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The Real Chrisparkle
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Category Archives: Cinema
Review – Knives Out, Northampton Filmhouse, 19th December 2019
Posted on December 20, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
Regular readers (bless you!) of my blog will know that I am an Agatha Christie fan and am currently re-working my way through her oeuvre on my Agatha Christie Challenge. So it was a no-brainer that I would want to see Rian Johnson's homage to her style, Knives Out. And, in the best tradition of not telling you whodunit, I promise I won't! Mr Johnson made us promise at the beginning of the film anyway, and I'm not going to be the one who told you that the policeman did it. (Damn!!!)
It may be an homage to Christie but the first few scenes are pure Sleuth, mixed with a spot of Ira Levin's Deathtrap. The walls of the Thrombey family mansion are crammed with posters celebrating the works of the great writer and patriarch Harlan Thrombey, and there's even one of those laughing sailor dolls lurking around, which made me think this was going to become a psychological two-hander. But, no – the doll is mere window dressing, and there's precious little that's psychological about the plot – the motive is much more basic than that. Poirot would actually be really disappointed.
So, who killed Harlan Thrombey? That's not a spoiler – he's revealed with his throat slit within the first minute of action. At least it's one of those thrillers that starts with the crime and works backwards, which is much more likely to arrest your attention than when you get all the clues and motives first and then the crime happens about an hour later. And there's indeed a host of suspects, brought to life by a star-strangled cast, each one outperforming the others in terms of their suspiciousness and lack of likeability.
And that's a major problem with the film as I see it. The suspects are all (bar one) varying degrees of unpleasant, and heavily caricatured – Rian Johnson has said that the hokey cult 1970s musical Something's Afoot, which was a Christie spoof populated by stereotypes, was an influence on this film, and I think it works to its detriment. There's only one sympathetic suspect – and it very much turns into her story – but the rest of them are so vile that they deserve everything coming to them. It was this lack of interest in the characters' outcomes that decided Mrs Chrisparkle to give in and go to sleep after hanging on for the first 90 minutes.
Yes, there are some wonderfully quirky moments. I enjoyed Detective Blanc's rendition of Losing My Mind from Sondheim's Follies whilst waiting in the car; these cops obviously enjoy their musical theatre as there's also a fleeting reference to Hamilton. There's a comic moment in the heat of the final denouement which is very nicely done (although completely predictable). A suspect deliberately stomping through the mud to obliterate footprints is very funny. But, on the whole, the film comes across as overwhelmingly dark – not dark as in film noir, but dark as in why doesn't someone open the curtains – and what's meant to suggest suspense and eeriness just ends up being gloomy. It lacks light and shade, as though its dial is firmly set to murky.
As Detective Blanc, Daniel Craig has adopted a vocal drawl unlike any other known to man – kudos to him for keeping it up for over two hours. It's an engaging performance nonetheless, although at times he feels a little more like Clouseau than Poirot. More entertaining vocal tics come from the constricted cords of Toni Collette, as Joni the Insta Influencer, and it was a pleasure to see Frank Oz in the cameo role of the Thrombey family lawyer. But it's Ana de Armas as Marta who makes the film watchable as the only character with whom we can really connect, and her marvellous performance smashes the movie into the realms of 3 stars from me.
As for the solution to this heinous crime – well, as a Facebook relationship status might confess, it's complicated, and I challenge anyone to answer successfully the question that Mrs C put to me on the way home – so, whodunit? – in full. I had to re-read the synopsis online twice in order to be certain that I fully understood exactly who was guilty of what.
And, believe me, I was paying attention. It must have been the accents.
Backbeat, the word on the street says this could be the first in a series of films featuring Detective Blanc. They may have to consider subtitles.
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged Ana de Armas, chris sparkle, Daniel Craig, Frank Oz, Knives Out, Northampton Filmhouse, Rian Johnson, Toni Collette	/ Leave a comment
Review – The Good Liar, Northampton Filmhouse, 3rd December 2019
Posted on December 4, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
Sometimes it's easy to talk about a film or a play without giving away too many spoilers. However, in the case of The Good Liar, it's virtually impossible. Roy and Betty meet over dinner, having been chatting on a dating website; he seems in frail health so, a few nights later, Betty allows him to stay over in her house rather than walking all the way up the stairs to his own apartment. But, actually,he's in perfect health and appears to be part of a gang – or at least a partnership – of swindlers, defrauding greedy but stupid investors of their hard earned cash. OK – that's not too much of an opening spoiler.
There is, however, a basic twist to the story – and let's face it, it wouldn't be much of a thriller if there wasn't, so that in itself isn't a spoiler. However, if you have any inkling of this twist in advance, it will completely ruin it for you. So, if you want a quick spoiler-free review, all I'll say is that it's enjoyable, well-performed, although with some unnecessary gore and unexpectedly bad language from Sir Ian, and, frankly, in some respects rather an unpleasant film. If you like the sound of a dramatic pairing between Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Helen Mirren, then you'll love it. And who wouldn't fancy that? Now, if you want no more spoilers, bookmark this page, go and see the film and then come back. In the meantime, the rest of us will get on with dissecting it….
… I think they've gone. Phew! Now I can tell you what I really think. SPOILER ALERT!!! (Just in case) The strength and weakness of this film is in the casting. Sir Ian and Dame Helen are a powerful combo, and there are many exciting, tense, witty and dramatic scenes between the two. But do you really think an actor like Dame Helen would have taken a role as an elderly woman defrauded of her assets, made to look stupid and weak? Naaaa. Now, if it had been Dame Judi, she might have built up an emotional image of noble fragility and crumbled beautifully in front of us all as a downtrodden old dear. But this is Dame Helen. From the Janis Joplin-like Maggie in David Hare's Teeth 'n' Smiles to D.I. Jane Tennison and many roles before or after, she's always the spunky, spiky, unpredictable, gritty strong woman. And if anyone's going to outsmart Sir Ian's Roy, it's her Betty. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thought right from the start of the film that her character has her own agenda.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say, and that's proved without a doubt in this finely-detailed plot to put right a wrong over half a century old. No wonder it's set in 2009; if it had been set in 2019, the past would probably be too distant for them to do anything about it. When you discover the elaborateness of the pre-planning, before the substance of the film gets underway, you feel both wow, that's clever and wow, that's far-fetched in about 50-50 measure. Nevertheless, the film does weave an enjoyably intricate web of deceit that is entertaining to observe, and, despite the occasional horror and gore, there is something delightfully British afternoon-tea about the whole thing. At times it feels like an episode of Midsomer Murders as directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Sir Ian and Dame Helen dominate the film throughout, and with acting of their quality, that's no surprise. A very small cast adds to a sense of claustrophobia. Personally, I find it hard to watch Jim Carter and not see Mr Carson from Downton Abbey; here he plays Roy's partner-in-crime Vincent, like a spiv Mr Carson, hair bouffoned up and with a constant eye for a cash deal. Russell Tovey plays Russell Tovey playing Stephen, Betty's grandson, a suspicious lad with an unexpected grasp of Nazi history, who spends most of the film acting as Roy's chauffeur with bad grace. There's a nice performance from Mark Lewis Jones as Bryn, the hapless investor who bumbles his way through a deal and is sacrificed for his pains. But there's no doubt the film belongs to its two big stars.
Mrs Chrisparkle was finding it a very unhappy film until the twist started to reveal itself; clearly she was empathising with Betty just a wee bit too much, and it's just a bit too unimaginative to base a plot on a ruthless old git manipulating an innocent old girl. But Dame Helen isn't an innocent old girl, never has been, never will be. Very watchable and enjoyable, a couple of moments when my dislike of violence made my stomach retch slightly, and an ending where one plot to deceive fails catastrophically and another plot succeeds miraculously. Recommended, but primarily for the acting.
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged chris sparkle, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Jim Carter, Northampton Filmhouse, Russell Tovey, The Good Liar	/ Leave a comment
Review – Toy Story 4, Northampton Filmhouse, 2nd July 2019
Posted on July 3, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
"Can you remember what happened at the end of Toy Story 3", I asked Mrs Chrisparkle as we walked to the cinema last night. "Nope," she replied, "but I'm sure there'll be some kind of catch up at the beginning". And sure enough, the film opens with "Nine years ago…."; and you sit there and think, was it really that long since we last saw Woody and his toy pals in a series of manic episodes of mild peril? Yes it was! And, because I know you're trying to remember the date, the first film came out in 1995. Some of those ten-year olds who saw the first movie in that year are probably grandparents by now. Well, not quite, but you get my drift.
Woody, now handed over to Bonnie by Andy, is no longer her favourite toy although he still commands some respect in the toy community. Bonnie's off to kindergarten, and she's scared (who wouldn't be?) Woody sneaks into her backpack to give her some support on the orientation day. But things start to brighten up for her when she makes a toy from a spork, some pipe cleaners and a lolly stick, rescued from the bin by Woody; welcome to the world, Forky. Bonnie is much attached to Forky, but Forky doesn't want to be a toy; his low self-esteem makes him feel he's only suited to the trash can. Bonnie's parents take her on a mini road-trip to soften her up for returning to kindergarten; but Forky's existential crisis causes him to hurl himself from the campervan, and, naturally, Woody takes it on himself to rescue him.
Thus separated from the rest of the family, Woody now has to track them down at the funfair site where they have parked; but, en route, he bumps into Bo-Peep, to whom he said goodbye years ago… and that complicates matters. Things always get messy when there's a whiff of romance in the air. Will Woody and Forky reunite with Bonnie? Will Bo-Peep continue her strong solo woman lifestyle? And what about the voiceless doll Gabby Gabby, who wants to steal Woody's voicebox so that she becomes desirable again? I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to watch the film to find out!
If you've seen the previous films (of course you have) then you'll be itching to know what becomes of Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the gang. And I can tell you that you won't be remotely disappointed, it's everything you hope to get from a Toy Story movie and probably more. There's a level of reflection, introspection even, in this film which, if it was evident in the previous incarnations, receives greater emphasis here.
In a lovely reversal of the human experience of this situation, the social stigma of being a childless toy is so overwhelming in this film's universe that if you're not childless, you have to whisper it so as not to upset the others. Attachment to a kid is the ultimate in existence. If you don't have a kid, you're not really a toy – discuss. The concept of listening to and acting on your inner voice is also brought to the forefront, with Woody's highly developed sense of responsibility leaving the others frequently nonplussed as to his recklessness. Buzz tries to get a grip on the inner voice concept, and relates it to the random automated announcements that he emits whenever he presses his belt buttons. Gabby's inner voice is silenced and the only way she can expect a happy future is to deprive another toy of his own voicebox.
Technically, of course, it's superb. The animation is a constant delight, with the vivid funfair, the dusty old antique shop, the torrential rain, for example, all being totally convincing. Did Woody and Buzz always have the identical pointy nose? The action is fast and furious, the script is funny, the characterisations are spot on, and the emotions are, definitely, real.
No expense was spared in recruiting the finest actors for bringing these toys to life, and they all do a brilliant job. Most of the old favourites are there; Slinky the dog, Mr Pricklepants the luvvie actor hedgehog, the Potato Heads (despite his death in 2017, Don Rickles is still the voice of Mr Potato Head, using unused audio recordings from the previous films), Rex the hyper-anxious dinosaur, and Hamm the cynical piggybank.
In addition to Forky and Gabby, New Toys on the Block include the streetwise compact police officer Giggles McDimples, carnival toys Bunny and Ducky, nightmare henchmen the Bensons, and, my favourite, wannabe macho poseur stunt rider Duke Caboom, who fails to live up to his advert's hype as far as adventurousness is concerned, but loves to strike a pose on his bike – with hilarious but totally believable voicing from Keanu Reeves.
Memorably enjoyable moments include the farcical sat nav instructions from Mrs Potato Head and Buttercup the hardnosed unicorn, the intimidating presence of the ventriloquist dummy Bensons, the unpredictable antics of Bo-Peep's sheep, and the repulsive regurgitation of Giggles when she's spat out like a furball.
The resolution to the story was not at all what I expected; it breaks the rules as to how a toy should behave – and is really endearing as a result. However, despite the emotional content, it didn't create any activity in the tear duct department, unlike my friend the Squire of Sidcup who saw it with his dad and it reduced both of them to blubbering messes. However, it's a thoroughly enjoyable film – at 100 minutes it's the perfect length – and a more than worthy successor to its three prequels. If you've got any old toys hanging around from your childhood – go give them a hug. They need it.
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged Buzz Lightyear, chris sparkle, Northampton Filmhouse, Toy Story 4, Woody	/ 2 Comments
The James Bond Challenge – You Only Live Twice (1967)
In which SPECTRE mastermind a plot to kidnap both American and Soviet astronauts in space, in the hope that Cold War enmity would spark off a war between the two superpowers – thus enabling a new world power to emerge and take control. Even though everyone thinks that James Bond died in a gun attack in a Hong Kong bedroom, his death was faked and M has sent Bond to Tokyo to follow a trail that takes him into Blofeld's lair – but will he and his pals prevent a world war? Yeah, of course!
It had been two years since the previous James Bond film, Thunderball, (if we ignore the spoof Casino Royale), and its budget of $10.3 million was perhaps only a modest increase in comparison with Thunderball's $9 million; and its box office take of $111.6 million was almost $30 million down on the previous movie. Still, it's not a bad profit. The budget to create SPECTRE's volcano lair was almost the same as the entire budget for Dr No! Originally, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was due to be the next in the series, but the need to find mountainous and snowy locations to shoot, coupled with the Bond films' enormous box office success in Japan, meant that the producers, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, decided to go with the mainly-Tokyo based You Only Live Twice instead. Usual screenwriter Richard Maibaum was working on the producers' non-Bond movie of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so the producers offered the job to Harold Jack Bloom. They liked his story work, but not his script; so the writing credits went to Roald Dahl, who was a close friend of Ian Fleming. This was Dahl's first attempt at writing a screenplay, and Harold Jack Bloom was credited as providing additional story material.
With previous director Terence Young now working in Europe and Guy Hamilton still needing a break from Bond, the directors approached Lewis Gilbert, who had recently directed the hugely successful Alfie with Michael Caine. Cinematography was by Freddie Young, of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago fame, editing by James Bond stalwart Peter Hunt, and production design by Ken Adam. John Barry was, of course, again responsible for the music, all apart from Monty Norman's James Bond Theme. During the filming, Aerial Unit Cameraman John Jordan was leaning out of a helicopter to get a better shot, when another helicopter was caught in a gust of wind and was blown closer. The rotor blade cut his leg which had to be amputated.
You Only Live Twice was published in 1964 and was the twelfth book in Ian Fleming's series of James Bond novels. Its title comes from a haiku that Bond wrote in the style of the famous Japanese poet, Basho: "You only live twice/Once when you are born/And once when you look death in the face". It was the last book to be published in Fleming's lifetime. Because there is a high travelogue content to the book, and it's a more introvert story as we see Bond coping (or otherwise) with the death of his wife in the previous book, there isn't a lot of content that could be adapted easily for an action adventure movie. Writer Roald Dahl therefore had to use a lot of imagination and collaboration with Lewis Gilbert to come up with a workable screenplay.
In the book, a tired, drunk and wasted Bond is given one last chance to turn his spy career around – convincing the Japanese secret service to share information they have about the Soviet Union. The Japanese ask Bond to kill Blofeld and Irma Bunt, who were responsible for the death of Bond's wife – so he is happy to oblige. Bond is trained as a Japanese coal miner and meets former film star Kissy Suzuki as he infiltrates Blofeld's garden of death. Bond kills Blofeld, gets Kissy pregnant – and then leaves for Vladivostok. If you've seen the film, you'll realise there are a very few overlapping points between book and film; for example, the whole space-race and spaceship hijack elements were written purely for the film.
I'm pretty sure I saw You Only Live Twice in a double-bill at the Odeon Aylesbury with my schoolfriend John in the mid-1970s; probably with Goldfinger. I am also certain this would have been one of those occasions when the cinema manager had to come in and stop us from chatting and giggling all the way through. To those denizens of 1970s Aylesbury, I can only humbly apologise. John made me do it.
Although pre-sales for the book were very high, it received only mixed reviews. The Times wrote: "as a moderate to middling travelogue what follows will just about do … the plot with its concomitant sadism does not really get going until more than half way through"; The Listener noted: "if interest flags, as it may do, the book can be treated as a tourist guide to some of the more interesting parts of Japan"; and the Guardian complained: "of the 260 pages of You Only Live Twice … only 60 are concerned with the actual business of a thriller". The film fared better, with Entertainment Weekly saying it "pushes the series to the outer edge of coolness", Filmcritic calling it one of James Bond's most memorable adventures, but finding the plot "protracting and quite confusing", and Rotten Tomatoes concluding that: "with exotic locales, impressive special effects, and a worthy central villain, You Only Live Twice overcomes a messy and implausible story to deliver another memorable early Bond flick." My own opinion is that this was possibly the most entertaining of the Bond movies at the time; I found the combination of action, villainy and humour just about right.
The opening credits begin, as usual, with Maurice Binder's iconic glimpse of Bond walking across the screen whilst being captured by the barrel of a gun, only for him to turn around, see us, and shoot; and then for the blood to start filling up the screen. As in Thunderball, Bond is now clearly Sean Connery – in the first three films it was stunt man Bob Simmons. However, the music – if my ears do not deceive me – has been re-recorded; it's a slightly different arrangement, more "stereo" sounding and maybe just a hint slower.
We're in outer space. NASA spacecraft Jupiter 16 is calmly and successfully achieving its mission. As one of the astronauts – Chris – emerges from the craft for a spacewalk exercise, a security control in Hawaii reports an unidentified object closing fast on Jupiter 16. As it gets closer, its head opens up as though it were some hungry shark with gaping teeth – and it swallows up the NASA craft. And, as it closes its pincers, it cuts off the cable that's been linking Astronaut Chris to the main body of the craft – and he's left to float around in space for eternity. Gruesome!
Back on earth, a summit conference is held where the Americans accuse the Russians of having stolen their spacecraft – a fact which the Russians deny, affirming that they are a peaceful nation. Another American spaceship will be launched in twenty days' time, and the Americans confirm that any interference by the Russians will be looked on as an act of war. The British attempt to intercede, querying why the Russians would wish to capture an American spaceship. As British intelligence indicates that the spaceship came down in the Sea of Japan area, Her Majesty's Government intends to investigate this event in and around Japan. "In fact," says the security adviser, "our man in Hong Kong is working on it now" – a cue for the camera to cut to James Bond, in flagrante delicto with Ling, a Chinese lady. They have a rather saucy conversation – "darling, I give you very best duck" – and then she presses a button which makes the fold-down bed fold back up into the wall, with Bond trapped inside. She opens the door to her room and a couple of heavies with machine guns open fire on the wall, with Bond just behind the surface. When the police arrive, and draw back the bed, a lifeless Bond is still trapped between the blood-soaked sheets. "We're too late," says one policeman to his colleague. "Well, at least he died on the job" comes the knowing reply; "he'd have wanted it this way" says the other.
And then we're into the credits, and the superb title theme, sung by Nancy Sinatra. Apparently, it was originally offered to father Frank, but he turned it down in favour of his daughter. She was the first non-British performer to sing a James Bond movie theme. Surprisingly, for an artist of her abilities, she was so nervous about recording the song that it took twenty-five different takes to complete it. As she said in an interview, she was intimidated by the fact that this was strong, serious singing as opposed to the funny and light-hearted recordings for which she had become famous. In the end, the final song version used in the film was made up of the best parts from each of those twenty-five recordings – a true patchwork. The song reached No 11 in the UK charts, but only 44 in the US. I'd contend that it's one of the best three Bond themes ever – but you might not agree!
Visually, the opening credits are very appealing and intriguing. An abstract Japanese chrysanthemum design is used to suggest not only the traditions of Japan, but also the iris of an eye, or a parasol; interspersed with these images are the faces and bodies of sultry Japanese girls and the hot fiery spurting lava of a volcano. You can read whatever symbolism you like into all of this.
And the locations? This is an unusual Bond film in that it almost entirely takes place in one country – Japan. Only the opening sequence, of Bond's faked death, takes place in Hong Kong. The majority of the filming took place in Japan too. The exceptions to this were the outside view of the summit conference being filmed in Alaska, Bond's burial at sea on board the HMS Tenby was shot off Gibraltar, while his rescue from the sea bed was filmed in the Bahamas; and a few internal scenes were shot at Pinewood. The Osato Chemicals building was in fact the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo, and SPECTRE's volcano lair was Mount Shinmoedake.
While scouting locations in Japan, the chief production team narrowly escaped death. On March 5, 1966, Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Lewis Gilbert, Freddie Young, and Ken Adam were booked to leave Japan on BOAC flight 911 departing Tokyo for Hong Kong and London. Two hours before their Boeing 707 flight departed, the team were invited to an unexpected ninja demonstration, and so missed their plane. Their flight took off as scheduled, but twenty-five minutes after take-off, the plane disintegrated over Mt. Fuji, killing everyone on board. The title You Only Live Twice must never have seemed so sinister.
Bond, James Bond. Again Connery doesn't get to utter that iconic sentence in this film. In fact, on a personal level, this was a very unhappy film. Connery had been lured back to play the role again despite being tired of Bond and fearing being typecast. So, in addition to earning $800,000 as a fee, he also received 25% of the net merchandise royalty, which must have been one helluva lotta wonga. By all accounts he was his usual professional and generous performer on set. But he disliked all the media attention in Japan, where the films were more important to people than even their own families, and where he was constantly being papped. He was even photographed in a toilet, which displeased him significantly. He was also displeased by the marketing phrase "Sean Connery IS James Bond", and offended the locals by stating in an interview that Japanese women weren't attractive. During filming, Connery announced that this would be his last ever Bond film; however, Broccoli and Saltzman had other ideas. Nevertheless, it is said that the relationship between star and producers had broken down so badly that he refused to act if they were on the set.
Boo-boos. There are some continuity errors and mistakes as always – let's have a look at some of them! When Bond's apparently dead body is brought on board the submarine, from the depths of the ocean, the packaging that encloses it is surprisingly dry! When Osato and Brandt land on the helicopter landing pad to meet Bond (masquerading as Mr. Fischer), the helicopter lands across the top of the "H" on the pad, near the edge of the circle, and it is facing slightly to the left of the camera. However, in the next scene it has moved further inside the circle, facing in a different direction, alongside the H. Clever stuff! When Bond undertakes his transformation to become Japanese, he has his chest hair all shaved off. But when he and Kissy are in the life raft at the end of the movie, magically it has all returned. He's not 007 for nothing!
When Bond is fighting Blofeld's henchman Hans, Bond gets knocked over near the fireplace, and you can hear the sound of glass breaking. However, there are no glass objects anywhere him! When Aki is driving Bond to see Henderson, she's sitting on the right side. As they approach Henderson's residence, she's on the left, but when the camera cuts to a close-up, she is back on the right again. Before Bond (disguised as a SPECTRE astronaut) is brought before Blofeld in the command room, the 'Blofeld' sitting in his chair has hair which can be seen briefly from the rear of the chair. However, when he introduces himself to Bond a moment later he is clearly bald – an error caused by using film of both actors playing Blofeld.
The Bond Girl. It's become something of a familiar challenge that it's not obvious from the start who exactly is The Bond Girl in any of the films. The Bond Girl in Thunderball is the fourth girl with whom he has some kind of encounter; and it's the same here. James Bond's lucky number sure is four!
First we see him with Ling, with whom he starts to say that "We've had some interesting times together Ling, I'll be sorry to go" before she pushes the button and uprights the bed into the wall, with him in it. It's impossible to say whilst you're watching the film whether she's an agent working against him (almost getting him murdered) or working with him (enabling the faking of his death) – the latter is in fact true. Whatever, their time together is all too short and sweet. Ling was played by Chinese born Tsai Chin, whose career spanned many decades and appearances as wide range as in The World of Suzie Wong, Flower Drum Song, The Virgin Soldiers, and a wide range of other television appearances. It is said that her popularity was such in the 60s that she had a leopard at London Zoo named after her! She was already friends with director Lewis Gilbert and his wife before the film was shot – it's not what you know, it's who you know, it's who you know. She would return to the world of James Bond in the 2006 production of Casino Royale, where she played Madame Wu, a poker player. She's been based in Hollywood for many years and is still working at the age of 85.
Next contender for the title of Bond Girl is Helga Brandt – ostensibly Osato's secretary but really Number 11 in SPECTRE, so as she's working for the other side, she could never be a Bond Girl, could she? She's a ruthless mass of raw sexuality, with her strong auburn hair, dominatrix expression and sultry fashion sense. The things I do for England, says Bond, as he snips the straps on her evening dress with a surgeon's knife. But she's not quite mistress of her game, and Blofeld only accepts perfection, so she's fiendishly eliminated, and the hungry piranhas are grateful. She was played by Karin Dor, who appeared in dozens of films, mainly in German, and lived partly in Munich and partly in the United States. She died in 2017 at the age of 79.
Then there's Aki. Aki really should have been the Bond Girl because she's gutsy but so sweet. She's there at the Sumo, ready to introduce Bond to Henderson. She's there to rescue Bond when he has to flee the Osato Building. She's there to help him get advice from Tanaka and drive him to the Kobe docks. And she's there in his bed whenever he wants. She even – albeit accidentally – provides him the ultimate service by ingesting the poison that was meant for him. Who could do more? Aki was played by Akiko Wakabayashi, who specifically asked if the character's name could be changed to Aki (in other words, her own name) rather than Suki, as originally intended. She appeared in a number of Japanese films in the late 50s and early 60s, but only one more after You Only Live Twice, when she retired to have a family. She's now 77 and still living in Japan.
But I guess the accolade of Bond Girl in this film must go to Kissy Suzuki, played by Mie Hama. Kissy is a Ninja Agent, working for Bond's Japanese colleague Tanaka; she marries Bond in order to create for him a convincing Japanese cover. But when it comes to honeymoon night, she confirms that the relationship is strictly business and he has to sleep in a corner. However, she dutifully assists Bond in his attack on SPECTRE's lair, and, of course, it's she who is rescued with him in a life-raft in what appears to be the same closing scene of almost every Bond movie. Mie Hama was working as a bus conductor when she was discovered by film producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, most famous for having created Godzilla. She had already appeared in about sixty Japanese movies by the time she worked on You Only Live Twice. Originally she was hired to play Aki (or, rather, Suki) but she had difficulty with the English words and so the two actresses swapped roles – as Kissy had fewer lines than Aki. Mie Hama retired from films in 1989 and since has had a varied career as a writer, TV and radio host, and art connoisseur. She's 75 now and still going strong.
What Bond Girls Are Like. From the first four films, our list of attributes common to the Bond Girls was: sexy, exotic, unpredictable, as equally likely to attack Bond as to support him, strong and self-reliant up to a point, sometimes tragic, professional, scary and vengeful. Kissy doesn't really comply with many of these attributes; the Japanese tradition makes her a more demure, graceful and moral person. Mie Hama, however, was perhaps less demure when she appeared in Playboy in a 1967 nude pictorial "007's Oriental Eyefuls" as the first Asian woman to appear in the magazine.
The Villain. You Only Live Twice is our first opportunity finally to meet the one and only Blofeld. Disfigured and measured of speech, he disarmingly strokes his pussy whilst ordering the death both of his enemies and those working for him who have let him down. Blofeld survives at the end of the film – he's the first Bond villain to do so – and he will go on to make five more appearances in subsequent Bond films. But this is the only film in which he is played by Donald Pleasence. Originally, he was to have been played by Czech actor Jan Werich, who does appear in the film with his back to the audience – his tufts of hair appearing to the camera, whilst Donald Pleasence's Blofeld is totally bald. But Werich's characterisation of Blofeld was considered insufficiently menacing. Pleasence was said to have found the make-up for Blofeld incredibly uncomfortable, but, then, you have to suffer for your art. He was one of our finest film actors, having made more than a hundred movies, and he died in 1995 at the age of 75.
Other memorable characters? Australian Intelligence agent Dikko Henderson – played by Charles Gray – is not exactly a memorable character, because he doesn't hang around long enough for us to get interested in him. He does, however, have a very memorable death; stabbed in the back whilst standing in front of one of those Japanese paper-thin screen walls. Charles Gray would go on to play Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever, as well as many other notable film and TV roles.
Teru Shimada gives an excellent, understated, performance as Osato, the industrialist who's secretly a SPECTRE agent; suitably inscrutable, on the surface dignified and urbane, whilst underneath, happy to be an assassin. Osato's simple instruction "kill him" as Bond is leaving his offices is amusingly terse! Teru Shimada was a Japanese-American actor who first appeared in films in the early 1930s and carried on working until 1975. He died in Los Angeles in 1988, aged 82.
Tiger Tanaka is the head of the Japanese Secret Service, living secretly underground in Tokyo, with his own train network, his own team of ninjas, and he plays a very active part in assisting Bond in the attack on the SPECTRE volcano lair. He is supremely authoritative – and you'd say was one of the most powerful people in the country. He was played by Tetsuro Tamba, who appeared in around a hundred films between 1952 and his death in 2006 at the age of 84. His voice was dubbed by Robert Rietti, who had also dubbed Adolfo Celi's voice as Emilio Largo in Thunderball.
No Felix Leiter this time – he'll return in Diamonds are Forever – but Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn reprise their usual roles as M, Moneypenny and Q. This time, M and Moneypenny aren't in their London office but on board one of Her Majesty's submarines; but M is his usual, no-nonsense self, and Moneypenny is only too happy to prevent Bond's lingering romance with Kissy from taking hold. The relationship between Q and Bond continues to be fractious, although Q's latest gadgets for use on the autogyro certainly save Bond's life.
And what about the music? The film starts, as usual, with the main James Bond Theme, written by Monty Norman; after that, it's all John Barry, although the lyrics to the title song, You Only Live Twice are by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. As I mentioned earlier, it's a cracker of a song, and its legacy lives on in such examples as Robbie Williams' Millennium. An earlier version was sung by Julie Rogers, who expected it to be used in the film, but the producers said it was just a demo – much to Ms Rogers' disappointment, no doubt.
Parts of the soundtrack that I particularly enjoyed included the classic, percussion-heavy theme that always accompanies a car chase; this time we also hear it when Little Nellie goes up. There's an excellent, fast, brassy version of You Only Live Twice whilst they're capering around Kobe Docks. Early in the film when Bond arrives in Tokyo, there's a charming variation on the You Only Live Twice theme, softly played with some gently twanging guitars in the background. And there's the gentle, romantic accompaniment to the wedding scene.
Car chases. There's just the one car chase; when Aki rescues Bond from being shot by Osato's henchmen, driving her Toyota 2000GT and they are chased by the wannabe killers. Unusually, Bond doesn't drive a car in this film. Amusingly, nor does Aki; Akiko Wakabayashi hadn't learned how to drive, so six stuntmen created the illusion of her driving, by attaching a cable, and pulling it from outside of the frame. Stuntmen also substituted for her in long camera shots by wearing black wigs.
Cocktails and Casinos. Henderson says to Bond when offering a drink "Stirred, not shaken. That was right, wasn't it?" Bond then replies: "Perfect", and you can just hear a tinge of disappointment in his voice. Of course, Bond usually drinks his Vodka Martinis shaken, not stirred, so this was an error. But Lewis Gilbert decided to keep it in; and it shows Bond's generosity of spirit when someone he meets for the first time gets it wrong, but he wants to be on good terms with him. Apart from that, Bond grimaces at the taste of Siamese vodka, delights at sake if it's served at 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit and allows himself to be won over by the offer of a Dom Perignon '59. Casinos don't feature in this Bond movie.
Gadgets. Bond uses a cute little safe-breaker when he's stealing the papers from the Osato offices; apart from that Tanaka is proud to show him the cigarette gun, which is a nifty little wheeze, and Q reveals the additional extras that have been fitted on to Little Nellie, the autogyro; two machine guns, rocket launchers and heat seeking air to air missiles, two flame guns and smoke ejectors, aerial mines and a cine camera in the helmet. I think that sums it up! Other than that, there are perhaps somewhat fewer gadgets in this film than we've been spoilt with on previous occasions? Does Q need to go back to college?
In Memoriam. Dr No had a death count of approximately 11 as well as all those who go up in smoke in his lair at the end; From Russia with Love notched up at least 40; Goldfinger came in at a more modest 23-ish, plus everyone who died at Fort Knox; and Thunderball offers up around 50 people – plus a shark. How about You Only Live Twice? Let's briefly remember those who gave their lives so that Bond and Kissy can get nudged into safety by the surprise appearance of a submarine:
1) Dikko Henderson – stabbed, like Polonius, through the arras
2) Henderson's killer, knifed by Bond
3) Henchman who drove Bond to the Osato office – brained by an ancient Japanese sculpture in a fight with Bond
4) Guard in the Osato carpark, shot by Bond
5) The woman who took the photo of the Ning-Po ship (even though we never met her, RIP)
6) 4 henchmen in a car that gets lifted off the road surface by a helicopter with a huge magnet and then gets dropped into the sea – presumably all four drown
7) Somewhere between 3 and 6 men attacked at Kobe Docks
8) 4 helicopter pilots, individually killed by Bond in the autogyro, using the various gadgets that Q had supplied.
9) Helga – dipped into the piranha pool by Blofeld.
10) The poisoner who kills Aki – shot by Bond
11) Aki – killed by the poisoner.
12) The ninja who tries to bayonet Bond – bayonetted by Bond.
13) The girl in the boat that Kissy sees before and after death (again RIP in absentia)
14) The man in red working in SPECTRE's lair.
15) Everyone else who dies in the crater.
16) Osato
17) One last henchman.
That's maybe something in the region of 40 people.
Humour to off-set the death count. Following Bond's classic asides whenever someone dies in the previous movies, here are some more gems to accompany those bereft of life to the great yonder:
After the four car-bound henchmen are drowned at sea, Bond quips "A drop in the ocean."
Of the four helicopter pilots who try to gun down Bond and Little Nellie, he says: "Four big shots made improper advances towards her but she defended her honour with great success."
When henchman Hans gets piranha'd he adds "Bon appetit."
Any less frothy elements? So once again it's time to consider if there are any outstanding themes or elements that don't sit well with today's audience. As usual, I couldn't perceive any obvious homophobic elements, but I wasn't quite sure what to make of Bond changing his appearance to look Japanese. If that had happened on Broadway or the West End today we would call it "yellowface". However, in those days, I don't think the same sensibilities applied, and it's not as though Bond is doing it in any way to make fun of or discriminate against his Japanese colleagues – it's purely to make it easier to infiltrate the volcano lair.
However, as usual, when it comes to sexism, where do you start? Let's check that definition of sexism again, so that we know where we're at. Sexism is: "(Behaviour, language, etc, reflecting) the assumption that one sex, esp. the female, is inferior to the other; prejudice or discrimination, esp. against women, on the grounds of sex; insistence on (esp. a woman's) conformity to a sexually stereotyped social role."
Bond's first line in the film is "why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?" which caused a big intake of breath in our household when we watched it again recently. I can't quite put my finger on why this line made us feel so uneasy, but it did. Another line, that is distinctly sexist, is Tanaka's decree that "in Japan, men always come first; women come second". He and Bond then use four girls for massage and whatever else they might like, without the girls having any say in the matter. They are purely a commodity; and they spend the entire time sitting around in – not even bikinis – but bra and panties.
As does poor Kissy Suzuki, who has to clamber up and down a volcano edge in just her underwear. It's purely for titillation, purely to show which gender calls all the shots and which gender abides by those rules. No wonder things have changed nowadays. However, Japan in the 1960s was not a liberated environment for women, and, although today this treatment of women feels very uncomfortable, for the time this was a fairly accurate assessment of women's role in Japanese society.
When Osato criticises Bond for smoking, saying it is unhealthy for the chest, Helga passes him the drink with the line "Mr Osato believes in a healthy chest" – to which Bond simply replies, "really?"
Bizarre other stuff that occurred to me and a few observations.
Although Thunderball's plot is satirised in Austin Powers, Donald Pleasence is definitely the inspiration for Dr. Evil.
This is the first Bond film where I have really noticed the beautiful cinematography. There are some amazing sunsets, and the overwhelming sense of natural Japanese tranquillity comes through strongly in many scenes. There's also the wonderful aerial shot of Bond on the roof of the docks building, punching his way through a number of pursuing henchmen. It's a very arresting shot.
With all that CCTV going on, how come Blofeld and the gang don't realise that Bond, Tanaka and Kissy are clambering about on their roof?
Inevitably, I guess, much of the content of this film is very much in the spirit of the time. Space travel was so cool in those days, so exciting; everyone was a mini-expert on spaceships; many TV series were based in space or had the possibility of "other life" as a subject. This was before any moon landings had actually taken place, so the competition between America and the Soviet Union to be the first was red hot. When the Americans say they've got another spacecraft going up in twenty days' time, you realise that, in those days, spaceships were almost like buses. Miss one, another will be along shortly.
Look how terrified the poor cat is, whilst bombs are going off all round! Apparently, it went missing for two days and would never go on a film set again. Verging on animal cruelty, I'd say.
Awards: Ken Adam was nominated for the BAFTA for Best British Art Direction (Colour), but the award went to John Box for his work on A Man for All Seasons.
To sum up. Perhaps surprisingly, this was the first time that the box office takings for a Bond movie were less than for the previous film – so from that perspective, you might consider it failed, albeit slightly. However, in my humble opinion, this is the most entertaining James Bond film so far in the canon. The evilest villain, all kinds of Bond Girls, some witty one-liners, and a lot of engrossing (rather than tedious) action. I'd be fascinated to hear your opinions of You Only Live Twice – and whether you agree with me! Next up is the first Bond film that I saw at the cinema, when I was a nipper – On Her Majesty's Secret Service; and a change of Bond, as George Lazenby takes the stage.
My rating: 5 Sparkles
All photos from the film of course belong to their various copyright holders.
Posted in Cinema, James Bond	/ Tagged Akiko Wakabayashi, Charles Gray, chris sparkle, Donald Pleasence, James Bond, James Bond Challenge, Karin Dor, Sean Connery, Teru Shimada, You Only Live Twice	/ 6 Comments
Review – Rocketman, Northampton Filmhouse, 9th June 2019
Posted on June 12, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
Mrs Chrisparkle wasn't keen on seeing this, but I heard great things, so I took the opportunity to nip into the Northampton Filmhouse by myself whilst she was slaying business dragons in America. I wouldn't describe myself as an Elton John fan, exactly, but I have a very soft spot for a number of his songs, and I was intrigued to see what they do with all this potent raw material – a life of excess and a musical back catalogue that's probably sold billions rather than millions.
Rocketman is, on one hand, a stereotypical biopic taking us through the life of Elton John from his early boyhood up to the time when he crashed into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting bursting with crises. We see his suburban-comfortable but emotionally starved early days, with a distant military father who cannot cope with emotion and a vacuous mother whose only love is for herself – thank heavens for his kindly nan, Ivy, who was the only one to take any interest in young Reggie. We see him taking his first steps at the Royal Academy of Music, then breaking into the music business, getting signed to Dick James Music, starting a writing partnership with Bernie Taupin, making and selling records and – pretty much instantly – hitting America on tour. And whilst his commercial success escalates, his personal life deteriorates; the only constant in his life being Taupin, with whom he famously has never had an argument through fifty years of collaboration – that's some achievement.
On the other hand, the film is a fantasy musical, with much in common with other jukebox musicals, using songs from an artist's repertoire to complement the various stages of their life. But the first musical number reminded me more of how La-La-Land starts (in other words, brilliantly, then never regaining that opening buzz) with a big song-and-dance extravaganza in the street. Then the rest of the songs are woven into Elton John's story, some as concert material, but many in a more stylised, almost ethereal manner; and not only sung by John. In fact, one of the most emotionally powerful moments is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, performed by Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin; one of those brilliant cover versions that completely rewrites the original.
The fact that the songs don't appear chronologically disturbed me a little at first. Your Song (1970), for example, his first hit, is the seventh number to be performed during the film, whilst the first song in the film, The Bitch is Back, wasn't released until 1974. Of course, that doesn't matter with a show like Mamma Mia, where there is an invented story around which the Abba songs snugly fit; but that's not the case for Rocketman, ostensibly a chronological biopic. However, it's all performed so beautifully well, and the songs fit the various moods of the film so perfectly, that I had to tell myself to stop being so anal about it.
What impressed me most of all about this film was the sheer quality of the attention to detail and its absolute verisimilitude throughout. The three actors who play Elton John at various stages of his life look and sing so very similarly to the real person; they even capture his smile – teeth slightly exposed, top lip lifted up – you don't realise that's how EJ smiles until you see the actors do it. The costumes throughout are a perfect mimic of his concert gear; the film's finale is an (I believe) 100% correct recreation of the promotional video for his 1983 hit I'm Still Standing. That's all incredibly impressive.
As we know, Sir Elton has led a life of excess; we see the alcohol, we see the drugs. But what of the sex? In interview, Elton John said he had a lot of sex, but the film – despite its regrettable censorship in Russia to remove all traces of gayness – implies otherwise. It would appear that it's not until he's the recipient of a surprise kiss by one of the musicians on his first American tour that there's any uncertainty over his sexuality; and any such doubts are put to bed (if you'll pardon the expression) when he meets John Reid and, as a result, leaves DJM and takes Reid as his new manager/lover. But that's all we know of his sex life; you might have thought he was completely celibate outside that relationship, and I have a sense that the film misrepresents his life in this department somewhat. In fact, the only other relationships we see him involved in are with Bernie Taupin's landlady – that didn't work, obvs – and the loveless, sterile few weeks of his good publicity marriage to Renate. His long-term relationship with David Furnish takes place long after the timespan of the film has ended. At the end of the day, the film shows that all Elton John ever really wanted was someone to love him, which was something everyone in his life was unable to provide except for Taupin and his nan.
The performances are delightfully strong throughout. It's now too late to say of Taron Egerton that a star is born because of his Kingsman roles, but it's definitely a star performance, with his huge on-screen presence, tremendous voice and just that magic je ne sais quoi. Please read my P. S. below to see how he wouldn't have got where he is today if it wasn't for me (I know, I'm so influential). He just exudes quality and authority; he "gets" Elton's charisma even when he's portraying him at his most down-and-out. Absolutely first class.
Jamie Bell is superb as Taupin, that ever-reliable presence, a very open and honest guy who's always the most supportive figure in EJ's life. You really get the sense of the two of them together as being great mates, getting into a few scrapes but always there for each other – it's a very heart-warming portrayal. Richard Madden plays Reid as though he's auditioning for the next Bond movie; terse, arrogant, dynamic and highly convincing. You could really see how he could use sex as a weapon in the war of manipulation.
Bryce Dallas Howard is also excellent as EJ's deeply unpleasant mother Sheila, and there's another mini star turn from Steven Mackintosh as his father; regimented, stiff-upper-lip, finding it impossible to conceal his total distaste for his son's artistic interests. There's a truly emotional scene when the successful Elton pays a visit to his estranged father and meets his two sons from his subsequent re-marriage – so, his own new half-brothers – and there's no attempt to bridge any emotional gap between them, even though we can see how close his father is to his new progeny. You'd be devastated if it happened to you.
Big mentions for Kit Connor and especially Matthew Ilsley as the young Reggies (older and younger) who make those opening scenes of the film such a joy. There are also some fantastic cameos from actors you'd queue to see at the theatre, like Sharon D Clarke as the counsellor, Harriet Walter as the Royal Academy of Music tutor, Ophelia Lovibond as Arabella, Celine Schoenmaker as Renate and Jason Pennycooke as Wilson. Blink and you'll miss Everybody's Talking About Jamie's Layton Williams as an American band member. And it's lovely to see The Duchess of Duke Street herself, Gemma Jones, bringing warmth and character to the role of Ivy.
There's a point in the film where the pace of the storytelling slows down, roughly coinciding with EJ's descent into addiction and his increased antisocial behaviour; and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I felt the film sagged a little during those scenes. Otherwise, it's an eloquent account of the first two-thirds of Sir Elton's amazing life (what's that you say? Leaving room for a sequel bringing us up to date if the film were a success?) and musically and visually it's astounding entertainment. Plenty of Oscars and BAFTAs up for grabs here I expect. And why not?
P. S. So, Taron Egerton's first stage role was in The Last of the Haussmans at the National Theatre in 2012, the year he graduated from RADA. If I may quote myself, "in the smaller roles I thought Taron Egerton, in his first professional stage engagement, shows good promise". High praise indeed; you heard it here first. None of the newspaper critics commented on his performance. #justsaying
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged Bryce Dallas Howard, chris sparkle, Elton John, Jamie Bell, Northampton Filmhouse, Richard Madden, Rocketman, Steven Mackintosh, Taron Egerton	/ 2 Comments
Review – Red Joan, Northampton Filmhouse, 27th April 2019
Posted on April 30, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
Is there nothing that Dame Judi Dench can't do? From starring in Cabaret in those early days to being Bond's head of MI6, now she's accused of espionage, selling atomic bomb secrets to the Russians. What on earth would M say?!
Red Joan is based on the real-life story of Melita Norwood, the so-called "granny spy" who supplied information to the KGB over a period of forty years, but was never prosecuted. The film tells her story in flashbacks. In 2001, it starts with Joan's unexpected arrest at her suburban home, and then shows her police interviews where she slowly reveals her involvement in espionage, much to the shock of her solicitor – also her son – who is hearing it all for the first time. Shown alongside the police investigations, we see undergraduate Joan starting at Cambridge, how she meets the very charismatic Stalinists Sonya and Leo, and her subsequent employment at a Government Laboratory and romantic involvement with her married boss. Whilst she's excited to be doing such ground-breaking work, she's horrified when the atomic bomb that she's helped develop is used by the Americans in Japan. And that becomes her motivation for ensuring that the Russians know how to make the bomb too – working on the theory that if both sides have it, neither side will use it. And, as she says in her defence, so far, she's been proved right.
We'd seen that this film had generally received poor reviews, so were a little concerned at the prospect of watching it. All I can say is, those reviewers must have been watching a different film. Beautifully shot, with lovely lingering views of Cambridge; charming attention to period detail; strong performances from Tereza Srbova and Tom Hughes as the left-wing activists (and conduits to the KGB) Sony and Leo and from Sophie Cookson as young Joan; and Dame Judi on fine form, with the camera ruthlessly up close capturing those wrinkles of warmth and experience. Mrs Chrisparkle and I were completely caught up in its fascinating tale.
Two additional aspects of note: firstly, the astonishment of the younger generation at the achievements and/or activities of the older generation when they were younger. One of the rules of life is that we cannot know or remember our parents when they were young; and if they don't tell us what they got up to, it's impossible for us to second-guess. Joan's son is outraged when he discovers the truth about his mother; and his only question is, to what extent was his father complicit in keeping it a secret too? (Quite a lot, as it turns out.)
The film also showed the absolute sexism of the age, with the assumption that a mere woman couldn't possibly be a scientist, wouldn't she much prefer to be operating the new tumble dryer? It's only when boss Max stands up for her, and praises her brilliant brain in front of those who otherwise would patronise her, that she's allowed to take her place at the forefront of the research. Men, eh, what are we like?
Coming it a decent 101 minutes, it doesn't prolong the story beyond our attention span, and, whilst it's fair to say that you could always do with a little more Dame Judi, the balance between the concurrent stories of her arrest and the development of her spy career works very well. OK, it's not the paciest of films, but, imho, this is an engrossing and enjoyable film. If you suspect you might enjoy it, then I think you will!
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged chris sparkle, Filmhouse, Judi Dench, Northampton, Red Joan, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova, Tom Hughes	/ Leave a comment
The James Bond Challenge – Casino Royale (1967)
In which Sir James Bond is coaxed out of retirement after M has been assassinated (by himself) and Agent Mimi has taken the place of M's widow and fallen in love with Bond's robust strength and physical magnificence. In order to defeat SMERSH, all British agents take on the name James Bond, but the real Bond finally meets his love child from his relationship with superspy Mata Hari (Mata Bond), and, with assistance from more Bond girls than you can shake a stick at, overthrows the evil plans of Dr Noah, before each and every one of them dies in a massive conflagration. And to think that some of the actors involved in this film actually thought it was going to be serious.
But no. This is the spoof Casino Royale, and not to be confused with the Eon Casino Royale that hit the screens in 2006. Back in 1955, Ian Fleming sold the film rights to producer Gregory Ratoff, but Ratoff failed to secure the funding before he died in 1960. Charles K Feldman then obtained the rights from Ratoff's widow. Cubby Broccoli offered to buy the rights from him, but Feldman refused, as he had plans to make the film, with Howard Hawks directing and starring Cary Grant as Bond. But with the great success of Dr No, Feldman realised he couldn't compete with the Eon/Connery/Broccoli/Saltzman team and had to think again. In 1964 further negotiations were underway with Eon Productions to make the film but personal disagreements between the producers made things difficult and, anyway, Connery was looking for a million dollars to make the film – which was outside Feldman's budget. Eventually Feldman offered it to Columbia, and, as the Bond movies had made the whole idea of spy films popular, decided to make it as a satirical, comedy spoof.
The screenplay was to be written by Ben Hecht, of Scarface and The Front Page fame. However, he died two days before his final version was ready to be presented to Feldman. It was subsequently re-written by Billy Wilder, and then re-worked by the credited writers, Wolf Mankowitz, John Law and Michael Sayers. In addition, and for reasons that will become clear, it is said that Peter Sellers commissioned Terry Southern (with whom he had worked on Dr Strangelove) to re-write all the scenes in which Sellers appeared. So, clearly, the script went through several hands before achieving its final version. If that wasn't confusing enough, the film eventually benefited (if that's the word) from having no fewer than six directors. Val Guest directed the scenes with Woody Allen and David Niven, and was in charge of stitching the whole thing together at the end. Kenneth Hughes directed the Berlin scenes, John Huston directed the early scenes at Bond's mansion and the Scottish castle, Joseph McGrath directed the scenes with Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and Ursula Andress, Robert Parrish directed other scenes with Sellers and Welles, and finally, Richard Talmadge, with his speciality in stunt work, directed the final scenes at the casino. Too many cooks? If you watch the film and think it's unconnected, episodic, bitty and completely out of control, that's why.
It doesn't stop there though. Peter Sellers and Orson Welles had a huge on-set falling-out, primarily because Princess Margaret (a friend of Sellers) visited the set and Sellers expected to bathe in her glamour and attention; however, by all accounts she cut Sellers and spent the whole time fangirling Welles. Not for the first time, nor the last, Sellers stomped off the set. That's why he engaged Terry Southern to write his lines, in order to get the better of Welles and make himself look more important. Sellers refused to be in Welles' presence, so their baccarat game scenes were filmed separately, with a double standing in for Sellers. There are two versions of the following tale; one is that, eventually, Sellers walked off the set, never to return; the other is that he was fired by Val Guest before the end of filming for being so unreasonable. Either way, it left a whole number of unresolved plot lines hanging, requiring some imaginative deep thinking from the directors as to what to do. No wonder the end of the film just feels like a mindless mish-mash of ideas and lines.
Casino Royale's original budget was a relatively modest $6 million, but after the rewrites, the stormings-out and all the other tensions and costs, the eventual cost to make it more than doubled to over $12 million. That made it unquestionably the most expensive Bond movie at the time. Its box office take of $41.7 million was nothing like as much as the regular Eon Production films – but at least it was still a profit. Apparently, there was a lot of wastage. Woody Allen spoke of being brought over from America way ahead of when he was required on set, spending weeks in luxury hotels totally needlessly; although, whilst he was waiting, it did give him the time to write the screenplay for Take the Money and Run. And, despite his leaving the production in the lurch a few times, Peter Sellers had negotiated a resounding 3% of gross profits. That's quite some fee.
The book of Casino Royale was published in 1953 and was the first in Ian Fleming's series of James Bond novels. There's very little crossover between the content of the book and this film. In the book, Bond plays baccarat with SMERSH agent Le Chiffre in order to deprive the enemy of funds. Eventually, with a little help from Felix Leiter, he wins, and Le Chiffre is murdered by one of his own agents. Bond and his Soviet assistant Vesper Lynd become lovers; but she takes her own life when it's revealed she's a Russian double agent. In the film, of course, it's Evelyn Tremble who plays baccarat with Le Chiffre, and it's Tremble with whom Vesper becomes enamoured. Leiter doesn't appear in the film – and all the other film characters don't appear in the book!
Despite its very obvious failings, I have a very soft spot for this film. It was one of the first times that I was taken to the cinema as a child – I would have been seven or eight – and of course most of it would have gone completely over my head. However, I do remember laughing at some of the slapstick elements – particularly the out of control milk van. And I absolutely loved the score – more of which later.
Most of the critics at the time weren't impressed. The Chicago Sun-Times said "this is possibly the most indulgent film ever made"; Variety said it was "a conglomeration of frenzied situations, 'in' gags and special effects, lacking discipline and cohesion", and the New York Times called the ending "reckless, disconnected nonsense". With the benefit of hindsight, some of today's commentators have been a little kinder. Cinema historian Robert von Dassanowsky said "like Casablanca, Casino Royale is a film of momentary vision, collaboration, adaption, pastiche, and accident. It is the anti-auteur work of all time, a film shaped by the very zeitgeist it took on." AllMovie called it "the original ultimate spy spoof", and "a satire to the highest degree". My own personal opinion is that it is crammed with excess, a delightful sense of parody, some extremely funny scenes and lines, and it's 60s Retro of the highest order. Sadly, nothing can cover up its immensely manic, tedious and stupid ending, but you can't have everything.
As this is nothing to do with the Eon Production films, don't expect the opening credits to begin with Maurice Binder's iconic glimpse of Bond walking across the screen. This is pure parody, so we start with a saucy visual joke. Bond – as played by Peter Sellers – meets Mathis of the Special Police in a Parisian pissoir. We can only see them from the chest up. "These are my credentials", says Mathis, as Bond gazes down towards his nether regions. "They appear to be in order" replies Bond. And it's straight into the opening titles and the magnificent Casino Royale theme, written by Burt Bacharach and performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
The titles feature the names of the lead performers with an embellished (and animated) capital letter at the beginning of their first name – rather like one might see in a lavish old book. However, the animation that we can see inside the letter shows many of the characters strumming on a heavenly lyre – so we know, before it starts, that they die! Peter Sellers, of course, gets top billing, followed by Ursula Andress and David Niven; so, interestingly, James Bond is given third billing in this film. The anarchic animation of the opening credits is pure swinging sixties.
And the locations? Unlike the other Bond films so far, this is a very British-based story. The scenes depicting Trafalgar Square and 10 Downing Street were indeed shot at those esteemed locations. Sir James Bond's stately pile was filmed at Mereworth Castle in Kent, M's Scottish castle was filmed at Killeen Castle in Co Meath, in Ireland; other scenes were shot in Killin in Perthshire and Windsor in Berkshire. In the book, the Casino Royale itself is located in the fictional French town of Royale-les-Eaux. However, I can only presume that the casino in the film was on the set of Pinewood, Shepperton or Twickenham Studios, where the majority of the film was shot.
Bond, James Bond. David Niven has a damn good stab at creating what James Bond might have become in retirement (tongue firmly in cheek, of course). Prudish, dedicated to Debussy, and with a disconcerting stammer, all that womanising is way behind him now, and he loves to live a comfortable but reclusive life, with lions on his front drive and a black rose in his garden. Once he's back in the saddle as head of MI6, he's self-assured, debonair and really quite mischievous. I haven't really seen David Niven in many films, but I think he's terrific in this. He was, of course, a much lauded and experienced actor, having appeared in almost one hundred films between 1932 and his death in 1983. His two volumes of autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, and Bring on the Empty Horses were massively successful, and he was something of a war hero too, joining the army on the day the Second World War started, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Boo-boos. Continuity errors and mistakes don't feel quite so important in an anarchic comedy like this, but there are a few moments worth noting. In the scene where Le Chiffre, who is obsessed with magic, levitates a woman over the baccarat table, you can actually see the steel bar that's holding her up; and when M's widow enters Bond's bedroom, you can see the reflection of the cameraman in a mirror on the wall. When the remotely operated milk van is chugging its merry way around the roads of Berkshire, in one scene it swerves and loses half its milk crates into the street; seconds later, it's fully laden again. Maybe Le Chiffre was working his magic.
The Bond Girl. If it's a Bond film, it's got to have a Bond girl, right? This one, as befits its excessive status, has at least four. Agent Mimi is first up – she's a SMERSH agent pretending to be M's widow, the Lady Fiona McTarry. She's desperate to seduce and discredit the very upright Bond – and encourages all M's "daughters" (eleven of them, aged between 16 and 19 – we are on very shaky ground here) to do the same. But when she sees how successfully Bond "pays the piper" by handling those cannonballs, she can't hide her genuine love for the man. Superbe! Formidable! Splendide! Bravo! Magnifique!!!! she moans. Agent Mimi was played by Deborah Kerr, a fine, experienced actress, best known for her appearances in The King and I, and on stage in many plays.
Then there's Mata Bond, his estranged daughter following an intimate liaison with the famous spy Mata Hari. She's full of spirit but a bit annoyed with him for being an absentee father. But she's up for a fine piece of espionage as she's driven to Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, an au pair service that is a cover for a SMERSH training centre. Later, she's captured in a giant flying saucer – it happens; and it's while on their mission to rescue her that the Bonds all get trapped in the Casino Royale. Mata was played by Joanna Pettet, whose film career started promisingly with a number of good roles in the 1960s, and then she migrated to small roles in dozens of TV series.
Another Bond Girl that Bond really oughtn't to be attracted by is Miss Moneypenny – in fact, she's Miss Moneypenny's daughter, and we probably oughtn't to ask who her father is. Unlike the traditional Moneypenny, this one's more prepared to get her hands dirty out in the field. Her finest hour is when she samples all the contenders for a new Bond to be trained to resist the attractions of women; as I say, getting dirty in the field. Moneypenny was played by Barbara Bouchet, who has appeared in dozens of films, mainly in Italy, and who branched out into fitness books and videos and still has a successful fitness studio in Rome.
Certainly not to go unmentioned is The Detainer; the British spy who tricks Dr Noah into taking his own atomic pill. She's not really a Bond Girl though – because she hardly has anything to do with Bond. She was played by Daliah Lavi, an Israeli actress, singer and model, who appeared in a few films and also found fame as a Schlager singer in Germany. She died in 2017 at the age of 74. Also not to go unmentioned, and also not a Bond Girl, is Miss Goodthighs. She's a SMERSH agent who attempts to kill Evelyn Tremble at the Casino; so as she's not working with Bond, but working against him, she's a baddie. She was played by Jacqueline Bisset, whose film career hasn't stopped since she appeared in her first movie in 1965.
But we definitely have to include Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. Ms Andress, of course, played Honey Ryder in Dr No, and so was already a Bond Girl before Casino Royale came along. Vesper Lynd has been tempted back into espionage in return for writing off her tax arrears. She approaches Evelyn Tremble to get him to play baccarat against Le Chiffre (almost a part of the original novel emerging there!) Whilst she and Tremble have a definite dalliance, at the end she betrays him because she is a double agent after all. But, anyway, everyone dies, so what's the difference?
The Villain. Dr Noah – no real clue necessary to guess where his name came from – has a plan to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4 foot 6 inches tall. Much to everyone's dismay, Dr Noah turns out to be little Jimmy Bond, James' nephew, who cannot speak in his presence because he's so overawed. But he is hoist by his own petard when he's tricked into swallowing his own atomic pill – which causes the grand explosion at Casino Royale and the subsequent death of all and sundry. He was played by Woody Allen, who needs no introduction in the world of cinema. It is said, though, that he was so aghast at the awful management of this film – the on-set arguments, the wasted time, the six directors, and so on – that he vowed never to let anyone else direct a film that he was involved in. So it did contribute something significant to the world of cinema!
Other memorable characters? Casino Royale is so full of tiny roles played by significant actors, that, to be honest, I don't know where to begin? I suppose first up must be Orson Welles' Le Chiffre, the SMERSH agent who loves his baccarat not quite as much as his magic. Orson Welles, of course, had an extraordinary career in all the arts – and I believe the feelings between him and Peter Sellers were mutual.
Ah yes, Peter Sellers, who played Evelyn Tremble. A man of amazing talent, and some (obviously) difficult problems. He punched director Joseph McGrath who said he would never work with him again. Some of the frustration in making the film must have come from the fact that Sellers thought this was going to be a relatively straight film, and that he would take a relatively straight and serious role. This was never going to happen.
I doubt if I'll name all the significant performers in this film. Peter O'Toole, Jean-Paul Belmondo (at the time, Ursula Andress' other half) and George Raft all make brief cameo appearances with a couple of lines at the most. Racing Driver Stirling Moss doesn't say a word, nor does M's driver, John le Mesurier. Flavour of the month at the time, Anna Quayle is a terrifying Frau Hoffner, accompanied by the battery-driven, sex-mad Polo played by Ronnie Corbett. John Huston directed himself playing M; Charles Boyer and William Holden are the other two Intelligence Men in the opening scene. Bernard Cribbins drives a taxi all the way to Berlin; Derek Nimmo is Bond's new office assistant, Hadley; Geoffrey Bayldon (aka Catweazle) is Q, with John Wells as his simpering assistant, Fordyce. Alexandra Bastedo, she of The Champions, features as M's "daughter" Meg. Richard Wattis is the British Army officer present at the auction that was to be chaired by Vladek Sheybal (Kronsteen in From Russia with Love). The list goes on, but I'll stop there.
And what about the music? Now we're talking. Burt Bacharach's soundtrack is a sheer joy throughout – and the CD has long been one of my favourite Easy Listening collections. Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass' rendition of the main theme was a smash hit single, reaching No 1 in the United States, although only No 27 in the UK. Dusty Springfield's exquisite performance of The Look of Love, whilst never a single success by itself, remains one of her finest recordings and it's impossible to hear it without all your extremities tingling with joy. The remainder of the incidental music is full of hilarious motifs, sexy arrangements, period pastiches and sheer musical madness. Although they're not on the soundtrack album, it's also fun to hear the musical salutes in the film – a brief snatch of Born Free (written by regular Bond composer John Barry) when M is driving past Bond's lions; a moment from the theme to Moulin Rouge when Peter Sellers' Evelyn Tremble is pretending to be Toulouse-Lautrec; even the echo of What's New Pussycat emerging from a manhole cover, a 1965 film which had previously united the talents of Sellers, Allen, O'Toole, Andress, Bacharach and producer Charles Feldman.
There are plenty of opportunities for comedy from the complicated and unlikely gadgets in use – the scene with Q and his assistant is a perfect parody of all those genuine Bond scenes, where army types are trying out the new gadgets, some with greater success than others. And as Sir James points out, early in the film, as he's discrediting his guests with their feeble spy accoutrements: "You, Ransome, with your trick carnation that spits cyanide. You ought to be ashamed. And you, Smernov, with an armoury concealed in your grotesque boots. Listen to them tinkle. And you, Le Grand, with a different deadly poison in each of your fly buttons. And you, M, with your flame-throwing fountain pens. You're joke-shop spies, gentlemen." However, I do like the magnetic buttons that attract the artificial grouse with their built-in machine guns. Very clever.
There's no point examining the death count on this film as it's all pure pantomime, everyone dies and, in a sense, no one dies, as we see them in Heaven. However, I do want to share with you some of my favourite lines from the film.
"I present you with the levitation of the Princess Ayisha, an illusion taught to me by an ancient vegetarian in the mountain fastnesses of Tibet."
"It's the first john I've ever gone around with."
"Which side do you dress, sir?" "I usually dress away from the window".
"Listen. You can't shoot me. I have a very low threshold of death. My doctor says I can't have bullets enter my body at any time. What if I said I was pregnant?"
"I'm the new secret weapon. I've just been perfected." "Yes, haven't you?" "They've kept me under wraps." "Lucky them." "What do you do that's so secret?" "I don't do anything. But unless you're one of them, you do […] You're really learning to put up quite a resistance." "It goes against my nature." "I sense that too. What are you doing after the exercise?" "Getting my head examined."
"Call me Coop." "Like something for keeping birds." "That's me."
"What a charming outfit that is. Do you often wear that in the office?" "If I wore it in the street, people might stare."
"Just how personal is a toupee?" "It can only be regarded as a "hairloom".
Iffy Material: There's no doubt that there's quite a lot of material that has dated badly in a post-Operation Yewtree world. A man of David Niven's age getting into the bath with a girl of (allegedly) 17 years makes one feel a little squeamish today. And consider this conversation between Agent Mimi masquerading as Lady Fiona and James Bond, describing a portrait hanging on the wall: "To your right, Sir James – Lady Mary, daughter of Lord Douglas McTarry, raped by the Campbells in 1662, in retaliation of which, Lord Douglas sent his only son Hamish out to rape twa Campbell lassies." "At the same time?" "Eldest first, of course. As prescribed by scripture." It has an Ortonesque naughtiness to it, but it's really not acceptable in this day and age.
Awards: The Look of Love was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, losing to Talk to the Animals from Doctor Dolittle. Burt Bacharach's score also earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show. Julie Harris was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design.
To sum up: In so many ways, this film is a complete oddity; one of those star-strangled indulgences that no doubt looked great on paper but had a lot of difficulty reaching the screen. For me it has some serious highlights but also a lot of longueurs; but it's part of my childhood and I love it for that. I'd be fascinated to hear your opinions of Casino Royale – and whether you agree with me! Please leave a comment below. Next, we're going to be returning to the classic Bond films and You Only Live Twice, released just two months after Casino Royale. I'm sure the diehard fans couldn't wait!
Posted in Cinema, James Bond	/ Tagged Casino Royale, chris sparkle, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, James Bond, James Bond Challenge, Orson Welles, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen	/ Leave a comment
Review – The Favourite, Northampton Filmhouse, 26th January 2019
Posted on January 28, 2019 by therealchrisparkle
As long as I can remember I've been a theatre-type much more than a movie-type, so we don't go to the films as often as most people. Surprise, surprise, we went twice last week! On Wednesday we saw the charming and enjoyable Stan & Ollie, and on Saturday night it was the turn of The Favourite.
I didn't have much in the way of expectations, other than believing it to be a madcap and rather black comedy featuring Queen Anne. And of course, Olivia Colman, as the Royal Personage Herself, who was the prime reason we chose to see it. She can do no wrong in my book. And, to an extent, she continues to do no wrong as she is by far the best thing about this film; the other two good things being her co-stars, Rachel Weisz as the sinister and cruel Duchess of Marlborough and Emma Stone as the irrepressibly optimistic and ruthlessly manipulative Abigail Masham.
The plot can be summarised thus: two women vie for the attention of Queen Anne in order to gain power and status for themselves, and are not above indulging in a little sexual shenanigans to get it. Err… that's it.
Many people I like, indeed love, and whose opinions I respect and admire, have told me what a jolly good film this is. Black comedy, rule breaking, innovative, savage, hilarious; toying with historical fact and historical fiction to create its own dystopian society. And, to be fair, it does achieve this very well. The one aspect of the film that amused me more than anything was how the queen made life or death decisions on the tactics of war with France at a complete whim and clearly without the first clue as to the logic of the battlefield. Because of the regal regime of terror and violence, and unctuous supplication to the crown, the politicians and the military can merely bow down, do her bidding and accept her stupidity. The queen only cares about herself, and her self-indulgences: eating and drinking too much, playing with her pet rabbits, and occasional cunnilingus provided by Abigail. The queen is a truly grotesque characterisation and Ms Colman carries it off with her usual aplomb.
I also know some people – not so many, but still significant – who didn't rate the film at all. And I have heard of people walking out, which, as I was watching it, didn't particularly surprise me. If you don't "get" this film, it's going to do nothing for you. Sadly, I am among that number. I didn't get this film at all.
In fact, I got the sense all the way through that this was a film trying to shock for shock's sake, rather than honestly and organically unfolding its story and characters. I felt like we'd gone back fifty years, and this was some creation of a wild child Ken Russell-type, perhaps with a spot of Andy Warhol or Derek Jarman thrown in. It came across as trying to push the boundaries of what would be allowed by a censor, even though those boundaries have long been established. There's a brothel scene, so let's have a bunch of female extras queueing up with their breasts out. There's a shower scene (why?) so let's have some more naked female extras having freezing buckets of water chucked over them so we can watch them suffer. Let's see how many times we can get away with the main characters vomiting, and try to make it humorous by having flunkeys capture the puke in a silver ewer. Let's see how uncomfortable we can make an audience by having someone tread heavily on a rabbit, for no reason other than because they can, so it cries out in pain. It strikes me that this is a director struggling with late-onset puberty.
Everything is done to excess in this film. Now, it may well be that it was an era of excess, so that it's arguably a reasonable tactic to employ. But there are limits; even "doing it to excess" is done to excess. When Abigail gets off the coach at the beginning of the film, she can't just get out of it, she has to be pushed out so that she falls face first in the midden. When she's in conversation with the MP who wants her to spy on the queen, it can't just end there, she has to be pushed head first so that she falls flat down a hill (same joke twice, well done.) When she has offended protocol by attending to the queen's inflamed legs without permission, she isn't simply dismissed, she's punished with three savage strokes (was going to be six but it was curtailed) of the birch performed in full view for general entertainment. When anyone disapproves of something, they shout. Especially the queen. She shouts loudly, gracelessly, savagely, ear-piercingly; no filter, as the Insta crowd say. This may be all very clever but, boy, does it get on your nerves.
Even the cinematography has the feel of someone who's been let off the leash for the first time, playing with effects to see if they work. What does this button do? Oooh it's fish-eye! Let's start lots of the scenes fish-eye style for no apparent reason whatsoever apart from seeing what it looks like. And what's this button? Wow, it's widescreen! Let's use this as another tool for disorienting the audience, yay! Have you heard about this thing where you can layer one image on top of another so that it looks really groovy? Let's include that for no reason whatever! Oh, and have you finished doing the titles yet? Oh great, you've used an ornate font and centre-justified them so that they look like a block of words that's impossible to read! A perfect symptom of a product that's all show and no substance!
No, I'm not buying this. 120 minutes including the occasional chuckle but many more wtf moments. Mrs Chrisparkle managed to stay awake but was severely bored. I wasn't bored, I was just stunned by its assumption that we'd fall for old-fashioned shock tactics straight out of the late 60s. There's probably a very good film hidden in there somewhere. Go away and do it again.
P. S. I forgot the ducks. I did like the ducks. BAFTA nomination for Best Waterfowl in a Supporting Role.
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged chris sparkle, Emma Stone, Northampton, Northampton Filmhouse, Olivia Colman, Queen Anne, Rachel Weisz, The Favourite	/ 2 Comments
The James Bond Challenge – Thunderball (1965)
In which SPECTRE plan to extort £100 million in diamonds (that's £1.35 billion in today's money, so it's a lot of cash) or else two atomic bombs will be dropped on either a major US or English city – later revealed to be Miami. M and his team can't allow that to happen, so Bond is sent to the Bahamas, where he eventually finds the hidden bombs, kills a lot of SPECTRE's henchmen underwater and the world is saved. Good man, Bond!
As the films got grander and longer, so did the budgets continue to increase. The budget for Thunderball was $9 million – three times that of Goldfinger – but with an overall box office take of an estimated $141 million, this was a wise investment. In the original plan, Thunderball was meant to be the first film in the series, but an extended legal wrangle made this impossible; a compromise was eventually reached that credited Kevin McClory (who had always claimed he had co-written the story of Thunderball with Jack Whittingham) as Producer of the movie, with Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman named as Executive Producers. Along with the return of Richard Maibaum as screenwriter, alongside John Hopkins, this makes for quite convoluted opening credits!
Guy Hamilton, who had directed Goldfinger, was asked back, but he was too "Bonded Out" to feel the necessary creativity, so he next went on to direct Oliver Reed in The Party's Over. As a result, Terence Young returned to the job, having already directed Dr No and From Russia With Love. This would be his final Bond film. Once again, the cinematography was by Ted Moore, with Peter Hunt as supervising film editor (film editing credited to Ernest Hosler), and production design by Ken Adam. John Barry was, of course, again responsible for the music, all apart from Monty Norman's James Bond Theme. Bob Simmons was the stunt choreographer and puts in an amazing performance as Mme Bouvar (not) getting thwacked to a pulp by Bond in the pre-titles scene.
Thunderball was published in 1961 and was the ninth in Ian Fleming's series of James Bond novels. As outlined earlier, it was written as a collaboration between Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, as a novelisation of an earlier, unused film screenplay. As a result, it's unsurprising that the film and the book tell very much the same story, with only a few minor changes. As an aside, this wasn't the only film to be made from the Thunderball novel – 1983's Never Say Never Again, which was Sean Connery's Bond swansong, also follows the plot of this book. But that's a matter for another time!
In the novel, it is explained that M has sent Bond off to the health farm, Shrublands, because he was getting unfit through drinking and smoking too much; but the film just places Bond in the health farm without explanation. The character of Fiona doesn't appear in the novel, and Emilio Largo is described as SPECTRE's No 1, because the identity of No 1 kept changing for security reasons. In the film he is No 2, only Blofeld could hold that honour. Fleming liked to borrow his real-life experiences and use the names of people he knew, or knew of, throughout his stories; Blofeld is named after Tom Blofeld who was a contemporary of Fleming's at Eton and whose son is Henry Blofeld of cricketing fame.
Thinking back, and remembering how I saw From Russia with Love, Diamonds are Forever, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice in double-bills at the Odeon Aylesbury with my schoolfriend John, I am pretty sure that I hadn't seen Thunderball before. It's amazing how such a well-known film can completely escape one's attention. Still, better late than never.
Both book and novel received generally favourable reviews. Of the novel, the Guardian wrote: "it is a good, tough, straightforward thriller on perfectly conventional lines"; and the Financial Times called it: "an exciting story skilfully told", with "a romantic sub-plot […] and the denouement involves great events." Of the film, the Financial Times regretted the fact that there was much less attempt made at establishing Bond as a "connoisseur playboy". I find myself agreeing with American film critic Danny Peary, when he said "it takes forever to get started and has too many long underwater sequences during which it's impossible to tell what's going on". My own reaction to the film is that it's as though they went and bought some underwater cameras and were going to absolutely get their money's worth.
The opening credits appear unchanged, with Maurice Binder's iconic glimpse of Bond walking across the screen whilst being captured by the barrel of a gun, only for him to turn around, see us, and shoot; and then for the blood to start filling up the screen. However, because this movie was filmed in widescreen Panavision, it had to be re-shot; so this is the first time that the actor playing Bond appears in the opening credits – stunt man Bob Simmons had featured in these credits in the first three films. As usual, we are taken straight into the opening scene. We witness Bond at the funeral of one Colonel Jacques Bouvar, SPECTRE's No 6, where his widow is mourning in the grand tradition of black veils and garments. Bond, however, isn't satisfied, and when she gets back to her grand house, she locks herself into a sumptuous room only to discover Bond is there waiting for her. She turns out to be a he; Bouvar himself has faked his death, and there follows a thoroughly extravagant fight scene between the two – Bond, cool calm and collected, Bouvar in high heels and stockings.
Eventually Bouvar is overpowered and slung into the fireplace to die, a contemptuous bunch of tulips being chucked over his head by Bond as an afterthought. Bond flees to the rooftops to make his escape, but he is followed by SPECTRE henchmen, and just when you think he's going to get caught – up he flies into the air wearing a jetpack, safely landing beside his Aston Martin DB5 and colleague from the French service, Madame La Porte. The bullet shield emerges from the back of the Aston, and emits a water cannon to keep the henchmen at bay.
Once again our first sight of Bond shows him doing all those things he does best. Looking cool, fighting and killing ruthlessly, being up to date with all the best gadgets. We instantly move into the rest of the title sequence. Getting a little more daring year by year, these credits feature naked bodies for the first time, which Maurice Binder filmed, originally, in black and white. As they swim, silhouetted, Binder created a vibrant colour backdrop of reds, blues, greens and purples, and it's a very attractive and arresting sequence. This is also our opportunity to hear the title song, Thunderball, sung by Tom Jones. In comparison to its two predecessors, this is, imho, quite an underpowered and forgettable song, which certainly made no impact on me as I was watching it. I note the single only made No 35 in the UK chart. Allegedly, Tom Jones fainted in an attempt to maintain the last big note of the song. Not sure it was worth it.
And the locations? The film takes us from Paris, back to the UK, and eventually on the Bahamas. Bond's opening-scene fight with Bouvar was filmed at the Château d'Anet, near Dreux, in North-West France; I recognised a pub in Beaconsfield as the site of the hotel where Derval was killed by Angelo. Shrublands Health Spa scenes were shot at Chalfont Park House, near Chalfont St Peter. The car chase between Bond, Lippe and Fiona was filmed at Silverstone Racing Circuit in Northamptonshire; Largo's grand estate, Palmyra, was filmed at the exclusive Rock Point home of a Philadelphia millionaire family, the Sullivans, who liked to watch the filming and used to have friends over for drinks who mixed with the cast and crew when not working. Other elegant locations included the Café Martinique and the Coral Harbour Hotel in Nassau. The climactic underwater battle was shot at Clifton Pier, Nassau, and was choreographed by Ricou Browning, famous for his underwater stunt work – he also created the cheeky dolphin, Flipper. He also staged the cave sequence and the battle scenes beneath the Disco Volante and called in his specialist team of divers who were essentially underwater stunt extras during the underwater fights.
Bond, James Bond. Sadly we don't get to hear Sean Connery utter those magnificent words this time round. Connery earned a tidy $800,000 for making this film, but he became very impatient with the heavy media attention in Nassau, which may have been partly due to his marital troubles with his wife at the time, Diane Cilento. He was also very nearly eaten by a shark, when filming in the pool at Largo's property; the Plexiglas divider that was meant to hold the sharks back from where Connery was in the pool wasn't – to coin a phrase – watertight, and a shark snuck in to where Connery was swimming. Apparently no one has ever jumped out of a pool faster.
Boo-boos. There are some continuity errors and mistakes as always, but the only one I noticed at the time of actually watching the movie was right at the beginning, where you hear Bond say "As I said, later" to Madame la Porte, his mouth is clearly saying something different! When Bond arrives at M's office, there's a modern white light switch by the door. When he leaves, it's a bronze double switch; curious. Roland Culver's character is referred to as the Home Secretary, but in the final credits he's listed as the Foreign Secretary – now, which is it? And Leiter is sometimes in long trousers and sometimes in shorts whilst he's piloting the helicopter – that's an impressive quick change. Bond constantly checks his Breitling Geiger Counter watch to see if he's near the atom bombs; on one occasion, however, it's a Rolex – smart, but no cigar. This is not an exhaustive list – there's plenty more for you to read about on the Internet!
The Bond Girl. As in Goldfinger, it takes the audience a while to work out who exactly is The Bond Girl in this film. It's no surprise that there are a number of women who take his fancy as the film progresses. In one of his first conversations with Madame La Porte, she asks if there is anything else the French station can do for him. His reply, "later, perhaps", accompanied by a slightly naughty grin implies he is attracted to her – but this goes no further, maybe because she's a married Madame. Bond's first interest is with the attractive physiotherapist at the spa, Patricia Fearing. Their banter is direct and their shower scene even more so – it almost won the film an X certificate, which would have been a box office disaster. Patricia is a nice dalliance for Bond until he leaves the spa, then she's history. Such a cad. She was played by Molly Peters – although her voice was dubbed by Barbara Jefford – who appeared in a few films in the 60s but whose career was short-lived mainly due to legal wrangles.
Then we meet Paula Caplan, working for the CIA in Nassau, she shows a lot of early potential as a Bond girl but when she is captured by SPECTRE henchmen Vargas and Janni, she chooses suicide by cyanide capsule rather than be tortured to reveal any secrets of Operation Thunderball. Now that's what I call a spy. She was played by Martine Beswick, who had previously appeared in From Russia with Love, as the fiery fighting gypsy girl, Zora. She had a long and varied career in TV and films, and is now semi-retired.
However, the real Bond Girl in this film is Domino, played by Claudine Auger. She's Largo's mistress, and Bond convinces her to help him when he reveals that Largo killed her brother. From then on, she's a mole in his camp. When he realises that she is working against him, he captures her with intent to torture her; luckily Largo's nuclear physicist Kutze also decided to jump ship and frees her, just in time for her shoot her harpoon gun through Largo's heart and save Bond. Hurrah! Claudine Auger was on holiday in Nassau when Kevin McClory spotted her and asked her to audition. Originally, the role of Domino was written as an Italian girl, but Ms Auger impressed them so much they recruited her and changed the role to a French one. Previously, she had been Miss France and was runner-up to Miss World in 1958; and she had a long and varied film career.
What Bond Girls Are Like. From the first three films, we came to the conclusion that Bond Girls are: sexy, exotic, unpredictable, as equally likely to attack Bond as to support him, strong and self-reliant up to a point, sometimes tragic, professional and scary. Domino doesn't throw many more attributes into the mix, apart from one: a desire for revenge.
The Villain. Of course the ultimate Villain is SPECTRE No 1, Blofeld, seen occasionally stroking his pussycat. But the "active" villain in Thunderball is No 2, Emilio Largo, played by Adolfo Celi. Largo is a rich, powerful, ruthless psychopath with a penchant for sharks and a black eye patch for no apparent reason. For me, personally, I didn't find him as scary or intimidating as any of the previous villains we'd encountered; not that he wasn't villainous, and he certainly looks the part, but I think by now I'm made of sterner stuff when it comes to Bond villains. Adolfo Celi was a Sicilian actor and singer, with notable performances in Von Ryan's Express and the TV series The Borgias. His voice was dubbed by Robert Rietty who had a prolific career in the US, UK and Italy.
Other memorable characters? Surprisingly few. At one stage you might even have thought that Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona might have ended up Bond Girl – and she very nearly did. Ms Paluzzi was originally considered for the role of Domino, but missed out – and was cast as Fiona instead, which she ended up enjoying more because there was more pizzazz in the role. Strictly one of the Baddies, she's a SPECTRE agent who becomes François Derval's mistress and assists Largo in Nassau. Bond can be persuasive with the ladies, but not that persuasive. She too gets her come-uppance when she's shot in the back at a dance. Luciana Paluzzi appeared in a number of films in the 60s and 70s, and in 1980 married American media mogul Michael Jay Solomon, a former president of Warner Brothers International Television. They now live in New York and Rome.
Rik Van Nutter brings a livelier, more proactive characterisation to the role of Felix Leiter than we have seen in the previous films by Jack Lord (Dr No) or Cec Linder (Goldfinger), although he's still a relatively minor figure in the story. Rik Van Nutter was married to Anita Ekberg at the time and was invited to play the role without an audition.
As usual, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn reprise their familiar roles as M, Moneypenny and Q. Once again M catches Moneypenny talking unguardedly in her reception area – I'm surprised she hasn't learned by now. Q is even more contemptuous of Bond's disregard for his amazing gadgets as they meet in Pinder's shop, "out in the field".
And what about the music? As usual, we start with the main James Bond Theme, written by Monty Norman, as part of the title sequence, and that's the last you hear of that. The rest of the film soundtrack is pure John Barry; apart from the title song, Thunderball, whose lyrics are by Don Black. Originally the title song was to have been Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, sung by Dionne Warwick, but timing issues, legal issues and the fact that it wasn't called Thunderball meant it was withdrawn fairly late in the day, so John Barry had to write a new theme double quick. In style, it's very similar to Goldfinger, although it's not as impressive or memorable as either the Goldfinger theme or Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The soundtrack is generally pleasant, but not much more; there's one recurring theme that hits the dramatic spot nicely. It's the track entitled simply 007, and you hear it when Bond escapes into the Junkanoo, when he leaves the helicopter to join the underwater battle to the death, and when he clambers aboard the Disco Volante to sort Largo out once and for all. It had been written for From Russia with Love, but this time with a much more arresting arrangement. The theme entitled Switching the Body also has a very ethereal vibe and adds to the suspense. King Errisson, and his combo, who play the Kiss Kiss Club, has had a long and successful career, supporting various luminaries such as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, and many others; he has also toured with Neil Diamond's band since 1978.
Car chases. There's one car chase; it's short, brisk and full of surprises! It's when Bond leaves the Spa in his Lincoln Continental and is pursued by Count Lippe in his Ford Fairlane Skyliner. As the Count gets closer, Bond is more than surprised to see him blown up to smithereens by the wicked Fiona, using a rocket launcher on her motorbike. And although it's not a chase as such, there's also Fiona's suspenseful 100 mph plus drive to Nassau that has Bond looking more nervous than I've ever seen him.
Cocktails and Casinos. Whilst staying at Palmyra, Bond and Largo indulge in some Rum Collins – that's a Tom Collins made with rum rather than gin. No need for him to ask for it to be shaken and not stirred. At the casino Bond rather extravagantly orders some Dom Perignon 55 to go with the Beluga caviar – nice. Bond's first meeting with Largo is at a casino table, playing Baccarat I believe. His henchman Vargas is playing opposite him, so presumably Largo wins either way. Bond replaces Vargas at the table and wipes the floor with him; Domino confides that Largo "is going to be impossible tonight if his luck doesn't change", which I understand to be a subtle hint of some domestic abuse there.
Gadgets. It's gadget overload right from the start! The jetpack that thrusts Bond away to safety, and the bullet shield and water cannon on the Aston Martin already take your breath away, and that's before the opening credits! Q's magic bundle for Bond includes a Breitling watch that acts as a Geiger counter, an underwater camera (two a penny nowadays, of course), a pill that acts as a Sat Nav device (same observation applies) and an underwater flare that is jolly useful as both a distress signal and for when you get lost and need a little light trying to find submerged atomic bombs. The cassette recorder hidden inside an old book looks rather tame by comparison – useful though it may be. The breathing mouthpiece comes into its own as Bond tries to outsmart the sharks; and there's also the skyhook that rescues Bond and Domino at the end of the film.
In Memoriam. Dr No had a death count of approximately 11 as well as all those who go up in smoke in his lair at the end; From Russia with Love notched up at least 40; Goldfinger came in at a more modest 23-ish, plus everyone who died at Fort Knox. Where does Thunderball stand on this count? Let's briefly remember those who gave their lives so that Bond and Domino can go up, up and away in their beautiful skyhook:
1) Whoever is in the coffin that appears to be that of Jacques Bouvar.
2) No 6 – Colonel Jacques Bouvar.
3) No 9 (electrocuted by Blofeld and his body submerged underground.
4) Derval, killed by Angelo, looking like Derval.
5) Would-be assassin by the window at the spa.
6) 5 pilots gassed on board the Vulcan Bomber.
7) Angelo, his air supply cut underwater by Largo.
8) Lippe, chasing Bond, ambushed by Fiona.
9) Quist, eaten by a shark at Palmyra.
10) Underwater henchman (under the Disco Volante) with air supply cut.
11) Paula.
12) Henchman stabbed by Bond in the shark pool.
13) Fiona, shot accidentally at the Kiss Kiss Club by a henchman.
14) A shark. (They have feelings too, you know.)
15) Vargas.
16) At least 26 people harpooned underwater during the battle between the henchmen and the NATO forces.
17) Whoever dies when the back half of the Disco Volante blows up.
18) Largo.
19) And whoever was left in the front of the Disco Volante when it bursts into flames on the rocks.
That's probably somewhere in the ballpark of 50 people (and a shark.)
Humour to off-set the death count. Following his jokey remarks whenever someone died in the previous movies, here are some more throwaway lines to send some poor souls on to heaven:
After the fire during the car chase, Bond is late for the important meeting of all the "00s". Apologising, Bond explains "Some people on the roads really burn you up these days."
When Bond dumps the freshly shot body of Fiona at a drinks table, he apologises to the others there with: "Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She's just dead."
After he harpoons Vargas, Bond says "I think he got the point."
Plus there's Bond's rather dismissive chucking of the flowers all over the dead Bouvar.
Any less frothy elements? So once again it's time to consider if there are any outstanding themes or elements that don't sit well with today's audience. As usual, I couldn't perceive any obvious homophobic or racist elements, but when it comes to sexism, where do you start? Let's remember that definition of sexism, so that we know where we're at. Sexism is: "(Behaviour, language, etc, reflecting) the assumption that one sex, esp. the female, is inferior to the other; prejudice or discrimination, esp. against women, on the grounds of sex; insistence on (esp. a woman's) conformity to a sexually stereotyped social role."
By now we're used to the fact that there'll be female bodies on display during the opening credits. This time they're actually naked, although impossible to see due to the stylistic editing. As the images are more artistic and abstract, I don't feel this is as sexist as in previous films. The scene that really concerns me is early on when Bond literally forces himself upon Patricia the physiotherapist. She says no, but still he persists. As this is Bond-world, naturally she was only teasing to make him even more randy. But, after he has nearly been killed by Lippe on the spine-stretching machine, and Patricia takes the responsibility for the machine having gone wrong when he knows full well it wasn't her fault at all, when he says that his silence on the matter "could have its price" – i.e. so that they can have sex in the shower room – this really feels uncomfortable nowadays. Bond's response to Fiona's request when she's in the bath for him to get her something to put on – and he brings her a pair of shoes – is probably more witty than sexist. The camera's lingering on the performing dancer at the Kiss Kiss Club is, however, definitely suspect.
Basically this is the plot that's satirised in Austin Powers!
I know that clambering over a roof is difficult at the best of times, but surely it's unlike Bond to drop a gun?
Whilst it starts off really pacey, the film suffers, retrospectively speaking, from all those underwater scenes. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all, and your mind wanders.
The scene where the pilots in the Vulcan Bomber are gassed and Lippe takes over; this was before any commercial airline had ever been hijacked.
Lovely to see Leonard Sachs as the Group Captain, we all remember him as the host to TV's The Good Old Days. How wonderful it would have been if he had stood up and proclaimed "Once again, good evening, ladies and gentlemen!" and thumped his gavel on M's head.
How did Bond know how that he would meet up with Domino when he goes snorkelling? Convenient! We never find out.
Bond's double, swimming underwater in the shark pool, doesn't look anything like Connery.
The script between Fiona and Bond once the heavies have arrived addresses all the criticisms (almost verbatim) that had been made of the previous films. A very rewarding way of getting your own back!
Am I the only person never to have heard of a Junkanoo? Largo describes it as "our local Mardi Gras"; apparently, it's a street parade held in the Bahamas on Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Odd that no one has any Christmas decorations up in that case.
The fifteen-minute underwater fight scene at the end was only one page of script. A lot of it wasn't scripted – they just went with the flow of what all these paramedics and diver experts got up to.
Kutze's change of heart, when he goes against Largo's order and helps Domino to escape, seemed highly improbable to me.
"Codename Thunderball", says M, introducing all the secret agents to the task of preventing the potential atomic disaster of SPECTRE's grisly plans. But what is a thunderball anyway? What relevance does it bear to the story? I looked it up and this is what I discovered: Thunderball was a military term used by U.S. soldiers to describe the mushroom cloud seen during the testing of atomic bombs. It's relevant because if SPECTRE's threat to detonate the two atomic bombs, there'd be two of them. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to call it Thunderballs.
When Patricia asks Bond when she'll see him again, he replies, Another Time Another Place, which just happened to be the name of the first film in which Sean Connery had a major role.
Whether or not he received expert health advice at his time at Shrublands, this is the first 007 where Bond doesn't smoke.
How does Lippe escape from that steam bath?
Awards: John Stears won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; and Ken Adam was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Production Design, but I don't suppose he minded losing as he won it for his work on The Ipcress File instead.
To sum up. From a box office perspective, Thunderball continued Broccoli and Saltzman's winning streak and was more successful a Bond film than any before. Whilst there are some memorable scenes and, there's no doubt, the underwater photography was enormously advanced for its time, and probably held a huge wow factor for its contemporary audience, I don't think it has aged well. Where I criticised Goldfinger for its remarkable silliness, at least it wasn't boring – and I'm afraid I was bored by Thunderball at times. I realise that I would sooner have silliness by the bucketload rather than yet another scene of men being harpooned underwater. I ended up downgrading my score by 1 sparkle, simply because I think the sin of boredom is the worst thing you can impose on an audience. I'd be fascinated to hear your opinions of Thunderball – and whether you agree with me! Please leave a comment below. Next up, the film the world had to wait two years for – the first time that Bond skipped a year – and You Only Live Twice!
Posted in Cinema, James Bond	/ Tagged Adolfo Celi, chris sparkle, Claudine Auger, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Luciana Paluzzi, Sean Connery, Thunderball	/ Leave a comment
Review – Stan & Ollie, Northampton Filmhouse, 23rd January 2019
For how many more years are we all going to remember the comedy giants of the early age of cinema? When I was a lad, the likes of Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin were shown on TV all the time. I guess they weren't that old at the time – yikes, where does the time go?! Bob Monkhouse had a regular TV show where he indulged in the comedy nostalgia – Mad Movies – and kept alive the antics of the Keystone Cops and others. My late father was a big fan of Buster Keaton, and Fatty Arbuckle – which today is like saying you enjoy Gary Glitter – and the Dowager Mrs Chrisparkle loved Laurel and Hardy. She saw them at the London Palladium in 1947; it was one of her favourite memories.
But what do these old stars mean to today's YouTube generation? It's inevitable that at some point the memories will fade for good. There's a sad and beautiful song from a long-forgotten 1980 musical, The Biograph Girl, about silent film star Mary Pickford, where the advent of the talkies meant that no one wanted to see the silent oldies anymore: "Put it in the tissue paper, they won't want that shadow till another day, will we be reissued later, or condemned for life upon a shelf to stay?" In live theatre, my great-aunt, born in 1905, adored the old music-hall artists and would sing the songs of Marie Lloyd, Hetty King and Vesta Tilley. Even today, I still think The Boy I Love is up in the Gallery is one of the most charming songs I know – and there's no one alive who was around when that was in the charts (so to speak). And talking of the charts, that always used to be one way of keeping old songs alive. The recent death of the much-loved Windsor Davies has reminded us how his version of Whispering Grass with Don Estelle, reached No 1 in the summer of 1975. Laurel and Hardy's On The Trail of the Lonesome Pine spent four weeks at either No 2 or No 3 around Christmas the same year. Can't imagine either of those happening today.
But while there are new releases like Stan and Ollie hitting our screens, maybe interest in these old characters will hang around for a few years yet. In case you didn't know (I'm sure you must) Laurel and Hardy were box-office dynamite. Between 1921 and 1951 they made no less than 106 films, including 34 early silent films, and 27 full-length feature films – full-length in those days meant about an hour or so. They had the classic, visually hilarious double-act look, with Stan Laurel as a beanpole simpleton and Oliver Hardy as the wise-cracking fat man, which formed the basis of a number of subsequent double-acts – Little and Large, for instance, come to mind. As a kid, I found Oliver Hardy incredibly funny, but Stan Laurel something of a hanger-on, and I remember being amazed when the Dowager told me that it was Laurel who was the creative genius and comic innovator, whereas Hardy simply did what he was told; and that's something that comes across very strongly in this new film.
The film starts off with "the boys" on the set of Way Out West, where we see them shoot their famous comedy dance routine which recurs throughout this film, as they would later incorporate it into their stage act. But there's confrontation with producer Hal Roach over Laurel's general behaviour, and intimations that there may be problems ahead when Laurel's contract with the studio runs out before Hardy's. Hal Roach kept Hardy on for one more film after Laurel left the studio, Zenobia, featuring an elephant, where the actor Harry Langdon took on the Laurel role. From this awkwardness rises Stan and Ollie's strongest theme, that of loyalty and partnership.
Fast forward to 1953, and the boys are in England, starting a tour of theatres which would culminate in a London date and then filming a new movie based on the story of Robin Hood. But their fortunes are down. In Newcastle, they check into a dismal looking pub for three nights, in preparation for their performances at the Queen's Hall, (not the prestigious Theatre Royal). They meet producer Bernard Delfont, but he's much more interested in promoting his new protégé Norman Wisdom. There's little publicity, audiences are thin on the ground, and it's painful to watch. In order to avoid cancelling shows, Delfont subtly tricks them into doing some publicity, and then the audiences start to turn up. By the time their wives arrive in the UK, Delfont has secured them two weeks at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
But the tensions in their relationship return to the surface as Laurel reminds Hardy about the elephant movie. Barely talking to each other, their tour continues to Worthing, but when they're judging a beauty pageant for publicity, Hardy has a heart attack. He can't work – in fact, he's told to retire. Delfont wants Laurel to double up with comedy actor Nobby Cook for the rest of the tour, but would that mean Laurel showing the same disloyalty that he's accused Hardy? And what's going to happen to the film of Robin Hood?
It's a well-written, frequently funny, slightly sentimental and thoroughly nostalgic story brought to life by some extremely good performances and characterisations. Steve Coogan and John C Reilly are amazingly convincing as the dynamic duo, Mr Reilly in particular becoming the spitting image of Oliver Hardy, after having to spend (apparently) four hours in make up before each shoot. Their mannerisms, their vocal tics, their walks, their facial expressions are recreated lovingly to perfection. Rufus Jones is also terrific as Bernard Delfont, persistently manipulative and with both eyes on the finances but always impeccably polite about it. There's another superb double act in the form of Mrs Laurel and Mrs Hardy; Shirley Henderson is Hardy's devoted wife Lucille, a mouse masquerading as a rottweiler, and highly protective of her Ollie; and Nina Arianda plays Laurel's abrasive wife Ida, drinking his drinks, encouraging spats with Lucille, and hilariously refusing to sit next to Delfont for no apparent reason. There are some lovely minor supporting performances, with John Henshaw as the egregiously chirpy Nobby Cook, Stephanie Hyam (?) playing Miffin's dopey receptionist and Delfont's dreadfully hollow charity friends, whom I can't identify from the rather under-detailed cast lists. How's the piano? is a priceless line when you get to it.
To join a couple of metaphors, it doesn't shake too many trees but at the same time it does exactly what it says on the can. Buoyed up by its excellent performances, you'll enjoy this if you have happy memories of Laurel and Hardy or if you want to find out a bit more about them without sitting through some old black and white comedy.
P. S. Laurel and Hardy appearing at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Really? Are you sure? At the time, the premises were operated by Mecca and were only licensed as a ballroom from 1945 onwards. According to Mander and Mitchenson's The Theatres of London (the bible for all things theatre-based as far as I'm concerned) there were no live performances on that particular stage from 1939 until 1963. Indeed, the London County Council (and I'm quoting from the book) "stated in 1952 that the highest offer received for use as a theatre was £11,500, as against the dance-hall offer of £20,000; but it would need £50,000 to restore it to theatrical use." I'm not saying this is pure fiction, but if you have any definitive information on Laurel and Hardy performing at the Lyceum in 1953/4, please let me know!
P. P. S. Not only do Messrs Coogan and Reilly perform the Way Out West dance with admirable accuracy, they also give us an immaculate performance of On The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. I defy you to walk home after the movie and not break into the chorus.
Posted in Cinema	/ Tagged chris sparkle, John C Reilly, Laurel and Hardy, Nina Arianda, Northampton, Northampton Filmhouse, Rufus Jones, Shirley Henderson, Stan and Ollie, Steve Coogan	/ Leave a comment
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