Ep. 39 - Bonds, all the Bonds! part 3

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] J.J.: Welcome back, JJ. Hello. It's good to see you. It's good to see you, man. How are you?

[0:10] Olaf: Everyone's getting a little peek behind the curtain at the moment because we're trying again to record this episode.

[0:16] J.J.: Yeah, but they don't know that.

[0:23] Olaf: Well, they do now. They do now. We met two weeks ago to record this episode, and it turned into a technical disaster.

[0:33] J.J.: Yeah, it was a nightmare. Somehow, we got through it, and then...

[0:39] Olaf: Did we? I don't know if we got through it.

[0:42] J.J.: I was missing important audio for the whole thing. It was a disaster.

[0:48] Olaf: Yeah, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there is no proof anymore of that failed attempt.

[0:56] J.J.: Yeah, there was nothing really salvageable of it. It's out there in the ones and zeros, but it was... You say we got through it. I suppose. I mean, we finished, and we hit stop, but...

[1:11] Olaf: We crossed a finish line.

[1:18] J.J.: Was anyone there to welcome us?

[1:20] Olaf: No. It all since left with all the successful people, but we're back. We're going to try again. We've made some improvements.

[1:25] J.J.: We have. I think we've solved our technical issues. We're back with this particular topic, which I'm very excited about.

[1:31] Olaf: Yeah. Here we are back again to talk about You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

[1:38] J.J.: Let's get into it. Let's go back to the movie theater.

[1:42] Olaf: Ah, I tell you what. I love this theater, man. It's cozy. It's nice. It's the perfect temperature.

[2:08] J.J.: It's just the two of us, so there's not a bunch of people in the back ruining the experience by talking and—

[2:14] Olaf: Or throwing things.

[2:16] J.J.: Actually, we're the ones ruining it. We're the ones talking. Sorry.

[2:19] Olaf: So we're still in the Connery era of Bond, but like you mentioned that the next two movies we're going to be talking about, we're going to be leaving Connery for a moment.

[2:29] J.J.: For a moment. A little transition, if you will.

[2:31] Olaf: But not too far. He's still there.

[2:33] J.J.: Because as you like to say, those movies haven't happened yet. So we're still with Bond. We're still with Connery. He's our guy. We're concerned because there's talks of him wanting to leave and that he's burned out. And we're like, no, don't leave us. And he's like, I am.

[2:50] Olaf: You can tell though, and we sort of touched on it, I think, in Thunderball, the writing wasn't quite on the wall there, but there's been definitely a slow dip in quality in terms of—

[3:09] J.J.: Well, I think you felt that way.

[3:12] Olaf: I did.

[3:12] J.J.: I enjoy Thunderball a lot and I thought it's fun and it had the energy. Now we get to where we're at now, you only live twice and that energy is gone.

[3:24] Olaf: Yeah. Any sort of, I think, not to speak for you, but I feel like any sort of love and excitement you had for Connery leaving Thunderball quickly goes away as we move into this one.

[3:37] J.J.: Because I love Sean Connery. I love Sean Connery as James Bond, but I'll tell you what, it was not a good breakup.

[3:46] Olaf: I don't know if it was a good— Here's the thing. I think a lot of people are willing to forgive after the breakup because it's Connery, but I will say while you're in the breakup, it's messy and he doesn't really help you a lot in you only live twice.

[4:04] J.J.: No. And then you're like, take us back. Come on. And then he does and he's like, don't worry, I've changed. And then you quickly realize he hasn't changed. In fact, he's gotten worse.

[4:20] Olaf: Are we still talking about you only live twice or are we jumped ahead?

[4:24] J.J.: I jumped ahead.

[4:25] Olaf: You jumped quite ahead. I mean, we haven't even started seeing other people yet.

[4:30] J.J.: I know. I know. All right. All right. So we're back. We're here. You only live twice. 1967. We are coming close to the end of the 60s era of James Bond.

[4:44] Olaf: Yeah. And this is already his fifth bond. And he has told the producers, Cubby, Broccoli and Harry Salzman that this is it. I'm not doing any more after you only live twice. You got me for one more.

[4:57] J.J.: Yeah. And that's assuming that he actually told them and not gave them a letter because they weren't really getting along very well. Before we really jump into the movie, I'm just going to lay this out here. There aren't a lot of things that I really like about this movie. There's maybe I could count on less than one hand how many things I really like about this movie. This movie has some memorable things that are good, but sadly, it's more known for the things that are bad.

[5:23] Olaf: Before we start piling on to this movie in a negative light, I want to at least shine the light on one of the things that I like about it.

[5:31] J.J.: Okay.

[5:32] Olaf: And one of the things that I really like about it is the theme song. I really, really like you only live twice performed by Nancy Sinatra.

[5:40] J.J.: It's a great addition to the Bond song library. I mean, it's famously edited by like.

[5:47] Olaf: Yeah.

[5:48] J.J.: Twenty.

[5:48] Olaf: Twenty five.

[5:49] J.J.: Yeah.

[5:50] Olaf: Different takes just to get it to sound the way it does. But yeah, I love the finished product. Originally offered to Frank Sinatra, her father, and he turned it down. But yeah, you're right. She was so nervous, I guess, that it took her twenty five takes and John Barry basically compiled the finished product out of every single one of those. So credit to John Barry. But that is one of the very few things I really enjoy about this movie is the wonderful song.

[6:15] J.J.: And before we go any farther into it, let's take care of all of the front end business about our movies before we get back into the movie.

[6:24] Olaf: Yeah.

[6:25] J.J.: You only live twice has a score of sixty one, which honestly, I think is way too high.

[6:31] Olaf: High. Yeah.

[6:32] J.J.: Rotten Tomatoes has it at a seventy three percent.

[6:36] Olaf: Also.

[6:37] J.J.: High.

[6:37] Olaf: High.

[6:39] J.J.: And the audience score is a sixty eight, which is still high.

[6:44] Olaf: It's that Connery aura about it. He gets a pass, even though he checked out of the relationship.

[6:51] J.J.: I think if it was like upper 40s, low 50s, I would be like, I can live with that. But this upper 60s and 70s, that's way too high for this movie. I don't—I don't get it.

[7:05] Olaf: I don't get it.

[7:06] J.J.: The director of this movie is Lewis Gilbert had just come off of directing Alfie. He will actually come back and direct two more Bond movies.

[7:19] Olaf: One of them is fantastic and the other one is bad,

[7:22] J.J.: which means of the three Bond movies that he's made, he only made one good one.

[7:27] Olaf: Yeah, 30 he 33 percent and he bookends them with really not the two really bad movies.

[7:33] J.J.: Should have quit while it was ahead.

[7:34] Olaf: Yeah.

[7:35] J.J.: As you mentioned, John Barry is back. He's still the composer for Bond, but not much longer. We're not there yet, but no, but it's coming. The tide is slowly turning here as we move forward.

[7:48] Olaf: And then something I find really fascinating about this movie specifically is the screenwriter.

[7:55] J.J.: Yes.

[7:56] Olaf: The screenwriter for this movie is Roald Dahl.

[7:59] J.J.: Yeah. And I know a lot of cinephiles will know who Roald Dahl. I mean, a lot of people in general know who Roald Dahl is, but Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, the BFG, like all these classic iconic kid books. And here is right. James Bond movie is wild.

[8:19] Olaf: Who apparently didn't even like the book like he didn't like the material that this came from.

[8:24] J.J.: So he I don't think the book was that good either.

[8:27] Olaf: Well, this movie clearly was fighting an uphill battle from the beginning.

[8:32] J.J.: Yeah. So let's keep going. So now we've got our cast. We've still got Q. We've still got Moneypenny. We still got M. We've got all of those. We got Sean Connery.

[8:42] Olaf: There is a common thread through a lot of the Bond movies.

[8:45] J.J.: Yes.

[8:46] Olaf: Where there's a redhead henchwoman.

[8:48] J.J.: Which continues as we move forward. But yes, for sure.

[8:52] Olaf: This time it is the character Helga Brandt, played by Karen Doerr, who surprisingly has done very little in the U.S. She's made some U.S. television appearances, but she's her career is primarily defined by German film. So you don't really see much of her.

[9:12] J.J.: And then you have Teodoro Shimada. He's very well known as playing a character from Man from Uncle. And he was in loads and loads of other TV during the 60s and 70s. So.

[9:26] Olaf: Yeah.

[9:26] J.J.: Charles Gray makes an appearance. Such a unique personality. Very unique look.

[9:33] Olaf: He plays Agent Henderson, a good guy for—

[9:37] J.J.: Five minutes.

[9:38] Olaf: Five minutes before he's dispatched. And just remember him because he will be back.

[9:45] J.J.: And you'll ask, how didn't he die? And we'll explain that later.

[9:50] Olaf: That's right.

[9:51] J.J.: One other addition to this cast that really makes an incredible impact on the franchise, on the cultural pop culture, the zeitgeist of what we know.

[10:02] Olaf: Donald Pleasence shows up as Blofeld. This is the first time that we see Blofeld in person.

[10:09] J.J.: We see him like over the shoulder and stuff like that with the cat and everything. But we never got to see his face. And now we do. And it's Donald Pleasence with a gnarly scar.

[10:20] Olaf: The second thing I like about this movie, Donald Pleasence.

[10:25] J.J.: And right out of the gate, we've already covered two of maybe the three things that I like about this movie. Donald Pleasence is the second one.

[10:31] Olaf: Now, when this movie came out, it was the second highest grossing movie of 1967.

[10:37] J.J.: Yeah.

[10:38] Olaf: Which is impressive. I mean, this movie made money despite it being.

[10:42] J.J.: It made money and it probably would have made more money. But the same year that this movie came out was also the same year that the Casino Royale spoof movie came out with David Niven and Peter Sellers, and they came out like two months apart from each other. So it confused the audience because they didn't know which Bond movie was the real Bond movie. And that subsequently does affect ticket sales for this movie. In addition to not being very good, the movie opens with another fake Bond death. We've already had one of at least one of those from Russia with love. He gets a burial at sea in like a weird mummy sarcophagus thing.

[11:24] Olaf: Hey, they got to make it look real.

[11:26] J.J.: And then a submarine picks him up and then pulls him out and he awkwardly gets out of this thing. And then he's like, permission to come aboard. Yeah, the British.

[11:36] Olaf: And this is where we see him in his naval uniform, as you know, we see he's a commander in the Navy. We also get to see Moneypenny in her dress whites as well. So she clearly holds some sort of rank in the British Navy as well. And then we sort of figure out what exactly the mission is or what exactly he's been being tasked to do.

[12:00] J.J.: It's kind of a mess. It really is, because the crux of the story is we're in the middle of the space race. The Russians and the Americans are just throwing astronauts into space, like left and right. It's like every day is a new rocket paid, you know, just the conveyor belt. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And every time they go up there, the space capsule gets abducted by this big, monstrous pac-man eating machine.

[12:30] Olaf: Yeah, yeah. Sort of devours the subsequent capsule from the other country. But you don't know who's doing it. No U.S. and Russia think that it's the other and they're getting ready to fight each other about it. And they're like, we're sending up another one on this date at this time. You better leave it alone. And it's like, well, you're kind of asking for it. But that's the general crux. They're saying, hey, Bond, you got to go figure this out before the next rocket goes up and all out war happens. And somehow they figure out that they've got to go to Japan. It's not a good plot.

[13:07] J.J.: Is there anything about this movie that you specifically walk away from going? I like that. Or yeah, okay.

[13:12] Olaf: I do like the little Nelly sequence.

[13:19] J.J.: Okay, little Nelly is this small little gyrocopter that Bond requests Q Branch to bring, as well as having Q come all the way out to Japan. Another way to sort of shoehorn Q into this movie, which I've never have a problem with, by the way. More Q, the better. It turns into this really long, drawn out helicopter battle, which is entertaining to a point. And then at some point you're like, wow, this just keeps on going. And then you realize, oh, it's because they have to fill the entire length of the James Bond theme song that is currently playing while this is happening. It's something I've noticed in these movies.

[13:55] J.J.: All the action has to continue until the end of the song.

[13:59] Olaf: So, I'm like, if somebody out there just fast-forwards or just plays the end of the song, it's over!

[14:05] J.J.: It's their version of a movie montage.

[14:08] Olaf: Like, this is the musical montage portion of the movie, except it's an action set piece.

[14:15] J.J.: This is their opportunity to showcase this device, this gadget, this thing, and give it center stage.

[14:22] Olaf: Because in the previous movie, we get the jetpack for about 10 seconds.

[14:26] J.J.: Yeah, you get a whole sequence on this one.

[14:29] Olaf: And that's like the lasting image of Thunderball.

[14:31] J.J.: So, yeah, they took it a step further here by wheeling in Little Nelly in four giant suitcases.

[14:39] Olaf: Yeah, yeah. And then there's like this weird quick edit montage of it being built.

[14:46] J.J.: Of being put together.

[14:47] Olaf: Yeah, it doesn't matter how it's built.

[14:52] J.J.: That's not the important part.

[14:53] Olaf: The important part is the eight-minute scene we're going to give you right after with the Bond song and the whole thing.

[14:59] J.J.: But overall, I will say that they use a lot of helicopters in this movie specifically.

[15:05] Olaf: And I know that that can be very challenging for getting that all coordinated correctly and keeping it safe.

[15:12] J.J.: And I know some people got hurt on this movie doing that.

[15:15] Olaf: But the helicopter stuff was impressive considering how much helicopter stunts were in it.

[15:21] J.J.: Yeah. Other than that, I think the only other things about the movie that I like are the massive volcano lair.

[15:30] Olaf: Yes, that would be the third thing I like about this movie.

[15:33] J.J.: Bond!

[15:34] Olaf: Right. And that is it.

[15:35] J.J.: We have now touched on the three things I really like about this movie.

[15:38] Olaf: And if we're heading in that direction...

[15:40] J.J.: Hold on because the set for this is so impressive that I had to write down some notes about it.

[15:46] Olaf: Because you have to understand the expanse of this volcano lair.

[15:51] J.J.: Sir Ken Adams is the set designer.

[15:53] Olaf: He makes this volcano set.

[15:55] J.J.: It was constructed at Pinewood Studios and consisted of a movable helicopter platform, a working monorail system, a launch pad, and a full-scale rocket mock-up that could simulate liftoff.

[16:11] Olaf: There were 700 metric tons of structural steel and 200 miles of tubular steel used in making this thing.

[16:20] J.J.: This thing is amazing.

[16:22] Olaf: Yeah. Apparently you could see this thing from like three miles away.

[16:27] J.J.: Like that is just mind-blowingly impressive.

[16:32] Olaf: Well, and the cost to build this set, just the volcano set, was about as much as the whole budget for Doctor No.

[16:41] J.J.: Yeah.

[16:42] Olaf: Like it was like a million, a little over a million dollars just to build the volcano set.

[16:46] J.J.: Right in that ballpark.

[16:49] Olaf: Yeah. So that was super impressive.

[16:51] J.J.: So the whole fight battle scene with all the agents and the bad guys in the…

[16:57] Olaf: And the ninjas.

[16:58] J.J.: Yeah, the ninjas.

[17:01] Olaf: And then the other thing I liked was Donald Pleasence's Blofeld.

[17:05] J.J.: Yeah.

[17:06] Olaf: The story is so bad.

[17:08] J.J.: The story is bad.

[17:09] Olaf: It's unfortunate that Donald Pleasence, he doesn't show up really until the last 20 minutes of the movie.

[17:16] J.J.: And then he's only in half of that.

[17:18] Olaf: He's only in like 10 minutes of the film.

[17:20] J.J.: You're not even thinking Spectre.

[17:22] Olaf: You're not even thinking Blofeld.

[17:24] J.J.: They mention Spectre one time as a possible suspect of all of these things that are going on and that's it.

[17:31] Olaf: And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, that's Blofeld. Okay.

[17:34] J.J.: Was that him?

[17:37] Olaf: Yeah, he only had 10 minutes of screen time in this whole movie.

[17:40] J.J.: I know. It's amazing.

[17:41] Olaf: It's crazy.

[17:42] J.J.: It's a testament to him, to the choices he makes with the character, that you feel like he's in more of the movie.

[17:49] Olaf: You feel like he's in more of the franchise because he makes such a big imprint on the portrayal of Blofeld.

[17:56] J.J.: But you'll never see him again.

[17:58] Olaf: But you'll never see him again.

[18:00] J.J.: Yeah.

[18:01] Olaf: Before we move on from this movie, because there's really not much more to talk about, I do want to bring up some of the ridiculous stuff.

[18:09] J.J.: The things that make it bad and for some probably make it a guilty pleasure.

[18:14] Olaf: I don't know.

[18:15] J.J.: Not for me.

[18:16] Olaf: Because I'm sure there's some people who find it endearing.

[18:18] J.J.: But the ninjas.

[18:20] Olaf: I don't know how much ninjitsu is actually being shown on the set, but they were really trying to cash in on the growing popularity of martial art movies.

[18:32] J.J.: So that was everywhere.

[18:34] Olaf: The just blatant stereotypes of the Japanese culture was a little rough.

[18:40] J.J.: The misogyny.

[18:42] Olaf: They were already leaning into the misogyny heavily in Thunderball, that in this movie it just seemed like lazy.

[18:50] J.J.: It just seemed like really lazy writing, which is unfortunate because Roald Dahl is Roald Dahl.

[18:55] Olaf: But then you're thinking, well, he's the one who wrote this.

[18:58] J.J.: But then going back to the Japanese part of the story, it makes zero sense that as part of his mission, he has to become Japanese to fulfill his assignment.

[19:12] Olaf: He has to infiltrate this small fishing village that is not far from the volcano lair that they don't quite know is a volcano lair yet.

[19:21] J.J.: And to become Japanese, they put him through what almost seems like a scene out of the Six Million Dollar Man.

[19:28] Olaf: They've got him on this table in this full white room with female Japanese surgeon bikini girls.

[19:37] J.J.: I think they're more like estheticians.

[19:39] Olaf: Yeah.

[19:40] J.J.: And they're putting rubber latex on his eyelids to make him look Asian.

[19:47] Olaf: More Asian.

[19:48] J.J.: And what I like to think of is the scene from Empire Strikes Back where Vader's helmet's getting lowered on.

[19:56] Olaf: They take his toupee off and put on a new toupee that's cut more in a Japanese style or so the stereotype would suggest.

[20:08] J.J.: Right.

[20:09] Olaf: Japanese style hair toupee thing.

[20:12] J.J.: After what seems to be a 30-minute process, he's got to then learn how to become a ninja.

[20:19] Olaf: Essentially how to become a ninja in two days.

[20:21] J.J.: And then I guess he sort of does that, but we never get to see any of the effects of it because it's not like we get to see him in any sort of hand-to-hand combat that would allow him to display these new abilities.

[20:32] Olaf: Yeah.

[20:33] J.J.: I think we see him throw some ninja stars at some point.

[20:37] Olaf: Maybe.

[20:38] J.J.: And I think that's it.

[20:39] Olaf: That's about it.

[20:40] J.J.: But then he ends up spending some of the movie just squatting and hunched over to make himself look shorter.

[20:46] Olaf: The peace, the resistance, and I'm sure I butchered that, but that cherry on top of him becoming Japanese is hunched over because he's 6'2".

[20:56] J.J.: He's 6'2".

[20:57] Olaf: And yeah, that's not obvious.

[20:59] J.J.: No.

[21:00] Olaf: No.

[21:10] J.J.: I know we've talked about, because people do talk about this all the time, about how people, how old actors look during that time period, right?

[21:19] Olaf: Even it happened in the 80s.

[21:21] J.J.: They always show like the cast of Cheers, and you're like, how is Norm, 32, strolling into the bar?

[21:26] Olaf: He looks like he's 48 or 50.

[21:28] J.J.: Connery was 35 when he shot You Only Live Twice.

[21:33] Olaf: Which is crazy.

[21:34] J.J.: It's crazy.

[21:35] Olaf: He looks so much older.

[21:36] J.J.: And mind you, it's the 60s and the smoking and the drinking, and this is his fifth Bond movie, and he was already losing his hair.

[21:43] Olaf: I mean, I guess he had a lot of things that were aging him.

[21:46] J.J.: But even the fight sequences in the Thunderball and in this movie, it's obvious that it's not him.

[21:54] Olaf: Or they do a lot of quick cutaways to hide the fact that it's not him doing a lot of these things.

[21:59] J.J.: It's not great.

[22:02] Olaf: It's not great.

[22:03] J.J.: I can't imagine people leaving the theater after this movie knowing that he's not going to come back.

[22:08] Olaf: Where people are like, yes, this is still great.

[22:11] J.J.: I think most people enjoyed it at the time.

[22:14] Olaf: Because at the time, exploiting stereotypes.

[22:17] J.J.: It was exactly what was happening, you're right, all through the 70s.

[22:21] Olaf: The misogyny, all that stuff.

[22:23] J.J.: None of it was really out of the norm for what was going on.

[22:27] Olaf: So it made a lot of money, and I think it's just not aged well.

[22:32] J.J.: No, it has not.

[22:33] Olaf: So as we leave You Only Live Twice, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Salzman are banking on the idea that people want to go see James Bond.

[22:43] J.J.: They don't care who plays James Bond.

[22:45] Olaf: Exactly.

[22:46] J.J.: The grand experiment has begun.

[22:48] Olaf: But I would say that in the end, Cubby Broccoli was right.

[22:52] J.J.: That people are coming to see Bond and not the person playing Bond.

[22:56] Olaf: And they cast a large net to try and replace Sean Connery.

[23:00] J.J.: They were looking everywhere.

[23:02] Olaf: Everywhere.

[23:03] J.J.: Dick Van Dyke was on the short list.

[23:05] Olaf: Adam West.

[23:06] J.J.: Oliver Reed was on the list.

[23:08] Olaf: And is this when they asked Timothy Dalton?

[23:11] J.J.: Yeah, I think they had approached Timothy Dalton, and he felt he was way too young.

[23:16] Olaf: Right.

[23:17] J.J.: Roger Moore, they wanted him, but he was under contract, so he wasn't available.

[23:23] Olaf: So that brings us to Honor Majesty's Secret Service, which, by all accounts, is one of the best Bond movies out there.

[23:32] J.J.: So many filmmakers love this movie.

[23:35] Olaf: I really enjoy it.

[23:36] J.J.: It's on my top five.

[23:37] Olaf: It's in my top five.

[23:38] J.J.: For sure.

[23:39] Olaf: It's in my top ten.

[23:40] J.J.: I know that.

[23:41] Olaf: It definitely has its faults, and we can talk about those.

[23:44] J.J.: But before we dive in, let's get the business out of the way.

[23:49] Olaf: Set it up.

[23:50] J.J.: We are in 1969.

[23:52] Olaf: This is it.

[23:53] J.J.: The door is closing on the 60s era of James Bond.

[23:57] Olaf: That's right.

[23:58] J.J.: There's a meta score of 61.

[24:01] Olaf: Kind of low.

[24:02] J.J.: Rotten Tomatoes has it at 81, which that's a good, solid number.

[24:06] Olaf: But surprisingly, the audience score is 64.

[24:10] J.J.: See, and that's people hating on George Lazenby, wanting Connery.

[24:15] Olaf: That is such a skewed number, in my opinion.

[24:19] J.J.: Yeah, they don't want to give him a chance.

[24:21] Olaf: Which, if you just focus on his performance and what he's doing in the movie,

[24:27] J.J.: and what he's being asked to do, he does a great job.

[24:29] Olaf: I would have loved to seen him do at least another one.

[24:34] J.J.: Sure.

[24:35] Olaf: To really see what he could do.

[24:37] J.J.: It's an unbelievable experience to be James Bond, for starters.

[24:43] Olaf: But have this be your first movie ever.

[24:47] J.J.: And we're going to get to why and how in a minute.

[24:49] Olaf: But the fact that the quality of material that he's given is so very high.

[24:55] J.J.: It's not like, hey, here's You Only Live Twice.

[24:58] Olaf: Have fun.

[25:00] J.J.: Yeah.

[25:01] Olaf: This movie is directed by Peter R. Hunt, who is really only known for editing.

[25:08] J.J.: He's edited Bond movies and so many other films as well.

[25:13] Olaf: But he hadn't really directed, and they gave him the go-ahead.

[25:18] J.J.: They gave him the go-ahead because he wanted You Only Live Twice.

[25:22] Olaf: Yes.

[25:23] J.J.: And they had been trying to make Honor, Majesty, Secret Service for a while.

[25:27] Olaf: They wanted to do it after Goldfinger.

[25:29] J.J.: That didn't happen.

[25:30] Olaf: No.

[25:31] J.J.: Then they wanted to do it after Thunderball, but because of the conditions in the Alps that weren't what they needed.

[25:37] Olaf: It was an unusually warm winter.

[25:39] J.J.: Right.

[25:40] Olaf: So they'd come up to Peter Hunt and they said, please edit You Only Live Twice because he was off of that film too.

[25:45] J.J.: He's like, no.

[25:46] Olaf: And he said, I'll come back and I'll edit this movie if I get to direct the next one.

[25:50] J.J.: Having never directed a movie, they said, sure.

[25:52] Olaf: He makes a solid movie.

[25:54] J.J.: I completely agree.

[25:56] Olaf: John Barry is still here, still composing.

[25:59] J.J.: And then we've got our cast.

[26:00] Olaf: We've got a brand new James Bond, George Lazenby.

[26:03] J.J.: We've got Blofeld.

[26:05] Olaf: He's back, but it's not Donald Pleasence.

[26:07] J.J.: It's Telly Savalas.

[26:09] Olaf: Hey, baby.

[26:10] J.J.: Who loves you, baby?

[26:12] Olaf: Where's my sucker?

[26:14] J.J.: Where's my lollipop?

[26:16] Olaf: Love me some Telly.

[26:18] J.J.: In the most Telly Savalas way, he does a great Blofeld.

[26:21] Olaf: For being a New Yorker?

[26:23] J.J.: Yeah.

[26:24] Olaf: Yes, absolutely.

[26:25] J.J.: He makes it his own.

[26:27] Olaf: He's way more physical, way more active.

[26:30] J.J.: He's also given a lot more.

[26:32] Olaf: He's central to the plot of this movie as opposed to the other one.

[26:37] J.J.: Again, the plot...

[26:39] Olaf: Well, let's keep moving forward.

[26:41] J.J.: If we're going to go through the business of it, let's lay it out so we can get into it.

[26:45] Olaf: We've got Ilsa Stepit as Irma Bunt.

[26:49] J.J.: Yet another red-headed...

[26:53] Olaf: Which I feel, if they had just thrown in one line in the movie, they could have said that her sister was Colonel Klebb.

[27:01] J.J.: I would have been completely satisfied because this lady looks exactly like Lana Lenya.

[27:07] Olaf: I mean, when we talked about From Russia With Love, I was like, doesn't her character come back in Honorary Secret?

[27:15] J.J.: No, she doesn't.

[27:17] Olaf: But they're so similar.

[27:19] J.J.: So similar.

[27:20] Olaf: You would swear that they are.

[27:21] J.J.: She was very popular and everyone really liked her.

[27:24] Olaf: But unfortunately, months after the movie came out, she had a heart attack and passed away.

[27:30] J.J.: She was good.

[27:31] Olaf: She was.

[27:32] J.J.: She was great.

[27:33] Olaf: She hadn't really done anything in the U.S.

[27:35] J.J.: She'd done films in Europe.

[27:38] Olaf: And I don't know, I think she might have had a good career after this movie, but unfortunately, she had passed.

[27:45] J.J.: And then, obviously, I cannot forget to mention, we've still got Captain America.

[27:48] J.J.: We still got Moneypenny, we still got M, they're back, they're the anchors of this franchise now that we've had such a drastic change.

[27:56] Olaf: But then, we get the amazing, maybe the best Bond girl, Diana Rigg.

[28:02] J.J.: She's amazing. I've always liked Diana Rigg in anything that she does, so clearly two seasoned actors that are brought into this project, not only to give weight to the characters that they're playing, but really to help raise the performance of George Lazenby as James Bond.

[28:21] Olaf: Because he had never acted before. He'd done some modeling and some commercials. That was it. He was turned onto that they were looking for Bond, and so he threw his hat in the ring. He goes to where Connery got his hair cut, says, "Give me Connery's hair. Give me the Connery." And then they just pull out this bit of hair, and he's like, "Oh, no, no, no, I've got my own. Mine's real. I've got my own." Yeah, he goes to Savile Row, where Connery was getting his suits made, finds out how much they are, and he's like, "Ah, never mind. Pass." But then on his way out, the tailor mentions that he has a suit that Connery rejected, he didn't want. I don't know how much it cost him, but apparently the price was good enough for him to take it.

[29:08] J.J.: Yeah. So now he's got a Connery suit. He's got the Connery hair, and he goes to the Broccoli's office.

[29:17] Olaf: Walks right in.

[29:18] J.J.: Yeah. He sneaks past security. He talks his way through others, gets into the office. I think maybe he saw Saltzman first.

[29:27] Olaf: Yeah, because they were literally on the phone with Broccoli, and he walked in. And they said, "Hold on. We might have found our Bond." And then they put him through all of these wild, crazy stuff. I think the final straw that got him the role was he had to do a fight scene.

[29:45] J.J.: Yeah.

[29:46] Olaf: And he had never really pulled a punch. So he threw a punch, and he knocked this dude out. And they're like, "He's your guy." And the guy that he knocks out, they end up giving him the role as the lead henchman in the movie.

[30:00] J.J.: Yeah. Like, "Thanks for coming out. You're in the movie, too. Here you go."

[30:05] Olaf: Yeah. So he's in. But in that cold open, when they're not showing his face, they're just constantly putting his face in shadow and silhouette. And then he's on the beach, that awful shooting night for day.

[30:18] J.J.: Day for night. Sorry, day for night.

[30:24] Olaf: Yeah. I mean, you can do it, and it can look good. But back then, it never really looked great. You just had to go with it. But the fighting.

[30:37] J.J.: Yeah. Well, you mentioned this in a conversation. Before he even fights anybody, he has to go rescue her. But how he's keenly aware that she's going out there to end her life from way far away. She just looks like a woman on the beach having a good time.

[30:55] Olaf: Having a walk and then getting in the water. A flowy dress, and then she's like, "I'm going to go for a swim." And he's like, "Oh, my gosh, she's going to kill herself."

[31:03] J.J.: Right. She's going to drown herself. Right. Everybody else would be like, "What are you talking about?" Where one of the huge positives that Lazenby had going for him, that another reason why he got this job, is he is agile. He's mobile. He's willing to do his stunts. And so from a stunt budget, they didn't have to use as much because he's willing to do a lot of these things himself.

[31:23] Olaf: He did a lot of his own stunts. And you can tell. The energy in that opening fight with those thugs on the beach is such a huge jump from the previous Bond movies. And that's credit to Peter Hunt.

[31:37] J.J.: Absolutely. And then as far as I'm aware, the only time in Bond history he breaks the fourth wall. I'm trying to think if that's happened.

[31:44] Olaf: Never happened to the other fella.

[31:45] J.J.: Yeah, which I like the tongue in cheek. I'm OK with it. This movie does not have a theme song for the credits.

[31:55] Olaf: We do get, though, scenes from the previous Bond movies almost as a reminder to the audience. "Hey, even though this is a new actor, this is still the same James Bond that you've seen through the last five movies, even though it's a different face."

[32:09] J.J.: It's such a weird opening where we're back at Dr. No, where it's just an instrumental score playing for the opening. And then we're seeing all this old footage of the Bond movies. And I get it. It's a comfort. It's like, "Here's the blanket. It's saying, hey, hey, you're going to be OK. This is the same universe."

[32:29] Olaf: Because the other thing is, we know you just saw this guy's face. We know it's not Connery. Though he looks a lot like him. And yeah, having said that, too, it was also really challenging to write a theme song with On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the song. They had tried, and it just wasn't working.

[32:50] J.J.: So the opening theme is a great piece of music that they use in Bond films for action bits and stuff. But I never liked it as the opening theme song.

[33:02] Olaf: No, and the song that is in this movie, which we have all the time in the world.

[33:07] J.J.: Louis Armstrong.

[33:08] Olaf: Louis Armstrong. This song, as a kid, I didn't appreciate this song until I got older. I would have been totally fine if they had used this song as the opening theme song.

[33:19] J.J.: I disagree. Because they play other ballads as opening theme songs as well. But here's the thing. You're already trying to convince the audience to come along with you on this journey with a whole new Bond. And you can't stick them with what is a beautiful song as the James Bond credit song.

[33:37] Olaf: Well, that's the difference between you and I. I trust the audience. I have faith in the audience.

[33:44] J.J.: It's the money, man. I would appreciate them being brave enough to let the audience.

[33:52] Olaf: They don't have that kind of – we already know what happens after this movie.

[33:56] J.J.: But that's not the audience's fault. But I'm just saying they're looking at it from like, "Okay, we're going to introduce this song." And they do it in a great way as we move into the movie. It's a great song. I'm just saying it could have been the opening theme song.

[34:08] Olaf: And you had mentioned in a conversation we've had before, and I didn't know this. But this was Louis Armstrong's last song he ever recorded, you said.

[34:16] J.J.: Yes. This was the last song he ever recorded. Sadly, he passed away not long after that. He had actually just gotten out of the hospital when he recorded the song.

[34:27] Olaf: Oh, wow.

[34:28] J.J.: Because he'd been having some health issues. But he had such a great time doing it. And there's still some old footage of him at some concerts saying, "Hey, I just did this song for –"

[34:43] Olaf: James Bond.

[34:44] J.J.: And he sang it for them. And you could see he just loves the song. You can hear it when he sings it. You can feel it all when he's singing the song.

[34:54] Olaf: Just so everybody else knows, I do know that was an appalling attempt at an impression of Louis Armstrong. So I was just trying to get a little bit of the flavor.

[35:07] J.J.: They don't get the luxury of seeing you trying to do it.

[35:11] Olaf: I was in it. No judgment on this end. I'm apologizing, and I am aware. That's a hard one to do. Just saying. This movie, the production in and of itself does not help George Lazenby at all try to succeed in this role.

[35:24] J.J.: No, they kind of dress him up in weird ways. From the costumes to the gadgets, he doesn't really even get any.

[35:31] Olaf: No. We only see M in Moneypenny because at a certain point, Bond is going to resign, and he's going to tender his resignation.

[35:41] J.J.: Well, because M decides to take him off the case he's on where he's trying to locate and get Blofeld.

[35:49] Olaf: Blofeld. M's like, "You're off the case."

[35:51] J.J.: Right. And so he gets so mad that he storms off to his office, which is one of the few times we ever see his office. It's the only time we've seen it so far is now. And it's just kind of an empty office with a desk full of old props.

[36:07] Olaf: This is like another device to tell the audience, this is Bond. We're going to show you all of these things that he's used in previous movies to let you know it's not Connery, but it's still James Bond.

[36:21] J.J.: Why do you have Ursula Andress's knife and belt?

[36:27] Olaf: It didn't work out.

[36:29] J.J.: It didn't work out, but here you go. Why do you have it? Why is it in your office desk? A parting gift?

[36:36] Olaf: You never know.

[36:37] J.J.: Oh, my gosh. I'm like, was there nothing else memorable from Dr. No that he could hold? So, yeah, you find out that M does not – so Moneypenny really doesn't write a resignation note for Bond. It's really a request for two weeks off vacation or whatever.

[36:55] Olaf: A new PTO.

[36:56] J.J.: Yeah, he gets granted the PTO, and then we get to meet Tracy's father. Who's a criminal who sort of works for Blofeld.

[37:05] Olaf: Well, who knows where Blofeld is, but really wants Bond to date or court Tracy because Tracy needs better influences in her life. And he's willing to do this for the location of where Blofeld is.

[37:21] J.J.: But Tracy's father also wants to give him a million dollars.

[37:25] Olaf: Yes. To do it. A million pounds, yes. And he's like –

[37:29] J.J.: He's like, "I don't need a million dollars."

[37:31] Olaf: But he'll think about it.

[37:32] J.J.: Right. We do get to see this really musical montage, so to speak, to the Louis Armstrong song where we get to see Tracy and Bond falling in love. We get that two-week love montage.

[37:46] Olaf: Louis is serenading them.

[37:48] J.J.: And then Diana Rigg vanishes for like an hour.

[37:54] Olaf: She is just gone. We don't know anything. They're not talking on the phone. There's no quick shot of him going, "I miss you. I'm thinking about you."

[38:05] J.J.: He's got work to do.

[38:06] Olaf: But see, here's the thing. She is a very independent – this is why we love Tracy as a Bond girl because she's strong. She's independent. She's doing her own thing. But we can't even get some of that.

[38:17] J.J.: Well, here's the thing. We can't just get cut away to her like telling somebody, "No, I've got it." We already know that. We already know that about her. She just vanishes. It gets to a point because I'm just telling you, in like this hour, hour and a half that she's not there, the movie completely slows down.

[38:37] Olaf: It's like my biggest – it's really my only complaint about this movie is the middle of this movie is a slog.

[38:44] J.J.: It's important to set up what this is that he's got to do. He's got to track down Blofeld, which he does in the Swiss Alps. And he has to go in undercover, and this is where –

[39:09] Olaf: This is where things get – this book was written before You Only Live Twice and was supposed to be made before You Only Live Twice. So when you're telling that story, it makes sense that he's going to go see Blofeld. They're not really going to know – Blofeld's not going to know who Bond really is. Obviously, this movie came out after You Only Live Twice. Blofeld clearly knows who Bond is.

[39:32] J.J.: Yeah, they were up close and personal.

[39:34] Olaf: They were up close and personal. So when Bond in this movie goes to the Alps undercover as some sort of – what is he? Ancestral sort of professor, investigator.

[39:45] J.J.: Yeah, professor of ancestry or something, right?

[39:46] Olaf: Yeah. He and Blofeld have numerous interactions with each other.

[39:49] J.J.: Oh, yeah. And you're sitting there going, how do you not know this? Because he's supposed to be exploring Blofeld's ancestry because that's part of Blofeld's plan to take over the world, which I tell you, even after rewatching this movie, as I'm watching it, I'm like, I still don't know what his plan is. And then when the movie's over, I'm like, still not quite sure.

[40:10] Olaf: Blofeld has his clinic up there, and he's got all of these different girls that are there having suffered some sort of allergy to something in their world, right, into their life. And he's cured their allergies. And he's cured them by brainwashing them, essentially. But the idea here is that he wants to pollute the world's livestock and water supply and other resources to then force the country or the world to come to him for these things.

[40:41] J.J.: And if there's any, like, Honor, Majesty, Secret Service-like diehards out there, apologies for sort of glossing over with applause this movie. Let us know, because it's not very clear.

[40:50] Olaf: Well, the thing is, even if it is clear, you're distracted by these two people know each other already. They have interactions with each other. This makes no sense. I mean, I understand because one was supposed to be filmed before the other, but because it wasn't, everyone knows it wasn't.

[41:13] J.J.: I know. The people that made it knew that.

[41:15] Olaf: I know. Why not shoot a scene of something? Because it's not like he's in this elaborate costume.

[41:22] J.J.: He's not in any costume.

[41:23] Olaf: He's in a kilt.

[41:24] J.J.: He's wearing a kilt and a poofy shirt.

[41:27] Olaf: And little glasses. That's it.

[41:29] J.J.: I don't want to be a pirate. All right. Now, Peter Hunt, the director, they chose to stay so close to the source material because I feel like this movie is the closest to the source material of any of them.

[41:42] J.J.: And then the next time he sees her, he's going to propose.

[45:42] Olaf: That's kind of my complaint, is that middle of the movie, we didn't get certain things that we needed for the rest of the movie to make sense.

[45:50] J.J.: Right. She says yes, so now they're engaged, then the avalanche, then she gets kidnapped. Blofeld's got her, he's talking to her, she's hearing him out, even though she's like, I'm not going to actually hear him out, but I'm going to play it cool because I'm Diana Rigg.

[46:05] Olaf: And then Bond comes with reinforcements.

[46:07] J.J.: Bond comes in, the bobsled scene. One of the coolest things a Bond character has done, and I wish the shot had been held just a little bit longer, was George Lazenby on his stomach, sliding down the ice path, shooting the gun. It just looks so cool.

[46:24] Olaf: I agree. Peter Hunt should have stayed on him longer.

[46:28] J.J.: Just a little bit longer, but it's very cool. I love that image, I love that shot, and that's something you weren't going to see Sean Connery doing.

[46:37] Olaf: Which also reminds me, even though we're well past it, the opening gunshot barrel scene, he is the only James Bond to go down on one knee when he shoots his gun.

[46:48] J.J.: Yeah, I hate to jump back like that, but it just popped in my head.

[46:50] Olaf: No, no, no, he does, he goes down on one knee.

[46:52] J.J.: And he's the last one to wear a hat. But anyway.

[46:56] Olaf: We get the final sort of bobsled scene with Blofeld and Bond. A lot of rear projection.

[47:01] J.J.: A lot of rear projection because somehow Blofeld manages to get hung up in a tree.

[47:07] Olaf: They were fighting.

[47:09] J.J.: They were fighting on a bobsled. He wedges himself nicely between the limbs of that tree by his neck.

[47:16] Olaf: And the way he's left and the way you see him, everyone just assumes he's dead.

[47:20] J.J.: And so then we get to the final scene of the movie, where we get to see Q and Moneypenny and M again. We're back in Portugal.

[47:27] Olaf: They sort of bookend the movie with them because it's Bond's wedding to Tracy.

[47:34] J.J.: And Moneypenny's very sad.

[47:36] Olaf: Moneypenny is crying and sad because Bond is getting married.

[47:39] J.J.: And then George Lazenby throws his hat to her.

[47:42] Olaf: She crushes it with her bare hands.

[47:44] J.J.: She destroys that thing.

[47:46] Olaf: Oh my goodness.

[47:47] J.J.: And then Q comes over and blames Bond.

[47:51] Olaf: I know! It's like he has no respect for government property.

[47:56] J.J.: I will say it was a very sweet moment between Moneypenny and Bond. Sort of leading into this final two minutes of the movie, where you get to see Bond and Tracy having a little more banter and repartee.

[48:09] Olaf: Talking about kids.

[48:10] J.J.: And family and the whole thing. And then for whatever reason, Bond decides that he needs to pull over to take all the flowers off the car.

[48:17] Olaf: Well, the kids in a car drive by. In a very friendly way, heckle them.

[48:24] J.J.: Saying that the car looks like a flower shop.

[48:29] Olaf: And he's like, oh yeah, I guess it kind of does. So he's pulling over to just take that off.

[48:35] J.J.: Did he need to? Not really. But, you know, we've got to end the movie. We've got to pull the car over. We've got to set it up.

[48:44] Olaf: And then we get this last shot of Blofeld and Colonel Klebsister driving by.

[48:50] J.J.: Was it Irma Bunt?

[48:52] Olaf: Yes. She's the one pulling the trigger.

[48:56] J.J.: Because Blofeld's somehow driving with this huge neck brace. I'm like trying to figure that one out.

[49:01] Olaf: The way he's situated in the car, I'm like, I don't think he can even see forward.

[49:06] J.J.: It looks like he's stuck staring up into the ceiling. Can you push the seat up a little bit? Just help yourself out.

[49:14] Olaf: So weird. But they're driving at a pretty good clip. So all the shots she gets off are pretty impressive.

[49:20] J.J.: Because it only takes one. And somehow George Lazenby figures out that it's Blofeld.

[49:26] Olaf: Even though he really wasn't looking at the car when it drove by.

[49:30] J.J.: Well, it's James Bond.

[49:31] Olaf: I know, he's James Bond. He makes the assumption that it's...

[49:34] J.J.: Well, maybe he just saw Bunt and was like, red hair.

[49:37] Olaf: Maybe. Bad guy.

[49:39] J.J.: Maybe. So he runs into the car and we see Tracy got shot.

[49:43] Olaf: I gotta tell you, man. Right between the eyes. That scene, the ending of this movie, is what sells me on Lazenby every time.

[49:51] J.J.: It's a great scene. It's done really well. My only hang up with it is, it just feels rushed.

[49:57] Olaf: From the car getting shot at, to him getting in, to him finding her dead and taking her in his arms. And then the cop on the bike showing up.

[50:06] J.J.: Not saying anything, just looking in and he starts...

[50:09] Olaf: It's okay, she's just resting. We have all the time in the world.

[50:12] J.J.: It's all great. I just felt like it could have been a little bit slower to give it a little bit more emotion, a little bit more impact.

[50:20] Olaf: You have to wonder if they shot more and they just didn't use stuff.

[50:23] J.J.: I don't know. Because he does a take where he cries.

[50:26] Olaf: Yeah.

[50:27] J.J.: And then they were like, Bond doesn't cry.

[50:29] Olaf: Which is... I mean, I get it. Especially for the time. And they're wanting people to still be all in. And they were probably like, we are literally out of money. Say this one quick.

[50:41] J.J.: Cut. That's a wrap. Got it. We're out.

[50:45] Olaf: I would have loved to have seen what the follow-up would have been to this.

[50:49] J.J.: Yes, because a lot of this movie, I think, is spent trying to draw comparisons with him and Connery. It's a lot of him having to clean up what Connery left behind.

[51:01] Olaf: It's all of this establishing and finalizing and connecting to where what's left is very little of him getting to do what he wants to do.

[51:11] J.J.: So if he had another movie, that next movie would have given him all of the room to really flex and to show us, does he really have what it takes to be a franchise Bond?

[51:26] Olaf: And now we say all of this, it wasn't like they didn't want him back.

[51:30] J.J.: No, they wanted him. Whoever you talk to, depending on who you talk to, it was a multiple-picture deal. Some people say it was three pictures. Some people say seven. But he was told by whoever that, hey, the 60s are coming to an end. Bond is not going to last much longer.

[51:45] Olaf: Bond is dying. The Graduate, Easy Rider, movies like that.

[51:52] J.J.: And so he was already kind of... Being in this new environment, having to try to figure it out on your own, everyone's helping you, creates some resentment and creates other issues that cause you to act out.

[52:04] Olaf: And he was. He was acting out on set. He was becoming difficult. And then afterwards, he continued to act out. They didn't want him at the premiere.

[52:16] J.J.: Well, because he shows up at the premiere, beard, long hair. And everyone's like, that's not Bond.

[52:23] Olaf: That's not Bond. And by then, he'd already said he wasn't coming back. Having said all of that, the only actor to be nominated for a Golden Globe, James Bond.

[52:32] J.J.: If he'd been given one more movie, I think it would have won a lot of naysayers over.

[52:38] Olaf: I agree. And he would have gotten better. Like, he would have just gotten better.

[52:42] J.J.: But it was kind of an unfortunate storm of events that created this rift with the audience, with the producers, with the actor. And even at the end, even though he had been acting out, even though he had been difficult, they still wanted to sign him for more, but he just refused.

[53:00] Olaf: And by the end of the movie, he was like, I don't want to do this. He walked away. And even when you watch interviews with him now, as an old man, he's still got this, like, I'm a troublemaker. Maybe not everything I'm saying is true.

[53:18] J.J.: As we move past Lazenby now, and out of the 60s, they are now tasked with trying to find Bond again. It's funny because the next Bond movie will be the first Bond in the 70s.

[53:30] Olaf: But when you watch that movie, you'd swear you're back in the 60s.

[53:40] J.J.: Well, it's one of those things, too, I think when you leave a decade and you get into the new decade, there's still a lot of permeations from the previous decade.

[53:49] Olaf: Well, you also bring in a director who was like, I don't know, we'll just do it the way we've always done it.

[53:58] J.J.: That's a whole other episode, ladies and gentlemen. But that is You Only Live Twice on Her Majesty's Secret Service. Sean Connery, George Lazenby. We're moving on. But guys, we hope you enjoyed listening to us wax on about James Bond.

[54:13] Olaf: We love the character and it's exciting to continue to move forward and get into the later decades of the character where things really start to pick up more and the way the movies are made are more exciting.

[54:26] J.J.: Yeah, and the tone is going to drastically shift as we move into the 70s and into that era of Bond, for sure.

[54:33] Olaf: So, oh boy, the tone. Watch out.

[54:36] J.J.: Buckle up. It's a bumpy ride.

[54:40] Olaf: It is. But until then, guys, be sure to follow us on social media. We've got TikTok, we've got Instagram, we've got YouTube. Follow us if you like what you hear. There's going to be more coming down the pipe.

[54:51] J.J.: And as always, to be continued.

[55:19] Olaf: Follow us on Instagram and TikTok and find us on YouTube at Back to the Movie Theater with J.J. and Olaf.