The Man With the Golden Touch: How the Bond Films Conquered the World - Softcover

Sinclair McKay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184513429X ISBN 13: 9781845134297

Publisher: Aurum, 2008

Synopsis

When Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman set out to make what they expected to be the first of three or four movies based on the espionage novels of Ian Fleming they can hardly have dreamt that they were founding a business that would still be going str Yet the role of James Bond, which transformed Sean Connery’s career in 1962 when Dr No came out, still retained its star-making power in 2006 when Daniel Craig made his Bond debut in Casino Royale. This is the story of how, with the odd misstep along the way, the owners of the Bond franchise, Eon Productions, have contrived to keep James Bond abreast of the zeitgeist and at the top of the charts for 45 years, through 21 films featuring six Bonds, three M’s, two Q’s and three Moneypennies. Thanks to the films, Fleming’s original creation has been transformed from a black sheep of the post-war English upper classes into a figure with universal appeal, constantly evolving to keep pace with changing social and political circumstances. Having interviewed people concerned with all aspects of the films, Sinclair McKay is ideally placed to describe how the Bond ‘brand’ has been managed over the years as well as to give us the inside stories of the supporting cast of Bond girls, Bond villains, Bond cars and Bond gadgetry. Sinclair McKay, formerly assistant features editor of the Daily Telegraph, works as a freelance writer and journalist. He is also the author of A Thing of Unspeakable The History of Hammer Films, which the Guardian called ‘A splendid history’ and the Independent on Sunday described as ‘Brisk, cheerful and enthusiastic.’

About this title

Review

¦[R]eading McKay¦s retrospective, it seems like Bond is just getting started.¦ --New York Post

¦[O]ne of the very best attempts to take stock of the Bond filmsèsmart and unexpected.¦ -- The New Republic

¦Thoroughly researched, drolly written and critically sophisticated.¦ -- The Daily Mail

¦Armed with encyclopedic knowledge and wit as dry as a shaken martini, Sinclair McKay casts a critical eye at the cinematic phenomenon launched in 1962¦s Dr. No with Sean Connery uttering that famous introduction: îBond. James Bond.¦ McKay astutely addresses the plots of each film and places them in the political and popular cultures of their eras (Bond has but one love interest in 1987¦s The Living Daylights because producers feared encouraging promiscuity in an age of AIDS). He¦s also an insightful critic, championing the initially maligned On Her Majesty¦s Secret Service (1969) as one of the best in the series. And he¦s often funny, discussing Roger Moore¦s îmany centuries¦ in show business, and describing sillier moments in the films as înaff,¦ which the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines as îunfashionable, lacking in taste or style¦ -- something McKay¦s book most definitely is not.¦ -- Newark Star-Ledger

¦A marvelously entertaining tome...an arch but jolly 'galumph.'¦ -- Metrolife

¦Thoroughly researched and documented yet fetching in tone and style, McKay¦s fun, smart, and informative book gracefully treads the criticism/entertainment border¦ -- Library Journal

¦Delightful critical appreciationèMcKay writes in a breezy, chatty style, as if perpetually in between mouthfuls of popcornèHe¦s a charming hybrid of a critic and fanè[The Man with the Golden Touch is] a scintillating read that¦s often more entertaining than the movies themselves.¦ -- Publishers Weekly

¦Zeltserman deftly drags the reader through the story, keeping you wondering about the truthè The Caretaker of Lorne Field is camp, and therein lies its appeal.¦ -- Dallas Morning News

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Not a “making-of” film book, like so many others, but rather an exploration of the themes and impact of the James Bond movies, this lively volume is sure to appeal to fans of 007. The author, clearly a huge Bond fan himself, writes with a wry tone, but he’s brimming with knowledge and insight. He tracks the movies from their origin, as cold-war spy adventures, through their transition to fantastic adventures in supervillainy, to—horror of horrors!—quaint artifacts of a bygone era, and then, inevitably, back around to relevance again. He compares and contrasts the movies to their source material, Ian Fleming’s novels and short stories, and he fills the book with delightful Bond arcana. Fans know, for example, that Bond’s first screen appearance was in 1954, on American television, where he was a CIA agent called Jimmy, but do they also know that in 1956 a British actor, Bob Holness, played Bond in a South African radio dramatization? Or that, in the early 1980s, the films’ producers seriously considered replacing Roger Moore with James Brolin? McKay explores the key ingredients of a Bond movie—Maurice Binder’s titles, Ken Adam’s mammoth sets, the “Bond girls,” a star who looks like he could kill (and who looks good in fine clothes)—and he examines the wide-ranging impact the movies have had on pop culture. Without Bond, he asks, would we have had Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, or Austin Powers? A splendid book, packed with information and combining astute analysis with the enthusiasm of a hard-core fan. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Aurum
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 184513429X
• ISBN 13: 9781845134297
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English