Didn't know that they hadn't...is there a specific reason why?
I'm afraid it's that very quality that put me off of some of their later '60s stuff that I tried.
It isn't on my agenda, but I don't have to be the only one posting these things....
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
- Start date
The were... "difficult." And volatile. To an extreme. To the point no one in the states wanted to work with them. You know how mainstream America was not ready for the British "punk rockers" of the '70s? It was kind of like that, only 10 years earlier. It has been said that their were union bans against working with the band, and I don't know if that was official, but it seems to have been at least unofficially the case.
Ah well. Pretty great stuff, IMO.
Yeah I know, but I already know what I think about it...
Interesting...sounds like they were pretty hardcore for the time.
But I don't, and it'd be your chance to make a case for the rest of us. Post the YouTube links and I will listen.
Didn't know any of this and thanks for the link. Interesting. Nice to know they paid as much attention to Bond's look as it appeared they did. You could step out in those suits today and look better than 90% of guys running around in clothes they bought yesterday.
I've often wondered about this myself because, as you say, From Russia With Love was a great movie. Dr. No, was at least competently done.
I think Goldfinger may have hit the way it sis because it was the movie that expressed Bond' true potential as this elegant, suave, cool as a cucumber, cold blooded killer. Seemed like it was embraced by actor, director, and studio. "Russia" had introduced the Bond gadgets in a smaller way, but Goldfinger made the gadgets a centerpiece in the movie.
Every part of Goldfinger screamed "cool". The first time I saw the scene where Bond breaks into Jill Masterson'a room and finds her out on the balcony helping Goldfinger cheat at cards and introduces himself with the iconic "Bond, James Bond" and the Bond theme rises in the background as he speaks and then fades, gave me goosebumps.
This movie forever separated Bond from the more grounded hero in the books and turned him into a superhero on screen.Oh, and add to that the best Bond theme of all time and the package is complete.
Honsetly, when I was a kid, I used to laugh at B.B.'s guitar playing. I was only going by recordings I heard on the radio which wasn't the same as what was on his albums, and to me he sounded kind of not so great or at least, not the way a guy of his stature should sound.
Finally saw him live in the early 90's. He shut me up forever. Him and one of the guys in his band went of extended jams that showed why B.B. deserved his rep. His playing was pretty incredible.
One of the best falsetto performances ever, IMO, for this one hit wonder.
Guess I can see where it would be considered the first "whole package" Bond film...the one that set the template that the rest of the series would follow, more so than it would the original Fleming material.
Planning to give Goldfinger its 55th anniversary watch sometime during the holiday week. Just did my 50th anniversary watch of On Her Majesty's Secret Service today...hope to get that written up soon.
As a performer, John Davidson makes a good audience.
Ah, Topo! It's been too long!
They left out the Muppets?
Monozygotic twins are rampant among royalty.
Lorne Greene was known for his Alpo commercials. I don't remember anything about margarine.
That was extremely funny.
Yeah, it doesn't, and the story was fine without the token gunplay anyway. That was definitely overkill, pardon the expression.
Nostalgia is a force to be reckoned with. Not just Led Zep benefits.So somebody likes this? For me it's the ol' hobgoblin at work.
50th Anniversary Cinematic Special
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Directed by Peter R. Hunt
Starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas
Premiered December 18, 1969 (UK); December 19, 1969 (US)
Historically, I think this stands as my favorite Bond film...for staying closest to the original Fleming story; for the ground that said story covers; for presenting an intriguing road not taken in the film series. Its competition would be The Spy Who Loved Me, which I consider to be the best whole-package Bond film; and--don't laugh--The Living Daylights, because I loved how Dalton's approach to following in the footsteps of Connery and Moore was to take it back to Fleming in his performance. (License to Kill I'm not as fond of, because it seemed more like an '80s drug lord / vigilante film than a Bond film.)
When I first discovered OHMSS in the mid-'80s, Lazenby got points simply for being an alternative to Connery and Moore's dominance of the role at the time, but I've come to recognize him as the film's primary weakness. He had neither the acting chops of Dalton, nor the "It factor" of Connery, Moore, and, later, Brosnan and Craig. Ultimately, It factor is what sells Bond onscreen...the actor has to be able to make the role his own while embodying the fantasy of the character, being the man that men want to be and women want to be with. Dalton didn't have the It factor either, but I think that my personal perfect Bond film would be OHMSS with an appropriately aged Dalton in the lead.
Lazenby also didn't succeed in doing what needed to be done at this point in film series' history: establishing that there was a future for the Bond films past Connery and the '60s. Moore gets credit for that, an aspect of his tenure in the role that I've come to greatly appreciate. He not only kept the series alive for seven films spanning two decades, he ushered it to new success, ensuring that it would survive to see other portrayals of the character that were generally more serious and often hewed closer to Fleming. Moore's contribution to the longevity of the franchise cannot be overstated.
OHMSS was the first time that the film series recast Bond, and I think it's safe to say that as far as general audiences were concerned, it was a misstep. As there had already been some Bond product outside of this film series because of rights issues (most recently at the time, 1967's spoof Casino Royale), OHMSS goes conspicuously out of its way to make sure that the general audience knows that this is supposed to be the same Bond as in the Connery films: The gun barrel logo that includes the legend "Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli Present"; the pre-credits sequence opening with the recurring MI6 characters portrayed by the familiar actors; the "This never happened to the other fellow" line that closes the pre-credits sequence; the scenes from the previous films in the title sequence; the janitor in Draco's office whistling "Goldfinger"; Bond's trip down memory lane in his own office going through gadgets from the previous films that he keeps in his desk drawer, accompanied by music cues from each film.
What Lazenby did do well was the physical stuff. We can see this as early as the gun barrel logo, which has him deftly dropping down to one knee, presenting a much sharper figure than Connery's wobbliness. I think he also did most of his own fighting. His physical skill and acting inexperience are on display in the pre-credits sequence, with his unconvincing delivery of the iconic introductory line:
The credits sequence is the last, IIRC, to use an instrumental rather than a song...something that the first two films had done. I've always thought that "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" could have been a great alternate James Bond Theme for the larger series, if the series hadn't been trying to distance itself from this film in the aftermath of its underwhelming reception.
The imagery of Bond turning back the hands of the clock is probably meant to be symbolic of the credit sequence's trip down memory lane, but it also works on another level for those familiar with the book. In the novel, Bond first meets Tracy at the casino, which is related in flashback following the opening of stopping her from committing suicide at the beach. The film plays the two scenes as having actually happened in the order presented.
Lazenby's inexperience does give him a vulnerability that serves him well for the film's material, starting with his romance with Tracy and culminating in the tragic final scene. The bit where he slaps Tracy for information doesn't suit his style as well as it did Connery's; even Moore was more convincing in that department on the odd occasion that he did it (The Man with the Golden Gun).
The film does have a song, but one only used within the body of the movie: John Barry and Hal David's "We Have All the Time in the World," performed by Louis Armstrong. Its use as a recurring instrumental theme in the film is very pretty.
Marc-Ange Draco (physically portrayed by Gabriele Ferzetti and voiced by David de Keyser) is a well-realized and memorable character. Being the leader of a criminal organization, he shares a lot in common with Bond villains, but ultimately works on the same side as 007 for the purpose of this story. Draco wanting to pay Bond to marry his daughter so that she'll have a man to dominate her doesn't exactly pass muster by today's standards, but it's pure Fleming. Would Bond really have married Tracy just to find Blofeld? It's been a long time since I read the book, so I don't recall offhand what insight I'm sure Fleming provided regarding this situation.
Lazenby's casting also gives us a brief age hiccup in the onscreen portrayal of the character. There was otherwise a continuity in the apparent age of Bond in the Connery/Moore era, Moore having been a couple of years older than Connery. Lazenby's relative youth is most apparent in his scenes with Moneypenny. Lois Maxwell was the same age as Moore, and played the character as if she and Bond had a history that they couldn't revisit because they worked together. With Lazenby being twelve years younger than Maxwell, the Bond/Moneypenny relationship in this film feels a bit squicky, like he's a gigolo who's stringing her along. Nevertheless, the bit with him tossing his hat to Moneypenny at the wedding is a nice touch.
Another minor area where the film's story differs from the book's is Bond's motivation for going after Blofeld. In the novel, Bond feels that trying to dig up the SPECTRE leader in hiding (whom he hasn't met face-to-face in the books yet) is a waste of his time and talent, and his frustration with being kept on the case informs his decision to turn in his resignation. In the film, it's Bond who wants to keep after Blofeld; thus his attempt to resign immediately upon being told he's being taken off the case seems forced and unconvincing. But the sequence does give us that rare look at Bond's office, as well as the nice M/Moneypenny intercom moment.
One can't blame Tracy for having issues when her father's mistress (Virginia North) is eight years younger than her. And despite Tracy being portrayed by Diana Rigg (and this is the first time I've seen the film since watching her seasons of The Avengers), I couldn't blame film audiences of the time for being unconvinced that this was the one Bond would marry. Bond's relationships with the heroines in the books tended to develop a bit more naturalistically, whereas the films by this point had turned his womanizing into a formula.
Lazenby might have been better served by Dalton's approach of having many of his one-liners cut. The steady stream of Bondian witticisms in this film seems especially forced because of his less natural delivery. The bit with Bond taking the centerfold with him when leaving the lawyer's office is a nice, wordless touch.
Another treat for Fleming fans: we get to see M's house!
The stretch of the film that takes place at Piz Gloria (prior to Bond's escape) always fell a bit flat for me. The bevy of exotic girls and psychedelically lit brainwashing strike me as seeming very generic '60s spy-fi, like the sort of thing you'd see in Bond knock-offs of the time, and later parodied in the Austin Powers films. Fun real life fact: the film production helped finance the finishing of the still-under-construction revolving restaurant in return for being able to use it as a filming location; and the restaurant retained the name, which was from the book.
All those years of watching whenever on home video, it escaped my notice that OHMSS actually was a Christmas film in its own way, coming out seasonally in addition to prominently featuring the season in its story--Bond's escape from Piz Gloria and proposal to Tracy take place on Christmas Eve.
I daresay that Lazenby is more convincing as the timid, scholarly Sir Hilary Bray than Connery could have been, with or without George Baker providing the voice for Bond's impersonation. "Just a slight stiffness coming on" is one of the better Bond lines in the film. Of course, it's delivered by Baker.
The winter sport of curling will always remind me of Help! "A fiendish thingy!"
As with Felix Leiter, the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld was never done justice in his widely varying casting in the films. Telly Savalas is the only fully depicted Blofeld who seems like a physical match for Bond, but he's just too damned American. In keeping so close to the book, the film exhibits a bit of discontinuity in that it's not taken for granted that Blofeld would recognize Bond despite the recasting of both roles, as the characters had met in You Only Live Twice (whereas they hadn't met yet in the books). There was a discarded idea of establishing that Bond had gotten plastic surgery, to explain the recasting, which would have covered this.
There's nothing more Bondian than a ski chase with machine guns. Alas, the Fandango clips don't include the daytime sequence.
An oft-praised part of the film, at least among its aficionados, is how Bond, attempting to evade SPECTRE in the village below Piz Gloria, seems genuinely scared for his life, when suddenly Tracy skates up--Mrs. Peel to the rescue!
James and Tracy spend Christmas Eve in a barn. A little on the nose, but it makes for a striking, memorable proposal scene.
In the next morning's ski chase, Lazenby delivers one line that I always enjoyed: "He had lots of guts!" Crude, but it goes back to when I was a teenager.
Rank amateur villain stupidity: For some reason Blofeld assumes that Bond has been killed in the avalanche, even as he has his men retrieve Tracy alive from the snow....
Note that Fleming did not write this part...Bond and Tracy's pursuit by SPECTRE was extended in the film. As I recall, in the book they both got away in Tracy's car, after Bond pulled a Roadrunner trick by getting out and switching a road sign so that the pursuing vehicle would drive off a cliff or something.
There's some particularly striking cinematography in the moody lighting in M's office and the flight of Draco's helicopters to Piz Gloria (the tail end of which is seen at the beginning of the clip below), the latter underscored by Tracy's poetry. It's a nice touch how Tracy distracts Blofeld after recognizing her father's voice on the radio.
Of course, Draco and his men don't know exactly where Tracy is, but they're riddling the place with machine gun fire and throwing in hand grenades...! Another nice touch is how Bond briefly resumes his Sir Hilary voice as a gag.
In what's becoming a tradition for the films, Blofeld is left to far too ambiguous a fate.
Had Lazenby not decided to leave the role while still making the film, the director's intent was to save Tracy's death for the pre-credits sequence of the next film. That would have been far too cheap a way of dealing with it, and would have robbed this story of its most powerful moment.
Lazenby's vulnerability works for him here. Bond was even more dramatically affected by Tracy's death in the books...at the beginning of the next one (which was You Only Live Twice), we find him in a rock-bottom state of depression.
On a lighter note, Tracy declares that she wants three girls and three boys...The Bondy Bunch?
Between Lazenby proactively leaving the role and the underwhelming reception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in its time, the Bond film series exits its decade of origin with its future uncertain. The 1970s will see 007's adventures returning to the approach of You Only Live Twice with a vengeance, mostly discarding Fleming's story material in favor of larger-than-life spectacle and strong emphasis on tongue-in-cheek humor.
JAMES BOND 007 WILL RETURN
"DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER"
_______
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Directed by Peter R. Hunt
Starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas
Premiered December 18, 1969 (UK); December 19, 1969 (US)
Wiki said:
Historically, I think this stands as my favorite Bond film...for staying closest to the original Fleming story; for the ground that said story covers; for presenting an intriguing road not taken in the film series. Its competition would be The Spy Who Loved Me, which I consider to be the best whole-package Bond film; and--don't laugh--The Living Daylights, because I loved how Dalton's approach to following in the footsteps of Connery and Moore was to take it back to Fleming in his performance. (License to Kill I'm not as fond of, because it seemed more like an '80s drug lord / vigilante film than a Bond film.)
When I first discovered OHMSS in the mid-'80s, Lazenby got points simply for being an alternative to Connery and Moore's dominance of the role at the time, but I've come to recognize him as the film's primary weakness. He had neither the acting chops of Dalton, nor the "It factor" of Connery, Moore, and, later, Brosnan and Craig. Ultimately, It factor is what sells Bond onscreen...the actor has to be able to make the role his own while embodying the fantasy of the character, being the man that men want to be and women want to be with. Dalton didn't have the It factor either, but I think that my personal perfect Bond film would be OHMSS with an appropriately aged Dalton in the lead.
Lazenby also didn't succeed in doing what needed to be done at this point in film series' history: establishing that there was a future for the Bond films past Connery and the '60s. Moore gets credit for that, an aspect of his tenure in the role that I've come to greatly appreciate. He not only kept the series alive for seven films spanning two decades, he ushered it to new success, ensuring that it would survive to see other portrayals of the character that were generally more serious and often hewed closer to Fleming. Moore's contribution to the longevity of the franchise cannot be overstated.
OHMSS was the first time that the film series recast Bond, and I think it's safe to say that as far as general audiences were concerned, it was a misstep. As there had already been some Bond product outside of this film series because of rights issues (most recently at the time, 1967's spoof Casino Royale), OHMSS goes conspicuously out of its way to make sure that the general audience knows that this is supposed to be the same Bond as in the Connery films: The gun barrel logo that includes the legend "Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli Present"; the pre-credits sequence opening with the recurring MI6 characters portrayed by the familiar actors; the "This never happened to the other fellow" line that closes the pre-credits sequence; the scenes from the previous films in the title sequence; the janitor in Draco's office whistling "Goldfinger"; Bond's trip down memory lane in his own office going through gadgets from the previous films that he keeps in his desk drawer, accompanied by music cues from each film.
What Lazenby did do well was the physical stuff. We can see this as early as the gun barrel logo, which has him deftly dropping down to one knee, presenting a much sharper figure than Connery's wobbliness. I think he also did most of his own fighting. His physical skill and acting inexperience are on display in the pre-credits sequence, with his unconvincing delivery of the iconic introductory line:
The credits sequence is the last, IIRC, to use an instrumental rather than a song...something that the first two films had done. I've always thought that "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" could have been a great alternate James Bond Theme for the larger series, if the series hadn't been trying to distance itself from this film in the aftermath of its underwhelming reception.
The imagery of Bond turning back the hands of the clock is probably meant to be symbolic of the credit sequence's trip down memory lane, but it also works on another level for those familiar with the book. In the novel, Bond first meets Tracy at the casino, which is related in flashback following the opening of stopping her from committing suicide at the beach. The film plays the two scenes as having actually happened in the order presented.
Lazenby's inexperience does give him a vulnerability that serves him well for the film's material, starting with his romance with Tracy and culminating in the tragic final scene. The bit where he slaps Tracy for information doesn't suit his style as well as it did Connery's; even Moore was more convincing in that department on the odd occasion that he did it (The Man with the Golden Gun).
The film does have a song, but one only used within the body of the movie: John Barry and Hal David's "We Have All the Time in the World," performed by Louis Armstrong. Its use as a recurring instrumental theme in the film is very pretty.
Marc-Ange Draco (physically portrayed by Gabriele Ferzetti and voiced by David de Keyser) is a well-realized and memorable character. Being the leader of a criminal organization, he shares a lot in common with Bond villains, but ultimately works on the same side as 007 for the purpose of this story. Draco wanting to pay Bond to marry his daughter so that she'll have a man to dominate her doesn't exactly pass muster by today's standards, but it's pure Fleming. Would Bond really have married Tracy just to find Blofeld? It's been a long time since I read the book, so I don't recall offhand what insight I'm sure Fleming provided regarding this situation.
Lazenby's casting also gives us a brief age hiccup in the onscreen portrayal of the character. There was otherwise a continuity in the apparent age of Bond in the Connery/Moore era, Moore having been a couple of years older than Connery. Lazenby's relative youth is most apparent in his scenes with Moneypenny. Lois Maxwell was the same age as Moore, and played the character as if she and Bond had a history that they couldn't revisit because they worked together. With Lazenby being twelve years younger than Maxwell, the Bond/Moneypenny relationship in this film feels a bit squicky, like he's a gigolo who's stringing her along. Nevertheless, the bit with him tossing his hat to Moneypenny at the wedding is a nice touch.
Another minor area where the film's story differs from the book's is Bond's motivation for going after Blofeld. In the novel, Bond feels that trying to dig up the SPECTRE leader in hiding (whom he hasn't met face-to-face in the books yet) is a waste of his time and talent, and his frustration with being kept on the case informs his decision to turn in his resignation. In the film, it's Bond who wants to keep after Blofeld; thus his attempt to resign immediately upon being told he's being taken off the case seems forced and unconvincing. But the sequence does give us that rare look at Bond's office, as well as the nice M/Moneypenny intercom moment.
One can't blame Tracy for having issues when her father's mistress (Virginia North) is eight years younger than her. And despite Tracy being portrayed by Diana Rigg (and this is the first time I've seen the film since watching her seasons of The Avengers), I couldn't blame film audiences of the time for being unconvinced that this was the one Bond would marry. Bond's relationships with the heroines in the books tended to develop a bit more naturalistically, whereas the films by this point had turned his womanizing into a formula.
Lazenby might have been better served by Dalton's approach of having many of his one-liners cut. The steady stream of Bondian witticisms in this film seems especially forced because of his less natural delivery. The bit with Bond taking the centerfold with him when leaving the lawyer's office is a nice, wordless touch.
Another treat for Fleming fans: we get to see M's house!
The stretch of the film that takes place at Piz Gloria (prior to Bond's escape) always fell a bit flat for me. The bevy of exotic girls and psychedelically lit brainwashing strike me as seeming very generic '60s spy-fi, like the sort of thing you'd see in Bond knock-offs of the time, and later parodied in the Austin Powers films. Fun real life fact: the film production helped finance the finishing of the still-under-construction revolving restaurant in return for being able to use it as a filming location; and the restaurant retained the name, which was from the book.
All those years of watching whenever on home video, it escaped my notice that OHMSS actually was a Christmas film in its own way, coming out seasonally in addition to prominently featuring the season in its story--Bond's escape from Piz Gloria and proposal to Tracy take place on Christmas Eve.
I daresay that Lazenby is more convincing as the timid, scholarly Sir Hilary Bray than Connery could have been, with or without George Baker providing the voice for Bond's impersonation. "Just a slight stiffness coming on" is one of the better Bond lines in the film. Of course, it's delivered by Baker.
The winter sport of curling will always remind me of Help! "A fiendish thingy!"
As with Felix Leiter, the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld was never done justice in his widely varying casting in the films. Telly Savalas is the only fully depicted Blofeld who seems like a physical match for Bond, but he's just too damned American. In keeping so close to the book, the film exhibits a bit of discontinuity in that it's not taken for granted that Blofeld would recognize Bond despite the recasting of both roles, as the characters had met in You Only Live Twice (whereas they hadn't met yet in the books). There was a discarded idea of establishing that Bond had gotten plastic surgery, to explain the recasting, which would have covered this.
There's nothing more Bondian than a ski chase with machine guns. Alas, the Fandango clips don't include the daytime sequence.
An oft-praised part of the film, at least among its aficionados, is how Bond, attempting to evade SPECTRE in the village below Piz Gloria, seems genuinely scared for his life, when suddenly Tracy skates up--Mrs. Peel to the rescue!
James and Tracy spend Christmas Eve in a barn. A little on the nose, but it makes for a striking, memorable proposal scene.
In the next morning's ski chase, Lazenby delivers one line that I always enjoyed: "He had lots of guts!" Crude, but it goes back to when I was a teenager.
Rank amateur villain stupidity: For some reason Blofeld assumes that Bond has been killed in the avalanche, even as he has his men retrieve Tracy alive from the snow....
Note that Fleming did not write this part...Bond and Tracy's pursuit by SPECTRE was extended in the film. As I recall, in the book they both got away in Tracy's car, after Bond pulled a Roadrunner trick by getting out and switching a road sign so that the pursuing vehicle would drive off a cliff or something.There's some particularly striking cinematography in the moody lighting in M's office and the flight of Draco's helicopters to Piz Gloria (the tail end of which is seen at the beginning of the clip below), the latter underscored by Tracy's poetry. It's a nice touch how Tracy distracts Blofeld after recognizing her father's voice on the radio.
Of course, Draco and his men don't know exactly where Tracy is, but they're riddling the place with machine gun fire and throwing in hand grenades...!
Another nice touch is how Bond briefly resumes his Sir Hilary voice as a gag.In what's becoming a tradition for the films, Blofeld is left to far too ambiguous a fate.
Had Lazenby not decided to leave the role while still making the film, the director's intent was to save Tracy's death for the pre-credits sequence of the next film. That would have been far too cheap a way of dealing with it, and would have robbed this story of its most powerful moment.
Lazenby's vulnerability works for him here. Bond was even more dramatically affected by Tracy's death in the books...at the beginning of the next one (which was You Only Live Twice), we find him in a rock-bottom state of depression.
On a lighter note, Tracy declares that she wants three girls and three boys...The Bondy Bunch?
Between Lazenby proactively leaving the role and the underwhelming reception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in its time, the Bond film series exits its decade of origin with its future uncertain. The 1970s will see 007's adventures returning to the approach of You Only Live Twice with a vengeance, mostly discarding Fleming's story material in favor of larger-than-life spectacle and strong emphasis on tongue-in-cheek humor.
JAMES BOND 007 WILL RETURN
in
_______
'Twould seem.
The Alpo thing was in my time, but I thought maybe I'd seen older commercials on one of those old shows about old commercials of him doing Parkay or something.
Thing is, it didn't seem so token when it happened...the moment was played with tragic, dramatic weight. Then in the coda they tried to handwave it away in an implausible fashion.
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Naïve.
The best decision accepted by the court / his defense team. His denials, lies and rambling about society being responsible for his life was icing on the cake of guilt for that deviant monster.
I'm surprised this charted as high as #22 in the US. By 1969, Lulu did not--in my estimation--reach any new creative highs. Coincidentally, her title song for the second Roger Moore Bond film (1974's The Man with the Golden Gun) was the only Bond title track not to chart in the US or UK. Perhaps the poor reception to the film had something to do with it, but its not a bad song, and arguably one of the more listenable Bond title songs ever recorded.
Few play the blues with such deep range/emotion like those from the land of its origin. Such a great song.
The tail end of her run with Hal David and Burt Bacharach, and its still a classic--probably her last, best song of this partnership.
The spy craze had no bearing on Bond's continued success, as the films were really seen as existing in a category all its own, with the imitators being...imitators, so Bond movies were judged/received based on their own standards. Goldfinger redefined that standard to take the series to its arguable zenith, something audiences did not see in the first two Bond films, and certainly not in the flood of spy copy+paste productions on the big and small screens of the era.
Debatable. The early Rolling Stones came out of the gates upending the very idea of UK rock, with their potent blend of Delta blues (one of the very few UK acts to authentically capture that) and very un-Beatle-esque rock.
I was just posting about Goldfinger taking the series to its arguable zenith...a status it shares with this film. Lazenby cut his own path as Bond--with a bit more heart and believable spy-job fatigue than Connery (and certainly Moore), and was the last time the character could be taken seriously until 1981's For Your Eyes Only--the far ad away best of Moore's largely forgettable run as the spy.
A true classic of 1960s cinema, and the Bond franchise.
My point in bringing up TMFU was to demonstrate that the first two films had already spawned imitators, and that the larger spy-fi craze didn't start with Goldfinger.
Unrelated ETA: It looks like Me will be starting both The Fugitive and M:I from the beginning.
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Understandable. I was never familiar with the books when growing up with Bond-- and still am not, for the most part-- but I'm a firm believer in being faithful to the source material. The James Bond of the movies was a completely different character and so should have had his own name and mythology.
This is true. The Bond films are about Romance, with both a big and small R. Everything must be larger than life (that wasn't intended to be a Bondian one-liner, but I'll leave it there
). Connery, Moore, and Brosnan were the only ones to have it, I think-- the others didn't, and when it comes to Craig I can't get into a Bond that reminds me of Vladimir Putin.I take it that you're generally not a fan of Moore's Bond.
I like that little Cinderella moment, though.
Now there's some odd characterization-- I'm not surprised that the movie Bond didn't follow that. But I get the impression, partly from what I hear and partly from having read the first novel, that Fleming was a bit non-traditional in his plot structures and characterizations.
I guess she's not a 60s girl.
They would have had to come up with ever-more elaborate surgeries in years to come.
The simple techniques are often the most effective.
Agreed. But that being said, and not to detract from the performances, but I really hate the gimmick of having the protagonist find true love only to have said object of their affections killed. Either don't do it, do it for real, or find some novel way to treat the subject.
Her Majesty's Secret Service would have been an unbeatable force by the turn of the century.
Maybe it was one of those things where they used a bunch of celebrities in cameos or something.
Okay, I see. I was getting the impression that they were trying to do a different type of story, and yet were afraid to let an episode go by without some kind of shootout or whatever.
_______
55th Anniversary Viewing
_______
12 O'Clock High
"The Suspected"
Originally aired December 18, 1964
After a mission, Sgt. Jim Driscoll (Michael Callan) invites General Savage to his anniversary dinner, as the general was the one who gave away the bride. As Driscoll is driving off, Moran (Edward Binns), a war correspondent who's been getting under Stovall's feet, declares that the sergeant looks like George Turner, an escaped murderer from St. Louis. Turner, then a teenager, was convicted of murdering his abusive stepfather in 1933.
At the dinner, we learn that Meg Driscoll (Antoinette Bower) is a local girl and very pregnant. Savage fishes for more details about Jim's background, and the sergeant maintains that he's from Los Angeles. Back at the base, Moran has arranged to interview the Driscoll, which he does in Savage's office. Moran tries to shake Driscoll with hints of his true identity, but the sergeant seems unphased.
Fingerprints that Moran covertly obtained during the interview prove inconclusive because Turner is said to have burned his fingers, but Moran remains persistent. At a meeting arranged by Driscoll in a London pub, the sergeant seems more upset at how the reporter has been "bird-dogging" him, which has included questioning Meg. Driscoll is seen following Moran out of the pub onto the foggy street set. Moran proceeds into a subway station, where the reporter is jostled off the platform.
When the news gets out in the morning of Moran's death, which is being considered an accident, Driscoll has gone AWOL. Things looks worse when Savage visits the Driscolls' flat to find that them both gone...until the general learns from the cleaning lady that Meg delivered her baby on the way to the hospital...and the boy has been named Frank! Savage is practically giddy when he visits the couple at the hospital. Outside the room, Savage questions Driscoll about his meeting with Moran and breaks the news of the reporter's death.
Fraser (John Orchard), the Scotland Yard man who'd been checking the fingerprints for Moran, visits Savage with good news and bad. The good is that a pickpocket has confessed to having accidentally pushed Moran off the platform. The bad is that a print has been deemed usable. The weather that's been keeping the 918th grounded lifts, and Savage and Driscoll are together on a bomber that's explicitly identified as not being the Lily. Savage tells Driscoll about the print and how he plans to send it to St. Louis to clear the matter up. Attacked by fighters after the run, the bomber loses a couple of engines, the co-pilot is killed, and Savage is temporarily blinded by a near miss. The general orders the crew to bail, but Driscoll lingers behind in a manner that seems increasingly ominous. Savage addresses Driscoll as Turner, and Driscoll admits it. The sergeant protests that he killed his step-father in self-defense, but he intends to bail, which would be leaving Savage to die. Savage convinces him to stop running and help him land the plane.
Now in custody, Turner visits Savage at the infirmary before being sent back to the States. Savage promises his help in seeing that Turner gets the best legal defense available, and wishes the sergeant luck.
Jason Wingreen makes his second of three appearances as meteorologist Major Rosen, who's being comedically chided by Savage for not providing a good forecast.
_______
Gilligan's Island
"Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk"
Originally aired December 19, 1964
It's a good thing that the castaways have endless battery juice to listen to their radio! They're listening to Christmas music while decorating their makeshift tree, and Gilligan has just wished for a rescue, when they hear a news bulletin that a Navy plane has spotted a group of castaways believed to be the passengers and crew of the Minnow on an island, and that a destroyer is on the way to pick them up.
This serves as a framing story for footage from the unaired pilot mixed with redone scenes featuring the regular series actors. The shot in the opening credits of Gilligan on the deck of the Minnow carrying equipment on his person is from this sequence. Flashback Gilligan reluctantly climbs the island's tallest coconut tree, sees a ship and people, and thinks they're rescued--of course, it's the Minnow and her passengers. The Skipper and the Professor are making progress on fixing the transmitter when Gilligan hooks it with his fishing pole and casts it into the lagoon, followed by the radio.
We see the gun again in the flashbacks as the men are salvaging equipment from the boat. Gilligan catches several large fish (the first one looks like a small shark) and discovers that one of them swallowed the radio. The castaways search among the other fish for one who swallowed the transmitter, talking into each fish's mouth. Miraculously, they actually find it (the transmitter being much larger than the fish), but once it's out, Gilligan drops an armload of logs on it.
The in-present castaways learn that it was another group of castaways who were spotted and have been rescued. They'd been on their island for eleven years.
In the coda, the castaways get a visit from a Santa who looks and sounds a lot like Alan Hale, and who reminds them of everything they have to be grateful for in their situation. They assume, as does the audience, that he's the Skipper in a Santa suit...until the Skipper walks into the scene just as Santa's leaving.
_______
A little something from 55 Years Ago This Holiday Season:
"A Holly Jolly Christmas," Burl Ives
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
"She Never Had the Vegas Notion" (Part 2)
Originally aired December 18, 1969
OK, the chronology of Donald's alleged marriage is all screwed up. In the previous episode, they leave that club in broad daylight, with Marty Haynes commenting that they've been out all night. Donald and Joanne get into a cab together and Marty stays behind. The next scene, Ann is having breakfast with Marty outside the hotel, talking about how she hasn't heard from Donald since he got back to the hotel last night, and when she finds Joanne in Donald's room, Joanne says that they got married last night. In Part 2's continuation of Part 1's last scene (which doesn't include the "To Be Continued" That Girl gag), Marty says that he was Donald's best man at the chapel. Huh? Marty's whereabouts during the incident get cleared up, but I suspect that the shot of the group leaving the club in broad daylight was a patch that didn't match the intended continuity of the story.
Mr. Marie is in this one. A telephone operator refers to Donald having married a woman now being referred to as Mrs. Hollinger last night, and you know what Lew assumes...which causes him to head straight to Vegas to--you guessed it--kill Donald!
Meanwhile, Joanne has confessed that the marriage was a practical joke of Marty's. She explains how Marty arrived at the hotel just behind them, helped Donald into his room, and went out and got a phony marriage license. Ann is furious and wants to get back at Marty. With Joanne's help, they make Marty think that Donald's gone to Hoover Dam to kill himself, which causes Marty to admit to the joke. They keep the ruse going and head to the dam, where they make it look like Donald has already jumped and Ann threatens to.
Some more confusion at the front desk of the hotel causes Lew to think that Donald has since divorced Ann and run off with another woman. Lew heads for the dam, finds Donald hiding nearby, and disrupts the counter-joke.
"Oh, Donald" count: 1
"Oh, darling" count: 1
_______
Get Smart
"Ice Station Siegfried"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
It's odd to do an episode about winter weather at such a seasonally appropriate time but set it in the summer. The guest agent actually seems like a rewrite of Max, but Dana's delivery is flatter and more subdued.
Al Molinaro reappears as Agent 44...this time hiding in a stove. He directs them to Siegfried and Starker, who claim to have left KAOS but try to kill 99 and Quigley by leaving them deserted in the frozen wilderness. The duo nevertheless find the igloo entrance to the underground lab of the scientist behind the weather, whom S&S have killed in order to claim his weapon for KAOS. S&S leave the 99 and Quigley trapped there, but the agents get out and stop the not-so-giant fan responsible.
There's a lot of talk about S&S having sled dogs, but we never see them.
Overall, a pretty bleh episode.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"The Voice of Christmas"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
Continuity point: Mike's getting Greg a tape recorder! In the early scenes, Mike's wearing a yellow shirt with a red sweater...looking kinda like Billy Batson.
At first Carol's stressed out because there's so much do in preparation for Christmas and the doctor has ordered her to rest. She can't help silently weighing in about where to put the tree. Alice demonstrates her own expertise in certain areas of lore, having an old family remedy that involves wearing a scarf that smells like garlic...is she trying to protect Carol from vampires? (Young Skipper...Young Alice...vampires...this is starting to write itself, isn't it?)
Cindy says that she's six--Susan Olsen was actually eight at the time. Cindy asking Santa for her Mommy's voice back is one of those moments that hits the right note for the season. After Mike learns that Santa couldn't help but agree to do so, he tries to lower Cindy's expectations.
There are some brief shenanigans of the various family members trying to hide presents and stumbling over each others' hiding places.
There's a nice, initially moody scene in which the older and middle kids gather at the tree on Christmas Eve and talk about postponing Christmas, but Alice flips on the lights and talks them out of it.
On Christmas morning Mike wakes up to the sound of Carol humming in her sleep. When she wakes up and realizes that her voice is back, she starts singing "O Come All Ye Faithful," which transitions to the church performance. And goddamn, I don't know what it is, but something about Cindy sitting in the pews beaming because Santa brought Mommy's voice back just hit me in exactly the right spot.
In the coda, Cindy's writing a thank you letter to Santa, and Mike acknowledges that Christmas is the season for miracles.
In addition to playing Otis on Andy Griffith, it looks like Hal Smith did a crapload of voice work in cartoons over the decades.
_______
Hogan's Heroes
"Is There a Traitor in the House?"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
The prisoners have information that Mama Bear needs about a nearby German ball bearing plant, but ironically their radio is put out of commission by an Allied bombing raid. When Klink assembles the prisoners for a broadcast by propagandist Berlin Betty (Antoinette Bower) made specifically for them, inviting one of the prisoners to come on the show and express their support for the Reich in exchange for enjoying her company, they see an opportunity to get the information out. Thus Newkirk pretends to fall for the lure, and the prisoners pretend to be shocked and upset over it.
Klink gives Newkirk favorable treatment and Betty comes to the Stalag to make her broadcast...making the other prisoners jealous that they couldn't be the traitor. But once Newkirk spends some alone time with Betty and she paints a picture of only serving the Nazis reluctantly because they're holding her family, he falls for her and doesn't want to go through with the plan for fear that it might implicate her. He does nevertheless, and learns immediately afterward that Betty had just been testing him.
In the coda the daylight bombing strike on the plant is a success, and the plant is so close that the stalag is littered with bearings. Geez, Allied bombers, you could kinda kill some POWs that way...!
DISSS-MISSED!
_______
Adam-12
"Log 142: As High as You Are"
Originally aired December 20, 1969
The episode opens with Reed reading up about getting a dog for his son. On patrol, the officers stop a man for his taillight being out. There's no want on the vehicle, but the driver is acting suspicious, so they have him exit the car and find that it's hotwired.
Next they respond to a 459 silent, which is actually at a hospital supplies warehouse. Inside they find a man in a wheelchair wheeling back and forth and singing and mumbling to himself, high from having shot himself up. It turns out that Herbert (Jerry Ayres) has a broken leg from falling through skylight. His intent was to steal and deal, but he took the drugs for the pain.
The officers are blocked and confronted outside by a small group of toughs led by Will Davis (Art Metrano), who has a grudge to settle with the local cops over his brother having been shot during an incident in which he knifed an officer and took his gun. When the warehouse owner, Ben Owen (Frank Campanella), shows up, his belligerence worsens an already tense situation. Davis backs off and leaves the scene after Malloy stands up to Owen on Herbert's behalf.
Next is a 415 in an apartment building. The superintendent's wife, Mrs. Killian (Fran Ryan), gives an unlikely story about a lion who frightened her dog and a baby being in a neighbor's apartment. The officers open the door to find that there really is a lion, which Reed approaches successfully, having noticed that the lion was declawed. Mrs. Langborne (Barbara Davis) comes home and explains that Sandy was a gift pet, and she was out getting milk for the baby. Nobody brings up leaving the child alone in the apartment, tame lion or no.
Back on patrol, Malloy reminds Reed that the lion still had teeth.
This is one of those episodes that was plagued by really horrible syndication edits as aired on Cozi, especially cutting to commercial in mid-conversation. Hopefully Me does a better job in this department.
_______
And a little something from 50 Years Ago This Holiday Season:
"Christmas Ain't Christmas New Years Ain't New Years without the One You Love," The O'Jays
_______
Sometimes a creation takes on a life of its own that little resembles its origins. Try reading some early Golden Age Superman, for example. One could say that in the larger development of the Bond character, the original Fleming Bond was just the first of several varied interpretations of the character. Connery's Bond was different from Fleming's, and Moore's was different still.
Where I've always been a heretic is in the area of people who are primarily familiar with Bond via the films who hold up Connery as the gold standard of the character's portrayal. Over the years I came to appreciate what he brought to the role and Connery's charisma in general, but Connery was not love at first sight for me as a Bond fan, and I still roll my eyes a little when he gets praised for being the one, true Bond.
Well, he sold movie audiences.
What Fleming did at the end of OHMSS was a very striking and unusual turn for his books. He didn't hit the reset button and restore Bond to standard operating procedure in the next book. Rather, he spent the next novel dealing with the impact of Tracy's death on Bond.
One might liken the role of Tracy's death in the Bond mythos to that of Gwen Stacy's death in Spidey's...a tragic moment that informs the character going forward. Subsequent novel authors and even the films in their briefer way have gotten a lot of mileage out of referencing it. The first time it was directly referenced in the films again stands out as one of Moore's better little serious moments as Bond (1:11+):
55th Anniversary Viewing
_______
12 O'Clock High
"The Suspected"
Originally aired December 18, 1964
IMDb said:
After a mission, Sgt. Jim Driscoll (Michael Callan) invites General Savage to his anniversary dinner, as the general was the one who gave away the bride. As Driscoll is driving off, Moran (Edward Binns), a war correspondent who's been getting under Stovall's feet, declares that the sergeant looks like George Turner, an escaped murderer from St. Louis. Turner, then a teenager, was convicted of murdering his abusive stepfather in 1933.
At the dinner, we learn that Meg Driscoll (Antoinette Bower) is a local girl and very pregnant. Savage fishes for more details about Jim's background, and the sergeant maintains that he's from Los Angeles. Back at the base, Moran has arranged to interview the Driscoll, which he does in Savage's office. Moran tries to shake Driscoll with hints of his true identity, but the sergeant seems unphased.
Fingerprints that Moran covertly obtained during the interview prove inconclusive because Turner is said to have burned his fingers, but Moran remains persistent. At a meeting arranged by Driscoll in a London pub, the sergeant seems more upset at how the reporter has been "bird-dogging" him, which has included questioning Meg. Driscoll is seen following Moran out of the pub onto the foggy street set. Moran proceeds into a subway station, where the reporter is jostled off the platform.
When the news gets out in the morning of Moran's death, which is being considered an accident, Driscoll has gone AWOL. Things looks worse when Savage visits the Driscolls' flat to find that them both gone...until the general learns from the cleaning lady that Meg delivered her baby on the way to the hospital...and the boy has been named Frank! Savage is practically giddy when he visits the couple at the hospital. Outside the room, Savage questions Driscoll about his meeting with Moran and breaks the news of the reporter's death.
Fraser (John Orchard), the Scotland Yard man who'd been checking the fingerprints for Moran, visits Savage with good news and bad. The good is that a pickpocket has confessed to having accidentally pushed Moran off the platform. The bad is that a print has been deemed usable. The weather that's been keeping the 918th grounded lifts, and Savage and Driscoll are together on a bomber that's explicitly identified as not being the Lily. Savage tells Driscoll about the print and how he plans to send it to St. Louis to clear the matter up. Attacked by fighters after the run, the bomber loses a couple of engines, the co-pilot is killed, and Savage is temporarily blinded by a near miss. The general orders the crew to bail, but Driscoll lingers behind in a manner that seems increasingly ominous. Savage addresses Driscoll as Turner, and Driscoll admits it. The sergeant protests that he killed his step-father in self-defense, but he intends to bail, which would be leaving Savage to die. Savage convinces him to stop running and help him land the plane.
Now in custody, Turner visits Savage at the infirmary before being sent back to the States. Savage promises his help in seeing that Turner gets the best legal defense available, and wishes the sergeant luck.
Jason Wingreen makes his second of three appearances as meteorologist Major Rosen, who's being comedically chided by Savage for not providing a good forecast.
_______
Gilligan's Island
"Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk"
Originally aired December 19, 1964
Wiki said:
It's a good thing that the castaways have endless battery juice to listen to their radio! They're listening to Christmas music while decorating their makeshift tree, and Gilligan has just wished for a rescue, when they hear a news bulletin that a Navy plane has spotted a group of castaways believed to be the passengers and crew of the Minnow on an island, and that a destroyer is on the way to pick them up.
This serves as a framing story for footage from the unaired pilot mixed with redone scenes featuring the regular series actors. The shot in the opening credits of Gilligan on the deck of the Minnow carrying equipment on his person is from this sequence. Flashback Gilligan reluctantly climbs the island's tallest coconut tree, sees a ship and people, and thinks they're rescued--of course, it's the Minnow and her passengers. The Skipper and the Professor are making progress on fixing the transmitter when Gilligan hooks it with his fishing pole and casts it into the lagoon, followed by the radio.
We see the gun again in the flashbacks as the men are salvaging equipment from the boat. Gilligan catches several large fish (the first one looks like a small shark) and discovers that one of them swallowed the radio. The castaways search among the other fish for one who swallowed the transmitter, talking into each fish's mouth. Miraculously, they actually find it (the transmitter being much larger than the fish), but once it's out, Gilligan drops an armload of logs on it.
The in-present castaways learn that it was another group of castaways who were spotted and have been rescued. They'd been on their island for eleven years.
In the coda, the castaways get a visit from a Santa who looks and sounds a lot like Alan Hale, and who reminds them of everything they have to be grateful for in their situation. They assume, as does the audience, that he's the Skipper in a Santa suit...until the Skipper walks into the scene just as Santa's leaving.
_______
A little something from 55 Years Ago This Holiday Season:
"A Holly Jolly Christmas," Burl Ives
_______
50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)
_______
"She Never Had the Vegas Notion" (Part 2)
Originally aired December 18, 1969
Wiki said:
OK, the chronology of Donald's alleged marriage is all screwed up. In the previous episode, they leave that club in broad daylight, with Marty Haynes commenting that they've been out all night. Donald and Joanne get into a cab together and Marty stays behind. The next scene, Ann is having breakfast with Marty outside the hotel, talking about how she hasn't heard from Donald since he got back to the hotel last night, and when she finds Joanne in Donald's room, Joanne says that they got married last night. In Part 2's continuation of Part 1's last scene (which doesn't include the "To Be Continued" That Girl gag), Marty says that he was Donald's best man at the chapel. Huh? Marty's whereabouts during the incident get cleared up, but I suspect that the shot of the group leaving the club in broad daylight was a patch that didn't match the intended continuity of the story.
Mr. Marie is in this one. A telephone operator refers to Donald having married a woman now being referred to as Mrs. Hollinger last night, and you know what Lew assumes...which causes him to head straight to Vegas to--you guessed it--kill Donald!
Meanwhile, Joanne has confessed that the marriage was a practical joke of Marty's. She explains how Marty arrived at the hotel just behind them, helped Donald into his room, and went out and got a phony marriage license. Ann is furious and wants to get back at Marty. With Joanne's help, they make Marty think that Donald's gone to Hoover Dam to kill himself, which causes Marty to admit to the joke. They keep the ruse going and head to the dam, where they make it look like Donald has already jumped and Ann threatens to.
Some more confusion at the front desk of the hotel causes Lew to think that Donald has since divorced Ann and run off with another woman. Lew heads for the dam, finds Donald hiding nearby, and disrupts the counter-joke.
"Oh, Donald" count: 1
"Oh, darling" count: 1
_______
Get Smart
"Ice Station Siegfried"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
Wiki said:
It's odd to do an episode about winter weather at such a seasonally appropriate time but set it in the summer. The guest agent actually seems like a rewrite of Max, but Dana's delivery is flatter and more subdued.
Al Molinaro reappears as Agent 44...this time hiding in a stove. He directs them to Siegfried and Starker, who claim to have left KAOS but try to kill 99 and Quigley by leaving them deserted in the frozen wilderness. The duo nevertheless find the igloo entrance to the underground lab of the scientist behind the weather, whom S&S have killed in order to claim his weapon for KAOS. S&S leave the 99 and Quigley trapped there, but the agents get out and stop the not-so-giant fan responsible.
There's a lot of talk about S&S having sled dogs, but we never see them.
Overall, a pretty bleh episode.
_______
The Brady Bunch
"The Voice of Christmas"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
Wiki said:
Continuity point: Mike's getting Greg a tape recorder! In the early scenes, Mike's wearing a yellow shirt with a red sweater...looking kinda like Billy Batson.
At first Carol's stressed out because there's so much do in preparation for Christmas and the doctor has ordered her to rest. She can't help silently weighing in about where to put the tree. Alice demonstrates her own expertise in certain areas of lore, having an old family remedy that involves wearing a scarf that smells like garlic...is she trying to protect Carol from vampires? (Young Skipper...Young Alice...vampires...this is starting to write itself, isn't it?)
Cindy says that she's six--Susan Olsen was actually eight at the time. Cindy asking Santa for her Mommy's voice back is one of those moments that hits the right note for the season. After Mike learns that Santa couldn't help but agree to do so, he tries to lower Cindy's expectations.
There are some brief shenanigans of the various family members trying to hide presents and stumbling over each others' hiding places.
There's a nice, initially moody scene in which the older and middle kids gather at the tree on Christmas Eve and talk about postponing Christmas, but Alice flips on the lights and talks them out of it.
On Christmas morning Mike wakes up to the sound of Carol humming in her sleep. When she wakes up and realizes that her voice is back, she starts singing "O Come All Ye Faithful," which transitions to the church performance. And goddamn, I don't know what it is, but something about Cindy sitting in the pews beaming because Santa brought Mommy's voice back just hit me in exactly the right spot.
In the coda, Cindy's writing a thank you letter to Santa, and Mike acknowledges that Christmas is the season for miracles.
In addition to playing Otis on Andy Griffith, it looks like Hal Smith did a crapload of voice work in cartoons over the decades.
_______
Hogan's Heroes
"Is There a Traitor in the House?"
Originally aired December 19, 1969
Wiki said:
The prisoners have information that Mama Bear needs about a nearby German ball bearing plant, but ironically their radio is put out of commission by an Allied bombing raid. When Klink assembles the prisoners for a broadcast by propagandist Berlin Betty (Antoinette Bower) made specifically for them, inviting one of the prisoners to come on the show and express their support for the Reich in exchange for enjoying her company, they see an opportunity to get the information out. Thus Newkirk pretends to fall for the lure, and the prisoners pretend to be shocked and upset over it.
Klink gives Newkirk favorable treatment and Betty comes to the Stalag to make her broadcast...making the other prisoners jealous that they couldn't be the traitor. But once Newkirk spends some alone time with Betty and she paints a picture of only serving the Nazis reluctantly because they're holding her family, he falls for her and doesn't want to go through with the plan for fear that it might implicate her. He does nevertheless, and learns immediately afterward that Betty had just been testing him.
In the coda the daylight bombing strike on the plant is a success, and the plant is so close that the stalag is littered with bearings. Geez, Allied bombers, you could kinda kill some POWs that way...!
DISSS-MISSED!
_______
Adam-12
"Log 142: As High as You Are"
Originally aired December 20, 1969
Wiki said:
The episode opens with Reed reading up about getting a dog for his son. On patrol, the officers stop a man for his taillight being out. There's no want on the vehicle, but the driver is acting suspicious, so they have him exit the car and find that it's hotwired.
Next they respond to a 459 silent, which is actually at a hospital supplies warehouse. Inside they find a man in a wheelchair wheeling back and forth and singing and mumbling to himself, high from having shot himself up. It turns out that Herbert (Jerry Ayres) has a broken leg from falling through skylight. His intent was to steal and deal, but he took the drugs for the pain.
The officers are blocked and confronted outside by a small group of toughs led by Will Davis (Art Metrano), who has a grudge to settle with the local cops over his brother having been shot during an incident in which he knifed an officer and took his gun. When the warehouse owner, Ben Owen (Frank Campanella), shows up, his belligerence worsens an already tense situation. Davis backs off and leaves the scene after Malloy stands up to Owen on Herbert's behalf.
Next is a 415 in an apartment building. The superintendent's wife, Mrs. Killian (Fran Ryan), gives an unlikely story about a lion who frightened her dog and a baby being in a neighbor's apartment. The officers open the door to find that there really is a lion, which Reed approaches successfully, having noticed that the lion was declawed. Mrs. Langborne (Barbara Davis) comes home and explains that Sandy was a gift pet, and she was out getting milk for the baby. Nobody brings up leaving the child alone in the apartment, tame lion or no.
Back on patrol, Malloy reminds Reed that the lion still had teeth.
This is one of those episodes that was plagued by really horrible syndication edits as aired on Cozi, especially cutting to commercial in mid-conversation. Hopefully Me does a better job in this department.
_______
And a little something from 50 Years Ago This Holiday Season:
"Christmas Ain't Christmas New Years Ain't New Years without the One You Love," The O'Jays
_______
I wouldn't go that far. The movies started out trying to be straight-up adaptations of the source material, but they became their own bigger, more successful, iconic animal. To proactively cover some territory addressing quotes further below, I initially got into Bond more through the books than the films, and at that time Moore was still in the role and the films were as far from the source material as they'd ever been. I enjoyed the films for what they were, and generally was more entertained by Moore's films than Connery's. Connery was flat-out miscast as Fleming's character. Moore was a more frustrating situation, because he wasn't miscast IMO, and could have potentially been a great Flemingesque Bond if he'd taken the role seriously. But he didn't, and was open in saying that he didn't find anything in the books worth emulating in his performance. I enjoyed Moore's lemonade, but the part of me that enjoyed the books wished for something closer to them, and at that point wasn't expecting it to ever come.
Sometimes a creation takes on a life of its own that little resembles its origins. Try reading some early Golden Age Superman, for example. One could say that in the larger development of the Bond character, the original Fleming Bond was just the first of several varied interpretations of the character. Connery's Bond was different from Fleming's, and Moore's was different still.
Where I've always been a heretic is in the area of people who are primarily familiar with Bond via the films who hold up Connery as the gold standard of the character's portrayal. Over the years I came to appreciate what he brought to the role and Connery's charisma in general, but Connery was not love at first sight for me as a Bond fan, and I still roll my eyes a little when he gets praised for being the one, true Bond.
Moore might have been able to make that one work with some heavy-duty suggestive eyebrow lifting.Everything must be larger than life (that wasn't intended to be a Bondian one-liner, but I'll leave it there
Well, he sold movie audiences.That's not the case at all, and I hope that I've better explained myself above. What I was attempting to do regarding Moore in my OHMSS review was to defend and champion his legacy in the Bond tapestry. Among Bond fans, he and his films often get dismissed out of hand for being too comical and comic-booky. I say, whatever one thinks of Moore's films, things could easily have been a lot worse without him. There was a time when the producers flirted with the idea of casting Burt Reynolds as Bond, for example....I take it that you're generally not a fan of Moore's Bond.
Fleming's Bond was both generally more naturalistic--not a superheroic archetype--and an exaggerated reflection of his creator...he was outspokenly opinionated in dialogue and narrative POV regarding his very particular tastes and predilections. In this case, Bond felt that he was being forced to pursue a wild goose when there were real threats out there he could have been taking care of. At that point in the books, Blofeld was more of a bogeyman...he was the guy behind the guy who'd masterminded SPECTRE's one big scheme to date, in the Thunderball novel. Bond had no personal stake in finding this Blofeld character and I think assumed that he'd just gone to ground and wasn't necessarily an ongoing threat.
There's definitely more of that sort of thing going on in Fleming's books than the OTT gadgetry of the films.The simple techniques are often the most effective.
Regarding the part I emphasized in the quote, I have to ask for an example of "doing it for real" in this case.
What Fleming did at the end of OHMSS was a very striking and unusual turn for his books. He didn't hit the reset button and restore Bond to standard operating procedure in the next book. Rather, he spent the next novel dealing with the impact of Tracy's death on Bond.
One might liken the role of Tracy's death in the Bond mythos to that of Gwen Stacy's death in Spidey's...a tragic moment that informs the character going forward. Subsequent novel authors and even the films in their briefer way have gotten a lot of mileage out of referencing it. The first time it was directly referenced in the films again stands out as one of Moore's better little serious moments as Bond (1:11+):
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Putin--Mr. former Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB himself--would give you a big 'ol bear hug for comparing him to a Bond actor.
Oh, and just to put it out there, Brosnan was a horrible Bond. He was about as charismatic and believable as a dangerous agent as a pencil. Even Connery's brother made a more convincing spy...
But in Bond's case, it was fitting--for a man who never invested his heart into any woman for the sake of love finally doing that, only to have his world (which he did not want her to be a part of) take her away in a gruesome manner was perfect. A reminder that he was probably going to be alone (IOW, without true love) for the rest of his life. That's certainly what the OHMSS movie implied, as he was never in love with anyone all through the Moore years (imagine that), but appropriately enough, in License to Kill, Bond attended Felix's wedding, but Bond is visibly somber when Leiter reminds Della of Bond's marriage.
It was. Reportedly, Don Adams refused to do the episode, citing it was a poor rehash of an earlier episode. He asked that the episode undergo rewrites, but the producers nixed that idea, so Adams called in sick on the first day of production, getting his friend Bill Dana to fill in for him, hence Dana's comedic routines being a total mismatch for lines written for Adams. Feldon, ever the trooper, did her best with Dana and the material, but it was--as you said--a meh episode.
Too bad such a bad episode was also the final series appearance of Koppel as Siegfried, and his lone 5th season guest spot.
Perhaps, but it might have won Trudeau the Beatle constituency.
FWIW, I consider Brosnan to be the best "whole package" Bond...he strikes a good balance between the humor, suaveness, and toughness embodied by previous Bond actors. The films he was stuck in were pretty spotty, but he delivered in the role.
Interesting.
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To me, the Bond movies have all risen or fallen based on the strength of the Bond actor regardless of plot, story, etc. The Connery movies set the standard for the two characteristics that catapulted the Bond movies to iconic status; Bond's cool suave sophisticated demeanor and the air of menace and danger.
Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Niven, all failed to deliver in in at least one of these areas (sometimes both). IMO, it was usually in the area of menace or danger that proved to be most difficult for the aforementioned actors to convey. All of them could be suave and sophisticated but fell short in the other major area. Daniel Craig was the first Bond actor to be able to bring what Connery brought to the role.
Yeah, I'd agree. Moore at least kept the movies successful enough that they continued to find reason to make new ones.
I thought he was pretty weak in this area. The shot of him giving that henchman the uppercut in the clip looks practically comical. Compare that fight scene to the one Bond had with Red Grant on the Orient Express in From Russia With Love. There is no comparison. But maybe it was the way Laenby's fight scenes were directed and the stunt people.
I just watched a compilation of all of these iconic scenes last night on YouTube. And to get nerdy about it, Connery was the only one who did the halfway down, balance on bent knees, move. Moore hardly bent his knees, which made him look steadier, but would have made him an easier target. Dalton, I think, was the one who went down on one knee, though I could be wrong. Connery's approach to the move had a higher degree of difficulty and led to an ever so slight wobble.
Yes, this was pretty well done.
Lazenby definitely went down on one knee--I just watched the film the other day.
Also, Connery didn't even do his own gun barrel for his first three films. Those used stuntman Bob Simmons.
From the same page...
Dalton:
Also, Connery didn't even do his own gun barrel for his first three films. Those used stuntman Bob Simmons.
From the same page...
Wiki said:
Lazenby:
Dalton:
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This touches upon the chief area in which Connery differed from Fleming. As envisioned by Terrence Young, who directed three of the first four Bond films, and who was Connery's coach when it came to learning how to embody the suave, gentlemanly aspects of Bond--how to walk, talk, eat--Connery's Bond was effectively someone for whom the suaveness and sophistication was a learned quality, but who was still a dangerous thug underneath that facade. Craig gave us effectively the same sort of portrayal of Bond at an even earlier stage, when he was still learning the suaveness and sophistication. I appreciate that aspect of their portrayals, but it's a variation from the original, and not the only way to portray the character.
Speaking of Ed Sullivan and The Muppets, I found my favorite Christmas Special of all time on YouTube. Broadcast only once and never shown again or released to home media because of legal rights entanglements, one of the great early Muppet stories: The Great Santa Claus Switch, starring the legendary Art Carney.
How I'd love to see this restored on DVD (along with The Frog Prince and Hey, Cinderella and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen).
How I'd love to see this restored on DVD (along with The Frog Prince and Hey, Cinderella and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen).
A giddy Robert Lansing must be quite a sight.
Interesting story and topic. There were a lot of men who went to war to escape run-ins with the law and acquitted themselves admirably.
I wonder what their TV show was like.
Cute, but makes you wonder why Santa didn't arrange for their rescue. Perhaps... it is not their destiny.
Definitely a classic.
I knew it!
By throwing him off the dam. In part three, the battered and broken corpse of Donald rises from the base of the dam and wreaks revenge upon Marty, Joanne, and Mr. Marie. Oh, Donald!
Bill Dana was known for his comedic character Jose Jimenez, which is now considered politically incorrect, but once did a record album where he met the Flintstones, which I owned back in the 60s. It's now available on YouTube.
But an interesting story behind it. Seems like rather a trivial thing for Don Adams to take a stand on.
Maybe Mike is really a grown-up Billy, his name having been changed when he entered the Federal Witness Protection Program.
You're starting to think like me, dude.
Awww.And goddamn, I don't know what it is, but something about Cindy sitting in the pews beaming because Santa brought Mommy's voice back just hit me in exactly the right spot.
Poor Newkirk. Close call, too.
I think the entire German military-industrial complex is within about a mile of Stalag 13.
"Come to me, my X-Men."
Think it through, Will.
I was about to say.
This was the case with the "Fun and Games" episode of Outer Limits that we watched last weekend. Some important story points were lost, making it difficult to follow for anyone who hadn't seen it before.
Not bad.
True, they didn't know at the start where the movies would go. But I'm a real stickler for being faithful to source material.
Oh, I'm familiar. Concepts do evolve, especially when they're created with little thought as to their substance and meaning-- the fact is that most concepts and characters that we think of as iconic were created to make a little money and were considered disposable. The cultural weight was filled in later. But even those eventually come to a place where you have the definitive version of the character.
Well, if you consider the movie Bond a separate and distinct animal from the book Bond, who just happens to have the same name, there is truth to this.
I've seldom been on the same page with the general public, and never less so than these days.
Indeed. And yet for me, it's the high adventure of the Moore films that is the most appealing.
Yikes. Hell, no. Bond is British, for crying out loud....
Yes, they are two very universes, the Bond books and movies.
Oh, I just meant to make the developments real and permanent. Bond falls in love and gets married and that is the new status quo for the films going forward.
That's excellent. I appreciate that approach.
And he visits her grave as well, as I recall. Those are definitely good moments.
Or Daniel Craig would exercise his license to kill for being compared to a murderous despot.
Wow, no love for Brosnan. I, on the other hand, think he was born to play Bond. He didn't get the best material, but he was perfect. The way I look at it, Connery created (movie) Bond, Moore is my personal favorite, Brosnan was perfect for the role, and then there were the other guys.
That's true. His adventurous lifestyle aside, Bond is essentially a tragic character.
Read that it aired December, 20, 1970, in lieu of Ed Sullivan. I might have to save this for next year.
See for yourself:A giddy Robert Lansing must be quite a sight.
22:00+
(a) He is forbidden to interfere with human history.
(b) The Jingle Bell Directive.
(c) The shipwreck didn't happen on Dec. 24-25, and was therefore out of his jurisdiction.
(d) He'd already given them what they really needed.
(e) All of the above.
(b) The Jingle Bell Directive.
(c) The shipwreck didn't happen on Dec. 24-25, and was therefore out of his jurisdiction.
(d) He'd already given them what they really needed.
(e) All of the above.
You called it, alright!I knew it!
You're a bad influence. There's a reason my folks didn't want me hanging out with the bigger kids.You're starting to think like me, dude.
Was that from Cozi or somewhere else?
To continue with my previous example, sometimes the mythos is bigger than any one version of the character. Which is the definitive version of Superman? Golden Age comics? George Reeves? Silver/Bronze Age comics? Christopher Reeve? Post-Crisis reboot?
The other way of looking at that is that once you've accepted that Connery's Bond wasn't Fleming's Bond, there's no reason to expect other onscreen Bonds to be Connery's Bond. I'll backpedal a bit and acknowledge that Connery certainly did "set the standard" for the onscreen portrayal of Bond, in that he was first, his films were very successful, and it was during his tenure that the template for the series was established. But I'm not of the school that his portrayal was so head-and-shoulders above the rest that nothing else lives up to it. Moore's success alone proved that there was room for more than one way of portraying Bond on the silver screen.
Except when he's Scottish...or Australian...or Irish...
Yep, though the grave moment is undermined by the silly treatment of the unnamed Blofeld...an FU over the rights issue.
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone!
ETA: Adam-12 may be coming to Me...but Cozi's got "Log 122: Christmas – The Yellow Dump Truck" this year!
Regret that I forgot to check for the Lone Ranger Christmas episode this morning. It's got a nice, atmospheric moment that makes the episode, when the Ranger and Tonto ride into what appears to be an abandoned town and hear the ghostly strains of Christmas music. Turns out there's one couple left there, playing a music box.
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Something else from 50 Years Ago This Holiday Season:
And if you're feeling the need for some mind soap, this has now come of season:
And if you're feeling the need for some mind soap, this has now come of season: