| |
|
Frontpage La Floridiana Movie Review Deadguy's Dementia Matt's Rail Mike's Rant Viddywell PCR Archives 2002 2001 2000 Crazed Fanboy homepage PCR 2002 Home | |
Without a doubt Fleming at his pinnacle. OHMSS is a book in two parts, the first part concerning Bond's meeting with Draco a crime lord, and the wooing of his daughter. Draco gives Bond the location of Blofeld's secret hideout and asks in return that 007 marry his wild daughter Tracy. In the second half Bond finds Blofeld hiding in the Himalayas and brainwashing young girls in a plan to infect all the world's agriculture. After Bond is nearly caught and cornered, Tracy suddenly appears to rescue him. Bond returns to Blofeld's hide out with the aid of Draco's mob buddies and after a perilous bobsled chase puts Blofeld on the run again. Bond then settles down to get married with Tracy who he has fallen for after all. When they stop on the side of the road Blofeld drives by and with a machine gun blows Tracy away. Bond is left holding her and muttering "It's quite allright...we have all the time in the world." Fleming easily gave us his best with this novel showing that Bond more than ever was capable of emotions. Tracy proves to be Bond's prefect match: a wild stubborn girl to be tamed. Blofeld's appearance has drastically changed from a heavy with a crew-cut to skinny with long silvery hair. Blofeld's henchwoman and possible mistress is Irma Bunt, a bull of a woman who echoes shades of Rosa Klebb. OHMSS is the best of the Bond novels, epic in scope and steep in Greek tragedy.
FILM: The infamous 1969 film with the one-time-only-Bond, George Lazenby, and Telly Savalas as Blofeld. Savalas' masculine Blofeld aside Lazanby's Bond really wasn't that bad and the movie in fact was closest to Fleming's novels than any of the others. Though it gets the shaft for being the " one with that guy" it is in fact the best 007 film.
The third and final part in the Blofeld trilogy is Fleming at his darkest and most macabre. Bond having gone on a druken binge after Tracy's death is assigned to routine duty in Japan and meets with Japanese agent Tiger Tanaka. In the process, 007 learns of a island made for depressed business men who want to commit suicide in the island castle's garden. It is run by a mysterious Dr. Shatterhand. Bond goes into disguise as a Japanese fisherman with female agent Kissy Suzuki as his wife to uncover the truth of the island. The truth he finds out is that Shatterhand is none other than Blofeld. The novel is downbeat with it ending with 007 having amnesia. His final battle with Blofeld via kitanas (Japanese swords) is intense as is Blofeld's demise as he is strangled to death by Bond. Blofeld appears in the novel disguised as an elderly Japanese man who walks around his castle in Samurai armor. Fleming's ever-informative travelogue is wonderful as he describes the locals and history of Japan.
FILM: The 1967 film retains the element of Bond's Japanese disguise, but most everything else, including the revenge angle, is thrown out the window as Bond doesn't meet Tracy in the films until the next movie the following year. Donald Pleasance as Blofeld is a great choice, though, to play the slimy terrorist.
The Man With The Golden Gun was Fleming's last 007 novel and was uncompleted by the author himself. It was finished by the editors, though Fleming's manuscript was complete for the most part. Bond, after losing his memory at the end of You Only Live Twice has been captured by the Soviets and brainwashed to assassinate M. The plot is foiled and after much rest Bond is back in action. Bond is sent to dispatch Cuban hitman Scaramanga. Scaramanga's trademark is a golden bullet from his golden gun. Bond goes undercover as a criminal, meets with his old secretary Mary Goodnight, reunites with Leiter, and after a dangerous train shootout finally dispatches Scaramanga. Scaramanga is a villain that one wishes wasn't wasted on this mediocre novel. His personality is domineering and his swagger a gunslinger cool. When it comes down to the final gunbattle Scaramanga proves to be a challenge to Bond. Fleming's final novel is a bit of a letdown but one can't really imagine what it would have been like had Fleming not died---but one thinks it might have been classic.
FILM: Roger Moore's 2nd Bond film and not very good. This 1974 film does have some interesting aspects such as the final gun duel but it also has flying cars, a midget henchman, and the return of the dreaded J.W. Pepper. On the plus side it does have Britt Eckland as a delicious Mary Goodnight and Christopher Lee as the sauve Scaramanga.
The final published 007 fiction by Fleming was in fact all previously published shorts stories (with the exception of one, "The Property of a Lady", which apeared only in a later paperback edition).
Octopussy
Bond confronts old friend Colonel Smythe with his discovery of some stolen gold. Over the possiblility of jail, Smyth decides to let himself be killed by his giant pet Octopus.
The Living Daylights
Orginally published in Playboy (as "Berlin Escapes"), this is the better of the two, with Bond working to try and help a spy to cross the Berlin Wall. Bond is ordered to shoot the sniper sent to stop the spy, but hesitates because it is a woman.
FILM: Octopussy (1983) could obviously retain nothing of this short story so it went its own horrible way. The Living Daylights (1987) actually kept the whole Berlin Wall sniper part but obviously was forced to add more into the plot to sustain a two-hour running time.
Fleming's novels were at the least great action-adventure and, at the best, classic literature of the 50's. The movies added their own charm, of course, and have at least survived to this day to carry Fleming's creation on through the millenium. Though it would be nice if they learned to make gritty espionage stories again instead of silly tripe.