39 replies to this topic

[hilly]

It's interesting,but is hardly a warts n all insight into the making of the Bond films. It was written ( or dictated) in 1987, so there is a lot about Dalon and The Living Daylights. There are one or two barbed comments about Saltzman, Connery and Lazenby ( and even the odd gripe about Roger Moore being a " pussycat who began to show his claws") but, on the whole, it's about Cubby telling his story without denting his Mr Nice Guy image.

[sthgilyadgnivileht]

Shame people are having trouble locating this in Hardback. It's a great read for anyone with a healthy interest in Bond, good biographies or the moguls of the old Hollywood studio system.
I don't think its meant to be particularly warts and all, just the memories and perspective of a life well lived in Hollywood and Pinewood. In agreement with what others have written here Broccoli's reflections on TSWLM, AVTAK and LTK are particularly worth reading.

Could you give some hints as to Cubby´s reflections?

This gives you some idea:



"I was relieved when [the legal disputes between myself and Saltzman in the mid seventies were] all over. Glad to see this big exodus of lawyers special pleaders and other characters who'd hustled in, hoping to pull off a big coup. I didn't see Harry Saltzman afterwards to shake hands. But there was no animosity, no enmity. His life was not without it's tragedies. The whole painful episode underscored my belief that partnerships in the film business are rarely successful. It worked for Zanuck and Brown, Speilberg and Lucus; but they're exceptions"


Taken from When the Snow Melts, The Autobiography of Cubby Broccoli, with Donald Zec.

[SecretAgentFan]

Thanks!

[doublenoughtspy]

Things like this don't worry me. Anyone recounting their life in their eighties is going to have a slight distortion of events, and moreover may prefer to look back on their life with rose tinted spectacles as well, which is their prerogative. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can be called a decent success, depending on how you look at it. It may have lost money on release, but it has endured in popularity since.
This autobiography is great perspective on Broccoli's thoughts and attitude as a very talented film producer. For this it is well worth a read, even if the odd fact is off.
Didn't Michael Caine say if you want to write a truthful Biography these days you have to call it a novel.

So you are basically saying its ok to be inaccurate?

Listen, I understand Broccoli's memories weren't going to be 100% accurate. Human memory is faulty. I have trouble remembering things from 3 years ago - I can't imagine what it would be like trying to recall events that 30 years+ old.

But conceivably, that is why you hire Donald Zec, an entertainment journalist from the Daily Mail. To investigate, to verfiy, etc.

BTW, my critcism of Chitty being called a success was directed at Junkanoo, who called it that, not Broccoli.

Anyway, my problem with the book doesn't lie with Broccoli, I am sure he was telling things as he remembered them. My fault is with Zec who just assumed everything Broccoli said was accurate and didn't bother to fact check.

[sthgilyadgnivileht]

So you are basically saying its ok to be inaccurate?

Not precisely. I think that the fact the biography gives a good insight to Broccoli as a producer, his thoughts and reasonings on Bond over the years should outweigh the fact he is off on the timing of the death of Robert Shaw for instance.

You may have a point about Zec, I wouldn't argue against that.

[Mr. Blofeld]

that is why you hire [...] an entertainment journalist from the Daily Mail. To investigate, to verfiy, etc.

Asking a journalist from the Daily Mail to verify something is like asking Rupert Murdoch to stop making shady business deals.

[hilly]

And given that Broccoli ( an American) was making the films at Pinewood, it would, in the Daliy Mail's eyes, make him a foreigner working in Britain.. I'm surprised they didn't start a campaign to have him deported...

[David Schofield]

Throughly enjoyed it myself.

Sure, there's nothing outstandingly shocking in there, probably nothing new even; but the Bonds have been such huge films and so well documented in the press over the years, and conversely what EON wanted kept secret WAS kept secret, it's barely surprising.

Cubby was never likely to say Sean was a really nice guy and that he now realises he and Harry treated Sean like absolute garbage, was he?

[Skudor]

I read the book several years ago, and enjoyed it very much. I think I most enjoyed the bits about his early life - the Bond bits weren't that interesting or revealing (from what I can recall).

[Mark_Hazard]

that is why you hire [...] an entertainment journalist from the Daily Mail. To investigate, to verfiy, etc.

Asking a journalist from the Daily Mail to verify something is like asking Rupert Murdoch to stop making shady business deals.

Except for that the Donald Zec I remember wrote for the slightly better (if tabloid) Daily Mirror - although I suppose that I should forgive you both as you're not (at least writing) from these shores.