Vintage James Bond - 007 novel car scenes

1. "Dr No" 1962 - the hearse plummeting over a Jamaican cliff. Bond makes some sardonic comment (the first of many in the series) like "They were on their way to a funeral."
2. Bond pulls up outside Government House, Kingston in a Pontiac convertible, a slumped (body in front seat). He turns to the sergeant with the throwaway line: "Make sure he doesn't get away."
3. "Goldfinger" 1964 - Bond tailing Goldfinger (in the 30's Rolls Royce) through the Swiss alps (the 60's version of sat nav.).
4. The DB-5 making short work of Goldfinger's Korean henchmen. I never tire of the ejector seat.
5. In a Kentucky scrapyard, Oddjob's Lincoln Continental being compacted into a nifty cuboid.
6. "You Only Live Twice" 1967 - A baddie-packed Toyota Crown being picked up by a helicopter with an electro-magnet, then dropped into Tokyo Bay.
7.  "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) Tracy (GoT's gran Diana Rigg) gatecrashes (literally) an alpine stock car race to escape Blofeld's henchmen. Bond, gobsmacked, is in the passenger seat (for once).

10 cool things from 60's movies

• Ken Adam's war room set in "Dr Strangelove"
• Derek Flint's ring tone/ Z.O.W.I.E. chief Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hotline to the President.
• The black armchairs in the Pentagon in "You Only Live Twice" (Ken Adam again)
• Use of split screens (circa 1968, e.g. "The Thomas Crown Affair", "The Boston Strangler")
• Saul Bass credits e.g. "Spartacus", "Walk on the Wildside"
• The interior of Robert Mitchum's private jet in "What A Way To Go!"(1964)
• Michael Caine's glasses in the Harry Palmer films
• The multi-level set in Jerry Lewis's "The Ladies Man" (1961)
• The first 10 minutes of "Goldfinger" (1964)
• Dr No's underwater living quarters (complete with recently stolen Goya painting)

11 things you might not know about the James Bond films

• In "Dr No" Ursula Andress's voice was dubbed by Monica Vander Zyl because her Swiss accent was unacceptable. The casting director said she sounded like "a Dutch comedian".
• Noel Coward (Ian Fleming's Jamaican neighbour) was offered the role of Dr No. Coward's telegram read: "Dr No. No, no, no."
• In "Goldfinger" Gert Frobe's voice was dubbed by Michael Collins. Frobe knew little English. 
• Both he and Sean Connery were golf novices. Connery developed the love for the game during filming.
• In 1962, Ian Fleming's wife, Ann was having an affair with the then leader of the U.K. Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskell.
• Pussy Galore was nearly changed to Kitty Galore for the U.S. censors.
• "Diamonds are Forever" owes its plot about a kidnapped Las Vegas billionaire (Willard Whyte) to a dream producer Cubby Broccoli had about his friend, recluse Howard Hughes.
• Christopher Lee (Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun") was a cousin of Ian Fleming.
• Aston Martin was saved from near bankruptcy in 1964. Sales nearly doubled after the release of "Goldfinger". Thanks goes to Sir Ken Adam (the brilliant production designer) who plugged for Aston Martin instead of Lotus.
• The "Moonraker" title song was offered to Frank Sinatra, then Kate Bush before Shirley Bassey.
• "A View to a Kill" villain Max Zoran - David Bowie, then Sting were considered before Christopher Walken was cast.

I'm reading a great book about the James Bond franchise. The above trivia is from this book. With thanks:

"The Man with the Golden Touch" (2008) by Sinclair McKay

1964 - a good year for films

From a baby boomer's perspective, 1964 had some outstanding (English speaking) movie releases.
Here's my top 10 (in no special order, last 4 are strictly guilty pleasure flicks):

• "My Fair Lady"
• "Fail Safe"
• "Seven Days In May"
• "Goldfinger"
• "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
• "The Pawnbroker"
• "Marnie"
• "The Fall of the Roman Empire"
• "The Carpetbaggers"
• "What a Way to Go!"

50 movies that shaped the baby boomer generation - from "A Summer Place" to "Summer of '42"

I was born in 1956. Baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964 according to U.S. Census definition. Most of the films listed are Hollywood produced. During this period, movies reflected changing mores and social change.

This film listing is from 1959 to 1972

My coding is as follows:

B = Big Box Office popularity
G = Ground breaking movies, taboos broken - sex/violence/language on the screen
A = Art house, new trends, political/social comments


1959 "A Summer Place" G
"Some Like It Hot" B, G
"Pillow Talk" B
"Imitation of Life" B
"North By Northwest" B

1960 "Psycho" G
"The Magnificent Seven" B
"The Apartment" G
"Spartacus" B

1961 "West Side Story" G, B
"La Dolce Vita" A, G

1962 "The Manchurian Candidate" G
"Lolita" G
 "To Kill A Mockingbird" G
"Lawrence of Arabia" B

1963"The Great Escape" B
"Tom Jones" G
"Dr No" B
"8 1/2" A

1964 "Dr Strangelove, Or: How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" A
"A Hard Day's Night" G, B
"Goldfinger" B

1965 "For a Few Dollars More" G
1966 "A Man and a Woman" A

1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" G, A
"The Graduate" G, B
"Blow Up" G, A
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" G
"In the Heat of the Night" G

1968 "Bullitt" G
"Rosemary's Baby" G
"Planet of the Apes" G
"2001: A Space Odyssey" G, A
"Midnight Cowboy" G
"The Producers" G
"Night of the Living Dead" G

1969 "The Wild Bunch" G
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" B
"Easy Rider" G
"Alice's Restaurant" A, G

1970 "Woodstock" G
"M*A*S*H"  G, B
"Five Easy Pieces" A

1971 "Dirty Harry" G
"The French Connection" G, B
"Shaft" G
"A Clockwork Orange" G, A
"The Last Picture Show" G
"Summer of '42"  B

1972 "The Godfather" B, G

Ian Fleming's James Bond novels - my 'awards'

The novels that most resembles the Bond movie: Dr No (1958), From Russia with Love (1957), Goldfinger (1959)
Weirdest novel: You Only Live Twice (1964) A depressed Bond wandering around nutbag Blofeld's (Dr Shatterhand) Japanese Garden of Death.
Most consistent read: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)
Biggest return to form: The Man with the Golden Gun (published a year after Fleming's death, 1965)
Biggest disappointment: The Spy Who Loved Me (1962, told from heroine's viewpoint, mainly set in a upstate New York motel)
Biggest surprise: Live and Let Die (1954), Fleming's second Bond book is one of his best, shame about the film.
Culinary advice: melon wrapped with prosciutto featured in Thunderball (1961)
Most informative (gambling tips): Casino Royale (1953), Diamonds are Forever (1956)
Most outrageous scene in a Bond novel: Dr No - Bond ordeal in Crab Key, culminating in a fight with a giant squid.
Best book where Bond doesn't globe trot:  Moonraker (1955)- encounters Hugo Drax's rocket base in Kent!
Best short story: Octopussy (bears no resemblance to the embarrassing film).


Biggest regret: Giving my entire Fleming collection to the Salvos when we moved house decades ago. At least I have the e-books now.

The crappiest James Bond moments

In the interest of 'equal time', I am now going to slag off my favourite movie franchise.....

• the last few minutes of Goldfinger (Did they run out of money? The tropical island looks like they are in the local botanical gardens. You can see the wires on Goldfinger's plummetting Gulfstream jet.)
• Bond slapping his female colleague, Dink, on the bottom with the comment, "Run along, Dink... Man talk!"
• Roger Moore looking tired in A View to a Kill
• protracted underwater scenes in Thunderball
• in You Only Live Twice some of the space scenes look like an episode of Thunderbirds (thank God for John Barry's score)
• when Blofeld's white pussy goes apeshit (clawing desperately at Donald Pleasance) because of the explosions sounding off on the Pinewood set (volcano/rocket base), You Only Live Twice
• Bond and Tracey prancing around like some demented shampoo commercial to the strains of Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• all of Octopussy

I am sure you have others.

My favourite James Bond scenes

• "Ninja training camp" in Nimeji Castle, You Only Live Twice, as an 11 year old, this was very cool.
• Aerial shot of Bond fighting henchmen on Kobe docks rooftop in You Only Live Twice
• Bond entering Tokyo subway in You Only Live Twice, meeting Tanaka in his private train.
• Lincoln Continental and hoodlum getting crushed in Goldfinger.
• Bond playing golf with Auric Goldfinger.
• Jill St John with the brat in "Circus Circus" in Diamonds are Forever, "Blow up yer pants!"
• Bond looking absolutely rooted before Diana Rigg skates up to him in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• In Dr No Bond leaves the dead would-be assassin sitting in the rear seat of his conertible. He turns to the Government House guard with the line, "See he doesn't get away".
• Entering Dr No's underwater lair (early Ken Adam Bond production design, refined and maxed up in You Only Live Twice.)
• Bond meeting Honey Rider on the beach in Dr No (this is a no brainer).
• Bond with jetpack in the start of Thunderball (the rest of the film is a bit of a bore, surprisingly - the remake Never Say Never Again was infinitely better)
• "Welcome back Mr Bond, I hope we can expect more gratuitous sex and violence" from Never Say Never Again.
• Bond on the Orient Express talking wine with Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love
• Aston Martin showing its stuff in the Swiss Alps (Goldfinger, of course)
• Bond in the old DB5 with M (finger poised on the red gear shift button) in Skyfall
• all the opening titles (even the new ones)
• the excitement generated in the end credits before: "The End of ..... but James Bond will return in ......"