Wint and Kidd "try and try again" to find amusing ways to kill Bond, but by contrast they seem to settle for some straightforward way of bumping off Shady Tree. Shady is promptly assassinated in his own dressing room, albeit off camera.
In YOLT:
Bond: "If I'm to watch TV, may I smoke?"
Blofeld: "Yes, give him his cigarettes."
It's uncharacteristically generous of Pleasance's Blofeld to make this concession, especially if compared to Grant who in FRWL tells Bond there's "not a chance" he'll allow Bond his last request for a smoke (at least, not until Bond offers to pay for it). The world of YOLT is so gadget-laden that Blofeld, of all people, should know better than to allow Bond one of his own cigarettes.
In the final analysis, it's just one of those B-movie conventions of Bond films that the villain makes an error that will allow Bond a spectacular escape or a 'spanner-in-the-works' opportunity. The ego-fuelled attempts by villains to rig convoluted ways of killing Bond rather than using quick and simple methods are also pure melodrama - just part of the genre, especially with the movies where the fantasy elements are heightened generally. Lazily executed examples can still have the effect of taking an audience 'out' of the film, though, as my YOLT example does for me.
Last edited by Shady Tree (6th Jun 2019 05:22)