Peter Hunt's YOLT
onemonk909
Posts: 65MI6 Agent
Watching OHMSS for the first time in several years it occurred to me that Hunt's artsy direction would've been perfect for the more-faithful film adaptation of YOLT we never got. I still think a lot of the material in this novel could be used in a Bond film...hell they could even use Kissy Suzuki because she wasn't even named in the actual YOLT movie. But Blofeld's castle could be brought to life with bizarre, bio-engineered plant life...sort of like the glowing flora in the nighttime scenes of Avatar. It all looks good in my head, at least. Part of me wishes that, once Craig is done, they could retcon the franchise again by going into the past, sort of how they did with the X-Men movies, and start off on an altered timeline sort of track, picking up after the events of OHMSS.
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As for the story development, it’s an ideal vision of having a Fleming purist like Hunt make a masterfully faithful interpretation of YOLT within a framework of what was then contemporary reality (like what was done with the half-a-century old CR), but it’s important to note that Hunt’s back-to-basics approach with OHMSS was a reaction to the technical excesses that came before. While making YOLT, they had no idea that they were in the midst of committing those excesses, which goes to show the difference one movie does to the course of the series. The creative stakes were slightly different in the planning stage of YOLT; TB was the first Fleming story (both in terms of screen treatment and the novel that followed) that tapped into genuinely advanced technology and with the increasing gagetry up to GF, it was fitting that TB and its techno pedigree would continue that trend.
The spiking success of the series affirmed this trend, which therefore set the growing emphasis on tech for whatever the next Bond movie would be. Combine this with the heated space race, it would have been a difficult decision for the producers to acquiesce to a step backwards to a Flemingesque vision, which at that point was affixed to the recent past...which we would see wasn’t permanent
It would take a creative impasse in the wake of YOLT for EON to give that acquiescence to Hunt...which they would then regret shortly afterwards to their own hubris, setting a return-to-basics strategy that they would pull out of their tool bag a few times in the future!
The first four films were one success after another, so to make a conscious decision to abandon the source material is hard to understand.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
* Although if Ken Adam could build a volcano, he could easily have built a castle.
No, it's accurate.
I saw the glass house in Kew Gardens on TV. I think it could be used as a location for the Garden of Death - they could just pretend it's in Japan :007)
(Most of this I've paraphrased from John Brosnan's "James Bond In The Cinema".)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ukkcSaXpU
In fact, as I watch the trailer, I'm struck by how a lot of the framing and quick cuts remind me of Hunt's direction in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
He did, Gassy- he was "supervising" editor and 2nd unit director. (The reason behind the "supervising" part of the credit is a bit off-topic, but if anyone wants to know more I'd be happy to help.)
Connell had difficulty editing down the film to an acceptable length, so Hunt was asked to take over. To save face, Connell retained her credit as editor while Hunt received the rather vague "Supervising Editor" credit in addition to his expected one.
A more psychedelic YOLT? Sign me up! Seriously though I see what you mean...I've not seen Arabesque, but rewatching OHMSS it seemed to me this time that Hunt's style was akin to prolific US TV director Sutton Roley, most known for Mannix episodes. Dubbed "the TV Orson Welles" or somesuch these days by enthusiasts. But very similar -- offbeat angles followed by closeups of the actors' faces, etc. And psychedelic to boot, so I guess that sort of thing was just in the air at the time. Roley should've been bigger but apparently he was an ass to work with due to his demands; I think he only made one or two feature films.
But is the Wiki note that the original cut of YOLT, by a lady whose name escapes me at the moment (too lazy to look it up!), was several minutes longer than the final cut? If I'm not mistaken the legend is that her cut was around 30 minutes longer or something...hard to believe that much could be removed just by tightening up scenes. If true, it would mean whole scenes were cut by Hunt when he took over editing chores, which leads me to believe it's yet another hogwash Wikipedia entry.
How about looking about five posts earlier, then?
But watch the 1965-67 seasons of The Avengers, and you'll see some of the same thing, too -- kooky angles and camera tricks. It's amazing how empty so many of the scenes are of that show as regards people, yet the series had a visual language that gave it a bizarre wit rather than a low-budget feel. The Prisoner would take all that even further. I think directors like Hunt were looking for ways to make their mark, especially as films were becoming more "auteur" driven (by the 1970s, Spielberg, Coppola, and the like would make themselves almost as important as the actors and writers to crafting the vision of film).
Another thing is you can see how lighting techniques change a lot. Though there are still a lot of "technicolor" qualities to OHMSS's cinematography, there's also a lot more of what might be called flatter "natural lighting" going on. Again, it's an attempt at heightened realism. The color palette isn't as saturated in many scenes and almost monochromatic (though the blu-ray interestingly saturates the color more). This is probably most noticeable in the Bern scenes, where Bond is breaking into Gumbold's office. Compare that to the much richer color in the three films that preceded it, where the lighting is often more atmospheric and stagey.
I've got Arabesque on tap to watch so thanks for the recommendation.
However, I've never been able to get into the Avengers, though I've tried and tried. I will try again!
I have always liked The Prisoner, though.
As mentioned Roley was prolific and possibly the most "Bond"-like thing he did which I know of would be 3 episodes of Man From UNCLE he directed, all in the last season. In fact he directed the final two episodes, a two-parter which was released theatrically in Europe as "How To Steal The World." It's from '68 and here's the trailer, which I think has that same sort of Hunt/OHMSS look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk9wDyR_SCY