Pinder's Assistants (Thunderball)
MrBigglesworth
Posts: 11MI6 Agent
Lloyd Reckord is credited ("uncredited") as Pinder's Assistant in Thunderball, across a number of online resources (including IMDB), but I can't find him in the film. Anyone know where he is or why we think he's in there?
Pinder has another assistant - confirmed to be Bari Jonson - who shows up in brief scenes intercut with Largi's retrieval of the bombs, including at around 1:44:50 (and pictured below).
Pinder has a different assistant during an earlier scene (around 59:10), but this guy doesn't look anything like Lloyd Reckord.
Any idea what I'm missing? (And extra credit, if you can help me ID the unknown assistant from the 59:10 scene.)
Thanks!
Comments
I don't know if you know this already, but TB was a difficult job for editor Peter Hunt to put together. The story goes that director Terence Young was exhausted at the end of shooting and left the assembly of the film to Hunt. There are several obvious errors and continuity lapses (eg Leiter's trousers changing from short to long, Bond's facemask changing colour near the end) and the original plan for the order of the scenes had to be changed.
It's my theory that there are several missing scenes. When Leiter meets Paula in the finished film, there's this piece of dialogue-
Leiter: Who's the girl, James?
Bond: My assistant here, Paula Caplan.
This is very clearly overdubbed in post-production, suggesting that (since Paula simply walks past Felix as if they already know each other) there's a missing scene or two where they and possibly Pinder's assistant(s) are introduced or at least present.
Thanks, Barbel! Yes, I've read a little about the difficulties editing this. Weird follow-up question for you:
Ernest Hosler is listed as Editor, with Peter Hunt listed as Supervising Editor. Depending on the forum and the thread, people seem to insist that one or the other is the real editor (welcome to the internet). Any idea what actually happened behind the scenes? What role did each man play (and when)?
Thank again!!
Happy to discuss more later - meantime please have a look at the PM I sent you, and check the following if you haven't already. 🙂https://obsessional.uk/castandcrew.htm
Yes - a wonderful site! I've found it very useful in my research, but it's definitely very wrong regarding Lloyd Reckord/Bari Jonson. And scanning that cast list raises yet another obscure Thunderball question (sorry if this should be a new thread):
Suzy Kendall is credited (uncredited) on a variety of sites as 'Prue,' but she's just one of a dozen silent observers in the casino scene. She's not even seated at the table. And there's no mention of a 'Prue' in the novel. Any idea where she got that name?
"Questions, questions, all I get is questions!" - Fiona
Peter Hunt was the senior man, having worked on the three previous Bond movies. His ambition was to direct, and he eventually did (OHMSS). His work on the film in-between (YOLT) is a story in itself. I suggest that his credit on TB is another move towards directing and if he was "Supervising Editor" then he'd need someone to supervise, hence Hosler. Hunt told many stories about editing TB over the years, usually in interviews. I don't think his contribution can be doubted.
Sadly my one chance to speak with him back in 2001 came to nothing.
No idea, sorry.