58 replies to this topic

[MooseWithFleas]

This thread is gold!!! JW as a space marine . I love Sheriff JW Pepper. He gets funnier as I get older. I was lukewarm on him as a teen, but ever since he has been amazing. It's helpful that he is played by the kind and gentle Clifton James. I wrote him last year and he wrote me back, very nice guy.

 

I agree he is out of place in TMWTGG, but as the years go by, I accept that this film is a jumbled mess and he adds to that atmosphere. Which in turn has given me a new found respect for the film. It can never decide whether it wants to be serious, funny, over the top, or understated, but there are enough working parts that has me enjoy it.

Edited by MooseWithFleas, 10 June 2014 - 03:03 AM.

[iBond]

In all honesty, there are worse characters in the Bond universe than J.W. Pepper.

[tdalton]

Perhaps, but not many.  Even still, he's not the worst thing about Live and Let Die.

Edited by tdalton, 26 July 2014 - 03:03 AM.

[AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän]

I don't mind the good sheriff J.W. at all, in my opinion he fits the world of Sir Rog's Bond perfectly.

[Guy Haines]

Agreed. I can't quite see him in any other Bond era, and I'm not sure JW - or "Deputy Dawg" as I think of him - would have fitted every Moore movie. There have been some intriguing and amusing possible scenes mentioned here though.

 

Since AVTAK was to be Moore's swansong, I think it was a pity that David Hedison's Felix Leiter didn't turn up at some point - am I right in thinking that they wanted him to appear but it wasn't possible, so the character Chuck Lee was created instead? But also, it might have been amusing to have JW turn up in San Francisco in whatever capacity for one last encounter with "that English secret agent from England!"

[thecasinoroyale]

I found, and still find, him amusing in 'Live And Let Die' - he fits the location perfectly and doesn't outstay his welcome but I did find him a little out there for 'TMWTGG' partly due to them simply wanting too much of a good thing. If they cut his role to just seeing Bond on the boat with that little 'LALD' motive playing, that would be enough of a nice in-joke for me instead of then throwing him into a car chase.

 

But saying that he does make me laugh hanging out of the windows shouting at passing drivers!

 

As stated, he's not the worst thing forced down our throats, but just feel it was better suited in and around 'Live And Let Die'.

[The Krynoid man]

Clifton James also played a similar character in Superman 2. I guess he's the go to guy for stereotypical redneck sheriffs, even though he's actually from New York.

[thecasinoroyale]

Good point! I forgot about this mirror role in 'Superman 2' - you'd think from looking it's the same character indeed!

 

A family friendly Buford T Justice from 'Smokey & The Bandit' I always felt.

 

[AMC Hornet]

+Silver Streak.

 

It must have been frustrating to become so typecast, but he occasionally got to break out. See 'Juggernaut' for an example of non-redneck Clifton.

[glidrose]

In case anybody's wondering what happened to ol' J.W. Pepper since we last saw him in TMWTGG, he now runs a music publishing company. I kid you not!

http://www.jwpepper....sic/welcome.jsp

[Goodnight]

Gets way too much screen time in TMWTGG.

Hate him.

[Trevelyan 006]

I'll take J.W. Pepper appearance over a Madonna appearance.

[AMC Hornet]

Clifton James as Verity, the fencing instructor?

 

I'd find it hard to keep my tip up...

 

("Wal now, Ah guess ah'll just go on an' die another liitle ol' day, ya'll - it ain't mah time to go!")

[Guy Haines]

I have this vision of JW as a member of the public sitting in on the enquiry in Skyfall. Just as Silva breaks in and threatens M, he gets up and exclaims "Dammit, you can't do this, I'll get the FBI, the CIA, dammit, I'll get Henry Kissinger!"

 

(Might have made the rest of the scene entirely redundant!)

[Trevelyan 006]

Clifton James as Verity, the fencing instructor?

 

I'd find it hard to keep my tip up...

 

("Wal now, Ah guess ah'll just go on an' die another liitle ol' day, ya'll - it ain't mah time to go!")

Now I really wish we could have seen him instead of Madonna!

Edited by Trevelyan 006, 08 August 2014 - 07:45 AM.

[dtuba]

 

 

 

I also enjoy the guy from TSWLM and MR who questions if he has been drinking to much.

 

lol! THat guy is a riot

 

The Disbelieving Italian Drunk Guy! He also made an appearance in FYEO.

 

 

Where is he in FYEO? I can't seem to recall.

 

After Bond ski's off that big long table, the drunk guy appears. It's a blink-or-you'll-miss-it scene. 

 

I think the drunk guy and J.W. should have reappeared as tourists in every country Bond went to. Even Azerbajian.

Edited by dtuba, 18 September 2014 - 09:38 PM.

[Major Tallon]

The drunk guy is Victor Tourjansky, and he appeared in three of Moore's Bond movies, essentially playing the same part.

[Bond of Steele]

I like the drunk guy.  But I'm glad he didn't appear in more films.  I'm surprised they didn't put JW in TSWLM in the Egyptian scenes as a tourist.  Even a a very small cameo sitting watching the pyramid show would have worked nicely.

[AMC Hornet]

Victor Tourjansky - the Italian wino - appeared in Sardinia, Venice and Cortina. Since no Bond film was shot in Italy until the reboot CR, there was no reason to bring him back. We were treated instead to one of Kamal's palace guards doing a double-take, and a park bench rubby in San Fransisco watching City Hall burn.

 

With the departure of John Glen I appreciated the simultaneous departure of the winos, fire engines and Kenworth tankers.

 

As for J Dubya in Egypt, I say thank GOD that didn't happen - it was one excess that even Lewis Gilbert didn't think of (although he wouldn't have been any more out of place than any of the other excesses in Moonraker).

[FlemingBond]

i think he was amusing, but out of place in a Bond movie. Of course, the gangsters (who were very over the type stereotypes) in Diamonds are Forever weren't far off either.

What can you say....70's Bond films.

Edited by FlemingBond, 20 September 2014 - 09:07 PM.

[AMC Hornet]

One of those gangsters -- Marc Laurence - got his in TMWTGG  (if he was the same character, but I figure if Robert Brown's M was Admiral Hargreaves, then any actor who appears in more than one film must also be the same character - e.g.: Walter Gottell, Burt Kwouk, Shane Rimmer, Maud Adams, etc.).

[dtuba]

Clifton James as Verity would have been a vast improvement over the "performance" of Madonna.

 

Can you say "shoe-horned"?

[The Krynoid man]

The comment about having J.W instead of Madonna had me on the floor.

Imagine if they had him in place of Felix in LTK.

[Call Billy Bob]

J.W. getting his legs bitten off: "I'm gonna get the FBI on your ass! The CIA!"

[AMC Hornet]

Didn't he play Jack Wade?

 

Or was that Jackie Gleason?

[SAWfinger]

Personally, I quite liked J.W.'s character in LALD, but I think his role in TMWTGG illustrated some of the tensions in that movie: the screenplay could not make up its mind whether the film was basically a comedy thriller or a serious Bond movie.

 

By the way, there's a new look at the 'serious' side to the TMWTGG , 'Through the Barrel', with a focus on Scaramanga, on the JBIFC website. Check it out at: www.007info

[Odd Jobbies]

I sure don't, boieee!!

 

[Blofeld's Cat]

Yes, but only if Idris is Bond.

[DaveBond21]

He and the movie LALD influenced an entire franchise - Smokey & the Bandit