23 replies to this topic

[Blofeld's Cat]

I always thought that there was something missing between the scene where Bond & Sharky are in Leiter's hospital room ("Let's go shark hunting"), and the scenes on the Wavecrest where Bond sees Sharky's boat being brought in with him strung up dead ('Guess what, his name was Sharky").
In the novelisation, Bond & Sharky spy on the Wavecrest from a distance, but when the crew spot them a team is sent out to investigate.
There is also commentary on Bond collecting materials to make the manta ray 'disguise'.
I know that authors often fill in their own details should they feel there are gaps in the plot (which is half the fun of reading movie novelisations), or it could be just a case of the novel being based on an early script draft that included these scenes but later discarded in rewrites.
I'm guessing these scenes were actually filmed, but ended up on the cutting room floor.
But why?
The movie was by no means long to warrant such cuts.
If so, it would to interesting to see photos from these missing scenes.

[Blue Eyes]

Okay guys, I've just turned on the attachment so attach away. I'm intrigued, I want to see this photo Perhaps we can get the full details around it and make it another article for the main page, much like the Moneypenny one!

[zencat]

Here it be!

[Blue Eyes]

A very funny photo. That has to go on the main page

[Blofeld's Cat]

[quote]RossMan (03 Oct, 2001 10:13 p.m.):
[quote]zencat (03 Oct, 2001 05:14 p.m.):

There is a photo of the Bond/Sharky scene in THE ESSENTIAL BOND. Bond is wearing one bad hat! (I scanned it but I'm not able to post in this thread.) quote]

Yes, I have that book and have seen that picture you're talking about. Timothy Dalton looks like a beat up old fisherman with that hat on.

Does Sharky remined anyone else of Quarrel from Dr. No. He's obviously another version of that character so why not have used Quarrel Junior from Live and Let Die?[/quote]
Tim, you fashion plate, you. :-D

You're right about the Quarrel angle.
But as he got killed, they may have not wanted him to be called that so he could still show up in future Bonds if required.

[zencat]

Here's another cut scene from LTK: Bond brooding after losing his license to kill (?). Note the flask in his hand...

[zencat]

...now, in the first teaser trailer we have an INSERT shot (cut from the movie) of a PPK dropping from what looks to be the very same flask. Same scene?

Perhaps, originally, Bond does indeed surrender his PPK to M and this is how he re-arms himself. Maybe this is why Bond's PPK in LTK has a brown handle instead of a black one?

[zencat]

Also cut from the final movie but appearing in the first teaser trailer is this shot of Bond and Pam arriving at the casino. Judging by Pam's hair, this is the SECOND time they go to the casino (when Bond leaves Pam to go shoot Sanchez).

[Blue Eyes]

Zencat, some amazing stuff there. Well done.

They'll have to make the main page soon enough of course. I love Bond's little extra weapon. Is that a hip-flask? It seems rather large. Could be a place to conceal an extra weapon should be lose his first. Developed perhaps by Q-Branch so if he gets frisked the bad guys never see it?

[007luvchild]

I like LTK. But it had a Miami Vice feel to it, that wasn't right for a Bond film. I can't say it was the classiest bond film, but I consider it better than some.

[zencat]

007luvchild (06 Oct, 2001 08:09 p.m.):
I like LTK. But it had a Miami Vice feel to it, that wasn't right for a Bond film.

Well put, 007luvchild. I remember reading a review of the movie that started something like: "James Bond finally makes it into the '80s...1984 to be precise." Ouch.

[Alex Zamudio]

I think Tim was great, but the movie looks cheap and lacks elegance, The Milton Crest werehouse set is horrible, and the movie has T.V. quality all over it. So diferent from TLD, I don

[Mister Asterix]

RossMan (03 Oct, 2001 10:13 p.m.):
Does Sharky remined anyone else of Quarrel from Dr. No. He's obviously another version of that character so why not have used Quarrel Junior from Live and Let Die?

Sharky was Quarrel. Licence To Kill had more elements of the book Live And Let Die then the film version of the book. And Sharky was clearly LALD's Quarrel. And I agree they should have just named Frank McRae's character Quarrel Jr. (Frank McRae is one of my favourite actors. I loved him in Used Cars and Farewell to the King.)

In Mister Asterix's Little World Of Make Believe, 'Sharky' was just Quarrel Jr.'s nickname.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Alex Zamudio (14 Dec, 2001 07:53 p.m.):
And why Wayne Newton?

You need to understand the irony in the casting.

In America at least, Newton is very well known as a fundraiser. So experienced is he that I read somewhere Wayne Newton ad-libbed most of his dialogue in those televised fundraising sequences.

[Jim]

There are a lot of things missing in LTK. Style and charm for example.

Unless I imagined it (and I can think of better things to imagine), when I saw LTK in Japan in 1989 (it works better when you can't follow the "dialogue"), there was a scene where Krest stands on his boat, looking out to sea, waiting for the 'plane, binoculars in hand, scanning the horizon like the naughty scamp he is and hoots, crivens and jings ma boab! He espies an innocent looking fishing boat nearby. Of course, we know it's the boat Bond's on, because we saw it for all of an atosecond in an earlier scene. He shouts something to some folk on his boat (can't remember what it was; Japanese, see) and end of scene.

I have no idea why this would have been cut for the UK. Perhaps he said a naughty word, like "piss". Oooh.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Come on Jim, tell us what you really think of LTK.

[Friedrich Baxter]

Something missing in LTK?

But off course! Everything was missing. The most important thing was missing; a James Bond movie! (if you understand me)

[James Page]

"Something missing in LTK?"

Laughs!

[Jim]

blofelds_cat (03 Oct, 2001 09:27 a.m.):
Come on Jim, tell us what you really think of LTK.

Lead me not into temptation.

The temptation being to use the word "piss" again. (Sorry, rude).

Another "missing" thing from Licence to Kill is Dario; yes, yes, I know that the "plot" is that he wanders orf to buy the stingers, but that's only mentioned in passing. He's almost an interesting character. Instead, we have to put up with that one who looks like a marine iguana (not the iguana itself, which looks more human).

Yet another "missing" thing is Talisa Soto's talent. As Mark Twain once remarked, it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

I suppose it's not her fault. Perhaps the direction wasn't up to scratch (don't get me started...). What else? Proper music, that's missing too.

Maybe I am being a little harsh. When it came out, I was only 14 and was upset (to say the least) that the cinema turned me away due to the BBFC's bizarre 15 certificate. When I eventually did see it, I thought it was great. Lots of killing. Fab.

My opinion has changed "ever so" slightly. It now looks and feels lumpen and stodgy and a little desparate.

And yet, and yet...Timothy Dalton is OK in it. It's not his fault. I think it's a shame that his (public) reputation as Bond has been dragged down by being surrounded by the rest of the dross in the film. But there you go; it happened and it was all about money.

The other thing that irritates me is the common complaint that Licence to Kill was poorly marketed and suffered as a result in the summer of 1989 with Batman and Indiana Jones 3 and Lethal Weapon 2 et al. That may be so; LTK's (UK) poster is conspicuously the worst of the series. However, why do people shy away from the more probable reason - Batman and Indiana Jones 3 and Lethal Weapon 2 are (gulp) considerably better films? I know that's subjective.

Stop making excuses for LTK. They had 2 years to get it right and blew it.

[Simon]

Stop making excuses for LTK. They had 2 years to get it right and blew it.

Once again, good points all, but....

While we're dropping exciting country names left and right, I saw LTK in New York during a working summer break. The film succeeded in all areas other than the US market, and I can testify to the all but complete absence of marketing in the US. A poster, some ads in the New York Times and that folks, was it.

The films faults not withstanding, lumpy action, slowish pace, the US market was beaten into submission with the other three films. During that summer, one in ten t-shirts was Batman.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Jim (03 Oct, 2001 01:41 p.m.):
Yet another "missing" thing is Talisa Soto's talent. As Mark Twain once remarked, it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

I was too busy thinking lusty thoughts than contemplating her acting ability.
To be quite honest, until Dame Judi came along I wasn't holding out much hope of an intelligent Bond girl who could also act.
There is an alternative to Mark Twain:
"Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak."

Jim, tell us the GOOD points about LTK. Surely there must be some that seep through those jaded, cynical eyes of yours.

[zencat]

blofelds_cat (03 Oct, 2001 02:56 a.m.):
If so, it would to interesting to see photos from these missing scenes.

There is a photo of the Bond/Sharky scene in THE ESSENTIAL BOND. Bond is wearing one bad hat! (I scanned it but I'm not able to post in this thread.)

There's also a well-circulated photo of another cut scene of Bond sitting alone in his hotel room drinking vodka. He's in shirtsleeves and wearing his gun holster and drinking from a flask. It's very reminiscent of the TND hotel scene.

[zencat]

Re the quality of LTK.

I hated LTK when it first came out. I just didn't think it was a Bond film. But I've now made my peace with it and accept it for what it is... Ironically they tell you exactly what it is with the first line of the movie;

"We have a mid-course deviation."

[RossMan]

[quote]zencat (03 Oct, 2001 05:14 p.m.):

There is a photo of the Bond/Sharky scene in THE ESSENTIAL BOND. Bond is wearing one bad hat! (I scanned it but I'm not able to post in this thread.) quote]

Yes, I have that book and have seen that picture you're talking about. Timothy Dalton looks like a beat up old fisherman with that hat on.

Does Sharky remined anyone else of Quarrel from Dr. No. He's obviously another version of that character so why not have used Quarrel Junior from Live and Let Die?