Spécial concert bénéfice Café Graffiti offre spéciale

Pour soutenir le Café-Graffiti dans sa mission auprès des jeunes.

Un concert bénéfice avec l’Orchestre symphonique pop de Montréal, une chorégraphie de breakdancers et l’Église St-Jean Baptiste décorée avec des toiles graffiti.

Avec l’achat de 5 billets, obtenez le 6e gratuitement.

Samedi le 28 novembre 2009 à l’Église St-Jean Baptiste, 309 Rachel près de St-Denis.

Pour moins cher que le prix d’un spectacle régulier, assistez à une prestation de  l’Orchestre symphonique pop de Montréal qui interprèteront des musiques de films d’action tels que Stars War, Mission Impossible, James Bond…

Assistez à ce spectacle jamais vu avec des breakdancers sur scène et des toiles graffiti décorant l’église pour accompagner l’Orchestre symphonique pop de Montréal.

Un écran de 26 pieds de large par 15 pieds de haut permettra de faire une projection multimédia pendant le spectacle.

Une mise en scène signée Pierre Gagnon (spectacle du 400e de Québec, Fête du Canada sur la colline parlementaire…)

Pour un cadeau des Fêtes, entre amis ou en famille, un spectacle qui saura divertir par son originalité et son intensité.

Billets à partir de 39,87$. Pour informations (514) 256-9000. Réservez rapidement sur le site de l’organisme ou le Réseau Admission. Places limitées.

VOS COMMENTAIRES SUR CONCERT BÉNÉFICE CAFÉ GRAFFITI.

BY BRENDA WISE

We now have the 3rd of the 16 ‘Back in Print’ series of the amazing author Geoffrey Jenkins novel, “HUNTER KILLER”

If you read ‘A TWIST OF SAND,’ you will enjoy this high class thriller.

Excerpt Chapter 1:

Geoffrey Peace was dead.

    I could not believe it.  For three days, ever since a naval officer had enquired ‘Mr. John Garland?’ and handed me that agonizing message from the flagship.  I had not believed it.  Even when the ominous shape, covered by a tarpaulin, had been brought alongside in a launch by a naval party, my mind rejected the thought.  But now there could be no doubt: I stood looking through the glass trap in the coffin lid into the hard face of the man who had been so much a part of my life:  Commander Geoffrey Peace, Royal Navy, D.S.O. and two bars.

    Death had not softened the clean-shaven face:  the strong jaw with the cruel line of the mouth was held shut by the black rubber diving-cap he had worn at the time of his death.  They had dressed the body again in the underwater suit.  Its cowled effect brought no feeling of sanctity but rather one of evil, or–I told myself in hurried excuse for the dead–the desperate rejection of any hope of afterlife, like the wild keen of a peper’s fament in the Outer Isles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My endnotes:

Geoffrey Jenkins novels never ceases to amaze me!  Top-notch, A-1 class act.  You can’t help but get involved in this thriller.  A top-secret mission to launch a revolutionary Anglo-American missile axed by a budget-conscious government.

“Hunter Killer” is now available at iUniverse Publishing  www.iuniverse.com U.S. $19.95, so order yours today!

We look forward to bringing the remainder to the public within the next few weeks.

copyright 2008-2009, Dave Jenkins, Ronald Payne, Brenda Wise

August 29, 2009

For the second day in a row, I’m going to step away from music and share some news in another areana—in this case, 16 new books. (However, there’s a cool musical nod in the postscript).

Well, to be accurate the novels in question aren’t “new,” but rather are a major re-issue of the complete catalogue of a writer who once held a very high place in the thriller genre. In fact, one reviewer to pay him huge compliments was a close personal friend by name of Ian Lancaster Fleming.

Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fleming worked at a British paper called the Sunday Times; one colleague was a South African born correspondent living in London named Geoffrey Jenkins. Like Fleming, Jenkins wanted to write best-selling fiction. He made his first splash in 1959 with A Twist of Sand, a book which sold 3 million copies and was translated into 23 languages. One happy reviewer was Ian Fleming who wrote (in The Sunday Times), “Geoffrey Jenkins has the supreme gift of originality . . . A Twist of Sand is a literate, imaginative first novel in the tradition of high and original adventure.” When Jenkins’ third novel, A Grue of Ice was published in 1963, Fleming added to his earlier praise by writing that his friend was “in the ranks of the great adventure writers.”

As the years progressed—Jenkins titles came out over a 30 year span, ending in 1993–the connections to Fleming had much to do with the reputation of Geoffrey Jenkins. Many reviews of his books included comparisons, usually favorable, to Fleming. When A Twist of Sand was turned into a film in 1968, much of the publicity revolved around the leads being Richard Johnson—once a contender for the Bond role—and Honor Blackman, the former Pussy Galore from Goldfinger. Perhaps the most significant story is that Jenkins claimed he had met with Fleming in 1962 when 007’s creator was a bit dispirited, both due to business and creative concerns. Jenkins said the two outlined a plot for a James Bond novel, and not for the first time. For Fleming, nothing known came from these brainstorming sessions; for Jenkins, these talks led to the most famous never-published book of all time.

Here, of course, I speak of the legendary Per Fine Ounce MS which was planned to be the first Bond novel published after Fleming’s death, a book based in no small part on Fleming’s own ideas. But, as chronicled in many sources—like my thespyreport blog—Anne Fleming preferred the contract going to another novelist, Kingsley Amis. Ever afterward, there’s been a hunt for the lost Bond novel—I’ve only seen four of those pages, allegedly only 18 still exist. As reported at my other blog, the impact of the rejection of the Per Fine Ounce MS contributed to some bad blood between Ian Fleming Publications (formerly Glidrose) and film producers Albert Broccoli and especially Harry Saltzman and was one reason no Bond movies have ever been based on a continuation novel.

But, that’s a story that’s already been told. What about the 16 novels Jenkins did publish? Well, over the years, like many popular titles of times past, they went out-of-print. Then the author passed in 2001 and his son, David Jenkins, began looking for an agent to bring the books back and perhaps even find a continuation novelist to create new adventures for his father’s most famous character, Commander Geoffrey Peace.

Enter Virginian Ron Payne, literary executor for O. F. Snelling, the only researcher to do a book on 007 sanctioned by Ian Fleming himself. Ron was looking for a new project, and he very much liked the idea of bringing the books of Geoffrey Jenkins back. It took years, but his quest has finally come to pass. This fall, all 16 of Jenkins thrillers will re-appear courtesy of iUniverse. 

According to Brenda Wise, the agent who teamed with Ron to bring this about, the fact iUniverse was willing to reprint all 16 books in one fell swoop is the main reason it took much longer than usual to start releasing the titles. In order to retain the original flavor of the books when they first came out, considerable effort was invested in obtaining rights to the best cover artwork of the earliest editions. In addition, David Jenkins has been taking his time to carefully go over the proofs, and that’s no mean feat when you consider how many novels are involved. In other words, reprints these may be, but they’re not hastily slapped-together cheap knock-offs—all parties involved believe they’re renewing a legacy and one well worth doing it right. As their new press release states:

RONALD PAYNE and 21st Century Artists Film Corporation, in association with BRENDA WISE and B.A. Consulting, Inc., proudly Present THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY JENKINS…Authorized by the Estate of Geoffrey Jenkins, these fascinating entertainments are ‘fast moving, high velocity, high voltage thrillers.” Six of the books are now shipping including A Twist of Sand and Hunter Killer, the book Harry Saltzman wanted to film and might have inspired the opening scenes of You Only Live Twice. Ordering information is at:

www.iuniverse.com   

I can’t help but think that literary Bond fans, in particular, are going to be fascinated with this reissue. For one matter, a few 007 experts, most notably spy novelist Jeremy Duns, wonder if any of the unused Per Fine Ounce material ended up in any post-1966 books. Was the lost novel transformed into an adventure featuring a different hero? Well, that’s an open and perhaps unanswerable question. Are any of these titles fertile ground for new screen adaptations? Well, the real name of the game is re-exploring what readers can find on the new printed pages and whether or not Geoffrey Jenkins is still engaging, still entertaining, still as good as Ian Fleming once said. I, for one, am very curious to see what new reviewers will have to say.

 Copyright 2009 Wesley Britton

http://entbook.livejournal.com/
WWW.Spywise.net

Editors note: Thank you Wes….. This is a very special time, bringing the wonderful novels of ‘Geoffrey Jenkins’ back in print.  Mr. Jenkins wrote some amazing stories, for which some were very near extinct to find.  We now have the wonderful opportunity to bring the legacy back to life and back in print. 

Stay tuned as we bring you the remainder ‘Geoffrey Jenkins’ novels back in print.

Copyright-2009 Brenda Wise, C0-Agent, and Ronald Payne-Agent

GEOFFREY JENKINS, one of the world’s greatest “adventure-thriller” writers, is coming to iUniverse this fall. The classics, “A Twist of Sand,” and “Hunter Killer,” featuring the famous Jenkins character, Commander Geoffrey Peace, will soon be returning, along with all the other sixteen classic Jenkins adventures, including “A Grue of Ice,” “The Unripe Gold,” “A Bridge of Magpies,” “River of Diamonds,” and many, many more.

Jenkins, himself, a direct protegee’ of James Bond author, Ian Fleming, was born in 1920 in South Africa, and migrated to England, where he first met Fleming, who was the Managing Editor of International News at “The Sunday London Times.” Soon, Fleming and Jenkins were planning their first thriller together, which would involve stolen diamonds in the South African pipeline and gold smugglers in the Sierra’s. Fleming and Jenkins shared a tremendous mutual respect and were fast friends for life.

When Ian Fleming died, suddenly, in 1964, at age 56, the “James Bond Mania” that swept the world, after the screen performances of Sean Connery as 007 in “Dr. No,” “From Russia, With Love,” and “Goldfinger,” left a void in the literary world of James Bond. In 1966, Geoffrey Jenkins was chosen by the Ian Fleming Estate, (Now Ian Fleming Publications) to write the first James Bond 007 continuation novel, “Per Fine Ounce,” under the pseudonym, “Robert Markham.” Unfortunately, a contractual dispute kept the finished book from ever being published, and anyone who can locate the original manuscript is urged to contact bawiseconsulting@yahoo.com . Eighteen pages of the 300 page manuscript have been located, but in the last forty-three years much has happened, and the Jenkins manuscript of this Bond thriller has completely disappeared, creating one of the greatest literary mysteries of recent times.

For those die-hard Jenkins fans who can’t wait to read his works again, iUniverse Reprint Series, which includes the works of some of the world’s greatest authors, including “William F. Buckley, Jr.” and “Mary McCarthy” is proud to announce “that the man known for riveting thriller entertainment is back!”…Jenkins was the ‘forerunner and inspiration’ to such great writers as Frederick Forsythe, Len Deighton, Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, and others.

RONALD PAYNE and 21st Century Artists Film Corporation, in association with BRENDA WISE and B.A. Consulting, Inc., proudly Present THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY JENKINS…Authorized by the Estate of Geoffrey Jenkins, these fascinating entertainments are ‘fast moving, high velocity, high voltage thrillers,’ that will keep you holding onto the edge of your seats….!
 A Twist of Sand

  Hunter Killer

  A Bridge of Magpies

  A Daystar of Fear

  Hold Down A Shadow

  In Harm’s Way

Order at www.iuniverse.com

Copyright 2009 Dave Jenkins, Ronald Payne, iUniverse, Brenda Wise

 Click here for ‘Blood Thirst’ —-A sex-crimes specialist from New York travels to the Philippines to help his friend, a Manila homicide detective, solve a series of murders.

Many thanks goes to the ‘Internet Archive: Free Movie Download,’  for providing the pleasure of viewing an archive view of the wonderful actor ‘Robert Winston Mercy.’ 

Although this was a black and white video, I still enjoyed going back in time, watching the actors as they move and speak.  I did not expect this video to end the way it did.  Good detective work, Mr. Rourke!  And by the way, did I read somewhere that Robert Winston also played the ‘bubblegum’ faced villain?  Or was that my imagination?  Shall we ‘GOOGLE’ to see who played the villain?

Mr. Mercy also starred in other films: 

I remember Mr. Mercy from the ‘Combat TV!’ series.  Little did I know, that I was to meet this handsome ‘demple’ chin gentleman in my later years and build quite a wonderful friendship with a remarkable man.

In the spring of 2008, I became Robert Winston Mercy’s ‘Public Relation Specialist’ on his new personal account of the Korean War book, entitled “I HEAR NO BUGLES.”  

 Robert Winston Mercy and his twin brother Richard Mercy…………Little did I know at the time that Robert Winston Mercy was one and the same with ‘Robert Winston’ who played my childhood hero in ‘COMBAT TV!’  I could not believe it.  How special is that?

 Dashing and handsome ‘Combat!’ ‘Robert Winston Mercy………..

I always had a special interest in our men who fought in our countries wars, past and present.  Mr. Mercy’s ‘memoir’ is filled with lots of documents as well as pictures. 

War has never been pretty, and Mr. Mercy’s account for the Korean War, is one that truly needs to be read, in order to understand what happened.  “I HEAR NO BUGLES,” is very indepth and personal, to the recollection of Mr. Mercy’s time served.

The first thing in my mind after reading Mr. Mercy’s ‘memoir’ was that this needed to be developed into a movie.  “I HEAR NO BUGLES,” should go down in the history books, as well.  This memoir was magnificently written and it is an honor ‘Sir’ to be in your presence.  Thank you for your dedication to the country we call ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.’

Me and my personal signed copy of “I HEAR NO BUGLES,” Me and book store owner ‘Sue Sloan’ with Mr. Mercy’s book, and Me and Mr. Dougal at the Naval Base with a copy of “I HEAR NO BUGLES,” for the commissary.

Much gratitude goes to my partner ‘Ronald Payne,’ who so graciously introduced me to Robert Winston Mercy.  Two wonderful gentlemen, who have made such an impact on my life.  It is a great pleasure working with both of you.

Robert Winston Mercy on the left and Ronald Payne on the right at the ‘SPY MUSEUM’ in Washington D.C.

For your viewing pleasure, I have directed a slideshow.  Hope you enjoy and much as I enjoyed directing it!

Mr. Mercy, you ‘ROCK!’  I look forward to more adventures.  I strongly advise every reader to purchase “I HEAR NO BUGLES,” by Robert Winston Mercy, through Merriam Press/Lulu at MerriamPress@merriam-press.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

ISBN 978-1-4357-1704-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4357-1706-0 (hardcover)

By Brenda Wise, Consulting Agent, copyright 2009

The ‘Geoffrey Jenkins’ great writings are now being represented by ‘Ronald Payne,’ and Brenda A. Wise,’ literary agents.  Published by, iUniverse, 2009.

There are 16 total thriller novels, each with their own unique story of spies and thrillers:

A Twist of Sand (1959)

The Watering Place of Good Peace (1960; revised 1974)

A Grue of Ice (1962) Published in the U.S. as The Disappearing Island

The River of Diamonds (1964)

Hunter Killer (1966)

Scend of The Sea (1971) Published in the U.S. as The Hollow Sea

A Cleft of Stars (1973)

A Bridge of Magpies (1974)

South Trap (1979) Published in paperback as Southtrap

A Ravel of Waters (1981)

The Unripe Gold (1983)

Fireprint (1984)

In Harm’s Way (1986)

Hold Down a Shadow (1989)

A Hive of Dead Men (1991)

A Daystar of Fear (1993)

Visit the slideshow for a presentation of ‘Geoffrey Jenkins,’ magnificent novels:

http://www.slide.com/r/E7pWbHTK6z-_8QAcYJuRf603tLFnMAs4?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Visit the official ‘GEOFFREY JENKINS’ webpage: http://www.geoffrey-jenkins.co.za/index.html  COPYRIGHT DAVID JENKINS, (son of author ‘Geoffrey Jenkins.’)

All material on this site is copyright 2009 ‘Geoffrey Jenkins,’ Dave Jenkins,’ ‘Ronald Payne,’ ‘Brenda Wise.’

By Ronald Payne

Editor’s Note:  In Part I and Part II of my talks with Ron Payne, we discussed his early connections with Hollywood, his work with O.F. Snelling, his friendship with George Lazenby, and Ron’s efforts to land work on an official Bond film.  In these memoirs, Ron described how he obtained a copy of the script to Warhead, an unproduced 007 film written by Sean Connery, Len Deighton, and Kevin McClory.  Just what was in that unproduced yarn?  Ron tells all here – Wes Britton.

Setting the Stage

When my wife and I returned to our flat in Mayfair, I began to seriously study the script of Warhead. All the familiar characters were there:  James Bond, CIA buddy Felix Leiter, M, the head of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Q. There was the ever faithful Moneypenny.  There was the beautiful Domino, whom we last saw in Thunderball.  There was Emilio Largo, a billionaire philanthropist living on Turtle Cay who runs a shark laboratory under the guise of it being a cancer research project.  And there was Blofeld, the most important character outside of James Bond himself.

But there were also some new characters with whom I was not familiar.  First and foremost, there was Fatima Blush. Fatima is the daughter of a Korean mother and a Moroccan father.  She is tall and beautiful and an Olympic caliber swimmer, which is fascinating when one first encounters it in the script.  Then, there is Maslov, the SPECTRE scientist who defected.  He is Polish.  His plane disappeared mysteriously over the Bermuda Triangle in the late 1940s.  Justine Lovesit is the masseuse at Shrublands.  There is the sacrificial lamb, Hellinger, working for the CIA. I liked the blood -red scar running down the side of his cheek.  His connection to Fatima Blush meant he would not last long in the picture.  Also, there was a character who was to be used later:  Giusepeppe Petacchi.  In Warhead, unlike the later Never Say Never Again, Petacchi is not Domino’s brother. He is there to impersonate Hellinger, who will soon meet his own fate at the hands of SPECTRE. The character of Effie, I particularly liked.  She is the cleaning lady for SPECTRE.  It was obvious to me Sean Connery had made a nod and a wink to his mother when this was written.  Effie Connery’s little boy, “Big Tam,” was now one of the world’s most beloved and endearing film stars.

The cast of characters was rounded out by Fidelio Sciacca and Bomba.  Bomba is of special interest to me as I once read the adventures of another “Bomba,” who appeared in American comic books.  In the Deighton, Connery, McClory script of Warhead, Bomba is a black giant.  He’s the number one killer for Largo.  He is vicious and a wild, dangerous character.  Forget Jaws of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.  Jaws could have been played straight and we would have had Bomba but the resemblance stops there.  Bomba is a frightening visage in spite of his silly name.

The locations are the exotic settings one comes to expect from a Bond film.  Start with London and New York (not too exotic, yet) and move toward the Atlantic Ocean and Shrublands (now relocated to the Bahamas and we are getting warmer in terms of exoticness).  A few spins of the roulette wheel and we are somewhere in this script between the Azore Islands, Shark Island (Bahamas) and the Bermuda Triangle (under water).  Now, we are talking exotic.  Exotic in the sense that Captain Nemo is exotic and Thunderball is exotic.  I liked one change: Shrublands is no longer a British health clinic as it had been in Thunderball.  It is the Bahamas base for SPECTRE training, similar to what we first saw in From Russia With Love when we first met Rosa Klebb.

There is also Largo’s submarine, the Arkos, that rises to the surface of the world’s oceans.  It reminded me a great deal of Stromberg’s “Atlantis”, and I can see why Kevin McClory went to court against Cubby Broccoli regarding The Spy Who Loved Me.  One of the most fascinating things about the Warhead script is the use of heat-seeking electric sharks.  They can be remote controlled. If used seriously in this film, these heat-seeking sharks would be on par with something out of Terminator.

 The First Pages

Like Stromberg in the opening of Spy, Warhead begins when Largo and Maslov bring down a seaplane into the Bermuda Triangle.  The Secretary of the United Nations is in the plane.  All this is done from aboard he Arkos. The plane, broken in half now, is carried to the “elephants graveyard,” where, perhaps, a hundred planes have disappeared earlier.  We also see for the first time manganese, diamonds and gold hidden on the ocean floor. Treasure for Largo and his cargo hold.

After discussing the U.N. secretary’s missing plane at Shrublands – where there is an acquabatics school, and after Blofeld contacts Washington, Bond first learns of Fatima Blush while receiving a massage from Justine Lovesit.  Bond and Leiter search out Fatima Blush and her escort, Hellinger.  Fatima, ever sensual, is attracted to James Bond, but Hellinger is less than impressed.  ”Get rid of him,” Hellinger says.  Later, Fatima and Bomba covertly get Petacchi into Shrublands.  The script follows Thunderball when he demands more money for his involvement in SPECTRE’s hijacking scheme.  Allegedly, Petacchi suffers the bends and is in need of the decompression chamber.

As later in Never Say Never Again and previously in Thunderball, Bond leaves his bed (and Justine Lovesit) and sights Bomba outside Fatima’s room.  He soon finds Fatima and the two get inside her whirlpool.  Fatima’s lover, Hellinger, is fiercely jealous and unbeknownst to Bond, turns up the controls (wildly) in hopes of killing them.  This plan does not work for obvious reasons.  Bomba violently snaps Hellinger’s neck as his replacement, Petacchi, watches from the sidelines.  Bond and Fatima struggle not to drown when Petacchi, pretending to be Hellinger, slows down the controls.

I never consider the logic in James Bond films, but the following morning, Petacchi invites Bond for hang-gliding practice.  This reminds me, somewhat, of the scene in Thunderball between Emilio Largo and Bond while skeet-shooting.  Petacchi deliberately steers the boat in the direction of the shark pens.  The sharks are in wait to eat Bond alive.  Bond doesn’t waste time leaping onto the pier and into the boat.  Petacchi won’t pull that stunt again. Bomba, who is deadlier than any blood thirsty shark could ever hope to be, waits nearby.

The thing that interests me the most is the way Largo gets the warheads, which give title to this film.  A Russian submarine is put out of commission.  It is electronically jammed.  SPECTRE divers enter the submarine and steal the warheads.  This is quite different from either Thunderball (1965) or Never Say Never Again (1983).  The doors open on the bottom of a dredger.  The warheads are brought inside.  Petacchi is murdered by Largo when he pushes the self-destruct device of the recovery vessel.  Remember, Petacchi was pretending to be Hellinger, the CIA agent, responsible for recovery of the warheads.  This is a thin reworking of the scene in Thunderball when Domino’s brother is killed and his duplicate replacement is trapped inside the Viceroy fighter jet at the bottom of the ocean.

Later, Fatima lies to Bond about her flight booking to London.  In London, Bond is reunited with his peers at Secret Service Headquarters.  The depressurized body of Fidelio Sciacca is recovered.  Q shows 007 where the Russian submarine was destroyed in the Atlantic.  The late Mr. Sciacca’s right eye socket contained a computer terminal watch.  Everything points to SPECTRE.

Next come the pages I’m certain Sean Connery had the most fun writing.  The lethal maid, Effie, (named tongue-in-cheek for his mother, I’m certain) plants two bombs: one beneath his bed (as in Never Say Never Again) and the other, at the hands of Fatima, in his Aston-Martin.  Fatima’s timing couldn’t be better.  Hiding under Bond’s bed, Effie must quickly dismantle the first bomb in a hurry.  When Bond tosses Fatima into the bed for some very athletic sex, Effie, beneath, hits the deck.

Bond forthrightly confronts Fatima about not telling the truth.  She denies any knowledge of Bomba, whom Bond has spotted outside her room.  From the skylight above the bedroom, Bond encounters a potential assassin. Bond attacks his attacker and kills him as he smashes head first into the bathtub.  Several swift scenes follow with Bond running toward the garage where his Aston-Martin is parked.  As Bond opens the door leading into the garage, he encounters a second henchman whom he swiftly dispatches with a killer karate chop.  There is a ringing doorbell.  Thinking it might be Felix Leiter, Bond looks through the DeltaScope peephole.  It is Q.  In the meantime, Fatima fires-up Bond’s Aston-Martin and is blown to smithereens along with Effie, who was hiding.

Naturally, Bond is nonchalant about the fact that he has already killed two of M’s best men, thinking they were sent by SPECTRE.  Q’s perfection of the computer watch tells the whole story:  Largo employed Effie to murder both Bond and Fatima Blush.  Bond’s meeting with Largo at the backgammon championship on Paradise Island is less than 24 hours away.

 Bond versus Largo

Later, as Bond and Q fly in a small plane toward Shrublands, Q explains the latest gadgets.  I can only see Desmond Llewellen in my mind, but of course, Q would have been played by someone new.  The script really starts to role once M shows up in a Special Operations Room. Bond is informed about SPECTRE’s contacting the President of the United States.  This is the first time we are told SPECTRE has three nuclear warheads from the Russian submarine and that one will be fired upon a major international city if SPECTRE’s demands for ransom are not met within 48 hours.

James Bond used a Bell Jet Pack in the opening of 1965’s Thunderball.  Something similar was used in 1983’s Never Say Never Again when Bond and Felix Leiter were searching for the warheads of Maximillian Largo.  But, in the 1976 Warhead script, Bond and Felix use their jet packs to hover over Shark Island.  Bond must enter Largo’s treasure house – one of the most beautiful and extravagant mansions in the Bahamas.  Once getting past the guards, Bond enters Largo’s private hideaway, only to find Fatima?

“Impossible,” Bond says. “You’re dead.”  This is the first time, at least in this picture, that we meet the beautiful Domino, who in this case, looks exactly like her identical twin, the beautiful but deceased Fatima Blush.  Domino would like to murder Largo, so it’s no going back once Bond kisses her.  Domino, like so many other ladies in the past, will follow Bond anywhere.  The depths of her feelings about Largo reach all the way to the bottom of the Atlantic.  Bond is grateful, at least for tonight.

Largo wins the backgammon championship by default when Bond doesn’t appear.  Bond couldn’t care less. He and Felix are checking out the electronic/mechanical sharks in Maslov’s laboratory.  Unfortunately, with the backgammon finals over, Largo is lucky once more when he traces Bond and Leiter to Maslov’s scientific sanctuary.  ”Put them in the decompression chamber,” Largo commands his henchmen.  We don’t see anything like this again until the character Milton Krest, played by Anthony Zerbe, is murdered inside a decompression chamber in the Broccoli-produced Bond film, License to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton.  In the interim, Largo and Maslov discuss mounting the mechanical hammerhead sharks with warheads.

Largo retreats to the Arkos and finding a homing device belonging to Bond, takes his vengeance against Domino for being Bond’s accomplice.  In a scene worthy of Fleming (see the novel Live and Let Die), Largo tightly straps Domino to a diving board with the intention of making her a four course meal for some lucky shark.  All this is happening as M orders troops to invade Shark Island to find Bond and Leiter.  Q has one of the largest scenes of his entire cinematic career when he discovers a secret entrance through the cliff-face.  Bond and Felix Leiter are rescued from the decompressing chamber.  The only reason they are alive is Domino, who ties her bandana about the gears of the decompressor, causing it not to kick-in full throttle.  (Only in a Bond film.)  Once M’s troops have landed, they spread out in full force, taking command of the entire island.  Soon, Largo’s dredger is discovered.  On board, Bond and M listen to Blofeld’s deadly message.  Two nuclear warheads will be exploded under the Antarctic Ice Cap, if SPECTRE’s demands are not met.

The threat, turns out, is more than bombs.  Leave it to Q to determine the bacteria level of fecal matter on a manganese nodule.  The bacterial level represents 18,000,000 people.  Where does one find 18,000,000 happy crappers?  In New York City, of course, thank you, Mr. McClory.  So, with that stated by Q, Bond is off and running to New York City.

All of New York City is being looted and burned.  There are riots in the streets.  Complete evacuation is the only way to save the people who live there.  Manhattan is empty.  Buildings are searched.  Bond requests that the Colonel of the Aquatactical Unit order soldiers to inspect overlooked and uninspected sewers and pipelines.  The Statue of Liberty is seized by SPECTRE.  Maslov arms the warhead on the hammerhead shark.  A tiger shark protects the Hammerhead’s flank as he accompanies it into the highway of sewers beneath the city.  The entire city is in a state of panic, as it believes nuclear annihilation is inevitable.  The President will soon address the nation from the Oval Office.  Sharks are seen all over New York Harbor.  Bond is alerted to the fact that American soldiers are now inside the pipeline of sewers.

Bond orders, “Get them out! Get them out now!”  But it is too late, as a violent explosion rocks the streets above and rips the concrete apart.  We see the sewer spew human body parts.  It is one large, filthy mess.  Blood, everywhere, mixed with sewage and the things that accompany sewage.  ”Liberty is our Symbol!” Blofeld states earlier in the film.  Sharks are spotted circling Ellis Island.  To James Bond, this can mean only one thing.  SPECTRE is in the Statue of Liberty.

Now, robotic sharks roam the sewers of Manhattan.  They guard all the manhole covers into the sewers.  We hear men shouting as they pneumatically drill into the subway wall to access the sewer pipeline.  Bond enters the sewer.  He lights his way with a large flashlight (torch).  Three men follow Bond into the bowels of this unearthly place.  The fellow bringing up the rear is none other than Bomba, as if you hadn’t already guessed.  “Ah, the pleasure he will get, when he snaps Bond’s neck.”  Or, so he believes.  From their hideaway, Largo and his lethal assistants watch their mechanical sharks on a large map.  Each red light lighting up on the wall tells them where each shark is now moving and its exact location.  Largo feels a sudden sense of power and accomplishment.  However, he does not allow his mania for victory over rule his judgment.

Bond swims through the filthy sewage as a heat-seeking tiger shark stalks him through this disgusting muck.  Nothing could be more visually different from the beautiful waters of the Bahamas than this filth pit.  Bomba awaits on the walk path above the dirty water.  He looks forward to murdering Bond.  Already, he has broken the necks of two sewer workers who get in his way.

 Sharks and Sewers

Bond is menaced by a red-eyed shark at extreme close quarters.  The shark is close enough he could easily bite into Bond’s flesh.  Bond is wearing a protective aqua suit, but this would be no protection against the shark’s razor-like teeth.  The shark lunges at Bond’s legs, as he hurriedly makes his way up a wall ladder built into the concrete wall.  Bomba, the hunter, awaits.  The karate punch sends Bond falling backward into the dark, filthy water with the hungry shark, who is getting more aggressive all the time.  Bond lunges onto a metallic tail fin and the powerful mechanical beast pulls him along through the sewer, we might add, at breathtaking speed.  Bond loses much of his equipment as the shark thrashes him from side to side against the sewer walls.

Ahead, Bond brainstorms the idea of seizing a steam valve, thus releasing a torrent of steam heat to attract the hammerhead’s total attention.  The shark is going mad as he attempts to rip the valve apart with his powerful jaws. Bond, using a special screwdriver provided by Q, rips open the wired underbelly of this monster and tears apart all of its transistors and other SPECTRE support systems.  As a mechanical, computerized missile of destruction, the hammerhead is finished.  It goes belly-up and sinks to the bottom of the sewer lane.  Bond hurriedly makes his way to the top once again.

Twin sewers are separated by a narrow catwalk.  Bond reaches for the miniature Geiger counter around his neck.  The Geiger counter shows something toward the rear, about two hundred yards away.  Bond keeps his cool as a second hammerhead lights up the inside of the sewer.  It quickly passes by and Bond watches it move eerily through the dirty, contaminated water.  (I hope Q provided Bond with lots of shots before going in there.)  As the screaming emergency sirens fill the sewer with horrific noise, Bomba springs out of the darkness intent on murdering 007.  Now Bomba is machine-like, throwing incredible karate punches.  Bond is kicked to the floor of the catwalk.  He shakes his head as Bomba lunges and picks him up by his throat.  Bomba smacks Bond against a solid wall of green-brown slime.  The slime is so thick, it could be a character in this film as well.  (The special effects department would have a great time with this as the wall is almost Alien-like.  We almost believe the slime-wall is capable of sucking Bond inside itself.)  Bomba punches, kicks, gouges and generally uses Bond for a punching bag, almost the same way Count Lippe does in the later Never Say Never Again, except the violence here is much more frightening and realistic.  Bomba is Muhammad Ali on steroids.

Leaving Bond for dead, Bomba hurries away from his menacing victory over the British agent.  But the one thing most of Bond’s adversaries fail to comprehend is this:  Bond is tenacious.  He will use every ounce of strength he has left in his body to gain the upper hand.  (See the Orient Express fight between Red Grant and Bond in From Russia With Love to make my point.)  Bond doggedly pulls himself up the cleated wall of rusty rungs and handholds.  Bomba turns around when he thinks he hears something that might be another approaching assassin.  A steam pipe crosses above the twin sewers.  In a move mindful of the scene between Bond and Oddjob in Goldfinger, where Bond uses his last ounce of strength to electrocute the great silent Korean inside Fort Knox, Bond here improvises in a not-dissimilar way and uses the nearest thing at hand:  the hot steam of the pipes.  Crossing the pipes hand over hand above the filthy water of the sewer, Bond hangs momentarily over a stalking tiger shark.

Bomba aggressively and violently goes after James Bond in hopes of getting his one wish in life:  “snapping Bond’s neck for good.”  No comebacks, double O seven, if Bomba gets his kicks.  Bomba lashes onto the steam pipe with one hand while grabbing for 007 with the other.  As the pipe gives in to the weight of Bond and Bomba, it crashes throwing Bond onto the catwalk between the twin sewers.  Bond pushes the burning hot water pipes away from his body.  Bomba is still attached to the pipe as it bends toward the filthy sewer water.  We hear Bomba’s screams as sharks rip him apart, skewering the flesh from his mighty bones.  There have been scenes similar to this one in other Bond films.  The piranha eat the blond, muscled henchman who attempts to kill Bond in You Only Live Twice.  Broccoli did something similar with Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me, but Jaws was so cartoonish, he survived his shark attacks and the audience loved it.  (Should I say the audience “ate” it up?)  Bomba’s demise in Warhead, depending on how the film would be directed and edited, could be frightening, gory and horribly realistic or just another Bond interlude.  Brief.  Fast.  And, onto the next good-looking henchman waiting in the wings.  I would love to hear from Bond fans and let them decide.  This scene could be made into one of the best Bond fight scenes of all time, if only someone would film it the way I perceive Connery, Deighton and McClory intended it.  That is to say, film it very seriously.  Only the three aforementioned gentlemen can give us the answer.  I would love to hear Kevin McClory’s take on all this.

Back to the story – Bond escapes by landing or leaping onto the back of one of the hammerheads. It isn’t a long journey by “shark back” before Bond reaches for Q’s trusty screwdriver and dismantles the mechanical beast.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, SPECTRE style, Largo and Maslov study the giant wall screen map with its red pin pricks of activity lighting up all over New York City and its harbor.  Suddenly, to their dismay, the screen goes to fade out.  ”What’s happening?” says the startled Maslov.

“That’s what’s happening!” Largo says angrily as Bond’s face appears before them on screen. “Activate the time mechanism, now,” Largo orders Maslov.  Bond steers the mechanical monster in its dying moments toward the sewer wall, but something happens.

“Second life, old boy?” Bond says, as the shark revives itself.  ”I’ve heard of self-starters.”  But there is no time for levity.  Largo means serious and lethal business.

 Climax

“WARHEAD ACTIVATED” appears on a red lighted panel inside the shark as Bond pulls the monster out of the water.  The audience hears the loud ticking.  Bond’s face shows the proper anguish.  Sweat builds on his brow as he attempts to defuse the warhead without exploding it.  Again, this scene is similar to the one in Fort Knox when Bond must diffuse Goldfinger’s atomic bomb inside the gold repository.  Someone else – a bomb expert – walks in, at the last moment, and clicks the damned thing off.  In this case, it is Q dressed in helmet and sewer worker attire.  While this scene might be very funny, it is a cop-out to a potentially exciting and riveting cinematic moment.  Why throw it away?  I’d rather see Bond sweat it out and save the world (at least New York and the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.) on his own.

While all this is going on, New York is buzzing with terror.  People everywhere are frantic.  (There were no such scenes in Thunderball or NSNA.)  Split screen shots are used here as newscasters make futile attempts to calm their television audiences.  The twelve member Acuatical Unit, unseen by Largo and his men, storm the Statue of Liberty.  Helicopters of all types move into the shot.  There is colored smoke, almost festive, to hide the attack by choppers that is building outside.  There is so much movement and genuine momentum in this scene that it almost harks back to a similar assault scene in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service when James Bond (portrayed by George Lazenby) leads Draco’s men into Piz Gloria to ferret out Blofeld.

Bond attempts to get out of the sewer, but can’t.  (Why didn’t he just leave with Q when he was saved from the nuclear blast earlier?)  More mechanical sharks roam and guard all the sewer exits.  Finally, when he does make his way out into daylight (lucky the streets are being evacuated; Bond must smell a mess by now) Felix Leiter awaits with the fastest speed boat this side of Miami Vice.  This is when we learn why Bond was taking all those hang gliding lessons earlier in the story.  On skis, Bond is great in snow (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) or water, which right now happens to be New York harbor.  Leiter drives right over the sharks and pulls Bond at high speed right along with him.  Bond’s skis ride right over the backs of the mechanical sharks.

Now, have you ever had a day when you wished you had a kite that turns into a helium balloon?  No problem, if you have Q branch as your candy store. From kite to helium balloon and through the air to the face of the Statue of Liberty.  It should be written up in all the vacation literature for tourists (not terrorists).  Bond makes it look effortless. Landing, somewhat vigorously now, Bond kicks Largo over.  Largo, in turn makes a fast exit down the spiral staircase inside Miss Liberty’s long arm.  No, Largo does not run.  Megalomaniac villains hell-bent on world domination do not run: they slide down the staircase awakening that child in them that says “it’s okay to steal warheads and work hard for nuclear blackmail against your crummy neighbors.”

In the meantime, Marines are shooting holes through the left eye of Liberty’s head as they push through.  Largo uses his Special SPECTRE Stiletto to stab a couple of America’s best warriors before looking for another fast exit.  The script is tense and makes a special point to show blood tearing down Liberty’s face, like a sacred Madonna come to life.  It is a mystical, if not holy moment for us, the audience.  Using Marine grappling hooks, Largo makes his way out (Hitchcock-style) of the Statue.  007 is not far behind.

What I love about all this is the Jules Verne atmosphere as the Arkos, like Nemo’s the Nautilus rises from the ocean depths.  Largo uses a pulley (this is scratched out in the script) to make his way down the rope to the deck.  Bond does the same, but not for long.  Largo cuts Bond loose into the sea.  Bond holds onto the top rails of the submerging Arkos in much the same manner he held onto the hydrofoil in Thunderball.  (Let’s hope James Bond never loses his grip in such matters.)  Maslov, under orders from Largo, prepares the warheads for firing.  Maslov has one weak spot, he likes Domino and unties her.  (Didn’t we see a similar scene in Thunderball?  But, that fellow lived and even learned to swim, thanks to Bond when he made him leap from the Disco Volante, just before it exploded.)

Maslov is not so lucky.  For his insubordinate defiance, Largo orders Maslov murdered by another SPECTRE agent, right there and then.  No messing around with Largo.  You don’t get to be Number One to boss Blofeld’s Number Two, unless you’re willing to die for your seat on the Board of Directors at SPECTRE.  Those Enron chaps wouldn’t have lasted five minutes under good old Ernst Stavro.  He would have given them all their special chair of privilege and cooked ‘em alive.  But alas, someone has used a ballpoint pen and marked through this section of the script. Maslov was not intended to die.  Largo did not order his murder.  The SPECTRE agent acted impulsively, when Bond swam up through the Moon Pool at the center of the ship.  Indeed, the writers changed their minds somewhere along the plot line.  Largo, indeed, needed Maslov alive.  Somehow, I always thought so.  He survived all his previous incarnations.  Why start a new trend?  Anyway, Maslov is dead.  That much is certain.

What’s not so certain is how Bond is going to stop Largo.  In the case of Warhead, Bond goes back to stealth with knife poised in hand for surprise attack mode.  A SPECTRE engineer tosses a monkey wrench into Bond’s plan when he shouts to warn Largo.  As Peter Sellers might have said as Inspector Clouseau:  “Ah, yes, the old shout and be tipped off ploy.  It works every time.”  Largo defends himself against Bond.  Shots destruct glass tubes, and the ocean pours in around them.  ”The old shoot the glass out of the submarine ploy.”  Actually, all kidding aside, this is a very exciting and dramatic moment if we can forget all the other times Bond has killed Largo in previous films. Remember, in Warhead, this is the first meeting for everyone.  That is why it is so important that this script be filmed as a serious thriller.

Like Captain Nemo’s the Nautilus, just before it implodes in the wonderful Walt Disney film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Arkos is in perilous depths along the Hudson River Canyons.  The Arkos smashes into the cliff-face.  Red lights are flashing.  Bells are ringing as they warn imminent disaster for Largo and his SPECTRE crew.  The Captain’s wheel spins violently out of control.  Everything is out of control.  The world seems to be ending. The glass tube that surrounds Largo is impressive as it sweeps him away.  It is right out of Jules Verne.  Largo, encapsulated inside his protective tube, enters the ocean, free of the Arkos.  Time and space as we perceive it is on a roller coaster and running out of track.  The speed of the Arkos is incredible as it rips blindly toward the underwater canyon shelf.  Things blow apart inside the Arkos.  She is on a collision course.  Largo’s gold, like Captain Nemo’s in another story, is spilling out into the ocean floor.  Water quickly fills the interior.

James Bond and Domino make a rush for safety.  We’ve seen it all before, but perhaps, we haven’t.  If only the director and the cinematographer and the art director can pull it all together and make it look new and more exciting than anything else we’ve ever seen, we’ll have a smash hit on our hands.  Anyway, Bond and Domino fit quickly, if not comfortably, into Largo’s submarine.  The sub drops (is propelled away) from the bottom of the dying Arkos, as it speeds toward disaster.  Bond and Domino are now safe.  The film concludes as we see the Arkos beating itself apart against one mountain range after another before lighting up the surface of the water in an atomic explosion. (See the Nautilus in Disney’s  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.)  Just before curtain and the closing credits, Bond and Domino are cozy in the sub.  The line, “Oh, James!” has become so familiar from Broccoli-produced films, that this ending could stand a serious re-write.  McClory wanted to end the film with Rule Britannia playing as the credits rolled, and the sub grew smaller as it moved into the distance.

 Afterthoughts

For anyone who has seen Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me, one can only think that the only real “spy” involved between Cubby Broccoli’s production of that 1977 film and McClory’s Warhead script was a stenographer.  I know I had my version of the script locked away for safe-keeping.  It is easy for me to believe that someone at EON (possibly attorneys) read the Warhead script by Connery, Deighton and McClory.  After all, it was not that difficult to get one’s hands on it, even if it was top secret, if one were serious about making the effort.

Warhead, unlike some other James Bond films – Live and Let Die comes to mind – has the potential to be a great Hitchcock-like thriller.  There are terrorists in the world today.  There are people out there with warheads and atomic devices. Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming were forty years ahead of their time.  The world is to be saved from nuclear disaster.  This picture would make a wonderful thriller, even without James Bond.  It is just that Bond is like the icing on a good cake that we love.  He is the most important ingredient.  If we must be saved, let it be by someone we admire and who is cool and well-dressed and likes his martinis shaken and not stirred.

Many thanks to Wesley Britton and Ronald Payne.  Brenda Wise

By Ronald Payne
as told to Wesley Britton

 Introduction

According to Ron Payne, in 1998, he was in contact with Branwell McClory, son of Bond producer Kevin McClory.  In one of their conversations, Branwell said, “Bond’s been a curse. It broke up my parents’ marriage.  James Bond consumed all of my father’s time.  I never made any money off James Bond.  Tony Broccoli and I were friends, and I see what James Bond did to his life.  We’ve all been miserable because of James Bond.”

Ironically, these words echoed what Branwell’s uncle, Desmond, had earlier told Payne – “James Bond is a curse.” Even more ironically, Payne claimed his quest to produce a Bond picture also broke up his twenty-five year marriage.  ”My wife left me, saying, ‘I’ve had enough of James Bond!’”  Strange words, perhaps.  007 a curse?

Of course, behind the glamour and glitter and high-flying entertainment of the Bond mythos, there’s always been the murky realm of lawyers, film executives, dueling studios and contractual quagmires that have long been the stuff of insider speculation and sensational news reports.  Behind the scenes, creating Bond pictures has been far more complex than casting choices, crafting scripts, or finding and filming in exotic locations.  Along the way, more bodies have been cast to the side than all the sacrificial lambs who’ve spent a night in the bed of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, et al.

Here’s one such tale.  Below, Ron Payne describes his unique memories of his trying to produce a Bond film – and the costs of his quest.  Note:  Unlike Parts I and III of these files, this section of Ron Payne’s memoirs is filled with very personal adventures and some rather painful descriptions of people he met. In between his comments on Bond films, actors, and producers, he shares how various encounters affected his private life.  But these memories are more than personal insights – expect secrets you haven’t encountered before.  For example, if you thought you knew everything about Thunderball, Never Say Never Again . . . there are surprises in these paragraphs.  And some intriguing might-have-beens.  Like Sean Connery vs. the anti-Bond in New York – the anti-Bond being George Lazenby . . .

The Hunt for Kevin McClory

Q:  What is the full story behind how you got a copy of the script for the legendary unproduced Bond picture, Warhead?  I gather it came about when you tried to get work with Kevin McClory.

My journey to Ireland to find Kevin McClory was part desperation and part intrigue. It began when Dennis Selinger, Sean Connery’s agent at International Creative Management in London, suggested I look McClory up in County Kildare. I was running out of money each day I stayed in England and I needed a job.

This suggestion happened on a winter afternoon in 1978 when I met with Selinger. He was called “The Silver Fox” because of his gray hair. He was a short little fellow but very nice to me and my wife. He had grown up a childhood chum of Peter Sellers, whom in 1978, he was also handling. He also represented Michael Caine. While we talked, Sean Connery (47 years old, then) sat outside patiently waiting. Selinger was not eager to see him that winter’s afternoon. Connery had come to say farewell. He was moving on to another firm.

Selinger was genuinely heartbroken by the break. I shall always remember him telling us how “Sean left Diane Cilento.” The emphasis here is on “Sean Left Her.” Not the other way round, which happens to be the truth. While his former client waited for the farewell, Selinger told me how Len Deighton, the author of The Ipcress File, had gotten burned in a number of film deals. He and Connery had assisted Kevin McClory in the writing of Warhead, a James Bond script in 1976. Then, it was time for me to go. I was startled as Selinger introduced me and my wife to the former James Bond, who couldn’t have been nicer.

Then, in January 1979, my wife, Ann and I left London for Liverpool and once arrived, quickly booked passage for Dublin on board the ferry Leinster to go to Kevin McClory’s Irish mansion. The snow and ice started to fall. The Irish Sea was very rough. I was so seasick I could barely mumble. We arrived in Dublin just before daybreak. As Dublin was in the midst of a major snow storm, we hurriedly departed the Leinster for a late model Mercedes taxi, which took us to a hotel.

The next morning, my wife and I walked past a theatre showing Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland in The Last Great Train Robbery based on Michael Creighton’s book. Sean Connery’s image was everywhere. In America, of course, the film kept Creighton’s original title, The Great Train Robbery. But, England had had another “Great Train Robbery” in 1963 and the producers did not wish to confuse their audience. Leaving the theatre behind, my wife and I were surrounded by a “children gang,” rather than a “gang of children,” who might have derived right out of Dickens. “Mon-ey! Mon-ey! Mon-ey!” they said in monotone, surrounding us. I felt their hands pushing into my coat pockets. Off in the distance, a man stood in the alley, watching. He was, obviously, their Fagan. What a frightening moment, as they boxed in on us, not giving us room to move away. A policeman, just getting off his beat, saw the gang that consisted of children ranging in ages between six and nineteen. They ran in all directions, leaving the policeman exasperated.

We then stayed in Barborstown Castle in a suite that in the past was, usually, reserved for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was the middle of winter. Snow and ice everywhere. My wife and I walked six miles or so in the snow looking for Kevin McClory’s rose-colored mansion. The sun getting higher in the sky, as the clouds broke away against the snow and rose colored pink of the house produced an extraordinary visual effect. My wife and I were so happy to, at last, reach the house.

It was beautiful inside. It was about three stories or so. The house was beautifully furnished. However, what I noticed immediately was McClory’s “Telex” machine for relaying messages between “Straffen House,” the estate and his home in the Bahamas.  Kevin McClory was not there! He and his new wife, Elizabeth, were on Paradise Island soaking up sea and sun. The caretaker, whose name I don’t remember, said: “Ah, just received a Telex. Mr. McClory is going to the casino tonight. I’ll send him a Telex that you’re here.” The caretaker was in his late twenties, and he couldn’t have been more helpful. The Telex intrigued me. “So this is how mega-millionaire James Bond producers stay in contact with their staff,” I thought, studying the machine in these pre-email days. I definitely wanted one once I returned to the States.

The caretaker, ever smiling, sent out, perhaps, six separate telexes. After about an hour, more return telexes ensued. “Mr. McClory regrets he cannot be here, but . . .” The “but” was his brother, Desmond, was now just arriving at The Dorchester Hotel. This would mean a complete 360 degree turn around and a return to London.

I think the caretaker felt sorry for us. I told him about my desperation and failure to land a job on one of the official Broccoli Bond films. His empathy to our plight was touching. We stayed, perhaps, another hour as the Telex machine zipped along. He showed us the grounds in that wonderfully winter wonderland setting. We discussed Sean Connery and Len Deighton and Warhead. As my wife and I readied to depart, the caretaker said: “I’m sorry I can’t drive you back to Barborstown Castle. The roads are covered deep in snow. I don’t know how the two of you managed it, but your determination to see Mr. McClory should not go unrewarded. Take this and never tell anyone where you got it.”   I accepted the package without looking to see what it was. “Open it when you get back to London,” he said, smiling and shaking our hands. “It’s a photo copy of something you might wish to read.” My wife and I thanked this cheerful fellow whose warmth and kindness toward us I shall never forget.

Before the electric fire in our rooms, I studied the package carefully. Should I wait until London to open it? My wife exited the bathroom. She looked at me with impulsive curiosity in her eyes as I fingered the string around the brown packaging. “Aren’t you going to open it?” she said. “London, remember. I promised. Bad luck to open it too soon.”

I withstood the bumpy return trip across the Irish Sea by getting a bunk below the water line. From Liverpool, we took the train to London. On board the train, I ran into two suspicious-looking men. The rail car in which we traveled was almost empty except for these two and another person. I was startled when I saw what looked like a hand grenade roll out of a duffel bag onto the floor. Indeed, the one nearest me opened his bag – and I saw an entire bag of hand grenades and other weapons. The fellow closer to me, nonchalantly, picked up his little green pineapple and flipped it back into the bag and closed it up. The two then resumed their serious drinking of a good bottle of Glenfiddish Scotch. Soon, they broke out into song and asked me to join. “We’re just getting back from Rhodesia, mate,” the bearded one said, his laughing eyes watering and bloodshot. “We came back into England on a bloody submarine,” the other said, slurring, ever so slightly. The other’s copy of a Frederick Forsythe novel, The Dogs of War, lay on the seat beside him. “Mercenaries, old boy,” the nearer one said. “The book’s about mercenaries. Freddie got it right in this one.”

After that, both of them slept and the train rushed onward toward London in the worst rain and freezing ice storm I’d ever encountered.  As we approached London and Victoria Station, I decided to open the package. After all, I had kept my end of the bargain. When I removed the contents of the package, my heart raced. “What is it, dear?” my wife said, seeing the expression on my face. “Are you okay?”  I held the contents of the package in my hand until she took it away. The train was slowing down and people were preparing to disembark from the other cars. The hand grenade buddies at the front of the car suddenly were wide awake and on their feet, their explosive duffel bags in their hands. “Warhead, a screenplay by Sean Connery, Len Deighton and Kevin McClory. A Kevin McClory Production,” my wife read out loud. “It’s the script to a James Bond film,” my wife said, still not believing her eyes.

“We must hurry, right away, to the Dorchester Hotel and find Desmond McClory,” I said, as we stepped out at Victoria Station. I watched with fascination as our mercenary friends by-passed the rest of us. Suddenly, a black Austin taxi swung violently around the corner and stopped, right in front of us. The two with the explosive duffel bags got in without looking back and the car shot off and away as quickly as it had arrived.

 Desmond McClory in London

Ann and I took the fastest cab we could to The Dorchester. Desmond McClory was there ahead of us, already in his suite. When I told him about our rush to County Kildare, he said, brusquely, “Well, we didn’t invite you, you know. Perhaps you should have warned everyone ahead of time that you were arriving. I doubt that Kevin would have seen you, anyway. He doesn’t like being bothered by people he doesn’t know.  For that matter, he doesn’t like being bothered by the people he does know. Now, what’s on your mind? I really haven’t a lot of time. I haven’t been getting on well, lately, and time is more than just money. Mine’s more precious than gold, just now. What do you want? You want a job on Warhead?” I said I did. “Listen, I don’t feel like the most patient man, right now. It’s not your fault. It’s a big mistake for you to be running all the way out to Straffen House. Just the wrong thing to do.”

Momentarily, I felt saddened, but I refused to be defeated. “Why’s that?” I asked.

“Warhead is a long way off in the future,” Desmond McClory said. “I’m not certain if Kevin will ever get it launched. There’s no studio involved. No backing. Lawsuits all over the place. I remember a time when my brother and Broccoli were friends. For all I know, you may be a spy for the competition. I really shouldn’t be talking with you. I don’t know you and Dennis Selinger should stay out of it. He had no business sending you out on a wild goose chase to harass my brother.”

I assured Desmond McClory I didn’t journey all the way to Ireland under the harshest of winter conditions to harass the producer of Thunderball. I simply wanted a job – any job – just the way Kevin McClory, himself, went after John Huston, Mike Todd and Ian Fleming. “Ambitious, are you?” Desmond McClory said.

“If you mean ambitious in the sense I would some day like to produce a James Bond film, absolutely!”

“It’s a curse, believe me,” Desmond McClory countered as we left. “I’m very sorry I cannot help you, but there is nothing to discuss. There is no job for anyone, just now. Kevin is the copyright holder to the film of Thunderball. He is the producer. There is no director. No distributor. No anything. He does possess the right to produce more James Bond films, regardless of what Broccoli and the Fleming estate might ascertain. Go home. Sorry. I speak for my brother when I say this. Maybe in a year or two. Just go home.”

 Never Say Never

Q:  I understand your interest in Warhead lead to your learning much about how Never Say Never Again came to be.

In the summer and fall of 1991, I was working for a motion picture production company here in the east that was looking for “joint venture productions” and “pick-ups” of independent films in the United States and in Europe. Naturally, I was interested in Jack Schwartzman, the producer who brought Kevin McClory’s Never Say Never Again to the screen. I contacted Schwartzman through his brother-in-law’s production company, American Zoetrope in San Francisco. Jack was married to Talia Shire, Francis Ford Coppola’s sister. His James Bond film had been a TaliaFilm Production. It was even rumored that Francis Ford Coppola, himself, had worked on Lorenzo Semple’s script of the film without credit.

I liked Jack Schwartzman right away. I asked him if he knew how I could find Kevin McClory. He said he didn’t have the slightest idea. He had licensed Never Say Never Again strictly as a business arrangement. He said, “I was working at Lorimar as an entertainment attorney when McClory’s script for Warhead came across my desk. Paramount and Filmways and a couple of other studios had been interested in it, but they all passed on it eventually, as no one wanted to spend the rest of their lives in court fighting with United Artists and Cubby Broccoli. I asked McClory to bring me everything he had from the British courts for review and he did.

After reviewing Kevin McClory’s case against Ian Fleming in 1963 and reading the judge’s decision, which granted all film rights in the James Bond novel Thunderball to McClory, I was ready to take action. I told McClory I was interested in producing a sequel, but it wouldn’t be Warhead. I told McClory Warhead was too risky as the script he was presenting me, written by Sean Connery, Len Deighton and himself, though it may have been based upon various treatments he owned, moved outside the parameters set by Thunderball, the novel and film. I did not wish to lose time debating Warhead in court to lawyers representing Broccoli and United Artists. My course of action was to re-engage the British High Court for a second determination on the matter – just weeks before we were to start shooting in the Bahamas – and we were given the green light, as long as we were making a direct remake of Thunderball. The guidelines were very strict. The new film must be the same story. We changed a couple of things around, but it was still Blofeld and SPECTRE and Largo and Domino and Shrublands and the hijacking of the nuclear warheads. Fatima Blush, played by Barbara Carrera, was a reworking of the character Fiona Volpe from Thunderball. Q, of course was called “Algernon” in our film. I also told McClory I would not be interested in producing the film unless Sean Connery returned as James Bond. We signed all the papers and TaliaFilm, named for my wife, was created. Sean Connery needed a boost in his career, just about then, and Never Say Never Again came along at just the right time for all of us. I knew if Connery was starring as James Bond, I would have no problem selling the film and that is just what I did. I went to Mark Damon’s PSO (Producer’s Sales Organization) and sold the film territory by territory all over Europe and the rest of the world. Warner Brothers distributed the picture in the United States.”

I asked Jack why he didn’t produce a second Bond film. “McClory sold me the license to do two Bond films, but I let the option on the second picture lapse. I did not wish to do a third remake of Thunderball, for one thing, though we could have made it quite different from Never Say Never Again, artistically. It would still be the Thunderball story again, but visually and artistically we could have produced a very different looking film. I was not satisfied with the Michelle LeGrand music score, for one thing. I wanted John Barry, who had done Thunderball and the other Bond films, but Barry was a Broccoli loyalist – and I don’t blame him for loyalty to Broccoli, it’s admirable. My second choice was Jerry Goldsmith, who would have been wonderful, but Goldsmith was unavailable. Sean Connery’s wife, Micheline, recommended Michelle LeGrand and he was contacted. We did not have a lot of prep time and LeGrand, I believe, pulled out this jazz score he had written and scored our film with it. I don’t like the music in Never Say Never Again and I hope there will be some way in the future it can be fixed. It is not pretty music. It is not exciting. It is not James Bond. The only thing memorable about the music is that it is so awful. But we have contracts, and those contracts will not allow (for now) anything to be changed. “

When I asked about an opening gun barrel sequence, Schwartzman said: “Of course, we couldn’t use the gun barrel sequence. That belongs to Broccoli and EON and is their trademark. McClory had the idea of James Bond shooting at a target as the opening sequence. It was to be done in a very exciting way that would remind us of the other Bond films without infringing on their intellectual property rights or copyrights.”

Schwartzman went back to his second reason for not doing another James Bond film. “I might have considered doing the second film, if Sean Connery were available, but he was not. Sean and I got along very well, in the beginning. But, by the end of shooting, we were talking very little. Sean had the right of director, writer and actor approval. Sean chose Irwin Kershner, with whom he had worked before on A Fine Madness, to direct, but someone told me afterward Sean felt he was directing the picture and that Kershner felt overwhelmed by his responsibilities. Sean also stated to the press that I had changed my phone number in the Bahamas and was inaccessible. I was always accessible to Sean. How does a producer get a film produced, if he is not accessible? Sean deserves a great deal of the credit for the success of Never Say Never Again, but he doesn’t deserve all the credit. Talia and I mortgaged our homes to get the film made. The astronomically rising costs of each day’s shoot went slightly over budget because action films are expensive to produce. And James Bond action films, in particular, are very expensive to make. I knew if we were going to compete in the market place with Roger Moore’s Octopussy, that same summer, we’d better look good. We filmed all over the world. The Bahamas. The Mediterranean. The south of France. It was a wise decision for Warner Brothers to release the film in the autumn rather than go head-to-head with Octopussy.”

Schwartzman and I talked for more than three hours. Later, we would exchange several important Bond related letters and talk again by telephone. Somewhere in this time frame, Jack Schwartzman was diagnosed with cancer and died. I was very sad about it. He was an interesting guy.

 More McClory Connections

Q:  How did you re-connect with the McClory family?

In the spring of 1998, I ran several chapters of Snelling’s Double 0 Seven with some updating on the Internet. I also retroactively ran an article from my James Bond, Secret Agent magazine from 1982 about my pursuit of Kevin McClory and Warhead. It was during this period that I created 21st Century Artists Film Corporation in Delaware for the purpose of producing my own motion pictures.

One morning, it was still dark outside, I received a curious e-mail. In fact, it intrigued me. It was from Branwell McClory, the son of Kevin McClory. He had read my article about my attempt to meet his father. Also, to my surprise, he told me he lived less than 200 miles away from me. We were both now living in Virginia. Even more surprising, I learned Kevin McClory was then living in Washington, D.C.

This was a very special time in Kevin McClory’s life. Sony Pictures had just days before announced that they and Kevin McClory had signed a deal to make a new series of James Bond motion pictures based on the Thunderball scripts and treatments. John Calley, the former head of MGM/United Artists that distributed the Albert R. Broccoli EON “James Bond” films, was now the CEO of Sony Pictures.

The announcement by Sony that McClory would be doing Warhead, after all these years, reignited my desire to get a job on this very special project. It was hinted that Sean Connery, at 68, would once more step forward as “007″ to do battle with Blofeld and Largo. I couldn’t have been happier or more excited by the news.

I contacted Sony Pictures and found out that Dean Devlin and Roland Emerich were being considered as the producers of Warhead. I spoke with, at least, six different executives at Sony, who were close to the project. McClory was once again licensing out his “interests” in James Bond.  He would make millions from Sony, whether a picture was made or not.  A great many people were affected by Sony’s announcement.  One of those persons was Al Ruddy, the producer of the TV series Hogan’s Heroes and the motion picture The Godfather. McClory suddenly revoked Ruddy’s option to do a TV series based on the Thunderball treatments.  Everything was now in the hands of Sony Pictures, though Sean Connery, himself stated he had signed nothing to play James Bond. Connery even implied he hadn’t been told anything about the project, though one of the Sony executives I talked to told me Amy Pascal, the President of Sony, was flying to Europe for a secret meeting with the former Bond.

 Q:  Knowing about your friendship with George Lazenby, did his name cross your mind during this time?

I wanted to get my friend George Lazenby into this picture. I would have loved to have seen George Lazenby portray Bond a second time, but I knew that was out of the question. What I did suggest was this: that George be given the role of Count Lippe. Our Count Lippe would be different from those played by Guy Rolfe in Thunderball and Pat Roach in Never Say Never Again. Instead, George Lazenby’s Count Lippe would always be dressed in a black tuxedo. He would be an expert knife thrower and hired assassin. He would be one of the top members of SPECTRE. He would drive a 1928 Bugatti-Royale. And he would be the ultimate womanizer. In fact, he would be the “flip-side of 007, the dark side of James Bond.” I called George’s Count Lippe “The Anti-Bond.” I wanted to write this scene for Warhead. When George Lazenby’s Count Lippe attacked Connery, I wanted Lazenby to say: “This is for all the trouble you’ve given me over the years, Mr. Bond.” And, of course, James Bond (Connery) would kill off Count Lippe (George Lazenby) but Bond aficionados would have a great treat, with this special cinematic moment. The inside joke about “all the trouble you’ve given me over the years, Mr. Bond” had been in my mind since 1979.

Branwell and I exchanged many e-mails and talked on the telephone several times. There were a great many suggested death threats on the internet targeted at Kevin McClory. We both agreed that these fanatics were crazy and dangerous. I told George Lazenby I would do what I could to get him into Warhead. I had George contact Branwell. The conversation between Branwell McClory and George Lazenby went very well, but I think Branwell felt he had been used, which was not my intention. “You’re quite the middle man, aren’t you, Ron,” Branwell said to me a few days later in one of his e-mails. I sent him a couple of e-mails comparing the differences between Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. Branwell had worked on Never. I had thought Thunderball a far superior motion picture. Branwell’s last e-mail to me said: “If I want your advice, I’ll ask for it.” And, that was the end of what might have been a good friendship.

Branwell McClory had told me things prior to his conversation with George about his relationship with the character James Bond. “Bond’s been a curse. It broke up my parents’ marriage. James Bond consumed all of my father’s time. I never made any money off James Bond. Tony Broccoli and I were friends and I see what James Bond did to his life. We’ve all been miserable because of James Bond.” At the same time, he was proud of his work on Never Say Never Again and even prouder of his father’s attempt to build a second James Bond franchise at Sony Pictures. By the way, George Lazenby caught up with Kevin McClory at a memorial service in Los Angeles for John Stears, the special effects wizard who had worked on both Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That meeting went well.

What didn’t go so well was the outcome at Sony. Sony Pictures bailed out on McClory and settled in court with MGM/United Artists. Sony gave up their rights to Casino Royale and a lot of money exchanged hands. Sony also gave up any hope of ever making a James Bond film of any kind. McClory did not settle with anyone. MGM/United Artists and their attorneys, led by Pierce O’Donnell, made it clear to Judge Refedie in Los Angeles that McClory had lost his American copyright standing in James Bond and that all film rights had reverted to Ian Fleming Publications, the owners of the James Bond copyright in the book Thunderball, and that all of McClory’s prior rights derived from that work. “Officially,” MGM/UA’s lawyers stated: “McClory is out of the Bond business.”

Of course, Sony later bought MGM/United Artists and today is partner to Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions. Their first collaborative James Bond film is Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, released November 17, 2006. Produced by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

 Payne and the “Never Say Take Over EON” Affair

Q:  Speaking of the official franchise, what dealings have you had with them over the past few years?

In the early 1990s, I received a letter one morning from Mr. Norman Tyre, the attorney for Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli instructing me to “stay out of the business affairs of Danjaq and EON Productions, Ltd.” (As you know, Danjaq is named for Dana Broccoli, Cubby’s wife, and Jacqueline Saltzman, Harry’s wife, is the holding company for the Broccoli family that owns EON Productions.) It was not simply a request: it was a threat that legal action would be taken against me if I persisted.

I knew who Norman Tyre was. He was the legal eagle behind James Bond 007 and he worked out of Los Angeles. He was the man most responsible for getting Cubby Broccoli started in the Bond movie making business. Tyre was tough. He had fought it out with everybody over the years and sued everyone, including Sean Connery on Broccoli’s behalf. It was rumored he had loaned money to Broccoli to option Bond and to set up his production company in England. Norman Tyre knew everything that there was legally to know about James Bond and the worldwide Broccoli operation. Tyre was also one of Broccoli’s closest friends. He wasn’t about to let a “whippersnapper” like me take control of his most precious asset – “double 0 seven.”

Here’s the backstory. This came about because, in the early 1990s, Cubby Broccoli announced through “Lazard-Frere” in London that his James Bond empire was up for sale. The asking price: $600,000,000. I was already familiar with the EON Productions office at 2 South Audley Street and I had met Reginald Barkshire, Broccoli’s “production controller” more than once and liked him. I wasn’t being delusional when I decided to go after the James Bond franchise. I really wanted it, and I knew what I was going to do with it.

Here’s what I had in mind. I knew several top executives at a major Swiss pharmaceutical company who had the power to raise the money we needed to take over EON and Danjaq and make us partners with United Artists. EON Productions, Ltd. and Danjaq, Broccoli’s holding company, would become subsidiaries of the pharmaceutical firm and be totally controlled by them. I would be made general manager of EON Productions, Ltd. in London and offered a ten-year contract with salary and preferred stock. I wanted to be in total control of all future James Bond films. I also had a secret agenda: I wanted to sign George Lazenby to a four-picture deal to return as “double 0 seven”. And, if United Artists did not agree to that, I was going to have the people in Geneva think about switching studios to 20th Century-Fox, where I knew the right people to talk with.

Cubby Broccoli made no James Bond films between 1989’s License to Kill, with Timothy Dalton and 1995’s Goldeneye, starring Pierce Brosnan. The reason was a contract dispute with MGM over the profit distribution. Broccoli threatened to move James Bond to another studio. However, what I learned the hard way was this: Albert R. Broccoli never had any intention of letting his empire slip away from him. His putting James Bond on the auction block was not for real, regardless of how many times Broccoli said he was ready to let it go to the highest bidder. That bidder never came because Broccoli wasn’t going to sell 007 to anyone. I know this because when I came along, I hit a nerve. I was serious about an immediate take over and Tyre set me straight. I was ready to fly to London and take up residence in my new offices as soon as all the paper work was complete.

 Q:  What creative ideas did you have in mind?

Reginald Barkshire had told me in 1979 that “Mr. Broccoli hates the Bond novel, Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis (Robert Markham) and will never film it.” The first book I put on my list to film was Colonel Sun. In 1985, my last visit to EON Productions, Reginald Barkshire was still there, though a little grayer and the subject of John Gardner’s Bond novels was raised. “Mr. Broccoli does not like the Bond novels of John Gardner. He would never film any of them.” The second book I put on my list, once I gained command of EON Productions, would be Icebreaker, a James Bond Adventure by John Gardner. I did not understand Broccoli’s aversion to the works of Amis and Gardner, except that by not filming them, he would not have to spend an extra $200,000 or so paying Ian Fleming Publications (the literary copyright holders) for using them.

John Gardner spent some time living in Charlottesville, Virginia, while he wrote his seasonal James Bond thrillers and I know he had no interest in “writing screenplays for the movies.” I don’t think he ever had any contact with Cubby Broccoli. I received a letter from Gardner once about the possibility of George Lazenby and I optioning one of his “Boysie Oakes” adventures. Gardner said something about Broccoli: “Why couldn’t they film one of his many Bond adventures?” I knew why. Cubby Broccoli hated all Bond novels that were not part of what’s now being called “the James Bond canon.” These are the original books by Ian Fleming.

Anyway, Norman Tyre’s letter was very revealing. It was just as well. The pharmaceutical company in Switzerland soon grew weary of evasive answers from Lazard-Frere and MGM/UA and walked away from the project after six months. This was an enormously humbling and deflating experience for me. I really looked forward to wearing Saville Row tailor-made suits and smoking Jamaican cigars with my brandy in what had once been Cubby Broccoli’s offices. I soon realized my dream of “Ronald Payne Presents George Lazenby as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007″ was written in smoke and water.

 The Unkindest Cut

Q:  Knowing you, I’m sure you remained persistent.  Any later tries at working with EON?

In December 2004 I drove to California from Virginia. I was looking for work again on a Bond picture and I decided to go to Danjaq at their MGM headquarters on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica.

Fifteen minutes after arriving in Santa Monica my car was stolen, along with the contents inside. I lost my electric typewriter, all my cash, my clothes, books, etc. Everything I brought with me. Before that, the rear end went out of my Cougar on Wilshire Boulevard when a garbage truck pulled suddenly in front of me. I pushed hard on the brakes in order to miss crashing into the truck. The rear end fell out immediately, and the car would not move another inch. In the heaviest afternoon traffic I have ever witnessed, I pushed the car (alone) up hill and out of the way, with traffic passing me on both sides. Finally, I rolled the car into a parking lot and received permission to leave my car until the following day. I walked across Wilshire to go to the bathroom. When I returned, my car was gone and has not been seen since. My first hour in “Tinsel Town”.

The shock of losing my automobile did not stop me. The next morning I walked from my motel room to MGM on Colorado Avenue. The entire MGM workforce was in exodus to their new facilities in Century City. Everybody was leaving, except Danjaq, LLC., the owners of James Bond. I didn’t even have to go through a guard check to see them. I called them from a phone downstairs and then proceeded to find them in the building. Fifteen minutes later I was sitting in the most spartan office I had ever seen. Whereas, EON Productions in London had been wood paneled walls and cozy (though cold in the outer offices, where the secretaries greeted the public) the Danjaq offices were stark. The furnishings consisted of one hard-back chair and a short couch. There was a coffee table with one (absolutely) one book about James Bond. It was well worn. On the wall was a full size replica of Cubby Broccoli’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nothing else. There was a coffee maker with Styrofoam cups peeking at me through another door. A single secretary sat disinterestedly behind a desk. She was younger than the shoes I was wearing.

The office manager came out. Female. Red head. “There are no jobs here at Danjaq.” She spoke so rapidly I had difficulty understanding her and she might as well have been on speed, the way she behaved. I thought what a shocking contrast between the friendly manner of Reginald Barkshire, who entertained me in his beautiful offices in London and this place. The Danjaq offices could have just as easily been the offices of a community college. Or, a correctional center. Concrete. Impersonal. She never invited me to sit down. I think she did offer me a cup of hot tea, but I’m not really certain. I did not feel welcome. The one name hot off her rapidly moving tongue, that morning: Colin Farrell. “We want Colin Farrell to play James Bond.” I don’t know why this was said in front of me, except I had mentioned being a journalist. I said something about Pierce Brosnan. “He was fired, wasn’t he?” She glared at me, as if she hated me. “He wasn’t fired! He didn’t want to do it anymore!”

Things were not going well. Somehow, it came up about Kevin McClory. “He doesn’t have any rights at all. Well, maybe he could make a James Bond film in Australia, somewhere. No studio’s going to touch him out here. We don’t want to hear his name in this office.” Danjaq’s manager then told me to go downstairs and find a computer and fill out an MGM employment form. And, that was that. It was the most bizarre encounter I could ever have and I wondered: “How come people like her are working for James Bond and I’m not?”

On the elevator, a publicist for MGM, ready to make the exodus to Century City, said out loud in the elevator: “Brosnan wasn’t fired. He wanted too much money. He didn’t want to do Bond anymore.” He, too, glared at me and raced away as fast as his two little feet would carry him. Was everybody in this place paranoid and crazy? I was not getting a good impression about anyone. I walked through the underground parking lot at MGM and saw the publicist in the elevator get inside his Lexus and speed out, squealing his tires. I was already sick of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I didn’t care if Colin Farrell or Sean Connery or George W. Bush played James Bond 007. My car was stolen and nobody cared. I couldn’t even find George Lazenby’s telephone number, because it was on the front seat of the Cougar and not in my head.

Since writing up this interview, Ron has sent the following notes:

1 – “Wes, you had it right regarding the location where I broke down, except it was Damjaq’s offices in the MGM offices on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, not EON’s. EON’s offices are in London, so they can be near Pinewood Studios. Several years back they moved out of 2 South Audley Street (where Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton all went to get their assignments.) The last I heard they had moved up to Piccadilly Circus and that is where I sent Curtis Bush, the former middle weight kick boxing champion from Virginia when they were shooting Tomorrow Never Dies. I contacted Debbie McWilliams, their casting agent, about using Curtis in the film. Curtis had never lost a bout and he was defending his title in London, the night the producers were supposed to watch him. That night, he lost the title for the very first time. Can you imagine? Poor Curtis. No Bond movie. The coveted role went to a large blond actor (the assistant to Jonathan Pryce) and Bond history moves on. The next match Curtis Bush was in, he recaptured the championship. By that time, the film was well into production. Curtis starred in the motion picture, The Dark Angel, which is on DVD under several different titles, too many for me to keep track of, just now.”

2 – Before I forget this:  In 1985, Reginald Barkshire told me in his London office (EON) that:

(a)  Sean Connery was offered first dibs on every James Bond script (right up until Octopussy).  In short, Connery was getting scripts for every Roger Moore picture and turned them down, mostly out of courtesy to Roger Moore, his good friend, I suspect.  Connery disliked Broccoli so intensely, he never wished to work with him again.

(b)  Barkshire also told me this about Never Say Never Again.  He smiled at me from across his desk.  ”I don’t think we learned anything from that one,” Barkshire said.  Reg Barkshire went on to describe the NSNA screen score as “atrocious” and made several other points as well.  He was very proud of the fact Octopussy had won out at the box office.  ”We made a much more entertaining James Bond film.”  The conversation then switched to how hard Cubby Broccoli pushed Michael Wilson and daughter Barbara to learn the business.  Broccoli was a perfectionist, according to Reginald Barkshire, and he wanted his children to know everything from “the bottom up.”  Only Tony Broccoli, who had worked on Octopussy, was not interested in getting too involved in the James Bond mythos.

Editors Note:  Original publication on www.spywise site.  Re-edited permission granted by Ronald Payne for this site.  Brenda Wise

BY WESLEY BRITTON

INTRODUCTION

If anyone was born destined to keep crossing paths with the world of 007, it would have to be writer, agent, and raconteur Ronald Payne. For one thing, he was part of a family with Hollywood connections. In 1950, Payne recalls that “My father saw Ronald Colman in Bulldog Drummond and was so taken with his fine manners, elegant style, his humor, etc., that he persuaded my mother to name me for him. I’m happy he did. There couldn’t have been a finer role model.” (While his full name is William Ronald Colman Payne, he’s been going by Ron Payne since his writing career began.)

Later, Payne’s uncle, James Ellsworth, produced the film Five Minutes To Live “which was released heavily to drive-ins in 1961 through American-International. It starred Johnny Cash, Ronny Howard, and the late Vic Tayback, who became famous as Mel in the CBS sitcom, Alice. My uncle also produced Chesty: Tribute to a Legend, the color documentary about Lt. General Lewis B. ‘Chesty’ Puller, the most decorated Marine in history. John Ford directed the documentary and the on camera host was John Wayne.” During the late 1940s, Ellsworth also worked with a fellow named Albert Broccoli selling Christmas trees.

Ron’s family tree also set the stage for his own Bond might-have-beens. “In 1956, a distant relative of mine-the actor-John Payne (who was also born in Virginia) optioned Moonraker, with the intention of becoming the movies’ first James Bond 007. Anyone who has ever seen John Payne in any of his 1940s films for 20th Century-Fox (where Payne wears a white dinner jacket or plays a swashbuckling tough guy) will see that Payne had possibilities. Moonraker, as adapted faithfully from the book would have been perfect for John Payne. I would like to think so.”

Growing up along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, Ronald Payne also became an avid reader of world literature. He began his collection of rare books that ultimately led to an important Bond connection. Before that happened, in 1964 at the age of 14, Payne sold his first script to Leslie Goodwin who’d directed episodes of Maverick and Highway Patrol. (The story wasn’t produced due to Goodwin’s death.) In 1973, Payne’s first novel, Shadows in the Sun (dorrance) was published followed by Black Thursday in 1982. In this novel, the World Trade Center was bombed by Indian terrorists. “Most of the book,” Payne says, “was set in Mexico where neo-Nazis were setting up gas chambers.” After beginning his career of ghost-writing, his third novel, The Dark Side of Twilight, came out in 1987when, Payne admits, he was still imitating his literary inspirations including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. ” I was a big fan of Kenneth Miller and he influenced my writing in The Dark Side of Twilight. I don’t want to get going on Ross Macdonald and Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet, right now, or we’ll be here all day.”

What has all this to do with 007? Well, it’s true Ron Payne has yet to work for the official film company. In 1979, Payne hoped to find work with EON Productions but turned down the one task they hoped he’d take on–seeking out counterfeit 007 toys in the U.S. “Reginald Barkshire, Cubby Broccoli’ assistant,” Payne says, “was always most kind to me. In 1985, I first learned Pierce Brosnan was considered for 007, right in Barkshire’s office.” Perhaps the unkindest cut occurred when Payne’s car was stolen just outside of EON’s Hollywood offices.

As described below, in 1979 Payne met writer O. F. Ssnelling and learned much about the literary James Bond. Later, he befriended George Lazenby and has stories to tell about his friend. And, in his quest to try to find work with Kevin McClory, Payne found himself a bearer of true 007 secrets–inside stories about the legendary, never produced Warhead. In short, Ron has so many stories, we offer them here in three parts. In part 1, I interview Ron about his personal involvement with Bond, moviemaking, and his support of George Lazenby, among other Bond matters. In part II–subtitled “The James Bond Curse?”–Ron talks about his attempts to produce a Bond film. If this doesn’t whet your appetite, you’ll also find an interview within an interview when Ron reveals what he learned about the production of Never Say Never Again when he met with producer Jack Swartzman. Part III will be, in Ron’s words, what might have been if the script written by Sean Connery, Len Deighton, and Kevin McClory had come to be. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce–Ronald Payne.

JOHN FORD, IAN FLEMING, AND RARE BOOKS

Q: There are few folks who can claim they learned about the movie business helping out director John Ford. Can you tell us about your experience?

A: In my senior year of high school, my uncle and John Ford moved the production of their documentary Chesty: Tribute to a Legend to Saluda, Virginia and filmed inside of General Puller’s home. I knew General Puller, quite well, as I often visited with him after school. And, of course, I knew my uncle. I was given the task of “keeping John Ford upright,” not that I had ever seen him in any other condition. But taking into account that there is a “first time for everything and anything,” I was given the important responsibility of making certain that this venerable (if not vulnerable) Hollywood legend “did not stumble and break a hip” and thus completely “derail the production.”

I was “Executive In Training In Charge of John Ford,” so to speak and did my utter best to keep him away from booze during filming, but was not too successful at it, though he did cut back. And, he never fell or broke any bone in his body during the entire shoot, so my involvement in Chesty must be labeled a success. I lived to see 19 the following year (because my uncle did not fire me or kill me) and for the most part I fared much better during this period than the debut of Chesty when it premiered in Los Angeles. It was shown in a large theatre, but anti-war activists boycotted the film and generally made life miserable for John Ford and my uncle and the film was, generally, withdrawn. But, it was this film where I had the pleasure to learn a little something from a master about movie making. Admiral Ford was a decent guy and we got along splendidly.

Q: I understand you hold the rights to the 1964 nugget, O. F. Snelling’s 007 James Bond: A Report. How did you become involved with Snelling and plans for updates for the book?

A: Freddie Snelling was my mentor. He and I met in Hodgson’s Rooms at Sotheby’s Rare Book Department in London where he was the department head. This was January 1979. I became his sole Literary Agent in the Western Hemisphere. Freddie was like a second father to me.

Originally, the book was published by Neville Spearman (London) in hardback. However, with the Bond boom after the release of the film, Goldfinger, the book’s sales skyrocketed. It was published in paperback in London and serialized in the French magazine, Luii, the equivalent of Playboy in this country. It went on to be published in 17 languages and sold more than 2 million copies (nothing to be sneezed at in 1964-65.) Of course, it was published in paperback in the U.S. by Fleming’s own publishers, (Signet-The New American Library) and was listed right along with Fleming’s titles, while going head to head with Kingsley Amis’s The James Bond Dossier.

I acquired all rights to the book from Freddie, early on, and still hope to do a documentary based upon the book. I miss Freddie very much. He really was my second Dad. Freddie became a recluse after leaving Sotheby’s. I will always remember him as an exceedingly kind man and as one of England’s best writers. He also wrote The Bedside Book of Boxing and Rare Books and Rarer People about his life at Sotheby’s and the Antiquarian book trade. He ghost wrote a great number of books for celebrities-most of them from the sports world. He got me hooked on Hitchcock films and the works of John Buchan, Dornford Yates and Sapper (the Unholy Trio of Richard Hannay, Jonathan Mansel and Bulldog Drummond, the original “Clubland Heroes” and forerunners of James Bond.) Kingsley Amis, himself, told me he thought Freddie’s book a notch up on his own James Bond Dossier, which pleased me very much.

Q: Is it true Snelling had connections with some actual spies?

A: Freddie was the literary agent and liaison for Helen and Peter Kroeger, two spies who worked for Russia. The Kroegers entered England on New Zealand passports without ever stepping foot into New Zealand back in the early 1950s. They were from New York. They passed themselves off as Antiquarian book dealers outside London and were Freddie’s Wednesday night bridge partners for about five years. The Kroegers placed micro-dots in the spines of books they sent to Russian agents. Kroeger was famous for dismissing himself for about twenty minutes during each bridge game to send radio messages from his basement to Moscow.

Freddie played an important part in the Kroegers being apprehended by MI6, though we will never know the real story during our lifetimes. The Kroegers were stealing Britain’s nuclear submarine secrets and doing a good job of it. They were later traded for British agents and lived out their lives in a comfortable Moscow apartment with all the luxuries the Kremlin promised them. Freddie, actually, liked and admired them, though he didn’t like the side they were on. Freddie arranged with a major British publisher to have their autobiography published in the west. Freddie flew to Moscow with the contract in hand and there were smiles all round, as the caviar and champagne flowed the entire evening. A happy ending to what might have turned out quite differently. (This will be the subject of my next spy novel, “The Follies of Arrogant Men,” which I hope to write next year.)

Q: The Snelling book was a rather early entry in Bond studies–does it have any relevance today?

A: Yes, I believe Snelling’s book is even more relevant today, because so many of the original players are dead. Fleming approved the Snelling book for publication, just two weeks before his death in 1964. It was the only time he was to ever do so for anyone. In that respect, Snelling’s work stands alone. Fleming authorized it.

Q: Snelling’s book appeared before all the Fleming books had been published and only two films had been produced in time for him to comment on them. What sorts of things would Snelling have liked to add to a new edition?

A: Freddie and I always intended to update the book to accommodate the new films with Dalton, Brosnan, et al. We were also to include a new section on the writers, Amis, Gardner, Benson, etc. Freddie hated the original title, “007 James Bond: A Report.” That was Neville Spearman’s idea. I am currently updating the book and will use Fred’s true and only title, “Double 0 Seven,” with the sub-title: “James Bond Under the Microscope.” I used this title in 1981-82 when I serialized the chapter, “His Image” from the book in my rare fanzine, “James Bond, Secret Agent.”

In addition to the original text, I have 100 plus letters to include in the new book. ‘The James Bond Letters’ will cover every topic there is about ‘double-0-seven from Snelling’s perspective. You will find his insights interesting and provocative. He also goes into some detail about the Fleming story, “The Property of a Lady,” of which he was very fond for obvious reasons.[The obvious reason being the story was set in Sotheby's, Fleming having used Snelling as a source for the story.]

Snelling enjoyed Bernard Lee as “M.” He knew Lee from the film The Third Man, as he played Sgt. Paine. Freddie didn’t care much for Edward Fox’s “M” in Never Say Never Again and Judy Dench he saw as a ‘great actress and a sign of the changing times.” However, in his mind’s eye, Snelling saw “M” as C. Aubrey Smith, the great British Colonial of “Tarzan, the Ape Man” and many other Hollywood and British films.

Q: What can you tell us about that “rare fanzine” you mentioned?

A: My fanzine, “James Bond, Secret Agent” was published in November 1981, though 1982 appears on the front, along with a large photo of Roger Moore and Lois Chiles from Moonraker. Moore is drawing his Walther PP-K as Lois Chiles looks on. It’s a famous photo. The magazine was done like a tabloid newspaper. There were many very good photos of Sean Connery as James Bond and in other roles. I ran a chapter from Freddie’s “Double O Seven-James Bond Under the Microscope.” This pleased Freddie a great deal to see his actual title for his book being used for the first time.

I ran a short story I had written way back in 1966. Originally, James Bond had been the main character, but due to copyright restrictions, I changed the hero’s name to Philip Reynolds after the character in my novel, “Shadows in the Sun ” (1973.) In that story, Reynolds (James Bond) is in Jamaica for the purpose of assassinating Marcus Fynche, a former SMERSH operative, who has murdered several of his colleagues. Fynche, like most Bond villains, is larger than life, extraordinarily wealthy and lives for big game fishing on his yacht. Reynolds is accompanied by ‘Morocco Jade,’ who is half Chinese and half French. The story was called “Red Moon Over Moscow,” in reference to Fynche’s past life as a Russian agent. His real Russian name is never revealed, but it is believed he is Georgian. That story was fun. I also wrote an article about my pursuit of Kevin McClory in hopes of getting a job on Warhead (circa 1978.) A long time before Never Say Never Again.

GEORGE LAZENBY

Q: What can you tell us about your friendship with George Lazenby?

A: George and I met in Los Angeles in 1986 when we discussed doing a film I wanted to produce. He accompanied me to the first Virginia Festival of Film in October 1988 at Charlottesville, which was initiated and sponsored by John and Patricia Kluge. It was held at the University of Virginia. The special guest speaker that night was Nick Nolte. Kluge owned Orion Pictures at the time and would premier Nolte’s new film that night, but all eyes were on George Lazenby, once one of the students in the audience whispered ‘James Bond’ was sitting two rows away.

Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. was there. Al Ruddy, the producer of The Godfather and Hogan’s Heroes was there. George Stevens, Jr. introduced Nolte. Closer to home for George, David Picker, the producer and former Vice-President of United Artists was up on the podium sitting next to Nolte. George sat there and enjoyed the show while the student whispers continued to buzz around the U.Va. audience. Who cares about George Stevens, Jr., when you’ve got ‘double 0 seven’ hanging out with you? He wasn’t on the podium. He was in the audience, just like them.

Afterward, the press people couldn’t wait to get to Lazenby. He was a mystery. He hadn’t been invited to speak. What was he doing there? The Richmond Times-Dispatch gave more space to George Lazenby than any of the people on the podium.

Q: So why was he there that night?

A: John Hartman, a local television personality had written a script entitled “It’s Only a Game.” The script was a murder mystery about a bridge champion, whose wife is kidnapped and held for ransom. There was talk of teaming George Lazenby with Omar Sharif, with George playing the policeman, who saves Sharif’s wife. Hartman had interested multi-millionaire retailer (A&N Stores) Zach Sternheimer in the project as sole investor and Executive Producer. The budget was $2,000,000, but nothing ever materialized. The last I heard Zach Sternheimer was in Hollywood working on a project with James Cameron.

George drove us back to Richmond from Charlottesville that night. It still amuses me, his affection for Buicks. His rental car was a Buick and he explained all the particulars to me as we rode along. George was once a car salesman in London. That night, I would have bought that Buick from him on the spot.

In 1999, I had the very great pleasure of producing the first “An Evening With George Lazenby” for “The Association for Research and Enlightenment-the Edgar Cayce Foundation,” at the Virginia Beach Pavilion. George performed his second “An Evening With George Lazenby” in July 2005 at the invitation of Pinewood Studios in England. I have the greatest affection and utmost respect for George Lazenby. He has been a good friend for more than twenty years now.

George did me a great favor by doing the program. It was standing room only that night and the Virginia Beach audience loved him. He talked about the death of his 19 year old son, Zach, from brain cancer. And what it was like getting the coveted 007 role. The James Bond theme played in the background. The man walked with confidence onto the stage. He looked better in 1999 than he did when he played Bond. He reminded most of us of Cary Grant. He showed humor, warmth toward his audience and was a delight to watch. He was impeccably dressed. All I could think: “it’s too bad he didn’t continue as Bond.” But, that was me thinking of me.

The reality is: George Lazenby is so much more than the famous character he played in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And he’s talented far beyond most people’s perception of him. 2006 is a long journey from 1969. In that period of time, George Lazenby has turned into a true professional. He’s a good actor after many years of learning his craft. He’s also intuitive about people. This sensitivity only enhanced his stage to audience performance that night in Virginia Beach. George spoke from the heart and connected with his listeners. They liked him. And, once more, it was evident he liked them, too. I appreciated his taking the time to do the program for me. He was a smashing

success with everyone.

Q: So how do you rate Lazenby as 007?

A: I have said this before. Please allow me to say it again. I believe George Lazenby would have been as popular as Sean Connery had he continued with the Bond series. Cary Grant once stated that an actor had to make fifteen pictures or more before he could really consider himself a star, because that would allow time for the audience to find the actor and he would develop in his craft along the way. George didn’t give himself enough time. He was given some rotten advice by his business manager. George Lazenby’s picture, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, is one of the best in the series. There are people who talk about how much greater the film would have been with Connery. I don’t care how great the film “might have been” with Sean Connery. It is George Lazenby’s picture and George is great in it. That’s all that matters. Lazenby gave us a great piece of work of high entertainment value. To me, he is James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. He was not filling in for Sean Connery.

If George Lazenby had done Diamonds Are Forever, as his follow up film, his career would have blasted through the roof. He would have become one of the most successful motion picture stars in the world. Lazenby’s Bond, unlike Connery’s Bond, derives right out of the cinematic traditions of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn. Lazenby’s Bond is ‘Robin Hood’ and that certainly makes for great adventure- ‘double 0 seven’ style.

Q: Is it true you talked about Lazenby with Bond novelist Raymond Benson?

A: In the late 1990s-beginning around 1998, I shared several e-mails and telephone conversations with the new James Bond author, Raymond Benson. I liked all of Raymond Benson’s James Bond thrillers. My favorite is his first, Zero Minus Ten. To me, it is high adventure. I know that Raymond Benson would love to write a James Bond film. I wish Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson would give Mr. Benson the opportunity. He knows more about the world of 007 than all the rest of us put together.

Sometime in 1999, soon after George Lazenby did his “An Evening With George Lazenby” for me at the Virginia Beach Pavilion, Raymond and I discussed by telephone the right script for George Lazenby’s comeback. I wanted to do either Peter Fleming’s The Sixth Column or Nichol Fleming’s Counter Paradise. (Here, we are talking about the brother and nephew of Ian Fleming.) Raymond shot all that down because he said it was too similar to 007 and people would say, “It’s just George Lazenby trying to be Bond again.” Raymond suggested I watch a small independent British film entitled The Limey. Raymond Benson suggested we make George Lazenby an ex-convict-a tough guy Bogart style-seen getting out of prison. He looks up his old gang and together they plan the biggest caper of their careers. (All I could see in my mind was Sean Connery in The Anderson Tapes, but I think Raymond had a clearer grasp of things.) Perhaps, someday, Raymond, you and I will do that caper film with George Lazenby. I hope so. But, first, I hope the Broccoli organization gets smart and gives you a shot at doing a Bond film. You deserve it. Thanks for some great James Bond novels along the way.

I would like to recommend an interview with George Lazenby that appeared in Cinemafantastique magazine in November 1998, in time for the release of The World is Not Enough. Pierce Brosnan is on the cover. The article was written by New York writer, Richard Handley, and I acted as liaison between George Lazenby and the author. It is one of George Lazenby’s best interviews and anyone who is interested in George Lazenby should attempt to find it and read it. [Ed. Note: For more on George Lazenby and Ron's hopes to pit him against Sean Connery in a Bond film, see Part II of these files posted at this website.]

THE MANY FACES OF 007

Q: Any thoughts on the casting of Daniel Craig?

A: I didn’t know anything about Clive Owen, who was first touted for Bond. I had never heard of Daniel Craig. I thought Hugh Jackman was all wrong. I had hoped someone would look at the actor, Adrian Paul, who has a superficial resemblance to the young Connery. (Adrian Paul starred in the television series, Highlander.) And, while Daniel Craig was unknown to me, he was certainly not unknown to Steven Spielberg who cast him in Munich. The trailer for Casino Royale intrigues me. If Craig’s performance lives up to the persona in the trailer, he will be sensational. It’s too early to tell.

The producers are attempting to get back to Fleming’s Bond of the novels, but I’m not certain even Fleming knew who was right for James Bond. So many people ask today, “why would Fleming make Bond look like Hoagey Carmichael?” That’s easy: because Fleming’s brother, Peter, looked like Hoagey Carmichael, that’s why. Ian Fleming thought himself to look like Carmichael as well.

Initially, Fleming wanted (1.) Cary Grant (2.) David Niven or (3.) Richard Burton. Now, that offers one a lot of diversification. Cary Grant was not the tough, edgy’ 007 of Casino Royale. On the other hand, if Hitchcock had directed From Russia With Love, Cary Grant would have been perfect, because he would have given us a cross between To Catch A Thief and North By Northwest and set the gold standard for the series. It would have been a matter of style over substance. And, who would have looked better in a tailored Saville Row suit than Cary Grant? (Harry Saltzman liked George Lazenby because G. L. reminded him of Cary Grant. And, John Gavin, who was signed to do Diamonds Are Forever before the return of Connery actually played Cary Grant in the mini-series, Sophia, based upon the biography of Sophia Loren by A.E. Hotchner.) Cary Grant was best man at Cubby Broccoli’s wedding to Dana Wilson in 1959, so it would be reasonable to think Cary Grant might have been in Broccoli’s mind, too, for 007. Howard Hawks, certainly, wanted Cary Grant when Charles Feldman asked him to direct a faithful adaptation of Casino Royale.

Richard Burton and I met in London when I saw this fellow staggering in front of The Dorchester Hotel. I went to help him and it was “Rich Jenkins,” all right. He told me he was ‘Rich Jenkins’ and thanked me for helping him, by offering me as many drinks as I could handle. We discussed James Bond and the fact that Kevin McClory had once approached him about playing the role. The Bond series would have taken a different route with Richard Burton. I loved his acting and admired him, but it is doubtful (to me, anyway) that we would be discussing 007 today, if Sean Connery had not come along.

Fleming also liked fellow Etonian, David Niven, who had played both ‘Raffles’ and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel,’ but no one could be further from Daniel Craig than David Niven. I can’t imagine David Niven shooting a Japanese cipher expert in cold blood, the way Bond is alleged to have done before becoming a ‘double O.’ I have heard it said that Fleming was interested in Roger Moore for the role, as he had watched The Saint on television. And, I’ve heard Broccoli considered Peter Lawford at the beginning. Patrick McGoohan was Danger Man, so I suppose he was something of a front runner. (I don’t know.)

I do know this. Broccoli & Saltzman were lucky to get Connery. Reginald Barkshire, who ran Broccoli’s offices in London, told me how Connery walked in looking like a thug-dressed in the most abysmal brown outfit with non-matching socks and banged his fists on the table and told the producers how he would play Bond. He shook them up. Intimidated them. Fleming, I understood from Freddie Snelling, was horrified that Connery was being considered. But, once Fleming saw Connery’s strengths in the role, he couldn’t have been more delighted or felt more fortunate. Fred Snelling told me, “Once I saw Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love, I couldn’t possibly imagine anyone else.”

Where I would have gone wrong: not knowing who Connery was in 1962-and unable to get Cary Grant- I would have pegged for (1.) Stewart Granger (2.) Laurence Harvey, who strikes me as having been more faithful to the spirit of Fleming’s literary Bond. So, there you are. ( I might have gotten two pictures out of it, with either Granger or Laurence Harvey. James Mason would have been a third consideration. But, we wouldn’t have had the films that everyone loves today.)

Q: What projects are you working on right now?

A: My greatest desire would be to see The film, Marine! Produced, based upon the life of Lt. General Lewis B. ‘Chesty’ Puller. The documentary my uncle, John Ford, and John Wayne worked on was to be a pre-cursor to this theatrical film. The screenplay, which I am currently rewriting, is based on the script by Harry Brown (A Walk in the Sun) and Beirne Lay, Jr., Academy Award winner for Twelve O’clock High. It was commissioned by John Wayne and director John Ford. My uncle was set to produce it, but Ford and Wayne died all too soon and today my uncle is 81 years old and in a nursing home in Beverly Hills. He has Alzheimer’s . I would really love to see this project get off the ground, especially after so many years.

I am in the process, with another writer and director, of updating the script. The film is perfect for (1.) Tommy Lee Jones as ‘Chesty’ Puller. (2.) Chuck Norris’s people would be interested in Norris playing ‘Chesty’ Puller. (3.) My director is interested in Kurt Russell, whom I thought all wrong until someone showed me Russell in Soldier. He’s ‘Chesty’ right on, in that film. This is a big picture set in World War Two and Korea. Puller was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history and a Marine icon. He’s now on his own postage stamp. John Wayne wanted desperately to make this film, but it was shelved after the failure of The Green Berets. Wayne never made another war film after The Green Berets. Darryl Zanuck wanted 20th Century-Fox to finance and release it, but their Tora, Tora, Tora stopped them. Zanuck was eager to get John Ford back on his payroll. The time has never been better than now to do this great motion picture.

Q: Before we switch gears and reveal your quest to produce a Bond film, any thoughts on 007 in general you’d care to share?

A: I would still like to write up my interview with the director, Terence Young, whom I met in Jamaica in August, 1975. Young, who directed Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball was a charming man. He did more to get the Bond series rolling than any other person outside of Broccoli, Saltzman and Connery. He gave me many insights into those early years of the cinematic Bond. He, basically, taught Sean Connery how to talk, dress and behave as James Bond. To me, Terence Young WAS James Bond.

In concluding this discussion, I would like to thank Professor Dr. Wesley Britton, Phd., for taking the time to hear me out. I haven’t had this much fun since Martin Amis gave me his dad, Kingsley’s, private telephone number (sight unseen.) Martin Amis didn’t know me from Adam and I was calling from a red phone booth in Trafalgar Square. He got a great kick out of giving his father’s private telephone number to strangers. Kingsley Amis spent two hours asking me how I got his phone number rather than hanging up on me. (Now, there’s insight into a famous Bond author.) I would still like to do a James Bond film.

Editors Note:

The original posts are documented in Wesley Britton’s ‘Spywise” blog and were given permission to republish here, copyright ‘Ronald Payne.  Brenda Wise

NOTICE TO ALL “JAMES BOND” READERS

(IN 1964, THE GREAT BRITISH AUTHOR, OSWALD FREDERICK (O.F.) SNELLING CONTACTED JAMES BOND 007 AUTHOR, “IAN FLEMING” WITH HIS MANUSCRIPT OF THE NOW FAMOUS STUDY OF THE “007″ CHARACTER. THE BOOK, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDCOVER IN ENGLAND BY ‘NEVILLE SPEARMAN, LTD,’ AND LATER BY IAN FLEMING’S OWN PUBLISHER, THE NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY (SIGNET PAPERBACKS) HAS SOLD 20,000,000 COPIES IN 17 LANGUAGES. IT IS THE ONLY BOOK OF ITS KIND ‘EVER OFFICIALLY APPROVED’ BY IAN FLEMING. (THIS BOOK AND THE TITLE ARE GRANDFATHERED BECAUSE OF ‘IAN FLEMING’S AGREEMENT’ WITH O.F. SNELLING FROM ANY ‘COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENTS’ BY ANY AND ALL THIRD PARTIES. THIS SITE LICENCES THE TITLE FROM ITS PRESENT COPYRIGHT HOLDER, MR. RONALD PAYNE AND 21ST CENTURY ARTISTS FILM CORPORATION, AS SUCCESSORS IN COPYRIGHT TO O.F. SNELLING. THE ALTERNATIVE TITLE TO THIS FAMOUS BOOK IS “DOUBLE 0 SEVEN, JAMES BOND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.”

A COPY OF MR. SNELLING’S BOOK RESIDES IN THE ARCHIVE OF ‘IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS,’ PLACED THERE BY RONALD PAYNE IN 2001. IN 1985, PRODUCER ALBERT R. BROCCOLI RECEIVED HIS AUTOGRAPGHED COPY OF THE BOOK, ESPECIALLY DELIVERED TO HIM BY RONALD PAYNE AT EON PRODUCTIONS, LTD., 2 SOUTH AUDLEY STREET, LONDON.

THIS TITLE DOES NOT INFRINGE ON THE COPYRIGHTS OR TRADEMARKS OF ANY OTHER PARTY, INCLUDING ‘METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS, UNITED ARTISTS CORPORATION AND DANJAQ, LLC OR EON PRODUCTIONS AND IS THE EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF RONALD PAYNE, ESQ., THE LICENCE HOLDER.)

www.spywise.net
(THE ONLY ELECTRONIC SITE AUTHORIZED TO DOWNLOAD THE BOOK.) UNDER THE JAMES BOND FILES.

Publication by
Brenda Wise
Agent

Authorized by
Ronald Payne

Introductory Notes by Ronald Payne

Oswald Frederick Snelling, “Freddie” to his friends, holds one of the most unique positions in the fascinating world of James Bond 007. His intriguing little book, 007 James Bond: A Report, first published in England in 1964, was the only work of its kind ever personally approved by Ian Fleming.

As it happened, Ian Fleming suffered a massive heart attack, August 12, 1964, while playing golf, and died soon after in hospital. This sad occurrence coincided with the initial publication of O.F. Snelling’s little masterpiece – and a masterful piece of writing it is – as he examines “close up, under the microscope,” so to speak, the extraordinary world of “double-0-seven.”

I had the good fortune to meet O.F. Snelling in London in early 1979 and become his friend. My wife and I hunted him down in Hodgson’s Rooms, at Sotheby’s Rare Book Department, where he was Chief Clerk, a most important position in the Antiquarian Book trade. Ian Fleming himself, James Bond’s creator, often browsed there, searching for some exotic tome – long-lost and forgotten.

Freddie Snelling was erudite, sophisticated in a wonderful literary way and one of the kindest persons I have ever had the pleasure to meet. We soon found we possessed many common interests – most of them literary. The high esteem in which he held Raymond Chandler, the author of the Philip Marlowe books, was inspirational to a young writer like myself. I soon learned he loved the novels of Thomas Wolfe, particularly Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe’s first novel about the young Eugene Gant. Somehow, I believe the young Snelling also identified with Eugene, in some way. He also greatly admired From Here to Eternity, by James Jones, and was delighted when I presented him with copies of Jones’ The Merry Month of May and Jones’ one interlude into the hard boiled detective genre, A Touch of Danger, clearly inspired by Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Another Snelling favorite was James M. Cain, whose The Postman Always Rings Twice he knew backwards and forwards.

But in the end, it was always James Bond that we got back to – sooner or later. Freddie thought Sean Connery, in his mid-thirties (the Connery of Dr. No and From Russia, With Love) the perfect 007. He thought From Russia, With Love the best James Bond film, often pointing out to me how it might have been done had Hitchcock directed. He was big on Alfred Hitchcock, as a director of film in the same way he had been big on the works of H.C. McNeille (Sapper), the author of “Bulldog Drummond” and the works of John Buchan (The 39 Steps) and Dornford Yates, whose gallery of rogues, detectives and spies still brightened the lights in his eyes. He thought Ian Fleming a “patch-up” on all of them. “Fleming’s first rate,” he said one night, while sitting with my wife and me in The Sherlock Holmes Pub in London. “Ian loved the thrillers of Eric Ambler and I believe the style and tempo and energy in From Russia, With Love, while it is all Fleming, was clearly inspired by Ambler’s high brow approach to thriller writing.”

Indeed, he admired Fleming’s style in From Russia, With Love, telling me: “Fleming was the F. Scott Fitzgerald of thriller writers. He surpassed himself in that book.” Later: “Doctor No is also first rate, but it’s a throwback to Sax Rohmer and Dr. Fu Manchu. Fleming and I both loved ‘Dr. Fu,’ as did every other twelve year old English lad, growing up in the 1920s and 30s. I have spent a lot of time in Jamaica – my wife, Molly, is from there – and I can tell you, Ian Fleming gets it right, like no one else I’ve ever read.”

As time and years wore on, he felt inclined to dismiss the later James Bond films. “Fodder for movie moguls,” he told me more than once. “It’s no longer Ian Fleming’s James Bond, but ‘Cubby’ Broccoli’s James Bond 007 – and they are NOT the one and the same.” He would have loved the new Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig, because: “I am only interested in seeing a new Bond film, if it is strictly adapted from Fleming. This ’space ship stuff’ is for the birds – and the real James Bond, would be the first to agree,” he once said to me (referring, of course, to Roger Moore’s Moonraker).

He was deeply disappointed that Diamonds Are Forever, the film, had not included the original villain –Jack Spang, of the Spang gang – from the book. He thought Charles Gray, an actor he liked, looked pretty silly as Blofeld, sitting there on his “throne chair” in Las Vegas, as Sean Connery “mountaineered his way around Howard Hughes’s hotel.”

He had even less respect for Roger Moore’s film of The Man With the Golden Gun, when he learned that it was not placed in its original Jamaica setting, but placed in Thailand. “The novel – which was not one of Fleming’s best, by a long shot,” he said, “was still fifty times better than the movie.” He thought Scaramanga should have been played by Jack Palance, because Palance “shows real menace.” He missed the train chase that pitted Bond against Scaramanga in the novel. “That would have been a great set piece, in a serious Bond film,” he said. “Jamaica is so exotically beautiful and colourful,” he wrote. “The film of The Man With the Golden Gun, though it was an expensive picture to make, looked cheaply done and all the dead brown colours looked atrocious. Roger Moore gets sillier and sillier.”

He told me that, as a teenager, he couldn’t wait to receive copies of Black Mask, the detective-mystery magazine published in America, that featured the earliest stories of Hammett and Chandler. “They used all those wonderful pulp magazines as ballast on the ships that brought them across the Atlantic,” Freddie said, smoking a long cigarette. “I read them eagerly and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next issue – while ferreting out and perusing all the back issues I could find.”

Regarding James Bond, he said: “Fleming never wrote for the pulps, though ‘The Living Daylights’ did appear as ‘Berlin Escape’ in Argosy, which was not quite the same thing. The stories that appeared in Playboy, I think ‘The Hildebrand Rarity’ was one, were really too literary to ever make it into a magazine such as Black Mask. Ian Fleming, one must remember, was influenced not only by writers such as Sax Rohmer, John Buchan, Sapper and Eric Ambler, but also by the spy stories of Somerset Maugham, who was one of Anne Rothermere’s (Mrs. Ian Fleming) best friends. It was to Maugham that Fleming presented one of the first signed copies of Casino Royale. Maugham later replied that he had read ‘all of Casino Royale in one sitting, while lying down in bed.’”

Toward the end, Freddie, whom I really considered my second father, felt frustrated by “all the literary drivel that’s making its way onto the bestseller lists here in England and abroad” (meaning New York and elsewhere in the United States). Still, he wanted to know what new books might be of interest for him to read, and I sent him Frank McShane’s biography of The Life of Raymond Chandler, and he couldn’t have been more thrilled.

In the interim, Freddie rewarded me by making me his “sole literary agent” for Double O Seven – James Bond Under the Microscope, the real title of his book. We each had a contract stating my duties and each other’s expectations. I always hoped he would update the book – and he promised he would, once I found an interested publisher “with enough hard cash,” to make it worth his efforts. But, life intervened. His beloved Jamaican bride, Molly, the love of his life, died suddenly in his arms one night – unexpectedly of a stroke – as they watched television in their flat. He never recovered from that trauma. She was outgoing and fun. He was shy and reclusive. He loved her so deeply, but suddenly – and sadly – she was gone.

There were many publishers interested in the revised version of 007 James Bond: A Report, but always in the end, there was the matter of money. Freddie was a professional writer, and he took great pride in being paid his due. And, besides, this book – this particular book – about James Bond and approved by Ian Fleming, one of the bestselling British thriller writers of all time, possessed an impressive track record of success. It had sold in the millions, all over the world. Fleming’s own publisher, Signet – The New American Library – published it in paperback, right alongside Fleming’s own titles, which advertised it on their covers.

Freddie had raced against the clock to beat Kingsley Amis’s The James Bond Dossier into the literary market place. The two Bond studies went neck-and-neck in sales, but it was Amis, himself, who told me: “I am not known as a modest fellow – or one who hands out undeserved compliments, but Snelling’s book is a patch-up on my Bond-Dossier. His conviction about Bond being ‘one of the livingest heroes in modern fiction,’ says it all. That line alone made me a Snelling fan, as well as a Fleming fan.”

Freddie and I discussed, many times during the twenty-year period we knew each other, what would happen to the book – in the event he should become ill or (I hated thinking about it) should die. We agreed on two things, when he said: “The book is yours to do with what you wish.” And, lastly, “I want you to complete the update, using my original title: Double 0 Seven – James Bond Under the Microscope.”

Even during his lifetime, he wanted me to complete the updated version, as his energies failed him, and he lost interest in Bond altogether. Toward the end of his life, he had become an almost total recluse, though we still talked by trans-Atlantic telephone and exchanged a barrage of letters. He died November 6, 2001.

I wish to thank Professor Wesley Britton for helping me to edit these segments about James Bond through Freddie’s eyes from the letters he wrote me over the years. There are still more to come, as there were more than one hundred letters shared between us. Those letters are sealed and in storage, waiting for the moment when I can get to them. They will be published in full as The James Bond Letters, when I complete O.F. Snelling’s Double 0 Seven – James Bond Under the Microscope, next year.

In the meantime, enjoy.

Ronald Payne

Edited and published by Brenda Wise, with permission by copyright Ronald Payne

O. F. Snelling

IN 1998, I GOT INTO A HEATED E-MAIL DISCUSSION with BRANWELL McCLORY, the son of THUNDERBALL producer, KEVIN McCLORY, about which was the better picture, THUNDERBALL or NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Branwell, who worked on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, seemed biased in favor of that film, as it had no connection to “ALBERT R. BROCCOLI or EON PRODUCTIONS,” but like THUNDERBALL, had everything to do with his famous father, KEVIN O’DONOVAN McCLORY, the Irish-Wunderkind, who sued JAMES BOND 007 author IAN FLEMING in 1963 for plagiarism of their treatments and underwater scripts for a Bond film entitled, LATITUDE 78 WEST, which Fleming used as the ’source material’ for his bestselling 1961 novel, THUNDERBALL, without giving credit to either McClory or screenwriter, JACK WHITTINGHAM, who was McClory’s “writer for hire” in the project. McCLORY won his court battle, of course—and the rest is ‘Bond 007′ history, which we can all read about in ROBERT SELLARS’S deeply researched and fascinating, THE BATTLE FOR BOND from TOMAHAWK PRESS (See their website at www.tomahawkpress.com  ).

I knew the other producers on both films, besides McClory, but I still thought HARRY SALTZMAN and ALBERT R. “CUBBY” BROCCOLI of EON (in conjunction with Kevin McClory) produced a better film in THUNDERBALL than the tie-up in 1983 between producers, JACK SCHWARTZMAN and McCLORY in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.

To begin with, THUNDERBALL was a better script, as adapted by RICHARD MAIBAUM and JOHN HOPKINS, than NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN by LORENZO SEMPLE, JR. . THUNDERBALL was “high adventure of the wildest kind,” with lavish sets, locations, beautiful girls and some of the most gorgeous TECHNICOLOR cinema photography to ever grace the motion picture screen. The action was always “fast and furious” and SEAN CONNERY was at his peak at playing “007″ through ‘hell and high water.’ CONNERY was the “REAL DEAL,” when it came to being James Bond in this great, great motion picture.

JOHN BARRY’s music was ‘thunderous and loud’ and got the viewer’s adrenalin pumping, when TOM JONES sang the theme song. “He Always Runs, While Others Walk…He acts, while other men, just talk…He looks at this World and Wants It All, so he strikes like…THUNDERBALL…! ” MAURICE BINDER’S opening credits with the beautiful nude girls swimming underwater was one of the ‘most dynamic’ openings to ever grace a Bond film. It was ’sexually charged and fascinating’ to watch, as the girls criss-crossed in front of us, as the music played on. A hand fires a ‘Co2 Spear gun’ and SEAN CONNERY’S name explodes into the underwater depths.

THUNDERBALL is so much above NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, that there is almost no comparison, except that they both derive from the same source, the original ‘Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ian Fleming’ treatments and scripts (10 in all) that were created in 1959 for XANADU PRODUCTIONS, LTD., the company created by IVAR BRYCE, IAN FLEMING and KEVIN McCLORY to produce the first JAMES BOND motion picture and the first James Bond story set ‘underwater.’

McCLORY convinced FLEMING in 1959 that a Bond story produced in MIKE TODD’S “TODD-A-O” Widescreen process (a rival to Cinemascope) would make a spectacular visual for “007,” and would be totally fresh. McClory admired DISNEY’S 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, where some of the first underwater Cinemascope-Technicolor cameras were ever used. He saw his Bond vision as being even “bigger and more spectacular” than Disney’s Captain Nemo adventure–and even saw JAMES MASON, who played CAPTAIN NEMO in that film as a future ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD, an idea also entertained by “CUBBY” BROCCOLI” in 1977, when casting around for BLOFELD (changed to STROMBERG) in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. (Curt Jurgins played Stromberg, when Mason became unavailable.)

THUNDERBALL is a ’spectacular’ film in almost every way. TERENCE YOUNG’s direction is flawless. PETER HUNT’s film editing makes the underwater battle between SPECTRE frogmen and BOND’s people “exciting and involving,” while the scenes of beautiful ‘white sand beaches’ in Nassau and the surrounding areas ‘allure’ even the most experienced word travelers. The underwater scenes are bright and clear and Technicolor gives depth to everything. The schools of fish are clearly and beautifully photographed, not to mention CLAUDINE AUGER (or her stand-in) as DOMINO, when she “gets her foot caught” below and is rescued by Bond, himself, who just happened to be “swimming her way.”

“So your name is Domino,” Bond tells the girl later, just before a hot bowl of ‘conch-chowder.’
 
“How do you know my name is Domino?” she insists, looking at him intensely.

“It’s on the bracelet around your…..”

“What sharp little eyes you have,” the girls answers, as if annoyed.

“Wait until you get to my teeth,” Bond says, coolly, as she walks past.
 
THUNDERBALL uses a “large, large canvas,” with Bond running from SPECTRE bad girl, FIONA VOLPE’, who wants to kill him during the local JUNK-A-NOO ( Nassau’s annual Mardi Gras). As played by Italian actress, LUCIANA PALUZZI, Fiona Volpe’ is ‘cool, dangerous, blood thirsty’ and ‘just a little mad.’ When she finally gets Bond in her clutches, her own men fire at Bond, during the bongo rendition of “MR. KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG,” when ‘007′ turns suddenly and it is she, who is hit and killed. Bond never stops moving with her on the dance floor and moves swiftly to an empty chair and says to watchers-on, “I hope you don’t mind if my friend sits this one out. She’s just dead.”…

THUNDERBALL also shows great sensitivity in the writing and direction, when Bond slips on his almost ‘black sunglasses’ and takes Domino in his arms. “Have something I must tell you,” Bond says.
 
“You are going away. You are leaving…etc.”

But, Bond is ‘direct, firm, yet gentle,’ with the girl. “It’s about your brother, Francois. He’s dead…” CONNERY and AUGER are so sincere in this scene that it is totally believable. In fact, they have more “screen chemistry together” than any team that has ever starred in the Bond movies. Connery’s Bond, actually, looks as if he ‘cares about her’ and ’she responds, as if he is her protector, and is deeply in love with him.”
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The final big finale’ where U.S. Marines (who were actually performing a real practice jump) leaped out of planes into the waters outside of Miami, created one of the most spectacular air-to-aqua invasion scenes in the history of the movies. It was BIG, EXCITING and LARGER-THAN-LIFE I recall one ‘enthusiastic reviewer’ saying at the time. IT STILL IS.

SEAN CONNERY was at his best, in this film, too. Trim, muscular, virile and cool to the 007th-umpth degree, Bond makes love to luscious blonde, MOLLY PETERS at Shrub lands, the clinic outside London — near the Royal Air Force Base, where “a stolen Vulcan jet roars down the runway,” just two hundred yards away, with two stolen A-bombs on board, with an imposter, made to look like ‘Domino’s brother,’ Major Duval on board, helming the plane toward Nassau—and Emilio Largo’s awaiting yacht with the ‘underwater landing lights.’

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, the THUNDERBALL remake made 18 years later in 1983, by another company, TALIAFILMS, also starred SEAN CONNERY, who played “007″ quite differently this time. Connery played Bond as an “007,” who relied more on his “age and experience” to handle the SPECTRE bad guys, this time lead by KLAUS MARIA BRANDUAER as MAXMILLIAN LARGO. The plot is the same, except the technology is updated. Bond now uses a computer to check on the enormous and fantastic financial riches of his villain, Largo, who is Number 2 in SPECTRE.
 
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, as I said earlier, does ‘not have the exciting script’ of THUNDERBALL. It is ‘passable,’ but not ‘extraordinary.’ THUNDERBALL, while being ‘humorous and wildly entertaining,’ also manages to make the audience feel as if “Nuclear Holocaust” is inevitable. Bond is on a real mission. And, only has 72 hours to see it through—or the first A-bomb will be used against Miami, unless $100,000,000 is paid directly to SPECTRE, a terrorist-organization of incredible power and determination to get what they want, at all cost. Time is fleeting and the clock is ticking. In a short time, hundreds-of-thousands of innocent people will die, needlessly, if Bond does not find the bombs and stop EMILIO LARGO (ADOLFO CELLI), the 20th century pirate with the patch over his eye.

THERE IS NO SPEEDING “THUNDERBALL” HYDROFOIL in ‘NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN,” but there is “THE FLYING SAUCER,” a large white yacht from “which Largo could run a small government from,” Bond insists. Largo answers, laughing, “No, Mr. Bond. A very large government.”

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN has plodding direction by IRWIN KIRSCHNER. The direction does not have any energy. The cinematography is pedestrian. It works, because it works. It is professional, but nothing extraordinary by today’s Hollywood standards. MICHELLE LeGRAND’s ‘jazz score’ is more irritating than absorbing. “It stinks,” wrote one music critic, who said JOHN BARRY (Barry turned down JACK SCHWARTZMAN and KEVIN McCLORY out of loyalty to “CUBBY” BROCCOLI), JERRY GOLDSMITH ( “PATTON” and “OUR MAN FLINT”) or JOHN WILLIAMS (“RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK,” “INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE,” “STAR WARS”) could have earned the picture another $30,000,000 if they had come on board. Their recording sales alone would have been worth a fortune to the producers, but Michelle LeGrand’s ‘jazzy Bond score’ had no appreciable audience. Even LANI HALL’s opening song, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, was lame by comparison to SHIRLEY BASSEY’s pulsating rendition of GOLDFINGER (1964) and TOM JONES’S ‘THUNDERBALL’ (1965.)

The over- all quality of the lighting and use of Eastman Color did nothing for the film either. The underwater images are dark and hardly enthralling. There is no large drop of invading underwater Marines to fight-off SPECTRE frogmen in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.

KIM BASSINGER’S “DOMINO” PETACHI is ‘blonde and bland,’ when compared to sensually exciting, dark and exotic CLAUDINE AUGER, who played ‘Domino’ in THUNDERBALL. There is never much (if any) chemistry between Connery and Bassinger in this picture. She is just another blonde he takes to bed and saves from another madman.

THUNDERBALL had one of the most beautiful gated-retreats for their scenes at ‘Palmyra.’ It was directly on the ocean. This is where Bond shot skeet with Emilio Largo, who asks Bond if he ‘knows much about guns.’

Bond, who has already implied, “It looks like a gun more fitting for a woman.”

“You know a lot about guns, Mr. Bond?” Largo says, sizing up his prey.

“No, but I know a little about women,” Bond says, firing from the hip and blasting the launched skeet in mid-air.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is “not a bad James Bond film.” It ’simply is not a great James Bond film.”
 
The opening credits were not imaginative or creative—and of course, there was no familiar opening ‘gun barrel’ scene, where Bond fires at the audience.

PAMELA SALEM’s performance as MONEYPENNY had none of the warm, cheeful interchange, usually experienced between SEAN CONNERY and the delightful LOIS MAXWELL in the earlier EON films.

EDWARD FOX, who was highly criticized for the ‘barking’ way he portrayed M, when NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was first released, actually comes out ‘better than anyone else’ over the years. He was a new M and a ‘different breed’ than his predecessor, ‘BERNARD LEE’ in all the earlier Connery-Bond films. His performance, actually, succeeds, as time goes by.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, filmed partially in the Bahamas, does not use its locations wisely. The Mediterrean scenes are not bad, where Bond chases FATIMA BLUSH, played ‘to supreme brilliance’ by BARBARA CARRERA, on his motorcycle. In fact, BARBARA CARRERA is so good in this film. She steals the show.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is not in the same league as its “storyline predecessor,” but it is still a SEAN CONNERY “007″ film worth watching….

Edited by Brenda Wise

O.F. Snelling

GEORGE LAZENBY “IS” JAMES BOND. HARRY SALTZMAN AND ALBERT R. BROCCOLI WERE “NOT FOOLS” WHEN THEY CHOSE “GEORGE LAZENBY,” to be the next JAMES BOND 007, after SEAN CONNERY in 1969’s “ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.”

George Lazenby, then an unknown actor, followed in the dangerous footsteps of a “motion picture icon and legend.” Even CARY GRANT, who was once, offered the role of “007″ said “anyone following in Connery’s wake was in deep and dangerous waters.”

Even the late O.F. SNELLING, who wrote the bestselling classic, “007 JAMES BOND: A REPORT,” thought George Lazenby one of the better Bonds, if not “second only to Connery, himself.” I was Mr. Snelling’s literary agent for twenty years and we exchanged, perhaps, 300 unpublished letters over those years. His feelings about GEORGE LAZENBY in the role of “007″ were “always positive and enthusiastic.” Snelling’s argument was always: “GEORGE LAZENBY may not be Laurence Olivier, but he “IS” JAMES BOND 007. If any actor in real life were James Bond, George Lazenby comes closer to the mark than even SEAN CONNERY. The producers were smart when they chose Lazenby, because they were instinctively choosing a man of action.”

Snelling went on to say: “I adore Connery in the first five Bond films, because he is a tremendously talented actor and charismatic and a real movie star in the CLARK GABLE tradition, but GEORGE LAZENBY is ERROL FLYNN to Connery’s Gable. I am terribly disappointed that Mr. Lazenby departed the role, after only one film, because he was the right choice for the part. He was more right for the part than ROGER MOORE and still more right than TIMOTHY DALTON or PIERCE BROSNAN, who followed.”

SNELLING’S ARGUMENT ONCE AGAIN was “Timothy Dalton gave a brilliant interpretation of 007. He was dark and brooding and everything IAN FLEMING suggested in his books, but Dalton–a trained, serious actor of the Olivier school, was still just that–an actor in the process of acting. As for PIERCE BROSNAN, portraying James Bond 007 was his ‘fantasy come true.’ He saw Connery as a boy in “GOLDFINGER” and wanted to become that role. But with the casting of GEORGE LAZENBY as “007″ the producers were casting a man, who might actually have been James Bond 007 in real life, if circumstances had shifted just a few degrees to the right or left.”

SNELLING REPEATED AGAIN and AGAIN, “GEORGE LAZENBY had everything given to him naturally that all the others had to work hard to get. Mr. Lazenby is like ‘007,’ in that he was the most athletic of all the screen personas who have portrayed him. The casting of GEORGE LAZENBY in the role was like casting JAMES BOND, himself, as JAMES BOND 007 in the films.”

“IF I HAD TO LAY MY ODDS on which actor could take down a ‘Goldfinger’ or a ‘Blofeld’ in real life, it would not be Mr. Connery or Mr. Moore or Mr. Dalton or Mr. Brosnan. But, GEORGE LAZENBY is altogether a different piece of business. Not only is he good looking and attractive to beautiful women (just like Bond), but he is naturally rugged and knows how to fight and shoot. (Again, just like James Bond.)

AS FOR GEORGE LAZENBY being new to “acting,” O.F. Snelling said: “I enjoyed his performance in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ tremendously. I didn’t go to the Leicester Square cinema to see ‘Hamlet.’ I went to see James Bond 007 and George Lazenby was just right. I left the theatre knowing I had watched a Bond film that was faithful to IAN FLEMING’S novel. It was beautifully photographed. MISS DIANA RIGG looked stunning and gave a beautiful and charming performance. And, JAMES BOND 007 made a seamless transition from the last Connery film (“YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE”) to the new GEORGE LAZENBY film, “ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE,” no worse-for-wear. I went to the show to have fun and I did, in spite of Diana Rigg being killed-off at the end. But, since I had read Fleming’s original, I knew that was coming. GEORGE LAZENBY gave an outstanding performance, all throughout the film and particularly at the end when he holds his dead wife in his arms. I was quite moved by the way he handled it.”

SNELLING WENT ON TO WRITE: “GEORGE LAZENBY got a lot of negative flack in the newspapers that were undeserved. CARY GRANT was right, SEAN CONNERY was a brave act to follow, but most of the negative journalism against GEORGE LAZENBY was rubbish. Most of it was written by ‘low-end’ newspaper hacks attempting to hold onto their jobs by ‘attacking Mr. Lazenby–most of the time very personally,’ just to ‘justify their own mediocre existences. It was most unfortunate that anyone ever read these silly stories or took them very seriously. England is full of such hacks, but that’s what keeps the presses grinding and making money in this country. These ‘rag sheets’ have always existed here, and people buy them each day in the hundreds of thousands, just to escape their own drab and humdrum lives. Attacking JAMES BOND 007, while checking the local football scores and drooling over the bare breasted girls in some of them, must have been a national past time. At least, while Mr. Lazenby was Bond 007. He did not deserve any of this. He was—and– “IS”—in my estimation, the second best Bond on the screen, with no disrespect, whatsoever, to the others who have portrayed the character.”

SNELLING said later: “I prefer SEAN CONNERY as James Bond, because he created the role in the cinema and did my favourite Bond story, ‘FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE,’ but I do not prefer him by too very much. GEORGE LAZENBY, had he had the opportunity, might have done just as well in FROM RUSSIA,WITH LOVE or THUNDERBALL.”

SNELLING CONCLUDED by saying:” MR. LAZENBY’s one screen appearance as James Bond in ‘ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE’ does not make him any less of a great 007. After all, CLARK GABLE was immortalized for portraying RHETT BUTLER, only once in GONE WITH THE WIND. The same thing can be said of HUMPHREY BOGART’s ‘one shot’ as SAM SPADE in THE MALTESE FALCON. Or, ALBERT FINNEY’s wonderful portrayal of ‘POIROT’ in AGATHA CHRISTIE’S ‘MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.’ “

“PEOPLE must remember–and new generations of JAMES BOND FANS must understand in the future—ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE was GEORGE LAZENBY’S JAMES BOND 007 film. IT WAS NOT ‘SEAN CONNERY’S 007 FILM and MR. LAZENBY ‘WAS NOT STANDING IN’ FOR MR. CONNERY in his absence. SEAN CONNERY does not own the role.”

“GEORGE LAZENBY’s performance as 007 holds up today,” Snelling wrote in 1995. “When all the hacks are long dead and forgotten, who wrote negative rubbish about his ‘007′—and most of them are already long forgotten, even while they are alive—GEORGE LAZENBY’s ONE JAMES BOND FILM will be watched and considered as one of the best in the series. And, GEORGE LAZENBY, as ‘007,’ had everything to do with that. Don’t under estimate his achievement.”

“IF GEORGE LAZENBY had not accepted in good faith the advice of someone named ‘Ronin O’Rahilly,’ he might have walked away with THE PRIZE, as “THE GREATEST JAMES BOND 007, OF ALL TIME,” Second-to-None…!”

Published and Edited by Brenda Wise, permission granted by writer Ronald Payne

Robert Sellers has written a magnificent book about  “Thunderball” producer, “Kevin McClory,” that is both intriguing and enormously entertaining. This discription also describes McClory,himself, the Irishman obsessed with bringing his own version of 007 to the big screen (circa 1959). That McClory was both “adventurer and visionary” cannot be denied within the James Bond universe, and his contribution to the 007 mythos, along with that of screenwriter, “Jack Whittingham,” should not be denied. Both men were instrumental in creating “the wisecracking, glamourous 007″ that was so beautifully personified in the performances of Sean Connery and the first scripts of writer, Richard Maibaum, created for producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli in both “Dr. No” and “From Russia, With Love.” Elements created by McClory and Whittingham, namely Spectre, the criminal organization that steals a Vulcan Jet with two A-bombs aboard, the villain Ernst Stavros Blofeld, and the 10 screen treatments and screenplay of “Latitude 78 West,” (all plagiarised by Ian Fleming in his novel, “Thunderball,” 1961) led McClory, who was faithfully supported by Whittingham, to sue the famous Bond author in one of London’s most carefully watched copyright infringement cases. McClory won the full screen rights to “Thunderball,” including the use of James Bond and all supporting characters from that story, while Fleming retained all the literary rights. The rest is “sensational Bond history,” of the kind that keeps both fans and lawyers, of all shapes and nationalities, on the edge of their seats.

Robert Sellers is clearly a large “Thunderball” fan, just as I am, and his book is ‘catnip’ for us afficionados interested in the ‘comings-and-goings’ in the legend of that “most legendary Bond producer of them all,” that Irish wunderkind, “Kevin O’Donovan McClory,” who did everything in his power to hold onto his Bonded turf, within the 007 universe that still fascinates all of us.

On my third reading of Mr. Sellers’ “Battle for Bond,” I became more than aware that ‘Jack Whittingham,’ the author of those first James Bond treatments for McClory was the real hero of the story. If this had been a fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mr. Whittingham—a great screenwriter, by anyone’s standards, would have been “Nick Carraway” to McClory’s “Jay Gatsby.” If this had been a novel, instead of a straight forward nonfiction account, I could easily hear Mr. Whittingham describing his first involvement with Kevin McClory and narrating the story that would hitherto unfold….Also, like Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the McClory-Whittingham story is a “twentieth century romance,” except that Kevin McClory is not “mooning for that beautiful girl—Daisy Buchanan—”who filled his every dream.” McClory, like Gatsby, bought his mansion beside the waters (Gatsby in Great Neck and McClory in Nassau) but the sought-after image of McClory’s dream was something ‘greater and more mystifying…’ His obsession was with a ’success that even Gatsby, a rich bootlegger,’ could only dream about in some far away kind of mindset. McClory wanted to own a “sort of Hollywood immortality,” the kind usually beststowed on such luminaries as “John Huston,” his close friend. Or, “Mike Todd,” the producer of “Around the World in 80 Days,” also his friend and mentor. That he succeeded as fabulously as he did, had more to do with good fortune, enormous personal drive, and the ability to literally “charm the birds out of the Irish trees,” when it came to dealing with people. McClory had “loyal friends and bitter enemies,” in almost equal proportion, by the time his Bond journey ended in 2007, with his death in a nursing home in Ireland.

But, in between, especially after the release of 1965’s “Thunderball,” starring Sean Connery as 007, McClory’s life—like that of Jay Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s novel—would change forever.

Robert Sellers’ book is carefully and diligently researched, with many of the important papers concerning the “Thunderball” case provided to him by “Sylvan Whittingham Mason,” Jack Whittingham’s daughter, who went on to become a successful song writer—Sylvan co-wrote Tom Jones’s hit, “Delilah,” which today is considered a classic—and photographer.

The fact that there was bitterness between the Whittingham family and Kevin McClory cannot be covered over. “We never hated Kevin,” Sylvan states in the book, but Jack Whittingham and later his children, did have reason and just cause to feel some beligerence toward the producer. McClory had hired Jack Whittingham as a “work-for-hire” in the writing of the famous “10 Bond treatments and ‘Thunderball’ screenplay, and did not help the author “pay-off his court costs,” even after the success of “Thunderball” at the box office, making it the highest grossing James Bond film of all time.

McClory, of course, had his own problems. He was divorced by his first wife, the aviation heiress, ‘Bobo Siegrist,’ who also was the mother of his children. And, his second marriage to Elizabeth O’Briend did not fare any better. McClory was all alone when in 1977 he went up against Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and sued him for using Spectre and Blofeld in his script for the Roger Moore thriller, “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Broccoli quickly removed the offending elements from his story and produced the picture,  the best in the Roger Moore era.

McClory also asserted his “limited James Bond rights in ‘Thunderball,’ after a 10 year lay-off period–part of his contract with Eon-Bond producers, Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli—when he started creating a new James Bond story, originally entitled, “James Bond of the Secret Service,” (later changed to “Warhead,” after a suit by Cubby Broccoli stating that ‘James Bond of the Secret Service’ was too close to the title of his motion picture, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’). McClory requested and received the services of both writer, Len Deighton,’ author of ‘The Ipcress File,’ and James Bond, himself, Sean Connery, who was eager to direct the film.

The script—which many consider the ‘greatest unfilmed James Bond story’—with 007 fighting it out with Spectre henchmen and electronic sharks in the sewers of New York, and facing off with Blofeld at the Statue of Liberty and aboard his submarine—was kept from being filmed by the many injunctions and lawsuits brought forth over the years by producer, Broccoli, with the assistance of MGM/United Artists and the Ian Fleming heirs. At one point in 1977, Paramount came close to financing a $32,000,000 production of “Warhead,” with Connery as the star, but backed-out, after legal problems concerning copyright infringement from MGM/UA and Danjaq, the holding company created by Albert R. Broccoli.

This still did not stop Kevin McClory from pursuing his dream. In 1982, he and producer, Jack Schwartzman had produced one of the most successful James Bond films, also starring Sean Connery, “Never Say Never Again,” a remake of “Thunderball.” It was a ‘TaliaFilm’ production (named for Schwartzman’s wife, the actress, ‘Talia Shire) and was released through Warner Brothers, which put up most of the financing. The film was an instant success everywhere, and once again, ‘Jack Whittingham,’ McClory’s first screenwriter was given a credit, though there was never any monetary compensation from the profits to the author’s family. Jack Swartzman was listed as Producer, with McClory as Executive Producer. Both men shared the “Presenter’ credits.

By 1998, McClory was peddling “Warhead” to Gareth Wiggins, an old friend, and John Calley, the former President of United Artists, who had shepherded Pierce Brosnan’s debut as James Bond in “GoldenEye, at Sony Pictures. Calley had become President and CEO of Sony Pictures in Culver City ( ironically, at the old MGM studios) and soon Sony was announcing its intentions of “starting a new James Bond 007 franchise based upon the intellectual properties of Mr. Kevin McClory.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, United Artists (co-owners of the ‘Official James Bond’ series with the Broccoli family) and Danjaq sued Sony Pictures and Kevin McClory’s ‘Spectre and Associates, Inc.,’ and went after John Calley for “misappropriation of company secrets,” which derived from his days as President of United Artists and access to information regarding the film rights of the “Official James Bond series.”

MGM/UA and Danjaq hired high-profile copyright attorney, Pierce O’Donnell and the “war for James Bond” began. After months in court, the verdict was passed down by Judge Rafeedie in “favor of MGM/UA and Danjaq.” Sony withdrew all its legal intentions of starting a rival James Bond franchise, leaving McClory alone to fight his own battles.

McClory took-up the challenge. At the same time, his sister-n-law, the wife of his brother, Desmond, died and McClory left the U.S. for Ireland to attend her funeral. He missed days in court, which greatly dis-satisfied the preciding judge, while Michael G. Wilson, the President of Danjaq and producer of the “Official Bond series” testified on behalf of his company, and his family’s interests in James Bond.

The case was dismissed on “laches,” meaning McClory had ”waited too long to present his case,” as co-creator of the cinematic James Bond, with an eye to getting a large slice of the Eon pie in terms of monetary participation in past and current profits. Attorney Pierce O’Donnell stated to the press: “McClory’s is now out of the Bond business.”

Kevin McClory never ’signed-off’ on his rights to make his James Bond film, while allegedly making plans to start a production in Australia or New Zealand. In deteriorating health—he had gone through exploratory surgery—his hopes were soon dashed of ever making a third James Bond film from the intellectual properties in his possession.

Just as Jay Gatsby had been shot dead in his swimming pool by the mechanic Wilson, who erroneously believed Gatsby had run-over and killed his wife Myrtle, Kevin McClory’s ambitions for “Warhead,” were shot dead by the testimonies of Michael Wilson in a Los Angeles court room. Like Jay Gatsby, “it was too late.” Like Jay Gatsby, “Kevin O’Donovan McClory could not recapture the past.” The greenlight on Gatsby’s dock blinked on, but McClory’s in Nassau closed-off forever.

Robert Sellers is a great writer, and I admire this book and his efforts to tell us the story of two intriguing men: Kevin O’Donovan McClory, a man who wanted to be remembered for his place in the history of the screen’s greatest legend, “James Bond 007,” while pursuing ’wealth, romance and adventure,’ in a Gatsby-like quest for success. And, just as important, “Jack Whittingham,” the forgotten Bond screenwriter, who created the Bond-movie formula that made for 007’s initial and continued success. “Jack Whittingham,” from this moment forward “will not be forgotten again.”

Mr. Sellers in his straight-forward approach to his subjects, has given us a book of enormous importance. I recommend it to everyone interested in the world of 007.

(Ronald Payne, August 7, 2009) 

Editor of this blogs note:

             “THE BATTLE FOR BOND”

               by ROBERT SELLERS

may be purchased from Tomahawk Press Bruce Sachs @ www.tomahawkpress.com

Brenda Wise, Consulting Agent

To start off, “Live and Let Die” has one of the worst pre-titles sequences in the history of Bond franchise. There’s not much to it; just a couple of deaths – one being brought upon by a fake-looking, rubber snake. In my opinion, the producers should’ve introduced Roger Moore’s James Bond with a little more flair, rather than having M and Moneypenny walk in on him while he’s fooling around with an “associate”.

In true cinematic James Bond fashion, the film hardly follows Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name. However, many will say that racism litters the film, as it supposedly does in Fleming’s novel, also. In both cases, my opinion is that those who say such things just need to get off their politically-correct high-horses.

The characters of this film aren’t as well written as the characters in “Diamonds Are Forever”, but they suffice. Roger Moore’s debut act as James Bond is surely memorable. He’s not quite the humorous Bond as he later turns out to be, yet he’s not 100% like Fleming’s Bond either. It’s definitely his own breed of Bond, and in this film, it works well. The seriousness of the character balances well with the humor and cheesiness of the film. Yaphet Kotto plays the “two-faced” villain, Dr. Kananga. I think this is the best performance of the film, as Kananga appears to be a menacing, unpredictable villain. Kananga’s henchmen are mediocre, though. We’re given Julius W. Harris’ “Tee-Hee”, who sports a mechanical arm, with a claw at the end. That’s about as interesting as he gets, and certainly doesn’t rank up there with Red Grant or Professor Dent. There’s also “Whisper”, played by Earl Jolly Brown. The character looms around in the background of most of Kananga’s scenes, and has a very low, near-inaudible voice. Jane Seymour’s portrayal of Solitaire isn’t anything special, but it works. She more or less plays a quiet, virgin, tarot card reader, and that’s about as deep as the character is. Throughout the film, you’ll also run into some annoying characters, such as Rosie Carver, and J.W. Pepper. Gloria Hendry’s portrayal of Rosie Carver is over-the-top. After a while, you may find yourself hoping for her death. Clifton James’ J. W. Pepper is a bit more tolerable, but that stereotypical “Billy Bob”/redneck/half-witted Southerner act gets old after a while. The shame is that EON will bring him back in the next film – “The Man With the Golden Gun”.

George Martin – famous for producing The Beatles albums – provides his first [and last] score for the Bond series. While the score isn’t the worst non-Barry Bond score, it certainly doesn’t rank up with Barry’s past scores, either. I do quite enjoy the motif that uses the film’s theme song, though. Regarding the theme song, which is performed by Paul McCartney and Wings, it has to be one of the best of the series. It’s very different from the past themes we were offered, and introduces the new Bond era in a rocking fashion. The vocals are great, and the instruments are fantastic. It’s an all-around awesome, memorable, and iconic James Bond theme.

As far as locations go, the EON team doesn’t fail to impress. James Bond travels to my stomping-grounds of New York, then to New Orleans, and to Jamaica, which doubles as the fictional country of San Monique. The locations in this film were quite admirable. I’d like to see Bond head to New York once more, actually.

I thought I’d mention that this film tends to mimick “Dr. No”, in a way. The scene in which Bond, Leiter, and Quarrel, Jr. are planning to infiltrate San Monique reminds me most of “Dr. No” – it’s very much like the scene in which Bond, Leiter, and Quarrel attempt to infiltrate Crab Key. I think it was a good homage to “Dr. No”, even if it wasn’t intended.

Overall, “Live and Let Die” works decently. There are plenty of cheesy aspects of the film, a lack of characterization in some areas, but a relatively down-to-Earth plot. The score was decent, and the locations were satisfying. Roger Moore does well in his debut Bond film, but I don’t think it ranks anywhere near Sean Connery’s debut. I think this is definitely one of Roger Moore’s better Bond films, though.

7.0 / 10