OHMSS’s 40th anniversary Part I: The men who would be Bond

In a few short weeks it will be the 40th anniversary of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The film is a) one of the best, if not the best, James Bond movies; b) the “first major hiccup” in the Bond series (as TCM weekend host Ben Mankiewicz put it in introducing Diamonds Are Forever when [...]

How ‘The Trouble With Harry’ still affects the 007 franchise

Our co-publisher has sounded the alarm on how troubles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. could imperil the movie future of James Bond. But in many ways, it’s merely the latest chapter of “The Trouble With Harry.”
Harry, of course, is Harry Saltzman who launched the Bond series with partner Albert R. Broccoli with 1962’s Dr. No. Saltzman, though, [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (cont.): the first hit 007 song

Nearly 45 years after it was introduced, Goldfinger’s title song still resonates with the public. As we’ve written about before, the song was nearly killed because co-producer Harry Saltzman hated it. But there was no time to record a replacement. So it remained and became a big hit.
The previous 007 film, From Russia With Love, [...]

Countdown to Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary part II

The 45th anniversary of Goldfinger’s world premier is next month. With that in mind, here’s a list of 10 major decisions that helped shape the movie.
1. Selecting Goldfinger as the third Ian Fleming novel in the series to be filmed. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman weren’t going by the order the novels appeared. [...]

Happy 100th, Richard Maibaum

Tomorrow, May 26, is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Maibaum, who worked as a screenwriter on 13 of the first 16 James Bond movies produced by Eon Productions.
Maibaum was among a group of crew members — Ken Adam, Peter Hunt and John Barry were among the others — whose talents were key [...]

The earliest days of Bond

Nothing startling here, but given many of the principals are no longer with us, it’s still interesting to hear the perspectives of those who launched 007 movies in 1962.
So, in this video, you can hear 007’s first director, Terence Young; Johanna Harwood, one of the screenwriters of Dr. No; Peter Hunt, and edited five films [...]

Tribute to Cubby Broccoli on FelixLeiter.com

Over at FelixLeiter.com, there’s a tribute to 007 producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. It quotes extensively from various books about Bond, including Broccoli’s autobiography. If you want to take a look just CLICK RIGHT HERE.

Ian Fleming’s fascination with bowties

Ian Fleming, besides being the creator of James Bond, also had a thing for bowties.
Fleming (1908-1964) was photographed more than once sporting a bowtie. Once he finally had a deal to sell the film rights to 007, he felt bowties ought to be part of the proceedings. For example, he wrote in a memo to [...]

More HMSS (and reader) nominations for harebrained 007 movie ideas

Consider casting John Gavin as James Bond
After George Lazenby abruptly quit (or was fired, depending on which version of the story you believe), producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and studio chieftains at United Artists gave a lot of thought to Americanizing Bond. Gavin was signed but UA wasn’t quite sold. So, the studio [...]

Happy 100th, Cubby Broccoli

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Bond producer Albert Romolo “Cubby” Broccoli.
Broccoli’s life, as has been chronicled in various media, was not one of fast, or easy, success. He was a salesman of everything from Christmas trees to coffins. Eventually, he got into show business and began to have an impact [...]