Last Bond Movie You Watched.

The Bond girls were perfect for that Vegas setting. Loud, brassy, and lacking all subtlety. Lana Wood was certainly a riot: "Saaay, you handle those cubes like a monkey handles coconuts!" Gets me every time.

You can't quite imagine the girls and Vegas setting being done the same way nowadays. Dare suggest like a Rat Pack Ocean's 11. Vegas of the late fifties into early seventies seems a world away to now.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

You can't quite imagine the girls and Vegas setting being done the same way nowadays. Dare suggest like a Rat Pack Ocean's 11. Vegas of the late fifties into early seventies seems a world away to now.

It is. Quite gone.

Quite sad. I'd have loved to go to Vegas, see Sinatra in action and Don Rickles. Could do with a time machine

Couldn't we all...

Being such a fan of Rod Taylor, I'd take his option. The Bond that wasn't.

It'll surprise no-one that my choice would be the Tardis.

On the one hand, I know that Doctor Who was considerably more difficult to watch in the States in the 80s than it is now. On the other, I find it hard to believe that Bill and Ted's screenwriters randomly came up with the idea of a time-travelling phone box ...

out of nowhere, For Your Eyes Only

I've said muchly over the years so will add little bits or redo them. Personally, this is my favourite Moore performance. He might not have cared much for the seriousness but the odd moment aside, it's nailed on. From past the PTS (the sheer silliness of it, i.e 'Blofeld', is exhausted quickly and we can get on with the film proper) through to kicking the car off the cliff to throwing the ATAC away, it's great.

Can never get enough of the 'Runaway' chase. Fact Bond's hemmed in on the ski slope -he sees the bad guys, he tries to get away, well, the only option is to jump. Conti's music is rarely greater than here and afterwards (the sub scene and climbing St. Cyril's) -yes it's a touch Rocky (as someone once described it) but Conti's music is one of the better non-Barry offerings betwixt 1973 and 1985. (All right there's three, but Hamlisch's has slid away over the years bar The Tanker and Martin's, great that it is, feels quite 70s all the same). The chase and "Drive in the Country" are good sequences.

Melina, never an issue, my brunette fixation of years past probably clouded my judgement.

And finally, there's always something about Bond's reaction to Colombo's pining for the late Countess ("Were my heart not so heavy...") the way Bond is slightly uncomfortable ("Well, yes, I did have my way with her...").

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Can never get enough of the 'Runaway' chase. Fact Bond's hemmed in on the ski slope -he sees the bad guys, he tries to get away, well, the only option is to jump. Conti's music is rarely greater than here and afterwards (the sub scene and climbing St. Cyril's)... The chase and "Drive in the Country" are good sequences.

Agreed. I've heard criticism that it becomes too gimmicky, but I think it unfolds and escalates in excellent Bondian fashion after the perfect build up leading Bond to the top of the tower. Much has to do with the music - I really like the Ski... Shoot... Jump track leading up to Runaway. Very ambient, especially from the 3min mark.

When I first saw the film, Run Ski etc was a touch irritating -seemed to build, build, nothing but it's grown on me in recent viewings. No one can ever match how Barry crafted scenes (contrast this to say, Escape from Piz Gloria or Ski Chase) but as he recommended Conti, it's not a total waste. Do like the camera work on the chase too.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

I just love how sleazy this whole thing is, and Connery is pretty game, even if he isn't as sharp as he was a decade earlier. The climax is still crap, but at least it ends on a high note with Wint and Kidd's encore appearance.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I just love how sleazy this whole thing is.

So you think Bond is terrible and creepy, but you love how sleazy he is?

Inconsistent world view, comrade.   Off to the fucking Gulag, you.

I'd figure at your age you'd know by now how complex our world is, unless it's that time to put you in a home.

You can tell Sean is intrigued by the Mank wit and the new approach of the tone like he was in his offbeat arty projects. He had to be challenged as an actor to really be good such as in the Lumet films. The Anderson Tapes got made on the DAF deal in the same year and it's an offbeat performance with many touches like his DAF performance minus the toupee.

DAF is a black comedy action adventure masterwork that should have never worked. Once you get the joke you'll love it until the day you die.

The spinoff we should have gotten was the long running Wint and Kidd series that was like a more adult Pink Panther sequel.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I'd figure at your age you'd know by now how complex our world is, unless it's that time to put you in a home.

Alas that time has come. Adios.

well, Tracy, head for the trees!


On Her Majesty's Secret Service.


little more can be said. I've seen the titles a million times and it's still a favourite, from Bond slow motion running through to the end and a theme tune timeless unto itself.


I tend to look for things to note anew and so far merely in the hotel. It's natural perhaps that Manuel is pleased to see Bond, a repeat customer but dig the reception chap who is all aglow and grinning apparently really pleased to see Bond. Then, when Draco's men have something to give Bond, the fact the henchman lowers the paper to reveal his gun for a noticeable time surely and no one bats an eyelid.

It's not a huge loss to the OST but I wish the medley from Bond's office was on the CD. And a bit more of the song's instrumental (though I've come to thinking that though it's placed after Bond's arrival at Piz Gloria, "Bond Settles In" is actually the track covering the shot of St. Paul's and the College of Arms) or just one last time, the theme as briefly heard in the town Bond stops to phone for help.

Otherwise I still like how true it's the book as it can be. I regret almost fifty years on the fact there wasn't at least one more Lazenby film and one more Hunt-helmed film as I would like to have seen what else he came up with (though maybe this is a blessing he did one, a la Mendes) or the Moneypenny scenes (I smile everytime at M's remark, "What would I do without you?"), Draco (and Bond), Piz Gloria virtually fitting the book to a tee and how you wish perhaps, or I do sometimes, that Bond sees the car in time...but then what's the option? MacMillan and Wife.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Peter Hunt was the secret weapon of the series and it never truly recovered from losing him.

As much as I love FYEO as it is, I'd love to see a Peter Hunt version of the film.

Great write up, Hilly, by the by!

Did Peter Hunt stop cranking up the film speed by the 80s? That's the only thing I don't miss about him. It's probably the most dated aspect of those 60s films, especially when stunts are involved.

I popped in OHMSS - 1st Bond film I watched all year (QOS excluded for the 10th anniversary... But does that really count?). A pleasure as always.

What I really appreciated this time round was the one shot at the beginning of Bond and Draco's talk about Tracy when they first meet. What an impeccably performed scene by Ferzetti, who not only needed to carry the scene in English, but deliver it with the extensive blocking. The up and back from the side table, timing his offer for the cigarettes, etc. Even Lazenby jumping in with his cues - it feels very organic and I wish modern drama was crafted in this way - not just Bond, but all cinema. That's why I really appreciated Mendes' direction in SF, i.e. the jellyfish punch up, Silva's first scene, Bond and Moneypenny at the casino, etc. Not just because it was a welcome return to form after the frenetic QOS, but because it allows for so much moment-to-momentness in the performances

One little thing that I started wondering, however, around the quarter mark - and this could be because of the two martinis I downed - was that there isn't a set up for Bond's mission to get Blofeld out of Switzerland to extradite him. I feel it would give the first half more of a driving force, whereas it's only casually mentioned that Bond wants to get him out of Switzerland without a reference as to why - information we're privy to having read the book.

Of course, after eggnog and martinis I may not have processed the information, however I don't actually recall it being mentioned in the dozens of times I've watched the film.

What exactly is eggnog? I've never seen it in Australia before.

Milk, raw eggs, cream, condensed milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, cognac/brandy/rum... I make it without the eggs though, and it's delicious.

You can buy it premade from a supermarket - I never have/will because it's so easy to make.

FieldsMan wrote:

Milk, raw eggs, cream, condensed milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, cognac/brandy/rum

I'll take some eggnog with the bit in bold, hold the rest.