interesting, I didnt know about this writer. he contributed some of the best remembered lines in Goldeneye and the entirety of its followup. (I'm not surprised to learn the two producers are looking over his shoulder the whole time telling him to change this and that)
I feel like some of the important ideas he's suggested didnt come through in the final film, especially the Paris stuff. whereas that motorcycle chase (my favourite action sequence of the four Brosnans) and others like out seem to have squeezed out most of the character stuff that could have been unique to this movie.
But this interview gives us clues as to where Bond met Paris before! they once ended up floating on a raft off the Seychelles! wow thats a major clue to imagining an Unseen Mission. But you know what else? the Seychelles was the location for Fleming's Hildebrant Rarity story. so is Paris Carver the cinematic version of Liz Krest? in which case, she has very bad luck with the men she marries
Interview with Judi Dench from TND Technical Journal (1997)
It’s hardly surprising that when the producers of the James Bond series were looking for an actor of stature to assume the role of M in GoldenEye, they decided to cast Dame Judi Dench, one of the most celebrated talents in the British theater. Dench turned out to be the perfect choice to play Bond’s no-nonsense boss at MI6.
Seeing the new M take charge, there’s no doubt that Dench is a fitting replacement for the late Bernard Lee and Robert Brown, who previously played Bond’s boss. “Contrary to popular belief,” the actress insists, “just because Stella Rimington suddenly became the head of MI6 [in reality in Britain], everybody didn’t immediately think, ‘Oh yes, what a good idea to get a woman to be M!’ In actual fact, Bruce Feirstein, who also cowrote GoldenEye, thought of it before. He thought M should be a woman, so they went to my agent and asked, ‘Would she be interested?’ and I absolutely jumped at it.”
Without question, the defining moment for Dench’s M is the scene when she first reads Bond the riot act, informing him, “’I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War’... was very happy with it,” agrees Dench, of that now-classic 007 moment. “That was the first thing I read for the character, and it was wonderful stuff. Bruce is a wonderful writer. He has a wonderful ear and a great sense of humor, and that’s always important.”
Becoming a fixture in the Bond series may be one of the biggest departures for Dench, who has earned more than two dozen awards in a career that has spanned four decades. It would be almost impossible to note all her theater credits, which include Mother Courage, Waste, Antony and Cleopatra, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Absolute Hell and many others. Her latest film is Mrs. Brown, in which she gives an acclaimed portrayal of Queen Victoria.
When the role of M was first offered, Dench admits to slight trepidation. “I was nervous at first, but [GoldenEye director] Martin Campbell is a very friendly, accessible person—nobody to be frightened of in any way. So after the first day, I felt completely at ease. Martin knows the theater very well, and that made a huge difference.”
Another major consideration was Pierce Brosnan, who was also joining the series and had a great deal more pressure on him as the new Bond. “That's true, but he was such perfect casting choice. He’s such a calm, capable man, and has a great sense of humor, which is why he makes such a wonderful Bond. He has that wonderful tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, that kind of irony. Pierce is a gentle, lovely person. He’s wonderful to work with.”
Dench had no hesitation about reprising M in Tomorrow Never Dies. One of the highlights was a reunion of sorts with Geoffrey Palmer, who plays Admiral Roebuck. They had worked together on several occasions, notably on the long-running British comedy series As Time Goes By.
Although Dench hasn't had a great deal of screen time as M, she has a pretty good idea about what motivates this character. “Everybody does that, you work out your own scenario and exactly what you think that person is like. It’s exactly the same process as the theater: You have to work out what makes that person tick, why they behave the way they do, what kind of home life they have; you do that with every part you do. It’s all the same process, but it’s much rarer for me to do films, so I’m afraid I’m not so skilled at it as I feel I can be in the theater.”
And how does Dench see the character of M? The answer takes a moment to put into words. “It’s difficult to explain,” she says, “because I’ve just opened with a different character at the National Theater, so I’m playing somebody else now. I know that M has a home life and children who are grown up. I know she lives between London and the country and that she goes to that office every day. I know the kind of set-up she has at home and I think I know what kind of person she is. She’s actually quite vulnerable, but she’s also a person who has a very good mind; otherwise, she’s not going to hang on to that job in such a competitive, man’s world.”
By a strange coincidence, Dench has managed to keep her Bond connection going after Tomorrow Never Dies—so to speak. After finishing the film, she went on to appear in the David Hare play, Amy's View with Samantha (Moneypenney) Bond. “I’ve directed her before, too,” says Dench. “It is strange, because you don’t look at that person in any way like the last character, because they’re so totally different.”
After Amy's View, the actress will reteam with Palmer once again for another season of As Time Goes By, followed by a TV film and some work with theater giant Sir Peter Hall. As for the next Bond film, Judi Dench is more than willing for M to take command again. “I hope it happens, because it has been thrilling to do, but we'll wait and see. I think if one is very keen on making films, they would be excited, but it’s something I don’t really know about. I’m still in a learning process, so Ill always have a go at something.”
END OF INTERVIEW
I know it’s probably irrational but I find Judi Dench a one-trick pony. She is exactly the same in every role she plays. How she has amassed so many awards is beyond comprehension. It’s maybe the reason why I’m so dismissive of the Brosnan/Craig era in that she ruins the whole set-up. The script writers are to blame, of course, as Dench’s version of M clearly has no love for Bond - Bernard Lee and Robert Brown both displayed an ultimate warmth for Bond even if at times they were exasperated with his antics, but Dench’s version openly dislikes him in many of the films, even endangering his life. It’s the opposite of the M/Bond relationship that Fleming wrote about in the novels, and for me, this ruins the films.
As for the interview, it’s good. Judi Dench explains how she approached the role and the work she put in to find the character as written in the screenplay. It’s the script that is wrong, trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher’s “Iron Lady” persona, whereas a warmer character was required, oh how we missed you, Richard Maibaum.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I definitely agree about missing Mr Maibaum (I'm looking at you, P&W) but M does warm to Bond over the course of Dench's tenure. He has to keep proving himself to her in the Craig films which is rather repetitive (hello again, P&W) and I for one don't believe the handwave that she's playing two different characters despite the small indications that she is.
It's a good interview. I am pleased she praised Brosnan - although given she is promoting TND you wouldn't expect otherwise - the comment is quite perceptive. I always felt Brosnan is a halfway house between Connery's ironic turn and Moore's impish wit.
Harking back again to my very fortunate late mother. She saw Dench as Juliet at the RSC in the 1950s [was that Dame Judi's RSC debut?] and years later when I questioned why she watched stuff like As Time GoesBy, she told me how brilliant Dench was, her affectation, delivery and responses. She was and I quote "theatrically charismatic". Thanks, Mum.
I enjoy Dench in the first two Brosnan films and again in Craig's debut, after that she spends too long in the field and for me frequently distracts from OO7 being the focus of the story.
DenchM gives BrosnanBond a hard time in their first film, which is the first meeting of the two characters. I think they work together well after that first scene, but their first meeting establishes her character as one who is able to control the dialog from the start, and keep her subordinate on the defensive. and of course Bond was mocking her behind her back, never a good way to begin a relationship with a new boss.
By the start of the second film she is supporting him in the face of challenge from British and American military types, asserting what he is doing is "his job", and her attitude is the same in the third.
Whats interesting in TND is that she specifically assigns Bond to seduce the villains wife, despite critiquing him as a misogynist one film earlier: she now sees his overactive sex life as being strategic to national security, that too is part of his job. She is effectively pimping her agent at this point, exploiting his sexuality to get a larger mission done. and interesting that we see this from Bonds point of view as a more human question: to seduce Paris will be to endanger the life of a real person he knows. He is not approaching their inevitable night together as a bonus thrill for the sake of King and Country, as ConneryBond and MooreBond both did. we see this in Brosnans eyes as M gives him his orders
in Die Another Day she is negative towards Bond because she has to assume he has talked while under torture and is no further use as an agent. That is a special case, after appreciating and exploiting his talents in the previous two films. And does reinforce once again just how cold and calculating her version of M is.
I do think in the Craig films she plays the character differently. This version of M is more tentative and error-prone. and she puts entirely too much trust in CraigBond since he screws up everything he is assigned. Not surprising he gets her killed in the end.
Interview with Samantha Bond from TND Technical Journal (1997)
If there’s one thing you can depend on in any James Bond film, it’s Moneypenny, M’s ever-able assistant, being around to trade barbs and double entendres with Agent 007. Once again, the role is played by the aptly-named Samantha Bond, who joined the James Bond cast with GoldenEye, taking over for Caroline Bliss who played Moneypenny in the previous two films, and Lois Maxwell in the first 14 007 adventures.
For Bond, a veteran stage actress, taking on Moneypenny meant becoming a part of British pop culture. “That’s a very good way of putting it, actually,” she says. “There you are, with no disrespect to anyone, in the smallest part you've ever played in your life, and that’s what people want to talk to you about and that’s what impresses people and stops conversations at dinner parties. It’s a very strange feeling, and you do take on this mantle of responsibility.”
With countless theater productions to her credit, including A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, The Ends of the Earth and Three Tall Women to name only a few, being cast as the resourceful Moneypenny in GoldenEye meant a total departure for Samantha Bond. “Most of my work is in classical theater, so this was a bit different for me. It just happened like any job happened: I was called for an interview, I had a recall, and they offered me the role.
“Having said that, I felt very ambivalent about the first one, because you look at the part and a little bit of you can’t help wondering if you’re not tying an albatross around your neck, because from then on, that’s who you are. Miss Moneypenny. It’s what Lois Maxwell is still most famous for; I’ve met Lois and can’t honestly say I know what else she has ever done.
“Now, because everything didn’t grind to a halt after GoldenEye— the rest of my career has gone on and I’ve done very well—I now feel relaxed about that side of it. It’s just that initial thought of, ‘What am I doing here? Do you think it’s going to open any doors in America?’ and you keep saying, ‘Well, it hasn’t done that for any of the others, and I don’t think it will for me.’ It’s a double-edged sword, because you’re thrown into the forefront of consciousness, and at the same time, you’re being thrown there because you are being someone else.”
After the success of GoldenEye, it seemed almost inevitable that Bond would be asked to reprise her role in Tomorrow Never Dies, but the actress says it didn’t happen overnight. “They’re very funny, because you know it’s happening, but because you're a regular, you don’t get the call until about two weeks before you start work. I suppose they just take that risk, and because it’s only a small part, they would be able to work around whatever you were doing.
“This one was nicer for me, because with GoldenEye, I literally went in and worked for about two hours and then went home. It wasn’t until the film opened in London and it was such a good film, that I suddenly felt like part of this Bond family that they all talk about. I was so thrilled with it, and I was thrilled for Pierce Brosnan and [producer] Barbara Broccoli that it had gone that well.
“This time, I was around much more; I got to be in the studio and on location and then Moneypenny was suddenly put into a scene at the film’s end, so I was around with them much more, and that’s a nicer feeling even if you don’t say any more. You feel more a part of it.” After finishing her work on Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond continued her relationship with the series in a somewhat indirect fashion: She and Judi (M) Dench were reunited for a critically acclaimed National Theater production of the David Hare drama Amy's View. The play was sold out from the very beginning, but the actress admits that more than one of those seats has been booked by an avid James Bond aficionado. “Judi directed me [in a West End production of Much Ado About Nothing]; that’s going back nearly 10 years, and we’ve done radio plays together. The first stage work we’ve done together is now; this is the first time we’ve ever done proper acting together, as opposed to on radio or screen. It went very well indeed,” Samantha Bond says. “Everyone seems very moved by it, which is good, and yet so many people who've come to see Judi and me in the play have seen GoldenEye. The American support for British theater is phenomenal, so there are a whole lot of people who will know her, but even then they’ll be saying, ‘Oh, and she’s M!’
It's very weird.”
END OF INTERVIEW
I can’t remember if @Barbel has done a Samantha Bond “pacing-up-and-down-waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring” sketch, but it seems like it really does happen 😂
She’s not very complimentary towards the lovely Lois Maxwell and I remember reading in another article where she was rather nasty in saying that she wouldn’t outstay her welcome as Moneypenny, in a barbed comment about the length of Lois’s reign in the role. She’s also quite full of herself and I’m not particularly enamoured with her perceived self importance as an actress.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
An interesting interview. Samantha Bond is my least favourite Moneypenny of all. There is something too starchy about her. It is like watching M and Mini-Me M. And as for that dreadful scene at the end of DAD - I know it is hardly her fault, she didn't write it, but still - unforgiveable. She is very uncomplimentary about Lois Maxwell so to straighten the books, as it were, I would like to say on record that I know Lois featured in numerous sixties & seventies TV series, such as The Saint, UFO and The Persuaders. If my memory serves me correct, she has a small role in Kubrick's Lolita. I can think of nothing Ms Bond has done other than four OO7 films.
I'm reading Kim Sherwood's Double or Nothing Bond book or non-Bond book, and it seems Moneypenny has been promoted into an almost M-type role, one could only really see Bond's Moneypenny doing that for better or worse. I agree she's a mini M at times.
I struggled a bit with Ferstein, I do kind of see these characters as somehow getting to sit at the top table not entirely due to merit. Some of his quotes that never made the cut, I don't rate them at all, another one was a reference by M to 'hollowed out volcanos' it's too knowing, too self-referential for my tastes. Plus, the reason his Hong Kong media baron story went through so many rewrites is that someone clocked late in the day that it was too topical, the issue of the imminent handover or Hong Kong would date it quickly and secondly - plus what is something did go off during it, you are a hostage to fortune, or misfortune. This does seem to be an issue with the films since Cubby departed, they don't seem to think ahead and rewrites have to be one very late in the day.
In a latter to Starburst I had printed about GoldenEye I asked, who ever cares about satellites unless it's Rupert Murdoch? In my egocentric way I wondered if that was the inspiration for TND - though if so I'm today sat writing on a Bond forum while I take it Mister Ferstein is not.
also Lois Maxwell is in Operation Kid Brother/OK Connery playing Moneypenny in all but name, she gets more to do in that film than any official BondFilm
also in a season 1 episode of Danger Man where she plays a field agent, and a Cathy Gale era Avengers where she machine guns a classroom full of gangsters
she used to write a column in the Toronto Sun (entitled "Miss Moneypenny") when I was a we lad. I dont remember what she wrote about, but the Toronto Sun has always been a right wing populist tabloid, so we might not have been in agreement on the issues of the day
Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is like a scolding big sister "for your information, you have to do what M tells you to because she's the boss and I'm her favourite, so nyahh". Her final appearance is not only in poor taste, but completely out of character for that version of Moneypenny
You can add TheHaunting (one of the best British horror movies ever) to that as well, and on tv, TheAvengers, Randall&Hopkirk (Deceased) and DepartmentS, as well as some Gerry Anderson voice work too.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Interview with Harry Saltzman in Films & Filming - September 1969
Edited to remove a lot of detail about obscure foreign movies and his view on the (then) modern world.
Although Harry Saltzman is best known as the co-producer (with Albert Broccoli) of the James Bond series, and as the producer of The Ipcress File, Billion Dollar Brain, Play Dirty and Battle of Britain, he has also helped to finance less commercial films. Among these have been Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Vittorio de Sica's A Young World and A Man Called John. He was one of the founders of Woodfall, the company which revitalised the British film industry in the late 1950s with films such as Look Back in Anger, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Entertainer.
Over the past ten years, what have been the main changes in production, particularly in the way that films are now set up?
We were operating on a relatively hand-to-mouth basis until Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, then everything became easier for myself and Tony Richardson, for everybody. But in the years that have passed, the entire nature of the business has changed. The independent producer is not the curiosity he was when we started. The independent is now the rule rather than the exception. All the major companies live on the products of independent producers, so you don't have to be a trail-blazer any more. If you've got a property, a director and an actor and you have what they call a track record, there's no problem putting the picture together financially. I think the problem is what you make and the audience acceptance of it. This has changed drastically. There are no rules as to what the public will go to see. You have on one end of the scale a Disney picture called The Love Bug, which is doing incredibly big business, and it's a medium-budget film; and on the other end of the scale you have I Am Curious (Yellow), which is pure pornography.
How does this work in relation to what you're doing now?
Well, I don't make pornography. We're story-tellers, we're troubadours, and I think you have to tell a story well. I don't think people care whether it's Paul Newman, Marlon Brando or an unknown John Jones...I don't think stars mean that much to the box office. They don't guarantee a success anymore. The proof of that is a picture like The Comedians, which had Burton, Alec Guinness and half-a-dozen other names.
On Her Majesty's Secret Serviceis the first Bond film where you're not using Sean Connery. And you've got a director making his first feature.
I'm very excited about it. The picture looks tremendous, the biggest of all the Bonds in its physical size. It's also got the best story. Peter Hunt edited all the Bond films and directed the second unit on You Only Live Twice. He's done an incredible job and George Lazenby looks sensational.
How did you first decide to do a James Bond film? Did the success of the first one surprise you?
It surprised me terribly. It surprised Cubby Broccoli as much. I felt it was a period -- 1960 -- when realism and the kitchen sink was getting out of hand, and I felt we had to go back to entertainment. I wanted to do excitement pictures, adventure pictures. If you're doing contemporary work you have to reflect your times...and we live in an age of violence -- more so today than in 1960. 1960 was a pretty violent time and James Bond reflects the hero; he's the Tarzan of today. When Edgar Rice Burroughs brought out Tarzan the world was calm and peaceful. He was indeed the superman. But today he's very naive. Bond is today's Tarzan: he lives around violence, he begets violence. Voltaire said, 250 years ago, that humanity is not yet complete. It is more apt today. We're a very crude mutant life-form; we're more intelligent than a lot of other animals, but we haven't yet reached any sense of understanding of our own selves. We are born violently and we live violently and die violently, and we're products of our own violence -- we make our own violence. We've learned to do so many things, we can't control ourselves. As picture-makers, we mirror: we reflect our modes, our society. Look at the prose in literature in the last five years -- dreadful. How many writers do you know who write the kind of thing you'd like to take away and have a happy afternoon, lying quietly reading? Nabakov is one of the few you can read through and enjoy. He sets up a train of thought and you think. There's very little escapism.
What about your future projects?
I'm making a film called Tomorrow at the moment. Then I'm doing The Dancer, the story of Nijinsky, with Nureyev. And Tussy Is Me, which is the story of Eleanor Marks, who started the Labour Movement in this country. There's also His Brother's Keeper, which I hope to do with Peter O'Toole and Michael Caine. All the scripts are in preparation. Edward Bond is writing The Dancer, David Cregan is doing Tussy Is Me, and Clive Exton is writing His Brother's Keeper. I also have a book called The Becker Case by Andy Loganwhich I hope to have Lee Marvin and Michael Caine in. This is 1970-71. Then I'm preparing a big Western in Canada which Andre de Toth is going to direct, with George Lazenby starring. These are relatively high budget pictures. The French operation is next year's big picture, The Circus Starts At Ten, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Delphine Seyrig. The director is Michel Deville, who did Benjamin.
Which of your films has given you the most satisfaction?
Look Back in Anger, but From Russia With Love is the picture I liked the best. I think Battle of Britain gives me a lot of satisfaction, especially if it gets the public acceptance which I am sure it will get. The films I'm looking forward to more than anything are Tussy Is Me and The Dancer. I feel that these are two very important subjects and stories. There's a kind of feeling among a lot of people in the film industry that the public are not intelligent. I think the public are more intelligent today. They're so close to the dramatic things that they see on television, hour after hour, day in and day out, that when they come and put down their hard cash to see a picture you know it's good -- whether it's a Bullitt or a Bond or a Romeo and Juliet. Newspapers and critics don't influence them -- they shop for a picture today, they have a sense of value. It's uncanny the way they'll smoke out a good film no matter how it's received by the press or how it's presented. You can open them in toilets in back streets and they'll ferret them out. I respect the people who come to see motion pictures: the public to me are not eleven-year-old morons. I think Romeo and Juliet is one of the best-made films of recent times.
END OF INTERVIEW
The thing that interests me most is the proposed western with George Lazenby, I have never heard of this before. Did any of his other projects see the light of day? It’s plain to see that he had fingers in too many pies and his financial woes were due to overstretching himself much to far. Those projects must have been costing him a fortune in preparation, what with retaining scriptwriters, directors etc.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
this is interesting because we usually get the story from a Broccoli-centric point of view. I wish he'd gone into more detail why he chose to buy the rights to Flemings books. My understanding is Broccoli wanted to buy the rights but found this other producer already had them and didnt know what to do with them, and Broccoli did have concrete ideas thus the two formed their partnership. So why'd Saltzman buy these rights in the first place if he didnt have a plan?
EDIT: @Barbel youre going to have to revise all your Imaginary Conversations where Saltzmans the embarrassing loudmouth Broccoli keeps trying to shush
@caractacus potts too much like hard work! I'm not sure yet whether or not this will affect any future Imaginary Conversations in which Saltzman may appear but my characterisation of him has been informed by recollections from such as John Barry and George Martin, who were of course committed musicians attempting to deal with a totally non- musical producer and did not have fond memories of their interactions with him.
Interview with the legendary John Barry - The York Press - July 12 2001
(There is non-Bond stuff here as well, but it’s John Barry, so sod it.)
In 2001, John Barry made a rare visit to his home city. Nick Hallissey tried to contain himself while he lined up questions to ask one of his heroes.
It HAD been easy to remain fairly composed, so to speak, during most of my interview with legendary movie composer John Barry. Until Johnny and Jerry were mentioned. "Y'know, I get together every now and then with people like Johnny and Jerry, and we all agree that we took such different paths to get into this business; it's quite amazing."
Johnny and Jerry? I had my suspicions, but asked anyway.
"Johnny Williams and Jerry Goldsmith," he replied.
That did it. For a movie music buff like me, hearing my all-time film hero name-dropping my second and third choices so casually really was the limit.
The man who gave James Bond his rhythm was calmly chatting about, respectively, the man who scored Star Wars, and the man who scored Star Trek.
This all came about because John Barry, winner of five Oscars, son of York impresario Jack Prendergast, was in town to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.
So, I asked him if he had any hints he could pass on to aspiring composers in his home town. By way of answering, he told me that there were no hard and fast rules. Williams was a pianist, Goldsmith was in a band; all of them had had to make their own luck.
There was always going to be a risk with me interviewing the man once known as John Barry Prendergast.
I grew up wolfing down his film music; indeed, myself and my fiancee would like We Have All The Time in the World to be played at our wedding.
For me, he is George Best, or Neil Armstrong: the hero you always want to meet, but fear you never should for fear of what will happen to you.
But we were fine. He is so genial that it couldn't help but go well. He was flattered by my early compliment (I fought back the urge to cry "gee, Mr Barry - you're swell"), and made a point of ensuring he knew my name. So off we went.
Growing up in York, and playing in the band of the Green Howards, John Barry has gone on to score more than 120 films. Among them are 12 Bond movies, including From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and You Only Live Twice.
Then, there are the more mellow, sweeping compositions for Out of Africa, Dances With Wolves and The Lion in Winter, his personal favourite.
I wondered if there had ever been a film he'd wanted to score, but had missed out on.
"I asked my agent to go after 2001: A Space Odyssey, because I really wanted to work with Stanley Kubrick," he replied.
"In the end, he went with all the classical music, and although I was sorry not to have the chance, I thought what he did was exceptional."
Naturally, you can hear a great many anecdotes in a short chat with John Barry. He told me how Kevin Costner, a first-time director on Oscar eater Dances With Wolves, had left the music entirely down to him, figuring, quite wisely, that Barry knew what he was doing.
I heard that Louis Armstrong was a very poorly man when he recorded my wedding anthem with Barry, and that it was the last thing he ever committed to vinyl. What a way to go out.
Of the Bond magnates Cubby Broccoli and Harry R Saltzman, Cubby was the one to whom Barry would always speak. Saltzman was "very difficult".
Sydney Pollack was "great", working on The Ipcress File was "enormous fun", and Born Free was "very tough".
Now 67, and keen on a low profile, Barry flits between London and New York, with the occasional stop-off to meet his family in Old York. He has his pick of assignments, usually judging what to get involved with on the calibre of the director, and the quality of the script.
At present he is scoring Michael Apted's film Enigma, based on the British code-breaking team at Bletchley Park in the Second World War; his next is a London stage musical based on Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. His old Bond collaborator, Don Black, is writing the lyrics.
He's not sorry to have left Bond - he parted company with the series after The Living Daylights in 1986 - but he likes where they have gone since. The new incumbent Bond composer, David Arnold, continually refers to Barry as "the Guv'nor", and even asked him for help when he got under way on Tomorrow Never Dies.
"I just think the first ten or so that I did were the great ones, the real classics, as far as I was concerned," he said."But I did recommend David for the job, and he did come to me to ask for my opinions, and I think he's just doing a wonderful job."
Having "emigrated" to London and beyond almost as soon as he was able, does he like coming back to York?
"London was where it was all happening; I did have to go there," he said. "But it's great to come back, to walk around the streets, have a meal and spend a little time here."
He was in town with his wife Laurie and their son, Jonpatrick; in fact the six-year-old follows them everywhere.
I was not much older than Jonpatrick is now when my dad first carried me into the stalls and showed me this giant mouse on the screen," he said. "I just thought, wow, this is brilliant."
The mouse, by the way, was Mickey.
By the time he was a teenager, Barry could virtually run Jack's Rialto cinema himself, with the help of brother Patrick and sister June, whenever his dad decided he wanted a night off.
He's sorry to see the Fishergate venue as a bingo hall now.
"Just thinking of all the stars and names that dad had there, it is rather sad," he added.
So would the mighty Jack Prendergast be proud to see his son today?
"I think so; he seemed to be during his lifetime in fact, but he was always very critical. He wasn't the easiest man to have as a father, but the conclusion I come to time and time again is that his advice and his criticism were always right."
On the subject of useful advice, Barry did eventually say he could think of a way to help a talented fledgling musician in this city.
"A good agent is vital. Give them the name Vanessa Jones, she's my agent and she is very receptive to new talent," he told me. "Tell them to seek her out - I'll mention to her that I've said this to your paper. Is that all right?"
Fine by me, sir.
By the time you read this, Barry may well be winging his way back to Oyster Bay, his home on an idyllic private island in New York State, where he'll be getting on with Enigma and Brighton Rock.
And taking calls from Johnny and Jerry.
END OF INTERVIEW
If you had to name only five people who were quintessentially important to the series then John Barry would have to be in there, without question.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Thanks for that; I enjoyed the bits about his home town when he grew up. The rest was familiar stuff. It was interesting that Arnold asked Barry's advice during composing duties on TND. Pity no one mentioned this at the BFI John Barry season; perhaps they didn't know, but given how the panel praised his influence across several genres, you'd have thought it might have cropped up. I did think that panel was a tad lightweight.
Interview with Richard Maibaum, screenwriter of several films in the franchise, in Starlog magazine 1983.
About "Never Say Never Again": "We know that for the last four or five pictures, the overseas audiences have preferred Roger to Sean, if grosses are any indication. But Sean may have an edge in the U.S. because he's less English. It will all depend on which picture is actually the better picture. Never Say Never Again has a good writer [Lorenzo Semple, Jr.], a good director [Irvin Kershner] , and a good star. It should be a good film." (...) "If they deviate too much beyond the limits of a remake, there will certainly be legal action."
About Moore in "Octopussy": "Roger Moore looks better in this film, somehow, than he's looked in any of the others. My only objection is that he fools around with the lines. He fancies himself a great wit."
About "From Russia With Love": "I think it was the most successful artistically."
About Felix Leiter after Jack Lord: "I've never liked another Leiter, and as time went on, they hired older and fatter men to play the part in order to make James Bond look younger and more handsome."
About a black Felix Leiter, as portrayed by Bernie Casey in Never Say Never Again: "certainly an interesting idea."
About the villain Largo in "Thunderball": "Largo was a disappointment, partly because it was played by an actor who I thought was miscast. I had to invent other people to augment his villainy."
About George Lazenby and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service": "We had this plastic surgeon idea. Bond had to have plastic surgery because he was being recognized by all his country's enemies. But, we thought that was awful and threw it out. Finally, I came up with that line, when the girl leaves him flat after he rescues her. Bond said, 'This never happened to the other fellow.'" (...) "Because it was funny, the audience like it. It said, 'Look, you know it's not the same James Bond, so we're not going to kid you or do anything corny to excuse it. You'll just have to accept that this just isn't the same fellow.' " (...) "OHMSS is the picture where Bond is more of a human being than in any of the others. And despite the fact that Lazenby was not ideal for the part, I thought it was a marvelous script."
About the twin brother of Goldfinger in "Diamonds Are Forever" and the final version of the movie: "This fellow is supposed to say to Bond at one point, 'Oh, my brother Auric — mother always said he was a bit retarded.' We were going to cast Gert Frobe again, but it didn't work out," he muses. In a watery climax, Las Vegas gambling magnates hoodwinked by Goldfinger chase the villain across Lake Mead as he attempts to make his escape. They pursue Goldfinger in everything from Chinese junks to Roman Galleys— exotic ships that prominent Las Vegas hotels keep on the lake. "What I had was this fleet of boats in pursuit of Goldfinger," Maibaum recalls, "because he gave the city such a bad name. They wanted to do something patriotic to catch this terrible villain. I thought I had one of the best lines in the entire series when Bond, in the lead boat, broadcasts to the fleet, 'Las Vegas expects every man to do his duty,' a take-off on what Admiral Horatio Nelson said at Trafalgar. Just for the sake of the line, I was heartbroken when they rejected it." Broccoli called in Tom Mankiewicz to rewrite Maibaum's screenplay and, in the process, Goldfinger's brother was scratched, and Ernst Stavros Blofeld, the mastermind behind SPECTRE, returned. And, Maibaum says, his "smash ending" became "an interminable thing on an oil rig."
About "Live and Let Die" (that he didn't write): "I would have liked a crack at Live and Let Die. I didn't particularly like what they did to it. It was about nothing, a lousy cooking-some-dope-somewhere-in-the-jungle movie. That's not Bond at all. To process drugs in the middle of a jungle is not a Bond caper."
About Roger Moore: "Bond should be played by someone like Sean, who is convincingly physical. One of my reservations about Roger is that he is not physical; he is not the physical superman Sean made you believe Bond was. "In a strange way," Maibaum continues, "some people like Roger better than Sean. I certainly don't. I think Roger does very well. He's suave, witty, and so forth, but as far as I'm concerned, he has a dimension of disbelief. He does what I consider unforgivable: he spoofs himself and he spoofs the part. When you start doing that, the audience stops laughing. Just play the part. "The most important thing in the Bond pictures is a pretense of seriousness. If your leading man doesn't really appear to believe in what he is doing as either an actor or a character, that will count against the performance's effectiveness." Maibaum shrugs his shoulders and sighs, "Of course, I may not be right because Moonraker, my least favorite Bond, was very successful." “Moore makes everything so arch and is so coy about everything," Maibaum contends. "We knew Roger was not a rough, tough guy like Sean. So, we deliberately gave him things to do that would make him tougher. But you see, he hasn't got it. You believed Sean could be pure steel if he wanted to be."
About "The Spy Who Loved Me": His original screenplay opened with a group of terrorists, comprised of everyone from the Red Brigade to the Weathermen, breaking into an ultra-modern SPECTRE lair. "They level the place, kick Blofeld out, and take over," explains Maibaum. "They're a bunch of young idealists. In the end, Bond comes in and asks, 'All right, you're going to blow up the world. What do you want? ' They reply 'We don't want anything. We just want to start over — the world is lousy. We want to wipe it away and begin again. So, there's no way we can be bribed.' "I never had Stromberg — or whomever the hell it was in that movie — or that interminable thing which went on in the tanker." Maibaum's draft was rewritten by Christopher Wood, who would later pen Moonraker, and polished by Tom Mankiewicz. "Rightly or wrongly, Cubby thought.it was too political," he recalls. "So many young people in the world support those people that we would have scrambled sympathies in the picture. Cubby is a very astute man. He knows ..." Jaws, the steel-toothed mercenary, also lurked in Maibaum's draft, though he feels the producers later "made a schlemeil out of him in Moonraker." In Maibaum's original script for Spy, Jaws met his death in a furnace.
About "For Your Eyes Only", trying to return to the realism and the main couple: "'We tried to return to the earlier films with For Your Eyes Only, but we didn't have Sean to make it real," Maibaum says. "And I was very disappointed with the way the love story was handled. The whole idea was that the great lover James Bond can't get to first base with this woman because she's so obssessed with avenging her parents' death. Nothing was ever done with it. It was as if the director [John Glen] didn't feel there was a love story there at all." One critic wrote that in the movie, Moore "was an occasional stand-in for the stuntman." "It's true," Maibaum says. "I don't think it's good, I think it's five times better when they have the stunts and a real James Bond, too. And there's no reason why we can't do it. "I think we blew an opportunity in For Your Eyes Only to go back to the From Russia With Love/On Her Majesty's Secret Service Bonds."
About Roger Moore AGAIN: Maibaum, to put it mildly, was not happy with the film's one-liners. ' 'My lines are 'Red wine with fish. That should have told me something' and 'She had her kicks' [both from From Russia with Love]. Those are my lines, the ones I claim and enjoy writing. Some of the stuff I think is awful, like, 'Something big is coming between us.' Roger insists on making some script changes. He's very proud of them and tells everybody. And some of his 'improvements' are just awful. "Sean would come up with pretty witty lines at times," Maibaum recalls. "Sean is a witty man. And so is Roger. But God, the lines, please ".
END OF INTERVIEW
A very candid interview, and all the more better for it.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Well, Sir Rog looked okay in 3 Bond films, then he kinda started to get a bit laid back from MR onwards. I think Maibaum is a little unfair on FYEO, which really is getting back to the Cold War. Strange that, unlike some people in the entertainment biz, he is quite happy to diss products and people he's been actively involved in.
Comments
I've always loved TND and that was a valuable (to me, anyway) and involving talk with Feirstein. Lots of details.
interesting, I didnt know about this writer. he contributed some of the best remembered lines in Goldeneye and the entirety of its followup. (I'm not surprised to learn the two producers are looking over his shoulder the whole time telling him to change this and that)
I feel like some of the important ideas he's suggested didnt come through in the final film, especially the Paris stuff. whereas that motorcycle chase (my favourite action sequence of the four Brosnans) and others like out seem to have squeezed out most of the character stuff that could have been unique to this movie.
But this interview gives us clues as to where Bond met Paris before! they once ended up floating on a raft off the Seychelles! wow thats a major clue to imagining an Unseen Mission. But you know what else? the Seychelles was the location for Fleming's Hildebrant Rarity story. so is Paris Carver the cinematic version of Liz Krest? in which case, she has very bad luck with the men she marries
Great interview - thanks!
Interview with Judi Dench from TND Technical Journal (1997)
It’s hardly surprising that when the producers of the James Bond series were looking for an actor of stature to assume the role of M in GoldenEye, they decided to cast Dame Judi Dench, one of the most celebrated talents in the British theater. Dench turned out to be the perfect choice to play Bond’s no-nonsense boss at MI6.
Seeing the new M take charge, there’s no doubt that Dench is a fitting replacement for the late Bernard Lee and Robert Brown, who previously played Bond’s boss. “Contrary to popular belief,” the actress insists, “just because Stella Rimington suddenly became the head of MI6 [in reality in Britain], everybody didn’t immediately think, ‘Oh yes, what a good idea to get a woman to be M!’ In actual fact, Bruce Feirstein, who also cowrote GoldenEye, thought of it before. He thought M should be a woman, so they went to my agent and asked, ‘Would she be interested?’ and I absolutely jumped at it.”
Without question, the defining moment for Dench’s M is the scene when she first reads Bond the riot act, informing him, “’I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War’... was very happy with it,” agrees Dench, of that now-classic 007 moment. “That was the first thing I read for the character, and it was wonderful stuff. Bruce is a wonderful writer. He has a wonderful ear and a great sense of humor, and that’s always important.”
Becoming a fixture in the Bond series may be one of the biggest departures for Dench, who has earned more than two dozen awards in a career that has spanned four decades. It would be almost impossible to note all her theater credits, which include Mother Courage, Waste, Antony and Cleopatra, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Absolute Hell and many others. Her latest film is Mrs. Brown, in which she gives an acclaimed portrayal of Queen Victoria.
When the role of M was first offered, Dench admits to slight trepidation. “I was nervous at first, but [GoldenEye director] Martin Campbell is a very friendly, accessible person—nobody to be frightened of in any way. So after the first day, I felt completely at ease. Martin knows the theater very well, and that made a huge difference.”
Another major consideration was Pierce Brosnan, who was also joining the series and had a great deal more pressure on him as the new Bond. “That's true, but he was such perfect casting choice. He’s such a calm, capable man, and has a great sense of humor, which is why he makes such a wonderful Bond. He has that wonderful tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, that kind of irony. Pierce is a gentle, lovely person. He’s wonderful to work with.”
Dench had no hesitation about reprising M in Tomorrow Never Dies. One of the highlights was a reunion of sorts with Geoffrey Palmer, who plays Admiral Roebuck. They had worked together on several occasions, notably on the long-running British comedy series As Time Goes By.
Although Dench hasn't had a great deal of screen time as M, she has a pretty good idea about what motivates this character. “Everybody does that, you work out your own scenario and exactly what you think that person is like. It’s exactly the same process as the theater: You have to work out what makes that person tick, why they behave the way they do, what kind of home life they have; you do that with every part you do. It’s all the same process, but it’s much rarer for me to do films, so I’m afraid I’m not so skilled at it as I feel I can be in the theater.”
And how does Dench see the character of M? The answer takes a moment to put into words. “It’s difficult to explain,” she says, “because I’ve just opened with a different character at the National Theater, so I’m playing somebody else now. I know that M has a home life and children who are grown up. I know she lives between London and the country and that she goes to that office every day. I know the kind of set-up she has at home and I think I know what kind of person she is. She’s actually quite vulnerable, but she’s also a person who has a very good mind; otherwise, she’s not going to hang on to that job in such a competitive, man’s world.”
By a strange coincidence, Dench has managed to keep her Bond connection going after Tomorrow Never Dies—so to speak. After finishing the film, she went on to appear in the David Hare play, Amy's View with Samantha (Moneypenney) Bond. “I’ve directed her before, too,” says Dench. “It is strange, because you don’t look at that person in any way like the last character, because they’re so totally different.”
After Amy's View, the actress will reteam with Palmer once again for another season of As Time Goes By, followed by a TV film and some work with theater giant Sir Peter Hall. As for the next Bond film, Judi Dench is more than willing for M to take command again. “I hope it happens, because it has been thrilling to do, but we'll wait and see. I think if one is very keen on making films, they would be excited, but it’s something I don’t really know about. I’m still in a learning process, so Ill always have a go at something.”
END OF INTERVIEW
I know it’s probably irrational but I find Judi Dench a one-trick pony. She is exactly the same in every role she plays. How she has amassed so many awards is beyond comprehension. It’s maybe the reason why I’m so dismissive of the Brosnan/Craig era in that she ruins the whole set-up. The script writers are to blame, of course, as Dench’s version of M clearly has no love for Bond - Bernard Lee and Robert Brown both displayed an ultimate warmth for Bond even if at times they were exasperated with his antics, but Dench’s version openly dislikes him in many of the films, even endangering his life. It’s the opposite of the M/Bond relationship that Fleming wrote about in the novels, and for me, this ruins the films.
As for the interview, it’s good. Judi Dench explains how she approached the role and the work she put in to find the character as written in the screenplay. It’s the script that is wrong, trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher’s “Iron Lady” persona, whereas a warmer character was required, oh how we missed you, Richard Maibaum.
I definitely agree about missing Mr Maibaum (I'm looking at you, P&W) but M does warm to Bond over the course of Dench's tenure. He has to keep proving himself to her in the Craig films which is rather repetitive (hello again, P&W) and I for one don't believe the handwave that she's playing two different characters despite the small indications that she is.
It's a good interview. I am pleased she praised Brosnan - although given she is promoting TND you wouldn't expect otherwise - the comment is quite perceptive. I always felt Brosnan is a halfway house between Connery's ironic turn and Moore's impish wit.
Harking back again to my very fortunate late mother. She saw Dench as Juliet at the RSC in the 1950s [was that Dame Judi's RSC debut?] and years later when I questioned why she watched stuff like As Time Goes By, she told me how brilliant Dench was, her affectation, delivery and responses. She was and I quote "theatrically charismatic". Thanks, Mum.
I enjoy Dench in the first two Brosnan films and again in Craig's debut, after that she spends too long in the field and for me frequently distracts from OO7 being the focus of the story.
DenchM gives BrosnanBond a hard time in their first film, which is the first meeting of the two characters. I think they work together well after that first scene, but their first meeting establishes her character as one who is able to control the dialog from the start, and keep her subordinate on the defensive. and of course Bond was mocking her behind her back, never a good way to begin a relationship with a new boss.
By the start of the second film she is supporting him in the face of challenge from British and American military types, asserting what he is doing is "his job", and her attitude is the same in the third.
Whats interesting in TND is that she specifically assigns Bond to seduce the villains wife, despite critiquing him as a misogynist one film earlier: she now sees his overactive sex life as being strategic to national security, that too is part of his job. She is effectively pimping her agent at this point, exploiting his sexuality to get a larger mission done. and interesting that we see this from Bonds point of view as a more human question: to seduce Paris will be to endanger the life of a real person he knows. He is not approaching their inevitable night together as a bonus thrill for the sake of King and Country, as ConneryBond and MooreBond both did. we see this in Brosnans eyes as M gives him his orders
in Die Another Day she is negative towards Bond because she has to assume he has talked while under torture and is no further use as an agent. That is a special case, after appreciating and exploiting his talents in the previous two films. And does reinforce once again just how cold and calculating her version of M is.
I do think in the Craig films she plays the character differently. This version of M is more tentative and error-prone. and she puts entirely too much trust in CraigBond since he screws up everything he is assigned. Not surprising he gets her killed in the end.
Interview with Samantha Bond from TND Technical Journal (1997)
If there’s one thing you can depend on in any James Bond film, it’s Moneypenny, M’s ever-able assistant, being around to trade barbs and double entendres with Agent 007. Once again, the role is played by the aptly-named Samantha Bond, who joined the James Bond cast with GoldenEye, taking over for Caroline Bliss who played Moneypenny in the previous two films, and Lois Maxwell in the first 14 007 adventures.
For Bond, a veteran stage actress, taking on Moneypenny meant becoming a part of British pop culture. “That’s a very good way of putting it, actually,” she says. “There you are, with no disrespect to anyone, in the smallest part you've ever played in your life, and that’s what people want to talk to you about and that’s what impresses people and stops conversations at dinner parties. It’s a very strange feeling, and you do take on this mantle of responsibility.”
With countless theater productions to her credit, including A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, The Ends of the Earth and Three Tall Women to name only a few, being cast as the resourceful Moneypenny in GoldenEye meant a total departure for Samantha Bond. “Most of my work is in classical theater, so this was a bit different for me. It just happened like any job happened: I was called for an interview, I had a recall, and they offered me the role.
“Having said that, I felt very ambivalent about the first one, because you look at the part and a little bit of you can’t help wondering if you’re not tying an albatross around your neck, because from then on, that’s who you are. Miss Moneypenny. It’s what Lois Maxwell is still most famous for; I’ve met Lois and can’t honestly say I know what else she has ever done.
“Now, because everything didn’t grind to a halt after GoldenEye— the rest of my career has gone on and I’ve done very well—I now feel relaxed about that side of it. It’s just that initial thought of, ‘What am I doing here? Do you think it’s going to open any doors in America?’ and you keep saying, ‘Well, it hasn’t done that for any of the others, and I don’t think it will for me.’ It’s a double-edged sword, because you’re thrown into the forefront of consciousness, and at the same time, you’re being thrown there because you are being someone else.”
After the success of GoldenEye, it seemed almost inevitable that Bond would be asked to reprise her role in Tomorrow Never Dies, but the actress says it didn’t happen overnight. “They’re very funny, because you know it’s happening, but because you're a regular, you don’t get the call until about two weeks before you start work. I suppose they just take that risk, and because it’s only a small part, they would be able to work around whatever you were doing.
“This one was nicer for me, because with GoldenEye, I literally went in and worked for about two hours and then went home. It wasn’t until the film opened in London and it was such a good film, that I suddenly felt like part of this Bond family that they all talk about. I was so thrilled with it, and I was thrilled for Pierce Brosnan and [producer] Barbara Broccoli that it had gone that well.
“This time, I was around much more; I got to be in the studio and on location and then Moneypenny was suddenly put into a scene at the film’s end, so I was around with them much more, and that’s a nicer feeling even if you don’t say any more. You feel more a part of it.” After finishing her work on Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond continued her relationship with the series in a somewhat indirect fashion: She and Judi (M) Dench were reunited for a critically acclaimed National Theater production of the David Hare drama Amy's View. The play was sold out from the very beginning, but the actress admits that more than one of those seats has been booked by an avid James Bond aficionado. “Judi directed me [in a West End production of Much Ado About Nothing]; that’s going back nearly 10 years, and we’ve done radio plays together. The first stage work we’ve done together is now; this is the first time we’ve ever done proper acting together, as opposed to on radio or screen. It went very well indeed,” Samantha Bond says. “Everyone seems very moved by it, which is good, and yet so many people who've come to see Judi and me in the play have seen GoldenEye. The American support for British theater is phenomenal, so there are a whole lot of people who will know her, but even then they’ll be saying, ‘Oh, and she’s M!’
It's very weird.”
END OF INTERVIEW
I can’t remember if @Barbel has done a Samantha Bond “pacing-up-and-down-waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring” sketch, but it seems like it really does happen 😂
She’s not very complimentary towards the lovely Lois Maxwell and I remember reading in another article where she was rather nasty in saying that she wouldn’t outstay her welcome as Moneypenny, in a barbed comment about the length of Lois’s reign in the role. She’s also quite full of herself and I’m not particularly enamoured with her perceived self importance as an actress.
Thanks for that, @CoolHandBond, and yes, I have done exactly that sketch. 😁
An interesting interview. Samantha Bond is my least favourite Moneypenny of all. There is something too starchy about her. It is like watching M and Mini-Me M. And as for that dreadful scene at the end of DAD - I know it is hardly her fault, she didn't write it, but still - unforgiveable. She is very uncomplimentary about Lois Maxwell so to straighten the books, as it were, I would like to say on record that I know Lois featured in numerous sixties & seventies TV series, such as The Saint, UFO and The Persuaders. If my memory serves me correct, she has a small role in Kubrick's Lolita. I can think of nothing Ms Bond has done other than four OO7 films.
I'm reading Kim Sherwood's Double or Nothing Bond book or non-Bond book, and it seems Moneypenny has been promoted into an almost M-type role, one could only really see Bond's Moneypenny doing that for better or worse. I agree she's a mini M at times.
I struggled a bit with Ferstein, I do kind of see these characters as somehow getting to sit at the top table not entirely due to merit. Some of his quotes that never made the cut, I don't rate them at all, another one was a reference by M to 'hollowed out volcanos' it's too knowing, too self-referential for my tastes. Plus, the reason his Hong Kong media baron story went through so many rewrites is that someone clocked late in the day that it was too topical, the issue of the imminent handover or Hong Kong would date it quickly and secondly - plus what is something did go off during it, you are a hostage to fortune, or misfortune. This does seem to be an issue with the films since Cubby departed, they don't seem to think ahead and rewrites have to be one very late in the day.
In a latter to Starburst I had printed about GoldenEye I asked, who ever cares about satellites unless it's Rupert Murdoch? In my egocentric way I wondered if that was the inspiration for TND - though if so I'm today sat writing on a Bond forum while I take it Mister Ferstein is not.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
also Lois Maxwell is in Operation Kid Brother/OK Connery playing Moneypenny in all but name, she gets more to do in that film than any official BondFilm
also in a season 1 episode of Danger Man where she plays a field agent, and a Cathy Gale era Avengers where she machine guns a classroom full of gangsters
she used to write a column in the Toronto Sun (entitled "Miss Moneypenny") when I was a we lad. I dont remember what she wrote about, but the Toronto Sun has always been a right wing populist tabloid, so we might not have been in agreement on the issues of the day
Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is like a scolding big sister "for your information, you have to do what M tells you to because she's the boss and I'm her favourite, so nyahh". Her final appearance is not only in poor taste, but completely out of character for that version of Moneypenny
You can add The Haunting (one of the best British horror movies ever) to that as well, and on tv, The Avengers, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and Department S, as well as some Gerry Anderson voice work too.
Anyone know what Ms Bond has been doing for a career then.... ?
Interview with Harry Saltzman in Films & Filming - September 1969
Edited to remove a lot of detail about obscure foreign movies and his view on the (then) modern world.
Although Harry Saltzman is best known as the co-producer (with Albert Broccoli) of the James Bond series, and as the producer of The Ipcress File, Billion Dollar Brain, Play Dirty and Battle of Britain, he has also helped to finance less commercial films. Among these have been Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Vittorio de Sica's A Young World and A Man Called John. He was one of the founders of Woodfall, the company which revitalised the British film industry in the late 1950s with films such as Look Back in Anger, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Entertainer.
Over the past ten years, what have been the main changes in production, particularly in the way that films are now set up?
We were operating on a relatively hand-to-mouth basis until Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, then everything became easier for myself and Tony Richardson, for everybody. But in the years that have passed, the entire nature of the business has changed. The independent producer is not the curiosity he was when we started. The independent is now the rule rather than the exception. All the major companies live on the products of independent producers, so you don't have to be a trail-blazer any more. If you've got a property, a director and an actor and you have what they call a track record, there's no problem putting the picture together financially. I think the problem is what you make and the audience acceptance of it. This has changed drastically. There are no rules as to what the public will go to see. You have on one end of the scale a Disney picture called The Love Bug, which is doing incredibly big business, and it's a medium-budget film; and on the other end of the scale you have I Am Curious (Yellow), which is pure pornography.
How does this work in relation to what you're doing now?
Well, I don't make pornography. We're story-tellers, we're troubadours, and I think you have to tell a story well. I don't think people care whether it's Paul Newman, Marlon Brando or an unknown John Jones...I don't think stars mean that much to the box office. They don't guarantee a success anymore. The proof of that is a picture like The Comedians, which had Burton, Alec Guinness and half-a-dozen other names.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the first Bond film where you're not using Sean Connery. And you've got a director making his first feature.
I'm very excited about it. The picture looks tremendous, the biggest of all the Bonds in its physical size. It's also got the best story. Peter Hunt edited all the Bond films and directed the second unit on You Only Live Twice. He's done an incredible job and George Lazenby looks sensational.
How did you first decide to do a James Bond film? Did the success of the first one surprise you?
It surprised me terribly. It surprised Cubby Broccoli as much. I felt it was a period -- 1960 -- when realism and the kitchen sink was getting out of hand, and I felt we had to go back to entertainment. I wanted to do excitement pictures, adventure pictures. If you're doing contemporary work you have to reflect your times...and we live in an age of violence -- more so today than in 1960. 1960 was a pretty violent time and James Bond reflects the hero; he's the Tarzan of today. When Edgar Rice Burroughs brought out Tarzan the world was calm and peaceful. He was indeed the superman. But today he's very naive. Bond is today's Tarzan: he lives around violence, he begets violence. Voltaire said, 250 years ago, that humanity is not yet complete. It is more apt today. We're a very crude mutant life-form; we're more intelligent than a lot of other animals, but we haven't yet reached any sense of understanding of our own selves. We are born violently and we live violently and die violently, and we're products of our own violence -- we make our own violence. We've learned to do so many things, we can't control ourselves. As picture-makers, we mirror: we reflect our modes, our society. Look at the prose in literature in the last five years -- dreadful. How many writers do you know who write the kind of thing you'd like to take away and have a happy afternoon, lying quietly reading? Nabakov is one of the few you can read through and enjoy. He sets up a train of thought and you think. There's very little escapism.
What about your future projects?
I'm making a film called Tomorrow at the moment. Then I'm doing The Dancer, the story of Nijinsky, with Nureyev. And Tussy Is Me, which is the story of Eleanor Marks, who started the Labour Movement in this country. There's also His Brother's Keeper, which I hope to do with Peter O'Toole and Michael Caine. All the scripts are in preparation. Edward Bond is writing The Dancer, David Cregan is doing Tussy Is Me, and Clive Exton is writing His Brother's Keeper. I also have a book called The Becker Case by Andy Loganwhich I hope to have Lee Marvin and Michael Caine in. This is 1970-71. Then I'm preparing a big Western in Canada which Andre de Toth is going to direct, with George Lazenby starring. These are relatively high budget pictures. The French operation is next year's big picture, The Circus Starts At Ten, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Delphine Seyrig. The director is Michel Deville, who did Benjamin.
Which of your films has given you the most satisfaction?
Look Back in Anger, but From Russia With Love is the picture I liked the best. I think Battle of Britain gives me a lot of satisfaction, especially if it gets the public acceptance which I am sure it will get. The films I'm looking forward to more than anything are Tussy Is Me and The Dancer. I feel that these are two very important subjects and stories. There's a kind of feeling among a lot of people in the film industry that the public are not intelligent. I think the public are more intelligent today. They're so close to the dramatic things that they see on television, hour after hour, day in and day out, that when they come and put down their hard cash to see a picture you know it's good -- whether it's a Bullitt or a Bond or a Romeo and Juliet. Newspapers and critics don't influence them -- they shop for a picture today, they have a sense of value. It's uncanny the way they'll smoke out a good film no matter how it's received by the press or how it's presented. You can open them in toilets in back streets and they'll ferret them out. I respect the people who come to see motion pictures: the public to me are not eleven-year-old morons. I think Romeo and Juliet is one of the best-made films of recent times.
END OF INTERVIEW
The thing that interests me most is the proposed western with George Lazenby, I have never heard of this before. Did any of his other projects see the light of day? It’s plain to see that he had fingers in too many pies and his financial woes were due to overstretching himself much to far. Those projects must have been costing him a fortune in preparation, what with retaining scriptwriters, directors etc.
Well, I'm surprised to hear him quoting Voltaire and reading Nabokov! It's revised my impression of him.
he's quite the philosopher!
this is interesting because we usually get the story from a Broccoli-centric point of view. I wish he'd gone into more detail why he chose to buy the rights to Flemings books. My understanding is Broccoli wanted to buy the rights but found this other producer already had them and didnt know what to do with them, and Broccoli did have concrete ideas thus the two formed their partnership. So why'd Saltzman buy these rights in the first place if he didnt have a plan?
EDIT: @Barbel youre going to have to revise all your Imaginary Conversations where Saltzmans the embarrassing loudmouth Broccoli keeps trying to shush
@caractacus potts too much like hard work! I'm not sure yet whether or not this will affect any future Imaginary Conversations in which Saltzman may appear but my characterisation of him has been informed by recollections from such as John Barry and George Martin, who were of course committed musicians attempting to deal with a totally non- musical producer and did not have fond memories of their interactions with him.
Most of those films didn't get made, at least not in the form H.S. is suggesting, right? A very interesting interview.
Some did. "The Dancer" as "Nijinsky", and "Toomorrow" (sic). I believe both flopped.
Interview with the legendary John Barry - The York Press - July 12 2001
(There is non-Bond stuff here as well, but it’s John Barry, so sod it.)
In 2001, John Barry made a rare visit to his home city. Nick Hallissey tried to contain himself while he lined up questions to ask one of his heroes.
It HAD been easy to remain fairly composed, so to speak, during most of my interview with legendary movie composer John Barry. Until Johnny and Jerry were mentioned. "Y'know, I get together every now and then with people like Johnny and Jerry, and we all agree that we took such different paths to get into this business; it's quite amazing."
Johnny and Jerry? I had my suspicions, but asked anyway.
"Johnny Williams and Jerry Goldsmith," he replied.
That did it. For a movie music buff like me, hearing my all-time film hero name-dropping my second and third choices so casually really was the limit.
The man who gave James Bond his rhythm was calmly chatting about, respectively, the man who scored Star Wars, and the man who scored Star Trek.
This all came about because John Barry, winner of five Oscars, son of York impresario Jack Prendergast, was in town to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.
So, I asked him if he had any hints he could pass on to aspiring composers in his home town. By way of answering, he told me that there were no hard and fast rules. Williams was a pianist, Goldsmith was in a band; all of them had had to make their own luck.
There was always going to be a risk with me interviewing the man once known as John Barry Prendergast.
I grew up wolfing down his film music; indeed, myself and my fiancee would like We Have All The Time in the World to be played at our wedding.
For me, he is George Best, or Neil Armstrong: the hero you always want to meet, but fear you never should for fear of what will happen to you.
But we were fine. He is so genial that it couldn't help but go well. He was flattered by my early compliment (I fought back the urge to cry "gee, Mr Barry - you're swell"), and made a point of ensuring he knew my name. So off we went.
Growing up in York, and playing in the band of the Green Howards, John Barry has gone on to score more than 120 films. Among them are 12 Bond movies, including From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and You Only Live Twice.
Then, there are the more mellow, sweeping compositions for Out of Africa, Dances With Wolves and The Lion in Winter, his personal favourite.
I wondered if there had ever been a film he'd wanted to score, but had missed out on.
"I asked my agent to go after 2001: A Space Odyssey, because I really wanted to work with Stanley Kubrick," he replied.
"In the end, he went with all the classical music, and although I was sorry not to have the chance, I thought what he did was exceptional."
Naturally, you can hear a great many anecdotes in a short chat with John Barry. He told me how Kevin Costner, a first-time director on Oscar eater Dances With Wolves, had left the music entirely down to him, figuring, quite wisely, that Barry knew what he was doing.
I heard that Louis Armstrong was a very poorly man when he recorded my wedding anthem with Barry, and that it was the last thing he ever committed to vinyl. What a way to go out.
Of the Bond magnates Cubby Broccoli and Harry R Saltzman, Cubby was the one to whom Barry would always speak. Saltzman was "very difficult".
Sydney Pollack was "great", working on The Ipcress File was "enormous fun", and Born Free was "very tough".
Now 67, and keen on a low profile, Barry flits between London and New York, with the occasional stop-off to meet his family in Old York. He has his pick of assignments, usually judging what to get involved with on the calibre of the director, and the quality of the script.
At present he is scoring Michael Apted's film Enigma, based on the British code-breaking team at Bletchley Park in the Second World War; his next is a London stage musical based on Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. His old Bond collaborator, Don Black, is writing the lyrics.
He's not sorry to have left Bond - he parted company with the series after The Living Daylights in 1986 - but he likes where they have gone since. The new incumbent Bond composer, David Arnold, continually refers to Barry as "the Guv'nor", and even asked him for help when he got under way on Tomorrow Never Dies.
"I just think the first ten or so that I did were the great ones, the real classics, as far as I was concerned," he said."But I did recommend David for the job, and he did come to me to ask for my opinions, and I think he's just doing a wonderful job."
Having "emigrated" to London and beyond almost as soon as he was able, does he like coming back to York?
"London was where it was all happening; I did have to go there," he said. "But it's great to come back, to walk around the streets, have a meal and spend a little time here."
He was in town with his wife Laurie and their son, Jonpatrick; in fact the six-year-old follows them everywhere.
I was not much older than Jonpatrick is now when my dad first carried me into the stalls and showed me this giant mouse on the screen," he said. "I just thought, wow, this is brilliant."
The mouse, by the way, was Mickey.
By the time he was a teenager, Barry could virtually run Jack's Rialto cinema himself, with the help of brother Patrick and sister June, whenever his dad decided he wanted a night off.
He's sorry to see the Fishergate venue as a bingo hall now.
"Just thinking of all the stars and names that dad had there, it is rather sad," he added.
So would the mighty Jack Prendergast be proud to see his son today?
"I think so; he seemed to be during his lifetime in fact, but he was always very critical. He wasn't the easiest man to have as a father, but the conclusion I come to time and time again is that his advice and his criticism were always right."
On the subject of useful advice, Barry did eventually say he could think of a way to help a talented fledgling musician in this city.
"A good agent is vital. Give them the name Vanessa Jones, she's my agent and she is very receptive to new talent," he told me. "Tell them to seek her out - I'll mention to her that I've said this to your paper. Is that all right?"
Fine by me, sir.
By the time you read this, Barry may well be winging his way back to Oyster Bay, his home on an idyllic private island in New York State, where he'll be getting on with Enigma and Brighton Rock.
And taking calls from Johnny and Jerry.
END OF INTERVIEW
If you had to name only five people who were quintessentially important to the series then John Barry would have to be in there, without question.
No doubt about it. Gee Mr Barry, you're swell.
That was good interview…and for a relatively small paper….🍸
Thanks for that; I enjoyed the bits about his home town when he grew up. The rest was familiar stuff. It was interesting that Arnold asked Barry's advice during composing duties on TND. Pity no one mentioned this at the BFI John Barry season; perhaps they didn't know, but given how the panel praised his influence across several genres, you'd have thought it might have cropped up. I did think that panel was a tad lightweight.
On the non-Bond interviews thread in the Off Topic section is an interview with Patrick Macnee where he talks a little about AVTAK.
Interview with Richard Maibaum, screenwriter of several films in the franchise, in Starlog magazine 1983.
END OF INTERVIEW
A very candid interview, and all the more better for it.
I can never read enough from Maibaum, thank you CHB, even though I don't necessarily agree with him. Lord, he really was down on Sir Rog, wasn't he?
Yea, not a big fan of Rog at all 👀
Interesting ideas though…but I’m glad the majority of them were junked…but a lovely candid interview…thanks 🍸
Well, Sir Rog looked okay in 3 Bond films, then he kinda started to get a bit laid back from MR onwards. I think Maibaum is a little unfair on FYEO, which really is getting back to the Cold War. Strange that, unlike some people in the entertainment biz, he is quite happy to diss products and people he's been actively involved in.