10 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Yes, its a bit more difficult this time as the film takes from both “Octopussy” and “The Property Of A Lady”, but which do you prefer and why?

Poll added.

[DLibrasnow]

I cannot pick one...I like the short story, and I like that they tried to include it in the movie. They are both very different from one another. We have one quiet Bond story about 007 tracking down a traitor in one instance and a globe trotting fantasy extravaganza in the other.

[spynovelfan]

It's not a fair fight.

I think THE PROPERTY OF A LADY was one of Fleming's weakest works, but OCTOPUSSY one of his very best. Like Dlibra, I like that they used them in the film. People often rib this film for being unFleminglike. But a clown with a knife in his back and a Faberg

[Andrew]

It's been quite some time since I've seen all of Octopussy but what did they borrow from the short story besides the name?

[Qwerty]

It's been quite some time since I've seen all of Octopussy but what did they borrow from the short story besides the name?

Little other than the Octopussy and Major Dexter Smythe names.

[Andrew]

It's been quite some time since I've seen all of Octopussy but what did they borrow from the short story besides the name?

Little other than the Octopussy and Major Dexter Smythe names.

Ah yes, that's what I thought.

[Qwerty]

In terms of content, I'd say “The Property Of A Lady” offers as much, or maybe more.

[spynovelfan]

It's been quite some time since I've seen all of Octopussy but what did they borrow from the short story besides the name?

The entire plot of Fleming's OCTOPUSSY is told as back-story exposition between Octopussy and Bond, albeit with the location and a few details changed. The film's Octopussy is the daughter of the main character in Fleming's story. The auction scene takes the basic set-up of Fleming's THE PROPERTY OF A LADY. I think the scene in which Bond, disguised as a clown, tries to avoid the police in the big top, with the audience thinking it's part of the circus' act, may have been taken from Fleming's notebooks, as outlined above.

There are lots of non-Fleming sources, too:

On the film's DVD commentary, Michael G Wilson mentions that THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME by Richard Connell was the inspiration for the scene in which Bond is hunted by Kamal Khan and his men; I suspect this story also influenced Fleming's depiction of his villains.

The way the circus acts as cover to move the weapon over the border to the West is similar to both the ballet company that runs defectors out of the Iron Curtain in Hitchock's TORN CURTAIN and the circus that hides the priceless dagger from customs officials in TOPKAPI - but may well be coincidental.

Bond getting ensnared on an island of beautiful women led by one headstrong beauty was probably inspired by FLASHMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT, a novel by OCTOPUSSY screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser. In that book, Flashman is in Lahore, where he infiltrates the den of Maharani Jeendan, who rules 'a troupe of Kashmiri girls, spanking little creatures in scanty silver armour, with bows and toy swords'. Flashman and Jeendan are two of a kind, and jump into bed even though she's a 'baddie' and he's a 'goodie'. The main villain of the novel is called Maka Khan. I think there's also a Flashman novel in which a yo-yo is used as a weapon from above a bed, but I can't place it now.

OCTOPUSSY also looks to have influenced others. The main plot that Bond is trying to stop in the film, namely a faction of the Russian leadership detonating a nuclear device at an American military base and making it look like an accident, is extraordinarily close to the plot of Frederick Forysth's novel THE FOURTH PROTOCOL, which was not published until a year after OCTOPUSSY's release: in it, a faction of the Russian leadership sends an agent to England to detonate a nuclear device at an American military base and make it look like an accident - a British secret agent races to stop him before he kills thousands of innocent people. The Russian agent poses as a suave upper-class British ladykiller, using the cover name 'James Ross'. In the 1987 film, 'Ross' was played by Pierce Brosnan.

[Skudor]

Apples and Oranges. The film is so loosely based around some elements of the short story that I wouldn't pick one over the other.

[spynovelfan]

I think there's also a Flashman novel in which a yo-yo is used as a weapon from above a bed, but I can't place it now.

Googling this one, it appears that it was originally a Philippine weapon, so it's probably not a Flashman novel I'm thinking of. Anyone got any ideas? It's bothering me now.

[Genrewriter]

I favor the movie, pretty much everything about it is as perfect as a Bond film can get. The book is alright, just not my favorite.