14 replies to this topic

[Walecs]

According to The Spy Who Loved Me novelization, Jaws lost his voice after he got his metal teeth; however, he talks at the end of Moonraker movie.

 

This is not a discontinuity mistake, to me, because I think TSWLM (Wood) was intended to follow Fleming's Bond continuity, while Moonraker (movie) followed movies continuity, but I'd like to hear your opinions as well.

Edited by Walecs, 07 January 2014 - 09:41 PM.

[Dustin]

According to The Spy Who Loved Me novelization, Jaws lost his voice after he got his metal teeth; however, he talks at the end of Moonraker movie.

This is not a discontinuity mistake, to me, because I think TSPWLM (Wood) was intended to follow Fleming's Bond continuity, while Moonraker (movie) followed movies continuity, but I'd like to hear your opinions as well.

Never occurred to me to see TSWLM and MR as separate continuities, though I always had the impression the novelisations aimed more for the literary Bond continuity than anything related to the films. At a guess I'd say Jaws was originally intended as a version of the silent killer Red Grant was in the better part of FRWL. Nobody probably envisioned him to come back and even defect to Bond's side only two years later. Jaws suddenly talking is most likely a continuity error nobody but the readers of the film tie-ins will have noticed, I suppose.

[Walecs]

Actually, I meant that the novelizations and the movies where set in different continuities, not TSWLM and Moonraker.

[AMC Hornet]

I suspect that Jaws speaking at the end of MR was an idea that Lewis Gilbert came up with on the day of filming (with some egging from Sir Roger), long after Wood's script work had been completed. Nothing was said in the film TSWLM to confirm that Jaws was mute, so why not? Who's to say that Gilbert ever read that novelization?

 

Wood kept Jaws mute in his literary treatment of MR; not that it matters - the novel was almost as bonkers as the film, and I can't take either of them seriously.

 

I read one local critic who described Kabir Bedi as Kamal's 'hulking, apparently mute henchman." Fair enough, if you don't include the lines he spoke in Urdu - or English.

 

Some people thing all Bond henchmen are mute, just as they think that Goldfinger had a finger made of gold (hence his name, just like Bond's other nemeses Eyepatch, Hookhand and Duellingscar). With people like this you can only nod and pretend to agree, because they know their details, since they've "seen most of his movies, but they tend to blend together after a while - was that the one with the boats?"

[Walecs]

Some people thing all Bond henchmen are mute, just as they think that Goldfinger had a finger made of gold

 

Every single time I'm watching Goldfinger with someone:

"Why is he named Goldfinger? Has he got a finger made of gold."
"No, it's his surname, dammit!"

[Guy Haines]

Possibly the most "mute" henchman in the series was Emile Leopold Locque, the bespectacled Belgian "enforcer" in FYEO. I can't remember him saying a word on screen throughout the whole film - except an "aaargh!!!" as Roger Moore's Bond kicks him and his Mercedes-Benz off that cliff!

[Double Naught spy]

Jaws isn't a mute.  He's just the Jerry Lewis "Bellboy" of the 007 franchise.

 

On a side note - it's a shame that Stacey Sutton and Dr. Christmas Jones weren't mutes.

[Turn]

Stromberg does tell Sandor to obey Jaws, so I guess that means he had some verbal abilities, I doubt he used sign language. The key with Jaws is he just needs to look intimidating and it works.

 

Funny thing is Richard Kiel is such a nice guy in real life. Got his autograph last year at a comic show and he and his wife were as sweet as could be.  

[Vauxhall]

Possibly the most "mute" henchman in the series was Emile Leopold Locque, the bespectacled Belgian "enforcer" in FYEO. I can't remember him saying a word on screen throughout the whole film - except an "aaargh!!!" as Roger Moore's Bond kicks him and his Mercedes-Benz off that cliff!

The mute henchman is used quite a few times across the movies. I can't recall Vargas speaking in THUNDERBALL, and more recently, Patrice in SKYFALL.

[David_M]

I always thought the "mute" angle made Jaws seem more monstrous.  I suppose I reasoned that whatever circumstances led to his lethal orthodontia also robbed him of his speech.  Of course, as noted that all goes out the window with that scene in MR.

 

From a film-making standpoint, it makes sense to keep him quiet as any dialog he delivers will almost certainly have to be looped in in post-production.  There's no way Mr Kiel could have managed understandable speech with all that hardware in his mouth.  It's even possible he couldn't have moved his lips and jaw properly to even *look* right, even assuming the sound was looped in later.  Also as I understand it, it was painful to have the teeth in for more than a couple of minutes, so I'm sure all the extra takes that would have come with actual dialog would have been torture for him.

 

I suppose we're left to just assume that Jaws stays quiet to add to his mystique.  Or maybe because Roger never shut up long enough for him to get a word in edge-wise.  He's easily the chattiest Bond of the lot.

[sharpshooter]

With Jaws talking at the end of MR, I guess it leads one to believe he is mute by choice. In any explanation, he's a pretty quiet guy.

[Dustin]

Come to think of it Jaws suddenly getting talkative gives the impression his love interest robbed him of his armour of self-imposed silence. As if that braced smile had melted his heart. Reached out and touched his soul. Brought out the human in the killer...

Take your pick of cliché-ridden phrases.

[AMC Hornet]

 

Possibly the most "mute" henchman in the series was Emile Leopold Locque, the bespectacled Belgian "enforcer" in FYEO. I can't remember him saying a word on screen throughout the whole film - except an "aaargh!!!" as Roger Moore's Bond kicks him and his Mercedes-Benz off that cliff!

The mute henchman is used quite a few times across the movies. I can't recall Vargas speaking in THUNDERBALL, and more recently, Patrice in SKYFALL.

 

I was going to mention Loque, but remember in the long shot at the ski-jump we see his lips moving, and Claus and Kriegler responding as if they were listening. Local critics don't pick up on such things, nor do they associate lines like "stand by to winch in the submarine" with Vargas' later sullen silence.

 

And although Patrice never speaks there is no indication of him being mute - just uncommunicative, especially when Bond attempts to interrogate him 60 stories up (wouldn't it have been ironic if Patrice had been mute, and needed his hands to answer Bond?).

 

Henchmen are more menacing when they don't speak because it contributes to their overall air of loyalty, determination and implacability. Oddjob and Jaws are the only henchman I can recall who were actually supposed to be mute, and with Oddjob that was just in the film - in the novel he had a cleft palate, and Auric was the only one who could understand him.

 

Moreover, actors get paid more the more lines they have. If you want chatty henchmen, watch DAF.

[Goodnight]

Didn't Richard Kiel say that those teeth were too painful to wear for more than five minutes?

My guess is that even if the film makers wanted him to be a speaking character, if they were too painful to wear for a couple minutes, the idea of getting him to talk with them in was out of the question.

[Dustin]

Definitely. On top of it -as already pointed out - the result of such dialogue would have not been fit for use and have killed numerous takes in the process.

Edited by Dustin, 09 January 2014 - 06:40 AM.