “the soft life.” Tiffany Case, his lover from the previous novel, has recently left him for another man.
That’s the least of Bond’s problems. The Russians have put a hit out on him, a hit that would not only end his life, but publicly embarrass the British Secret Service. Enter Donovan “Red” Grant, aka, the “Moon Killer,” a serial-killer-turned-SMERSH-assassin, who’s set to fulfill that fatal contract.
There is also Tatiana Romanova, whose allegiances are questionable...
This has always been one of my favorite Bond novels: it has lots of action (compared to the earlier novels), tons of plot twists (many of them born of well-established character quirks), perverse characters (even for a Bond novel) and an ending that absolutely electrifies.
The plot set-up is different, also (a refreshing change). The first quarter of the novel shows the Russians – military politicians, Grant, Rosa Krebs (a SMERSH torturer with sapphic leanings) and Tatiana – gearing up for Bond’s violent, public death trip. Then the action kicks in, when Bond goes to Turkey to meet Tatiana, where Kerim “Darko” Bey, an outgoing gipsy and Head of the Turkish Secret Service, helps Bond with his mission: transporting Tatiana and the Spektor machine to France, via the Orient Express.
(Side-notes: Rene Mathis, a French government agent in Casino Royale, makes an appearance in From Russia... as the Head of the Deuxieme, the French equivalent of the CIA... Espionage gadgetry, a hallmark of the Bond films, is also in evidence, employed mostly by the Russians.)
Exotic, clever, action-packed and romantic, this is one of the best Bond novels, up there with Live And Let Die.
Followed by Doctor No.
From Russia With Love was released stateside as a film on May 27, 1964.
Sean Connery played Bond. Daniela Bianchi played Tatiana. Robert Shaw played Donald “Red” Grant. Lotte Lenya played Rosa Klebb.
Bernard Lee played M. Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny.
Terence Young directed the film, from a script by Richard Maibaum, which was adapted from the novel by Johanna Harwood.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Live And Let Die by Ian Fleming
(pb; 1954: second book in the original 007/James Bond series)
From the back cover
“James Bond vows to crush Mr. Big, the master criminal whose network of terror is reaping rich profits for the Kremlin. He enlists the help of a dangerous French beauty, and they seek out their quarry on a mysterious yacht off the island of Jamaica – a yacht guarded by savage sharks and blood-maddened barracuda... where voodoo drums beat out a rhythm of death.”
Review
Bond goes up against Mr. Big, who’s smuggling thought-to-be-lost, seventeenth-century coins from Jamaica to Harlem. While that’s a major concern, there’s something larger to be concerned about: Mr. Big is a member of SMERSH, who employs voodoo (specifically Baron Samedi, the loa of sex and death) to control his minions.
Helping Bond is Solitaire (a.k.a. Simone Latrelle), Mr. Big’s psychic ex-fiancee. Also aiding Bond is Felix Leiter, Bond’s friend and CIA agent (who appeared in Casino Royale), as well as Quarrel, a Jamaican boatman, who later appears in the sixth Bond novel, Dr. No.
The follow-up to Casino Royale is swiftly-plotted and a blast of a read, especially when Bond, seeking to stop Mr. Big (and rescue Solitaire, who’s been kidnapped), must enter Big’s fortress by swimming through Shark Bay, which is patrolled by gunboats, and vicious, specially-trained barracudas and sharks. The tension in that section is so well-written it may be one of my favorite sections of any Bond novel, thus far.
This one of my favorite Bond novels, a superb first sequel in the Bond series. Followed by Moonraker.
#
The resulting film was released stateside on June 27, 1973. Guy Hamilton directed the film, from Tom Mankiewicz's screenplay.
Roger Moore played James Bond. Yaphet Kotto played Mr. Big. Jane Seymour played Solitaire. David Hedison played Felix Leiter. Roy Stewart played Quarrel Jr.
Bernard Lee played M. Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny. Clifton James played Sheriff Pepper. Julius Harris, billed as Julius W. Harris, played Tee Hee. Geoffrey Holder played Baron Samedi. Gloria Hendry played Rosie.
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