James Bond on TCM

[Adam H. Kerman]

TCM's theme of the night for Thursday, September 12, 2019, is James Bond
movies.

The first one is absolutely terrific, the straightest adaptation
an Ian Fleming novel ever got, starring what's his name, The Man Who
Would Not Show Up For Work. The Bond girl is Dianna Rigg. Blofeld,
recast yet again, is Telly Savalas. If Sean Connery hadn't quit the
series after Live and Let Die, we never would have gotten a straight
adaptation but another comic thriller like Goldfinger. This is one of
Fleming's best novels and deserved the straight adaptation.

One of the most suspenseful scenes ever created for the movies involves
an elaborate rouse to get a photocopier into someone's office!

The movie is also famous for the ski chase in the tobaggan slide,
the best stunt of its kind.

8 pm ET On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Note that this movie was filmed out of sequence. The Blofeld trilogy was
Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice,
but excessive snowfall in the Swiss Alps. They made no accomodations in
the movie script for this change. It's fortunate, indeed, as Saltzman
and Broccoli gave the project to second unit director Peter Hunt, the
only one interested in doing a straight adaptation.

George Lazenby refused to cooperate with promotion of this movie,
appearing at press conferences in full beard and mustache and not
suggesting James Bond in any way. Despite his loutish behavior, Harry
Saltzman still wanted him for the next 10 years or so; he was under
contract. The next movie was about to go into production; Lazenby
refused to show up.

There was no choice but for Albert Broccoli to deliver an enormous pile
of money to Sean Connery to get him to return to the series.

And we get

10:30 pm ET Diamonds Are Forever

It's hugely flawed but still great fun. It's got the best black humor
and graveyard gags. The two cheerful hitmen, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, are
memorable and they slap the audience in the face. We witness them
murdering someone horrifically, then more murders, but we're just
horrified that they skip away from the crime scene holding hands! Jill
St. John is sexy as hell and Bond learns if the collar matches the
cuffs. But little of what Burt Saxby does makes any sense, the attempted
murder of Bond in the pipeline is a fine set piece but makes no sense,
and because a critical scene was left on the cutting room floor, Lana
Wood's death is a head scratcher.

This was the first Bond movie I saw in theater as a kid.

12:45 am ET next day Live and Let Die

Roger Moore's first outing as Bond. It made Jane Seymour an
international star. Yaphet Kotto does what he can with a weak script. It
has the extended chase scene through the swamp that was in desperate
need of an editor.

Roger Moore was hired not to play Connery's Bond but because Saltzman
and Broccoli wanted the man who played The Saint and to give James Bond
an even more comic spin than we'd gotten in Goldfinger and Diamonds Are
Forever. The wanted Brett Sinclair from The Persuaders! Moore was always
there to raise an eyebrow and wink at the audience.

Note that the producers filmed the novels out of sequence.

Finally, Moore's second Bond.

3 am ET next day The Man With the Golden Gun

This should have been a great movie. Christopher Lee!

The novel was Fleming's last. Fleming was dying and didn't have time
left to give it the major rewrite it so desperately needed. It was
extensively ripped off from From Russia With Love. The beginning of the
novel has Bond crawling back to MI-6, sort of brainwashed. It wasn't
retained for the movie.

That being said, where the Scaramanga scenes stick closely to how
Scaramanga was written in the novel, it's much better, but there's a
whole solar energy weapon (hey! it's green!) plot that doesn't work. The
motives of the two women keep changing like different drafts of the
script were all jumbled up. For no valid reason, Clifton James is stuck
in this movie playing the same hick sheriff from LALD.

Maud Adams will return on Octopussy playing a different character.

It made Herve Villechaize an international star, but the mean little
dwarf was overly fond of his alchohol and he'd drink himself to death
and poverty within a few years. I still say Bond murdered Nick Nack but
everyone else says he just ran him up the mast. How could he not murder
Nick Nack? The whole audience wanted to murder Nick Nack.

Saltzman left the series after this movie. He sold his half of the
company to United Artists, the decision that got future Bond movies in
serious trouble due to several MGM bankruptcies.