Charles Gray/Blofeld?
Andy007
Posts: 100MI6 Agent
Does anyone else know how Gray got the role of Blofeld. His casting as Blofeld has always annoyed me over the years. His performance was awful & did not fit Blofeld at all. Why did they cast a Blofeld with hair, or at least not make him bald. I know in the story- i think it's explained that Blofeld is meant to have had plastic surgery. But he is not menacing, puts in a drag-queen scene. This was a farce. Shame they didn't get Telly Savalas back. Donald Pleasance looked the most evil with that terrible scar. Savalas wasn't given a scar but was bald & had menace and was good actor. It strikes me that Gray was completely unsuitable for the role. Shame as he was good as Henderson in YOLT. He simply should not have been Blofeld.
Mind you the cast had other flaws, Jill St John one of the worst bond girls imo. The Felix Leiter was the worst too. He played it in a bumbling manner. I hate DAF. It's such a waste of a Bond film.
Mind you the cast had other flaws, Jill St John one of the worst bond girls imo. The Felix Leiter was the worst too. He played it in a bumbling manner. I hate DAF. It's such a waste of a Bond film.
Comments
Ha, YOLT had its flaws but it is definitely better than DAF (arguably the worst bond film).
I concur. I actually watched DAF again the other day and, though it does have its moments (Whitt and Kidd are enjoyably sadistic and droll) it is one of the weakest in the series (if not the weakest). As a whole there's just no real tension in the film and it seems like most of it is played for camp laughs (the central villan in drag being a classic one). Gray as Bloefeld is a little too suave to come off as a despicable criminal mastermind.
YOLT may have had its problems but it had the advantage of Donald Plesence, one of the most iconic, twisted characters in the series. Also, the big action sequences are genuinely better executed. DAF has the well known continuety error of the car switching sides.
I thought Jill St John started off ok (she was beautiful, seductive and independent) but ended up as a rather comical stereotype. Two examples included firing the machine gun and falling in the water, and throwing the "Bombe Suprise" at the wall.
Every so often I watch DAF again and think "maybe I'm too harsh on it, I'll give it another try" (2hrs later) "No I was right, its crap"
Can't agree more with you there. Pre-YOLT was pretty perfect though...
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As for me, DAF has always been a guilty pleasure. Undeniably uneven with a poor climax, all that is true. But like all Bond films, a little slack must be given.
The first half is fun, stylish and sharp as a tack. Connery is in fine form and the dialogue sparkles. A fun movie to watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Its one of the Bond films that some fans can never accept on its own terms.
A good Bond film? No. But totally entertaining, nevertheless. Even a weak 007 flick has more charm, style and scale than most films. Methinks Bond fans have a hard time realizing how spoiled the series has made them. No Bond film has EVER deserved the trash-heap. (With the exception of the last third of DAD. The only section of the series that is truly embarassing. Not bad for 22 films!).
As for Charles Gray, once again I will have to go against the flow. He has always been my favorite Blofeld. All three Blofelds were miscast IMO. They NEVER quite got it right. And as much as I enjoy Pleasence and Savalas, Gray always seemed the most out-and-out crazy and decadent Blofeld. Although uneven, DAF contains the single greatest Bond-Blofeld scene in the series: the cracker-jack scene with Bond and the two Blofelds in the penthouse.
All Bond films need a pat on the back once in awhile.
"Right idea, Mr. Bond."
"But wrong pussy."
As a child of the 1970s, I can say that Gray's characterization also fits something about the era . . . there's something both modern about his oversized bullyish qualities and old-fashioned with his latent imperialistic cruelty and impatience. He's home in both the ancient and modern worlds, and it's to his credit that it was Gray I essentially pictured when reading You Only Live Twice.
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Casting is dangerous. You have to get the right actor for the character, but equally if the character is written badly, no matter how good the actor, it will still fail. Charles Gray and Jill St John as mentioned above, both highlight the latter. - I loved Telly Savalas as Kojak when I was a kid, - But he was "Ok" as Blofeld. Why? Because I saw Donald Pleasence first!
Charles Grey was brilliant as Mycroft Holmes - Shelock's older brother in the Jeremy Brett series from the 1980's and had a highly successful stage career. Although Blofeld was a poor fit for him - in the post Bernard Lee period, he would have been a fantastic M though!
Every Bond actor (except Mr Lazenby) has had a clunker of a film. DAF is woeful, but its not the worst one overall for me.
I love DAF but it depends what you go to Bond for, I love Connery's comic timing and the lines are great. People generally quote the Plenty o'Toole line, they quote nothing from OHMSS. Of course OHMSS is more admirable and a better big screen experience. Gray fits the script for DAF and as he looks totally differerent, makes him a vague nemesis character, it almost adds to the mystery in a way I can't quite articulate. Ironic as of course in the book OHMSS he totally has changed since his TB description, due to weight loss etc
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Right here. DAF was one of the first Bonds I ever saw and I still enjoy it tremendously to this day. While it's light years removed from Fleming's prose, taken as its own entity it IS a highly entertaining film with some great fights, good stunts, interesting villains and imaginative Ken Adams designs. The Bond girls are beautiful and the Vegas locations are quite unique. I like the fact that the film doesn't take itself too seriously and even if Connery is a bit overweight he can still deliver on the quips and the action.
Fleming purists may decry the film but anybody looking for a good, entertaining, two hour ride will have a good time.
I completely agree. I'm another fan of DAF. Certainly not top five, but I really do like it. I thought Charles Gray was a halfway decent villain, but a terrible Blofeld. Give him any other name and he'd probably have worked. In fact, looking at it, if they had maybe made the film five minutes longer, the plot would have been far easier to follow. Essentially, what Blofeld is doing is destroying a diamond smuggling ring that's no longer needed, using Wint and Kidd as assassins (and for those saying "they're not the SPECTRE types," I would beg to differ...having read many but not all of the novels, the novel Blofeld strikes me as an individual who would use anyone capable of getting the job done, which Wint and Kidd prove quite adept at doing until they encounter Bond). Why kill off the smuggling ring? No witnesses to either chicken out and testify/seek immunity or, on the other hand, to get wise to your scheme. In fact, the concept of a smuggling ring being killed off by its own benefactor is actually something I'd like to see explored in another film, whether it's Bond or not. The concept is pretty under-utilized. The only part of DAF that I genuinely think was awful the guy who played Felix Leiter. Quite possibly the worst Felix in the entire series (although the current guy is WAY out of character with Fleming's vision of Leiter...he plays a nice character, but he's just not Felix Leiter). The countdown guy pardodied in Austin Powers was also flat out painful, but on the whole, I think DAF has come full circle twice over: massively overrated when it was released vs. the Flemingesque OHMSS, put into its proper place during the 1980's as "middle of the pack" whilst OHMSS finally started getting its proper due, and now with the era of the internet, DAF being ripped apart to the point where it's actually becoming underrated. In my mind, there is no way this film is comparable to such disasters as DAD or AVTAK.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
http://debrief.commanderbond.net/topic/59327-diamonds-are-forever-a-review/
Roger Moore 1927-2017
As Napoleon Plural says It fits perfectly in the world of the early 70's with M&W and Sinatra's Vegas.
Seriously I can't believe how wrong they got it with DAF, they had all the ingredients there from Goldfinger:
Connery
Hamilton directing
Shirley Bassey
John Barry score.
Yes, in many ways it looked like it could have been Goldfinger II, but instead we got a James Bond film on an LSD trip.
I watched DAF the other day for the first time. Sure Gray was a strange choice for blofeld. But the fact that he also played Henderson in YOLT has to make this one of the most confusing casting decisions in film history!
Casting agencies weren't a thing in the 60s? I'd love to hear of the rationale behind that decision
They'll be resurrecting Bond girls next.
(Too soon?)
Roger Moore 1927-2017
At least we get to see him - although not his Siamese fighting fish or his electric chair. At least he doesn't walk like he's got constipation or screech like a parrot when he wants to be authoritative. Nor does he heckle from a wheelchair. Nor is he James Bond's brother. He isn't, unfortunately, Telly Savalas.