007 *FINALLY* gets some respect on U.S. TV: Connery films coming to TCM

Finally. TCM, the Time Warner cable channel that shows movies uncut and in their original form (e.g. widescreen, where applicable) will be showing the Sean Connery Bond movies in May. Or, to be more precise, the six Connery films in the “official” series produced by Eon Productions Ltd. since 1962. In recent years, Bond has [...]

A final look at Matt Helm titles: The Wrecking Crew

We wrap up our look at the titles of Matt Helm movies with a brief discussion of the series finale, The Wrecking Crew. To be honest, it’s a mixed bag. The visuals are much stronger than the series previous entry, The Ambushers. They’re at least based on something in the movie, a bank of monitors [...]

Cubby Broccoli’s former secretary about to be made homeless by Jeffrey Katzenberg

OK, that’s a sensationalistic headline. But there’s more than a grain of truth to it. A nursing home run by the Motion Picture & Television Fund is on the verge of being closed down. One of its occupants is Mary Stellar, the former secretary to 007 producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. She’s suffering from dementia. [...]

Quantum of Solace: preview of things to come?

A few months ago, when Quantum of Solace hit U.S. theaters, this video was produced by an outfit called ScienCentral. The upshot: water is going to be a source of conflict in the future, similar to the plot of the 007 movie. QoS director Marc Forster shows up in the video.

1967: The cheesy titles of The Ambushers

We’ve taken a look at the titles of the first two Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin. So when you’re on a roll, you might as keep going. The third Helm movie, The Ambushers, is often cited as the worst in the four-film series (a shame because it’s based on a very good serious Helm [...]

Second Raymond Benson anthology in the works

Over at CommanderBond.net,, the Web site is reporting that a second Raymond Benson anthology has been announced. The tentative title, according to the site, is Choice of Weapons. Included: the novels Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death and The Man With the Red Tattoo plus the short stories Midsummer Night’s Doom and Live at [...]

1983: Siskel and Ebert Analyze 007′s appeal

Today, Feb. 20, is the 10th anniversary of the death of movie critic Gene Siskel and his former TV partner (and newspaper rival), Roger Ebert, writes about it HERE. In 1983, in the midst of their TV run, the duo dedicated one installment of their movie review show to James Bond. Two 007 movies, Octopussy [...]

The FBI Vs. Spies — Inspector Erskine Vs. Gene Hackman

You got to love YouTube. We’ve previously discussed how the TV series The FBI had numerous spy stories. Here’s one. The editing is a bit abrupt but it was written and produced by Charles Larson on behalf of executive producer Quinn Martin: And part 2: part 3: part 4: part 5: Sorry, no end titles [...]

1966: Murderers’ Row fascination with dots in main title

It’s nothing significant but it seems too much just to be coincidence. Some time back, we linked to the main titles of The Silencers, the first Matt Helm movie produced by Irving Allen, the ex-parter of Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. Allen utilized women doing strip tease dances (plus Cyd Charisse lipsynching to Vicki Carr’s [...]

Michael G. Wilson discusses the marketing of 007

Michael G. Wilson, stepson of Cubby Broccoli, has an association with James Bond films going back to Goldfinger (as an extra). So when the co-producer of the Bond film series (along with his half-sibling Barbara Broccoli), talks the business of Bond, it’s worth a listen. This video is from 1991, and goes into some detail [...]