The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Raymond Benson

  The skydiving scenes were difficult to film, requiring that stuntmen and cameramen make several jumps. Second unit director/editor John Glen supervised the sequence, and visually it's stupendous. But the subsequent regression from excitement to cartoonish catand-mouse games is an error in judgment.

  One of the sillier sequences in the film occurs when Bond is in Venice, and his gondola proves to be a floating arsenal from Q Branch. It might not have been so bad if we had been told beforehand that the craft was capable of making this transformation. But as it is, Bond simply hops into a gondola, is taken down a canal, and is attacked by a passing "funeral" lorry. A man rises from the exposed coffin and throws a knife at the agent But Bond throws the knife back at the man, killing him. Then, the gondola becomes a highspeed launch as Bond and his gondolier are chased through the canals. To top it off, the gondola becomes a hovercraft and moves onto the Piazza San Marco. At this point, there are several shots of incredulous tourists, doing double takes and suspiciously eyeing their drinks; animals squawking; and people falling into the water. The sequence is so dumb that one wonders at what age group the film was really aimed.

  Other unnecessary attempts for laughs include some topical references, such as the door leading to Drax's lab in Venice. It can only be opened by pressing touchtones which play the tune of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Too silly. There's another sequence in which Bond, dressed as a gaucho, rides a horse toward the South American branch of the Secret Service. The music on the soundtrack plays "The Magnificent Seven." This is simply annoying.

  Gilbert does manage to handle the huge sets and hundreds of extras with proficiency, but the film loses any impact it may have had through overindulgence in all this slapstick and buffoonery.

  ACTORS AND CHARACTERS

  After the promising development of his characterization of Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore reverts to a cardboard representation in the new film. But then, the script does not give him much opportunity to show any human qualities. In fact, in Moonraker, James Bond, too, is a cartoon figure, functioning only as the center of all the confusion. It seems that Moore's entire characterization consists of raising one eyebrow.

  Texas actress Lois Chiles was cast as Moore's leading lady, but she isn't Gala Brand, Special Branch agent from Scotland Yard (from the book). In the film, her name is Holly Goodhead (a blatant attempt at copying Pussy Galore), which doesn't fit the character at all. Holly is a CIA agent working undercover as a NASA scientist employed by Drax. She is quite independent, and gives Bond a rather hard time with his seduction ploys. Many times, she comes across as haughty and self-reliant, much like the Gala Brand character in the novel. The name Holly Goodhead conjures up visions of a Plenty O'Toole–type character. At least Miss Chiles has some screen presence, is attractive, and plays her part with a sincere straightforwardness. As written, Holly Goodhead is very similar to the Anya Amasova character in The Spy Who Loved Me: she eventually joins forces, reluctantly, with Bond in order to vanquish the villain.

  Michael Lonsdale portrays Hugo Drax, and the character is quite different from the novel's villain. Drax in the book is a loud, obnoxious braggart Lonsdale portrays Drax as methodical, sardonic, and careful. It works for the most part, and Lonsdale is a definite improvement over Curt Jurgens' Karl Stromberg. Drax in the film is an American billionaire working out of a French châteaulike mansion near Los Angeles. It is he who is responsible for the hijacking of his own Moonraker shuttle at the beginning of the film. The one he was planning to use for his own purposes developed equipment failure. Drax's obligatory speech explaining his dastardly plan is one of the better ones in the series, and it reveals the archetypal megalomania present in all Bond villains. Drax's death in the film is not very original—he is sucked out of an airlock of his own space station. Shades of Goldflnger!

  Richard Kiel returns as Jaws, the indestructible superman. He's working for Hugo Drax now, and always happens to turn up right when one expects him. Attempts to make Jaws a lovable character simply lower the quality of what began as an interesting and formidable minor villain. Blanche Ravalec had the misfortune of being cast as Dolly, the object of Jaws' affection. She's just too cute for words.

  Lovely Corinne Clery portrays the Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb of the film, Corinne Dufour. Corinne works for Drax, but once Bond turns on the charm, she switches her allegiance, of course. Her just reward for doing so is to be fed to Drax's pet Doberman Pinschers. The scene in which this happens could have been brutal and gripping; as photographed, it is lush and soft focused. It simply doesn't work.

  Emily Bolton portrays Manuela, the Secret Service contact in Rio de Janeiro. She is merely another version of Paula from Thunderball, Rosie in Live and Let Die, and Mary Goodnight in The Man With the Golden Gun. Toshiro Suga portrays Chang, Drax's equivalent of Oddjob. Chang is disposed of early in the film during one of the more successful action sequences. Bond encounters Chang in a Venetian glass shop and their subsequent fight smashes every piece of glass in the showroom. (But again, the scene regresses into child's play when Chang is thrown off a balcony and into a grand piano at an outdoor concert.)

  Bernard Lee makes his last appearance as M in Moonraker. Looking quite a bit older than before (Lee was very ill at the time), his scenes contain the usual banter between 007 and his superior. He shares most of his scenes with Minister of Defense Frederick Gray, played by Geoffrey Keen again. One particularly amusing passage occurs when Bond escorts M and Gray to the secret lab Bond has discovered in Venice. Upon arriving at the lab, they find that all of the equipment has been removed; nothing is there except some furniture and Hugo Drax lounging in a chair. Bond, M, and Gray enter the room wearing gas masks (for fear of the virus Drax was developing in his lab), and all look rather silly. Drax comments, "Forgive me gentlemen, but not being English, I don't quite share your unique sense of humor." Q and Miss Moneypenny also have their share of obligatory scenes. Q is featured in a Q Branch sequence in South America, where equipment such as exploding bolos is being developed. No comment.

  Moonraker's stars Richard Kiel (as Jaws), Lois Chiles (as Holly Goodhead), and Roger Moore as 007. (Photo by Michel Ginfray/Gamma-Liaison Agency)

  OTHER ASPECTS

  Ken Adam has designed a multitude of expressionistic and futuristic sets again, most notable of which is the space station interior. Consisting of tubes, circular hallways, and sloping floors, the area resembles an optical illusion. Even though the filmmakers claim that the movie features scientific accuracy, there are problems with the space station. For instance, the gravitational pull would be toward the outer edges of the station, not the horizontal floor as presented in the film.

  Jean Toumier is director of photography for this picture, and has succeeded in capturing beautiful location shots, especially in the mountains overlooking Rio de Janeiro. The locales are one of the few redeeming features of Moonraker.

  Perhaps the most outstanding technical achievement in Moonraker is Derek Meddings' special visual effects. Meddings was nominated for an Academy Award for his work, but was beaten by Alien. Since Moonraker contained several scenes involving space travel, many miniatures were built. These included several space shuttles designed to NASA specifications. The space travel sequences equal the quality of effects that Star Wars and Star Trek—The Motion Picture brought to the screen.

  The gadgets in the film are predictable and tired. Bond is presented with a wrist gun which can be fired with the slightest flick of the hand. It fires poisonous darts. The device is used by Bond to escape the centrifuge machine, and to shoot Drax. Bond also has a gadget on his person that is used to kill a giant python which he is forced to fight at Drax's Brazilian headquarters. It's some kind of poisoned ballpoint pen, which he stabs into the snake's head. We didn't know he had this device, so, as Brosnan notes, it's another example of the Bondian rules being broken. Other gadgets include the souped-up gondola, and a speedboat equipped with the usual Bond arsenal. The latter also has an extractabl
e hang glider, which Bond miraculously engages to escape plunging down a waterfall when his boat goes over. The sequence is reminiscent of the hang glider moment in Live and Let Die, as well as the trick parachute ploy in the pre-credits sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me.

  One of the best things in the film is John Barry's lovely, laid-back score. The main title theme, with lyrics by Hal David and sung by Shirley Bassey, is a haunting melody; it's full of major-seventh chords that give the song an exotic quality. The rest of the score is mellow and evocative of space travel, and Barry has escaped from his usual "science fiction" sound, which he used in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. It is quite easy to dismiss the score of this film because it seems lost in all the shenanigans, but it's certainly Barry's best Bond effort since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Maurice Binder's accompanying title design is, as usual, the most erotic thing in the film.

  Moonraker was extremely successful and broke all of Eon Productions' records. But apparently Broccoli received much criticism from Bond fans, especially in North America. As a result, rumors began flying that the next Bond film would revert to the original, simpler style. Indeed, Moonraker went as far as Broccoli could go with outlandishness. The only direction possible for the Bond films of the eighties was backwards. The science fiction boom of the late seventies was already beginning to wane, and with competition like the Star Wars series, Broccoli realized that the Bond films couldn't contend on a special effects level. Broccoli's ace-in-the-hole was that James Bond is a fascinating character, potentially capable of much more than gracing a special effects action film. This would be proven correct.

  FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981)

  PRODUCTION

  When For Your Eyes Only was released in the summer of 1981, it appeared that the James Bond of the eighties would be more like the Bond of the sixties—certainly a change for-the better. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson steered the production back down to earth to present a James Bond film that concentrates on its characters and plot rather than set pieces. The intention was to make another From Russia With Love or On Her Majesty's Secret Service type of film, both of which are heavily inspired by Fleming's original material.

  Ken Adam and his futuristic sets are gone, and so is the Jaws character. There are not many gadgets in the film. Most of the action takes place outdoors, providing opportunities for underwater and ski photography. The story is based in reality, and there is a good deal of suspense in the film. The characters are the most developed in a long while, and the humor is kept to a sophisticated, subtle level. And the picture contains one of the best collections of stunts and action scenes in the series. As a result, For Your Eyes Only, save for an out-of-place and disappointing pre-credits sequence, is the best Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. As a mailer of fact, the new film is similar in mood and texture to the former. This is perhaps due to the work of new director John Glen. Glen, you will recall, was second unit director/editor for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker. It was he who supervised the thrilling ski and bobsled sequences from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the opening ski chase in Spy. There are similar exciting ski scenes in For Your Eyes Only.

  The film is beautiful to look at, and is another globetrotter incorporating new territory: Corfu, Cortina d'Ampezzo in Northern Italy, the Bahamas, the Meteora mountains in central Greece, and Pinewood Studios in England. One scene was shot in a six-hundred-year-old Byzantine monastery high atop a slender mountain near the village of Kalambaka in Greece. Permission was granted Broccoli to film on the site by the abbot, but there were a couple of monks who severely protested. The monks did everything they could to ruin shots, such as hang their laundry outdoors to mar the scenes. But the shots were finally finished and this sequence is one of the film's most impressive.

  Public reaction to For Your Eyes Only was good. Though it didn't rival Moonraker in terms of ticket sales, the film did phenomenal business. And it was much less expensive, with a budget of under twenty million dollars. The gamble paid off. Bond was just as successful as before.

  SCREENPLAY

  Veteran Richard Maibaum was hired again to pen the screenplay to Eyes Only, with the help of Michael G. Wilson. The inspiration for the script came from two Fleming short stories that appeared in the 1960 anthology, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. And for the first time in quite a while, a Bond film is more or less faithful to the Fleming originals.

  The title story of the collection provided Maibaum and Wilson with the heroine, Judy Havelock, who seeks revenge for the murder of her parents. James Bond encounters her in the woods surrounding the villain's hideout and joins forces with her. In the film, her name is Melina Havelock, and her assassination of the killer is taken almost verbatim from the story (but it's in a different context). The main plot of the film comes from the story, "Risico," which involves the rivalry between two Italian smugglers: Kristatos and Colombo. The film shifts the locale from Italy to Greece, and changes the spelling of the latter smuggler to Columbo. The script writers linked the two stories together by means of another Bondian MacGuffin: a typewriterlike computer known as the ATAC system, which can be used to override manual controls on Polaris submarines. At the beginning of the film, a British surveillance ship carrying an ATAC device is sunk off the Albanian coast. Both the British and the Russians want the ATAC, and they send their best men to retrieve it. The Havelock girl becomes involved because her parents, who are British undercover agents working in Greece, are assassinated after Mr. Havelock locates the sunken ship. The assassin is a man named Gonzales and is employed by Kristatos, the true villain of the film. Kristatos is a freelancer working for the Russians to retrieve the ATAC. Columbo becomes a Bond ally to seek revenge on Kristatos, an old rival from the war. This strong theme of revenge provides a unity to the film which the last several Bonds have lacked. The story is played straight. There are moments of humor, but they do not regress into slapstick.

  The pre-credits sequence is the film's only problem, and it doesn't relate to the rest of the picture at all. The scene opens with Bond visiting his wife Tracy's grave in a small church cemetery. A helicopter from Universal Export arrives to fetch him, but it has been sabotaged. Once the copter is in the air, the pilot is electrocuted in his seat and the controls are operated by an unseen force. A voice on a speaker in the cockpit informs "Mr. Bond" that there is nothing he can do to save himself. Then we see who the culprit is. On a rooftop is a wheelchair containing a bald-headed man holding a white cat. The camera never reveals his face, but it appears to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld (along the lines of Donald Pleasence or Telly Savalas). He is sitting in front of some kind of control panel, maneuvering the helicopter with a joystick. We are then treated to some outstanding flight stunts with the copter, as it weaves in and out of the chimneys and smokestacks of the Becton Gasworks in London's East End. Bond eventually crawls out of the back seat of the copter onto the outside of the craft. He clambers into the cockpit and tosses the dead pilot from the vehicle. He finally locates and pulls the power cable responsible for the dirty work. Blofeld loses control of the aircraft. It is here that the only instance of silliness appears in the film. Bond flies the copter down to Blofeld and scoops up his wheelchair with the landing strut of the craft. There is some clumsy makeup here, because it's obvious that the stuntman in the wheelchair is wearing a rubber bald cap. Bond then proceeds to drop the wheelchair, Blofeld and all, down a smokestack.

  First, the sequence makes no sense because it isn't revealed whether or not this villain is actually Blofeld. We don't know why he's tampering with the copter, or why he's in the wheelchair. We could assume that it's Blofeld (we're certainly meant to) and that he's in the wheelchair because he was hurt at the end of Diamonds Are Forever. Second, after the breathtaking helicopter stunts, the sequence is marred by the unbelievable scooping up of the wheelchair. One explanation for the sequence could be that it is a nightmare of Bond's. He has just been visiting his wife's grave—perhaps the memory
of Blofeld is haunting him, and the entire incident with the copter is in Bond's imagination. But if this is the case, Bond should "awaken" from his nightmare at the end of the sequence—which would have worked well, silliness and all.

  But after this disappointing pre-credits sequence, the remainder of the film is top-notch.

  There is one particular scene in the film which is lifted almost directly from "Risico." In the short story, Bond meets Kristatos at a restaurant and observes Colombo at another table with Lisl Baum. But Colombo is recording their conversation by means of a machine planted in an extra chair at their table. In the film, the tape recorder is in the table candle rather than the chair, and Lisl Baum has become Contessa Lisl. But the dramatic action of the scene is the same, and it's one of the best sequences in the film. At this point, we do not yet know that it is Kristatos who is the villain and Columbo who is friendly. (Actually, Bond is suspicious of both.) It is a perfect onscreen example of a Fleming situation. Also lifted directly from the short story is the subsequent conversation aboard Columbo's fishing vessel in which the truth about Kristatos is explained to Bond. Columbo gains Bond's trust by returning Bond's Walther PPK which was taken from him earlier.