45 replies to this topic

[Dr Noah]

"I enjoyed all the Harry Palmer films including the two(2) direct to video jobs . "Bullets to Beijing"(1995) and "Midnight in St.Petersburg" (1995) "

I watched "Bullets.." but couldn't be bothered about "Midnight" not in the same class as the first three.

I've got the soundtrack to "Ipcress" a great John Barry score and a lot of great dialogue clips!

[kevrichardson]

That's why i refered to both "films" as direct to video jobs . I watch "Bullets" on cable . I really did it to see what Jason Connery was all about . Since he was in it . Michael Caine looked a little(!!!) elderly . Yet i enjoyed both films . Once again Dr Noah you are "correct" "Ipcress File" has a "Great John Barry" score . The soundtrack has just been released . 1965 was a busy year for John Barry . "TB" , "Born Free" , "King Rat" . Not bad .

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Originally posted by Mr. Kidd


Right on,Doc! If he was just "Lucky" that GF was a success with him
at the helm,what about the box office success of DAF & LALD? YES,
TMWTGG did not live up to his other efforts box-office wise,BUT neither  
did OHMSS live up to it's predesessors, yet Peter Hunt is regarded as one of the best directors of the entire series. The point is, Hamilton's
tenure with the Bond series(love him or hate him)was a success.

so there! i fully agree. his tenure with GF helped propel the series into the international phenomenon as we know it today.

[kevrichardson]

Originally posted by The Girl With The Golden Gun

so there! i fully agree. his tenure with GF helped propel the series into the international phenomenon as we know it today.

Yet "ThunderBall" made more money than "GoldFinger" . Look nothing happen that spectaular in "GoldFinger" . Hamilton was just a Journeyman Director who just got lucky . He had no real influnce on the film and on Connery's performance . Nor on that of Gert Frobe or Honor Blackman . Willi watch "GoldFinger" and continue to enjoy it . Yes !! Damn right i will . Do i find it to be a little "stupid" . Yeah i do . Still as a "HardCore Bond Fan" . Any Bond is better than no Bond .

[Blox]

I think Young and Hamilton had different priorities as directors. Hamilton had no problem directing Goldfinger from a script that had Bond getting captured early on in the picture. Young, on the other hand, saw the flaw in the story & did his best to repair the problem by recutting Goldfinger. I think this was because Young had a different idea about what should happen in a Bond. Hamilton was responsible for what some rightly refer to as the Bond comedies. A Hamilton Bond has no problem breaching the tenor of a taut thriller with broad slapstick humor and goofy characters. Young, on the other hand, resisted sneering at his material broadly. He was smart enough to use a character to create a sense of tension -- rather than an easy guffaw. For example, the "Blofeld" of the Young films was a fairly unsettling character, ordering hits on his own people, frying embezzelers, etc. Not so in the hands of other directors who turn him into a benign host of sorts who eventually can be heard offering to buy Bond a deli "in stainless steel.."

There's another element unique to Young's Bonds, and it owes, I think, to the way Young and Connery defined Bond in Dr. No. The Bond of Dr. No was a fairly bossy "Commander Bond," and Connery can be frequently heard giving other characters orders. Ie: "Fetch my shoes," "Here, leave that..." "Hey, do something about this, will you..." There is so much ordering around that the script finally responds through the mouth of a heavy: "Listen, _we_ give the orders around here..." While some of the other actors have tried to recover the way Connery portrayed Bond, most all have lost sight of the "Commander Bond" side of the character's personality. Young capitalized on it, and while he and Connery toned it down in FRWL, Bond remained a very formidable character (ie: "I'll do worse than that if you don't tell me...) However, under Hamilton's direction in Goldfinger, Connery kept the imposing side of his character fairly veiled behind the "gentleman agent" persona. He still did audacious things -- but he stopped portraying the overtly brash Commander of Dr. No who gave orders. Connery's "Commander Bond" makes brief cameos in Hamilton's DAF, during the opening teaser, and during the poolside confrontation with Tiffany: "Who's your connection?," & "You aren't the type to turn the other cheek, now where's the stuff?" The pool scene was said to have intentionally echoed the scene in FRWL with Romanova. But this was the exception rather than the rule in DAF, and had little to do with the balance of Hamilton's direction in that picture.

Imo -- Young had Bond nailed...

B l o x

[kevrichardson]

Nice interesting ideas on a emotional topic !!! Never thought of the "Bossy Commander Bond " angle . It was more in touch with Fleming's Bond . Since in the novels Bond is alway order or telling people what to do . The other director's working on Blofeld . Well Peter Hunt understood "Blofeld" along the same line you mention for Young . "YOLT" was the first film that Blofeld pplaayed a mjor part in . plus the first in which theoriginal story was thrown out . Not counting other problems (namely the replacement of the original actor Jan Werch ) . Hamilton has been quoted as saying that he thought Bond was becoming a superman . So he brought in some new ideas . Only god knows what they were . I am of the opinion that had Young stayed , "GoldFinger" would have been closer to "ThunderBall" in terms of suspense . With less relience on humor .

[Blox]

Young treated Blofeld as a mysterious character, but Hamilton's Blofeld was a reflection of Hamilton's Bond: a subdued gentleman. Young's Bond _was_ a bit like Superman to the extent that he was heroic. Young's Bond knocks off Dr. No and blows up the place singlehandedly -- Leiter and the "marines" don't show up till the show's over the credits are about to run. By contrast, Hamilton's Bond in GF is chained to a cumbersome bomb during the finale and the caper at Fort Knox isn't busted up by Bond, but by the military. Hamilton's Bond doesn't even know how to diffuse the bomb at the end -- a government "suit" has to do it for him.

B l o x

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Originally posted by Blox
Young treated Blofeld as a mysterious character, but Hamilton's Blofeld was a reflection of Hamilton's Bond: a subdued gentleman.  Young's Bond _was_ a bit like Superman to the extent that he was heroic.  Young's Bond knocks off Dr. No and blows up the place singlehandedly -- Leiter and the "marines" don't show up till the show's over the credits are about to run.  By contrast, Hamilton's Bond in GF is chained to a cumbersome bomb during the finale and the caper at Fort Knox isn't busted up by Bond, but by the military.  Hamilton's Bond doesn't even know how to diffuse the bomb at the end -- a government "suit" has to do it for him.  

...which backs up my point about Hamilton actually doing something for the character of Bond - while Young had him finishing off villains with a single punch (ie Dr NO, but admittedly with a very nasty and claustrophobic fistfgight with Red Grant in FRWL), Hamilton saw that 007 was becoming too much of an indestrictible "superman" and even tho in GF he merely has to push a button or 2 to escape a deathtrap, yes it is ultimately the US govt who come in and save the day. the it is not merely the direction behind the character of bond - i just wonder if Moore would have taken a more serious, Dalton-esque route, given the chance (personally i don't think he would, but there you go).
but yes, it would've been interesting to see a new cut of MR and OP - i wonder if thats possible???

[kevrichardson]

Young's Blofeld was the head of a international Terrorist group . They are very mysterious people . Look at Osama BinLaden or Arafat (before he became a Noble peace prize winner) . That was more in keeping with what Fleming had written . I liked the "Superman" Bond than the BonVivant who relies on every type of gadget possible . Some romantic about a man who uses his wits and brawn .

[Blox]

Golden Girl wrote (aka GWTGG): which backs up my point about Hamilton actually doing something for the character of Bond - while Young had him finishing off villains with a single punch (ie Dr NO, but admittedly with a very nasty and claustrophobic fistfgight with Red Grant in FRWL), Hamilton saw that 007 was becoming too much of an indestrictible "superman" and even tho in GF he merely has to push a button or 2 to escape a deathtrap,



...How indestructible was Young's Bond really? His Bond was the prime mover, if you will. But he sometimes made mistakes and got the tar knocked out of him. Young's Bond was a screen adaptation of the "blunt instrument" Fleming intended that Bond be in the novels. If Hamilton deliberately elected to move away from these elements, he erred in my opinion, because he was moving too far way from the Bond Fleming conceived. As for button pushing to save the day, this was the state of affairs by the time YOLT rolled around -- but you can't pin this on Young. He was well out of the picture and bemoaned the gadgets. I think the famous quote was -- "You don't need a director -- you need a scientist" -- words to that effect.

So much is made of Goldfinger, but what does Bond _do_ in the body of this film? He steals the villain's woman -- but she ends up dead. Then he bumps into her sister -- and she ends up dead. He beats Goldfinger at golf -- but he cheats like Goldfinger to win. He wrecks the Aston Martin; is saved from the laser table by talking his way out of castration; watches the villain invade Fort Knox; has nothing to do with the taking of Knox by the troops aside from passing on a tip-off note and nearly raping Pussy Galore. He is thrashed around by Odd Job, and has to fry him rather than physically overtake him. He is caught offguard by Goldfinger at the end, and can't save the jet from crashing. His greatest heroic conquest is converting Pussy from being a lesbian (that "maternal instinct.") This is a little too much of a knee jerk reaction away from Young imo. His Bond was more of a doer. The Bond of FRWL used the girl to steal the gizmo, oft an incidental bad guy, overcame the heavy on the train, blew the copter out of the sky, set a fleet of bad guy boats on fire, etc. Compared with the first two, Goldfinger is a fairly static film with respect to Bond's function as the prime mover who resolves the conflict in the story line. (imo)

As for Moore, when they tried to make a more serious Bond in FYEO, he was dragged kicking and screaming, so to speak, by Glen through some of the best scenes in the film.

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

point honourably taken and understood now u can sit back and gloat, haha (however, its the dynamics of story and plot which mean that, in order for Bond to stop becoming a "superman", he cannot do a great deal!!!!)

[Blox]

Well -- Bond _should_ be both human and superman -- but not a circus clown. My real objection to Hamilton has to do with his two Moore films, where, imo, he crosses the line from wink and nod humor to outright comedy and farce. Deconstructing the heroism of the character is one thing -- but once you laugh at Bond rather than with him, the whole joke sort of falls apart -- and the film becomes a spectacle rather than a thriller. As Connery put it, if there's no threat, you can't be cool. It didn't help that Gilbert and Moore were inclined to comedy either. The bits with Tarzan yelps, slide whistles, Jaws flapping his wings, etc -- just cross the line imo. Hamilton seems to have started that ball rolling. Do you agree?

There's another element to this. I interviewed Connery in the 80s when he was plugging the Untouchables. When I asked about his favorite gangster, he replied that the most impressive thing he had ever seen was the Statue of Liberty -- and he wasn't joking. In another setting, a night club, someone was heckling a young comic, and Connery told the heckler to "shut up or I'll knock you through the (expletive) wall. Now give the kid a chance." Early on in his career, when he saw Lana Turner being accosted by gangster Johnny Stompanato, Connery came to her aid and decked Stompanato. And in a town like Hollywood, that was a heap gutsy thing to do imo. Point here is that I think a lot of the "superman" quality of Bond can be as wound up in the actor playing the part as written into the script.

Blox

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Blox, if you don't mind my asking, what do u do for a living??

[Blox]

...I'm a producer.


Blox

[TheSaint]

Actually, Kev, Hamilton wasn't canned from Superman:The Movie. Originally, it was to be filmed in Italy. Once the production moved to England, Guy had to step down due to the tax laws. He got paid for it, anyway, due to a clause in his contract.

[kevrichardson]

Originally posted by TheSaint
Actually, Kev, Hamilton wasn't canned from Superman:The Movie. Originally, it was to be filmed in Italy. Once the production moved to England, Guy had to step down due to the tax laws. He got paid for it, anyway, due to a clause in his contract.

Thanks for the heads-up on Hamilton and his role in directing "Superman" :The Movie . When i was referring to "Superman" . It was not Clark Kent . it was a statemnt that Hamilton made about James Bond . His belief that he was becomng one in the early films .