With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a couple months, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the thirteenth entry, with a full review of that unofficial Bond adventure, Never Say Never Again. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it, give or take a few items I have up my sleeve (including a possible guest review from my wife as she sings the praises of her favorite 007 film, you won't believe what it is). But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should. Without further ado...Longitude 78West: The Chronicles of Never Say NeverAgain
1983
130 minutes
rated PG
Never Say Never Againis a non canon James Bond film. Hollywood usually has two very similar films released in a year, whetherthey be similar premises (Dante’s Peakand Volcano in 1997) or the exactsame subject matter (Capote and Infamous in 2006). But having an additional film apart from aseries while said series is going on? And in the same year? Featuringthe same lead from earlier in the series? How did this happen? We never hadtwo Kirks in different movies. Never two different Freddy movies. But, two JamesBonds did happen.
Prior to Dr. No jumpstarting the Eon series of James Bond films, author Ian Fleming was around towntrying to get 007 into tv shows and movies. His first instance of success was having Casino Royale adapted for an episode of television on the show Climax! In 1954. It starred Barry Nelson as Jimmy Bond andPeter Lorre as Le Chiffre. After that,there were was a failed preproduction of a series and some scripts to be workedon. One of those script was called Longitude 78 West. It was a completely original James Bond talewritten by Ian Fleming, producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter JackWhittingham. The project ended up beingabandoned. So, wanting to keep the storyalive, Fleming wrote his next 007 novel based on that script. Only Fleming did not credit McClory orWhittingham for anything on his novel, Thunderball.
When Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli secured rights to theseries and began to actually make a Bond film, McClory and Whittinghamstruck. The lawsuit would last from 1961until 1963. Through the resolve McClorygained a lot of cinematic possession for the book, Thunderball. He had a failedattempt to bring it to the screen, but Broccoli and Saltzman seemed to figureit would only be a matter of time before he succeeded. In a deal to bring Thunderball to the screen, McClory was given the role of the soleproducer on the film. In return, hewould not be allowed to make another film based off the book for 10-12 years(sources vary). Thus, the bullet of acompeting Bond film had been dodged for the time being.
When the time had arrived in the early-mid 70s, McClorywasted no time getting back on track. Inaddition to getting a screenwriter on the project, he also convinced SeanConnery to come on board to assist in creating the film. The title was James Bond of the Secret Service. When Broccoli and Saltzman got word, they took McClory back to thecourtroom as they felt the title was too close to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which they owned full rightstoo. This time in court separated whoexactly owned what. While McClory wasforced to change the title of the film, he retained rights to the events inThunderball and any characters, organizations or places unique to thebook/film. That meant McClory had therights to heavy hitting villain organization SPECTRE and Bond’s arch nemesisErnst Stavro Blofeld (while the film world was introduced to him in From Russia With Love, he first appearedin the novel for Thunderball). This forced the script to The Spy Who Loved Me to drop SPECTREfrom the script and change Blofeld to Stromberg.
McClory regrouped and got things going on his film, althoughit wouldn’t be until the early 80s that it went into production. Connery came back on and this time it wasdecided that he would reprise his role as James Bond. The script was changed to feature an aging,past his prime Bond. The director of The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kirschnerwas hired to direct. They were going tochallenge the Eon Bond film that year, Octopussyto battle at the box office. The film itself is pretty hated among the 007fanbase. Looking around the internet, ifpeople even count it, it’s always hovering around dead last. Some, like yours truly, don’t even countit. It’s missing a lot of the familiartropes that people love about the 007 series. Things like the gun barrel sequence (its been said one was actuallyfilmed, as well as a pre-credit sequence, but they were cut), a credits sequenceand familiar supporting actors to name a few.
Plus, it’s just a modernized version of Thunderball. When I wascollecting all the 007 films on VHS in the 90s, my parents once surprised me bygetting me this one. I don't want to sound like an ungrateful brat, but I wasn't happy. I was pretty disappointed and I let them know it. I said it wasn't a real James Bondmovie. I don’t know how long it eventook to put that one in the VCR. That’s how much this film is loathed. I haven’t watched NeverSay Never Again probably since the mid-90s. I just always avoided it. Uponwatching it for this retrospective, it’s honestly not that bad. It’s a completely unnecessary film and dragsquite a bit, but it’s never horrible. It’s competently directed and well acted. It almost plays as a James Bond film foradults. The film strips away a lot ofthe camp and fixes a lot of the plot holes/problems from the originalfilm. The tone is very mature and veryrealistic. The sex scenes are bit morerevealing and suggestive (they don’t cut away when the first kisshappens). The action is good enough andfeatures a forgettable, but very entertaining, motorcycle chase.
Most of the characters from Thunderball are retained. Connery gives a much much better performance here than his Eon sendoff,probably because he wants to be here. Max Von Sydow is probably the best Blofeld we’ve had (although, myfavorite Blofeld is when all we hear is a voice and all we see is a handpetting a cat). The take on Largo isdifferent, but I like mine with a patch on his eye. Kim Basinger plays Domino in one of her veryfirst film roles. While I’ll fall forher six years later as Vicki Vale, she’s no Claudine Auger with a dubbedvoice. The same goes for BarbaraCarrera. I much preferred Fiona Volpe toFatima Blush. We do get probably thebest Felix Leiter since Jack Lord in Dr. No via Bernie Casey. Connery had the idea that maybe Felix wouldbe more interesting if played by a black actor since there were manyforgettable attempts in past films.
Like I said, the film is nowhere near as bad as the rap itgets. It’s decent. I much prefer Thunderball to Never SayNever Again. Thunderball is much more colorful and fun while still maintaining asense of menace. Most of the samecharacters and events in Never Say NeverAgain come across less likeable and engaging. The score in Never Say Never Again is horrible too. The title song is beyond bad and the scoresounds like a lazy, sleazy exploitation film from the early 1970s. It’s easily top 3 in terms of worst scores offilms featuring James Bond. Nothing inthe final sequence holds a candle to underwater spectacle and boat fight at theend of Thunderball. In the battle Bond films in 1983, Never Say Never Again and miles betterthan Octopussy in quality.
In terms of box office, who did the film going audience havea bigger desire to see? Roger Moore orSean Connery? Many predicted due toConnery returning after 12 years and the fact that Moore was on his sixth Bond film in a row that Connery would win out. They were wrong. Connery had theopening weekend numbers by about 1 million, but Roger Moore convincinglydefeated him in the final numbers. Thetally – $187 million worldwide to $160 million. Octopussy also had a smallerbudget. So, there you have it, RogerMoore was better than Sean Connery when it came head-to-head at the box office.
McClory was not finished with his Thunderball obsession. Heattempted to remake it once again in the 90s. The screenplay was called Warhead2000 AD and he claimed Timothy Dalton was to return to the role for it(apparently Liam Neeson was on standby in case Dalton wouldn’t do it). This project never came to fruition. Through a series of events the Thunderball rights landed in the handsof Sony who was planning to make their own Bond films (also having rights to Casino Royale). MGM (rightholders to Eon’s series) startedsome litigation which resulted in an out of court settlement with Sonyrelinquishing all claims to James Bond (editors note - part of this deal allowed Sony to take MGM's portion of the rights to Spider-Man, which allowed that franchise to go full steam ahead). McClory still felt he could make another Bond film, but in 2001 thecourts rejected his suit that he could. Needless to say, for the foreseeable future, we will not see anotherremake of Thunderball.
And that kids, is why you should take two seconds and type two peoples' names on a story you’re writing when they’ve clearly helped you atsome point.
Kevin McClory will not return
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