The Something of Elvis

Johmss

Perhaps it has been said, but i haven't, so here i go:

Whats the deal with that Elvis dude? is he bad? is he Greene's boyfriend? is he Mark Foster cousin?

he might be all of above, but hardly a henchmen or a menace to Bond, Bond films and beyond.

We know that he's named Elvis because Greene says "mercí elvis" when he talks to Medrano in Haiti, he has like 10 lines in the movie, got himself beaten up by an office clerk (but lovely) and the mos horrifying moment is when he drops his Toupe.

He goes everywhere in the film (Haiti, Austria, La Paz, Perla de las Dunas), but he deserves being there?

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing about Anatole Taubman (if that's his name, if isn't, i apologise), MI& website gives a full review of the character,but his work easily could been done by 4 o 5 extras.

I'm not saying that he should had metal teeth either, but he is... just unnecessary.

or am I alone in this... thougths

Oh, CR didn't have a henchmen either (go ahead, blame Craig), but at least i wasn't dissapointed in CR over the lack of a dude than being just pathetic in QoS.

P.D

Mailfist

I wondered the same. I sort of assumed he was Greene's idiot cousin or something, and Greene's mum had forced Greene to hire him as no-one else would give him a job.

At least Le Chiffre's no-name henchmen looked like thug's and bodyguards. Elvis had all the latent menace of Winnie the Pooh.

The scene at the end when Greene is trying to escape and he has to show Elvis where to point his gun is pathetic and has no place in a Bond movie (mind you there were lots of scenes in QOS which have no place in a Bond movie)

discovolante

I think Elvis was QOS's answer to CR's Carter. A completely useless character, merely filling screen time. Elvis lost his toupe and his clothes apparently (in the hotel fire climax). Carter touched his ear and fell into the snake pit. Were they necessary? No. Were they entertaining? Hmmm...somewhat. Were they quickly forgotten by Bond fans? Absolutely.

Napoleon Plural

Another Die Another Day style character like the blond bloke who times Gustav Graves. If you have wet rags as main villains, the henchman must be even more nondescript as in CR.

He made no impression on me save his similarity to Gareth hanging around David Brent in The Office.

7289

Pretty harsh acssesment of a minor charecter.

Elvis is merely part of a Millionare Greene's entourage. Elvis is supposed to be nothing more than a coat holder and drink fetcher. The fact that Greene has to show Elvis where to point his pistol shows that he is not a thug - but an office boy. His rather silly toupee - likely left over from YOLT and the fact that he is easily tripped up by Ms. Fields is in contrast to other villians like Oddjob and Jaws.

scaramanga1

7289 wrote:

Pretty harsh acssesment of a minor charecter.

Elvis is merely part of a Millionare Greene's entourage. Elvis is supposed to be nothing more than a coat holder and drink fetcher. The fact that Greene has to show Elvis where to point his pistol shows that he is not a thug - but an office boy. His rather silly toupee - likely left over from YOLT and the fact that he is easily tripped up by Ms. Fields is in contrast to other villians like Oddjob and Jaws.

I agree totally -I see him more as Greene's PA than anything. The one who shoots the Special Branch officer is Greene's enforcer and sadistic thug.

Napoleon Plural

"Maybe I didn't shoot you/
Quite as often as I could have
Maybe I didn't cackle
Quite as often as I should have..."

discovolante

Napoleon Plural wrote:

"Maybe I didn't shoot you/
Quite as often as I could have
Maybe I didn't cackle
Quite as often as I should have..."

Ladies and gentleman, the musical stylings of Napoleon Plural{[]

Napoleon Plural

Ms Fields left him All Shook Up!

discovolante

Come on Naps, Don't Be Cruel!

Gassy Man

He's a somewhat similar physical type to Vargas in Thunderball, about as laconic though even more effete and, for lack of a better term, a more effective mixer (watch him at the opera). I suspect that there may have been lines or scenes with him cut because Greene's literal posing of Elvis at the end with the gun to shoot Bond seems like it could be the culmination of some schtick that appeared throughout the movie but was cut at the end. I do like Fields' tripping of Elvis, and the loss of the toupee was a bit of a gag that didn't really go over well in the theater when I saw it.

Had Quantum been made contemporary to old school Bond films and their competitors, it probably would have been intimated that Elvis was gay, had a romantic (a la Smithers on the Simpsons) infatuation with his boss, and hated women pathologically -- thus, he would have been the one to drown Fields in oil, and we would have accordingly feared for her life the moment she interfered with his going after Bond at the hotel party. (There would have been a shot of him glaring at her, slowly fading into the next scene with Bond going about his business, unaware of what was about to happen to Fields.) As it stands, he was a vastly underutilized character.

darenhat

Well, I can't imagine him being a popular character choice for any 007 multiplayer shooter games.

"Careful, Mr. Bond, or you will force me to have Elvis fall down the stairs a second time!"

Maybe there was a scene that got cut showing how Elvis removes his toupee and uses it to suffocate his victims!

discovolante

Maybe he could take off his toupe and throw it at people, ala Oddjob.

darenhat

discovolante wrote:

Maybe he could take off his toupe and throw it at people, ala Oddjob.

It may not hurt, but I'd certainly keep my distance!

7289

The "gay" Elvis PA would be an homage to "North by Northwest" in which Martin Landau played a gay PA to James Mason's villian.

Appropriate considering the many early links between Bond and Hitchcock.

Johmss

darenhat wrote:

Well, I can't imagine him being a popular character choice for any 007 multiplayer shooter games.

Didn't Corgi planned an action figure with him?

ok, not everybody has to be cruel to be in a Bond movie, but don't put him like a powerful character.

delon64

dont all jump on me here...but i have it from several sources that elvis was originally supposed to suffer from a co dependency disorder but it was axed from the eventual shooting script...this may explain greene helping him to point the gun...like stampers feeling no pain it may pop up in a later henchman