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| Gotta get those cat-fighting women on there. Is that really an authentic Gypsy cultural practice? |
The big change is that instead of Bond being ensnared by a SMERSH plot (SMERSH being the Soviet counterintelligence organization), it's instead a SPECTRE plot (SPECTRE being the nonaligned international terrorist organization). This works really well, actually, because it makes the obvious trap that is a Russian cipher clerk saying she's in love with James Bond and will give a decoding machine to the British a tad more complicated. MI6 knows there's something afoot, but they can't figure out what SMERSH's game is-- that's because SMERSH has no game, and they're as baffled by what's going on as MI6 is. SPECTRE plays the two organizations off each other, and Bond doesn't even have an inkling SPECTRE are involved until very later in the game. In the novel, there's a lot of time-biding going on, but in the film the same events acquire new significance as you know that Bond is being manipulated by SPECTRE (to the extent that SPECTRE agent Grant actually helps Bond at a couple key points in Istanbul).
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| Watch out, old man. |
This is one of the best James Bond films I've watched so far-- not as good as Casino Royale, but the gap between it and the nearest contender, Moonraker, is astronomical. I'd say that's because it's a fundamentally serious film with moments of levity, whereas all the lower-ranked films are just goofy romps with no serious foundation. The scenes with Blofeld briefing his SPECTRE subordinates have a real sense of danger to them. (And I actually don't think Blofeld was called Blofeld, except in the end credits, only "Number One." The actor playing Blofeld was credited only as "?", but Eric Pohlmann did the voice and was really excellent: great, deep menace.)
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| The scene where Number One delivers a lecture on fighting fish and then feeds one to his cat is amazing. The Bond wiki pointed out to me that though Blofeld becomes associated with the Nehru jacket later on, here he's just got a normal suit. |
The highlight of the film is a sequence where Bond and the female defector, Tanya Romanova, flee west on the Orient Express. When their contact is killed, things suddenly start to feel very claustrophobic-- when you're on a train, after all, there's nothing you can do to speed up or change direction. Unbeknownst to Bond, Grant is on the train with him, and Terence Young directs some really creepy sequences of Grant monitoring Bond's actions. Like in the Istanbul scenes, the fact that the audience knows what Bond does not is used to good effect. The stakes are kind of low, but that's good. When Bond films attempt to escalate the stakes, that's usually where things go wrong, with Blofeld suddenly cackling about a space laser or whatever. This feels like a real spy film, albeit one with quips.
The quips are mostly dumb, by the way (the "one of our airplanes is missing" reference is particularly weak), but you can ignore them pretty easily. The humor does work when it arises more naturally from the characters, like when M stops playing a recording by Bond to send Miss Moneypenny out of the room because it seems like 007 is about to reveal a sexual exploit-- and then Moneypenny just listens in with the intercom anyway.
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| Apparently Daniela Bianchi's voice was dubbed by an English actress because her Italian accent was too strong. I did not notice at all! |
If there's a flaw in the film, it's that one doesn't believe that Bond actually cares for Tanya. In the novel, SMERSH is exploiting Bond's predilection for falling in love with vulnerable women, and though Bond never stays in love with them, Fleming depicts Bond as truly in love with the woman in each novel while the relationship lasts. In the film, though, Sean Connery never plays Bond's interest in Tanya as anything beyond 1) sexual and 2) desire to get the decoding device from her. This is probably most driven home when Bond and Bey snigger over Bond's sexual exploits. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice by the screenwriter/director/actors, or if it's just something they failed to communicate fully, but it does make it pretty impossible to invest in the Bond/Tanya relationship as the film draws to a close.
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| It feels weird to say that Ian Fleming cares about a woman's interiority, but he definitely cares more than the filmmakers. |
Other Notes:
- This is the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as the character who would come to be known as Q, but here he's just said to be the head of Q Branch. (I guess in the end credits he is dubbed "Boothroyd," but I didn't notice.)
- The relationship between Miss Moneypenny and Bond is downright salacious here; they're rubbing their faces against each other and seconds from making out when M calls Bond on the intercom and interrupts them. Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny in the first fourteen Bond films (I think she's the recurring character to last the longest without recasting), and this is a far cry from the very dowdy look she had in Moonraker.
- John Barry's score is super in love with Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme," playing it again and again, even over really mundane scenes like Bond checking into his hotel and riding the elevator.
- Casino Royale
- From Russia with Love
- Moonraker
- Live and Let Die
- Diamonds Are Forever
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