21 replies to this topic

[TheSaint]

I remember reading in one of the books written about the Bond films, James Bond in the Cinema, how funny the aforementioned line was. I've seen the film a bunch of times but, that line has never made me laugh(though I laugh now-some kind of Pavlovian response to its supposed funnyness). Have any of you ever laughed/found it funny? Am I missing something. After all, it took me sometime to get "So long as the collar & cuffs match" line in DAF.

[Genrewriter]

I like it, it's a nicely ridiculous line that adds a touch of humor to a very tense chase scene.

[Triton]

The line is a variation of "We'll head him off at the pass" a supposedly oft used line in Westerns. I seem to remember that Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr shot Slim Pickens as Mr. Taggart for uttering "We'll head them off at the pass" in Blazing Saddles. Lamarr said while he shot him: "I hate that cliche." This is the only time that I can remember hearing it used in a film, but it is supposed be a cliche.

So I thought it was very funny when I first heard it because I was reminded of that scene in Blazing Saddles. Also I find it to be totally ridiculous that someone of the stature of Ernst Stavro Blofeld would have even participated in the ski chase. The Donald Plesance Blofeld would have monitored the chase from some control room in Piz Gloria.

[DLibrasnow]

Yeah, I always got a chuckle out of this line...
BTW, along with Steven Jay Rubin's "The James Bond Films: A Behind the Scenes History", the John Brosnan book "James Bond in the Cinema" both provide excellent coverage of the first two decades of Bond movies - to my mind they are the two best behind the scenes works on 007 out there!
Brosnan was a long time contributor to "Starburst" in the early to mid 1980s.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow
[John] Brosnan was a long time contributor to "Starburst" in the early to mid 1980s.

He's also written a few novels and stories too. Midas Deep was very good I thought, about deep sea adventure in the Dirk Pitt mold, but more of a scifi touch to it.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Blofeld's Cat

He's also written a few novels and stories too. Midas Deep was very good I thought, about deep sea adventure in the Dirk Pitt mold, but more of a scifi touch to it.

Brosnan also wrote a few of the 'Dempsey and Makepiece' novelizations in the 1980s (under the pseudonym of Markham), but unfortunately he did not realize the show would become such a hit with the kids and his works featured a great deal of violence that forced the publisher to post warnings on the book covers that the novels were not fit for younger readers.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow


Brosnan also wrote a few of the 'Dempsey and Makepiece' novelizations in the 1980s (under the pseudonym of Markham),..

Makes for an interesting trivia question:

"Which two Bond authors used Markham as a pseudonym?"

Also:

"Linking by name only how do you get from Kingsley Amis to Pierce Brosnan?"

[TheSaint]

Boy, this thread went far afield very quickly.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Blofeld's Cat

Makes for an interesting trivia question:

"Which two Bond authors used Markham as a pseudonym?"

Also:

"Linking by name only how do you get from Kingsley Amis to Pierce Brosnan?"

Makes sense that if a Bond fan is going to write a book under a pseudonym they would use Markham...

[Turn]

So where is John Brosnan these days? He was still with Starburst until around 1989 or 1990. I'd like to read his take on the Brosnan era of Bond films as candidly as he talked about the Moore era. With the glut of other Bond-related books, why not just update James Bond in the Cinema?

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Turn
So where is John Brosnan these days? He was still with Starburst until around 1989 or 1990. I'd like to read his take on the Brosnan era of Bond films as candidly as he talked about the Moore era. With the glut of other Bond-related books, why not just update James Bond in the Cinema?

I think that would be a great idea...That book knocks the socks off any of the current 007 books...
As to his whereabouts, I really do not know, but I used to love reading his columns in "Starburst" in 1981, especially the one where he describes his alarm at discovering that Christopher Wood was so tall (and hoping he had not read Brosnan's disparaging comments about MR). Also learning that "James Bond in the Cinema" was Peter Hunts favorite book on the James Bond movies.

[TheSaint]

Maybe the moderator should retitle this thread "John Brosnan:Where is he now?", move it to the literary section, and delete the "precipice" posts.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Do you wish to add any more to the subject than your initial post, TheSaint?

I think I may've read somewhere that it was decided to change the wording from "pass" to "precipice" just to be less cliched and a little comical. Peter Hunt was not adverse to allowing the odd bit of Mooresque humour to slip into On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Blofeld's Cat
Do you wish to add any more to the subject than your initial post, TheSaint?

I think I may've read somewhere that it was decided to change the wording from "pass" to "precipice" just to be less cliched and a little comical. Peter Hunt was not adverse to allowing the odd bit of Mooresque humour to slip into On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Or allowing himself into the movie a la the very Hitchcokian cameo by Hunt close to the beginning of OHMSS...It's funny but I had never noticed it until Hunt pointed himself out in the audio commentary.

[TheSaint]

"Mooresque humor"? Kind of hard to have such type of humor before Roger appears, unless you count DAF where "Mooresque humor" really started. Maybe we should refer to it as "Fat Conneryesque humor".

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by TheSaint
"Mooresque humor"? Kind of hard to have such type of humor before Roger appears, unless you count DAF where "Mooresque humor" really started. Maybe we should refer to it as "Fat Conneryesque humor".

LOL....Well to a certain extent except Moore had displayed some of that same humor in episodes of The Saint.

[Triton]

Would that make it Mankiewicz-esque humor because Tom Mankiewicz originated the humor in his script for Diamonds Are Forever?

[TheSaint]

I can live with Mankiewiczesque humor.

[Jim]

Originally posted by TheSaint
I can live with Mankiewiczesque humor.

But I bet you can't say it

[Loomis]

It.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

[Jim]

Lordy, I hope not

[DLibrasnow]

That would make sense because Tom also wrote LALD.