JAMES BOND MOVIES

Actors

Sir Sean Connery

Sean Connery was born into a working-class family in Edinburgh. He grew to be 6ft.-tall and was known as Big Tam. At sixteen he entered the Royal Navy, serving for three years. Afterwards he became a milkman and took up bodybuilding and then modelling. He became associated with the city's King's Theatre.

He was a member of the chorus line of the musical South Pacific.

His performance contained elements of wit and sardonic charm.

His run was broken by On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), in which George Lazenby played the spy.

Connery was a vociferous advocate of Scottish nationalism. However, it was frequently commented that he chose not to live in the country.

His attitude towards women was troubled. In 1965 he gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he declared his opinion that domestic violence against women could be justified. His first wife, the actress Diane Cilento (1932-2011) stated that he had abused her physically.

Website: www.georgelazenbyofficial.com www.seanconnery.com

Operation Kid Brother

Operation Kid Brother was an English language movie that was directed by Alberto De Martino. It starred Sean Connery s younger brother Neil (1938-2021), who was a plasterer. The actors who appeared in it included Adolfo Celi, who had played Largo in Thunderball and Daniela Bianchi, who had been a Bond girl in From Russia With Love.

Eunice Gayson

Dr No was the first Bond movie in which the line Bond, James Bond was delivered. Connery was extremely nervous and messed up its delivery numerous times. He was acting opposite Eunice Gayson (n e Sargaison) (1928-2018), whom he had known for several years. Lewis Gilbert decided to break for an early lunch. He suggested to her that she take the actor for a liquid lunch. She did as she had been bid. Connery had a couple of drinks and became more relaxed and, when filming resumed, delivered the line perfectly. Gayson was teetotal and so had had to act her part. Her character, Sylvia Trench, reappeared in From Russia With Love and there was a plan that she should become a recurring character, however, Guy Hamilton did not include her in Goldfinger and the scheme was dropped. Gayson was of the opinion that a Bond girl should have large breasts and an Oxford accent.

Sir Roger Moore

Roger Moore appeared in twelve Bond movies over the years 1972-1985. He appreciated that he had a limited acting range. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker commented that he needed a stunt double for his acting scenes. Another American journalist declared that he should be awarded the Kabuki acting award in recognition of the manner in which he has reduced all human emotions to a series of variations on one gesture, the raising of the right eyebrow. Moore was once asked what he had brought to the part. White teeth, was his reply.

The Bond Title Sequence

Robert Brownjohn was a brilliant American graphics designer, who was also a drug addict. In 1960 he moved to London because it was then possible to be prescribed heroin in the U.K.. He became a leading creative force within the British advertising industry. He managed to wean himself off the opiate by substituting one addiction for another. He became a rampant alcoholic. His weight ballooned.

Brownjohn devised the opening sequence for the movie From Russia With Love (1963). He presented the idea for it to the producer Cubby Broccoli in a Soho screening room. This involved the creative stripping off his shirt and dancing in a broad beam of light that was shone by a slide projector, his fulsome figure appearing in silhouette upon a screen. The producer was able to understand the concept that was being conveyed by his wobbling, lit up profile and the sequence was commissioned.

Brownjohn also devised the opening for Goldfinger (1964). This was inspired by the work of the photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. It included footage from the movie and its two predecessors being screened onto the gold painted body of the model-and-actress Margaret Nolan (1943-2020). One of the segments included a golf ball rolling towards a hole. The sequence was projected so that it appeared to be rolling towards her cleavage. It was reputed to be the first set of opening titles that had to be cleared by the censor.

From Dr No (1962) onwards the Bond title sequences had been created and directed by Maurice Binder. The gun barrel element was of his devising and he directed those segments for the two opening sequences that Brownjohn oversaw. Binder was responsible for the openings of all the Bond movies from Thunderball (1965) to Licence To Kill (1989)

Design

Ken Adam

Klaus Ken Adam (1921-2016) was born into a German Jewish family that owned S. Adam, a large sporting goods store in Berlin. It had kitted out Roald Amundsen's 1925-6 Arctic expedition. Adam's father was a decorated cavalry officer. As a child the boy could see the Reichstag building burning down. In 1934 the family emigrated to Britain. He was to retain a distinct German accent. One of his mother's lodgers had been a Hungarian painter who had imparted to him an appreciation of the role that art direction played in the making of movies. By the time that he was fifteen he had resolved that he wished to be a film designer. The noted art instructor Vincent Korda advised him to first to gain a thorough grounding in architecture. In 1946 Adam entered the movie as a draughtsman.

Adam had a modest budget for The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960). The stylised sets that he managed to create for the film caught the attention of its producer Albert Cubby Broccoli, who hired him to work on Dr No (1962). In total, Adam worked on seven Bonds. His final one was Moonraker. In terms of art work and objets d art furnishings he imparted to the Bond villains his own impeccable taste. However, he was equally of employing kitsch in a playful manner.

The Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) that had an ejector seat, tyre shredder, bullet-proof shield, and machine guns was Adam's creation. The last feature was a revenge fantasy that stemmed from all the times that other people had dented his Jaguar's body by bumping into it.

As the Bond series became more successful so the film's budgets grew. As a result, Adam was given increased scope for realising his expansive visions. The villain's lair at the bottom of a volcano in You Only Live Twice (1967) was built at Pinewood. It was the largest European set to have been built up to that date. It cost of U.S.$1m. Its frame was provided by 200 miles of tubular scaffolding. This was more than had been used to construct the Hyde Park Hilton.

Peter Lamont

Ken Adams's set for Moonraker was expensive and received cooly. He was succeeded by Peter Lamont (1929-2020), whose work was more modest.

Directors

Lewis Gilbert

Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018) was offered the job of directing You Only Live Twice, which became the fifth movie in the series. He declined the offer, declaring It would be like being Elizabeth Taylor's fifth husband. I would know what to do, but I would n t know how to make it any different. Broccoli persuaded to come to a second meeting. During this the producer proved able to persuade him to accept the job by saying, You re making a mistake. You have the world's biggest audience and it's waiting to see what kind of a hash you make of it.

The movie's title proved to be prophetic. During the filming in Japan Gilbert needed to do an aerial reconnaissance of a volcano. He was flown over it in a helicopter by a shaky-handed pilot. He informed the director that during the Second World War he had been a kamikaze pilot. Gilbert's private response was that the man could not have been a very good one. At the end of filming in the country Gilbert and Broccoli were due to take a B.O.A.C. flight to Hong Kong. They missed it in order to watch a ninja display. The aircraft they had been due to be flying on disintegrated 25 minutes into its flight. Everyone on board it died.

Gilbert regarded Connery as having made Bond in his own image. When the character shot someone they were dead. By the time that You Only Live Twice was being shot, the actor was becoming increasingly unhappy about playing the role. However, Gilbert, having been an actor himself, was sensitive to thespian insecurities. The pair proved to be able to make a highly entertaining, over-the-top, film. Broccoli accepted Gilbert's shift from the cynical to the fantastical. The sets and stunts overshadowed the acting.

Gilbert directed The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). His approach was that Bond films such should be action and fun. The director regarded Moore's Bond as being closer to the character in the books. He was charming and affable and the audience could really believe that he had killed someone. Gilbert commented that he had shot films that had smaller budgets than Moonraker's telephone bill. The movie was effectively parodying the series. Gilbert found himself unable to understand why the series became popular the more spectacular it became. He thought that it might have turned into pop art.

Guy Hamilton

Goldfinger (1964) was the third Bond movie. Guy Hamilton (1922-2016) was of the view that the villains should be intelligent. After a seven year gap Hamilton directed his second Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971). It was gimmick-ladened. He believed that if Bond needed to take a train he should take a plane. Live and Let Die (1973) introduced Roger Moore as Bond. The director persuaded the actor to have shorter hair so that he should appear to be more Establishment-looking. The film was one of the duller ones. Hamilton's final Bond movie was The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). He once declared One of the rules of the Bond pictures is that you re not allowed to have a leading lady who can act.

Location: Hyde Park Gate, SW7 5DG. Hamilton s London flat.

Health & Safety

The movie The World Is Not Enough (1999) was inspired by the experiences in Azerbaijan of Terence Adams (1938-2019), an executive of the oil company BP. He had been seconded to head the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, the trading vehicle for an industry consortium. It had enabled the Azerbaijanis to act independently of the Russians by providing deep-water extraction equipment and financing the construction a pipeline through Azerbaijan to Georgia's Black Sea coast, where a terminal was built. During his time in Azerbaijan Adams survived two kidnappings and three coups d t ts. In 1997 the British government marked his achievement by awarding him a companionship of the Order of St Michael & St George, an honour that was usually reserved for senior diplomats. He had been raised the son a Marxist railwayman but had developed an interest in geology through being taken down into mines by one of his grandfathers, who had been a safety officer.

See Also: THE OIL INDUSTRY BP

Music

John Barry

John Barry was the son of a Yorkshire cinema owner. He was comfortable working with pop music.

There is an interpretation of John Barry's work that argues that he imposed big band techniques upon orchestral sounds. Brass and percussion were prominent. His application was more sophisticated than anyone else's had been. He fitted the music to the action. He could turn on a sixpence. The music did not just resonate with what was onscreen e.g. underwater, it resonated in a way that meant viewers knew it was a Bond underwater scene.

Vic Flick

Eric Tomlinson (1931-2015) oversaw Vic Flick's guitar playing for James Barry's Bond theme. The sound was a happy accident. It derived from their using a clapped-out amplifier .

Location: Cine-Tele Sound Studios, 49-53 Kensington Gardens Square, W2 4BA (red, turquoise)

Scriptwriters

The children's author Roald Dahl wrote the script for You Only Live Twice (1967).

Thunderball

The financier Ivan Bryce was a friend of Fleming. In 1958 Bryce and Kevin McClory (1926-2006), who had been an assistant to the director John Huston on The African Queen (1951) and Moulin Rouge (1952), had established a movie production business. McClory concluded that the Bond books were uncinematic. It was therefore agreed that an original Bond screenplay should be written. A plot was agreed upon and Jack Whittingham (d.1973), an experienced screenwriter, was brought in.

In 1961 Fleming plagiarised the screenplay in order to write the novel Thunderball. McClory launched an action. The High Court made a ruling that left the way clear for McClory to remake Thunderball as Never Say Never Again (1983).

Voice Dubbing

Website: https://english-voice-over.fandom

Robert Rietti

The voices of the Bond villains Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) in Thunderball (1965) and Ernst Stavro Blofeld (John Hollis) in For Your Eyes Only (1981) and of the Japanese secret service chief Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) in You Only Live Twice (1967) were supplied by the voiceover actor Robert Rietti. He was part of the series from the outset, voicing John Strangways and the roulette dealer in Dr No (1962). Rietti appeared on screen in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as one of the casino staff.

Nikkie van der Zyl

The voice-over actress worked Nikki van der Zyl on numerous Bond movies.

David Backhouse 2024