21 replies to this topic

[Triton]

According to one of the documentaries on the Special Edition DVDs, Thunderball I think, Lois Maxwell suggests that a lot of the qualities that we attribute to James Bond were exhibited in the personality of director Terence Young. Granted that they had the Ian Fleming literary character to start with, but did Terence Young really have such a great influence on Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond that Terence Young should be considered the creator of the James Bond cinema persona?

[Dr.Carl Mortner]

I think it was a combination: the intensity of the Fleming Bond, the suave nature of Terence Young and Connery's working-class realness, for lack of a better term.

[Blox]

did Terence Young really have such a great influence on Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond that Terence Young should be considered the creator of the James Bond cinema persona?

.....Yes -- he did, and he should be.

[Triton]

Did Terence Young ever write an autobiography or was there ever a biography about him?

[DanMan]

On the Dr.No DVD, there is a documentary about him.

[Canada]

Terrance Young:
I might have an interview in a magazine or someting but I am not aware of any book about his life. Here is his bio from the JamesBond exhibition database:

Date of Birth: 20/06/1915
Place of Birth: Shanghai, China
Director and Scriptwriter
Died 07/09/1994, Cannes, France
Bio Details:
The director of Dr No, Goldfinger and Thunderball came to Britain shortly after he was born. After education at public school and Cambridge, joined Elstree studios in 1936 as a scriptwriter.

1939 - first credited script On the Night of the Fire.During World War Two directed documentaries.

1948 - directed his first feature One Night with You.Worked as director and scriptwriter on various feature films.

1953 - hired by Cubby Broccoli to direct The Red Beret for Warwick Films. The film's scriptwriter was Richard Maibaum who later wrote many of the Bond movies.

1961 - as director of the first Bond film Dr No, responsible for moulding Sean Connery's appearance and performance, and shaping the Bond cinematic phenomenon.

Renowned for his sophisticated bon viveur lifestyle, Young showed Connery how to talk and walk for the role, and dressed him at his Savile Row tailor. Re-wrote dialogue with script assistant Johanna Harwood to give Bond the style, wit and charm now associated with the character.

Following Dr No's success, Young was obvious choice for From Russia with Love. Worked on pre-production of Goldfinger but left to direct The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders instead.

1965 - directed his last Bond film, Thunderball

Later career included 1968 film Mayerling but Young never achieved the success he had with the Bond films.

[Scottlee]

I prefer his style to any of the other Bond directors of the sixties.

[Triton]

It's a pity that he didn't want to direct anymore James Bond films. Terence Young said he made movies of the Ian Fleming books he liked:

Dr. No
From Russia with Love
Thunderball

He said in interviews that he wasn't interested in making films of the other Ian Fleming story material. Interestingly enough, he said that he would be willing to direct the LAST James Bond motion picture. He died in 1994.

[Scottlee]

Well he's certainly gone down in my estimations then. How could any Bond fan (ex-director or otherwise) dare utter the words 'last Bond film' as if there ever actually would be one? Grrrrr

[Pussfeller]

I'm willing to grant that Terence Young originated the formula for the Bond films (whether or not this is a good thing), but I do not think that he was the greatest influence. Apart from FRWL, I felt his work to be kind of simplistic. Actually, he did a fairly good job with Thunderball, and I sometimes must suspend my boredom with the underwater segments to realize that he did something that had never been done before, at least not to such an extent. On the whole, though, I don't think Terence Young was quite as important as Broccoli and Saltzman in the evolution of the Bond formula. At least that's how I see it.

[Red Grant]

I would say that Terence Young was THE biggest influence on the success of the early Bond movies. His style (simplistic or not) was what made the films stand out from anything else at the time and it was he, not Broccoli or Saltzman, that had the biggest creative input into the making of the movies. He (along with Sean Connery) injected humour into the plots, he made sure that the films looked expensive and visited places largely unknown to audiences at the time. You have to remember that Young came from a totally different generation and he was a true gentleman and man of the world. On the one occasion I was fortunate enough to meet him he came across as a true gent and had that typically English persona like Ian Fleming. He always said that of the three films he made he did "The First", "The Best" and "The Most Successful"...this still holds true today in my opinion. Without Young I believe the series would have ended long ago as it his his legacy (along with the handful of other creative genuises of the period) that made the films what they were. The later Bonds simply walk in their shadow. His work outside of Bond was remarkably different and comparatively undistinguished apart form the superior thriller "Wait Until Dark". I also think he was right to want to direct the last Bond film. I believe there should have been a last Bond film so that then the series would be viewed as a whole rather than a continuing series, that like so many others, merely repeats what has gone before until eventually it dies.

[1q2w3e4r]

Couldn't agree more with what you've just said. Hit's everything on the head. There's nothing wrong with a last film, or Bond getting killed off or seriously injuried and the screen fades to black.

It's the mentality now to spoon feed everything to audiences and slide drink along to make everything go down well. The even changed the end of The Thomas Crown remake to make it "happy".

[Bond111]

I totally agree. Terence Young undoubtedly had a great input in the character of James Bond. In fact, I'm willing to say he was the best Bond director of all. IMO he's a hell of a lot better than Guy Hamilton.

[Pussfeller]

Maybe I don't understand him, but I never really felt that Terence Young "stood out" much, though to be fair he is paid little attention these days. I certainly am not an expert on the history of the films, so far be it from me to criticize someone who I know very little about, but nothing I've ever seen has led me to believe Young was the veritable fountainhead described in Red Grant's post. I think that quite a bit of the credit must go to the early screenwriters and, whether or not they were artistically minded (and whether or not they knew what they were doing), the Bond producers themselves.

On the other hand, I am intrigued by Red Grant's description of the man. Is there a biography or some other literature that I could find on Young, if indeed he played so pivotal a role in the foundation of the Bond film series? I would like to hold off judgment before I know more about him.

[Pussfeller]

"It's the mentality now to spoon feed everything to audiences and slide drink along to make everything go down well. The even changed the end of The Thomas Crown remake to make it "happy"."

Maybe so, but let's not forget ourselves, eh? One man's idea of low-brow is another's idea of a great time--or a headache. It's all highly subjective. Of course I sometimes feel disappointed by the Bond series, but I don't insist that the only "real" films were made in the sixties, or that everything since has been drivel, unworthy of the label of "James Bond."

Ian Fleming himself, great author that he was, must have known that the series could become a financial success only at the sacrifice of some and artistic integrity and depth of character. He did not have the luxury of keeping his work to himself, which is why he had to become a businessman.

As I said earlier, I don't know enough about Terence Young to make an educated assessment, but I can say this: it seems that almost all of the people behind the original, "authentic" Bond films werebusinessmen first and artists second (though some of them may have seen themselves differently). Whether they created art at all is debatable, as is the assertion that "only the first three were art" or something along those lines. I consider myself a sophisticated audience, yet I don't feel my intelligence to be insulted by the Bond oeuvre, nor do I detect a significant drop in quality between the early films and the later ones. There are some who consider all Bond films trash, a waste of film from the beginning.

It's best not to try too hard to be a connoisseur over everything, or you may find yourself becoming a dilettant. When people ask me how I appreciate Bond, I admit that I am a fan, a "buyer." If someone choses to lump me in with the masses, it isn't an "insult." It's economics.

I apologize if I sound too harsh. 1q2w3e4r makes a valid point. I am simply using his post to address an attitude that seems to be fairly common on this site and others, an attitude that I personally view to be inordinately silly and pretentious. Isn't Bond supposed to be fun?

[Red Grant]

Originally posted by Pussfeller
Maybe I don't understand him, but I never really felt that Terence Young "stood out" much, though to be fair he is paid little attention these days. I certainly am not an expert on the history of the films, so far be it from me to criticize someone who I know very little about, but nothing I've ever seen has led me to believe Young was the veritable fountainhead described in Red Grant's post. I think that quite a bit of the credit must go to the early screenwriters and, whether or not they were artistically minded (and whether or not they knew what they were doing), the Bond producers themselves.

On the other hand, I am intrigued by Red Grant's description of the man. Is there a biography or some other literature that I could find on Young, if indeed he played so pivotal a role in the foundation of the Bond film series? I would like to hold off judgment before I know more about him.

In terms of scriptwriters I think we should be grateful that we got. The original draft for Dr. No was to have a monkey as the villain! Whilst not wishing to belittle Richard Maibaum's talents...the first four movies did stick pretty close to their source material with only Goldfinger actually improving on the plot (although this could be attributed to Paul Dehn rather than Maibaum). I don't believe that the producers actually had that much creative input into the films....by all accounts some of Harry Saltzman's ideas were pretty wierd and thankfully not many ended up on screen. I'm not saying that Terence Young was god when it came to these films but he steered them on an even keel that was true to its source and perhaps that's why they remain my favourites. Sean Connery is quuted as saying that Young had a huge influence on the look and style of the early films. That is not to say that Ken Adam, Peter Hunt, John Barry etc. didn't make invaluable contributions...film making is a collaborative art form and even in its lowest form is worthy of discussion. These forums and threads like this prove that point. As is mentioned elsewhere - there isn't that much information available on Young (aside from the brief profile on the Dr. No DVD) which is probably why his is ignored nowadays. As I said before, he was not great director, but given the right material he shaped it into his own style. Perhaps this is the problem I feel with the recent Bond movies - that lack of continuity of style. Even Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert and John Glen had their own style and their movies (like 'em or not) all appear similar. The last few movies have all had different directors and the series has lost that sense of continuity. Young isn't in the Hitchcock, Kubrick or Scorsese league but his contributions to cinema in general are very important. He, above all others in the series, is the one that made a significant contribution to the way films are made and percieved. If it had been another director things may have been very different (he wasn't first choice), but as it is he will be remembered as one of the key players in the early success of the series. If Fleming is the Father of Bond then Young is the Uncle!

[doublenoughtspy]

I agree with Red Grant on many fronts, but disagree on a few.

I think the most obvious, long lasting impact he had was on casting. While he didn't want Connery - he did choose Bernard Lee, Desmond as Q, Maxwell as Moneypenny, etc. - and some of his decisions were felt as far away as 17 films later.

I do disagree with you about Saltzman though Red Grant - he was the one that was the one pushing for Connery the most. Broccoli was on the fence (although of course he takes all the credit in his autobiography). Moore however was more of a Broccoli choice.

Saltzman was also the reason Peter Hunt was brought in. Saltzman recoginzed Hunt's talent early and wanted him to edit all his films.

Like you said, film making is collabrative, and its hard to assign levels of credit.

In some ways, Terrence Young is under appreciated. In other ways he is given too much credit.

In later years his ego was quite inflated - saying "I directed the first, I directed the best, and I directed the one that made the most money" (meaning dr no, frwl, and tball).

He would also claim that he wrote Dr No, and helped salvage Goldfinger - both of which are patently false.

[1q2w3e4r]

I see your counterpoint on as you describe "one man's low brow."

However, the films of the early sixties are the ones with the most character driven stories, and are the best well written with underlying subtext that's there for the audience to analysis but, not a necessity for the story to continue without understanding them.

FRWL is not just a great Bond film, it's a great thriller film. And Thunderball is the most successful film of the series. Young also had a hand in the final product of Goldfinger. The character really isn't anything like what appeared in the first four films nowdays. If you watch them in order, perhaps with the exception of OHMSS, there is a huge change in the character's reactions to situations. Bond hitting Tatiania, taking control of Pussy, bossing Dr No's men around in the lab.

Bond's character early on was a direct decendant of Fleming's novels. The novel's however, couldn't have been transfured directly to the screen as they were in print, and Young managed to keep the menace in Bond's character with cynical remarks about situations that were taking as humour.

Young is owed a huge debt to what is perceved as the screen OO7. Without him, it's pretty safe to say the series wouldn't be going on now. Simply because Young's directing style seperated the films from anything else in the 60s that was available to the movie going public at the time.

[Pussfeller]

I'm thinking that perhaps 1q2w3e4r is correct about Terence Young preserving the cynicism and darkness of Fleming's Bond, regardless of the other changes that occurred. Of course, Sean Connery was also a big part of this, but he probably would not have done as well as he had without some directorial help.

I still don't think Young's entries were the absolute best. I didn't care for Thunderball and felt it lacked unity, however much money it made. I loved FRWL, but it was certainly sixties-ish. I think in terms of sheer filmmaker's art, it could have been done better, and the film was very much a compromise between the production and the then-vital artistic element. Dr. No was a decent film, but it was not in the hall of fame, as I see it.

I don't know about Saltzman's "weird ideas," but I suppose if Young had a hand in keeping the villain from being a monkey, then he's a hero in my book. That action alone probably saved the series...

[doublenoughtspy]

FYI, the monkey idea was only in the first draft - and was out before Young was on board.

[Pussfeller]

How would that have worked, the monkey? Perhaps if it was a cartoon, but... whaaaa??? Whose idea was that??

[CommanderBond]

Originally posted by bond111
I totally agree. Terence Young undoubtedly had a great input in the character of James Bond. In fact, I'm willing to say he was the best Bond director of all. IMO he's a hell of a lot better than Guy Hamilton.

I feel the same way about him being way better than Guy Hamilton. Its a shame he didnt direct more of the bond films because his are classics.