Family motto: 7 choices for all those well made points are not enough.
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Why on earth are DAF options included in this question? It is a puzzlement.
Is it?
Most of this stuff is no more or less annoying to me than what we got in the rest of the series, but I had to call out the “seduction” of Solitaire and the abuse of Andrea (later compounded by taking her up on her pitiful offer of her body in exchange for aid…from a guy who was beating her up not long before).
Some of the other stuff is no fault of the writers, like Roger’s poor showing in the alley fight, Cubby’s penny pinching with Scaramanga’s one-man workforce, the “even Corman wouldve asked for a re-take” exploding missile effects in DAF, etc. Someone further down the field dropped the ball on all those plays.
I listed a few other things, but these are the two absolute worst moments, not just of the options on this poll, but of the entire franchise. The Solitaire scene sends LALD, an otherwise solid entry, all the way down in to Spectre territory for me and the Anders scene is just as grotesque, and is further highlighted by how out of place Moore’s rather mean portrayal of Bond in the film feels against everything else which is right up there with the silliest the franchise ever got. Both scenes are just shameful.
June 6.
Most overlooked/underrated henchperson of the 1960s
- Three Blind Mice
- Professor Dent
- Photographer (Annabel Chung in the novel)
- Mr Jones
- Sisters Rose and Lily
- Kronsteen
- Morzeny
- Kisch
- Machine Gun Granny
- Mei-Lei
- Bouvier/Bouvard/Boitier
- Count Lippe
- Mr Angelo/Derval
- Vargas
- Janni
- Osato
- Hans
- Grunther
- Other(s) - stated below
0 voters
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Had to go with Machine Gun Granny.
Oh, if she only had popped up in NTTD.
Hey, if Pepper did get a second shot…
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Kronsteen - his plan was working, it was Grant, and by extension Klebb, that made it fail.
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Gunther,
Not just because I’m a fan of OHMSS, but he’s tough, wrestler, he really did have a real fight with a Bond Girl instead of Bond himself, he’s truly menacing and dangerous, he really beats up Bond, he’s the Proto-Mr. Hinx in SPECTRE, they do share a lot in common:
- Tough
- Wrestler
- Can beat up Bond
- Had a fight with a Bond Girl
- Have only one dialogue
I would have voted for Count Lippe but he’s getting some recognition now.
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Tough call. For my criteria, I decided to pick someone who was not the main henchmen in their film. I considered Jacques Bouvard and Vargas, but Bouvard is probably not that overlooked nor underrated and Vargas has a couple of good moments but ultimately doesn’t quite do enough to be underrated.
So my choice is Morzeny in From Russia With Love. He looks menacing and he has a cool gadget that he uses to kill Kronsteen–so cool a gadget that Rosa Klebb borrows it from him to attempt to kill Bond. Morzeny also had a good commentary/rapport with Klebb when she arrives on SPECTRE island, and he’s part of a memorable boat chase going after Bond at the end of the film whereupon he meets with a fiery death.
All told, he’s pretty memorable, and I don’t think he quite gets his due in Bond’s rogue’s gallery, so the most overlooked/underrated henchperson of the 1960s is Morzeny.
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I chose Hans from YOLT, because no one ever mentions him, although he does have a rough fight with Connery Bond.
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M. Ms. Mmmm.
Favourite?
- Lee
- Brown
- Dench
- Feinnes
0 voters
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…or, with the correct spellin’…
- Fiennes
0 voters
Bernard Lee for me is the best!
A landslide win for Lee!
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The original and incomparable M, Bernard Lee. He is practically the spitting image of Miles Messervy in the novels for me and he acted just like him too. He was perfect. 
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When I am reading the novels I still see him as M.
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For June 8…
Best bit of Fleming as yet unfilmed
- Cane gun to the spine (Casino Royale)
- Threatened with a keyhole gun (Live and Let Die)
- Cliff blast (Moonraker)
- Abseiling down a cruise ship at sea (Diamonds are Forever)
- Flashback genesis of sort-of-Werewolf (From Russia with Love)
- Villain drowned in animal dung (Dr No)
- Henchman smashing up villain’s house and being given a cat to eat (Goldfinger)
- Basically most of it (From a View to a KIll)
- M’s personal vendetta, not Bond’s (For Your Eyes Only)
- Venice Lido beach run (Risico)
- Fish-face death (The Hildebrand Rarity)
- Leiter and Bond barhopping and being fussy about the food (Thunderball)
- Motel fire shoot-out (The Spy who Loved Me)
- Bond’s express resentment at a seemingly pointless mission (OHMSS)
- Villain luring people into self-destruction (by whatever means) (You Only Live Twice)
- Damsel in distress on the railway tracks (TMWTGG)
0 voters
(TBH I’d watch something with all of those in there, that’d be a fantastic film).
Not included - the Garden of Death specifically because it’s been alluded to (if not that well) in at least a couple of films. Most of the films do adapt the major set peices (eg buzzsaw for laser in Goldfinger) or nick stuff from other books/films anyway - but I am not sure I’ve seen the above in a Bond film.
Other suggestions welcome - oddly, Diamonds are Forever, for such a messy narrative drive, has great set pieces yet to be exploited: Spectreville (I accept they woud have to rename it, although on reflection arguably alluded to in Scaramanga’s funhouse thing), the Brooklyn Stomping, albeit we don’t see it, and the train chase.
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That already would be a great major scheme for the main plot, with all too timely political associations.
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The more I look at that list, the more I think that the usual promise of “We’re going back to Fleming” still has some cracking stuff in there; which gives me cause for optimism.
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Now if only they knew that, too.
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