Fox Roger Moore's James Bond - The Retrospective

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-2553-3
Verlag: BookRix
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 236 Seiten

Modern Bond retrospectives lazily tend to almost completely dismiss Roger Moore's tenure as James Bond. He is frequently called the 'worst' Bond and his movies are dismissed as Carry On style romps. Roger would even make light of this himself. The truth is though that Roger was a great Bond. Sure, he maybe made a couple of films too many and the comedic elements of his films sometimes got out of hand but the Roger Moore years constitute the most fun era of Bond.   If you sit down and watch one of Roger's Bond films you are guaranteed to have a good time. Roger Moore's Bond is Christmas Day afternoon. John Barry, Ken Adam, Lewis Gilbert, Carly Simon, crazy stunts, quips, Caroline Munro in a helicopter, underwater bases, Jaws, Jane Seymour, the Lotus, parachutes, jet planes, space battles, crocodiles, ski chases, casinos, tuxedos, double-entendres. The Roger Moore era of Bond wasn't terrible or embarrassing. It was fantastic! In the book that follows we shall take a deep dive into the Roger Moore era of Bond and explore his tenure from start to finish. We'll assess the strengths and weaknesses of both Roger's Bond and his films but most of all this book is a celebration of Roger Moore's James Bond and the years he spent suavely karate chopping baddies in a selection of safari suits and cream flares. Roger's amazing contribution to the Bond franchise is far too often derided and mocked these days.   This book will hopefully serve as an entertaining and robust defence of Roger Moore and his incarnation of James Bond.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fox, John

Leseproben

CHAPTER ONE - BEFORE BOND
  Roger George Moore was born on the 14th of October 1927 in Stockwell, London. Despite his urbane image as the archetypal English gentleman, Moore came from a fairly humble background and was a policeman's son from South London. He lived through some of the Luftwaffe's London Blitz before evacuation to Devon, did national military service (where he eventually earned the rank of captain), and had early ambitions to become an animator. It was of course though acting which became his career. Roger eventually went to Rada where he met Lois Maxwell, who was later to play Miss Moneypenny in the Connery and Moore Bond films.   Like any jobbing young actor, Roger Moore experienced provincial theatres and tatty boarding houses as he sought to carve out a career. His good looks eventually earned him a contract with MGM - though big screen stardom was still elusive for a long time. He was married to the singer Dorothy Squires (who was rather eccentric it seems) for a time and appeared on the screen with some very famous faces. Roger's early roles included uncredited parts in films and some small roles in television shows and television movies. He made his film debut in the 1954 film The Last Time I Saw Paris. The Last Time I Saw Paris was based on the F Scott Fitzgerald short story Babylon Revisited. Despite his studio contract, MGM seemed to show little interest in activating their option on Roger until this film arrived.   Roger was asked to report to Culver City Studios in Hollywood where the Irving Thalberg building dominated the landscape. Roger Moore was 26 years-old and awed by the studio with its collection of lots - all with spectacular backdrops to use in films. New York City streets, railway tracks, cowboy towns, lakes, rivers. The stars of The Last Time I Saw Paris were Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson with Roger some way down the cast list as a minor supporting player. The talented director Richard Brooks would further enhance his reputation with films like Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Elmer Gantry. Roger - looking incredibly young - flits into the film as a tennis playing gigolo who has a fling with Helen and makes Van Johnson jealous. Roger doesn't have an awful lot to do in the film but you can see why his good looks encouraged studios to have him on a contract just in case they needed a dashing young actor for any particular part.   In 1955, Roger appeared in a supporting role in Interrupted Melody - a biopic of Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence. Lawrence valiantly battled polio after huge success in the 1930s and the film is an adaptation of her book about her ups and downs and experiences around the world as a famed singer. Lana Turner, Greer Garson, and Kathryn Grayson were considered to play Lawrence but it was Eleanor Parker who won the role. Glenn Ford was cast as Marjorie's doctor husband Thomas King while Roger plays her brother Cyril. The voice of Lawrence singing was supplied by Eileen Farrell. Interrupted Melody is regarded to be a fine biopic of the era and arguably the highlight of Eleanor Parker's career.   1955 also saw Roger appear in The King's Thief. The King's Thief is a Hollywood swashbuckler with many British actors in the cast. The film was roasted by critics and isn't fondly remembered (even Roger jokes about how awful the film was in his autobiography) but the picture was important to Roger on a personal note because he became great friends with David Niven through it. The production was notable for some behind the scenes intrigue with Edmund Purdom frequently holding everyone up with constant telephone calls due to his affair with Linda Christian. Another British cast member, George Sanders, was prone to falling asleep in his dressing room. It's a wonder the film was ever finished!   The following year Roger Moore appeared in another movie - Diane. Diane is a historical drama about the life of Diane de Poitiers. Diane de Poitiers was a noblewoman and courtier at the courts of kings Francis I and his son - Henry II. She became notorious as the latter's favourite and developed much influence and power at the French Court. The leading lady in Diane was Lana Turner, a huge Hollywood star but now slightly on the downward slope. It was the last film of Turner's MGM contract.   Diane was also Roger's final film as part of his MGM contract and he takes on the part of Prince Henri. Co-star Pedro Armendáriz would go on to become well known to James Bond fans for his role as Kerim Bey in From Russia with Love with Sean Connery. Diane was not a huge financial success but the production values of the film were praised and it served as a respectable last hurrah for Lana Turner's MGM years. Roger is very dashing and handsome as Henri - although he doesn't seem completely comfortable in period clobber. He and Turner work together relatively well and do their best to stir some passion into the picture. The age difference between the characters is less of a factor in this interpretation but Roger does look very baby-faced and young compared to the statuesque Turner.   In 1958/59, Roger appeared in 39 episodes as the lead of the ITV show Ivanhoe. Big screen stardom might have thus far eluded Roger but he was a great leading man on television and good at playing heroic and dashing heroes. One of his Ivanhoe co-stars was Robert Brown - who many years later would play M in his last Bond movies. Ivanhoe was the first time Roger had been a leading man in anything. He did many of his own stunts in Ivanhoe and picked up a number of injuries as a result. The show was made by ITV and aimed primarily at children.   Roger Moore's flexibility, in that he was willing to work in either film or television and on both sides of the Atlantic too, meant that he was never short of work. In 1959/1960, Roger appeared in 37 episodes of the Western television show The Alaskans and also found the time to appear in the anthology show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The Alaskans was Roger's first experience of American television and he absolutely hated it. Roger described the show as 'appalling' and felt that the actors were frequently placed in unnecessary danger with the stunts, fires, and (a particular bugbear) fake plastic snow. Roger's marriage was also strained by him having an affair with his Alaskans co-star Dorothy Provine. It's safe to say that The Alaskans was not an especially happy time for Roger.   Roger, much to his annoyance, also appeared in the fourth season of the Western show Maverick as Beau Maverick. Roger replaced James Garner - who quit the show over a contract dispute. Roger was told he was going to be in Maverick while he was in the make-up chair on The Alaskans. He was irritated by this because he had some film offers in the pipeline and felt the writing on Maverick was atrocious. Roger made fourteen episodes of Maverick before he decided he'd had enough and quit. Sean Connery actually turned down the part of Beau Maverick before it was given to Roger Moore. Connery and Moore would forever be entwined in cinema history thanks to an altogether different role in the future.   Roger also appeared in the 1959 film The Miracle. The film is adapted from The Miracle (1911) by German playwright Karl Vollmoeller. Volmoeller based the play on a Middle Ages legend of a Virgin Mary statue replacing a nun who flees a convent with a knight. The film was supposed to be made in the 1940s but was long delayed and only arrived in 1959.   The story here moves the legend to the Napoleonic era and has Carroll Baker as the lead. Baker, a famous sex symbol of the era, (unwittingly) created controversy in Elia Kazan's suggestive Baby Doll a few years before. It was speculated that her playing a postulant in a convent in a moral message film was an attempt to quash the controversy that still lingered from censorious religious groups! She simply didn't want to be typecast.   The Miracle was intended as a Bette Davis vehicle but she wasn't interested. Roger's part as a British officer was initially offered to Dirk Bogarde but he wasn't interested either. Bogarde suggested to the studio that Roger play the role instead. When Roger later tried to personally thank Dirk Bogarde for suggesting him he found it completely impossible to get a meeting with the reclusive actor! The Miracle met with a tepid reception both from audiences and critics. It wasn't helped by opening against Ben-Hur and also suffered in comparison to Audrey Hepburn's The Nun's Story.   Roger would appear in three more films in the early 1960s before taking a long hiatus from movies thanks to his role as Simon Templar in The Saint on television. The Sins of Rachel Cade was part of Roger's contract with Warner's and saw him appear with Angie Dickinson and Peter Finch. Roger was still shooting the television show The Alaskans and only arrived on the set of The Sins of Rachel Cade as Finch was preparing to leave so they didn't spend much time together. Roger's friend Gordon Douglas directed the picture. The Sins of Rachel Cade is a so-so melodrama that is competent enough but perhaps not the most memorable of the early films that Roger acted in.   The Sins of Rachel Cade is a very late fifties/early sixties soap opera-ish drama with the Belgian Congo quite obviously a few sets out the back of the Warner's lot rather than a real jungle. Some stock footage from The Nun's Story was also used in the film. The same year Roger also appeared in Gold of the Seven Saints. Gold of the Seven Saints is a Western that features Roger alongside the brawny Clint Walker. The director Gordon Douglas and Walker had already made 1958's Fort Dobbs and 1959's...