Roald Dahl and YOLT
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I just watched the Cinefiles review of the '62-67 Bond films and in it, it is mentioned how Roald Dahl's script for YOLT was only the first draft and not what was finally used for shooting. So, has someone here read it? If so, please describe his plot. Did he stick to the plot of the book perhaps?
What parts of Dahl's version were used in the final draft and which were drastically changed?
What parts of Dahl's version were used in the final draft and which were drastically changed?
Comments
Dahl was given this criteria, plus the three Bond girl rule and told to write about this. Alot seems to be Lewis Gilberts input as the volcano lair and battle seems to be rather like TSWLM and MR
As for what Dahl wrote, he replaced someone else, and did do the final draft - however alot of other people on the creative team came up with alot of the ideas.
Correct. Ken Adam heard Wing Commander Wallis talking to (the late) Tony Scase on a BBC radio interview about his involvement in a "spaghetti James Bond" type spy film. Scase asked if Ken Wallis would like to (using one of his autogyros) have an aerial fight with a helicopter, to which Ken replied "Just give me the chance!"
The "spaghetti" spy film was Dick Smart, Secret Agent 2.007 - I'd love to see that one.
Back to the topic, I suddenly wonder how much Dahl added to the story - the creative team in place seemed to have done so much on their own.
Well, let's try to dig into this.
From Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang! by Alan Barnes & Marcus Hearn (1997, B.T. Batsford)
"The screenwriter initially selected was Harold Jack Bloom [who] joined Saltzman, Broccoli, Gilbert, Adam etc in Tokyo, where they were to begin assembling the elements that would comprise YOLT.
Bloom would be retired from the project in favour of Briton Roald Dahl, but later told Dahl's biographer that the film's storyline was largely his invention." (Slightly edited)
Bloom received credit for "Additional Story Material", a nicely vague line. Our own The Cat states that Bloom came up with the idea of Bond being apparently killed at the start of the film, but no more than that (see The Cat's own excellent site for more details).
It does seem certain that the volcano location was chosen by Broccoli & co while on a recce over various parts of Japan (apparently they were looking for a castle to match Fleming's storyline, but soon discovered that in Japan castles are not built on clifftops owing to severe weather). Other locations such as Kobe docks were also selected to be worked into the storyline.
A contemporary Playboy interview has Dahl telling the producers that he didn't know much about the Bond films, upon which they arranged a screening for him. He related how they told him the "three girl rule":
"Girl number one is pro-Bond. She stays around roughly through the first reel of the picture. Then she is bumped off by the enemy, preferably in Bond's arms."
"In bed or not in bed?" I asked.
"Whatever you like, so long as it's in good taste. Girl number two is anti-Bond. She works for the enemy and stays around throughout the middle third of the picture. She must capture Bond, and Bond must save himself by bowling her over with sheer sexual magnetism. This girl should also be bumped off, preferably in an original fashion."
"There aren't many of those left," I said.
"We'll find one", they answered. "Girl number three is violently pro-Bond. She occupies the final third of the picture, and she must on no account be killed. Nor must she permit Bond to take any lecherous liberties with her until the very end of the story. We keep that for the fade-out."
Elements of Fleming's novel were retained for the film. These included the Japanese location, characters Tiger Tanaka (with his underground train station), Henderson (albeit somewhat altered), Kissy Suzuki, the Ama island and its fishing girls, the ninjas and their establishment, and Bond's Japanese makeover to blend in (
Therefore much of what is in the final film was pre-determined before Dahl got to work on his script. Most of the characters were already there (Aki, Osato and Helga being the main exceptions with Aki and Helga being clearly identifiable as the producers' girls one and two), certain of the events were also in the book, locations had been picked out by the production team, and Bloom had (disputably) made a contribution before leaving the film. And the helicopter was covered above.
Hope this helps!
And finally, is there some sort of reasoning behind Charles Gray playing Blofeld in the following Connery film? Maybe there was some lost or unused plotline about it, because on its own, it's a particularly bogus casting choice.
The book's plot has Blofeld running a "Castle Of Death" in a remote part of Japan. Bond has been sent by M to talk Tiger Tanaka into allowing the British Secret Service access to some important information the Japanese Secret Service, of which Tanaka is the head, have obtained by cracking Soviet cyphers. Tanaka persuades Bond to deal with the troublesome immigrant Dr Shatterhand who has set up an establishment involving a castle with a garden full of poisonous plants and animals which has become a draw to suicides. Bond finds out that Shatterhand and his wife are really Blofeld and Irma Bunt, who of course killed Tracy at the end of OHMSS, and his mission becomes personal.
So there's nothing at all about stealing spaceships in the book. As to which of the filmmakers came up with that idea, it could have been any one of Broccoli, Saltzman, Gilbert, Bloom or Dahl. All had input into the script, and IMO quotes could be found putting forward most of them as the originator of that scenario. In the documentary "Inside YOLT", it is stated that "Based on Cubby Broccoli's initial idea much of the story takes place inside a hollowed-out volcano."
AFAIK there was no reasoning behind the casting of Charles Gray beyond his being liked by the producers.
Lewis Gilbert:
"Harry [Saltzman] had got an American TV writer called Harold Jack Bloom. We tried to do a story with him but it didn't work out. When we got back to England, someone suggested Roald Dahl...
When we got back to England we had no idea what the story was going to be about, other than the fact that it surrounded a volcano and there was a rocket in it. That much we'd all contributed to on the recce.
So I was closeted in...Eon's London office, with Roald Dahl and we cobbled together a story, and then everybody came in and made their suggestions. That's how it all came about really. It was very much a committee-oriented film in that sense. You never know who's made what suggestion and why."