Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #33--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 25--...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #33--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 25--...:   A look at Chapter 25 of Tarzan of the Apes, in which the Ape Man decides to leave the jungle and seek out civilization. Click HERE for th...

Cover Cavalcade

 

Another great Luis Dominguez cover for Jonah Hex. This one is from 1980.

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Daddy Long Legs (1955)

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM WATCH: Daddy Long Legs (1955):   DADDY LONG LEGS  (1955), starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. Written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron. Directed by Jean Negulesco.  TIM SAYS...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Gunsmoke: "What the Whiskey Drummer Heard" 4/17/54

Marshal Dillon learns that someone has been hired to kill him, but doesn't know Who, Where or When.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The (Almost) first Bond

 

When Roger Moore died a few years ago, I felt obligated to watch one of his Bond movies. That was The Spy Who Loved Me, which epitomizes that actor's films. It was absurdly over the top, but also enormous fun. It also gave us Jaws, arguably the best henchman ever (however badly he was handled in the awful Moonraker). 

So when Sean Connery died recently, I wanted to watch one of his Bond films. (I also want to watch Connery's best ever films--The Wind and the Lion and The Man Who Would be King.) But which one? Goldfinger and Thunderball are my favorites and I will undoubtably watch them soon, but I decided to watch Dr. No (1962), Connery's first Bond movie. 

I know most of my readers are likely to be members of the global Nerd Herd, so a lot of you probably already know this: Connery actually isn't the first person to play James Bond. In 1954, the TV series Climax! produced a live adaptation of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel. Peter Lorre was the villain and and Barry Nelson played the American spy Jimmy Bond. 

But Dr. No took Bond back to his appropriate British roots. The movie also gives us the iconic Bond theme music, though we don't yet get to hear a title song unique to this particular movie. That's a tradition that would begin two movies later with Goldfinger. 

There's also no spy gadgets--we wait another movie (From Russia, With Love) to meet gadgeteer Q and watch him explain how a booby-trapped briefcase works. In Dr. No, we meet the an armorer who (at M's orders) takes away Bond's .25 caliber Berreta and gives him the Walther PPK the character would carry for decades.

By the time we get to the end of Connery's run, the films were mixing self-aware parody into the plots, but with Dr. No, the elements that create a Bond film were just being introduced. There was nothing to parody yet and, though there is humor injected via Bond's dry sense of humor, the movie takes itself seriously. Dr. No is a well-constructed spy thriller with a strong hero, one of the most memorable Bond girls and a great villain.

It does take us awhile to actually meet the villain, though. Bond spends most of his time in Jamaica, investigating the disappearance of another British agent. It's relatively late in the film that the case takes him to Crab Key, a remote island on which the Chinese/German mad scientist Dr. No has set up shop. In addition to a small army of guards, he also has an atomic-powered Macguffin that he's using to electronically knock down American rockets. 

Joseph Wiseman gives a great performance as Dr. No, exuding just the right mixture of brilliance and insanity. I wish he had been given more of a presence in the movie, but it can also be argued that his late introduction gives the character more dramatic punch.

Connery, in the meantime, humanizes Bond. He is capable and professional. He can also be ruthless, as we see when he rather casually assassinates one of No's agents. But he can also be hurt (he's pretty disheveled after being brutally beaten by Dr. No's men). And he can be frightened. When he awakes at night to find a tarantula has been put in his bed, he's very near panic.

The movie has its flaws. Bad rear projection during a car chase spoils the tension of that scene. Dr. No's lair doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as lairs we'll see in later movies and his atomic reactor is absurdly easy to sabotage. 

In the book, Bond kills Dr. No in a very original way, while the movie ends with a so-so and far-too-short fight between the two before the doctor bites it. Also, Bond's escape through a booby-trapped air vent was a lot more epic in the book. (I include a clip of that scene here, though, because it does show us a disheveled and bloodied Bond we'll rarely see again.)

There's another interesting change from the novel. In the original, Dr. No worked for the Russians. But, though the Bond films occasionally touched on Cold War themes, the movie switched Dr. No to working for the criminal organization SPECTRE. Movie Bond would stay away from politics and instead foil apolitical master criminals. 

So, yes, I will be watching the best-of-the-best Connery Bond films again soon. But I was glad to revisit Dr. No. 

Flying Armored Cars and Flying Telephone Booths

 

Man From U.N.C.L.E. #8 (September 1966) is arguably the most entertaining issue in the comic book career of Napoleon and Illya. Written by Dick Wood and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, it is cleverly plotted and fast-paced, with the story twisting into unexpected directions several times.

It begins with the two U.N.C.L.E. agents infiltrating a THRUSH base, intending to acquire information. But they are forced to improvise when THRUSH launches a mission. Wearing stolen THURSH uniforms, they tag along, hoping to thwart whatever the bad guys hope to accomplish.

It turns out they are after an anti-gravity formula (designated AG#4), which was made from a substance recovered from a meteor. The professor who created it tries to escape by using it, but THRUSH manages to get hold of a pail-sized container full of the stuff.

Soon, THRUSH is using the formula to rob an armored car carrying an army payroll. This sets off a wonderful action sequence that stretches across the second half of the book. The armored car is sprayed with AG #4. Napoleon manages to steal back the remaining forumla and the U.N.C.L.E. agents board the floating car, defending it against THRUSH and even managing to capture a THRUSH helicopter. 

THRUSH agents steal back the forumla and cause confusion by spraying bystanders with it. But, despite the need to save a few innocent lives, Illya steals the formula back for the good guys, only to have a THRUSH agents steal it from him.  He recruits a pretty young lady on a scooter to pursue the villain.

Illya gets the stuff back again, but is soon cornered in a phone booth. Using some AG#4 (and inadvertently spilling the rest of it), he goes airborne inside the booth. He's soon rescued by U.N.C.L.E. and the good guys more or less win (though no one ends up with the anti-grav formula.)

It's all great fun, with my quick summary really not doing justice to it. The extended chase scene with the various characters playing "musical anti-gravity formula" is imaginative and exciting, eventually bringing "The Floating People Affair" to a satisfying conclusion.

Next week--Batman in SPACE!

Cover Cavalcade

 

An action-packed Joe Kubert cover from 1978.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #32--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 24--...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini Podcast #32--Tarzan of the Apes--Chapter 24--...:   A look at the 24th Chapter of Tarzan of the Apes, in which Professor Porter, Jane and the other castaways leave Africa, but only after los...

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM READ: "Daddy-Long-Legs," by Jean W...

She/He MADE Me!: ANGELA MADE TIM READ: "Daddy-Long-Legs," by Jean W...:   TIM SAYS: Since Angela and I became a couple (not counting the approximately one year period in which we were apparently dating without my...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "The Ten Grand" 6/22/44

Lucille Ball plays a chorus girl who has literally a nickle to her name--until ten thousand dollars mysteriously appears in her purse.

Click HERE to listen or download.