You Only Live Twice

 

Unless you are a cat

5th movie and we start in space as the Americans shuttle is taken by some unknown rocket. The Americans is blaming the Soviets, but the British intelligence is one step a head and says it's some unknown force that have been spotted in Japanese sea and they sent their best man to investigate, which is 007 that spends time in Hong Kong with some beautiful lady and instantly gets killed. Credits and Bonds funeral, but instead his wrapping that is dropped in the ocean is picked up by a British sub and he gets his assignment. A quick tour of Japanese cultural events like Sumo wrestling and he meets up with his contact that gets killed and leads to this industrial giant. Getting some hidden dossier he gets out and meets up with the Japanese secret service and they begin investigating the company. Meanwhile The Soviets sends up their own rocket and that one is also taken.

Turns out its SPECTRA that tries to instigate a war between USA and Soviet (assumed to be payed by the Chinese) from a volcano lair on an island. The company leads Bond to the island and as the Japanese special commando infiltrates the island as fishermen and workers Bond it able to enter the lair. As he rescues the astronaut and cosmonauts he meets Blofeld face to face, and he is played by Donald Pleasence. Perfect casting. You got the President from Escape from New York, Dr Loomis from Halloween and the wine specialist from that Columbo episode. Ends with ninjas attacking the volcano base and blowing it all up. 

Stakes are high with the space race setting once again and the brink of the 3rd world war looming. Obsessed with Japanese culture as a kid the ninja battle was amazing, rocket bullets, cigarette rockets, sword fighters in gun fights. Little Nelly fighting off 4 helicopters. Don't like the title song though, kinda slow. I had a hard time watching the beginning as a kid. The desperation of the astronauts in the beginning really made me uncomfortable. I gotta say this is the first time I feel that the movie doesn't get better than the last one. Mind you it's not bad, but maybe it was a good call for Connery to skip the next movie. Also just a translated title. Roald Dahl, the children's book writer behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, wrote the script so that was an interesting tidbit. 

Thunderball

 

And he strikes, like THUNDERBAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!

The fourth movie and one that really fascinated me as a kid. It had the Vulcan with the atomic bombs, an underwater battle scene and a yacht that de-attaches a part of itself. Think they also introduced the 007 watch for the first time. Although if only with a geiger-counter. Didn't get the plot, like most of the movies as a kid. SPECTRA steals two atomic bombs from NATO by killing a NATO officer and using a double. That just happens being prepared in the same clinic as Bond is staying in after the pre-credit scene. Not able to stop the theft he gets the lead to investigate the Bahamas. Turns out the officers sister is together with Largo, Nr 2 of SPECTRA. How convenient. I assume that's how they got all information on the officer to be able to impersonate him perfectly as well as make him disappear.

Highlight is the battle at the end underwater as Largo and his men is attacked by US marines as they try to put the bomb in Miami to blow it up. The music, the action and then it follows up with the ship chase scene. Action from start to finish. We have gadgets like the watch, the breathing apparatus and diving equipment. The jetpac from the start of the film is also something completely different that kept peoples imagination. I think I like this movie the best of the old Connery movies so far. It's also the same plot for the non EON movie Never Say Never Again back in 1983. Also with Connery. And the title song with Tom Jones, fantastic. Oh and yes, they just translated the title this time.

Goldfinger

The Man with the Midas touch

The third Bond movie and the one seen as the defining Bond-movie. It has the Aston Martin, an ending fight between a squadrons of soldiers on either side and a pre-credit scene. 007 is ordered to look into Auric Goldfinger who the government believes are smuggling out gold which is a danger to the major currencies (dollar and sterling) as it's tied to the gold standard according to the Bretton Wood-system established after the 2nd World War. As you might guess, this sort of thing is my jam. Of course, the Bretton Wood-system would fall just 7 years later when Nixon admitted that the US couldn't guarantee the dollars worth in gold. Of course, the movie doesn't explain the gold standard, you just have to know about this. 

Goldfinger is really petty, he don't like loosing so he cheats in card games and golf. And if someone makes a slight against him, he kills them. Most spectacular Jill Masterson who he orders painted in gold so that she suffocates... I think this have been debunked, but I'm not quite sure. It also has Oddjob, the first side-villain to the main bad guy, although Grant is pretty much a proto-type.. or is he the real bad guy of the film? Big, strong and silent, taking a lot of punishment.

The grand plan is that Goldfinger is gonna break in at Fort Knox, plant a dirty atomic bomb and blow it up to contaminate all gold in the storage. It hinted that it's the Chinese that gives Goldfinger the bomb to destabilise the west and heighten the value of Goldfingers own gold. A simple plan. He gets equipment from mobsters all over the US and then kills them off since there won't be any 10 million dollars to give them, Pretty much the weakest part of the plan since if more than one would have declined the 10 million I think Oddjob wouldn't have been able to get them. Also bad for Solo (the mobster leaving) that he didn't have a gun on him with quicker reflexes. The day is saved when 007 seduces the pilot Pussy Galore... and the handling of women in this movie is really problematic. First scene in Miami, Bond hits a girl on the back, enhanced with sound effects. And then how 007 seduces miss Galore, with just force really. Yeah, a bit problematic... but it was the 60's so whatever.

Beside the misogyny, no SPECTRA in sight, music gets really good. One thing I will give the Craig movies, at least they have the same Felix Leiter so that I recognise him. Blofeld is bad as well, but at least I don't see him during 2-3 movies compared to Leiter who from this one out is in every movie, and he looks different every time, and it's not they cast look-alikes, this one looks like an old man, the next one looks a bit like the one from Dr No. If you have Bond, M, Q and MoneyPenny the same actors, why not get a Felix Leiter? Was it because they didn't have one in From Russia... ? 

From Russia With Love

 

... wait a minute, they never where in Russia?

The second Bond-movie titled Agent 007 Sees Red in Sweden. SPECTRA is after revenge on the death of Dr No and their master strategist Kronsteen makes a plan in order to get their hands on a Lektor (some kind of cryptograph) and make the the British do the work and in the end kill 007.  They use newly defected soviet SMERCH member Rosa Klebb to fool Russian Tatiana to help Bond get the hand on the Lektor and their top operative Grant, Bonds equal. We are introduced to Q... although he appeared in the first movie giving 007 his Walter PPK, but it isn't the actor we all know as Q so it hardly counts, that hand him the first of all Bond-gadgets, the attache case containing a rifle, gold, knife, bullets and a tear gas cartridge.

Arriving at Istanbul... and it looks like a reenactment of the scene in Dr No when 007 gets to Jamaica, but instead of the CIA tailing Bond it's Grant and some Bulgarian spies. 007 meets with the head operative Karim Bey and Grant starts pushing the Soviets against the British by killing the Bulgarians and saving Bond at the gypsy camp... where I think Bond went to gather information with Karim Bey since he appears to be the target of the Soviet attacks. They blow up the Soviet embassy to get the Lektor and Tatiana, escape on the Orient Express, but the plan goes awry as Bey is killed by Grant and the back-up spy is intercepted by Grant before he can make contact with 007, posing as him. Grant drugs Tatiana during dinner and tries to kill Bond, but greedy as the villain's tends to be, 007 fools him with the gold in the cases so that Grant opens the armed case and gets distracted by the gas so Bond can kill him.

007 and Tatiana leaves the train, gets Grants ride, defeats an helicopter and gets on a boat, destroys some other boats, gets too Venice and there is confronted by Klebb with the famous spiked shoes. Tatiana kills her, the British get the Lektor and all ends well. 

First showing of Blofeld, the head of SPECTRA, apparently played by the actor who played Professor Dent in the first movie. Watched very seldom as a kid as well, but it's clearly better than Dr No. Interestingly the actor who played the soviet commander in the Moore-movies appeared in this movie as a SPECTRE agent and one of the Gypsie girls actor that fought each other came back for Thunderball as the assistant Paula. It's pretty much here I also notice that we have progressed a bit when it comes to... let's say gender equality. It's gets worse in the next film. And the portrayal of different ethnicities. How do you categorise a Mexican playing a turk? Or an Italian playing a Russian? 

Plot makes sense and the smarmy Kronsteen is a delight in getting the foot... but I have to agree that Klebb chose Grant and that was the only failure of the plan since Grants greed allowed 007 get the upper hand at the most crucial point in the plan. Cause really, shouldn't he have taken the cases back to SPECTRA anyway since they clearly belonged to the agents and had some special mechanisms I think SPECTRA would like to look at.