Kevin McClory...

Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
What was the deal with Kevin McClory, a highly controversial, and tragic figure within the Bond franchise?

He directed Thunderball, but for long decades since then he jealously held onto the legal rights to SPECTRE, and Blofeld until his hands literally went cold, and dead. I heard it was largely to do with vague behind scenes wrangling when McClory helped to formulate the Bond film franchise alongside Ian Fleming, and EON (where McClory claimed EON and Mr. Fleming allegedly stole his ideas).

But what the heck did Kevin McClory gain apart from churning out the middling Never Say Never Again, and totally squandering a promising career as a filmaker? Why didn't the selfish, and proud twit simply cut his losses and move on, like EON did? This rather sad person was trying to screw everybody else but was ultimately only screwing himself in the long run...
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'

Comments

  • CasinoChris75CasinoChris75 Posts: 80MI6 Agent
    edited November 2007
    He directed Thunderball

    I like it how McClory had Terence Young's name listed as director to irritate Young. McClory did a fabulous job directing Thunderball.

    He did the same thing with E.T. He directed E.T., but had Steven Spielberg's name listed as the film's director to annoy him.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Personally, I don't understand why so many people act like the late Kevin McClory was the devil incarnate. So he had a portion of the richest film property in history and wanted to protect it and capitalize on it. . .so frickin' what? He didn't commit mass murder or peddle dope or sell poisoned milk to school children. Hell, he didn't even prevent EON from turning out Bond movies decade after decade. If he only wound up harming his own career, then that's his karma. Let it go.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • AlexAlex The Eastern SeaboardPosts: 2,694MI6 Agent
    Hardyboy wrote:
    Personally, I don't understand why so many people act like the late Kevin McClory was the devil incarnate. So he had a portion of the richest film property in history and wanted to protect it and capitalize on it. . .so frickin' what? He didn't commit mass murder or peddle dope or sell poisoned milk to school children. Hell, he didn't even prevent EON from turning out Bond movies decade after decade. If he only wound up harming his own career, then that's his karma. Let it go.
    Couldn't agree more. If I had a penny for each time a misguided soul blamed Kevin McClory for every unpardonable sin on heaven and earth, I'd be a wealthy man.

    Frankly, in my shoes, and under the same circumstances, I would've done the same. Fleming was a brilliant writer and a man of taste, but men aren't completely infallible, and they're certainly prone to human characteristics like the rest of us.
  • Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
    I like it how McClory had Terence Young's name listed as director to irritate Young. McClory did a fabulous job directing Thunderball.

    Don't be a sarcastic twit, and stop spamming, he was still the producer of Thunderball, although I always assumed he was the director due to McClory being continuously associated with the movie as it's creator (but I carefully checked McClory's profile on IMDb - he didn't direct NSNA either but was it's executive producer).
    'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
  • Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
    Hardyboy wrote:
    Personally, I don't understand why so many people act like the late Kevin McClory was the devil incarnate. So he had a portion of the richest film property in history and wanted to protect it and capitalize on it. . .so frickin' what?

    I don't think he was evil or a mass murderer either, but what he did was still exceedingly silly, with his professional whinging severly alienating both Bond fandom, and perhaps Hollywood as well (if his non-resume outside of NSNA is anything to go by).
    He didn't commit mass murder or peddle dope or sell poisoned milk to school children. Hell, he didn't even prevent EON from turning out Bond movies decade after decade.

    I heard that some Bond fans with no lives were threatening McClory as late as the 1990s, when he was elderly, and in ill health - I don't fully sympathise with McClory's choice, but it's only movies, and nothing worth to give death threats over. And EON carried on making Bond movies in spite of McClory, not because of him (although he was really shooting himself in the foot).
    If he only wound up harming his own career, then that's his karma.

    That is essentially what happened. And I find that rather depressing.
    Let it go.

    Too bad McClory didn't.
    'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
  • The CatThe Cat Where Blofeld is!Posts: 711MI6 Agent
    Anyone intersested in the "deal with McClory" should get Robert Sellers' fascinating book "The Battle for Bond". It's an incredible read (easily the best 007 reference book in a couple of years) and will change your mind wherever you stand. If you'd seen McClory as the devil himself, the book will show you what he lost and you'll feel with him. But if you defended him, the man's slow descent into madness will be like reading a Greek tragedy - how this once youthful and energetic producer turned in a bitter old man who spent the last decade of his year loosing all his money in an insane legal battle for partial ownership of the ENTIRE franchize (yes, all 20 movies). A truly said tale - if you don't have this book yet, buy it!
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    What was the deal with Kevin McClory, a highly controversial, and tragic figure within the Bond franchise?

    He directed Thunderball, but for long decades since then he jealously held onto the legal rights to SPECTRE, and Blofeld until his hands literally went cold, and dead. I heard it was largely to do with vague behind scenes wrangling when McClory helped to formulate the Bond film franchise alongside Ian Fleming, and EON (where McClory claimed EON and Mr. Fleming allegedly stole his ideas).

    Once again agreeing with The Cat, the book The Battle For Bond covers this subject in great detail. Some brief points for those who haven't read it:

    (1) McClory was originally set to direct James Bond's first cinematic adventure. When this proved impractical, he was still to be involved with such a film as a producer. The script was contributed to by Fleming, McClory, professional screenwriter Jack Whittingham, and Fleming's friend Ernest Cuneo (later to receive a dedication in TB). When the whole idea of such a film fell through, Fleming worked up a novel using some of the ideas jointly worked on and called it Thunderball. On reading the book, McClory sued Fleming stating that some of the characters and plot elements/ideas were his/his and Whittinghams/his, Whittinghams and Flemings.

    (2) Rather than vague behind scenes wrangling, his rights were confirmed by a very public court case involving Ian Fleming, Ivar Bryce and Jack Whittingham (the first two against McClory, the third on his side). The case left him with the film rights to TB (aka NSNA, "Warhead", etc) although it would remain a published Fleming novel with a credit to McClory & Whittingham.

    (3) After (at least ostensibly) making plans to use his film rights using such stars as Richard Burton or Laurence Harvey as Bond, McClory came to a deal with Broccoli & Saltzman to produce TB together starring Sean Connery (at that point under contract to EON and the only actor identified worldwide with Bond). TB was a very profitable picture.
  • Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
    It seemed like Ian Fleming was in terrible health and saw himself on borrowed time anyway, while Kevin McClory must've intially had a good enough case, with the help of Jack Whittingham. But I still think McClory had grinded on far too long with his legal battles through the 70s and 80s out of pure hubris, eventually losing the plot altogether in the 90s and 00s.

    I guess he was motivated by the feeling of being cheated out of running the Bond franchise in the late 50s, even though he ended up producing Thunderball, and could've easily moved onto other things, finding better success elsewhere (likeStar Trek's Harlan Ellison).

    And while I never personally knew the guy, and McClory inflicted far more damage on his film career than on the Bond franchise, I can see why it wasn't hard for Bond fandom or mainstream Hollywood to dislike Kev, even if he was initially a big driving force behind the making of the Bond movies, and had carried out a minor triumph with Never Say Never Again.
    'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
  • Dan SameDan Same Victoria, AustraliaPosts: 6,054MI6 Agent
    edited November 2007
    And while I never personally knew the guy, and McClory inflicted far more damage on his film career than on the Bond franchise, I can see why it wasn't hard for Bond fandom or mainstream Hollywood to dislike Kev, even if he was initially a big driving force behind the making of the Bond movies, and had carried out a minor triumph with Never Say Never Again.
    I don't agree with this. What McClory did to his career was something he had to live with, and as for the general Bond community or mainstream Hollywood disliking him, as it has been pointed above, he didn't do anything that prevented Bond films from being made. I think that alot of the ill-feeling reflects more on the people who bear this ill-will than on McClory himself. I've never met McClory, I have no idea what kind of person he was, but I don't understand what 'crime' he committed. :#

    I think that McClory has been cast as the bad guy for no good reason simply than everbody likes a bad guy. ;)
    "He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
  • 00-Agent00-Agent CaliforniaPosts: 453MI6 Agent
    First let me say that I do not have any ill feelings towards McClory.

    I thought that part of the reason that some did though was due to the speculation that the trial aggravated Fleming’s health problems and helped lead to his early demise.

    I also thought that it was fairly clear that Fleming did use some of the ideas from the screenplay that they both worked on, right or wrong.

    I have Sellars book and am anxious to start it so that I can get the whole story.
    "A blunt instrument wielded by a Government department. Hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. He likes gambling, golf, fast motor cars. All his movements are relaxed and economical". Ian Fleming
  • Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
    Dan Same wrote:
    I don't agree with this. What McClory did to his career was something he had to live with, and as for the general Bond community or mainstream Hollywood disliking him, as it has been pointed above, he didn't do anything that prevented Bond films from being made.

    The real question is, were Bond movies being made after the mid 60s because of Kevin McClory's incessant litigation whingings or despite of them? Remember he nearly derailed the making of The Spy Who Loved Me, preventing the use of SPECTRE in a different storyline where SPECTRE goes through a powerstruggle, and rival terrorists take over from the old leadership.

    That was a potentially good storyline completely wasted because of McClory's selfishness, even though he was not entirely in the wrong to begin with in regards to his legal case, and undoubtly had a role in the inception of Blofeld and SPECTRE.
    but I don't understand what 'crime' he committed. :#

    He did not do anything legally wrong, but just because something is legal does not neccessarily make it morally right, and not only was McClory scapegoated by fans for Fleming's early death because of stress in court, I heard Kevin McClory gave Jack Whittingham the cold shoulder only a few years after Thunderball (also dying not that long after in 1972). I'm sorry, but this gives me the impression of McClory being a rather stupid, overtly ruthless, bitter, and obsessively possessive little man, even though he initially had a lot of bad luck in his abortive attempt in bringing Bond to the big screen, and supposedly had his ideas stolen.
    I think that McClory has been cast as the bad guy for no good reason simply than everbody likes a bad guy. ;)

    I don't have any hard feelings, and it sounds pathetic that some Bond fans were still given Kevin McClory death threats as recently as 1999 after all those years, when he had long lost his legal battles and was a sad, elderly man. But he was the man who essentially tied his own rope to hang himself with back in the 60s and 70s.
    'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Cap'n Shatner, I believe that the situation with TSWLM is that the young terrorists taking over SPECTRE is from an early draft screenplay by Richard Maibaum, and that it was Cubby Broccoli himself who deemed this storyline "too political" for a Bond film and ordered that the script be rewritten to include Blofeld and a more traditional SPECTRE plot. It was at this point that McClory entered the picture, claiming that EON's rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld had expired; and so Broccoli ordered another rewrite, in which Blofeld became Fishfinger--later Stromberg--billionaire madman with no ties to any crime organization. McClory had very little impact on Spy's production, whereas EON, of course, sought to counter McClory's attempts to make a Bond film at every possible turn.

    Call me cynical, but I don't think any of the parties can claim the moral high ground in this situation. I don't for a minute believe that Ian Fleming was acting with clean hands when he borrowed the film plot for Thunderball. He was too smart to know he couldn't just take a story someone else created--no matter that he had a hand in it--and pass it off entirely as his own. That he created and owned James Bond is beside the point--he owed it to McClory and Whittingham to at least say they had a hand in the storyline. I think what Fleming did explains why EON to this day returns all unsolicited scripts unread.

    Certainly it is wrong to blame McClory for Fleming's heart attack. Looking at Fleming's lifestyle--heavy smoker, heavy drinker, lover of fatty foods, depressive--he was a bomb ready to go off. Anyone who hints that McClory "killed" Fleming are like P. B. Shelley insisting that the tubercular John Keats was "killed" by a bad review of his poems. But as for McClory giving Whittingham the cold shoulder--who knows why he did this? Maybe he had good reason. I don't know. I wasn't there. As I've said before, whatever McClory did or didn't do, he mostly hurt himself.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • Dan SameDan Same Victoria, AustraliaPosts: 6,054MI6 Agent
    edited December 2007
    That was a potentially good storyline completely wasted because of McClory's selfishness, even though he was not entirely in the wrong to begin with in regards to his legal case, and undoubtly had a role in the inception of Blofeld and SPECTRE.
    You describe it as selfishness, but if McClory created or co-created Blofeld and SPECTRE, wasn't it his right to protect Blofeld and SPECTRE? Eon weren't making Bond films for the good of humanity; they were doing so ultimately to make money. Why should McClory allow himself to be ripped off by them merely because to protect his investment would require 'selfishness'? IMO McClory was not selfish but was only doing what anybody in their right mind would have done. Eon afterall are a business, and would never have hesitated in suing McClory if they felt wronged.
    He did not do anything legally wrong, but just because something is legal does not neccessarily make it morally right
    Except how was it morally wrong? What was so immoral about what McClory did? It's one thing to criticise McClory, but to bring morality into is pushing it IMO.
    and not only was McClory scapegoated by fans for Fleming's early death because of stress in court, I heard Kevin McClory gave Jack Whittingham the cold shoulder only a few years after Thunderball (also dying not that long after in 1972). I'm sorry, but this gives me the impression of McClory being a rather stupid, overtly ruthless, bitter, and obsessively possessive little man, even though he initially had a lot of bad luck in his abortive attempt in bringing Bond to the big screen, and supposedly had his ideas stolen.
    I can not comment on any of this as this is outside my area of expertise, but I think you're being extremely harsh on him. Was he really worse than any of the people involved with Bond? I mean, Cubby was fantastic, but I'm fairly certain he was as ruthless as they come.
    I don't have any hard feelings, and it sounds pathetic that some Bond fans were still given Kevin McClory death threats as recently as 1999 after all those years, when he had long lost his legal battles and was a sad, elderly man. But he was the man who essentially tied his own rope to hang himself with back in the 60s and 70s.
    oh please. :# Firstly, how can receiving death threats be attributed to what McClory did? If you don't like what a celebrity does, you can boycott their products, but sending death threats completely crosses the line. Secondly, saying that he "essentially tied his own rope to hang himself" brings up the questions yet again of what was so terrible about what he did, and considering that the only person who was affected by what he did was himself, what is the big deal?
    "He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    I sort of agree with Hardyboy, to my knowledge McClory never had any effect in holding up EON's films which went on their merry way over the decades. First I've heard that Bond fans made death threats to him, they sound a bit strange and atypical. Most fans dismiss him as an irrelevance or just think his NSNA film is rubbish. Though that wasn't the concensus at the time, as many fans wet themselves at having Connery back in the role as they hated Moore (not really my opinion).

    I've heard bad things about McClory, and about Fleming for that matter...
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Colonel ShatnerColonel Shatner Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
    Dan Same wrote:
    You describe it as selfishness, but if McClory created or co-created Blofeld and SPECTRE, wasn't it his right to protect Blofeld and SPECTRE? Eon weren't making Bond films for the good of humanity; they were doing so ultimately to make money. Why should McClory allow himself to be ripped off by them merely because to protect his investment would require 'selfishness'? IMO McClory was not selfish but was only doing what anybody in their right mind would have done. Eon afterall are a business, and would never have hesitated in suing McClory if they felt wronged.

    McClory had every right to defend intellectual property, but he pushed that way too far at the detriment of his career and his former collegues - he could've asked for a royalty payment everytime SPECTRE or Blofeld was used in a story, but they were both limited plot devices anyway past OHMSS, and McClory jealously guarding the rights fruitlessly for so long puzzles me. And Fleming was in very poor health regardless...
    I can not comment on any of this as this is outside my area of expertise, but I think you're being extremely harsh on him. Was he really worse than any of the people involved with Bond? I mean, Cubby was fantastic, but I'm fairly certain he was as ruthless as they come.

    Of course Cubby, Fleming, and Slatzman were undoubtly very ruthless people and were after money as well. But remember people hypocritically dislike failed and pathetic a**holes like Kevin McClory more than successful ones such as Cubby Broccoli.
    ]oh please. :# Firstly, how can receiving death threats be attributed to what McClory did? If you don't like what a celebrity does, you can boycott their products, but sending death threats completely crosses the line. Secondly, saying that he "essentially tied his own rope to hang himself" brings up the questions yet again of what was so terrible about what he did, and considering that the only person who was affected by what he did was himself, what is the big deal?

    All I'm merely saying is that I heard rumours that Kevin McClory received death threats from some fans decades after his legal case, not that I condone it.
    'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
  • Nicko1234Nicko1234 Posts: 74MI6 Agent
    I can't say that I know all of the details here but if McClory had been the nutter that some people have implied then I sincerely doubt whether Connery would have agreed to work with him again. He may well have become embittered after that but, as other people have said, he was only hurting himself.
  • yodboy007yodboy007 McMinn CountyPosts: 129MI6 Agent
    edited January 2008
    When I was a pre-teen and first became interested in the James Bond films I read about him and instantly disliked him. Now that I am older and have learned so much more about the 007 films and life itself I realize he was not all that bad. I now only really see him as just a thorn in the side of Cubby and EON for so many years. Sure he did not hold up production of the films, but he did not help them either.

    As far as him wanting credit for Thunderball, that is fine. I did not like, however, how he sometimes acted like he helped create the film franchise and even Bond himself at times. He milked it for all it was worth.

    He did not create James Bond 007. Therefore, I think he should have never had the right to use 007, M, Q and Moneypenny in NSNA because those are Fleming creations. If he HAD to remake TB, he should have used the plot elements, SPECTRE, Blofeld, Domino, etc. and a Bond like character and not Bond himself. If EON could not use his SPECTRE in TSWLM, why did he get to use Fleming's 007 character in NSNA? Seems a bit weird to me. 8-)

    I also dislike how Cubby and Saltzman did not get a producer's credit in Thunderball's opening credits and were just "presenters".

    Also, did anyone notice that he died the Monday after Casino Royale came out. That is so crazy. Either he held on long enough to see Craig, or the film was so bad it killed him! :))
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