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The James Bond film series is best known for fast Aston Martin and Lotus sports cars (often with gadgets). But there are quite a few Bond vehicles that don’t get the heart pumping. Here are some examples:
Kerim Bey’s station wagon
In From Russia With Love, Kerim Bey sends a Rolls-Royce limousine to pick James Bond up from the Istanbul airport. Later in the movie, the head of Station T sends the Rolls (with two dummies in the back) off in another direction while he and Bond travel to a gypsy camp in a station wagon.
The modest transportation works in the context of the story. The flashy Rolls is a decoy. Bond’s journey in Kerim’s station wagon helps set up one of the key sequences of the movie. But the station wagon isn’t particularly sexy. In 1966’s The Silencers, Matt Helm (Dean Martin) also goes around in a station wagon. But Dino’s wheels include a bar (!).
James Bond’s Lincoln Continental
In Thunderball, Bond (Sean Connery) again drives the Aston Martin DB5 he had earlier piloted in Goldfinger. The fourth Bond film made by Eon Productions provided 007 a more down-to-earth set of wheels once Bond got to The Bahamas — a Lincoln Continental he drove up to the estate of Largo (Adolfo Celi). The Lincoln is only briefly seen onscreen.
Honda ATV (all-terrain vehicle)
In Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery’s final movie for Eon Productions, the intrepid agent infiltrates a Nevada installation owned by industrialist Willard Whyte. Bond is discovered and has to get out fast.
He first steals a “moon buggy” being developed by Whyte’s company (which is under control of Blofeld). Bond manages to get out of the moon buggy while the vehicle continues on its way. Bond then overcomes one of the Whyte security personnel, who is driving a three-wheel Honda all-terrain vehicle (or ATV).
Despite the lack of dignity, Bond drives the ATV until he can rendezvous with Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). She is waiting with a new Ford Mustang, the main product placement deal of the film.
Bond’s Ford LTD
In A View to a Kill, Bond (Roger Moore) is following Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) around San Francisco in a Ford LTD. The LTD was a big, boxy Ford sedan that went out of production and is long forgotten. Presumably, in the story, it was a rental car but that’s not spelled out in the movie.
By the time of the release of A View to a Kill, the LTD was on its last legs. The model would soon be phased out in favor of the Ford Taurus.
Bond’s Lincoln Mark VII
In Licence to Kill (1989), Bond (Timothy Dalton) intends to depart Florida after Felix Leiter (David Hedison) has gotten married. Dalton’s Bond is depicted as getting ready to return his rental car. But things take a turn when Bond discovers Leiter never made his honeymoon. Bond goes rogue, doesn’t catch his flight, and instead gets back in the car to figure out what’s going on.
Bond’s Ford Mondeo
2006 Ford Mondeo prototype driven by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (photo by The Spy Command)
Technically, the first car driven by the Daniel Craig version of Bond was a Ford Mondeo. The automaker had redesigned the European car and arranged for it to be in 2006’s Casino Royale. The car in the film wasn’t then (and still isn’t) street-legal. Bond drives the car (or so it seems) after the agent has arrived in The Bahamas.
Many Bond fans can’t stand the Mondeo’s appearance in the movie, viewing it as an obvious commercial for Ford. The magic of cinema likely made the Mondeo appear to be traveling faster than it could, via camera angles and sound effects.
The COVID-19 pandemic is long over. But movies — despite repeated comments that certain movies would save cinema — are still hurting.
I’m old enough to remember when some Bond fans said No Time to Die was “saving cinema.” Maybe in the U.K., but not in the U.S. The 25th James Bond film did fine in the U.S., almost $161 million. But it was only No. 007 in the U.S. for calendar 2021. Some protest, “What about COVID?” The first six also dealt with COVID. The No. 1 2021 movie was Spider-Man: No Way Home at almost $805 million (U.S.), $1.1 billion (global).
In 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise’s sequel to a long-ago hit, was an enormous success, with almost $719 million in the U.S. and almost $1.5 billion worldwide. At a public event, director Steven Spielberg told Cruise, “You saved Hollywood’s ass.” There are various videos of this exchange, including THIS ONE.
In 2023, Cruise’s luck ran out. Mission: Impossible Dead Recocking Part One generated U.S. box office of $172.1 million and a worldwide take of $395.4 million. Nice, but below its previous installment, Mission: Impossible Fallout (more than $220 million, U.S., almost $792 million globally).
Whatever “secret sauce” Cruise had, it didn’t carry over into 2023. The next M:I installment (originally set for 2024) got delayed to 2025. The top global box office movies were Barbie and Oppenheimer.
In 2024? May is supposed to be the start of the “summer” movie season when big blockbusters reach theaters.
In the U.S., for the May 3-5 weekend, the No. 1 film was The Fall Guy at just under $28 million. For the May 10-12 weekend, the top film is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at an estimated $56.5 million.
Not small numbers, to be sure. But once upon a time (especially before the pandemic), figures came in at $100 million and above.
Despite the heralded saviors of cinema, it hasn’t been saved yet.
Movies are a mess and for many reasons. Netflix upended things with streaming. Studios, including Disney (which spent more than $70 billion to buy 20th Century Fox), Paramount and whoever owns Warner Bros. this week, have been chasing Netflix. Why rush out to a theater when you can see a movie soon on streaming? At least that’s something cinema is having to deal with.
Going back to the start of this article: When the James Bond franchise finally gets around to Bond 26, the entertainment world will be much different. MGM, one of the business partners of Eon Productions, is now owned by Amazon, which has a major streaming service.
His credits include nine episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O series, starting with the second season and running through the sixth.
On Five-O, Lawrence often penned stories that had unhappy endings. Among them was a two-part story, Three Dead Cows at Makapuu. In that story, an idealistic scientist — who has gone missing after working on the U.S.’s germ warfare program — decides the only way to get the world’s attention is to unleash a potent sample that will wipe out all life on Oahu.
Eventually, the scientist (Ed Flanders) changes his mind and sacrifices himself to prevent the catastrophe.
Another Lawrence-written Five-O episode, Death With Father, was directed by series star Jack Lord. The story concerned how the son of a former policeman had become a criminal. In the conclusion, the son blows up himself and his father.
Lawrence wrote for Western shows, including eight episodes of Bonanza. His output included three episodes that told the back story of each of the wives of Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene). The scribe also tackled science fiction (The Outer Limits), contemporary dramas (Slattery’s People), and medical dramas (Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Medical Center). He also had an Elvis Presley movie, Roustabout, on his resume.
Lawrence’s IMDB.COM ENTRY lists more than 60 credits from 1959 to 2016.
U.K. cover to High Time to Kill, the James Bond continuation novel by Raymond Benson
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of High Time to Kill, the third Raymond Benson James Bond continuation novel.
Benson (b. 1955), an American, was hired to be the new Bond continuation author in 1995 after John Gardner had finished his long run. Benson earlier had written the reference book The James Bond Bedside Companion.
Besides doing novels, Benson penned a number of Bond short stories, some of which were commissioned by Playboy and TV Guide. Glidrose (later Ian Fleming Publications) had approval for publication as well as titles of the Benson novels. The author could suggest titles but he didn’t have the final say.
High Time to Kill stands out among the Benson stories because of its details about mountain climbing. A henchman in the novel was named after Benson’s friend (and proofreader) Paul Baack.
In that respect, Benson followed in the footsteps of Ian Fleming, who named characters after friends of his. “Aieeeeee!” the literary Baack yelled as he fell to his death. (I’m not sure I got all the “e’s” right.)
The Medal of Freedom is given out by the U.S. president each year. It’s awarded to those who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” according to its definition on Wikipedia.
Many politicians receive the award. This year the award was given to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore, and former Secretary of State John Kerry. The current U.S. president, Joseph Biden, was given one when he was vice president under then-President Barack Obama.
But such awards are given to people in various fields, including sports, business, and entertainment. Another one of the 2024 recipients was Medgar Evans, a civil rights activist, who was assassinated in 1963.
Yeoh played agent Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies. She and Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond are both investigating a media baron played by Jonathan Pryce. The businessman is trying to start a war between the U.K. and China to expand the ratings of his worldwide news channel. Yeoh’s martial arts skills were a highlight of the Bond movie.
Once upon a time, being a Bond woman was seen as a curse: You get a big movie and then disappear into obscurity. That hasn’t been the case for a while but Yeoh’s post-Bond career stands out.
This week marked the 10th anniversary of the death of actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr., whose many credits included starring in The FBI, which ran from 1965 until 1974.
The show was an idealized version of the bureau. And for much of its run, the real-life FBI had a say in the series, including vetoing Bette Davis as a guest star. At Quinn Martin Productions (which made the series as part of a joint venture with Warner Bros.), no explanation was given. The answer was simply no.
The anniversary of Zimbalist’s passing also reminded me of something else about the QM show.
In The FBI, Zimbalist’s Lewis Erskine first checked to see if a suspect had an outstanding warrant, such as “unlawful flight.” If not, Erskine or his associates actually got a warrant before moving in. The FBI in the Zimbalist show followed rules, even if real life wasn’t so clean, including illegal wiretapping during the J. Edgar Hoover era. Hoover died on May 2, 1972, after The FBI’s seventh season completed production.
In the decades since the notion of law enforcement officers who follow their own rules took hold. Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movies (released by Warner Bros.) from 1971 to 1988 did a lot of popularize this idea. But there have been other TV shows that grabbed onto the concept. Changing times and all that.
Below is a clip from a second-season episode, “The Executioners Part I.” Erskine and crew are conducting surveillance and spot a hit man played by Robert Duvall. Once Erskine knows there’s an outstanding warrant, the bureau’s agents move.
Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) riding a stink bomb in The Super Colossal Affair
In January 1966, the campy Batman television series was an unexpected hit (even to executives of ABC, the network that broadcast the show). That would have a big impact on the third season (1966-67) of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
NBC, which aired U.N.C.L.E., wanted a lighter approach. After all, the audience has spoken (according to network executives).
The fourth episode broadcast that season, The Super Colossal Affair (original title: The Sodom and Gomorrah Affair) really reflected the Batman influence.
The episode was written by Stanford Sherman. He was a major Batman scribe. During the 1966-67 season, Sherman would have a hand in writing two three-part stories. Another Batman writer, Stanley Ralph Ross, would work on other U.N.C.L.E. scripts during the 1966-67 season. Ross even worked the same gag into Batman and U.N.C.L.E., involving a butler named Rhett.
With this script (dated July 11, 1966), we’re told in the teaser that the Mafia is mad at their Las Vegas “nephews.”
“Suddenly our nephews no longer know us,” “Uncle Giuliano” says during a meeting in Sicily with his associates. “Suddenly they’ve become ‘legitimate businessmen.’ And suddenly they refuse to pay their family taxes.'”
Uncle Giuliano is the leader of the meeting. According to the stage directions, he is “a frail, kindly looking old man who speaks in a soft voice — but whose words are absolute, unquestioned, and occasionally fatal.”
U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) are observing all this. Solo is in a wagon buried “in a towering pile of hay.” He is using a camera with a telescopic lens to take photographs. Illya is disguised as “an old man, stooped and limping.”
Back at the meeting, Uncle Giuliano berates Frank Cosanos, the U.S. mob boss, for not having solved the Las Vegas problem. Cosanos says the Las Vegas mobsters have the city “fortified.” (The final version would see the character renamed Frank Cariago.)
“No one connected with the family can get near it,” Cosanos adds. “I sent a dozen men in there last month, and I all have to show for it is a dozen funerals.”
Uncle Giuliano isn’t satisfied. “Nephews” in other regions are showing signs of going their own way. “Ingratitude is an infectious disease,” Giuliano says.
Illya manages to activate a listening device and catches part of the meeting. But he’s soon discovered and has to get away. He and Solo barely escape.
At the start of Act I, the agents discuss these events with Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll), the U.N.C.L.E. boss.
“You have a tendencey (sic), Mr. Kuryakin, to occasionally increase the risks of your job for the sake of, shall we say, a peculiar sense of humor,” Waverly says.
“Sorry, sir,” Kuryakin replies.
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t know what was discussed during the first part of that conference,” Waverly continues. “The international crime syndicate must have a very pressing reason to call a meeting at this high a level.”
“The only reason that family ever gets together is for funerals,” Solo says.
Waverly instructs the agents to stay close to Cosanos. “Whatever the syndicate assignment is, it’s big, and it’s his.”
Not a bad start. But things go sideways.
Illya disguises himself again, this time as a pool repairman, paying a visit to Cosanos’ Beverly Hills home. He’s attempting to find a good place to plant a listening device. “The bikinied GINGER KLEINSCHMIDT, Cosanos’ brainless and bodiful girl friend emerges from the house,” according to the stage directions. (The character would be renamed Ginger LaVeer in the episode.)
This exchange follows:
GINGER I’ll bet you meet so many beautiful girls in your job you get tired of looking at them.
ILLYA It takes a few.
GINGER I see you’re the short silent type.
ILLYA I have to concentrate on my job.
GINGER Why? The television repairman didn’t have to…
Meanwhile, Solo is in a truck outside listening to the audio from Illya’s listening device. Ginger continues to talk: “…and neither did the refrigerator repairman, or the electric toaster repairman, or the egg cooker repairman, or the chaise lounge repairman…”
Cosanos shows up with his thugs shortly thereafter and Illya quickly retreats. “There’s been a rash of broken swimming pools,” he tells Ginger.
There’s a major movie being filmed in Hollywood. Director Ichabod Veblen (who would be renamed Sheldon Veblen in the final version) is doing a movie about an updated Sodom and Gomorrah. Veblen explains to an actor this will be “a modern version of the Sodom and Gomorrah story.” However, the project has run into financial difficulties.
The Mafia will use this as an opportunity against the ungrateful “family” members in Las Vegas. It’s also a chance for the American Mafia boss to fulfill a promise to Ginger to get her into the movies. “My baby wants technicolor-cinemascope, my baby gets technicolor-cinemascope.”
The American mob boss bails out Veblen’s production. But the mobster wants to know how the movie will end.
“Just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, Las Vegas is destroyed by fire,” the director says. “A nuclear bomb — the closest thing this faithless age has to a divine thunderbolt. It’s the Biblical story all over again. What beautiful irony.”
The American mob boss agrees to supply $2 million to complete Veblen’s movie, including a real airplane flying over Las Vegas to drop a bomb over the gambling mecca.
Over Acts II and III, Solo and Illya do their best to keep up with the Mafia scheme. Solo is posing as an entertainment reporter. Illya is taking photographs. The duo runs into trouble. The American mobsters mistakenly think the agents are from *Uncle* Giuliano. To be honest, it’s mostly a mess.
Yet, we’re just getting started.
Uncle Giuliano shows up and knows he didn’t send Solo and Illya. This creates obvious complications. Illya is almost killed after being dumped in a vat of plaster of Paris.
Meanwhile, the Mafia’s plot is revealed — it will drop a giant stink bomb over Las Vegas. “That’ll empty the city (Las Vegas) in an hour,” the American mob boss says. “And the effect lasts for five months. Las Vegas will never recover. After this, no tourist will go near the place.”
Time out, time out. The Mafia has seen a dozen of its “soldiers” who were killed by the Las Vegas mobsters. The Mafia isn’t going to kill anybody but just stink up the joint? Did I get that right?
Evidently. The agents move to stop the plot and get on the Mafia aircraft. Uncle Giuliano is sitting in the co-pilot “smiling in anticipation,” according to the stage directions.
Some mayhem ensues. Illya and Cosanos end up atop the stink bomb as it is dropped. Each is holding on for dear life. The mobster has a parachute. Illya grabs Cosanos by the parachute but the mobster ends up falling while Illya has the parachute.
Illya then moves to the nose of the bomb and unscrews it. “As he gets it off…he gets a whiff of the essence of skunk. Phew!” according to the stage directions. The agent “removes the detonator and screws the nose back in as quickly as possible.” Illya then jumps clear of the bomb.
Illya ends up safe but is, well, stinky. Solo, meanwhile, captures Uncle Giuliano in the plane.
This scene clearly is meant as a parody of Dr. Strangelove where Major Kong rides an atomic bomb after it is dropped from a U.S. bomber.
In this script, U.N.C.L.E. also finances the completion of the movie.
The final version of the episode is even worse. Illya is having to undergo intense decontamination from the stink smell, with two guys in protective gear spraying stuff around him:
This script and the final broadcast version represented an early indication that U.N.C.L.E.’s third season would go seriously awry in several episodes.
Ian Fleming Publications, in an email, published a statement from author Kim Sherwood about her new 00-agent book, A Spy Like Me.
A few highlights:
–Plot synopsis: The book concerns “a Breguet montre à tract, otherwise known as a ‘blind man’s watch’ and the agents in my story follow it into the heart of a terrorist plot that could not only cripple the Western world but potentially spell the ruin of the Double O section.”
–Agent lineup:
Joseph Dryden, 004, is following the money, tracking the sale of rare artifactsthat funnels money to the terrorist organization. (snip)
Johanna Harwood, 003, has been sidelined following the events of her last mission. But now she has a new mission of her own: find James Bond. (snip)
Conrad Harthrop-Vane, 000, the blue-eyed boy, is dispatched to Oman to track the blind man’s watch and navigate a world of luxury and deception.
–Difference compared with Sherwood’s first 00-agent book: “Unlike the first part of the trilogy, Double or Nothing, this book is written in present tense. I wanted to communicate a feeling that everything is constantly in motion.”
A Spy Like Me went on sale in the U.K. today, April 25. It went on sale in the U.S. on April 23.
Kim Sherwood’s second Double O universe novel, A Spy Like Me, officially went on sale in the U.S. today. It’s scheduled to go on sale in the U.K. on April 25.
“Johanna Harwood, Agent 003, is on the hunt – for revenge and for James Bond…,” Ian Fleming Publications said in a Jan. 29 list of its publication plans for this year.
The author has been promoting the new book on social media. Here is an example:
Jumping for joy! #aspylikeme is out in America today. Only in my wildest dreams could I have imagined writing #jamesbond & publishing in 🇺🇸 – that today brings both those things is absolutely amazing 🤩 Thank you @WmMorrowBooks & @TheIanFleming If you see it in stores take a pic! pic.twitter.com/52hli9qS4d
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is No. 4 at the U.S. box office this weekend. It was a quiet movie-going weekend overall.
The Guy Ritchie-directed World War II spy movie generated an estimated $9 million this weekend, according to a social media post on X by Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks box office trends.
The top movie for the weekend was Civil War, now in its second week at $11 million. Here’s the post with the other top five:
TOP 5 DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE
1. CIVIL WAR ($11M) 2. ABIGAIL ($10M) 3. GxK ($9.4M) 4. MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE ($9M) 5. SPY x FAMILY CODE: WHITE ($4.8M) pic.twitter.com/1cfGocRjnS
— Exhibitor Relations Co. (@ERCboxoffice) April 21, 2024
Ungentlemanly Warfare stars Henry Cavill as the leader of a team going behind enemy lines to sabotage a facility vital to the German submarine fleet. The team’s mission is unauthorized and it faces peril from the British Navy in addition to the Nazis. Ian Fleming is a secondary character in the film.
Ritchie’s movie had an estimated $60 million production budget.
The Spy Command 