I will be revisiting this fantastic set over the next few days, with great respect to the passing of the fine actor Diana Rigg.
8 Likes
Yes, this was the first Bond I saw at the cinema, and the best with Moore; he just got too tongue in cheek, and the plots got ever more ridiculous.
Rope
A Hitchcock in which he doesn’t appear; not surprising as their are no background characters. Based upon a stage play, and it feels like it.
Hitchcock tries an early version of one camera with no edits, but the technology of the time doesn’t allow him to pull this off seemlessly.
Ultimately, this film must rely on the quality of the plot, dialogue and acting. I can’t help but feel that Jimmy Stewart is somewhat mis-cast here. An ideal every-man here he is asked to play an intellectual philosophical school master, which I feel he didn’t really succeed in. However, his righteous indignation at the films denouement was powerful. The dialogue is suitably sparkling, foreboding and suspenseful as required. The plot felt too mechanical to me, allowing the author to examine the idea he had in mind. At no time did I truly believe that the characters were behaving organically, rather I felt they were being manoeuvred into a position to allow the playwright to insert the words he wanted to use into their mouths.
Overall I enjoyed my time watching this, and seeing Hitchcock wrestle with the available technology to produce a technically interesting result; but this is certainly NOT in the first rank of his work.
M
1 Like
Don’t let go.
Luce.
Two very good similar films. Thought provoking and complex. Leaving one unsure of what’s really behind the story.
1 Like
Just as 007 was getting back on track again with LALD, the franchise gets derailed once more with this 1974 dud. Not even the great Christopher Lee as the triple-nippled villain and the spectacular locations can save this weakly scripted and plotted picture.
Two of the lowlights: Britt Ekland’s catastrophically dense Bond girl and the general air of snickering innuendo, which appears to have been cribbed from a particularly grubby post-Sid Carry On; the script, theme song and just about everything else are played for laughs, which never come. The whole thing is dispiriting and charmless, and the picture is one of the very worst of the whole series. Even Roger Moore’s gift for levity and self-deprecation goes AWOL.
2 Likes
Saw it as a very small cast production at the Watermill in Newbury - excellent theatre, sat within a foot of the stage
I can imagine it would work very well. There is something about the theatre that is heightened, and in that setting I think some of the slight objections that I noted above would not be relevant.
The cinematography was very good in parts, so much so that at times it seemed like a travel promotion as, as you say, a lot of the action was very lame. I couldn’t shake off thinking Herve Villechaize (Nick Nack) was still in Fantasy Island mode and was expecting Ricardo Montalban to pop out at any moment.
One semi-redeeming feature was Maud Adams, who returned to Bond-ville in Octopussy.
1 Like
They made a lot of the car chase and the flip across the broken bridge. Everyone I have asked have just taken it as being special effects, rather than a physical stunt.
As much as I like Moore I think he never hit the heights of LALD again, which was a great shame.
This where we will have to go our separate ways Kev; Roger Moore remains for me my favourite of all the James Bonds (and by all accounts he was one of the nicest guys on the acting circuit). I love the Man With The Golden Gun and for me, Christopher Lee as Bond Villain Scaramanga (along with his superfluous papilla) was one of the best. Also the fact that Lee was a cousin to Ian Fleming brought some nice circularity to the role.
A little story re. TMWTGG - My ex wife’s father ran a military prop company. They supplied guns, tanks and armament for many famous films, including the bond franchise (IIRC they did the guns on the DB5) and the first time I visited I was given the tour, which included being handed the Golden Gun, which they had made in conjunction with, I think Ronson lighters, and it really could fire a bullet. I was in awe, as you might imagine!
9 Likes
Great story Richard. Re Roger Moore, I liked him as Bond and met him once and yes, he was absolutely lovely. Back in 1983 in my student days, my then paramour Izzy and I were earning pin money by waiting at tables at a big charity ball in the Guildhall, London. One of the two tables we were looking after belonged to Roger Moore and his party. He was utterly gracious and beautifully-mannered all evening, and at the end of the do, he beckoned over to us.
He said something along the lines of “You’ve been charming company. Make sure you spend this foolishly,” and, with a wink, promptly gave us £50 each. That was an awful lot of money to a student 37 years ago!
13 Likes
Fab story Kev, and confirms what so many have said about Roger Moore being a great guy.
1 Like
The underlying decency of Roger Moore is my ultimate issue with him as Bond, who is at heart a sociopathic B., but OUR Sociopatic B. I feel the producers warped the Bond character to fit RM, making him far more like The Saint. Of course that allowed you to get pleasure from watching RM strut his stuff, but it wasn’t Bond.
Just watched it. Very good.
1 Like
I had a holiday in Thailand the other year. They still do day trips to "James Bond Island "
We had to visit. Much smaller than in the movie.
1 Like
I remember going to see this 1997 noir at the cinema when it was first released, back in 1997, and being blown away by it.
Watching it again at home, 23 years later, it’s still mightily impressive. Working from a novel by the great James Ellroy, Curtis Hanson (who also directed) and Brian Helgeland’s 1953-set script is a corker, stuffed full of crackling dialogue, taut pacing and all manner of twists and turns. It’s everything a good noir should be – dense, dark, cynical, seductive and psychologically penetrating.
Dante Spinotti’s sumptuous phorography makes full use of the California sunshine, contrasting it with the seedy twilight of many of the interiors and Jerry Goldsmith’s original score (supplemented with contemporary – ie, early 1950s – pop hits, is one of his very best. But it’s the acting in this beautifully-cast picture that really impresses – Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny deVito, David Strathairn and the then relatively unknown Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe are all magnificent, rising to the challenge offered them by the superb script. Well worth a rewatch, particularly on this very good BD transfer.
11 Likes
Yes, this is a superb film from an excellent novel.
1 Like
Nick Mason and his Saucers live at an old Floydian haunt, London’s Roundhouse. What a great concert film (especially for Floydians) - great set list, the ever-affable Mr Mason and his bandmates having a whale of a time, the audience even more so, great pictures, great sound, great direction and photography, great bloody everything… what’s not to like?
4 Likes
‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ has plot elements similar to LA Confidential.
1 Like