Book review - "My Name is Barbra" by Barbra Streisand

 I'm not a big Streisand head but have no particularly strong feelings about her. This book is very good though. Well written, enjoyable. Feels "her". Strong willed, eccentric, passionate. She's copped a lot of bad press over the years but from men trying to punish her. Arthur Laurents and Garson Kanin struggled to direct her with their "set and forget" methods. She had better luck with people like Jerome Robbins, William Wyler, and Peter Bogdanovich, people who challenged her. Did badly with weaker directors like Gene Kelly, Frank Pierson.

She writes affectionately of Elliot Gould which I liked - they had issues (he was partial to marijuana, jealousy and had a gambling habit) but was basically supportive. Also she has a lot of time for most of her exes: Ryan O'Neal, Geoge Lazenby (! - it was just a flirtation during On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty (who she's not sure if she slept with), Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif, Anthony Newley (I didn't know that). Isn't nice about Sydney Chaplin who she had an affair with then called off and he behaved badly (Walter Matthau was a mate of his, hence his bad attitude on Hello Dolly). Likes most of her co stars even if she didn't fall in love with them (she was a method actress that way) - eg James Caan. She adored Brando and they had a friendship but not an affair (I don't think).

Full of "gee I wish you'd done that" moments-  she should've turned director on A Star is Born, should've made Merry Widow with Ingmar Bergman

She's ambivalent about Sue Menges (says Menges begged her to be in All Night Long), Jon Peters.

Particularly fascinating accounts of her musicals and movies especially The Way We Were (admits to not remembering much about For Pete's Sake). Also deep dives her albums and TV specials.

Lots of good juice like Arthur Laurents sending her a mean letter after her first album - but she also liked him because of The Way We Were; Mandy Patinkin demanding to have an affair; Complex descriptions of Ray Stark, Sydney Pollack

There's a bit too much about clothes and blocking of scenes. And the last few chapters are really grim - the Clintons, politicis, philanthropy, her 21st century career. But def read the first bit.

Top Ten George Lazenby Performances

 In honour of his 84th birthday even if he is cancelled now

1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) - the best Bond. No alternative opinions are welcomed. The Daniel Craig films constantly riff on this one.

2. Saint Jack (1979) - great movie. Lazenby’s role v small but effective as a gay American senator. Kind of weird he's in this but it's the best drama he ever appeared in.

3. The Man from Hong Kong (1975) - Lazenby gets set on fire and beaten up by Jimmy Wang Yu in what is still the greatest Oz karate flick.

4. The Operation (1973) - rare lead role for Lazenby with him very good in this British TV as a property developer who gets up to key party shenanigans. Terribly written. Not good as a drama but Lazenby gives a strong performance.

5. Is There Anybody There (1976) - solid Aussie TV movie from Robert Bruning, a riff on something like Diabolque, with gaslighting, red rehearings, murder and Wendy Hughes

6. Cover Girls (1977) - Lazenby makes a good villain in this pilot for a Charlies Angels rip off that didn’t go to series - Don Johnson is in this

7. Universal Soldier (1971) - not a good movie but utterly fascinating - Lazenby blew all his chits on the improvised tale of a mercenary who discovers drugs, hippies and peace, an allegory for what Lazenby’s own journey - it stars the woman who became his wife, alongside Germaine Greer and Cy Enfield who directed

8. Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - only has a cameo as himself playing himself in a mock trailer but it’s very fun and one of Lazenby’s best movies even if he’s just in one scene

9. Stoner (1974) the first of Lazenby’s three picture deal with Random Harvest (Man from Hong Kong was the second, A Queen’s Ransom was the third) this is a decent ish flick with Lazenby as the hero alongside Angela Mao

10. Who Saw Her Die? (1972) - Italian slasher (giallo) quite stylishly done but also full on.

Movie review - "Saint Jack" (1979) ****

 This film completely worked for me - maybe I saw it in the perfect mood or something but it just clicked. Bogdanovich films are about rhythm and this one nails it. It helps he had Paul Theroux's source material, he was keen to explore brothels in the far east, he had a surrogate in Ben Gazzara, Howard Sackler worked on the script, the budget was low enough for him to have freedom (even though it was a tricky shoot). It's one of the best New World Pictures.

Gazzara gives a subtle, laid back performance as Jack a man who seems to have all the answers but often gets in over his head. He works for some locals and dreams of setting up his own brothel; he succeeds only to fall victim to the local triads (a terrifying sequence... Bogdanovich doesn't do nearly enough suspense and violence he has a gift for it).

It is the story of white men in Singapore but he's constantly bested by the locals and the British don't come off too well - boozy whoremongerers singing songs. The female characters don't get much of a look in - more could've been done with Jack's Sri Lankan love - but the many virtues outweigh the flaws: the matter of fact acceptance of sex (so much so that to blackmail a man because he's gay is what makes Jack draw the line), the atmosphere, the fact it captured a Singapore now gone, Bogdanovich giving one of his best performances as a CIA man.  George Lazenby is effective in a small appearance as a senator who is a blackmail target. Denholm Elliot is perfect as a sweaty accountant who comes to be Jack's one genuine friend.

There's reference to Jack replacing Aussie beef with American to feed American GIs on leave during Vietnam.

Movie review - "Stoner" (1974) **

The movie George Lazenby made in Hong Kong instead of one with Bruce Lee (which would have been Game of Death). It is of some interest especially as he plays an Australian (well, we meet him driving over the Harbour Bridge) who goes to Hong Kong to investigate the death of his sister in a weird sex cult - the reverse of Man from Hong Kong. Only this film doesn't have any of that film's culture clash.

It's an odd movie - feels made up as it went along. In addition to Lazenby investigating there's also Angela Mao investigating (her part is as big as Lazenby's but they rarely cross) and the cult gives it a Fu Manchu feeling. Lazenby beds a few babes and shaves his moustache off half way through. He was a good on screen fighter but it doesn't quite feel realistic that he can beat off these kung fu henchmen who attack him. Samo Hung is in it.

Still, it's definitely of interest, particularly as it offers Lazenby a rare lead role, even if he does have to share it with Angelo Mao.

Movie review - "The Operation" (1973) *

George Lazenby usually makes it sound like he went from James Bond to Hong Kong, but he made a few films in between - an Italian flick called Who Saw Her Die? and this British TV movie, a Play for Today. I assumed this would be studio bound and cheap but it looks great - location filming, on film. I liked Roy Battersby's direction.

But it's a dumb story. So dumb. Dramatically bad. Maybe there's depth I'm not aware of. I don't think so. It's got early 70s in Britain smugness against captalism but makes it's own argument so badly.

The plot should be simple but is needlessly confusing. George Lazenby is a property developer who wants to knock down a building but there's a tenant who won't leave. He seduces the man's wife... but... he seems to like her, I think. The tenant won't leave because he's "built it up himself" even though he took over from his father and Lazenby offered him a lease in the new building. And when Lazenby seduces the wife it's no shock because the grocer hosts key parties.

Lazenby has this former best friend who is on the dole for five years who he gives a job to... um... be nice to the wife, even though he's hooked up with the wife (we don't see it, it happens off screen), and the wife and the friend hang out and get into bed together platonically and she has plastic surgery and.... I think at the end that's Lazenby dressed up in a uniform to have some bondage with the wife and they get shot by the husband.

It's weird. Lazenby answers the door to his friend and goes sorry I'm having a bath, hops in the bath and gets out again. Maybe it's art. I think it's just inept.

It's great to see Lazenby as a developer - he's got swagger and I buy him in the part (they cover his accent by saying he went away to school in Australia and worked as a car salesman). I wish he'd been able to play just a good old ruthless tycoon but they but away to this boring friend who wasn't really a friend and hasn't worked for five years so who cares about his crisis of conscience. Who cares about the grocer. I mean, the building has to be knocked down doesnt it? Why is that bad? What am I missing?

There is novelty seeing Lazenby in the lead in a drama and a British TV movie of the early 70s with a councillor getting a blow job, and a party which ends in a key party, and some bondage. The 70s were wild.

Movie review - "Is There Anybody There?" (1976) **1/2 (re-watching) (warning: spoilers)

I went easier on this the second time I viewed in part because it was so much better than the later collaborations between Bruce Wishart and Robert Bruning especially things like Demolition.

This is a perfectly decent psycho thriller with Tina Grenville getting out of the nuthouse unaware that husband George Lazenby is banging sister Wendy Hughes and there's two shifty characters hanging around, Patrick Ward and Chantal Contouri. There's also some best friends who turn out to be red herrings.

The twists develop nicely - Hughes is the one who is gaslit, Grenville is fine, Lazenby is killed by Hughes, Grenville is on with Ward... I would have liked a bigger role for Lazenby and also Charles Tingwell who pops up.

Movie review - "The Newman Shame" (1978) *1/2

George Lazenby only made a few movies in Australia - I'm surprised he didn't make more especially in the 10BA era but there you go. This gives him a decent role as an ex cop investigating the suicide of a banker friend. Because the friend calls up his wife before he suicides saying "I'm being blackmailed" it's not much of a mystery to investigate.

Lazenby pokes around the porn industry of Perth which as depicted here is quite lively and ruthless, enticing elderly bankers to toga clad orgies where they are drugged. Diane Craig is Lazenby's girlfriend who goes undercover as a porn actor/masseuse - this being a TV movie she doesn't go all the way through with it.

Joan Bruce as the widow probably has more screen time than her character deserves  - she sits around and reacts and is gossiped to by Judy Nunn, which is entertaining, but really she should have been doing some more investigating. I guess they figured she was too old - why not make her younger and have her do it, and combine her character with Craig/

The film has a weird rhythm - investigate some of the case, stop for a chat by the pool, investigate again, chat again. It's a silly movie with convoluted plotting of the kind you come to expect from Bruce Wishart scripts but has enough nuttiness to keep you watching - me anyway: Ken Goodlet in a toga, Alan Cassell being a cop, Lazenby getting in fights, Diane Craig in a swim suit.

Movie review - "Cover Girls" (1977) **

A dim knock off of Charlies Angels that didn't make it past pilot - this time its two girls instead of three and they're models; one of them is black, which gives it some difference. They have a male boss who we see and are helped out by a male agent - Don Johnson in a Zapata moustache.

The plot has them chase after an embezzler, Vince Edwards - so this show has decent star power. The girls are Cornelia Sharpe (who wised up and married Martin Bergman) and Jayne Kennedy - they do look stunning and are dressed nicely but aren't given enough action/smart stuff to do. I liked how they clearly had active sex lives - though it's made clear black Kennedy sleeps with black football players (no miscegenation yet).

There's a decent car chase and some helicopters at the end but its silly and not in a fun way - it doesn't quite work. George Lazenby is the villain - he gets some flowery dialogue and handles it well; it's a decently written role and he makes an impact and you wonder why he didn't have a bigger career in Hollywood with those looks and that voice.

Book review - "Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable HIstory of the James Bond Films" by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowhudry

Exhaustive, near definitive account of the making of the famous series, written with passion and enthusiasm but also scholarship. I admit I knew a lot of the first half, but I'm a die hard fan - I know less about the Dalton period onwards, and this illuminated that.

The most striking comment for me was something by Michael Wilson, who said that other producers may have done a better job but plenty of others also would have done a much worse job - and that for me is part of the secret why the series has lasted so long. It's been run by a family business who never made too many mistakes - they always pulled things back on track.

The series has stumbled several times - George Lazenby (who I love but also recognise could have hurt the series), the fights between Broccoli and Saltzman, the constant executive turn over, the bankruptcy of Saltzman, creative misfires, the changing world). But they always manage to pull it back... they find a Roger Moore, or a Pierce Brosnan in the 90s, or after Man with the Golden Gun pull out The Spy Who Loved Me, after Die Another Day do Casino Royale.  When Pierce demands $25 million they change bonds. They don't go with James Brolin or James Gavin. They remain true to Bond.

Screenwriters come and go. They and hired then replaced then brought back again. They don't pick the latest hot director but someone who will fit. They keep costs down. They try to keep up to date but don't slavishly follow trends. They promoted from within.

Some films prove to have been particularly tricky - Die Another Day, Never Say Never Again. Dalton was fired at the behest of the US studio, not of his own accord. Brosnan asked for too much money and was fired.

Exhausting, exhaustive, but very good.

Movie review - "Becoming Bond" (2017) ****

Fun, lively, irreverent account of how George Lazenby came from nowhere to become James Bond. I'm a Lazenby fan so was always going to enjoy it - I was surprised how much I didn't know. I was very familiar with the Bond stuff but not so much his early life - growing up in Quenbeyan, being in trouble at school. I knew about him going to work as a mechanic and car salesman but not his big romance with a woman called Belinda which forms the emotional heart of the film.

Sometimes I felt they spent too much time on this - the one that got away etc etc - but it did add a bit of heart to the movie. He claims she was his great love and always wonders what would've happened if it had worked out. It's his own fault it didn't - Lazenby cheated on her, and didn't hook up with her again when he had the chance.

(I kind of feel the real love of Lazenby's life was Chrissy Townsend, who was in Universal Soldier and with whom he had two children and he sailed around the world... but the marriage ended badly... But then people always romanticise the love that was never realised.)

It's a mythic treatment of the Lazenby story - no mention of Universal Soldier or him going off on a boat for ages while he was still famous, or the death of his son, or the domestic violence allegations from both his ex wives, or the custody dispute with his second wife.

To be fair Lazenby doesn't paint himself as a saint - admits to cheating on Belinda, and getting a big head and even now he says he can't understand why he quit Bond. (My theory - he just went a bit silly and wouldn't listen to anyone). He's a very good raconteur, a charming old rogue.

Josh Lawson is pretty good as Lazenby - not quite the same type, he lacks the macho alphaness of Lazenbym but I honestly couldn't think of another actor who could do better. (Do they make 'em like Lazenby any more). He does the comic stuff well and has a decent build... his hair cut was distracting. He was noticeably older than the girl who plays Belinda (who was very likeable, by the way).

Top notch support cast - Jane Seymour as Maggie Abbott, Jeff Garlin as Harry Saltzman (made me want a Saltzman biopic), the two kids who play young George are outstanding. It's funny and lively and I enjoyed the re-enactments more than I thought I would.

I loved the interview clips of him before and after the Bond film, particularly after where everyone is going "you're sure you want to quit?"

A fun movie. I get the feelign Lazenby will be too unfocused to ever get around to writing his biography but this is a pretty good alternative.

The Key Films in the James Bond Series

1) Dr No - the one that really established it all. Funny enough, I don't think it ever gets the credit it deserves - overshadowed by From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Casino Royale or On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Absolutely, there would be bigger budgets, memorable moments to come - but the template of Bond as a sophisticated, debonair assassin was struck from the first film, a magical accident of Sean Connery, Ian Fleming, Terence Young, Ken Adams, Broccoli/Saltzman, etc coming together. Connery proved stunningly right as Bond, the story was excellent (it's a good fall back structure to borrow even now), Joseph Wiseman an expert villain, Ursula Andress an incredible Bond. A sidekick, a treacherous girl, combination of comedy and violence... It was there from the get go.

2) Goldfinger - for many this is THE Bond film, even now, a beautifully structured piece of entertainment, with perhaps the best villain, best use of gadgets, best theme song, and best plan of all time. Terrific fun.

3) On Her Majesty's Secret Service - the first Bond without Connery, the first box office disappointment, the first unhappy ending... and now many (myself included) see it as the greatest Bond of them all... I'd say it comfortably has the biggest "cult" of any Bond film.

4) Live and Let Die - Diamonds Are Forever restored the box office health of the Bond films, but a lot of that was attributed to Connery. Live and Let Die showed the series could thrive with a new Bond if that Bond was a better established actor - and few had the pedigree of Roger Moore, whose Saint TV series was an excellent training ground for the part. It's a flawed movie that hasn't aged very well, but its rock soundtrack is superb and there are some good moments.

5) The Spy Who Loved Me - Harry Saltzman's financial problems resulting in him leaving the series, and this showed that Cubby Broccoli could handle things fine on his own very much thank you with a movie that admittedly pinched most of its key elements from earlier films (Russian agent female lead, spectacular villain, wordless henchman) but rehashed them to a brilliant degree, making it an artistic high point of the Bond rein.

6) Goldeneye - the Bonds took their longest break before Pierce Brosnan showed their was life in the series yet. I don't think anyone remembers this film with that much fondness, but it was a well made entry which revitalised things.

7) Casino Royale - a major shot in the arm, Daniel Craig being the best challenger to Connery's crown. It's an origin story though oddly the film didn't need to be.

Book review - "Bond on Bond: Reflections on 50 Years of James Bond" by Roger Moore (2013)

I really enjoyed Roger Moore's memoirs, which felt very much written in his "voice" - this one doesn't, which is a shame. There are some good bits, which really feel like an inside look at the series, but for the most part it feels like a stock retread of facts that most serious Bond fans already know. Maybe I'm trying to make the book into something it was never meant to be - but why else do it? It's good natured and affectionate like you'd expect any book to be with Moore's name attached.

Book review - "The Many Lives of Cy Endfield Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu" by Brian Neve (2015)

How good a filmmaker was Cy Endfield? He made one movie that has passionate devotees - Zulu - but the others are far, far less well known. After the triumph of Zulu his career bewilderingly failed to gain momentum. I was familiar with glimpses - the mysterious Sands of the Kalahari, being booted off De Sade, the beyond-weird Universal Soldier - but this superb biography answers all those questions and more.

Endfield was from Scranton Pennsylvania; like so many directors of his era, he was the son of immigrants, and was whip smart, getting into Yale. He earned contacts in the progressive theatre scene of the 1930s, knowing Orson Welles and Paul Gallico, and joining the Communist Party. He eventually found his way to Hollywood and whinged/nagged/networked his way into filmmaking jobs, doing a stint for Mercury at RKO, then making a short for MGM, Inflation. This was extremely highly regarded - but also so powerful it was considered anti-capitalist and found it hard to get distribution. It was to be the first in a series of career blows that would frustrate Endfield.

He was a hard worker and wrote as well as directed so managed to find work - radio dramas (including "The Argyle Secrets" for Suspense which I review elsewhere on this blog), then making comedies at Monogram, and working his way up to some highly regarded film noirs, notably The Sound and Fury. It seemed Endfield's career was back on track then he was hit with another blow - being blacklisted.

Endfield fled to England. He eventually found work again in TV and then movies, writing and directing, forming a notable collaboration with actor-producer Stanley Baker: A Child in the House, Hell Drivers, Jet Storm, then of course Zulu. This was a big hit and really should have put Endfield back in the A league again. But his follow up, Sands of the Kalahari, flopped and Endfield could never get his groove back - by this stage he was too cranky, too old, probably too tired after so many knock backs. He was booted off De Sade, Universal Soldier was a mess, was unable to get financing for other projects; he worked increasingly in other areas - computers, tried writing a play (the man was ferociously intelligent); he had a life long interest in magic and was very serious about it. Critics rediscovered him but it was probably too little too late for his sense of self-respect.

For all his many admirable qualities Endfield wasn't always an easy person to like - he was prickly, temperamental, sulky; he bailed on a first marriage and child (the blacklist was a big part of this, in his defense); seemed reluctant to help out with the war effort. But he had talent, intelligence and made some entertaining films. Its a shame his early 50s film noirs aren't better known, for instance. He was a fascinating character who deserved a good biography, and he got one.

Movie review - "A Fistful of Dynamite" (1971) ***

After four Westerns that have been regarded as classics, Sergio Leone came up with a fifth that isn't - due, one suspects, to the casting in the lead of nobody's favourite action stars, Rod Steiger and James Coburn. Steiger actually is pretty good in a variation of Eli Wallach in The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Jason Robards in Once Upon a Time in the West - a colourful crook who accidentally finds himself the leader of a revolution. (This is a Western set during the Pancho Villa era of the 1910s.) He plays it broad and big as required, even though it's a bit off when we first see him he's urinating and a few minutes later he rapes a woman (I think it's meant to be alright because she's hoity toity).

I always had a soft spot for James Coburn, who does do his best but isn't entirely comfortably cast as an Irish revolutionary whose paths cross with Steiger. (Apparently George Lazenby was offered this role and turned it down!) The role is really meant for a tormented, stoic type - the Bronson/Eastwood part - and Coburn is at his best when gregarious. Also I didn't quite buy the chemistry between the two men.

It isn't as effective as other Leone Westerns but does has its moments - some epic battle scenes, the executions of revolutionaries in the rain, the discovery of the ambushed revolutionaries (it feels more like it was set in a European country occupied by the Nazis fighting a communist revolution), Ennio Morricone's score. 

It's an odd combination of comedy (lots of comic explosions) and melodrama. There's lots of odd flashbacks to Coburn's menage a trois with his mate and a girl back in Ireland which feels a little kinky. Flawed, but interesting.

Movie review - "Game of Death" (1978) **

One of the most bizarre films ever made. When he died, Bruce Lee left behind some fighting footage for a movie he never got to complete (which was to star George Lazenby incidentally). Golden Harvest decided they couldn't let it go to waste, so they brought in Robert Clouse, director of Enter the Dragon, and cobbled together a plot about a Bruce Lee style actor who upsets the mob, who then try to kill him... so he goes into hiding and seeks his revenge via way of various disguises. They added a bunch of Hollywood actors to help make it more appealing for the world market.

Now that's actually a decent idea for a movie - its similar to the premise of Return to Eden, and is based in strong emotion (desire for revenge, watching your partner think you are dead). But the kick off is weak - I didn't buy that they would go to all this trouble to shoot Lee just to prove a point. (I wish they'd had more history with Lee, like was a childhood friend he owed a favour too or something).)

And the doubling of him isn't very effective - Bruce Lee was so distinctive it's really obvious when someone is impersonating him. They try to add extra Bruce by putting in clips from Way of the Dragon and Fists of Fury but that makes things even more distracting.

Because Bruce Lee made so few movies as a star this is still worth seeing. The fight stuff at the end is pretty good, especially the bout he has with Kareem Abdul Jabar. Colleen Camp does the best she can with her role as Lee's girlfriend (a singer who at one point is so deranged with grief she decides to shoot his assassin). Gig Young adds some professional sheen as his journalist friend, Dean Jagger is fine as a mob boss, and Hugh O'Brien good as a baddie... until he has to do kung fu. I really liked this as a kid but it so didn't hold up.

Book review - "Musts, Maybes and Nevers" by David Picker (2013)

I was mostly familiar with David Picker as the smug, gruff, tightly-spoken figure who popped up in Bond docos, talking about his involvement in the series, but of course his name is well known for all those students of cinema in the 60s and 70s. Picker was head of production at United Artists in their hey day when they seemed to touch the zietgeist at will - among the films Picker greenlit were Tom Jones, the Bond series, A Hard Day's Night, Midnight Cowboy, Last Tango in Paris.

It's an incredible record, and yes while Picker mostly said "yes" and then stayed out of the way, what he said "yes" to was very impressive. This was Picker's great time in the sun - he became an independent producer with more mixed success, as well as short stints being head of Paramount and Columbia.

Picker puts up the impression of being down to earth but not really; some places in this book seems downright petty, slagging off on Robert Altman for calling him a prick and Mike Medavoy for not inviting him to a party, whingeing about inadequate press coverage of his achievements (he says the story of how the Bond series was started has never been told by a person who was there before... but Cubby Broccoli published his memoirs in the late 90s) and how UA execs got paid less than execs at other Hollywood studios and how Transamerica made them stay at a corporate camp rather than a nice hotel. If his films don't succeed its normally the fault of someone else eg Stella and Leap of Faith was because of the nasty and incompetent directors, The Greatest Story Ever Told was down to its megalomaniac George Stevens. It was Arthur Krim not him who turned down American Graffiti and Bonnie and Clyde, Bob Benjamin Planet of the Apes (to be fair he admits he turned down The Graduate because he didn't get it).

But some anecdotes are gold: Charles Bludhorn being determined to make a movie featuring Buffalo Bill and Hitler, Picker being talked into buying Grease purely on the basis of Allan Carr's enthusiasm, Harold Mirisch desperately trying to get Truman Capote over to his house as a guest, falling out with friend Herb Gardener, George Roy Hill's mistress inspired the native extras to come to his defense and save his job on Hawaii, Picker suggesting John Newcombe as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I liked that he actually praised some critics (Pauline Kael and Clive James) and took the fall for some things, and there are lively sketches about people such as Richard Lester and Harry Salztman. It's an important book by one of the most significant film execs of his time; I just wish he was a little less pompous on the page and that he had spoken about some of his works like Royal Flash.

Movie review - Bond#6 - "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) *****

I was this on the big screen finally at the Hayden Orpheum with a Lazenby Q and A in October 2012 - a terrific night because he was in great form, helped by an affectionate crowd, a good MC in Gary Maddox, and a hot girl from Die Another Day next to him which seemed to tickle his fancy. He played up being the old Aussie dinosaur, into birds and booze, and got great laughs.

I've seen this movie countless times but never on the big screen. It's such an awesome movie, with emotion, suspense and action. Some random thoughts:
* It's surprisingly New Wave direction - way out sound, jump cut editing, sped up action sequences. The influence of the late 60s, I guess: also in the garish decor during the opening hotel sequence and some of Bond's suits (that purple!).
* It's a really good script - perhaps Richard Maibaum's best (he always paid tribute to Ian Fleming's excellent source novel - he's the sole credited writer, although I understand some guy was brought int to do a little polish). It spanks along, has a first rate story - logical, clever - plus strong character development (Tracey and Blofeld are very well rounded), some funny lines. Occasionally it goes over board (e.g. "he had lots of guts") but it's extremely well done.
* Diana Rigg's Tracey is one of the all time best Bond girls - beautiful, heaving cleavage, spirited, a fast driver and top skier, she loves Bond. She actually has a decent back story - a wild child desperate for love - but never becomes a door mat. She's sexy, brave, smart and classy, plus dramatically interesting; very few Bond girls matched her. Indeed I'm not sure I can think of any who do. Also because she dies she's kind of perfect for him. I never get sick of that moment at the ice rink where Bond is surrounded and he doesn't know what to do and Rigg turns up on ice skates - it's terrific.
* Gabrielle Ferzetti's Draco is my favourite Bond sidekick/ally - firm, sexist, loving, in over his head. A dream father in law, who asks you to root his hot daughter, will pay you a million bucks to marry her, and can organise a helicopter raid on an alpine hideaway. I try to forget he's a member of the Mafia. Still, he's a professional (I love the moment in the attack on Piz Gloria when Draco's henchman is setting the explosives and asks his boss about the Englishman. Draco simply replies that he knows the schedule. What a cool dude!)
* Blofeld's plan is very clever and believable - a virus he plans on unleashing via hot girls around the world... in exchange for amnesty and cash and recognition for his title, which was a nice change. Telly Savalas' Blofeld is the most virile and tough of them all - he gets out there on his skis himself, not just sitting on a chair patting a cat, and he is also oddly human (a snob who falls for Tracey, attracted by her title as her looks).
* Some of the support Bond girls are seriously hot - Catherine Schell in particular. Not so much Angela Scoular, but she's a very good comic actress, which is important for that role.
*Ilse Steppat is an all time great Bond villain hench-woman - she ranks up with Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love. She's brilliant - fat, dour, deadly.
* I always forget there's another Aussie in this movie: Anouska Hempel, who plays one of the angels of death.
* George Lazenby's performance has been much discussed. I will say this - he's excellent in fight scenes, is very good looking and masculine, has a great voice, is inexperienced and isn't as good an actor as Sean Connery but I find him a very effective Bond. He is helped greatly by having Rigg, Ferzetti and Savalas to play scenes against - and by having his voice dubbed by George Baker as Hilary Bray.
*The time when I most felt Connery's absence was in the scenes between Bond, Q and Moneypenny - especially the ending when Bond gets married but also the beginning when he resigns. Having an actor who had more of an on air history with Bernard Miles, Desmond Llewellyn and Lois Maxwell for these scenes would have helped give them more resonance.
* I love the care chosen in the smaller parts: the sandy haired agent who is killed on the mountain; Ferzetti's men (the pocked-marked guy who seems to be Draco's main henchman and the black dude); Blofeld's agents; Draco's young lover.
*John Barry's music was never better - with wonderful lush scores to go with the alps and the romance. There's a moving theme song, 'We've Got all the Time in the World' which is re-used well. Louis Armstrong helped too (even if it's used in a falling in love montage that feels very late 60s).
*The alpine setting is gorgeous and results in some brilliant action sequences. Bond's escape from Piz Gloria in particular is a smorgasboard of non-stop action - there is some cable car tension, then a night ski chase, a fight in a bell factory, ice skating, a car chase that involves participating in a car race, a romantic interlude in a barn, a day time ski chase, then an avalanche! It's real Indiana Jones stuff.
*There are some flaws in the story - I believed (just) that Blofeld wouldn't kill Bond straight away once he knew who he was but would he have him put away in a poorly locked storage room near the cable car engine?
For me this is the greatest Bond film. The first half is slow build, setting up character and plot, a little bit of action, some suspense, lots of impersonation and sex... then the second half is non stop action. A masterpiece. And it's a damn shame Peter Hunt never made any more Bonds or Lazenby never made any more Hollywood movies as a star.

Movie review - "The Man from Hong Kong" (1975) ***1/2

I have a massive soft spot for this film from watching it as a kid - I still remember the joy of watching a real action film that was Australian. WIth as much objectivity as I can bring to it though (which isn't much) this is still a joyously fun film, full of energy and verve. It's got one of the greatest opening sequences in Australian cinema: a montage of shots as the sun comes up over Uluru, a glorious over the top action sequence involving a drug exchange, kung fu fighting on the rock, a helicopter chase, an exploding car... then segueing into 'Sky High' by Jigsaw as a hang-glider flies over Hong Kong. I always love the bit where the credits end and you think that's it but then the song starts up again and there's this whole extra bit - it's like finding extra chips at the bottom of the pack.

I'll go over the flaws first - this goes for too long (the car chase towards the end was when I was becoming a bit tired), some of the dialogue is very corny, the script could have done with a little more complexity, George Lazenby and Hugh Keays Byrne could have done with more to do, a few of the bit part players are just silly (e.g. the cop who supports Roger Ward at the beginning).

But now we've gotten that out of the way now for the praise - how good is this film? Jimmy Wang Yu's skinniness, Roger Ward doing kung fu, Hugh Keays Byrne and Frank Thring being marvellously flamboyant, George Lazenby is great just being George Lazenby, Rebecca Gilling was then one of the most beautiful women in cinema (and she's nude), there are some tremendous stunts and action, Brian Trenchard Smith moves it along at a tremendous clip. This was a quite popular film, especially internationally, but it didn't lead to many imitators in the period film happy late 70s - a great shame, since Australians have liked action films set here (e.g. bushranger movies). It's lived on and it remains great fun.

Movie synopsis - "Universal Soldier" (1971) *

London airport - people arriving. A passport is checked - it's someone born in Melbourne, Australia. There's a handsome photo of clean-shaven George Lazenby - credits: "George Lazenby in Universal Soldier". We cut to George - he's got shaggy hair and a mo. He's pulled into customs to be checked out - his character's name is Ryker. Ryker leaves the airport. People are waiting for him. They take him to a firing range - Ryker is respected on this. He goes to a cinema and watches ads for British arms being used in Vietnam.

 Then he goes to field where hovercrafts are being trialled - people talk about working in the private sector. Ryker takes a hovercraft for a spin. He crashes into another hovercraft. (At this stage of the film other actors are driving the dialogue more than Lazenby.) He visits firing ranges. Gets in a car with an African (Rudolph Walker) who knows about Ryker's last performance. Ryker has come out of retirement for two years. The CIA are bankrolling the operation and have approved Ryker (a bit of satire). "People? Come on you know what happens to people in revolutions - they just get shot".

Ryker is to pick mercenaries. He goes to hotel. Lies in bed with towel and has flashes of various war atrocities - mainly news photos of them and images of guns, they don't seem like his POV. The film uses jump cuts and flash forwards. Ryker goes to an arms shop. Talk about getting appropriate export licences. They visit a plush Playboy club. Ryker listens to a fat businessman talk with lack of morality about arms deals.

Drives along in a car. Song on soundtrack "Oh Ryker/ You've still got a long way to go." He is pulled over by a cop. Cops ask them to open boot. They drive off. They escape. Go out to the country. Fire off some guns. Practising shooting Ryker accidentally wounds a dog collecting a stick in a lake - his American mate finishes off the dog, then Ryker blows his top and shoots at the American's feet (doesn't hit him) then walks off. Then cut to driving in a car, all tense.

Ryker heads off on his own. He walks the streets while another song plays on soundtrack. Back at hotel his American friend tries to thaw the ice but Ryker isn't keen. They are going to meet other arms dealers. Their British friend arrives. The British guy offers to go to Africa.

Ryker drives around London a bit. Arrives at a house - looking for a place to rent - he meets an American expat who has lived in London 18 years since been kicked out of country for being "unfriendly". Played by Cy Endfield, who looks seedy and disreputable and mutters. Enfield shows him around flat. Ryker agrees to take it. Endfield asks "Did you ever read Deer Park by Norman Mailer?"

Enfield's wife comes home - it's Germaine Greer. She talks about her day - her students turned up with an obscene poem. He tells Greer that Ryker is renting the room. Friends of Endfield and Greer arrive - they are hippies.

Go to a political workshop. Some actors where masks and do a piece on British police force. They argue that American police should disarm and there would be no war. (One guy who says a bit and gets close ups I think is Rohan O'Reilly, Lazenby's manager.) People say various political things (montage of it) - chat about selling arms to South Africa, Germaine says a bit. Ryker watches. At drinks after he meets and flirts with some girls. He hits it off with a blonde (Chrissy Townsend) who is Greer's step daughter? Someone's step daughter. He asks to see her.

American friend Jesse says Ryker has left even though he has a lot of people to meet. Ryker goes for a stroll in the park. (Too many scenes in this film of him walking around or going for a stroll.)

Jesse (Ben Carruthers) and British guy worried about Ryker. Whole deal might fall over. Ryker walks around with blonde. Blonde gives beggar money. He tells her about a guy he knew in Africa who would give beggars money, be followed by others, get annoyed and kick them to death. "What sort of friend is that?" she asks. "A solider" he says. He goes home. Girl is in his bed. He gets into bed with her.

There is a montage scene where he mucks arond with girl Chrissy and smokes drugs. Jesse tracks him down. We are millions of dollars out, he says. We have to turn up and train. Ryker doesn't seem interested. Jesse "They said take him back or take a piece of them back."

Ryker and Jesse chucking a frisbee, Ryker tells them to duck. They do. Someone is out to kill him.

That night they go down to the docks where the guns are held. They hold up a security guard and take the trucks.

Then he breaks into house of African man and points a gun at him. We have a deal, Ryker. Ryker blackmails him. (It's confusing what happens.) Ryker wants $125,000.

Next day the African turns up with the money. They exchange money. They are $100,000 short - but Ryker says he didn't give back the guns. Jesse is furious. "I don't know what it is myself, you know," says Ryker. "Even if you had the money you'd still have nothing... You're asleep. You're on the short end of everything and so am I but we don't realise it. We're on the wrong side." Jesse understandably punches Ryker (some flashy slow mo and cutting). Ryker annoyed but doesn't hit back despite Jesse's taunts. Jesse trips him over. Ryker then trips Jesse over (in slow motion). Ryker helps up Jesse saying "some poeple just have to learn peace the hard way." A mysterious car drives past. Drives past two of them - shots ring out. Freeze frame

Summary - a decent story done in by poor handling. Confusing as what is happening and why. Little excitement. Unsympathetic protagonist.

Greer and O'Reilly are special guest stars.

Final credits: screenplay by Endfield with additional dialogue by Kevin Duggan, Kenneth Fueurman and George Lazenby - based on a story by Derek Marlowe and Joe Massot

Production companies of film were Appaloosa Pictures and Ionian. Derek Marlowe, an experienced writer, is credited with the story.

Movie review - "Is There Anybody There?" (1976) ** (warning: spoilers)

A beautiful woman, Kate (Tina Grenville), is released from a sanatorium unaware that while she was away her husband John (George Lazenby) has begun an affair with her sister Marianne (Wendy Hughes). The two sisters live together in a creepy apartment block while John is away, and find themselves stalked by some mysterious strangers, Rosa (Chantal Contouri) and Duncan (Patrick Ward). Marianne believes that she is being confused with Kate - but it turns out the whole thing is a plot by Kate to revenge herself on Marianne and John. Marianne accidentally shoots John to death and then Kate shoots Marianne and escapes with John's money and her lover, Duncan - who has murdered Rosa.

This is one of a series of TV movies made by Robert Bruning in the 1970s. Lazenby isn't in it very much - it's more a vehicle for Grenville (very much a gas lighting plot). Some decent scary shock scenes such as Lazenby being killed but they are few and far between and it's a bit crappy.