7 replies to this topic

[brendan007]

Back when OHMSS was being released way back in 1969, did the general public know that Bond's wife was going to be murdered in the last minute of the film. Obviously people who had read the book knew, but would it have been a shock to people who just went to see the film?
The recent bond films havent been very good at trying to hide major plot twists (trevelyan was revealed as the villian in the trailer!!!!, there were publicity shots of elektra torturing bond etc), but back then i wonder if the producers tried to keep the ending a secret. If anybody knows wat it was like back then id love to hear wat you have to say.

[Red Grant]

You have to remember that the world was very diferent back in 1969. There was no internet or really any fan magazine or other publications that would give away the ending or reveal spoilers about a forthcoming film. The public just went along and got taken in with whatever happened. As you say, people who'd read the book would know about the ending but I guess a lot would expect a more upbeat ending as with the previous films. A lot of the criticism levelled at the film and why it had such poor box office at the time pointed to the fact it had a downbeat end. This doesn't really make sense as surely the people had paid to see the film anyway regardless of the ending. Poor word of mouth may have been partly to blame but to answer your question..yes I think it was quite a shock to most of the audience.
I can remember going to see "The Empire Strikes Back" and not knowing the major plot spoiler in that one and that was 1980...again down to the lack of advance material available on the film., In many ways we are spoiled (no pun intended!) nowadays by the wealth of information available at every stage of production. Maybe that's why we are often disappointed in a film as we know so much about it beforehand. Ignorance is bliss. If only studios and producers had the power that the once had in the marketing of a film. Hitchcock demanded that nobody could see "Psycho" once the film had started in order that the plot twists would not be spoiled. He got the enforced by the distributors and contracts drawn up so the cinema managers had to abide by this rule. Consequently the meant huge queues outside the theatre as everyone had to be seated before the show began and naturally great publicity without giving anything away. Times have changed....

[doublenoughtspy]

Good question.

I have a few film magazines and newspaper articles that mention Tracy's fate before the film came out. Most tiptoed around the subject, but at the very least mentioned that the character does die in the book.

The official synopsis from the pressbook and other press materials sent out talk about Blofeld & Bunt zooming by at the end and firing a machine gun.

They don't disclose the entire fact that she dies, but it is inferred.

But certainly the trailers, tv and radio spots did not give away the ending.

So I would say the casual cinema goer did not know, but if you knew much about the Bond character or had collected the usual mags and newspaper articles - you would have known.

[kevrichardson]

By 1969 Bond was losing some steam in the public eye . More media attention was applied to the New James Bond - George Lazenby . Than to the plot . Since most fan know the ending of the original novel. it did surprise many that Tracy Bond was killed at the end off the film. Peter Hunt fought for that ending .

[Turn]

I don't know about Tracy's death being tipped beforehand, but the UA publicity department came up with unused poster art that had a bride behind Bond. It was explained in the James Bond posters book that they didn't use them to keep it a surprise for fans who hadn't read the book.

Bond marrying would have been surprise enough; Tracy being murdered a few minutes after would have really thrown you for a loop if you weren't expecting it. I saw OHMSS when I was only 7 and was pretty jolted. The other big jolts before came from some new guy playing Bond and Kojak as the bad guy.

[brendan007]

thanks a lot. the reason i asked is that i dont remember the first time ive seen any of the bond films before goldeneye, ever since i was a small kid ive just been watching them, so ive never been shocked by a plot twist.
it would have been shockin to see this ending if you had no idea, i wish sometimes that i could watch all these films again for the first time.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Red Grant
You have to remember that the world was very diferent back in 1969. There was no internet or really any fan magazine or other publications that would give away the ending or reveal spoilers about a forthcoming film. The public just went along and got taken in with whatever happened. ....... In many ways we are spoiled (no pun intended!) nowadays by the wealth of information available at every stage of production. Maybe that's why we are often disappointed in a film as we know so much about it beforehand. Ignorance is bliss.  

If only studios and producers had the power that the once had in the marketing of a film.  

Yes, thank you for saying that.

One of the things I have been dissapointed with in CBn and Mi6 is the way both sites put spoilers on their respective sites -- a lot of the times in the HEADLINE to an article.

I don't so much mind when they do it so you have to actually highlight the spoiler because then I can simply skip over it, but CBn kinda ruined DAD for me in large part for mentioning things like the Ice Palace, locations casting and other spoilers.

As a writer myself I am also an advocate for the intellectual property rights of studios (and writers) which is why, although I think MGM could have been a bit nicer about the whole issue and not so heavy handed, I agreed with the studio when they objected to the inclusion of script excerpts on several of the Bond fan sites (including CBn). It was therefore no surprise (and frankly shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone) when MGM reacted so swiftly. But not swiftly enough.

I too remember being surprised by the plot twist in The Empire Strikes Back when I saw it at the theater in 1980. I even remember as recently as 1985 (with AVTAK) that all I knew about that Bond movie was that Roger Moore was James Bond, Christopher Walken was the villain, and that part of it was set in San Francisco...in other words all that could be gleaned from the poster.

[General Koskov]

Actually, I found that ignorance was not such a bliss with respect for DAD: I (and some will remember this) purposely avoided the DAD forums and did not read any articles about DAD. But when I went to see it, I was dissapointed. Mind you, I still was exposed to trailers and TV spots (which I wanted to see), as well as some bit about Icarus on the Discovery Channel and several unmarked spoiler threads here.

As for OHMSS, I was unsure about Tracy's death when I read it: I was 12 and was not used to Fleming's style of writing (which didn't say 'she was dead' right out). Therefore, I watched the film in anticipation to see if she died--and she did, so I wasn't too surprised.

PS. Except for a few, I spoiled all of the classic Bond films for myself by reading a book called 'the 007 Movie Book' or something, which outlined all the storylines. Interestingly enough, the only film I didn't read about was TLD--not that it would've helped explain that one!