Albert R Broccoli Presents Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in...

[Thad]

His first line in the film is to ask why Chinese girls taste different from other girls.

[Mongrel]

His first line in the film is to ask why Chinese girls taste different from other girls.

Oh man, I forgot about that bit.

[Blossom]

?????

[Mongrel]

Yep.

[Upthorn]

?????

I don't remember this coming up when Kill James Bond did their episode on "You Only Live Twice". I feel like that's really noteworthy!

[Thad]

Wikipedia:

The first draft was written by Sydney Boehm based closely on the original novel.[12] The producers had Harold Jack Bloom come to Japan with them to write a screenplay. His work was ultimately rejected, but since several of his ideas were used in the final script, he was given the credit of "Additional Story Material".[16] Among these elements were the opening with Bond's fake death and burial at sea, and the ninja attack.[17] As the screenwriter of the previous Bond films, Richard Maibaum, was unavailable, Roald Dahl (a close friend of Ian Fleming) was chosen to write the adaptation, despite having no prior experience writing a screenplay except for the uncompleted The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling.[10]

Dahl said that the original novel was "Fleming's worst book, with no plot in it which would even make a movie",[17] and compared it to a travelogue,[18] stating that he had to create a new plot though "I could retain only four or five of the original story's ideas."[19] On creating the plot, Dahl said he "did not know what the hell Bond was going to do" despite having to deliver the first draft in six weeks, and decided to do a basic plot similar to Dr. No.[17] He was inspired by the story of a missing nuclear-armed U.S. Air Force bomber over Spain and by the Soviet Union and the United States' recent first spacewalks from Voskhod 2 and Gemini 4.[12] Dahl was given a free rein on his script, except for the character of Bond and "the girl formula", involving three women for Bond to seduce – an ally and a henchwoman who both get killed, and the main Bond girl. While the third involved a character from the book, Kissy Suzuki, Dahl had to create Aki and Helga Brandt to fulfil the rest.[20]

Gilbert was mostly collaborative with Dahl's work, as the writer declared: "He not only helped in script conferences, but had some good ideas and then left you alone, and when you produced the finished thing, he shot it. Other directors have such an ego that they want to rewrite it and put their own dialogue in, and it's usually disastrous. What I admired so much about Lewis Gilbert was that he just took the screenplay and shot it. That's the way to direct: You either trust your writer or you don't."[17] Charles Gray, who played Dikko Henderson, actually says the famous "shaken not stirred" line the other way round saying "that is stirred not shaken, that was right wasn't it?" Bond replies "Perfect."

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Ultimately, as famous a name as Dahl is, it's a pretty undistinguished script. It's not bad, especially for being his first screenplay -- like I said, it never drags -- but there's nothing about it that makes me think "Yep, Roald Dahl wrote this." It's competent; it gets the job done.

[Blossom]

I'm more thinking about that credit in relation to the line about ... taste, that you mentioned.

[Upthorn]

Yes. Knowing that the movie was written by Roald Dahl is very significant, not for my assessment of the movie, but for my assessment of beloved children's author Roald Dahl.

[Mongrel]

Yes. Knowing that the movie was written by Roald Dahl is very significant, not for my assessment of the movie, but for my assessment of beloved children's author Roald Dahl.

Legit question, are you already aware of the revelations which only came out a few years back about the fact that he was quietly an INCREDIBLY virulent yikes-level racist throughout his life, or is this the first time you've heard about him being like this?

Because there were. And he was.

[Upthorn]

I have vague memories of someone saying something to that effect once. Makes a lot more sense in light of this information...

[Mongrel]

Yeah. I'd still defend his books all day (though only because he somehow managed to avoid becoming another Enid Blyton, which in retrospect is pretty incredible), but the man himself is completely indefensible.

[Thad]

I'm aware of his antisemitic comments in an interview but not any other specific examples. Though if somebody just starts casually talking about how much he hates Jews in an interview he knows is going to be published, I find it very easy to believe he's openly bigoted against various other groups too.

And of course, there's racism in his books, too -- Oompa Loompas, looking in your direction. (Though it's interesting to note that he intended for Charlie to be Black and his agent said no.)

Thinking of Dahl as a children's author misses a pretty large portion of his output, too. He wrote fiction for adults, too, usually short stories in the suspense/macabre vein. The sort of stuff you'd expect to see on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and sometimes did; six of his stories were adapted as Hitchcock episodes).

And while we're on the subject of Fleming and Dahl, Fleming wrote Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (the novel) and Dahl wrote the screenplay.

[Mongrel]

Oh yeah, he did quite a bit of other stuff. Most notably he was the trope founder for the classic "Wife kills husband and serves him as dinner to investigating officers to get rid of the evidence" plot. I think we know the children's writing will be what he's remembered for though.

Also maybe I'm just remembering wrong and it was "only" virulent anti-semitism. But eh.

[Thad]

Well, you don't have to be racist and misogynistic to think up a line that makes somebody think "Wow, that's racist and misogynistic even for a 1960s James Bond movie," but it helps.

[Büge]

Oh yeah, he did quite a bit of other stuff. Most notably he was the trope founder for the classic "Wife kills husband and serves him as dinner to investigating officers to get rid of the evidence" plot.

That's a trope?

[Mongrel]

Well, I don't know if it's on TVTropes (lol), but I've definitely seen it referenced and parodied.

[nosimpleway]

Of fucking course it's on TVTropes.

[Friday]

Everything is on TVTropes. Including the fact that "Everything is on TVTropes". They have no notability standards so anything anyone puts down, as long as it's even the most vaguely related thing possible to the article title, is retained. The discussion pages are absolutely infamous for just the most banal, nitpicking bullshit imaginable, as everyone's individual interpretation of any media, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched, is included and discussed.

This isn't really bad, so to speak, but it does result in a plethora of walls of absolutely insipid text. Or maybe "insipid" is the wrong word, as the level of rambling insanity is itself flavorful when approached with the proper mindset. It's very similar to reading absolutely terrible but purely and earnestly written fanfiction for the entertainment value.

[Mongrel]

TVTropes.

Damn you! Damn your eyes!

[Thad]

Ah -- looks like your description of the story was slightly off. She feeds the police the murder weapon, not the victim.