Your own OHMSS sequel/continuance....
Jimmy Bond
Posts: 324MI6 Agent
I have just seen OHMSS, again, and remain convinced, that the story has not been properly continued. DAF, if anything, seemed more like a continuance to YOLT than OHMSS, anyway...
I believe, a real effort should've been made, to make a Bond film as a real follow up to OHMSS.
In that case, how would have a sequel to OHMSS?
Lets exchange ideas on what would've been an ideal follow up to OHMSS... You can use any Bond actor you like, and any Bond director you like.
I will tell you my scenario later... But first, I'd like to hear/read your opinion...
Well?
I believe, a real effort should've been made, to make a Bond film as a real follow up to OHMSS.
In that case, how would have a sequel to OHMSS?
Lets exchange ideas on what would've been an ideal follow up to OHMSS... You can use any Bond actor you like, and any Bond director you like.
I will tell you my scenario later... But first, I'd like to hear/read your opinion...
Well?
Comments
I would have liked to have seen Lazenby and Peter Hunt return for a film that managed to use at least some of the YOLT novel (Shatterhand,deadly garden) and was very much a follow-on from OHMSS.I don't know where it could be set,probably not Japan again so soon.I think something interesting could have been thought of and it certainly would have been better than DAF.
there is one scene when i can't help from thinking taht this scene could be the real continuity to OHMSS, where bond suffers from tracy's death
In layer cake, after xxx met michael gambion at the top of a building, when he is at home drinking bourbon, very excited, i pictured scene from flemming book YOLT
the scene where xxx (daniel craig) is drinking furious couls be the scene where bond try to forget tracy's death
and the scene where xxx is in the jimmy price's garden, i pictured the scene in flemming book, where bond is hidden in the blofeld garden of death, ready to kill blofeld. The look of daniel craig in layer cake make me think of a ninja's clothes
i really like layer cake, and in some scene like those, i reeally picture flemming's bond
My interest in this issue was recently focused when I came across a thought provoking article on a page of the OHMSS tribute website at:
http://www.ohmss.ohmss-007.com/screening_room_fhmeo.html
Peter Hunt is on record as saying that the original intention, had George Lazenby agreed to make further Bond movies, was to end OHMSS happily with 007’s wedding and then deal with Tracy’s tragic death and the aftermath during the pre-credits sequence of the next film, i.e. DAF. This of course this never happened. Whilst many would argue that Bond’s search for Blofeld - and his apparent killing of him - during the opening of DAF is evidence of him gaining vengeance, the lack of any reference to Tracy in the film, not to mention the plethora of Blofeld doubles that crop up in DAF, leaves the audience in some doubt.
The abovementioned website suggests persuasively that John Glen, who was editor to Peter Hunt in OHMSS, also felt this way. For in the first of the five Bond films he directed – For Your Eyes Only in 1981 – the pre-credits sequence offers an altogether more convincing and natural sequel to the OHMSS tragedy. In this scene 007 is seen visiting his wife’s grave to lay some flowers and pay his respects. We see Roger Moore in an unusually (for him) thoughtful and sombre mood during this scene. Shortly afterwards when the helicopter he has been collected in is being remotely controlled there can be little doubt that the person responsible is one Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The wheelchair bound villain is shown to be bald man, stroking a white cat, wearing a collarless grey suit and is even wearing a neck brace – in common with the injury suffered by Blofeld during the bobsleigh run fight sequence in OHMSS. According to Alan Barnes & Marcus Hearn’s 1997 book ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ the story goes that John Glen was keen to name the villain but was restrained by legal considerations (presumably the ongoing situation between Danjaq and Kevin McClory). The KKBB book also states that the scene was originally devised when there was some doubt whether Roger Moore would appear in FYEO and the pre-credits sequence would therefore serve as an ideal introduction to the new 007. Reportedly, the original plan was for Bond’s unseen captor to greet him over the helicopter intercom with the line “I thought we should celebrate the tenth anniversary of our last meeting” which, had this been done, would have reinforced the sequence’s link with OHMSS\DAF even further.
The OHMSS tribute website page contains a link to an excellent WMV file called “For Her Majesty’s Eyes Only” which combines the last scene of OHMSS with the opening of FYEO. The only down side to this, apart from the obvious point that no Bond film would ever be likely to have two actors playing the lead part, is the presence of Roger Moore’s usual dose of wit and sarcasm in the ensuing FYEO helicopter sequence prior to dumping ‘Blofeld’ down the chimney stack. A more brutal manner would have been far more appropriate. However, the overall effect definitely works for me and offers a fantastic insight into what could have been achieved in DAF.
What do others think?
Continuity wise, there is also seemingly blatant attempts to "cover up" OHMSS. The re-signing of Connery was a demonstration that United Artists was not comfortable with anyone else besides Sean Connery as Bond. This makes sense given the 1967 pronouncement on You Only Live Twice posters that Sean Connery is James Bond.
Further, the opening of the film also re-writes Bond series history. The film opens in what seems like Japan, where we last left Connery's 007. It's as if to say "the other guy didn't count, Bond was in Japan hunting for Blofeld this whole time." Now, some feel that Bond does in fact get his "revenge" for Tracy's death in the opening scene, but especially when you consider the Japan reference, this seems unlikely to be the producers intention. Also, as we discover later in the film, Blofeld is still alive, and in no conversation is there anything that remotely mentions OHMSS or Tracy. Wouldn't you expect a revenge-obsessed Bond to be far more ruthless, and when given the chance to kill Blofeld again, not leave him hanging from a freakin' crane? I'd think so.
If Diamonds Are Forever were to be done right, first and foremost, George Lazenby should have stayed as 007. His performance was light years ahead of Connery's in DAF, and a revenge-orientated film would have probably focused more on action and therefore catered to his strength as Bond. The film could have taken off, as Peter Hunt intended it to, with Bond and Tracy driving, and her death happening in the opening scene of Diamonds Are Forever rather than at the end of OHMSS. The film could ditch most of the novels in Fleming's book (as they're quite absurd and not very well layed out characters) but could keep Wint and Kidd in their original meanacing, cold, characters.
The rest of the film (post-title sequence) could go like so: Bond, working closely with local authorities to discover the whereabouts of Blofeld, discover that the car driven by Blofeld was owned by an American casino owner named Peter Franks. Franks was going to this country (I forget where Bond was married) to meet with the Spang Brothers, who were believed to run one of the most sophisticated Diamond smuggling operations within the western world.
Bond is informed by M that he has been granted leave, and was sending MI6 agent counselor Tiffany Case to keep an eye on him and help him be suitable for duty again. When she arrives, Bond is so revenged obsessed, he doesn't even notice her. She has him under lock and key, but Bond breaks out of his house arrest to take the place of Peter Franks at the meeting with the Spang brothers, with the hope that he would find out some information about the whereabouts of Blofeld or convince the Spang Brothers they could work together to fight off a potiential threat to their diamond smuggling. When Bond arrives at the meeting point, he is attacked by Spang Brothers who think he is Peter Frank's killer, as they were sent a threatening communique a few days ago saying he had been killed. Bond is able to convice them Blofeld is more than likely behind his killing, and before the meeting ends, Wint and Kidd, SPECTRE's two most deadly assasin's and Blofeld's personal body guards storm in with machine guns in an attempt to kill the Spang Brothers.
Ultimately, Tiffany Case could be an employee of SPECTRE designed to keep Bond close so Wint and Kidd could track his whereabouts and Blofeld could assume the identity of Peter Franks over in Las Vegas and is using Wint and Kidd to kill off this diamond smuggling chain to have control of the smuggling go through Blofeld. Bond could use the Spang Brothers to work his way up the chain and confront Blofeld one on one after an intense action sequence with Wint and Kidd. The fight between Bond and Blofeld could take place on the rooftops of Las Vegas, where Blofeld is dropped from the top of a casino building and lands dead in the street.
A Vindicated Bond makes his return to MI6 stating for once and for all "Operation Bedlam is Dead."
Just a thought....
The YOLT novel has a lot of wonderful elements that'd make a great movie--including the sequence in which Bond kills Blofeld once and for all.As Arthur suggested in his post,this film could be called Shatterhand--as that was the alias Blofeld took when he fled to Japan.This book still hasn't been filmed,so maybe one day EON will revisit this material.
What a shame EON made such an unfortunate film and called it You Only Live Twice.And Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever story has absolutely nothing to do with SPECTRE or Blofeld or a space satellite--much less 007 looking for revenge against anyone.
I for one am very grateful to John Glen for belatedly providing us with a fitting conclusion to this episode in the pre-credit sequence of FYEO. Thank you John.
Regards,
Mark
Bond's marriage is referred to by Anya Amasova in TSWLM. After they have ordered each others drinks at Max Kalba's nightclub Anya details to Bond all the things she has learned about him from his KGB file. When she refers to his marriage it clearly upsets him, "Alright, you've made your point". Anya's response is to highlight his sensitivity to which he replies that he is sensitive about certain things.
in the case of each of the three movies, the reference to Tracy is there to tell us that our hero has a personal background, motivations, and complexities, ie that he is fact a character not a mannekin in a tux, and that his own personal tragedy is both a detriment and an asset to his ability to perform his peculiar job (he has learned the hard way he cant afford to form personal attachments, thus is more ruthless)
these references are not there for no reason at all, in fact it is the films where Tracy is not referred to where Bond seems to have no motivation at all and just happens to be there in time for everything to blow up real good
Jherman arent you the same one who said in another thread that OHMSS is the one Bondfilm that should never have been made?
Yeah I said that,and the reason being is that one the Bond role sucks,2 I think the series could have done without the marriage,The whole marriage thing is so out of this world,they should have let her live through at least one money be fore killing her off,I mean being killed right after the wedding is like they just wanted to throw this worthless bit of Bond in love to sell tickets"Bond gets married" idea.
I have watched all the Bonds so many times,and I have looked the Tracy lines in alot of the them.
JMO.
that is a fantastic story well done
A clean adaptation of YOLT would be great...although it may have to wait a bit (after CR, I don't think audiences will be ready for another 'Bond in a death-chair' bit!)
Sure.
All I was really saying was that in a perfect world EON would've filmed Ian Fleming's "Blofeld Trilogy" in it's correct order:Thunderball,OHMSS,and You Only Live Twice.As we know that'd even been EON's original plan.Rather than see something much closer in content to a Flint movie than a James Bond film--i.e.,bad guys stealing space capsules with an alligator-like rocketship,the villains all cleverly(?)hiding out in a dormant volcano(!),televisions everywhere and the actor playing the chief Bad Guy amazingly miscast--it'd have been great to see Dr. Shatterhand's Garden of Death and his ancient castle off the coast.
Maybe someday.
Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever never had a thing to do with SPECTRE or Blofeld(or his cat,for that matter)or a satellite firing death rays.DAF was very awkwardly rewritten into--IMO--an unintelligible mess.EON could've done significantly better with the material at hand,but chose not to.Too bad.
Man, that movie would be awesome. And a great title suggestion as well. Alas, I'm sure it will never happen.
1. in 1964 Eon were not going to make TB, they had ideas on LALD and OHMSS. The rights to TB of course was owned by Kevin McClory. He proposed making TB to Brocolli and Saltzman who considered it too good an opportunity.
2. after TB the plan was to shoot OHMSS, but they couldn't find a mountaintop retreat. Given that each film was being planned while one was being filmed, it was decided to take the only other available SPECTRE novel, to continue the SPECTER theme. Of course thats YOLT. Roald Dahl couldn't use much of it because it was to do with Bond purging himself and then avenging the death of his wife.
3. Lazenby was expected to return as 007 and the revenge story was going to be built into DAF, but was scrapped when Lazenby's services were not retained.
I'm glad EON took advantage of it since TB's my favorite Bond film in no small part being due partly to the fact that the first generation Bond filmmaking team was at the height of its creativity and influence. I wonder if EON would've shot OHMSS faithfully at that point with Bond's marriage and Tracy's tragic death since the world was jumping on the superspy bandwagon(Derek Flint, Matt Helm, Man from UNCLE, etc.), and a 1965 Bond film with an unhappy ending would've been a big risk to take. And considering the state of race relations at the time, LALD would've been too controversial for EON to even touch before the 1970s.
1967 would've been the right time to shot OHMSS. Bond mania was to beginning to ebb by that point and it might've made a good exit for Connery at that point.
A good "what if?" article on a Connery OHMSS can be found here-
http://www.hmss.com/films/ohmss67/
It would be interesting to see what potential scripts ideas for a Lazenby DAF EON and/or Peter Hunt and/or Richard Maibaum had before Lazenby announced his departure from the role.
Possibly. Kinda like LTK was in a way a parallel sequel of sorts to the events of OHMSS. So now all the fans who wanted DAF to be a revenge flick will hopefully be satisfied.
It's a good article. But I would've wanted Catherine Deneuve to play Tracy if Diana Rigg wasn't playing the role. I can't really imagine any chemistry between Connery and Dame Diana.
Worryingly, and I am not one to hold much stall by critics, I've already read three pre-release reviews of QOS that all suggest (whether positive or negative) that the emotional element of Bond has again disappeared. Sadly doesn't hold out much hope, but I'll reserve final judgement until I see the finished product.