Terence Cooper , the perfect Bond ?

1966.

The call was so secret even the phone bell sounded muffled. “Ya wanna meet the new 007? And be first in the world to interview him?”

Sure! When, where? “Call ya soon.”

That’s how I met Terence Cooper, one of the caboodle of Bonds in the four-ringed circus of the first Casino Royale.

He’d been waiting in the SIS corridors for ten years to be 007.

“When producer Kevin McClory tried to get Bond on the screen,” he told me in Gerry’s Bar (where else?), “he had a contract with... guess who’s name on it? No, not Sean’s. Mine.

In 1957 ! Five years before Dr. No. Sean doesn’t play the part right.

Me? Just hope I get across OK without tripping over the flaming carpet.”

Very Bondian - a falling black comma of hair; sent down from Oxford for “various irregular activities” - Cooper called himself the greatest con-man. (Or second, after McClory).

He almost punched out Casino producer Charles Feldman when they met at the Pickwick Club. “Thought he was making a pass at my girlfriends.”

No, he gave Cooper a seven-year contract, rising from £250 to £1,000 a week.

“Why? I don’t know. I was always very rude to him, so he didn’t know what to make of me. But, as all the other people who treated him like that happened to have great talent, Charlie probably mistook me for being a tremendous actor.”

Charlie wuz wrong!

Tony Crawley - www.crawleyscastingcalls.com

Girls, ( Golden ) Gun & Gizmos : The James Bond London Science Museum Exhibition Press Day ! - Oct.2002

Or...How I got the cold shoulder from Honor Blackman ( and I'm still wondering why to this day ! )

Back in Autumn 2002 , the usual Bond craziness engulfed the World Medias .
I was hired by a TV production company to cover the Press day of the 007 London Science Museum exhibition - the very first of its kind in Europe , where Eon graciously displayed props, sketches , vehicles and various gadgets used in the James Bond films since 1962...

Add to this a string of super guests stars ( Sir Christopher Lee, various Bond girls ) and the -rare- presence of both Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson together and you'll probably understand why I was drooling like Tex Avery's proverbial wolf ...

Being ' French TV ' , we were given the red carpet treatment and I joyously passed from one Celebrity guest to another , followed by my faifhfull cameraman , to get the most of the unique day .
We were lucky enough to get sweet Caroline Munro , the producer himself - Mickey G - who even called his half-sister to join us ( she declined as usual , being notoriously shy of the medias . Damnit...) , Sir Christopher Lee ,etc.,etc...

But there was someone I had never met so far in the assembly .
A Bond girl of legend , former P.A of a certain Mr Goldfinger ...
So , with my usual French charm , I decided to ask Mrs Honor Blackman a quick interview .
Haven't figured out to this day what happened then, but the lady quickly shot back a stern ' no ' and then headed straight to the toilets ( overdose of petits fours ? ) .

We were really flabbergasted by her behaviour - and even more so when learning later a James Bond Fan friend of mine had managed that very morning to get her pic taken right besides Mrs Pussy Galore ( hated when this happen...To others ! ) .

Incidentally , this kind of ' thank you , but no thank you ' behaviour also occured to me with ...George Lazenby , when trying to interview him at the 2002 Ian Fleming Foundation Stoke Park Anniversary Golf course ...The guy politely told us ' please wait for me here ...' and we never saw him again of the whole day ...

Sometimes you asked yourself questions like ' what the hell do those people think they are ? '

Smelling a rat ?

According to Ian Lancaster Fleming , civil servant James Bond buys his eau de Toilettte and perfume at Floris .

I keep on wondering how the heck the guy has enough money to buy those ( and his tailored-made shirts , and his own brand of cigarettes , and , etc., etc... )

Perhaps the salaries at MI6 were astronomically high in the 50's ?

:D

Thanks to Julien Vialon for bringing back those samples from his latest London trip ...

Picture copyrighted Media Bis - Do not reproduce without authorization .
© 2010

My tailor is rich ( but he deserves it )

My best friend ( and actor ) Julien Vialon - a former French 007 Fan Club President himself - paid a visit to London last week and took the time to visit some crucial ' James Bond locations ' - so to speak .

First step was to have a look at the World famous tailor , Turnbull & Asser , based in Savile Row ;

Celebrities and Stars like Sir Winston Churchill , Sir David Niven, Art Garfunkel , ' several Princes of Wales ' ( quote from their opening page ! ) have been regular customers of the grandiose Tailor office ...Not to forget all the James Bond actors of course .

Amongst those Celebs , a Film director called Terence Young who took his future Dr No star - a former scottish truck driver who will be rocketed to stardom a few months later - to have his new 007-like shirts specially made for him ...The rest is History .

Thanks to the kindness of Turnbull & Asser 's people - and more specially M. Raymond Bailey - Julien listened to some fascinating information on the behind-the-scene tailor business with Mr Bond ...

For instance the little-known fact behind Daniel Craig's Casino Royale shirt measurement seance in the shop ;

The actor casually ripped open the first model when trying it for measurements - being slightly too ...Muscular for the size !

Aknowledgements : Turnbull & Asser , M. R. Bailey .

Pics taken by Julien Vialon and kindly reproduced .

Sir Sean Connery pic reproduced from Turnbull & Asser Livre d'Or - Do not use without permission .

Spy Craze ( Monty Python style )

Ok, let me just indulge myself : Spamalot! has at least opened in Paris this week - with tremenduous success I might add , and as a long time ( die hard ) Python Fan, I wanted to pay a little hommage to that band of Gonzos who initiated me to the finest Art of British Humour .

So started to search for James Bond related material in Monty Python's Flying Circus catalogue of fabulous sketches ...

Mind you, I could have taken the obvious easier route and start writing a panegyric about the most Bondian member of the Pythons...

You know the guy who's incapable of correctly slamming the door of a Z9 BMW coupé in the Q work room ... ( and had already sent up the Bond image in a TV commercial years earlier...) , but it would have been too...Contrite .

( Find instead two pictures taken at Stoke Poges's 2002 Ian Fleming Foundation James Bond Anniversary affair where I interviewed the Silly Walk Master for French TV... )

Hence the proud displaying of this other gem : a nice send up of Brit 1960's Spy craze Tv series ...With Terry Jones at his best !

Think Danger Man, think Man In A Suitcase , think The Avengers ... And, of course , most of all...Think about a certain Double O Agent who started it all...

And , above all, pay attention to the Credits music !

Many ,many thanks to Doug Redenius & the Ian Fleming Foundation .

The 00,7 % Solution

While watching Guy Ritchie 's re-invention of Sherlock Holmes , I couldn't help thinking about the parallels with Ian Fleming's own litterary Hero .

Both characters were established stalwart Hollywood heroes , and yet were recently completely turned upside down for a new movie-goers generation ...With a tremenduous success of each of the concerned ' franchise ' ( heck, Holmes movies have been here since the dawn of Cinema too ) .

Some years back I had started writting a comparative study about Holmes & Bond , mainly focusing on the common denominators between the two .
That little piece has never seen the light of printed publication so far so I guess part of it could entertain the readers of that Blog more than a decade later .

Let's start with the obvious : both 007 & Sherlock Holmes have survived the loss of their original creators .
Afficionados will instantly point out the fact that one of the official 007 Continuation novels writer ( such are named the authors having succeeded Ian Fleming with new James Bond litterary adventures ) was also the creator of Holmes nemesis most famous trilogy ,the infamous Professor Moriarty one. ( John Gardner - as it is him we're referring to - wrote three novels using the character of Professor Moriarty , nemesis of Sherlock Holmes in the original ACD series. The third of this series, titled simply 'Moriarty', was delayed due to a dispute with the publisher, but was finally released shortly after his death.).

More intriguing even is the fact that way back in 1988 , a certain John D.Bryan thought he had a brilliant idea and wrote a study simply titled ' James Bond : Did he really live twice ? ' .
With the open goal of thoroughly researching similarities between Fleming's and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 221b resident creations .
Having eagle-spotted said title in a 007 magazine books review section of the time, I got in touch with its author...

Let's be honest : if it wouldn't be for its intriguing subject alone , this book would be a mish-mash of rehearsed ideas , mixing film-biased opinions with literary-ones with the obvious result of completely confusing the poor reader in the end !
( For example , the author heavily insists on the fact that Sherlock too uses...Gadgets - and quote therefore Basil Rathbone's tricked cane appearing during his tenure as Sherlock Holmes . I have re-read Sir ACD original work - with a magnifying glass ! - and have been so far incapable of pinpointing such a ' gadget' as part of Holmes routine equipment... )

This noted , if I had to point out a Fleming - universe character akin to Sherlock Holmes , I would choose myself someone in the like of...Major Boothroyd aka Q , for the sheer genius of some of his inventions ! But this is another story ...

This book succeeds on one idea : trying to put on a same level two very different universes - with their own codes .
Bearing that in mind , it becomes a fascinating reading - since it pre-empted the Martin Campbell / Guy Ritchie efforts by more than 20 years ahead ( if one does indeed see the Richie Holmes variation as some sort of Victorian rejuvenated James Bond ...)

' Re booting ' maybe the 'in' thing right now in Hollywood ...But it certainly ain't no brand new idea either... Unless it's done with utmost care for the original subject .
Which I'm pleased to note , was the case both for 2006's Casino Royale and 2009's Sherlock Holmes as well !

So, ok, I'll admit it's not MY Sherlock Holmes ( and neither is , should I add, Daniel Craig's 007 the James Bond I imagine ) , but both visions will ensure the longevity of Sir arthur Conan Doyle's and Ian Lancaster Fleming's litterary creations for the 21rst century movie goers generation . And for this alone we should be grateful ...

Acknowledgements : M.Thierry Saint Joanis & La Société Sherlock Holmes de France .

Sir Johnny Dankworth , R.I.P

David Arnold signaled us on his FB page the passing of the great music composer Johnny Dankworth , author - amongst many wonderful scores - of the unmistakable themes of ' The Avengers ' ( 1961 Honor Blackman season ) and...Joseph Losey 's joyous and mad Modesty Blaise ...

Here's to you , Sir !