The James Bond Bedside Companion (85 page)

Andreas Wisniewski creates the most successful henchman character in a long time. As Necros, this former German ballet dancer is handsome, smooth, and quick on his feet. Throughout most of the film he wears a Walkman, and uses the headset cord as a garrote. He is like a chameleon, assuming whatever role his boss, Whitaker, orders. He is a threatening jogger, a deadly milkman, or a menacing balloon vendor. His fight with Bond on the airplane at the end is truly the high point of the picture, no pun intended.

The Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb is Saunders, the stuffy British agent stationed in Austria who plays everything "by the book." He is portrayed by Thomas Wheatley, a young English actor with much stage and television experience. After Saunders gets a taste of how James Bond runs things, the fellow agent lightens up and becomes a likable and cooperative ally. He meets his death between high-powered glass doors at an amusement park snack shop.

Felix Leiter returns in
The Living Daylights
,
this time also with a much younger, fresher face. Played by American actor John Terry, Leiter hasn't much to do in the film. He intervenes, luckily, when Bond is running from the Moroccan police after supposedly assassinating General Pushkin in public. Two of Leiter's "helpers," the kind with long hair and long legs, avert Bond and steer him to the Tangier CIA headquarters.

The regulars all return: Robert Brown as M, Geoffrey Keen as the Minister of Defense, Desmond Llewelyn as
Q,
and Walter Gotell as Russian General Gogol. Gogol has been promoted to the foreign service, and is now stationed in the West.
Q
has his funniest moment in years when he shows Bond a new device that he is "developing for the Americans." A technician, holding a large portable tape deck on his shoulder, points it toward a wall.
KER-BLAM!
A rocket blows a hole in the wall. "We call it a ghetto blaster!"
Q
exclaims proudly.

Miss Moneypenny was recast for
The Living Day
lights, since the character's object of flirtation was a new, young actor. Caroline Bliss, an attractive blonde who played Princess Diana in
Charles and Diana, A
Royal
Love
Story
for ABC TV, does what she can with two brief appearances in the picture. She is perfectly adequate in the role, but the film lacks a good Bond! Moneypenny scene akin to the amusing and warm interludes in earlier entries.

OTHER ASPECTS

Q
Branch issues James Bond a brand-new Aston Martin "Volante," a convertible which is subsequently "winterized" to become a "Vantage" model. It is the Vantage model (with a hardtop) that 007 drives out of Czechoslovakia.

The new Aston Martin is packed with quite an arsenal—perhaps the only example of overkill in the film. Besides the obligatory bullet-proof glass and rotating license plates, the car's hubcaps contain laser beam cutters which can fillet another vehicle like a knife through butter; there are automatic missiles and rockets which are aimed by a computerized heads-up display (like in a cockpit); the tires are studded for better traction on ice; a rocket jet-propulsion unit allows the automobile to leap over barricades; and to top it all off, the car has an "outrigger" option—protruding skis which transform the vehicle into a snowmobile.

Bond also drives two Audis: a 200 Quattro, which he uses early in the film in Bratislava; and a 200 Avant, which the agent drives in Tangier. These cars have no Q Branch extras.

Q
gives Bond a handy Philips key ring (the kind that beeps when one whistles), which saves the agent's life twice in the film. If one whistles "Rule Britannia," the key ring emits stun gas with a range of five feet. If one makes a "wolf" whistle, the key ring ignites a dense mass of plastic explosives contained within.

As usual, the look of the film is above standard. Director of photography Alec Mills achieves some remarkable shots, such as the desert scenes when Bond, Kara, and the
mujaheddin
are riding camels and the sun is setting in the background. Production designer Peter Lamont creates a new, high-tech
Q
Branch interior, among others, but concentrates his work mostly in dressing superb outdoor locations. Only Maurice Binder's tired main title design, looking just as it did in the sixties, adds nothing original to the picture.

John Barry's musical score is better than his previous two efforts. But the main title song, cowxitten with and performed by the rock group
a-Ha
,
has problems. The production of the song is flawed in that the lyrics are practically indecipherable, and the sound mix is messy. But the melody itself is engaging, and instrumental versions of the song are invigorating. There are also two vocal tunes written with Chnssie Hynde of The Pretenders. One song, "Where Has Everybody Gone?" is heard only over Necros' Walkman as he goes on his murderous rampages (instrumental versions are played over some action scenes). The second
is used for the end title theme, and it is one of the more beautiful songs John Barry has ever written. "If There Was a Man" probably should have been the main title theme, for Miss Hynde's rendition of it is magnificent. Instrumental versions of the tune are used as a "love theme" throughout the picture, highlighting the romantic scenes between Bond and Kara.

The Living Daylights
breaks a stale streak in the Eon series. It is fresh, dynamic, and daring. Timothy Dalton's performance is without a doubt the main reason for the picture's success. But it's also because the producers have shown great fortitude in abandoning the fantastical and self-mocking style which dominated their films during the seventies and early eighties, and have gone back to the blood and guts of James Bond—the spirit of Ian Fleming.

Timothy Dalton, the fourth actor to play James Bond (Wide World Photo.)

Ian Fleming in his cove at Goldeneye.
 
Little did he dream that his creation would be so popular 35 years after 007's first appearance in CASINO ROYALE.
 
(Photo by Mary Slater, courtesy of Michael Van Blaricum.)

NOTE: Many of the entries and their definitions are fictional

AWABI. Shells
for which Kissy Suzuki dives in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
.

BUREAU OF ALL-ASIAN FOLKWAYS. The cover name for the Japanese Secret Service.

CIA. Central Intelligence Agency. The American Secret Service which grew out of its predecessor, the OSS—Office of Strategic Services.

C.M.G. Companion to the Order of St Michael and St George.

"CRASH DIVE."
Code term for an emergency.

DEUXIEME BUREAU. The French Secret Service.

DOUBLE-0 SECTION. The department in the British Secret Service to which James Bond belongs.

"EYES ONLY." Code term for top secret—the specific document is meant only for the agent to whom it is addressed. ("For your eyes only" is also used.)

F.I.R.C.O. The cover name for SPECTRE when the organization's headquarters was located on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. Supposedly F.I.R.C.O. was an organization which helped locate missing members of the French Resistance.

G.R.U. The Soviet Union's intelligence department of the General Staff of the Army.

GAIJIN. Japanese term for "foreigner."

K.G.B. The current name for the Soviet Secret Service. Formerly the M.G.B.

M.G.B. The former name for the Soviet Secret Service.

M.I. 5. Cover title given to British Security Service, responsible for counter-espionage. Works under Home Office.

M.I. 6. Cover title given to British Secret Intelligence Services (S.I.S.). Works under Foreign Office.

M.V.D. Forerunner of the M.G.B.

MAGIC 44. A secret ciphering method developed by the Japanese Secret Service.

NINJA. A Japanese guerilla trained in the art of stealth and invisibility.

R.N.V.R. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. James Bond was assigned to the Special Branch.

R.U.M.I.D. The Soviet Union's intelligence department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

SHAPE. Supreme Headquarters for Allied Powers in Europe. A branch of NATO.

"SHINER" A device used by cheaters when gambling at cards. Usually it is a metallic object with a reflective surface, such as a cigarette lighter, which allows the user to see the faces of cards as he deals them over the shiner.

SMERSH. The Soviet Secret Service's murder organization. SMERSH is a conjunction of two Russian words ("Smyert Shpionam") meaning roughly "Death to Spies." Its headquarters is No. 13 on the Sretenka Ulitsa in Moscow, and its leader, in 1957, was Colonel General Grubozaboyschikov, known in the building as "General G." SMERSH is divided into five departments:

Dept I. Counterintelligence among Soviet organizations at home and abroad.

Dept II. Operations, executions. (Also referred to as "the Department of Torture and Death.")

Dept. III. Administration and finance.

Dept IV. Investigations and legal work; personnel.

Dept V. Prosecutions and judgment

SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE. Organization setup in WWII to plan and carry out irregular counterintelligence operations.

SPECTRE. The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. Organization created by Ernst Stavro Blofeld consisting of international terrorists with no criminal record.

TRANSWORLD CONSORTIUM. The current cover name for the British Secret Service.

UNION CORSE. Controls most of the organized crime in France. It is older and more deadly than the Unione Siciliano, the Mafia.

UNIVERSAL EXPORT Co. The former cover name for the British Secret Service. Its headquarters is located in a "grey building" directly across the street from Regent's Park.

(With contributions by Iwan Hedman)

NOTABLE BOOKS RELATING TO JAMES BOND AND IAN FLEMING

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

Bryce, Ivar.
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE—MEMORIES OF IAN FLEMING
. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984. Second Edition. Finally republished with all the legal problems removed. Highly recommended.

Gant, Richard.
IAN FLEMING: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN PEN
. Mayflower-Dell Paperback, 1966. Lightweight but informative. Out of print.

Haining, Peter.
JAMES BOND—A CELEBRATION
. Planet Books, 1987. Handsome and lavishly illustrated.

Pearson, John.
THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING
. Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1966. (U.S.—McGraw-Hill). The definitive biography of Ian Fleming. Highly recommended. Out of print.

Plomer, William.
IAN FLEMING, 28th MAY, 1908-12th AUGUST, 1964
. Address given at the Memorial Service. Privately printed, 1964. Highly recommended. Very rare.

Zeiger, Henry A.
IAN FLEMING: THE SPY WHO CAME IN WITH THE GOLD
. Duell, Sloan & Pearce, New York, 1965. Lightweight but informative. Out of print.