Should Moneypenny have gone on more missions?

Firemass · April 2013

Seeing Moneypenny as a field agent in Skyfall made me wish Lois Maxwell should have gone on at least one mission with Bond. Kind of like Q in License to Kill. Perhaps Moneypenny and Bond could have posed as a married couple and attended a formal event or that type of thing.

Maxwell certainly got to travel a lot, but she was always behind the desk. The closest we got to seeing her in the field was Diamonds Are Forever customs agent and A View to a Kill day at the races.

perdogg · April 2013

Firemass wrote:

Seeing Moneypenny as a field agent in Skyfall made me wish Lois Maxwell should have gone on at least one mission with Bond. Kind of like Q in License to Kill. Perhaps Moneypenny and Bond could have posed as a married couple and attended a formal event or that type of thing.

Maxwell certainly got to travel a lot, but she was always behind the desk. The closest we got to seeing her in the field was Diamonds Are Forever customs agent and A View to a Kill day at the races.

No. Eventhough she was a WREN.

davidelliott101 · April 2013

Uh, no... she is M's secretary. Why would she have gone in the field?

zaphod · April 2013

davidelliott101 wrote:

Uh, no... she is M's secretary. Why would she have gone in the field?

No, don't think she should. I fear that in the future she will one way or another, as Bond movies drift towards ensemble pieces.

AlphaOmegaSin · April 2013

She is M's Secretary, why would she need to go out in the Field?

Thunderpussy · April 2013

Zaphod wrote :

No, don't think she should. I fear that in the future she will one way or another, as Bond movies drift towards ensemble pieces.

I hate the way Bond is becoming just One of a Team.

Number24 · April 2013

The present Moneypenny is a former Field agent, but she is M's secretary now. I don't think she should be involved in anything dangerous (imagine the secretary of the head nof MI6 being kidnapped!). But she could do things along the lines of playing the customs officer. That is handing out travel documents in interesting and smart ways.

Shady Tree · April 2013

Firemass wrote:

Maxwell certainly got to travel a lot, but she was always behind the desk. The closest we got to seeing her in the field was Diamonds Are Forever customs agent and A View to a Kill day at the races.

Yes, in DAF Miss Moneypenny would have been present in the customs office at the point that Peter Franks was arrested - just before she comes out to issue Bond with his passport (and within arms length of any fisticuffs). And in AVTAK, at the races, she's in the same outdoor location as the principal villain and his henchwoman.

One of my biggest issues with Skyfall is the way in which Eve Moneypenny reverts from being an active field agent to a secretary in 1960s mode (at the fanboy-pleasing end of the movie). This is hardly progressive in terms of sexual politics. Having once seen Naomie Harris doing fantastic action stuff in the Skyfall PTS, I'd find it an ongoing anticlimax/disappointment if her future role was limited to being a traditional secretary to Mallory's M. (If anything, in the absence of a Moneypenny in CR and QOS, the new Tanner became like M's P.A.)

Silhouette Man · April 2013

I think that Lois Maxwell said that for Diamonds Are Forever or afterwards she wanted to have Moneypenny go on a mission and be missing killed in action. Maxwell then said that after she retired as Miss Moneypenny in AVTAK she should instead take over as a new female M in the next film. This idea was actually rejected at the time, although it was later picked up by the producers and scriptwrters for GoldenEye where Dame Judi Dench became the new female M to reflect the fact that Stella Rimmington became the head of MI6's sister service MI5, the Security Service. Even the then Prime Minister John Major is on record as having said as much, but perhaps it should be stated that Lois Maxewell deserves to be credited with having thought up the idea of a female M some 10 years before it actually came to pass in GoldenEye.

The only reason that Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny was out in the field in DAF as a customs officer was because she'd cut her hair for a role in a previoys film and so her scene had to be re-written by Tom Mankiewicz to get her in a scene with a cap/hat on in order to cover up the fact that she'd cut her famous luscious locks. There's no more mystery to her appearance in the field in DAF than that, I'm afraid. It really is that simple to explain. As for further appearances in the field, I think not, although Skyfall gave Eve Moneypenny a field background originally rather at odds with what Fleming originally wrote. He is remembered for saying that Lois Maxwell was exactly the woman he had imagined when he came to create the character of Miss Moneypenny and he told her so on the set of Dr. No. Plus, as well as DAF and AVTAK, Moneypenny is also seen outside of her office in OHMSS, tearful and comforted by Q at James Bond's ill-fated wedding to Tracy di Vicenzo.

perdogg · April 2013

Silhouette Man wrote:

I think that Lois Maxwell said that for Diamonds Are Forever or afterwards she wanted to have Moneypenny go on a mission and be missing killed in action. Maxwell then said that after she retired as Miss Moneypenny in AVTAK she should instead take over as a new female M in the next film. This idea was actually rejected at the time, although it was later picked up by the producers and scriptwrters for GoldenEye where Dame Judi Dench became the new female M to reflect the fact that Stella Rimmington became the head of MI6's sister service MI5, the Security Service. Even the then Prime Minister John Major is on record as having said as much, but perhaps it should be stated that Lois Maxewell deserves to be credited with having thought up the idea of a female M some 10 years before it actually came to pass in GoldenEye.

The only reason that Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny was out in the field in DAF as a customs officer was because she'd cut her hair for a role in a previoys film and so her scene had to be re-written by Tom Mankiewicz to get her in a scene with a cap/hat on in order to cover up the fact that she'd cut her famous luscious locks. There's no more mystery to her appearance in the field in DAF than that, I'm afraid. It really is that simple to explain. As for further appearances in the field, I think not, although Skyfall gave Eve Moneypenny a field background originally rather at odds with what Fleming originally wrote. He is remembered for saying that Lois Maxwell was exactly the woman he had imagined when he came to create the character of Miss Moneypenny and he told her so on the set of Dr. No. Plus, as well as DAF and AVTAK, Moneypenny is also seen outside of her office in OHMSS, tearful and comforted by Q at James Bond's ill-fated wedding to Tracy di Vicenzo.

Maybe they should have a Bond where Bond has to consider killing Moneypenny in order to protect his identity.

Napoleon Plural · April 2013

No, because of the comedy element of the role, it might have seemed all a bit lightweight, a bit silly, like one of those Doris Day Rock Hudson films, sort of too much comedy thriller.

Number24 · April 2013

Wasn't Moneypenny a pretty good shot? I seem to remember something about Moneypenny using a gun after Bond's atempt on M's life at the beginning of the novel TMWTGG, but it's a long time since I read it.

Silhouette Man · April 2013

Number24 wrote:

Wasn't Moneypenny a pretty good shot? I seem to remember something about Moneypenny using a gun after Bond's atempt on M's life at the beginning of the novel TMWTGG, but it's a long time since I read it.

No, I don't think that's right from what I can remember. The Moneypenny of the original novels was very much desk-bound!

raptors_887 · April 2013

I can't picture Lois Maxwell holding that big sniper rifle in Skyfall. That would just look hilarious and out of place I would think.

Thunderpussy · April 2013

That gun, it looks more fitting for a woman.

You know much about guns, Mr. Bond?

No, I know a little about women.

I'm sure Louis Maxwell would of had a Ladies Gun, for a Lady.

)

Silhouette Man · April 2013

Thunderpussy wrote:

That gun, it looks more fitting for a woman.

You know much about guns, Mr. Bond?

No, I know a little about women.

I'm sure Louis Maxwell would of had a Ladies Gun, for a Lady. )

Well, what else is a ladies gun for, but a lady, pray tell?

)

Thunderpussy · April 2013

Men with small hands perhaps.

They are making a toy gun for girls, which will be pink
and comes with some "Sparkley" gems to stick on it
to make it more Girly.

)

Silhouette Man · April 2013

Thunderpussy wrote:

Men with small hands perhaps.

They are making a toy gun for girls, which will be pink
and comes with some "Sparkley" gems to stick on it
to make it more Girly. )

Good one, TP. You can never beat you for an answer - just like me!

)

bailorg · April 2013

Am I the only one who didn't really care for Naomie Harris' performance in Skyfall?

I thought, if anything, she seemed more reminiscent of Mary Goodnight rather than Miss Moneypenny.

Blackleiter · April 2013

bailorg wrote:

Am I the only one who didn't really care for Naomie Harris' performance in Skyfall?

I thought, if anything, she seemed more reminiscent of Mary Goodnight rather than Miss Moneypenny.

You may not be the only one, but I thought Harris was very good. Absolutely nothing about her reminded me of Mary Goodnight.

bailorg · April 2013

Blackleiter wrote:

bailorg wrote:

Am I the only one who didn't really care for Naomie Harris' performance in Skyfall?

I thought, if anything, she seemed more reminiscent of Mary Goodnight rather than Miss Moneypenny.

You may not be the only one, but I thought Harris was very good. Absolutely nothing about her reminded me of Mary Goodnight.

Let's put it this way: to the extent they need a 21st Century Miss Moneypenny, I would have hoped that they could have come up with an origin story better than Bond essentially telling her, "Ha Ha. You're a terrible field agent who shot me instead of the bad guy. Get thee to a desk job!"

Silhouette Man · April 2013

bailorg wrote:

Blackleiter wrote:

bailorg wrote:

Am I the only one who didn't really care for Naomie Harris' performance in Skyfall?

I thought, if anything, she seemed more reminiscent of Mary Goodnight rather than Miss Moneypenny.

You may not be the only one, but I thought Harris was very good. Absolutely nothing about her reminded me of Mary Goodnight.

Let's put it this way: to the extent they need a 21st Century Miss Moneypenny, I would have hoped that they could have come up with an origin story better than Bond essentially telling her, "Ha Ha. You're a terrible field agent who shot me instead of the bad guy. Get thee to a desk job!"

Yes, you would have thought so I suppose. To misquote Calvin Harris "It was acceptable in the 60s".

Should Moneypenny have gone on more missions?

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