I've asked this before but am I the only person here who thinks Never Dream of Dying and High Time to Kill could make great titles for a future Bond film?
'High Time To Kill' is a decent enough title but 'Never Dream Of Dying' is appalling, IMHO.
Mr. Benson had a nack of picking shocking titles... Siigghh!
Very true- and those two are absolutely shocking. I really hate 'High time' because it contains a rubbish and lazy 'let's add the word 'Kill' to make it Bondy', and also because 'High time' is a bit of an American turn of phrase rather than a British one- Brits use it but it sounds so American to me.
And Never Dream of Dying is just shocking! I don't mind Doubleshot too much, though, and Zero Minus Ten is at least not an attempt to do a Bond pastische. Facts of Death is just pathetic on the other hand!
Sometimes I think continuation authors try too hard to mimic Fleming's more catchy titles...but let's be honest. Even Fleming had some weak titles: Dr. No? Casino Royale? These never really spurred my imagination. If Fleming had penned a novel called 'High Time to Kill' we wouldn't have blinked an eye, because, well, because it was Fleming.
I suspect Devil May Care appeals to so many because it's not contrived and touches on Fleming's penchant for sinister phrases. But I appreciate it when authors try to be unique because it tends to be more 'Flemingesque' by nature: "Zero Minus Ten" "No Deals, Mr. Bond" are IMO worthy titles for a Bond novel because they're unlike anything that has come before.
I suspect Devil May Care appeals to so many because it's not contrived and touches on Fleming's penchant for sinister phrases.
Yeah; I think so- it also feels right for the period: there's something about the word 'devil' which feels very postwar British: you often hear speech from that time where people would say 'who the devil was that?' etc. In the same way that 'it's high time I did that' feels right coming from the mouth of a US film noir private dick!
HTTK reminds me of AVTAK in terms of titles for some reason...
Perhaps because its uncreative and a bit tacky? (Sorry Fleming, but out of context, that title isn't one your best) :P
True, and dropping the 'From' makes it lose even more sense. It was originally from an old English hunting song about a feller called John Peel, but I'm not even sure what the relevance is there even!
On that subject I saw today that Hurricane Gold has the tagline of 'James Bond is staring death in the face', which is a rather nice reference to the source of the You Only Live Twice title.
I like this title, it is a lot better than some of the post Fleming titles and it has echoes of Fleming imo.
Some of the titles have been shocking and sound like dodgy romance novels e.g. Never send flowers, Role of honour and The Man from Barbarossa. Win, lose or Die sounds like a gameshow.
I think Benson's titles were better than Gardner's on the whole.
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
I've asked this before but am I the only person here who thinks Never Dream of Dying and High Time to Kill could make great titles for a future Bond film?
No more Kill/Die/Live titles, please!!!
HEAR, HEAR!!
"Never Say It's Time to Live to Kill or Die"... sheesh. AND NO MORE GOLD!
Shoehorning 'A View to a Kill' into Walken's dialogue was EXTREMELY ham-handed.
As far as original, Fleming-sounding Bond titles go... I gotta give props to "Never Say Never Again". I didn't like the movie, but the title is cool and sounds like a snippet of writing or dialogue snatched up, which is what Fleming's titles usually were.
Try as I might, I can't think of anything that doesn't sound outright cheesy. However, there's another viable source for good Bond titles: chapter titles!
I just picked up You Only Live Twice and flipped it open... chapter title - The Death Collector. Shatterhand would be a good one too...
A few from other books: Zero Minus, the Quickness of the Hand, Rough Justice, The Silver Phantom, The Undertaker's Wind, etc.
Comments
Very true- and those two are absolutely shocking. I really hate 'High time' because it contains a rubbish and lazy 'let's add the word 'Kill' to make it Bondy', and also because 'High time' is a bit of an American turn of phrase rather than a British one- Brits use it but it sounds so American to me.
And Never Dream of Dying is just shocking!
I suspect Devil May Care appeals to so many because it's not contrived and touches on Fleming's penchant for sinister phrases. But I appreciate it when authors try to be unique because it tends to be more 'Flemingesque' by nature: "Zero Minus Ten" "No Deals, Mr. Bond" are IMO worthy titles for a Bond novel because they're unlike anything that has come before.
Yeah; I think so- it also feels right for the period: there's something about the word 'devil' which feels very postwar British: you often hear speech from that time where people would say 'who the devil was that?' etc. In the same way that 'it's high time I did that' feels right coming from the mouth of a US film noir private dick!
Perhaps because its uncreative and a bit tacky? (Sorry Fleming, but out of context, that title isn't one your best) :P
True, and dropping the 'From' makes it lose even more sense. It was originally from an old English hunting song about a feller called John Peel, but I'm not even sure what the relevance is there even!
On that subject I saw today that Hurricane Gold has the tagline of 'James Bond is staring death in the face', which is a rather nice reference to the source of the You Only Live Twice title.
Some of the titles have been shocking and sound like dodgy romance novels e.g. Never send flowers, Role of honour and The Man from Barbarossa. Win, lose or Die sounds like a gameshow.
I think Benson's titles were better than Gardner's on the whole.
HEAR, HEAR!!
"Never Say It's Time to Live to Kill or Die"... sheesh. AND NO MORE GOLD!
Shoehorning 'A View to a Kill' into Walken's dialogue was EXTREMELY ham-handed.
As far as original, Fleming-sounding Bond titles go... I gotta give props to "Never Say Never Again". I didn't like the movie, but the title is cool and sounds like a snippet of writing or dialogue snatched up, which is what Fleming's titles usually were.
Try as I might, I can't think of anything that doesn't sound outright cheesy. However, there's another viable source for good Bond titles: chapter titles!
I just picked up You Only Live Twice and flipped it open... chapter title - The Death Collector. Shatterhand would be a good one too...
A few from other books: Zero Minus, the Quickness of the Hand, Rough Justice, The Silver Phantom, The Undertaker's Wind, etc.