Was Karl Stromberg under-utilised in The Spy Who Loved Me?

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  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    IanFryer wrote:
    Interestigly (to me, anyway), Drax in the following film gets much better dialogue than Stromberg. He gets some zingers that are worthy of Bond: "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him". I love that line!
    It's also as if they kept the best villain lines for Drax.
    Michael was absolutely brilliant in that role!
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,848MI6 Agent
    IanFryer wrote:
    Interestigly (to me, anyway), Drax in the following film gets much better dialogue than Stromberg. He gets some zingers that are worthy of Bond: "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him". I love that line!
    It's also as if they kept the best villain lines for Drax.
    Michael was absolutely brilliant in that role!

    Very much agreed. He may even be my favourite villain of the lot in the films.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    IanFryer wrote:
    Interestigly (to me, anyway), Drax in the following film gets much better dialogue than Stromberg. He gets some zingers that are worthy of Bond: "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him". I love that line!
    It's also as if they kept the best villain lines for Drax.
    Michael was absolutely brilliant in that role!

    Very much agreed. He may even be my favourite villain of the lot in the films.
    That would leave other villains a bit...desolated ;).
    a reasonable rate of return
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I think C Wood has said he imagined Drax as a modern
    Oscar Wilde character. Also in his book. The entrance
    Of Drax , is almost what we got with Silva. With Drax
    Walking towards Bond talking across a long room.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,848MI6 Agent
    I think C Wood has said he imagined Drax as a modern
    Oscar Wilde character. Also in his book. The entrance
    Of Drax , is almost what we got with Silva. With Drax
    Walking towards Bond talking across a long room.

    Yes, and he even adapts one of his quotes in fact. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Yes. I'D forgotten that quote :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Silva wanted Bond to have a sandwich but the cucumber would be elsewhere.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    I always thought he was just a Blofeld knock-off.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    He certainly uses the same tailor. ;) Drax has all the good humour of Blofeld ( DAF) with some
    Of the menace of Blofeld (OHMSS) and a super secret base like Blofeld (YOLT) .......... Apart from
    That, I notice no resemblance. :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,467MI6 Agent
    Underutilised? So he could fly the helicopter himself instead of Naomi? He's the boss... they do tend to do as they please, there's no one from HR to turn up at your desk to assess your place in the company.

    Maybe offscreen he indulges in the Chandler-eque pasttime of watching shark porn. :D Not sure those webbed fingers would be advantage though... :#
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Maybe offscreen he indulges in the Chandler-eque pasttime of watching shark porn. :D Not sure those webbed fingers would be advantage though... :#
    They could be used to stuff his... :o
    a reasonable rate of return
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,110MI6 Agent
    He certainly uses the same tailor.
    they should have a scene in the next movie where WaltzBlofeld picks his Nehru jacket up from the drycleaners then argues "nonono that's not mine, you must have mixed me up with some other megalomaniac supervillain". Maybe Mike Myers could be standing behind him in line, getting impatient.
    He's the boss... they do tend to do as they please, there's no one from HR to turn up at your desk to assess your place in the company.
    chewing up scenery is part of the job description for principal Bond villains, I think that's what people are arguing. Scenery chewing bad guys is part of what I pay money for when I go to see a new Bond movie.
    But the idea of Human Resources in an evil organisation would be worth exploring in a new movie plot. Maybe the scientists manage to swim back from the exploded helicopter wreckage and file a harassment complaint with Stromberg's HR department? Stromberg must have a button under his desk marked "HR Dept", drop the whole department into the shark tank.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    But the idea of Human Resources in an evil organisation would be worth exploring in a new movie plot. Maybe the scientists manage to swim back from the exploded helicopter wreckage and file a harassment complaint with Stromberg's HR department? Stromberg must have a button under his desk marked "HR Dept", drop the whole department into the shark tank.
    :)) :))
    I don't know why that made me laugh so much.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,848MI6 Agent
    Yes. I'D forgotten that quote :D

    Does Christopher Wood mention that bit about Hugo Drax being like Oscar Wilde in his Bond film memoir, James Bond, The Spy I Loved (2006), TP? I have a copy and have been working my way through it. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Sorry SM, I don't have that one. It's just one of those sayings from an interview that
    Has stuck in my head. :)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    He certainly uses the same tailor. ;) Drax has all the good humour of Blofeld ( DAF) with some
    Of the menace of Blofeld (OHMSS) and a super secret base like Blofeld (YOLT) .......... Apart from
    That, I notice no resemblance. :D
    :))
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,848MI6 Agent
    Sorry SM, I don't have that one. It's just one of those sayings from an interview that
    Has stuck in my head. :)

    Oh, I see. Thanks, TP, I've had the book for some years now, but I gather its rather scarce these days. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ironponyironpony Posts: 57MI6 Agent
    Maybe it's just me but I kind of like how Stromberg is kept a mystery of sorts. Not knowing why he wants to destroy the world and live in the sea is kind of what makes him intriguing. And I like how the webbed hands are never actually talked about but just shown. You don't need an explanation for the villain's flaws all the time, or do we?
  • dr. evan-gelistdr. evan-gelist SheffieldPosts: 399MI6 Agent
    Yes but he is an aging actor
    "You're in the wrong business... leave it to the professionals!"
    James Bond- Licence To Kill
  • Mr_OsatoMr_Osato Posts: 398MI6 Agent
    Maybe iot is me, but I hardly notice the webbed hands, even on blu ray.

    Yes, Stromberg was underused, could have been a Goldfinger-like persona, but had too little to do, despite the decent plot.
    OHMSS, FRWL, DN, GF, CR, GE, SP, YOLT, TB, TSWLM, LALD, TLD, TND, FYEO, SF, MR, TMWTGG, TWINE, OP, AVTAK, DAF, LTK, QOS, DAD

    1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
  • superadosuperado Regent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
    I think at that point of the Bond movies, the focus shifted to the flash and action and anything character related was reserved for Bond's relationship with Anya since that development was central to the story. I wonder if Cubby, Christopher Wood and Lewis Gilbert were aware how flat Jurgen's presence seemed in the final edit, thinking perhaps that he was just a placeholder for the requisite element of the main villain since Blofeld was dropped earlier.

    Looking back at the earlier Bonds right up to TMWTGG when the treatment for the villains were more thoughtfully done, a simple remedy would have been a longer occasion when Bond and Stromberg first met, to more thoroughly discourse the "why's" of the villain. A great example was the build-up in DN before even seeing him, then the dinner when his plot and perspectives were fully revealed in a tense conversation.
    "...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    I think he ties with Waltz for the honoury title of ' most sleep-walking Villain '
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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