Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Film & Water Podcast Episode 5: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

sgTHE FILM AND WATER PODCAST

Episode 5: ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

Host Rob Kelly welcomes returning guest Mike Gillis (RADIO VS. THE MARTIANS) to talk about one of their favorite James Bond films, the underrated ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE! It's far up, far out, far more!

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5 comments:

  1. This April I attended the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood. One of the highlights each year is the roster of stars who appear to discuss their movies and this year it included George Lazenby, who spoke before a screening of OHMSS. You can listen to his comments via the Q&A podcast with Jeff Goldsmith. Thanks for an informative episode!

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  2. I've always liked this one too. I grew up watching the Roger Moore films on the ABC Sunday Night movie, but I had a friend who was a Bond purist, and had seen all the movies. Yes, even at age 10, he was a Bond snob. He preferred Connery, and insisted we rent all the Bond films from the local video store. Over time, we did just that, and I came to prefer Connery too (sorry Rob), but then there was OHMSS. It was a standout amongst the films because it actually made a dent in the character. Lazenby was no Connery, or Moore as far as acting, but he worked out well enough.

    A year or so ago I caught a documentary on Bond airing on BBC America. According to that, Lazenby lied about having done several films in Europe. He went to Connery's barber, bought his kind of suit, snowed the producers and got the job. So Mike wasn't far off when he said it was like a fan won a contest to be Bond! I understand Lazenby fell in with a big counter-culture figure over in England, and he helped influence him on dropping Bond, or at least brushing off his responsibility to the role. He showed up at the premiere with long hair and a beard...which is what most stars do nowadays, but back then was verboten.

    I've always felt like Ra's Al Ghul was Batman's Bond villain, but I had never quite pinned the origin to THIS film. It's like MIke flicked a light switch in my head.

    Great episode!

    Chris

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  3. Great episode Rob and Mike,

    I've seen maybe fifteen of the Bond films. Unfortunately, On Her Majesty's Secret Service isn't one of them. From what I gather, though, Casino Royale tried to mimic the end of this movie by having Bond legitimately fall in love with Vesper and quit MI6 before losing her at the end of the movie.

    I think my favorite Bond film is The Spy Who Loved Me, followed by Skyfall, although I admit that Skyfall is the least Bond-like.

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  4. This episode was a lot of fun for a Bond fan like myself. OHMSS is interesting as a singular look at Bond. I grew up in the Roger Moore era of Bond films and only came on OHMSS much later. I never knew Dalton had been up for the roll but would come back to it later when he was older. I similar story to Pierce Brosnon who was up for it when Dalton took the roll but couldn't because he was still on Remington Steel.

    I am with Chris on the light switch with the Ra's Al Ghul connection to this film in particular. Neal Adam's Bruce Wayne in a tuxedo is what the comic book version of James Bond would look like in my head.

    In response to Count Drunkula's request you read in the feedback, I too think a episode on the original Highlander movie would be awesome!

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  5. On several occasions I've set my mind to watching/re-watching all the Bond films. But, the plans of mice and men...I always end up just hitting the ones starring Roger Moore (my James Bond). I've seen several others but not all of them, Sean Connery was ok (gonna catch heat for that aren't I?) but don't quite understand the hype around him in the role, not a fan of Timothy Dalton (though I think he'd make an awesome Bond villain!), mostly enjoyed the Pierce Brosnan, and am still on the fence with Daniel Craig. Sadly, to this day, I have not seen this sole, George Lazenby outing...I need to correct that!

    And I've posted this on Twitter already...but seriously...if you do decide to cover Highlander, please let me do my Christopher Lambert/Connor McCloud impression, lol

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