[quote=“Stanton, post:41, topic:544”]On Her Majesty’s SS is one of the Bonds I rewatched last month, and I think it’s one of the best, (…)
The film is the best directed of the early Bonds, maybe the best of all before QoS arrived, and it has the best score. The instrumental main theme is just great and plays in my head all the time. The action scenes have some real filmic moments, not only consisting out of spectacular stunts, and they are cut very well (no wonder, the director was an ex-cutter).
Scherp, what do you think about the novels?
I read them all then, but now, as I’m trying again, I think they have not much to offer. They are somehow clearly dated, they didn’t age very well. There’s not even a bit erotic in them, only a schoolboy’s idea about sex.[/quote]
Novels: Same feelings. They’re well-written, Fleming had excellent writing skills, but the stories have dated considerably. I don’t know exactly why, but maybe it has something to do with these writing skills. I re-read a few Saint novels by Leslie Charteris a while ago (after my operation, when I had to stay indoor for a few weeks) and found out that they were still quite enjoyable, that is: if you’re able to overlook their shortcomings. Fleming is a far better writer than Charteris, but somehow this doesn’t work in his advantage. Fleming thought he was writing something of real value, while in fact he had not much to say. The stories are a bit simplistic, in a film this doesn’t necessarily hurt, in a novel it’s much more difficult to hide. Charteris was a kind of ‘what-the-hell-do-I-care’ writer, a careless, unpretentious, male chauvenist pig, just like his protagonist (and some of his readers, I suppose). For the kind of stories he wrote, that’s the right attitude.
Majesty’s SS - I haven’t seen it recently. Rewatching it some ten years ago (on television) it ruined my cinema memory a little, that is why I skipped it from the list last year, when I did my Bond rewatch tour. I remember an awful scene with bob-sleighs that nearly made me reach for the remote controll. I thought Lazenby was disastrous, a guy with wry nose and no charisma whatsoever. I saw him in an Emanuelle movie a while ago, next to good old Silvia Kristel (they were both middle aged and not really taking part in the film’s action - if you know what I mean - but commenting it, sitting in a plane).
