Best Mistress?

New poll up.

In honor of Severin (SKYFALL), I've put up a new poll to help us vote on, and discuss, the coveted title of Best Mistress. I only included characters who were purely the girlfriend of the villain, not assassins or henchwomen in their own right. That means the list excludes characters like Fiona Volpe and May Day. The list is confined to women who know they are with bad men but, for whatever reasons, have chosen to stay with him until 007 comes along and offers them a chance at a better life. They are not innocent, naive civilians like Kara Milovy, and there are no kept men on the list because the only one that comes close to that definition would be Renard, and he was also a villain.

If I've missed anyone speak up.

I was leaning towards Andrea but vote Domino Derval for portrayal etc.

I voted for Domino Derval since she's really the template for the villain's kept-woman type of Bond girls much as her TB sorority sister Fiona Volpe is the template for the Bond villainesses. Good to see my kept-woman Magda and the underrated Mrs. Carver each get a vote.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

If I've missed anyone speak up.

Shouldn't Jill Masterson and Solange Dimitrios be two of the options, GS?

Voted Anders.

Derval, without a doubt.

Dervalanders.

[quote="Gravity's Silhouette"That means the list excludes characters like Fiona Volpe and May Day.[/quote]
I thought MayDay was Zorin's girlfriend. He didn't care about her and let her die, but that's what every villain did after all.

Voted for Paris Carver. One of my favourite Bond girls. She really secured the deal for me when I started with the Bond franchise. However, Domino, Jill and Solange are very good too. Magda is gorgeous, but isn't the best actress. Same as Lupe.

Walecs wrote:

I thought MayDay was Zorin's girlfriend. He didn't care about her and let her die, but that's what every villain did after all.

The list is basically made up of Bond Girls who fall under one type of category: Mistress. May Day was both a henchwoman and a mistress, and I think she's remembered more for being a villain's henchman rather than being a mistress.

I didn't include Kara in the list because even though she was the villain's girlfriend, she had no idea he was up to criminal activity. She was very naive and innocent, and in that respect she's one of my favorite Bond Girls.

Magda is probably my favorite Mistress. OCTOPUSSY was the first Bond film that I saw (as well as the first Bond film I saw in the theaters), and the way she is introduced to the audience is very stylish and sophisticated. Loved Roger Moore's reaction to seeing her, and then again running into her at the casino. I love the way she blew him....off. Although I found her last lines of dialogue among the strangest of the entire series. Her line "He''ll destroy the entire operation" made no sense to me, because if Octopussy lets the nuclear bomb go off there won't be anymore jewel smuggling operation to ruin; they'll all be dead. That bit of dialogue ranks up there with Bond asking Natalya what she knows: "I know nothing". "Then tell me what you do know".

I always thought Zorin was May Day's mistress.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Although I found her last lines of dialogue among the strangest of the entire series. Her line "He''ll destroy the entire operation" made no sense to me, because if Octopussy lets the nuclear bomb go off there won't be anymore jewel smuggling operation to ruin; they'll all be dead.

But that's it, GS. Magda believes that the jewels are there, not a bomb. It makes perfect sense. See, I never understood that line until my most recent viewing because I thought Magda was talking about Khan's operation, not the jewel smuggling one. I thought she was happy to commit suicide and expected Octopussy to do the same.

So no, I don't find it strange at all. Not now, anyway.

How could I have forgotten the Countess Lisl Von Schlaf? Actually, it was kind of easy. She seems to be one of the least talked about Bond Girls ever.

She wasn't a villain's mistress though... She was an ally's mistress.

I love Jill and Solange, but went with Magda. Sue me.

FieldsMan wrote:

She wasn't a villain's mistress though... She was an ally's mistress.

I guess you're right, though doesn't Columbo's activities put him somewhat at odds with the British?

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

She wasn't a villain's mistress though... She was an ally's mistress.

I guess you're right, though doesn't Columbo's activities put him somewhat at odds with the British?

Maybe, but hey that's Realpolitik for you.

My problem with Magda is that despite being very beautiful , her big eyes and large rounded forehead makes her look like rather like (and I don't mean this in anyway derogatory) a female ET, so for me it has to be the curvaceous and badly dubbed Domino. Yes she may be so stupid that she can't even figure out how to slide her foot from under a rock while diving, but let's face it she's a mistress not a life partner that you want to have deep and meanigfull conversation with for the rest of eternity. She dresses well, fills a bikini nicely, knows how to order a meal, can dance and keeps healthy and well toned with her regular swimming ( though admittedly she can't seem to manage even touching the sea without something calamitous happening).
Though of course for me the real attraction in Domino was that scene with Largo in their berth on the Disco Volante, it's fairly obvious from her position (one leg just teasingly raised at the knee) and the mock, gentle yet playful struggling against her binds that she has indeed mastered the art of bondage role play. In fact I would go as far as to suggest that clumsy editing of the film has possibly cheated us of the real intent of the scene and possibly misrepresented the character of Largo. Maybe just maybe after he finds Bond's camera on her the scene should of ended with:

Largo: "Who gave you this, ah was it Mr Bond, well I too can give you great toys"

Largo gently pulls out a Ann Summers carrier bag.

Cuts to Largo's bedroom quarters, Domino lies tied to the bed

Largo: "You have gave me great pleasure my dear Domino, but in return I will give you great pain if you don't tell me all you know, with these I will apply them scientifically"

Domino: "Oh no I'm going to scream, Largo, you bad bad big boy"

Largo: "Don't call me that...let me see...call me...your very strict ballerina teacher"



...I am sorry, I seemed to of lost my train of thought somewhat, anyway it's Domino for me.

I could see Racquel Welch's Domino doing that scene quite well Saunders. As trains of thought go that's quite something :)

I'm shocked that neither Jill nor Solange have received any votes yet. :shock:

Domino is rightly winning this in a landslide.

Salomé wrote:

Domino is rightly winning this in a landslide.

Easily the best of them, and one of my favorite scenes is when Bond has to break the news. Claudine Auger was very good, going from disbelief to shock to despair and then when Bond brings up Largo's name you can then see the wheels turning in her head.

I'm trying to work off memory here. Were Magda and May Day the only women that were essentially pimped out, or whored, by their boyfriend-villains?

Colombo sent Lisl to sleep with Bond, but he was an "ally". After your woman has slept with Bond, why would any man want her back? She could never be as impressed by you as she was after having spent a night with the world's best lover. Kind of weird to think that Kamal took Magda back, though in the cases of May Day and Magda both were set up to die by the villain.

Lupe too, but not by Bond. That guy in the PTS that Lupe is caught with, and Sanchez takes her back.

I have to quibble with this poll. The only real kept women on this list IMO are Domino, Andrea Anders and Lupe and I would add Solitaire, as she is basically tied to Kananga against her will. Fleming even wrote her as basically Big's slave.

Paris and Solange are gangster wives as opposed to gangster molls. They made their bed. They knowingly took vows with hoodlums. They live the life, or rather lived the life of a gangster's wife. It has its perks until you get murdered. And it wasn't Dimitrios that killed Solange, it was Le Chiffre.

Jill Masterson, as she explained to Bond, was employed only to be seen with GF and help him out with stuff like his card-cons. She made it very clear to Bond that she wasn't sleeping with GF. It's not clear that he might not have let her quit and be on her way, if she had been reasonable about winding down their arrangement, but she sealed her fate by sleeping with the enemy. You could though attempt to make the case that she was a kept-woman. But I think her status is somewhat ambiguous, especially considering she wasn't sleeping with Auric. Auric btw, although he is a lech, seems aesexual. He does leer at Pussy but the guy loves gold first. There really isn't much suggestion that he is very sexual.

Which brings us to Magda. Magda is not Khan's girlfriend. She is loyal to OP. Her activities in the film are confined to enabling the smuggling operation. She seduces Bond to help get the egg back. She is effectively an OP liason working with the OP troupe's, partner Khan, in the smuggling operation. Like OP, as Fieldsman points out, she is oblivious to Khan's nuke conspiracy with Orlov.

So I think the list more properly is the actual kept women:
Domino (both of them)
Andrea Anders
Lupe Lamora
Solitaire
and to be generous
Jill Masterson
and you could throw in the two wives
Paris Carver
Solange

I voted Domino Derval btw. She is the template. Auger's understated performance was perfection.