The James Bond Bedside Companion (60 page)

Peter Hunt once again shows his expertise at editing a fast-paced action film. His work on the Bond/Oddjob fight must count as one of his finer achievements. The same can be said for stunt arranger Bob Simmons. The Bond/Oddjob battle is certainly the best in any Bond film, and must surely stand as one of the great cinematic combats. During the fight, Oddjob plays with Bond like a cat plays with a mouse. Bond is thrown against walls, slammed in the chest, and sent hurtling across the floor. (Connery was even hurt during the filming of the scene.) Maibaum and Dehn again must share some of the credit, for the details of the fight are ingenious. When Oddjob's metal-rimmed bowler hat is stuck between the bars of the vault, Bond tricks the Korean into walking over to retrieve it. It is then that Bond uses a previously severed electrical cable to cause Oddjob to (as Bond puts it later) "blow a fuse."

John Barry's musical score is tops, and like the other production elements, serves as a groundplan for future scores. Shirley Bassey's rendition of the
Goldfinger
theme (with lyrics by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse) is explosive and exciting. The song became a familiar tune connected with the series, and was the first Bond musical hit. The song is featured over the film's main title credits, which are designed by Robert Brownjohn. Similar to the credits of
From Russia With Love
, the sequence features projections on the body of a gold-painted girl.

Barry's score is brassy and raunchy. It has a sassy sexiness to it, personified by muted horns and tuned percussion. In 1964, John Barry was just reaching his prime. His scores for the rest of the series, as well as for other films in the mid- to late sixties, feature his best work.

The producers achieved a remarkable degree of originality and freshness in
Goldfinger
(and in the first two films, for that matter). Unfortunately, this was the peak, and although there would be some exciting and interesting moments in future Bond films, none would equal
Goldfinger
or its two predecessors.

PRODUCTION

T
hunderball
, you will recall, is based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whitlingham, and Ian Fleming. McClory won the film rights to THUNDERBALL in 1963, after a two-year court battle with Fleming and Ivar Bryce, while Fleming retained the rights to his published novel. Meanwhile, during the filming of
Goldfinger
, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were planning the next Bond film (which was to be
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
). But these plans were dropped when McClory was approached by the producers with a deal to coproduce
Thunderball
.

McClory proved to be invaluable to Broccoli and Saltzman in the making of the film. An avid water sportsman, McClory lent his expertise in scuba diving to the production. His many contacts in this field were helpful, and the coproduction was a success.

The producers decided to make
Thunderball
even more larger than life than
Goldfinger
. Allotted a budget of two and a half million pounds, the film emphasizes exaggeration. There are more gadgets, and the technology of the film takes the starring role. As a result,
Thunderball
is spectacular visually, but this approach has its detrimental effects as well. Beginning with
Thunderball
, Eon Productions began to lose sight of the James Bond character, as well as the special world created by Ian Fleming. James Bond became a character with no motivation—a man simply manipulated by the technology filling the screen. Credibility also began to go out the window; the James Bond films became something resembling science fiction.

Thunderball
, however, is still better than any of the Bond films produced after 1970. It manages to retain some of the hard edges found in the earlier films. This is most likely due to the film's director, Terence Young, who is back after a one-picture absence. But even Young was dissatisfied with the film; he admits that it "is not his favorite by a long shot."
Thunderball
tends to bog down under the weight of its own bigness. Parts of the film are extremely slow moving, the plot is overcomplicated, and the film is too lengthy. Assets of the film include impressive visual effects; underwater photography; a fairly good cast; the most exotic locations yet; a fine John Barry score; and a few moments here and there which stand out as pure Bond.

The film was made on location in the Bahamas and interiors were shot, as usual, at Pinewood Studios in England. In terms of box office receipts,
Thunderball
was a phenomenal success.

SCREENPLAY

R
ichard Maibaurn wrote a screenplay based on the novel THUNDERBALL in 1961 when it was considered for the first of Eon Productions' series. These plans were dropped when the title went into litigation, and
Dr. No
was substituted. In 1964, Maibaum wrote a new screenplay with John Hopkins. The final version of the script is fairly faithful to Fleming's novel, with a few variations.

Sean Connery with Claudine Auger as Domino on location in the Bahamas for the filming of
Thunderball
. (Wide World Photo.)

S
PECTRE is back, as is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. As in the novel, the SPECTRE headquarters are in Paris and its cover identity is an organization that locates missing members of the French Resistance, which is credible enough. But SPECTRE would become comparable to a
Fortune
500
conglomerate in later films. In
From Russia With Love,
SPECTRE's headquarters were aboard a yacht near Venice. In
Thunderball,
Ken Adam's futuristic design of SPECTRE's conference room tends to ultramodernize Fleming's original conception. The script includes the execution of a SPECTRE agent who has been embezzling funds. He is electrocuted in his chair during the meeting. As John Brosnan notes, this is basically a rehash of the execution of Kronsteen in
From Russia With Love.
(Since the electrocution occurred in Fleming's novel, perhaps the scene in
Russia
was inspired by the
Thunderball
execution.) Variations of this type of execution scene would appear in subsequent films.

Maibaum and Hopkins have needlessly complicated SPECTRE's plot to hijack two atomic bombs. In the novel, SPECTRE hires a NATO pilot named Petacchi to crash-land the
Vulcan
near the Bahamas. In the film, SPECTRE hires a man named Angelo to first undergo plastic surgery in order to
impersonate
the pilot of the
Vulcan,
who is named Derval. In the novel, Petacchi is Domino's brother. In the film, it is the original pilot, Derval, who is Domino's brother. Derval is murdered early in the film by Angelo, and from then on, the hijack operation takes the same course it does in the novel. It is unnecessary to introduce this additional plot device, and it isn't all that clear what's going on during the shifting around of bodies at Shrublands Health Spa, where the dead Derval is ultimately deposited. As a result, the first half hour of
Thunderball
is confusing.

One well-written scene takes place at the casino in Nassau where Bond challenges Emilio Largo to a game of
chemin de fer.
This is one of the more successful sequences in the novel as well, and the film manages to capture the scene intact. Although the scene isn't as tense as it should have been, the dialogue works very well. The scene that follows in the Café Martinique is also quite good. This is when Domino begins to become enchanted by Bond, and lets him know she would like to get away from Largo. It's one of the more romantic scenes in any of the Bond films.

The scriptwriters have also created a new character for the film. She is Fiona Volpe, a beautiful SPECTRE agent who first seduces Bond, then attempts to kill him. She is basically a variation of the Miss Taro character from
Dr. No
,
and there would be more variations on this character in subsequent films. Fiona, however, is the most successful of all these female villains. The scene in which Bond is taken captive after their lovemaking in his hotel room contains the film's only remnants of Fleming's James Bond character. When he realizes he has not won Fiona to his side with his amorous assets, he tells her with spite, "You don't think
I enjoyed
what we
did this evening, do you? What I did tonight was for Queen and country!" This statement causes Fiona to fume. It's an effective scene.

The film also adds a spectacular foot chase through the famous Junkanoo Parade which takes place in Nassau every year. The parade was staged for filming, since it was the wrong season for the actual event. It's one of the film's more exciting sequences, and the subsequent action at the Kiss Kiss Club is also interesting. Bond hides there from the SPECTRE agents by mixing with some dancers. Fiona, however, finds him and cuts in. Though it smacks of the pre-credits sequence in
Goldfinger,
the death of Fiona is a high
light of the film. Bond sees that one of the SPECTRE men is aiming a gun at him from behind the band. He whirls Fiona around to receive the bullet, after which he sets her in a chair at a crowded table. "Can my wife sit here?" he asks innocently. "She's just dead."

Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo, addressing a group of SPECTRE frogmen in
Thunderball
. (Photo by Loomis Dean,
Life
Magazine. © Copyright 1965 by Time, Inc.)

The remainder of the film basically follows the novel, except that Bond and Leiter do not tail the
Disco Volante
in a submarine. Instead, Bond disposes of a SPECTRE agent and impersonates the man in order to infiltrate the
Disco
(which is the same thing he did to gain entrance to Dr. No's laboratory in that film). But Bond is discovered, and Largo's men manage to trap him in a cave. Thanks to a homing pill provided by Q Branch, Leiter is able to track Bond down. Bond then joins the NATO team of paratroopers who attack the SPECTRE diving force. The ending is a little different, too. In the novel, Largo meets his death underwater during the big baffle. In the film, Largo escapes the baffle and boards the
Disco Volante
for a getaway. Bond pursues him and a final climactic fight (which doesn't quite work) occurs on the boat. It is here that Domino shoots Largo in the back with a spear gun, just as Largo is aiming a pistol at Bond. (Shades of the Klebb/RomanovalBond final scene in
From Russia With Love
.)

The script does contain some of the series' best one-liners. Bond is equipped with more funny asides than he is with Q's weaponry—and many of them are just as deadly! Some of the better ones: Q, explaining the new equipment to Bond, commands, "I want you to keep this flare on you day and night." Bond says, "I resent that remark." Later, as Largo is showing Bond around his home, Palmyra, Bond picks up a rifle. "Lady's gun, isn't it?" Bond asks. "Oh, do you know a lot about guns?" Largo asks. "No," Bond replies, "but I know a little bit about women."

DIRECTION

W
ith the return of the original Bond director, Terence Young,
Thunderball
lacks the exceptionally fast pace that
Goldfinger
had. It is most damaging in this case, for if anything,
Thunderball
needs to move faster. Young blames this on other problems!