Gerry Anderson, creator of Thunderbirds, Space: 1999, Supercar, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, UFO, Fireball XL5, Stingray, and many other science fiction and fantasy shows, has died at the age of 83.
Gerry was best know for his “Supermarionation” series, featuring detailed marionettes and a science-fiction based storyline. His ex-wife Sylvia collaborated frequently with him, most famously voicing Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in Thunderbirds. The shows were a first step for many well-known actors and creators, including Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny in the early James Bond films), character actors Shane Rimmer and Jaremy Wilkin (Blake’s 7) and special effects master Derek Meddings (Star Wars and the James Bond franchise). He made successful forays into live action as well, with the series Space: 1999 and UFO, and the feature film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.
Gerry suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for several years, and spent much of his time as a celebrity ambassador for The Alzheimer’s Society, raising both funds and awareness for the disease. His condition worsened in the past six months, which limited his ability to both work for the organization, and to serve as consultant on a Hollywood remake of UFO.
Gerry’s son Jamie has requested, in lieu of other remembrances, that people donate to The Alzheimer’s Society via Just Giving. Our condolences to his family and friends.
Remember, folks–stuff like this is entirely subjective. We’re (mostly) talking my favorites, not the “greatest” or “highest grossing” or whatever. This represents my views.
Without further ado, then, here are my three favorite Bond films, in order:
3. Goldfinger
Hard to argue against this one, which really does have almost everything. I had it ranked second until yesterday when I re-watched it, and found it oddly disappointing in places. My main complaint is that, given the larger scope of this one than its predecessors, Goldfinger’s scheme is not quite up to the world-ending level of many of the others—but that’s probably just me. The middle is sort of dull, too, while Bond plays golf and then is held prisoner in Kentucky. But the Aston Martin goes a long way–even if he never quite gets to use it as creatively as we might have liked. And so does Honor Blackman (and “Jill Masterson” at the start ain’t bad, either). Odd Job is iconic. And it has probably the second or third best theme song, too–and the most iconic. It’s a great Bond movie.
2. From Russia with Love
A simple, straight-ahead spy movie with vivid characters and great action. Bond’s Turkish ally, Kerim Bey, remains a favorite, and Robert Shaw as the SMERSH assassin is very cool–is he the only actor to have fought both James Bond and (the shark) Jaws?! The visuals of Istanbul and along the European rail line are gorgeous—as was the leading lady, Daniela Bianchi. The theme song is great–and, interestingly, doesn’t appear (with lyrics) in the opening credit sequence; it’s only at the end. The story sticks just close enough to the novel to make it a tight, taut thriller rather than an over-the-top spectacle. And you can’t beat a catfight in a Gypsy camp.
1. You Only Live Twice
The prototype for seemingly half the rest of the franchise, with the original “supervillain base in a volcano.” Japan in the 1960s provides a great backdrop and Tiger Tanaka is rivaled only by Kerim Bey of “From Russia with Love” as Bond’s greatest “regional ally.” Is it over-the-top, much of the way? Sure. Does the plot make sense? Not a lot of it, no. Will many criticize me for this choice? Probably. But it’s my list, and this one has always been my favorite. And it has my favorite theme song of all, to boot. This one is my favorite.
So there you have my entire list–all 23 Bond films from Eon, in the order I like them (or don’t like them).
Be sure to visit www.whiterocketbooks.com to listen to our James Bond podcast episode (or find it on iTunes) and also to check out the many great books we have available. Thanks for reading!
Here I present Part 2 of my rankings of all the Eon-produced James Bond films. Last time we ranked and examined 23-14. This time we count down from number 13 to number 4. Next time we’ll do the top 3.
On with the rankings:
13. Skyfall
O-ver Ra-ted! I do not understand all the love for this movie. Sure, it looked great and had some nice action—but so did “Quantum of Solace” and a bunch of the others listed beneath it here. The plot had gaping holes, the villain succeeds at every single thing he wants to accomplish, the last reel of the film is actually dull, and the time frame for the character is impossible to pin down. (He’s early in his career! No, wait! He’s the aged, grizzled spy, nearly washed up! No—wait! Etc.) It gets bogged down in the zillion nods to previous films and everything that happens in the first three-fourths seems clumsily contrived to set up the situation the producers desired at the end. Not a favorite by any means.
12. Diamonds are Forever
It hasn’t aged well at all, it rehashes previously-used storylines, and parts of it don’t make a lick of sense after repeated viewings. Even so, while not greater than the sum of its parts, it does contain some fantastic parts. In particular you have to love the two assassins and the sublime Charles Gray as Blofeld. And above all we get Connery back for one last go-round in the Eon series. Dumb but fun.
11. For Your Eyes Only
The other particularly watchable Roger Moore Bond film (besides “Live and Let Die.”) The bit with him romancing the teen-aged skater is a bit creepy, as he’s starting to show his age by this time. But the more straight-ahead spy story is a welcome relief after the last few entries. And the crossbow-wielding leading lady is terrific.
10. Dr. No
Crude—nobody associated with the production had quite found their footing yet—and it looks like it was filmed on a budget of about seventeen dollars. But it’s undeniably fun, and the DNA for the entire rest of the series is on display here, though it hadn’t quite gelled yet.
9. Tomorrow Never Dies
I have a soft spot in my heart for this one because it was the second in Pierce Brosnan’s run, and he’s my favorite Bond of all; and because it features the great Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese agent to rival Bond himself. I would pay good money to watch a movie series or read a book series featuring Yeoh’s solo adventures—or Tiger Tanaka’s. It’s also fun that the villain is a sort of Ted Turner/Rupert Murdoch mashup.
8. Live and Let Die
The first and best of the Roger Moore run. The voodoo stuff is genuinely frightening—certainly it was to this kid back in the Seventies!—and the iconic moments like the jazzy Bourbon Street funeral and the rotating bar booth remain pleasant memories. And Moore was still young enough to seem plausible in the role.
7. Thunderball
The Connery films were starting to seem a bit similar at this point, but the underwater stuff was new at the time and the villain was about as fun as any before him—though setting him on a ship and giving him an eyepatch might have been a bit much.
6. Casino Royale
Daniel Craig exploded onto the screen as one of the best Bonds of all, in one of the absolute best movies. Parts were confusing to me at first; a lot happens in this movie. Ultimately, though, it’s dark and intense and so much fun.
5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
George Lazenby is underrated, in my view, while the film itself is somewhat overrated by Bond aficionados, in my view. The whole bit in the allergy clinic in the middle gets a little sillier with repeated viewings, rivaling the worst of Moore’s excesses later on. But it’s a really good spy story and there’s no denying the power of the ending.
4. Goldeneye
My favorite Bond actor in his best Bond film. I love nearly everything about this movie. We’d waited so long for Brosnan to play the part. When it came out, it represented a (you’ll pardon the expression) quantum leap forward in the sheer “epic-ness” of the series, back to what they’d been able to achieve (for far less money) in Connery’s heyday. It sports a supporting cast, including Alan Cummings and Sean Bean, as good as any film in the series.
So there you have my numbers 13-4. Next time we’ll look at the three best James Bond films of all, in my estimation.
Be sure to visitwww.whiterocketbooks.comto listen to our James Bond podcast episode (or find it on iTunes) and also to check out the many great books we have available. See you next time!
Having read through Peter Travers’ travesty of a ranking of all the James Bond films, I decided the only thing to do was to create my own, much more accurate list in response. That’s a little joke, of course, because it’s all subjective–few topics get fans more fired up than ranking any series of anything, and especially Bond movies. But I’ve been watching Bond movies for four-plus decades; I grew up on them, as is my little daughter even now. (Yesterday we finished her first viewing of “Dr. No” and she loudly demanded that we continue on into “Goldfinger!”) So here is how I see them, beginning with what I view as the TEN WORST BOND MOVIES OF ALL:
23. A View to a Kill
Simply a wretched film under any circumstances, and the worst of the Roger Moore series—which is saying something. I’ve watched it several times, and can’t get those hours of my life back, I’m afraid. There’s virtually nothing redeeming about this movie. Moore is a thousand years old. Duran Duran does the theme song. Dear lord. It’s all just dreadful.
22. Octopussy
While overall not as terrible as “A View to a Kill,” it contains the single worst moment in any of the films: James Bond, in full clown makeup, pleading for someone in a circus audience to take him seriously and believe him that an atomic bomb is counting down toward detonation. And they’re all laughing at him. YOU DON’T EVER LAUGH AT BOND. Except, y’know, when he’s making one of his little dry jokes. Just horrible.
21. License to Kill
Watching Dalton is as exciting as watching a layer of paint dry on your secret underground supervillain volcano lair, and the film looks more like a made-for-TV movie from the mid-1980s than a big-budget blockbuster. Even “Dr. No,” made for about a buck fifty, looked more “epic” than this. And a drug lord and his cartel–big in the Eighties as far as bad guys go–just seems so “yesterday” now.
20. Die Another Day
The parts are all there for a great Bond film–particularly the Korean DMZ opening, a locale we hadn’t seen before in any of the Bond films, and a very logical one for him to be seen at–but they came together in such a depressing way that this movie actually made me ready for Pierce Brosnan’s run as Bond to die thisday. And that says a lot, considering he is my favorite Bond.
19. The Man with the Golden Gun
What seemed in the mid-1970s as an amazing spectacle—the fantastic Christopher Lee as the assassin “Scaramanga,” with his literal “golden gun,” flying car, and island base complete with lasers and fake Bond in the shooting gallery—now seems supremely cheesy. Still, it did serve as sort of a backdoor pilot for “Fantasy Island,” so we’ll at least give it credit for that. “The plane! The plane!”
18. The Living Daylights
While Timothy Dalton is the dullest Bond of all (and those who say he’s like the Bond of the books must be reading different books than I have), and while there are parts of the film that induce cringes to this day (toy soldiers shooting at Bond? Really?), it’s still tons better than Dalton’s other outing in the role. Seeing Bond on the Rock of Gibraltar at the start was a nice touch. Not horrible, but a far cry from “great.”
17. The World is Not Enough
As is true to one degree or another with all four of the Brosnan films, the pieces are there, but it doesn’t quite come together. Love the villain; like the plot; don’t like the execution of any of it. Denise “Nucular” Richards gets routinely trashed for her “contributions” to this film, and rightfully so; her performance in the final reel is the cruddy cherry on top.
16. Moonraker
Another that I have a particular soft spot for. While the return of Jaws—in his new, comedic role—nearly sinks the picture, and while the plot is a virtual Xerox copy of the previous film, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” but in space rather than underwater, the deliciously understated Hugo Drax and the astronauts-with-laser-guns battle at the end save this movie for me. Sort of.
15. Quantum of Solace
Parts of this movie—Craig’s performance, the whole “Quantum” bit that seemed to be setting up a modern-day SPECTRE, the theater sequence where he talks to the baddies over their communications link—border on spectacular. Everything else (from Mr. Green to the Latin American dictator) slides over into the ridiculous. The plotline involving Green’s girlfriend makes no sense whatsoever. A huge letdown of a movie.
14. The Spy Who Loved Me
Others think very highly of this movie, but I am not the Viewer Who Loved It. Part of it is personal, based on the circumstances under which I first saw it. (It was 1977 and I wanted to see “Star Wars;” my brother wanted to see this. He won. I had to wait months longer to see “Star Wars.”) Part of it is that I’m not remotely intrigued by Barbara Bach. Part of it is that, to borrow a phrase from Queen, “Jaws was never my speed.” Hate me if you want, haters, but this one doesn’t do a lot for me. Do like the underwater Lotus, though.
Back soon with numbers 13-4! Then we’ll finish up with the three best of all.
If you loved –or hated–this list, please check out my weekly podcast, The White Rocket Podcast, where a special guest and I sit down each week for a one-on-one conversation about some topic (such as James Bond books and movies!) of interest to Pulp, comics, SF and pop culture fans in general.
You can follow me on Twitter: @VanAllenPlexico and find me on Facebook as “Van Allen Plexico.” And my main web site is www.plexico.net.
Meet Modesty Blaise (aka the female James Bond) Modesty Blaise is glamorous, intelligent, rich and very, very cool. She’s been called the female James Bond but she’s much more interesting than that.
Modesty started life in 1963 as a strip cartoon in the London Evening Standard. The first of the novels followed three years later.
Daphne Alexander plays Modesty in Radio 4’s adaptation of A Taste for Death.
Modesty Blaise – A Taste for Death Episode 1 of 5 Duration: 15 minutes First broadcast: Monday 17 December 2012 She’s glamorous, intelligent, rich and very, very cool. Modesty Blaise has been called the female James Bond but she’s much more interesting than that. With her expertise in martial arts and unusual weapons, the ability to speak several languages and her liking for fast cars, twenty-something Modesty became a female icon long before the likes of Emma Peel, Lara Croft, or Buffy.
In Stef Penney’s brand new radio adaptation of Peter O’Donnell’s novel, Sir Gerald Tarrant, Head of a secret British agency, tempts Modesty out of retirement and into a job involving a young woman with extra sensory powers, an exotic desert location, and a larger than life public school villain, intent on murdering his way to a vast fortune. With its perfect cocktail of glamorous settings, hidden treasure, a twisting turning plot, and characters to root for, A Taste for Death is an action packed treat – and a guilty pleasure.
With an original score by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory, arranged by Ian Gardiner, and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ben Foster.
Produced and Directed by Kate McAll
Interesting Modesty Facts: Modesty first started life in 1963 as a strip cartoon in the London Evening Standard – the first of the novels followed three years later.
Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, is seen reading a Modesty Blaise book in Pulp Fiction.
Learn more about Modesty Blaise – A Taste for Death Episode 1 of 5 here.
Earth Station 007 includes some of New Pulp’s finest as they celebrate 50 years of James Bond movies with a special episode devoted to the world’s best-known secret agent. ESO hosts Mike Faber, Mike Gordon, and Bobby Nash are joined on this mission by writer Anthony Taylor, award-winning artist Mark Maddox, Raging Bullets podcaster Sean Whelan, and Alan J. Porter, author of “James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007.” We also chat with Rich Morris and Richie Brackin about “A Time to Live, A Time to Kill,” a webcomic bringing two British icons together. Last, but certainly not least, we are honored to be joined by Virginia Hey, a Bond Girl who kisses and tells about her time on “The Living Daylights.”
As ARROW hits the halfway mark of the TV season, fans and critics alike say it keeps getting better. We go backstage with the creators and cast to find out how they got this far, and what lies ahead for new characters including one played by fan favorite John Barrowman. Plus How about Captain Kirk, Ron Burgundy or Spock doing your voice mail message? It can happen if you hurry.
Fictional spies seem to come in two varieties, with numerous subsets: There are the glamorous and super-competent who bop around the globe, always traveling first class, driving lavishly sports cars, staying at palatial hotels, indulging in expensive cuisine and exotic liquor and comely members of the opposite sex and killing bad guys and saving civilization from slightly caricatured nut cases. (Bond – James Bond.)
If you can ignore the authoritarian subtext, mentioned in his space last week, and if you aren’t bothered by the veneration of conspicuous consumption, this almost-fantasy can be excellently entertaining, and often I have been excellently entertained by it.
This kind of secret agent is currently represented on television by Covert Affairs, a show in which the superspy is a woman incarnated by Piper Perabo. Her character isn’t quite as over-the-top as Bond, and thus far her opponents haven’t been any more caricatured than most televised antagonists, but she is one tough jet-setter who doesn’t stay in hostels when abroad and seems to have no qualms about her profession. She is part of a CIA unit that functions as a surrogate family, has a brotherly colleague with whom she has a platonic (so far) relationship, and even a biological sister. Oh, and she’s gorgeous. Did I mention that – the gorgeousness?
The other kind of fictional spy is a lot less fun. You find him/her in print in the novels of John LeCarre and Graham Greene and on the screen in movies made from those novels, and, I guess, some others. On the screen in your living room, this brand of spy is represented by another woman who is a far distance from Ms Perabo’s Annie Walker. Claire Danes’s Carrie Mathison, of Homeland fame, is deeply conflicted and in need of psychiatric help, which she got in the last episode of the previous season in the form of shock therapy. Ouch!
She has a love-hate relationship with her primary antagonist and doesn’t always mesh with her fellow CIAers. She usually looks unhappy and she’s been known to raise her voice. Her world is dark and the mortal climate is ambiguous: watching Homeland this week, I saw a beautifully written and played scene in which Carrie and a terrorist debated the righteousness of their respective causes and neither was in error. Grey is apparently the universe’s hue of choice and Homeland reflects that.
So what kind of spy story is better? Hey, no need for such a comparison. There is absolutely nothing wrong with pure entertainment and I would sashay along Annie Walker’s path any time. But – maybe drama should occasionally try for something more than entertainment. Maybe it should reflect the perplexities of the real world and maybe it should prompt us to question inherited wisdom and assumptions and so, if we were indulging in pointless comparisons (and we’re not! We’re not!) Carrie would be the more valuable she-spy.
But I’d still rather sashay with Annie.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING:The Science of Natural Healing, presented by Dr. Mimi Guarneri and available from The Teaching Company. The information Dr. Guarneri gives us could conceivably save lives. Stuff everyone should know.
FRIDAY: Martha Thomases – Where Are The New Nerds?
It’s a Christmas tradition at a lot of holiday parties. You might call it “Secret Santa” or “White Elephant” but now it’s getting super-sized and coming to NBC for five consecutive nights. Howie Mandel joins us to talk about what TAKE IT ALL will mean to the landscape of primetime television, plus Neil Gaiman hits radio and WALKING DEAD fans can keep the fear going with a new iOS game.
SONS OF ANARCHY will be wrapping this season on a particularly bloody note, which has been the tone for the last few months. We talked with series creator Kurt Sutter about his plans to keep the tension and betrayal coming. Plus everyone is waiting for the 2nd part of the direct-to-DVD DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Bruce Timm & Andrea Romano join us to talk about what we will and won’t be seeing in the next part set to hit stores in 2013.
