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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.
Director Guy Ritchie and actor Henry Cavill have had their share of ups and downs. Each has fans and detractors.
With The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the director and star basically share an upswing.
The story, a spy tale set in World War II, isn’t especially innovative. A team of misfits is sent on an impossible assignment? The Dirty Dozen in 1967 covered similar territory.
Still, how you carry out such basic ideas matters a lot. We all know how World War II ended and Germany didn’t win it. The trick is to show the audience that an Allied victory wasn’t a sure thing.
This movie should not be taken as a history lesson. Still, German submarines were a major complication in the Allied war effort. So The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare uses that as the start of its plot.
Cavill is the leader of the effort to sabotage a key facility supplying the German submarines. Essentially, he’s an English, more urbane version of Lee Marin in The Dirty Dozen. The British Cavill’s group faces peril from both the Nazis and the British Navy because this isn’t an authorized mission.
As the story unfolds, numerous complications have to be overcome. Ritchie (also one of the screenwriters) paces such complications well.
Besides Cavill, the rest of the cast has plenty to do. Rory Kinnear, who played Tanner in the Daniel Craig 007 films, portrays Winston Churchill. Ian Fleming is a secondary character played by Freddie Fox.
The movie definitely is violent. There is death via pistols, rifles, machine guns, arrows, and other sources of mayhem. If violence isn’t your thing, you may want to give this a pass.
Still, the movie is tight, with a running time of two hours (despite the usual long end titles). In recent years, many movies have gone well beyond that mark. GRADE: B-Plus
Cover to the original soundtrack release of The World Is Not Enough
Updated from previous posts.
The World Is Not Enough, the 19th film in the 007 film series made by Eon Productions, marked a transition.
Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli hired a director, Michael Apted, with little experience in action movies. Apted was brought on because of his drama experience.
Apted also was charged with increasing the female audience for a Bond film.
“I didn’t understand why they picked me to do (The World Is Not Enough),” Apted told The Hollywood Reporter in an October 2018 interview.
“It turned out, they were trying to get more women to come and see it,” Apted said. “So, we really wanted to do a Bond with a lot of women in it. I was right person because I’d done a lot of successful films with women in them. But they didn’t tell me that until right before we started. When I found out, I finally understood.”
The producers also hired a new writing team, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, to develop the story. They’re still in the world of 007 well into the 21st century.
The script development established a pattern the duo would soon be familiar with. They delivered their script, which would be reworked by other writers. In the case of The World Is Not Enough, Dana Stevens, Apted’s wife, revised the story. Another scribe, Bruce Feirstein, worked on the final drafts. Purvis, Wade and Feirstein would get a screen credit.
Meanwhile, Judi Dench’s M got expanded screen time, something that would persist through 2012’s Skyfall. The film also marked the final appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q. John Cleese came aboard as Q’s understudy.
Pierce Brosnan, in his third 007 outing, was now an established film Bond. In interviews at the time, he talked up the increased emphasis on drama. In the film, Bond falls for Elektra King, whose industrialist father is killed in MI6’s own headquarters. But in a twist, Elektra (played by Sophie Marceau) proves to be the real mastermind.
Q’s Good-Bye
The movie tried to balance the new emphasis on drama with traditional Bond bits such as quips and gadgets, such as the “Q boat” capable of diving underwater or rocketing across land. Some fans find the character of Dr. Christmas Jones, a scientist played by Denise Richards, over the top.
Years later, Richards did an interview with the SpyHards podcast. “Why is it on CNN that I am a Bond girl?” Richards said on the podcast, quoting her comments to her agent. The agent’s response: “Do you not know how big this movie is?”
Afterward, Richards told SpyHards, “I wanted to educate myself on the franchise” and she saw earlier films in the series.
For the actress, things were rough at times. She endured ridicule for playing a scientist. “I would go to my hotel and cry because the reviews were making fun of me,” Richards told the podcast.
Sometimes, the dual tones collided. Cleese’s initial appearance was played for laughs. In the same scene, however, Q, in effect, tells Bond good-bye in what’s intended to be a touching moment. It was indeed the final good-bye. Llewelyn died later that year as the result of a traffic accident.
The movie was a financial success, with $361.8 million in worldwide box office. Broccoli and Wilson, meanwhile, would return to the idea of increased drama in later entries after recasting Bond with Daniel Craig.
Good-bye, United Artists
The World Is Not Enough also dispensed (mostly) with the name of United Artists. UA cut the deal with Eon founders Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961 that led to the 007 film series.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired UA in the early 1980s. But UA retained some kind of presence via corporate logos and such. (CLICK HERE for a history.)
With The World Is Not Enough, the film was branded as an MGM release, not a United Artists one. An MGM 75th anniversary logo appeared at the start of the movie. Deep into the end titles, the copyright notice listed “DANJAQ LLC” and “UNITED ARTISTS CORPORATION” as the owners of the movie. By this time, UA existed on paper only as part of MGM.
In 2019, MGM revived the UA name with United Artists Releasing, a joint venture with Annapurna, which distributed MGM and Annapurna movies in the U.S. Even so, with Bond films, the United Artists Releasing name appeared in small print on posters and wasn’t shown at the start of movies. No Time to Die had logos for MGM and Universal (which distributed the film outside the U.S.) or MGM only (in the U.S.)
The Spy Command 