Ever wondered what the name of the song that Drax plays on his Steinway the first time he meets 007? It’s Frederic Chopin‘s “Prelude No. 15 (Raindrop)”.
Check out a full performance of the piece by world-reknown Chinese pianist Yi Lundi below:
“Commander, this tracing means that the Russians can track our nuclear submarines underwater and sink them.”
From The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Bond (Roger Moore) and Tibbett (Patrick Macnee) have a great rapport in A View To A Kill (1985), and it peaks in this scene. Just after arriving in their room at Zorin’s compound and setting up their recorded dialogue as cover for eavesdropping ears, the two make their way to the balcony where they focus on their mission of investigating Zorin more deeply. They playfully comment on the hilarious, charade relationship they’ve exhibited since they arrived, but then get down to business.
Bond trusts Tibbett’s play-by-play of the parties welcoming and arriving on the helicopter, and when an absolutely stunning Stacy Sutton (Tanya Roberts) arrives, focus quickly turns to her. Side note: the jazzy/mysterious 80’s music of this scene is great, and it’s some of my favorite from the movie. This is also by far the best look for Sutton in the movie, and she seems a bit star-struck herself when she meets Zorin (Christopher Walken) on the launchpad.
Bond cracks a joke to Tibbett that Sutton needs “closer inspection” after they silently acknowledge her good looks, and a more serious Tibbett can’t believe Bond would suggest such a thing: “We’re on a mission!” – to which Bond quips that any interaction between the two would be his own “sacrifice” for the mission – a win-win for Bond and her majesty’s secret service, no? I think their characters’ dynamic (although short-lived) is some of the best Moore’s Bond has with any other during his tenure as 007.
Scaramanaga’s third nipple in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
Bond’s (fake) third nipple in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) to assume Scaramanga’s identity
Scaramanga couldn’t have had a distinctive beauty mark?!
MRW seeing the third nipples in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
Seriously!
In For Your Eyes Only (1981), Bond and Q look up baddie Emile Locque’s information in Q Branch’s database and get a gist of his criminal history. Alongside that, they get poor grammar, some bizarre and unnecessary abbreviations and a misspelling (“biblography” – which I guess should be “bibliography” as it is spelled at the bottom, but Locque’s profile has nothing to do with books…).
I guess it can be chalked up to the primitive nature of computers at the time (1981), but the look on Q’s face right after they read the information may indicate that Q realizes it “hasn’t been perfected yet.” 🙂
Normally when James Bond interacts with wait staff or passersby, the scene is normally short and sweet, and his own quips and charm make the scene somewhat memorable, if at all. It’s not the case in this scene from The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), however.
As Bond searches for Scaramanga’s girl, Andrea Anders, in a hotel, this helpful worker asks Bond (Roger Moore) if he needs help with his champagne on ice delivery. Bond declines, but gladly has uses him to open the door to room 602, Andrea Anders’ room. Does Bond want the staff member to open the champage? Nope – no further assistance is needed from staff, as Bond says he wants his visit to be “a surprise.”
The hotel worker’s response is hilarious in its giddiness and glee. I wonder if it was improvised?
An initial shot of Atlantis made it look sizable – maybe that of an extremely large yacht. However, having a motor boat for scale really shows just how massive Stromberg’s headquarters really were meant to be:
In an unrelated note – Atlantis reminds me of the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which opened in 1961:
There are two times when Bond popped up in villains’ databases:
A View To A Kill (1985)
Die Another Day (2002)
So this sharp knife gadget appears in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) while Bond and Triple X walk through the makeshift Q Branch. Bond comments, “That’ll bring tears to your eyes.” when it pops up in a forceful, deadly manner
It’s obviously supposed to be something, I just have no idea what…the box that the Q Branch technician has it covered with is pretty non-descript.
Any ideas what it could be???
EDIT: Twitter user Ibrahim_M_ says that it’s a camel saddle…looking up some camel saddle images, I think he’s right! Mystery solved! 🙂
