Thunderball Theory: The Curious Case of Colonel Bouvar

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Yes, Colonel Jaques Bouvar, aka SPECTRE #6, erred by opening the car door himself, while dressed as his “widowed” wife. However, a compelling question remains.

Why was he even at the funeral in the first place?

He’s faking his death, presumably to escape 007, who is hot on his heels. Perhaps others as well. So, why not just have his actual wife go to the funeral as she would be expected to, while he stays in hiding elsewhere in the world, while the funeral proceeds?

Because Madame Bouvar is dead.

And she has been dead for some time. My theory canon is that Jacques Bouvar married the wealthy heiress, secretly murdered her, and has been using her identity to access her wealth, social position, and as a means to travel disguised. Her family’s mining business has been providing SPECTRE with money laundering, heavy machinery, and access to African uranium (some of which went to Dr. No’s nuclear reactor). The Corsican section of SPECTRE has been planning the downfall of young Sabine(?) since her debutante ball.

SPECTRE had a female impostor candidate set to take Mme Bouvar’s place full-time, but the cosmetic surgeons and voice coaches were occupied, prepping Francois Derval’s impostor for the Vulcan atomic bomb theft.

Alternate Theory:

Madame Bouvar was kidnapped.

After marriage, the Colonel manipulated her to estrange her from her family, with the same results as above. No. 6 keeps her alive, but captive and out of contact, for possible future ransom.

Basically, if she was still alive and willing, then her husband would have had her go to his faux funeral. Why risk himself to 00 agents on the hunt if he can just have her do it? She’s got to be dead or captive.

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For Bouvar to have an unknown wife would be odd in this case. The movie hints towards Colonel Bouvar as being an established member of, at least, his local society, in good standing (similar to Emilio Largo). His funeral is done with Catholic honors, the “widow” adjourns to a grand chateau that has manicured lawns bigger than a football field. For him to have a previously unknown wife pop up would seem to bring more suspicion upon his funeral, not to mention on “her”.

And, still, coming there himself is one hell of an unwarranted risk. His henchmen could have noted the guest list for him in his absence. Or he could have clocked everything with binoculars at a distance.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that Bouvar, or someone, had to show up as his wife, because for no one to appear would have raised enough suspicion to defeat the purpose of such an extreme gambit as a fake funeral.

And to not have the real wife available for the ruse means she’s either unwilling or unalive.

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It’s the same hard to believe „death“ as Bond‘s assassination in the YOLT-PTS.

Well, maybe Bouvar had no current wife, and without Bond he could have tricked the public (maybe the wife was in the cascet?).

Surely, Spectre could have fooled Bond with a better ruse - but we all wanted to see Bond punch the widow, so maybe Spectre did, too („We hate this Bouvar guy, he did not even have a wife at his disposal, and none of our girls wanted to have anything to do with this crossdresser. What does he think he is - No.1?“)

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It’s a power play against Blofeld, who also has a thing about dressing as a lady. Quite how Col. Booovarrd murdered two of Bond’s colleagues remains unexplained and if it was whilst dressed as a wife he had shot and eaten, then I demand it to be explained. Right now.

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That’s different. It’s no problem to believe Bouvar was assassinated. Makes sense in his lifestyle.

However, even in the 20/20 hindsight of his failure, to risk himself there strains the brains, IF he had a living & willing wife. It points to her existing publicly at some point in the past, but at that time being caged or dead. No current wife, as you say, but established as a current cover.

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Colonel Boooooooooooovarrrrr has corking legs, come to think of it.

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That’s what I meant: both events are poorly planned and don’t withstand scrutiny. Or someone punching the involved party.

By the way: did no assassin think of taking Bond‘s pulse after shooting him? Apparently, only the dumbest were available.

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They seemed to be quite in a hurry indeed. On the other hand, apparently the HKPF was already on the way, given they arrived practically with the cordite still lingering in the air.

Had the assassins taken the trouble to pull down the bed and inspect the body the lack of blood might also have been a pointer. But I suspect they just didn’t bother as they were Bond’s own colleagues? :man_shrugging:t3:

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Since it’s a fake death of Bond, I always assumed that the assassins were also part of the plan and shooting blanks at Bond, so they know in advance that it’s not real and then there’s no reason to check if he is death for real.

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I just watched that scene on YouTube:

I also always assumed they were blanks - but there clearly appear bullet holes as you would expect.

Maybe Ling and the assassins were the real deal and only the bed was prepared? But that would assume SIS had intimate knowledge of the plan beforehand, decided to let it go along and merely provide some bullet shield - all of that impractical, complicated and most unreliable if you want to have Bond ‘killed’ and exfiltrated from Hong Kong in time to take the rocket assignment in Japan.

No, the only vaguely realistic explanation is: all the people we see in the HK segment, from Ling and Bond to the gunmen to the police, are in on the act.

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The real thruth is ofcourse that everyone at EON just didn’t think about it real hard, it was just to shock the audience and let them ask themselves: “What the heck just happened?” during the titlesong sequence.

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And they all act as if it’s the real deal because they know… we‘re watching :wink:

It would have been more effective if they had gunned him down in a crowded street.

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Certainly. And, like Diamonds Are Forever, it’s quizzicality makes it nonetheless thought provoking for audiences like us.

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I think so. It’s an effective opening at face value, but like GE’s PTS, it twists your mind the more you think about it. The films don’t provide an outright answer and the viewer has to work out their own scenario. I do like the contrast YOLT’s opening provides to FRWL though, with Bond seemingly killed again. It feels full circle considering YOLT was fully intended to be Connery’s last film.

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Little in the Bondverse does. But the way it hangs together is often sublime.

Between the wood and the mattress is a bullet-proof layer. Not metal–we do not hear the distinctive metallic clack on the soundtrack–but something that prevents the bullets penetrating. The lack of blood indicates that Bond is alive.

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So one of the gunmen doesn’t shoot with blancs and he is a terrific shot and is intructed to shoot wholes in the wall and not shooting at Bond at all.

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The Col. Boo!Vard! one is obvious - this is a woman who enjoys dressing as a man who would then dress as a woman, with the mistakes men would make, like (ohmigod) opening a car door. It’s not that there was no Madame Bouvard; there was never any Colonel Bouvard. Such a person was a fiction.

The C in SPECTRE stands for Crossdressing. The reason Blofeld knows he can successfully electrocute them all is because they all wear heavily underwired bras.

The Ling one - given that there is a smear of blood patently applied by the “victim” - works as follows: shooters are set up by a Secret Service sting, to miss. They miss. The victim applies a blood pellet so it looks like he was shot. Complicit authorities confirm the “shooting”. Compliant media eagerly reports the story. Trump that as a theory.

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That’s a leftover from an earlier script. ‘Boitier’ is French slang for “cabaret dancer”.

The original exposing of Colonel Bouvar was supposed to happen in a cabaret club. 007 tracks Bouvar there and flushes him out, disguised as a female cabaret dancer. The Bond writers having their usual fun with names with ‘Madame Boitier’.

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Not to overly single out the Bond writers. In Raiders of the Lost Ark , the main villain, ‘Belloq’ is a homophone for a French brand of a feminine hygiene product.

I’ll still blame the Bond writers for me digging into non-obvious villain names. Ever since I learned that ‘Kalba’ (TSWLM) means ‘female dog’ in Arabic, it’s been a hobby.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if the mistake was noted and still uncorrected. Thunderball had to be the most expensive Bond production by that point. Maybe they judged that change not worth the money or time.