Great Movies Revisited - James Bond #4: Thunderball (1965)

SPECTRE returns in grand style in this movie, with the dastardly plan of stealing a couple of nukes in a bid to hold the world to ransom. Less than 20 years after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, such a premise would have held audiences deeply in its thrall.

Following from Goldfinger was a tall order, but as we’re whisked from English health spas to yachts cruising in the Bahamas we’re soon sucked into another Bond classic. As I mentioned in my review of Dr. No, Thunderball was originally going to be the first Bond movie, but producers had to deal with copyright issues so they changed their minds. Would James Bond history be different if Thunderball had been first in 1962?

Known for its lengthy underwater scenes, which many have criticised for being too long, Thunderball offers us plenty of lethal spearguns and underwater battles, not to mention the spectacle of Sean Connery flying a jet pack. This surely pushes the bounds of realism ever so slightly, but I’m all for that and think Daniel Craig in a jet pack might have helped both Skyfall and Spectre, but that’s another story for another day.

After attending a funeral in France, Bond ends up chasing Emilio Largo and his eye-patch around the Bahamas before getting kidnapped, escaping, and then working with US Navy SEALS to bring Largo down. But Largo is having none of it, and makes a break for it on his ship, the Disco Volante. Of course, Bond eventually gets on top and ends the plan to annihilate Miami... and all's well in the end.

Nice co-starring roles from a BSA motorbike and of course the Aston DB5 also add some class and excitement to what is still, even after all these years, a good fun film.

 

My rating: 8/10

 

 

 

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Great Movies Revisited - James Bond #3: Goldfinger (1964)

Now you’re talking. With Goldfinger we finally hit my favourite Connery Bond film – this movie is a lifelong favourite of mine so let’s get stuck in!

When Goldfinger hit the silver screen in 1964 it guaranteed the longevity of the Bond franchise and the success of the two earlier films bled through into the execution of what a serious number of fans regard as the best ever Bond film.

First thing I noticed when I rewatched this recently was how plush it looks on the screen, even after all these years. The 1964 setting brings a style to the picture that shows like Mad Men want to reproduce, but Goldfinger is the real thing, not nostalgia.

 

 

The setpieces are excellent too – the woman sprayed in gold (above), the chase between the Aston and the Mustang in the Swiss mountains’ Furka Pass and who could forget the laser-beam scene: “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!” In fact the film has many memorable lines including some great puns, innuendo and one liners – “positively shocking” and “I can’t - something big’s come up,” etc. which are so important to the series. The final act’s assault on Fort Knox is also some fantastic cinema.

The fight action is also good. Somehow fight scenes are more realistic when they just film the actors (or stuntmen) going for it mano a mano – the arrival of the super fast-cuts in movies like Jason Bourne are effective but somehow not real. Not surprising when you realise that people just can’t move that fast.

It’s a testament to the brilliant work of the set designers that much of these Bond films is shot in Pinewood, because the viewer would never really know it and is instead transported all over the world. Still an impressive feature of the Bond films today, back in 1964 before the era of cheap flights and the internet, these films gave people a fantasy-tour of exotic locales they would never normally see. This is especially true during the establishing shots where we see Miami but also later Fort Knox.

The simplicity of the plot (a gold-smuggling tale), the fantastic performances and two of the most memorable Bond villains – Auric Goldfinger and his loyal henchman Oddjob – all mesh together to make this an almost flawless thriller of pure escapism. Throw in a bowler hat with a hidden chakram in the rim that when thrown like a frisbee decapitates its victims and John Barry’s outstanding score and you have a solid-gold winner. Watch it right now and tell me if I’m wrong!

My rating: 9/10

 

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Great Detectives Revisited: #1 Columbo

A good part of any action-adventure thriller is mystery. There is always a mystery at the heart of the story, usually but not always centred on what the villain is up to, and mystery novels have always played a big part in my life, as have some of the many excellent TV adaptations. In fact, one of the first novels I ever wrote was a crime mystery novel, and I have several outlines for crime novels in the vault which I'm hoping to get to at some point, but... only time will tell.

So, on the subject of crime novels/TV shows – and inspired by my James Bond reviews – I thought it might be fun to dust off the magnifying glass and take a closer look at some of the great detectives and their finest cases. I’ll also be swinging by some of the TV adaptations as well.

This list isn’t in any particular order, so I’m not saying Columbo is the #1 greatest, but simply kicking off with him because I just finished watching Troubled Waters (1975) with Robert Vaughn and Dean Stockwell and then followed this up with Robert Culp’s excellent performance in The Most Crucial Game (1972).

And I’ll start with the point that unlike many other TV detectives, Columbo only ever existed on the small screen and never on the page, but he’s no weaker for that and in my mind ranks as one of the greatest TV detectives for many reasons – so let’s get to it.

First – the format. Columbo differs markedly from other TV crime shows in the way it shows the viewer not only who the killer is but also exactly how he or she dispatched the victim. This is a great spin on what was already a tired format by the late 60s and really makes for compulsive viewing as we watch how Columbo will work it all out and snare the villain. Later, crime writers would deal with the tired format problem simply by making their stories increasingly violent and bleak, but that’s another blog post I’m putting together and not for today.

Columbo was back when crimes could still be “cozy” and taken seriously at the same time, and many of his cases dealt with some serious issues. Same goes for Agatha Christie. While we all remember her stories as being about vicars using teapots to murder people on the croquet lawn, many of her books dealt with some pretty racy subjects, especially for back in the days when she was publishing, including drug addiction, smuggling and serial killers.

For me, the charm of Columbo is not just delivered by Peter Falk’s charisma, but by the direction of the episodes, the faded colours of the old film and the lower population of LA – check out the traffic! Last time I had to drive in LA it was seriously hectic, but things were a little different back in 68 when Columbo was pootling around in his delapidated Peugeot 403. This is part of the appeal of these great old films.

And the locations in these films are amazing – great shots of the city from the hills and some amazing modernist properties such as the Stahl House (below) used in the Columbo Pilot Prescription Murder and also the beautiful shots of the pool filmed in Bel Air for The Most Crucial Game when Dean Stockwell gets knocked off with a block of ice.

 

Another element that we have to talk about is the great cast these short films featured – Robert Culp, Patrick McGoohan, Donald Pleasence, Eddie Albert, Jackie Cooper, Ray Milland, Leonard Nimoy, Jack Cassidy, Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Martin Landau, Robert Vaughn, Johnny Cash... I mean, come on! What crime show today can pull names like these?

It must be said they did drop in quality a little when they returned in the late 80s but even here you can find some gems like Columbo Cries Wolf (1990) and Columbo Goes to the Guillotine (1989). However, if you want the real classics go early, to the first 7 series. You won’t be disappointed and if you like your crime somewhere just north of cozy with an original format and an outstanding cast, then grab some of these Columbos – boxed sets or even on Netflix in some regions.

My favourite episodes? Easy – Murder by the Book, Now You See Him, Negative Reaction, Double Exposure, Any Old Port in a Storm... the list goes on...

Oh – and just more thing... several actors have played Frank Columbo, including Bert Freed (Shane, Hang ‘Em High) and Thomas Mitchell (Gone with the Wind), but the TV series role was originally offered to Bing Crosby who turned it down so he could spend more time on the golf course...

 

 

 

 

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Great Movies Revisited - James Bond #2: From Russia With Love (1963)

As part of my James Bond review series I’m looking at Sean Connery’s second outing today, and From Russia With Love is rightly considered another of the untouchable classics of the franchise. It’s here that the Bond we all know and love really starts to take shape thanks firstly to a more confident Connery but also more action scenes.

From chess championships in Venice to SPECTRE Island to the Basilica Cistern beneath Istanbul (long before Robert Langdon got there) this film doesn’t disappoint and the plot is driven by expertly-drawn baddies Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen as they try and lay their hands on a decoding device while reporting to Blofeld and his famous cat. It is here that chess grandmaster Tov Kronsteen announces to Blofeld that his plan is foolproof and there will be no failure. Oh dear.         

One thing I always end up asking in these movies is – just who the hell would work for a man like Blofeld? This is someone whose idea of offering an employee early retirement is pulling a lever and dropping them into a shark tank/alligator pit, etc. Do staff members not talk in the SPECTRE canteen about all their missing colleagues?

The dialogue in the film is snappy and tight and this movie is in many respects the real springboard for the rest of the series. For this reason, many people rate this as the best Bond, and in some ways that’s hard to argue with, but it depends on what you’re measuring. For me this is at the top, but not the best. In fact I think my favourite Bond film(s) are going to be quite controversial choices...

Something of interest to me in this film is that the Baddies (with a capital B) are not motivated by the usual world-destroying megalomania, but instead desire a simple decoding device, as mentioned above. Giving a villain his motivation is an integral part of stories like this and cranking it down a notch from total world-domination is a brave decision – almost as brave as eating in the SPECTRE canteen.

A gripping fight scene on a moving train leaving Zagreb and Bond being hunted through the mountains by a Hiller UH-12 helicopter, not to mention more great gags and innuendo plus the inimitable Blofeld and his Siamese fighting fish – come on!! This is great stuff and a timeless classic that you should watch tonight!

My rating: 9/10

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Vault of Poseidon Anniversary and Word Cloud

I can hardly believe it, but The Vault of Poseidon was published a year ago this week! I made this word cloud to celebrate the anniversary, and if you like it you can do the same right here http://www.wordclouds.com/

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Great Movies Revisited - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

While we’re on the subject of brilliant movies, let’s talk about one of the greatest of them all – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and see if we can get to the end without asking why no one can make films like this anymore.

This was a formative movie for so many, and captivated people right from the outstanding opening sequence starring Harrison Ford, Alfred Molina and, of course, Paul Freeman and his truly great villain-archaeologist René Belloq. Who could forget the pacing and atmosphere as Indy takes the golden Inca idol but then must flee the Peruvian temple with the now legendary rolling boulder chasing after him? Or the moment the fantastic WACO biplane lifts off out of the water just in time to save the hero from the tribe’s poison darts? This was real adventure fiction – almost a kind of pulp fiction - presented in homage to the classic serial films of the pre-war era and it’s done with real style, much like the excellent original theatrical release poster by Richard Amsel (above).

 

This movie was made when screenwriters still had a sense of humour and knew how to use it. They felt that putting some real laughs into the film didn’t detract from the serious parts of it, and they were right. Slowing a film down and putting some gags in it makes the faster bits faster and the darker bits darker. This is something we see far too little of now, especially in thrillers.

I find it hard to criticise this film, and it’s weird how this movie was made with a nostalgic eye on the movie-making and entertainment of the 1930s, and yet now it’s possible to watch it with a nostalgic eye on the movie-making and entertainment of the 1980s. Raiders perfectly blends adventure, romance, humour, villainy, amazing locations, and even throws in a supernatural lightning storm that kills Nazis. I mean, come on.

And on that last bit, something else this film does really well is incorporate that supernatural storyline into what is other than that a standard adventure thriller, and this is not an easy thing to do. Where to draw the line is a hard thing to know, and this came up a bit when the ‘alien thing’ happened in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In the 2008 revisit to Indy’s world, the film wraps up with the now notorious ‘alien thing’ which many people felt wasn’t coherent with the universe of Indiana Jones which had spent three previous (excellent) films and 27 years drawing the line at religious mysticism and the supernatural.

But Raiders was a deserved hit and box office smash, winning Spielberg the Saturn Award for Best Director, and scooping several Academy Awards as well. Not only that but it was followed up by two more great films – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and the outstanding Indana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). I’ll go into these in more detail, and Crystal Skull, later.

I’m not rating this film – I’ll leave that for my reviews of the Bond films – but let’s just say it’s a masterpiece of adventure thriller pacing and makes great use of some amazing locations as well. The only question I have is why no one can make films like this anymore...

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James Bond Revisited #1 Dr No

It’s no surprise that I’m a lifelong fan of James Bond, both the original novels by Ian Fleming, and the film productions which have entertained countless millions of people since way back in 1962. Like any long-running series, the James Bond films divide the fans, and so I’ll say up-front that all these reviews are are just my personal opinions of the films and I know many will disagree with what I’m sure will be seen as some controversial decisions! I’ll add as a chaser to that shot that for me the reasons the films have had such successful longevity is because of the way they have so deftly weaved humour into the action-thriller element.

I’ll also add that these reviews are of the films not the novels, and there are many important differences. While some of these may come up, I want to focus on the movies. I’ll give them a rating out of 10 and at the end sort that into a definitive rank! Finally, these reviews are not about trivia and won’t contain spoilers (well, maybe a couple...). They’re just my impressions of the movies and how they influenced me as a writer, so this is a list of my personal favourite Bond films, and why.

So without further ado, we’re going to start in the logical place, which is the first James Bond movie ever made – Dr. No (1962).

Even looking back over the incredible 54 years since Dr. No first hit the screens in 1962, the film still doesn’t disappoint and has aged extremely well. Often with franchises as massive as Bond it’s almost blasphemous to criticise the series-starter (same goes for bands and their first albums) but we don’t have to go there with Dr. No because the film delivers (nearly) everything you want from the genre.

The original novel was Fleming’s sixth in the series, and producers originally wanted to make Thunderball as the first movie, but a legal dispute had tied things up so Dr. No was chosen instead. Considering some of the iconic moments in the film, perhaps this was fate intervening.

The plot starts with the traditional ‘call to adventure’, in this case Bond being briefed by M to investigate the disappearance of an MI6 asset in Jamaica. After a series of twists and turns Bond hooks up with the CIA’s Felix Leiter and later on the now legendary Honey Ryder and they find their way to Crab Key, an island owned by Dr. No, and there the final act unfolds. (Hmm – secret island bases... what a good idea - someone should tell Joe Hawke ;)

No one had played Bond before, so Sean Connery had the advantage of being able to shape him the way he wanted and be compared only to the original literary character. Such was Connery’s commanding performance of the role that subsequent Bonds are measured up against him, and rarely the original character created by Fleming.

Being the first outing, the gadgets made so notorious in later films are missing here, and instead our hero must save the world with nothing more a Walther PPK and his wits. Later films would give Bond flame-throwing aerosol cans, wheelchair missiles and even x-ray vision (in fact the gadgets started to get ridiculous – but that’s a later review), but when Connery is attacked by a tarantula in Dr. No he must improvise and bash it to death with the heel of a quality slip-on loafer. Presumably SIS issue, of course.

Joseph Wiseman also leads the way for countless international villains in his icy depiction of Julius No, pulling off the Nehru jacket and metal hand with grim poise. Also, the stunning cinematography which brings Jamaica to life on the screen deserves a mention, as does Terence Young’s measured but classy direction.

Many argue that Dr No is more a mystery, or whodunnit than a straight-forward action-adventure thriller and looking back they make a good point. But it was 1962, and they were establishing a character and a franchise. An endless series of explosive set-pieces wouldn’t have allowed for this important groundwork. Also we have to remember the more conservative time – the Vatican condemned the film when it was released – anything raunchier or more violent might have ended up on the cutting room floor. Another consideration is the high cost of producing action movies, but luckily writers can make set-pieces as explosive as they like without destroying expensive sets, as my readers will know...

For me what’s so important about Dr. No is that it lays out a solid path for the escapist action-adventure thriller genre but importantly includes humour as a part of the package. I want to talk more about the role of humour in this genre (and the increasing lack of it) but that’s me wrapping up for now.

My rating: 9/10

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