Bond Trivia #5: The Toys

Exploding pens, submarine cars and laser watches... James Bond always get the most outrageous gadgets for his missions and somehow uses them at the perfect moment. Remember what his first ever toy was?

Peter Burton as the armourer giving Bond his new gun.

"Walther PPK. 7.65 mm, with a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window. Takes a Brausch silencer with very little reduction in muzzle velocity. The American CIA swear by them." quote Dr No.

In 1962's Dr No, there was no Q, or at least not the quintessential quartermaster we expect. Peter Burton played an unnamed armourer who replaces Bond's old Beretta with a Walther PPK, his first ever gadget on screen. He was then replaced by actor Desmond Llewelyn in From Russia with Love. The late Desmond Llewelyn played Q, or Major Geoffrey Boothroyd for 17 films across 36 years and made the role iconic despite only appearing for a few minutes in each film. This makes him the only character to appear with Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan. His character was always credited as Q without an actual name. It was only until The Spy Who Loved Me that the Major Armasova refers to him as Major Boothroyd when he introduces the awesome Lotus Esprit submarine car.

It's always nice seeing him with all those toys for 36 years.

There were so many awesome gadgets that were classic even until today. I remember seeing the Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger thinking it was old and sloppy, until the machine guns popped out of the sides of the number plate when it became like a little tank. Then there was the jet pack from Thunderball and Little Nellie from You Only Live Twice, both cool toys that were probably every kid's dream toys in the 60s. I mentioned earlier about the Lotus Espirit from The Spy Who Loved Me that had rockets shooting from its boot and can fend of helicopters even when submerged. But my personal favourite was the BMW from Tomorrow Never Dies which can be controlled remotely with an Ericsson phone.

I don't know whether actual spies have gadgets like these, but they are fantastic!

Do you have a Bond gadget you always wanted from the old Bond movies, not forgetting the awesome cars from the new ones?

lalanandaFRY
9/11/13

Bond Trivia #4: The Alphabet Boss

There are always 2 main alphabets used as names in the James Bond series, M and Q. Everyone knows Q stands for quartermaster, but

What is M short for?

When Ian Fleming wrote the character M, he had several people in mind. The most widely known inspiration was his superior officer during World War 2, Admiral John Godfrey, who was a serious, efficient, no-nonsense authority figure. But what most people do not know is that Ian Fleming used to call to his own mother as M when he was young. His mother was very strict and was certainly a person he was frightened of.

Admiral John Henry Godfrey, Fleming's own M.

Along with Q and Ms Moneypenny, M is the character who was portrayed in almost every film adaptation of James Bond, with exception of For Your Eyes Only. The character was played by 4 different actors in the Eon series although it was not mentioned whether all 4 were playing the same character or if M was just a position held by 4 different people.

1. Vice Admiral Sir Miles Messervy (Dr No - Moonraker)

M in Dr No (above) and Moonraker (below) 17 years apart.

In 11 films over the span of 17 years, the role of M was played by the late Bernard Lee. He was often described as a strong leader who thinks highly of Bond but maintains his authority at all times, very similar to Fleming's intended character in the novels. He even starred in the Italian parody of James Bond called O.K. Connery starring Sean Connery's brother, Neil Connery as the title character in 1967 and another French parody called Bons Baisers de Hong Kong (From Hong Kong With Love) in 1975.

Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell portrayed their roles in these parodies

In 1981 when For Your Eyes Only had just started filming, Bernard Lee died from stomach cancer before he could film any scenes for his role. His character of M was not replaced by another actor immediately out of respect for the actor. Instead his role was divided by MI6 chief of staff Bill Tanner and Minister of Defense Sir Fredrick Gray while his character was on leave.

His portrait was in M's office in The World is Not Enough.

2. Rear Admiral Hargreaves (Octopussy - License to Kill)

Robert Brown in Octopussy.

Actor Robert Brown replaced Bernard Lee's role as M in Octopussy (1983) and played the character for a total of 4 Bond movies over 6 years. Before playing M, he played another small character in The Spy Who Loved Me, leading to fans speculating that that character was reassigned. His M was not actually named in the film series and Rear Admiral Hargreaves was actually the name of his previous role. Robert Brown's M was slightly different and many consider him to be more lenient with Bond than his previous counterpart, with exception of revoking Bond's license in License to Kill.

Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me

3. Olivia Mansfield (Goldeneye - Skyfall)

M in Goldeneye (above) and Skyfall (below) 17 years apart.

Bond had a 6 year hiatus after License to Kill and it was time for a radical change. The world has changed after the end of the Cold war and Bond had to start fresh with Goldeneye. Experienced actress Dame Judi Dench played the role of the first female M, who was modeled after the real life head of MI5 Stella Rimington at that time.

*Spoiler Alert* M dies at the end of the film, passing the torch to the next actor.

She starred in 8 Bond films and was the only actor to cross over from the "Brosnan era" to the reboot in 2006's Casino Royale. Among all the actors portraying this role, she has probably the most screen time and the most character development. From the start she was cold and strong towards Bond, at some point even seems like she really dislikes Bond. But her relationship with Bond evolved especially in The World is not Enough where she was kidnapped and in Skyfall for which her character drove the movie more than Bond's motivation.

Gareth Mallory in the final scene of Skyfall as M

Skyfall is the first official Bond film with 2 Ms which provided extensive character development for the previous M and additional character development for the new M, Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in preparation for the next film. Who knows what will we get with this new M?

So what does M stand for? Is it a designation for the chief of MI6? Or is it an abbreviation for their last names (Messervy, Mansfield, Mallory)? Probably only Ian Fleming knows the answer.

lalanandaFRY
22/9/13

Bond Trivia #3 Bond Girlfriend

Women can be said to be one of highlights of Bond films. Every time a Bond film is announced, they will be the first thing people would ask about. So what is so special about Bond 'girls'? Furthermore, have you ever heard of the

Bond Girlfriend?

The very first Bond girl to appear on screen together with Sir Sean Connery in Dr No was a lesser known actress Eunice Grayson who played the role of Sylvia Trench. Not many people remember her because she was overshadowed by the main Bond girl Ursula Andress playing the classic Honey Ryder. You might remember Sylvia Trench in the famous scene where she asked Bond for his name when he first uttered his signature "Bond, James Bond".

Her role in the movie was very small but somehow significant enough that the writers of the sequel From Russia With Love included her character in another small sequence at the beginning of the film. It was said that they planned for herto be Bond's long term girlfriend, obviously it did not happen. This also makes her the only Bond girl to appear in two consecutive movie as the same character. Her scene in From Russia With Love put both of them at a romantic date that was interrupted by a message from MI6/

Speaking of Bond girls, there were many of them who were just eye candy while others actually changed Bond's life. For example, Teresa Draco from On Her Majesty's Secret Service who falls in love with Bond and ends up marrying him but unfortunately was killed by Blofeld, thus shaping the motivation for the following movie Diamonds Are Forever when Bond gets his revenge. Her death was referenced many times throughout the series until Bond finally killed Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only. This was one of the significant plot points that was brought through 3 Bond actors, Lazenby, Connery and Moore, proving that all 3 actors were playing the same character and James Bond was not a mere code name.

lalanandaFRY
8/9/2013

Bond Trivia #2 Battle of The Bonds

Have you heard of the term

Battle of the Bonds?

If not, here is the story. Imagine a time when Roger Moore was set to retire as James Bond after filming For Your Eyes Only. It was 1981 and the Bond series producers were looking all over the world for a suitable replacement who could live up to the legacy. Then came a man named Kevin McClory, an Irish screenwriter who was no stranger to James Bond since his involvement with Thunderball, both the book and the movie.

McClory (right) and Albert Broccoli (left) at premiere of Thunderball.

There were disputes between him and Ian Fleming that were long and complicated, I won't discuss it here. In essence, McClory and Broccoli-Saltzman settled out of court, leaving McClory with the rights to Thunderball and getting credited as the producer of the 1965 film while Broccoli-Saltzman could continue making tonnes of Bond films. Another important clause was that he was not allowed to use the rights to the movie between 1963 and 1973. Is this boring? I'll get to the good part now...

In 1983, McClory planned to release a movie based on his Thunderball story, named Never Say Never Again, to go against Eon production's long running Bond series when Roger Moore was rumoured to retire the role. Sean Connery was cast as James Bond 12 years after he last played Bond in Diamonds Are Forever and it got many speculating who would be Eon's contender in the battle of Bonds. Many actors auditioned for the role of the new James Bond then including James Brolin and future Bond Timothy Dalton. However Eon decided to give the role back to Moore as a safe bet.

Sean Connery (52) and Roger Moore (55) in 1983.

At that point, both actors were in their 50s and it was quite a stretch to have suave secret agents at that age still able to pick up young beautiful women and hop around dodging bullets like they used to in early Bond movies. In Never Say Never Again, Connery's Bond included several hints of his age and some struggles when going against opponents much younger than he. In Octopussy, Moore's Bond gets affiliated with a middle aged Bond "woman" instead of the usual young Bond girls, exhibiting maturity and growth to the character. But as usual both films follow the standard Bond blueprint: the hero defeats the villain's evil plans and gets the beautiful girl/woman through elaborate actions scenes.

In the end, Octopussy performed slightly better than Never Say Never Again in the box office, though critics preferred the latter due to great casting of the villain Maximillian Largo played by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Speaking of casting, there was even a very familiar comedian who had a minor role in Never Say Never Again before he became an icon... I wonder if you would recognize him with the long wavy hair!

It was definitely facinating to see 2 films about the same character played by 2 established actors released months aparts, more so for an iconic film series like James Bond.

**Another trivia: Never Say Never Again was directed by Irvin Kershner, mentor of George Lucas and director of Empire Strikes Back.

lalanandaFRY
29/6/13

Bond Trivia #1 The First Bond

For the last few days, I have been busy with my research work at home. My enthusiasm with work is plunging as I review countless sheets of paper filled with numbers and gibberish. The only thing that got me going was my Bond soundtrack playlist playing from my computer. Now I am taking a short rest from my paper work to express my love for my favourite franchise of all time, 007 James Bond legacy.

Let's start with a trivia that will win you drinks in a bar, or at least that was what I heard.

Who was the first actor to play James Bond?

As most of you may know, there were a total of 25 James Bond movies, 23 produced by Eon Productions and 2 non-Eon. The most famous "first" James Bond is obviously Sir Sean Connery who starred in 7 Bond films between 1962-1983. But was he the first actor to play James Bond? Apparently not... In 1954, there was a CBS television series called Climax! that acquired the rights to Ian Fleming's first book Casino Royale. They made it into a one hour episode titled "Card Sense" and starred Barry Nelson as Jimmy Bond.

The episode followed the book very loosely and reversed the role of James Bond and Felix Leiter, Bond being the American "Combined Intelligence" agent and Felix "Clarence" Leiter being the British agent. So he is one of the two non-British actors to play James Bond, the other being George Lazenby.

The actor playing Jimmy Bond, Barry Nelson is no stranger to American television. However he was better known for his works on broadway. Another thing to note about this episode was that at the point of airing, Casino Royale was the only Bond novel in existence. Ian Fleming went on to write 13 more novels and expended the character and world of James Bond until his demise in 1964. Who could have predicted that a television adaptation of a mere British spy novel in 1954 would become an artifact of a legacy that is still going strong.

There will be another Bond trivia coming soon...

lalanandaFRY

22/6/13