Kevin McClory
Nicko1234
Posts: 74MI6 Agent
This is my first post here so please go easy on me.
I was reading the Girls, Guns and Martinis book and one of the most striking things about it to me was the attitude that the writers had for Kevin McClory. I wondered what the general opinion is of him on this board.
My own opinion is that many of his actions were understandable. If I thought that I had a claim on Bond then I would probably have fought for that. He probably did go too far in the late 1990s but the book made him out to be a madman.
Personally I think that that book let an irrational hatred of the man cloud their judgments towards Never Say Never Again. I certainly wouldn't say that it's a great film at all but is it really worse than the first Casino Royale?
I was reading the Girls, Guns and Martinis book and one of the most striking things about it to me was the attitude that the writers had for Kevin McClory. I wondered what the general opinion is of him on this board.
My own opinion is that many of his actions were understandable. If I thought that I had a claim on Bond then I would probably have fought for that. He probably did go too far in the late 1990s but the book made him out to be a madman.
Personally I think that that book let an irrational hatred of the man cloud their judgments towards Never Say Never Again. I certainly wouldn't say that it's a great film at all but is it really worse than the first Casino Royale?
Comments
Bryce, who was personally involved, certainly did not like McClory in a much stronger way than Gary Morecambe & Martin Sterling who do not list his book in their bibliography.
As to their opinion of NSNA, I must say that their views ring mostly true with me. It does have its good points although they're outweighed by the bad- and I'd rather watch it than than 67 CR!
Here it is:
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2054582.ece
Not sure about NSNA, it got exageratedly good reviews when it came out, as critics had always slagged off Roger for not being Sean. It hasn't dated well, though. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, and didn't fulfil its brief as a tougher, grittier Bond film.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Im sure he must have made a fortune from the '65 TB, but he still persisted in trying to bring "TB" back to the big screen after NSNA, i think he was osessive and insane hehehehe
Fleming, was asked near the end of his life what it was like to have finally achieved "fame and fortune" his reply......"ashes".
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
Always arguable. Legally it is - alongside Whittington (I believe) another gentleman who obtained legal rights in the court ruling. And its not fair to say it's his character - he only ever had the film rights, whereas Fleming held the book rights.
Additionally, to answer the moral question as to who owned the story...James Bond was a character who already existed, and McClory was hired to help bring him to the full screen. And when he created Blofeld, he created him alongside Fleming in a group effort. While he helped create the character, he never owned all ownership rights.
And it's moot whoever owned them in the 60's now anyway - EON now owns the rights to NSNA and I believe Blofeld/SPECTRE. Theres a posibility yes. But hopefully the days of looking back to the 60s and replicating it in new adventures is gone with Brosnan.
As for McClory, I strongly recommend the new book "The Battle for Bond" by Robert Sellars. I came upon it on Amazon, and found it to be a fascinating read. Lots of documentation from all the players- Fleming, McClory, Bryce, Whittingham, Cuneo- hundreds of letters and cables spell out everything. What it adds up to is debatable to this day, but it's all there to savor. Except for the annoyingly tiny typeset, it's a wonderful book.