Moore's Campest Moments

Napoleon Plural

In consolation for my Titanic thread on Lamest Action Scenes (Titanic in that it was huge and got scuppered quickly ) here are my top 5 Moore moments of campery and buffoonery...

How camp? 5 is a tentpeg, 1 is a marquee...

5) "The trip to Siberia took A LOT out of me..." - A View To A Kill

Creaky Moore's ageing banter with Moneypenny, like watching flirting on the Antiques Roadshow. I don't dislike it really, but just watch Moore's blue-eyed, wide-eyed expression.

Camp rating: Ooooooh! Pure Nicholas Parsons.

4) "I'm in no hurry. Are you?" - Live And Let Die

Moore's flabby seduction of poor Rosie Carver. Key eyebrow action going on here, and the denim matching jacket and jeans do no favours.

Camp rating: The Communards

3) "Heartbroken Mister Drax!" - Moonraker

Moore's Bond at his most smug. Space - where no one can hear you preen... )

Camp rating: John Inman

2) "A trifle overpowering, your scent!" - Moonraker

Bond exchanges perfume banter with Miss Goodhead in Venice.

Camp rating: Danny La Rue

1) All those feathers and he still can't fly!" - The Spy Who Loved Me

Bond turns to Anya to make this quip as the motorcylist falls to his death.

Camp rating: Hans Gruber from Allo Allo!

Alex

Best explanation yet. The preening in space had me in stitches. {[] {[]

Moore was the man.

darenhat

'flirting on the Antiques Roadshow?' )

You're imagination is a bit too wild, my friend.

Sir Hillary Bray

) ) )
Nap, no one on this site makes me laugh like you do. Tears in my eyes as I type this! {[]

Where does the "SIIIITTTT!" command to the tiger fall? I know it's intentionally camp, but still, it's the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the title.

For that matter, how about the slew of one-liners in the supposedly tense taxi chase in OP? "RUUPPPEEEEEEE!" )

Also, his baiting of Anya as she tries to drive the van away from the construction site. "Women drivers." "Try reverse, that's backward."

A7ce

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

) ) )


Where does the "SIIIITTTT!" command to the tiger fall? I know it's intentionally camp, but still, it's the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the title.

."

That's a fully fledged Graham Norton.

emtiem

Napoleon Plural wrote:

1) All those feathers and he still can't fly!" - The Spy Who Loved Me

Bond turns to Anya to make this quip as the motorcylist falls to his death.

Camp rating: Hans Gruber from Allo Allo!

That is bizarrely camp, isn't it?

Oddly the line 'beats a bag of peanuts' from Golden Gun pops into my head.

Monique

NP, what's the rating for "Now put your clothes back on and I'll buy you an ice cream".

Jarvio

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the tarzan scream in OP?

walther p99

"Why hasn't anyone mentioned the tarzan scream in OP?", maybe becuase they dont wanna remember it

CasinoChris75

All Bond films and Bond actors have campy moments, not just Moore. I am quite tired of internet users acting like the Moore films were the only campy and silly pictures of the series. James Bond has been campy and silly from the beginning; Roger Moore didn't invent campiness. Here is a list of some campiness in the first 7 films.

Dr. No-
a) Spider
b) The control room looks like something out of an Ed Wood movie. Total B movie camp.
c) Dragon on diesel engines.

From Russia With Love-
a) Gypsie Cat Fight

Goldfinger-
a) Pussy Galore's flying circus girls. I hate it when that one girl says, "It went like a dream, skipper!"
b) Auric Goldfinger
c) Auric getting sucked out of the plane.
b) Bond slapping Dink in the butt and saying, "man talk."
e) The battle at Fort Knox-Really cheesy.

Thunderball-
a) The underwater battle at the end. I like it actually.

You Only Live Twice-
a) Rocket swallowing up space capsules.
b) The magnet
c) Bond turning Japanese.
d) Hollowed out volcano.
There is too much campiness to name here.

OHMSS-
a) Ruby brainwashing scene
b) "He's got alot of gutts."
c) Bond impersonating Sir Hillary.
d) The whole angels of death, piza gloria, and bacteriological warfare thing is silly.

Diamonds Are Forever
a) Girl turning into gorilla
b) Charles Grey and especially his dialogue.
c) Plenty getting thrown out of the window, "I've got friends in this tooooooooooooown! ahhhh."
d) Moonmachine
e) The kid getting ****ed off at Tiffany Case for winning the stuffed animal.
f) Wint and Kidd's dialogue
g) Willard Whyte
h) Bambi and Thumper
i) Bond killing Wint and Kidd. "He left with his tales between his legs."
j) Those darn annoying smiles that Bond and Tiffany give when looking up at the sky at the end.
k) elephant winning money from the slot machine.

The Sly Fox

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

For that matter, how about the slew of one-liners in the supposedly tense taxi chase in OP? "RUUPPPEEEEEEE!" )

I always loved that line! I'm not sure if it would work here though...

"DOOLLLAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!!"

People would still grab the money, but they may take a bit longer since they would still be laughing at Bond's bad English. )

Napoleon Plural

Thanks for your kind words... Regards CasinoChris' comments, I think we're talking a different kind of camp... Yes, the Batman series of the time have that Lorenzo Semple camp archness, and there is archness in the early Connery films I find... but much of what you describe I'd call quirky, offbeat stuff...

I'm talking about camp more in terms of mannerism, where ironcially our hetero hero has a manner straight out of the Frankie Howerd, Larry Grayson or Graham Norton handbook.

This totally passed me by as a kid. In the 70s it seemed that any bloke who joked about sex must be hetero... a real blade. It never occurred to me that Frankie Howerd was gay, because he spent all his time leching women. (Howerd wasn't 'out' of course, and was decidedly snippy with gay artistes who sought solidarity.) Most blokes back then looked totally sexless, the Harold Wilson/ Jim Callaghan types and those you see in authority in the MI6 scenes...

But yes, there's one rather odd scene in MR I haven't mentioned, when our Rog checks into the hotel in Rio de Janeiro... the concierge or what have you is meant to be a camp figure of fun, the sort we saw in the 1970s so much, with Moore showing manly tolerance - but there really ain't much to choose between them...

Napoleon Plural

BTW, "Sit!" in OP I don't count, as it's an impersonation really!

The same goes for the Tarzan yell, but that's an inevitable, awful moment...

"Get your clothes on etc" from FYEO, hmm, not too camp though his eyes are like Graham Norton when a guest goes too far or seems bonkers... or are we talking 'camp' as in he's turning down a woman who's throwing herself at him...

Dan Same

NP, perhaps I don't understand your definition of campness, but none of the moments you mention strike me as all that camp, particularly the moment from TSWLM which is like any other Bondian scene in which Bond makes a quip after someone dies. When I think of Bondian camp, the first thing I think of is 'You just killed James Bond! ' from DAF. )

Sir Hillary Bray

Nap, apologies for hijacking your thread, but allow me to indulge myself...in response to CasinoChris and Dan, I thought I would point to the long-ago thread on the camp aspects of DAF, which to this day remains IMO one of the funniest threads on the site.

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=9893

Alex

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

Nap, apologies for hijacking your thread, but allow me to indulge myself...in response to CasinoChris and Dan, I thought I would point to the long-ago thread on the camp aspects of DAF, which to this day remains IMO one of the funniest threads on the site.

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=9893

Wow, that's an old one. It feels strange to stumble across something you wrote five years ago!

Alex

Truly the voyeuristic Moore at video control in OP is a highlight of camp. Vijay can't control his laughter in every one of his scenes. Especially here.

RJJB

gone

Napoleon Plural

Well, like I say, we're dealing with different interpretations of the word 'camp' here. Now I think about it, I'm not sure there are any US or Australian equivalents of John Inman, Larry Grayson, Frankie Howerd or Kenny Everett... hence the confusion.

Honey Rider

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Well, like I say, we're dealing with different interpretations of the word 'camp' here. Now I think about it, I'm not sure there are any US or Australian equivalents of John Inman, Larry Grayson, Frankie Howerd or Kenny Everett... hence the confusion.

I can't speak for any other Australians (or Americans) here but I've certainly never heard of those people.

Alex

Having deliberately artificial, vulgar, banal, or affectedly humorous qualities or style: played up the silliness of their roles for camp effect

No confusion here.

Napoleon Plural

Ah, well some confusion on this side then:

camp colloq, sometimes derog adj 1 said of a man or his behaviour: using mannerisms that are typically associated with women, especially in a deliberate, exaggerated or theatrical way. 2 said of a man: homosexual. 3 theatrical and exaggerated, especially amusingly so.

Of course, the other meaning exists too, though many examples people have cited on this thread just sound like a great laugh and what makes Bond Bond. I mean, is the ejector seat in the DB5 camp? It is compared to stuff in Casino Royale or Die Hard.

Monique

Alex wrote:

Having deliberately artificial, vulgar, banal, or affectedly humorous qualities or style: played up the silliness of their roles for camp effect

No confusion here.

Exactly Alex! NP seems to be the one confused!

Jack Burton

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Well, like I say, we're dealing with different interpretations of the word 'camp' here. Now I think about it, I'm not sure there are any US or Australian equivalents of John Inman, Larry Grayson, Frankie Howerd or Kenny Everett... hence the confusion.

One American quickly comes to mind: Paul Lynde.

Dan Same

To me, camp is like pornography; you know it when you see it. ) I don't think any particular defintion can accurately sum-up what I would define as camp. I consider Mr Wint's squealing to be camp, but not because it fits any particular definition, but because when I see it, the first word that comes to mind is 'camp.'

Oh, and NP, I don't think the ejector seat could ever be regarded as camp in the slightest simply because it is such a cool gadget.

Napoleon Plural

Well, my definition came from the Chambers Online Dictionary, but like I say I'm not sure if camp doesn't have a different meaning across the pond slightly.

But I'm not really sure that 'my' particular form of campness exists in the US where, ahem, gays are generally less acceptable except on the East and West coast. I can't imagine any 'camp' comedians in my sense of the term getting any mainstream acceptance over there, but of course I could be wrong... Oh, I suppose there's characters in Ugly Betty... stylists and so on...

Alex

I get your definition now. Camp as in fey like the late Charles Nelson Reilly or the great one himself, Paul Lynde. (or Kenneth Williams from your side of the pond)

Or Charles Gray in DAF, Tim Curry in Rocky Horror, Christopher Hewitt in the Producers, etc.

However, we do have celebrities that are open homosexuals and play up to their image here in the USA, our audiences aren't as biased as one might think.

Alex

Keeping that in mind, I submit that Moore's entire portrayal of James Smythe, the rich dilettante in AVTAK is camp incarnate. (scolding Tibbet, telling May Day he was waiting for her to "take care of me personally" etc.

"Keep your hair on" (FYEO) could be another.

Sir Hillary Bray

CTrent49 wrote:

Which were Connery's campiest moments? Or Brosnan's?

For Connery...like I suggested earlier, check out the DAF thread.

For Brosnan...sounds like a decent topic for another thread.

Napoleon Plural

Alex wrote:

Keeping that in mind, I submit that Moore's entire portrayal of James Smythe, the rich dilettante in AVTAK is camp incarnate. (scolding Tibbet, telling May Day he was waiting for her to "take care of me personally" etc.

Yep, that's a good example.

There's an odd scene (for Bond) where he sort of hits on two women who give him a weird look. About the only time I've really identified with Bond... )

Except for the time in DAD where he goes nine months without a shag... )

JennyFlexFan

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Alex wrote:

Keeping that in mind, I submit that Moore's entire portrayal of James Smythe, the rich dilettante in AVTAK is camp incarnate. (scolding Tibbet, telling May Day he was waiting for her to "take care of me personally" etc.

There's an odd scene (for Bond) where he sort of hits on two women who give him a weird look. About the only time I've really identified with Bond... )

Are you talking about that part in AVTAK before he puts on the sunglasses? I've always thought that part was hilarious. )