While the movies once celebrated cigarette smoking as well, modern day Hollywood Boulevard makes it tricky for smokers to indulge in their passion, give or take some hookah bars and a medical marijuana “clinic.” Booze, however can be obtained with great ease. All you need is plenty of ready cash to afford the inflated prices or a clean credit card or two and you can have your fill of cocktails.

And that’s exactly what I did between classic, near classic, and merely really interesting movies the weekend of the 2013 TCM Fest. What follows is a (relatively) brief journal of the drinks I found going up and down the boulevard we call Hollywood the final weekend of April.

Now, I should add that this listing is my no means exhaustive and is, with one exception, limited to cocktails one can purchase on Hollywood Boulevard proper, no side streets allowed. They can all be obtained within a fairly easy walk of Sid Grauman’s old Chinese and Egyptian Theaters and the legendary Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the heart of Hollywood and the home base of the TCM Fest.

And so we begin our journey across the street from the Egyptian at what is still Los Angeles’s most famous bar.

1. Musso and Frank Grill — The Martini and the Sidecar

Musso and Frank is Hollywood’s oldest restaurant and perhaps still its most famous. It’s been featured in countless movies, including 1994′s “Ed Wood,” and real deal A-listers can still sometimes be seen here. I actually spotted double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz hanging out at a booth just a few nights after the festival wrapped.

The Musso and Frank martini is easily the iconic cocktail in Los Angeles and it certainly appears that the restaurant’s most iconic bartender is Manny Aguirre, pictured above poring his signature cocktail. Born in Ecuador but coming across like Austrian-born Hollywood great Billy Wilder, Aguirre manages to be both friendly and grumpily dismissive, and he’ll be a bit friendlier and a bit less grumpy if you happen to be an attractive lady of any age. Formerly of the long defunct Scandia, a restaurant considered to be L.A.’s finest in its day, Aguirre is a true magician behind the bar.

Aguirre’s very dry martini is made to classic cocktail specification and is — James Bond and Nick Charles be damned — stirred, not shaken. It features Gilbey’s Gin and just the tinest splash of Noilly Pratt dry vermouth. It’s as smooth as silk and as crisp as celery straight from the fridge. The martini is, however, not actually his absolute favorite — and he’s right.

Manny Aguirre’s Sidecar is nothing short of a mixological miracle. Sweet, refreshing, and just tart enough to be respectable, and with a beautiful foamy top that comes out of nowhere and nothing (secret egg whites?), the shocking part is that Aguirre uses ingredients that are far from super-premium. Using standard call brands Christian Brothers Brandy, DeKuyper Triple Sec with his lemon juice, he made what ranks as one the two or three best cocktails I’ve had so far — it certainly beats my own attempts at the drink back in 2011.

A cocktail marvel. No fancy Cognac or Cointreau needed, and I have absolutely no idea how he managed it. All this, and Aguirre actually wasn’t happy with the sugar rimming, performed by a junior (under 70 years old) bartender which he found excessive, but I found to be sheer perfection.

2. The Library Bar — Last Tango in Modena

While the Hollywood Roosevelt only plays host to the TCM Fest four days a year, it’s one of L.A. best places to buy a drink at some four or five separate bars 365 days a year — though you’d better not mind paying through the nose. At a bracing $17.00 per drink, the Library Bar only charges a buck more for its offerings than the larger Public Kitchen and its cocktails are not only among the town’s most critically respected, they’re tailor made for the individual. Just tell its friendly but camera shy bartenders your preferences in booze, and they’ll come up with something really special, just for you.

It’s sort of my job to be able to appreciate most kinds of booze, so I gave my mixologist the freedom to create anything — except that I told her I’d be happier if there were somehow a cinematic connection. The result was this delightful concoction which is no smear upon the name of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris.”

“Last Tango in Modena,” features Hendrick’s Gin, a St. Germain infused whipped eggwhite topping, and a 25 year old aged balsamic vinegar, all cooled by a single giant ice cube. The vinegar comes from where I hear all the really good balsamics are made, Modena, Italy. It really was delicious and the big ice cube means that it only gets better as you linger over it — but I didn’t have time for that.

3. Loteria Grill — The Jalapeño Margarita

A truly smashing high-end Mexican eatery that began as a counter at the Original Farmer’s Market a bit south and west of the boulevard of dreams, this rapidly growing chain appears to be hanging on to its quality despite it’s rapid cross town expansion. Certainly, I’ve had nothing but solid-to-fantastic experiences at its Hollywood Blvd. location near Musso’s and across from the Egyptian Theater. Moreover, it’s jalapeño margarita is a  modern day classic worthy of such TCM friendly Mexican-American Hollywood greats as Anthony Quinn (“Zorba the Greek,” “Lawrence of Arabia”), Katy Jurado (“High Noon”) and, “Khan!!!!!” himself, Ricardo Montalban.

I really, really love this drink but I’m not sure the ingredients that we’ve been able to dig up tell the whole story. Aside from some pretty high quality tequila, this drink is said to contain triple sec, orange juice, jalapeño juice, and a bit of Grand Marnier. The rim is dipped in what appears to be a mixture of chili powder and the usual salt.  Sold at a fairly reasonable price, especially during happy hour, this drink is one of the finest you’ll find in Los Angeles. It’s a must.

Bullz-Eye continues its look back at every James Bond film, 007 One by One, as part of our James Bond Fan Hub that we’ve created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film.

You’ve seen “Skyfall,” now how about taking a look at the other best James Bond movie you’ve never seen?

Ask a hardcore Bond aficionado what his favorite 007 entry is, and there’s a very good chance the answer will be “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

We don’t necessarily want to make bold claims as to what the best Bond movie is, as it differs from person to person, but “Majesty’s” should be Top Five material for any die-hard fan of the franchise. The film is littered with all kinds of “firsts” and “onlys” — both in front of and behind the camera — but the most obvious is of course its lead, George Lazenby, and it’s with Lazenby that, for better or worse, most talk of the film begins (but should by no means end).

In the year 2013, we take for granted the changing of the lead actor within the Bond series, as we’ve now had a half a dozen different 007s, but back in the late sixties there was only one James Bond, and his name was Sean Connery. During the production of “You Only Live Twice,” Connery decided to exit the franchise that made him a household name (though as we now know today, he’d return to the character not once, but twice), however, quite understandably, the producers of the series weren’t finished telling their stories, and the public seemed far from tired of 007’s adventures.

So there was really only one option and that was to recast. The search was extensive, but in the end Bond producers decided on a complete unknown – Lazenby – a model with virtually zero acting experience. Regardless, Albert Broccoli was certain he could transform the man into his new James Bond.

The debate has raged for over 40 years as to whether or not the recasting was successful, with many schools of thought on the matter. Having viewed “Majesty’s” numerous times, we feel confident in saying that it’s a shame Lazenby didn’t give it at least one more go in the part (the decision to not return was, amazingly, his own), because as it stands, he cannot help but be somewhat swallowed up by the richness of his surroundings. One thing is for certain: Lazenby in no way ruins it, or keeps “Majesty’s” from being the best film it can be. “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” is a fine, fine movie, and one that deserves to stand on its own, away from the greater picture of the whole franchise, and Lazenby – as any lead would be – is at least partly responsible for its artistic success.

The Plot: “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” relies heavily on Ian Fleming’s original text, the last Bond film to really do so until 2006’s “Casino Royale.” The story is two in one: the first is about Bond’s hunting for and eventual finding of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and the second is about Bond falling in love and getting married (yes, you read that right) to an initially suicidal young woman named Tracy. Her father, Draco, runs a crime syndicate, and has info about Blofeld’s whereabouts, which James requires. Turns out Blofeld is posing as a high-profile allergist in Switzerland. Bond tracks him there, and infiltrates his organization by posing as a genealogist. Once the jig is up, all hell breaks loose, and Bond finds himself on the run, and only one person can help him…

The Girls: Blofeld’s mountaintop Swiss hideaway, Piz Gloria, stockpiles quite the cache of babe-alicious flesh – including a very young Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”) as well as the lovely Catherine Schell (“The Return of the Pink Panther”). Odd then that James zeroes in on the homeliest looking one of the bunch, Ruby Bartlett (Angela Scoular). But then again, this is also that unique Bond flick wherein James falls in love, and perhaps going for runt of the litter was the only way for him to rationalize cheating on his beloved Tracy.

Bullz-Eye: “Hemlock Grove” marks the first time you’ve ever taken on a series-regular role for television. Did you have any trepidation about taking that kind of a plunge for a show that’s being delivered to viewers in a non-traditional manner, or was that part of what drew you to it?

Famke Janssen: Trepidation about that element? No. Doing a series, period? Yes. [Laughs.] But to me, I think the fact that it was for Netflix and not your traditional network or cable show was one of the deciding factors—or certainly an added bonus, anyway—because it felt like we were kind of in the wild west, with new territory to explore. It wasn’t this whole weight of a specific way of working that we had to carry through in some way. So with that, I was hoping that there would be less control coming from above, and not so much like a big studio standing there with a whip, making you feel like you’re more of a puppet than anything else. Also, the whole 13-episode part was attractive as well, because I’m designed my life in such a way now that I’m trying to go back and forth between writing and directing and acting, and signing up for something that would’ve taken an entire year, as a network show would’ve…I hadn’t considered that at all, just because I don’t have the time for it. I don’t want to tie myself down. So in that regard, it was a perfect set-up, because I can make money and then I can pursue my passion of writing and directing in my free time.

BE: So what can you tell us about Olivia Godfrey without divulging anything too spoiler-y?

FJ: Olivia’s still mysterious even to me, and I’ve lived with her now for 13 hours onscreen, not to mention many more hours shooting the series, of course. She’s married into this Godfrey family, a family with a lot of money, but she comes from a lot of money as well…or she seems to, anyway. But whether she does come from a lot of money or where she really comes from or what her deal really is, nobody really knows, and maybe nobody will ever find out. [Laughs.] She’s highly manipulative. She loves her children, but she’s also somebody who just has an agenda most of the time. And she’s in love with her husband’s brother, and…there are all sorts of integral relationships with bizarre things going on within this small town as well as with these family members. [Shrugs.] It feels like “Twin Peaks” to me. That’s what it felt like. That’s the reason why I really liked it: because it is, in a good way, nonsensical. It’s not linear. You’re not gonna…not everything is going to be explained. There are going to be a lot of mysteries surrounding it all. Nothing is going to be wrapped up with a neat bow.

BE: It’s certainly appropriate for an Eli Roth production to have a David Lynch feel to it, given that the latter did a fair amount to launch the career of the former.

FJ: Exactly. Yeah, and it was one of the things that we all talked about in the beginning, in terms of the look of the show and the feel of the show and all of that.

BE: Obviously, Mr. Roth wasn’t able to be here today for the “Hemlock Grove” panel, but how interactive was he as far as the day-to-day goings-on of the series?

FJ: Well, in addition to producing, he also directed the pilot. But then, like the way that both network and cable TV shows are filmed, you have circulating directors who come in and out for the other episodes.

BE: The choice of phrase they’ve used to describe the show is “a murder mystery wrapped in a class-warefare struggle.”

FJ: [Long pause.] Okay, I’ll go with that. [Laughs.] If that’s what they want to call it, then I’ll go with that.

BE: You brought it up a moment ago, but I wanted to ask you a bit about the experience of writing and directing “Bringing Up Bobby,” which you produced as well. Clearly, it was a positive one.

FJ: Yeah! It was really… Actually, just yesterday, I got the most incredible review, one where I was finally, like, “Okay, that’s exactly what I tried to do, and somebody got it.” It felt so good. I know, you’re not supposed to read reviews, because if you’re gonna believe the good ones, then you’ve gotta believe the bad ones, and all that stuff. But once in awhile, it’s nice when someone gets exactly what you’re trying to do. It’s now going to be released on DVD, and it’ll be viewable on Netflix on Demand soon and you’ll also be able to order the DVD from them as well. It’s just been such an incredible learning experience, and that’s what I wanted it to be. I made many mistakes on it, but I learned an incredible amount of stuff, so I can’t wait to do it again. I can’t wait to get better at it. I love film so much that it’s frustrating for me to be an actor sometimes, because I’m only allowed to be part of a tiny little element of it. It’s that feeling when…it’s, like, you’re on set, you film your portion, and then they go, “You can go now,” but you go, “I don’t want to go! I want to stay! I want to watch what happens!” [Laughs.] That’s the great thing about being a director: you’re always there. I loved it. And it suits my personality.

BE: Are you willing to admit to the biggest mistake that you made while working on it?

FJ: [Long pause.] I don’t know that I could narrow it down to just one. [Laughs.] There were so many! It’s also that I don’t know that, had I known certain things, I wouldn’t have still made some of the same mistakes. A lot of it also had to do with our time restrictions. We had 20 days to shoot the film, it was 105 degrees in Oklahoma where we shot it, we had money complications, as everybody does with independent films these days, and actors falling out or coming in at the last minute. They call it guerilla filmmaking for a very good reason. So we had a lot of hurdles to overcome, but it turned into an hour and a half movie that came in on time and on budget, and…that’s at least something, right? And we sold it all over the world. Literally. And I’ve gone to almost every festival that you can imagine, including some in China, Germany, Italy, Holland, Russia, France, Canada, all over America…I mean, everywhere. It’s been all over the world. And that, to me, is something that a lot of people can’t say about the first film they directed. So it’s been fantastic. Fantastically difficult. But the emphasis is definitely still on the “fantastic.”

BE: I don’t know how much time we have, but I always try to ask folks about at least a couple of obscurities in their back catalog, and I feel like I have to ask you about “Deep Rising.”

FJ: Oh, do we call that one obscure? I can think of many more obscure films I’ve done. [Laughs.]

BE: Fair enough. What’s your favorite obscurity?

FJ: Well, I did “Monument Ave,” which probably nobody saw, that Ted Demme directed.

BE: Actually, that’s funny you should mention that movie: I actually talked to Greg Dulli (who played Shang in “Monument Ave.”) about it a few months back.

FJ: Oh, okay, then that’s not that obscure, either, is it? [Laughs.] I’m sure anything I say won’t be obscure to somebody, but how about…oh, what’s the one with Harvey Keitel? It’s set in part of L.A. “City of Industry”! I have a big list of obscurities. There’s also “The Gingerbread Man,” by Robert Altman. A lot of people didn’t see that.

BE: How was it to work for Robert Altman?

FJ: Fantastic. You know, Deran Sarafian, who’s one of our big directors on “Hemlock Grove,” he was an incredible influence throughout this whole process for all of us, somebody who really helped us a lot in finding the look and feel of the characters on the show…he’s related to Robert Altman.

BE: What was it like when you met with Altman for “The Gingerbread Man”? It seems like everyone I’ve spoken with who’s been in one of his films , they didn’t so much audition as they just kind of met with him for a bit and chatted.

FJ: I don’t know! It’s a good question, but…I can’t even remember! But then I’m just so blown away that I had that experience at all, that I got to work with him.

BE: There’s a story which has made the rounds that you were up for the role of Jadzia Dax on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” True?

FJ: Yep. They offered to me, I believe, but I didn’t do it. I’ve always been very scared of television series.

BE: Setting aside its horror-themed content, was “Hemlock Grove” as scary as you’d feared? You survived 13 episodes, anyway.

FJ: And 13 was just enough. [Laughs.] That’s not a statement on the show. It’s just that, to me, television is…oh, this is a terrible comparison, because it’s really not fair, but it’s like having a good nine-to-five job, like working at a bank or something. I never want to have that feeling, because to me, what draws me so much to what I do is that every day is different. And I’ve seen it with friends who are on television shows, mostly network, where they go all year and…it becomes a little bit like that. So, yeah, 13 episodes was just enough. My life is full of surprises, and I love that aspect of it.

BE: And yet you did have a pilot (“Alibi”)  in the works a few years ago, didn’t you?

FJ: I did, yeah. It was with the people from “House” (David Shore and Peter Blake).

BE: That must’ve been a scary prospect, then.

FJ: Oh, I was definitely sweating buckets on that one. [Laughs.] But it didn’t get picked up, so…everything worked out for a wonderful reason, I guess, in this case, because I ended up being able to make my own movie, and I’ve worked with a very interesting group of people on this show, while continuing to do all the things that I want to do on the side.

BE: Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the experience of being a Bond girl in “Goldeneye,” especially with the film franchise having celebrated 50 years.  

FJ: Well, can I just tell you that I presented at the National Board of Review? I presented to Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig, because (screenwriter/producer) Michael G. Wilson couldn’t be there, the William K. Everson Award for Film History for 50 years of James Bond. So it was great to be a part of it. They put this incredible montage together, kind of an elongated trailer, of all 50 years of Bond, and it was just so astonishing to look at. Because, I mean, we’ve all seen the movies, but to put them all together in one show reel, it’s just…I’m so blown away by what they’ve done, how they’ve kept this franchise alive for 50 years. Can you even imagine? And they haven’t even changed it that dramatically over that time. Just enough. And before you can get bored of any Bond, he’s been replaced with another one. And little tweaks like making M a woman or…whatever thing happens. The women, who were clearly completely objectified, have moved into having a little bit more to do. [Laughs.] Like my character, who I feel was a very strong, interesting character to play, yet still with a wink to the audience. So I’m very impressed with the way they’ve kept the franchise going.

BE: How was it working with Pierce Brosnan, given that it was his first time at bat in the role?

FJ: Well, it was a lot of pressure, both for him and for the franchise, because it was the first Bond film in, what, seven years? So there was a lot riding on it…and probably, had our film not worked, it might have ended the franchise. So I’m sure there was a lot of pressure for him, but he did it swimmingly. And I had fun. In fact, to me, it’s the reason why I’m here today. Not just in “Hemlock Grove,” but I couldn’t even have directed “Bringing up Bobby” without the help of having been in a Bond movie. That’s the way I see it. It really catapulted me into…some type of stardom, I suppose. [Laughs.] Some level of recognition, anyway!  So it was great. And I’m still very grateful.

At first glance, this disc looks like a bit of throwaway fluff, but after watching it? If you are a Bond fan, you will love this 60 minute “Top Gear” special. Period. Host Richard Hammond – who so very clearly loves Bond as much as we do – takes viewers on a guided tour through Bond film history, packed with clips, stories and trivia. Now, I call myself a Bond freak, but there are probably a half-dozen different behind the scenes stories Hammond relates here that were entirely new to me. One involved the procuring of the iconic Aston Martin DB5 for use in “Goldfinger”; another detailed a stunt for “The Man with the Golden Gun” with the AMC Hornet that could have gone disastrously wrong.

A great deal of attention is paid to the DB5, but an equal amount of love is given to the Lotus Esprit from “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Surely you remember that one? It’s the sleek white job that turned into a submarine and made cinematic history. Though the tech of 1977 wouldn’t allow for the actual creation of such a vehicle, Hammond puts today’s technology to the test by attempting to make a fully functional Lotus submarine. You have got to see this. If that doesn’t do it for you (though how it couldn’t is baffling), there’s also his comical attempt at making an invisible car with the help of flatscreen TVs and cameras!

You can tell Hammond’s a take no prisoners fan, too. When the series starts to go to shit in the Brosnan era, he takes it to task for its failure to create proper vehicular thrills. The special also features Hammond chatting up directors Guy Hamilton and Vic Armstrong, Roger Moore, Daniel Craig, and producer Michael G. Wilson on the set of “Skyfall.” Speaking of “Skyfall,” if you’ve not yet ordered your copy from Amazon, this disc will nicely pad out your order so you can get free shipping.

Bullz-Eye is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond film with look back at every Bond movie, 007 One by One, along with a series of features about the Bond franchise, all laid out in our James Bond Fan Hub.

As the worldwide spy craze peaks, the James Bond series settles in for the long, tongue-in-cheek haul with this often maligned but very enjoyable entry, introducing the world to both ninjas and the original Dr. Evil. It also might have been the final appearance of Sean Connery as 007, except that it wasn’t.

“You Only Live Twice” (1967)

The Plot

A United States space capsule is hijacked, killing one astronaut. Naturally, the Americans assume the Soviets are at fault and world war seems a real possibility. There’s only one thing for the level-headed English to do: Stage James Bond’s death and send him on an undercover mission to Japan to expose SPECTRE head Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s plot to dominate the world by partially destroying it.

The Backstory

With enormous success comes enormous pressures and change was very definitely in the air as “You Only Live Twice” began production. Now one of the world’s most bankable stars after the mega-success of “Thunderball,” Sean Connery was contractually on board for only one more film and starting to be seriously fed up with all the 007 insanity.

Behind the camera, original Bond director Terrence Young had had his fill and “Goldfinger” helmer Guy Hamilton was unavailable. Editor and second unit director Peter Hunt, who had been instrumental in the series’ creative success, badly wanted to helm the project, but producers Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman apparently weren’t ready for a first timer for Bond #5. Therefore, a new recruit was sought out to join the small fraternity of James Bond directors.

An old hand at period pieces and war films, Lewis Gilbert was hot off an Oscar nomination for a classic-to-be about a compulsive womanizer who could give Bond a run for his money. “Alfie” starred Connery’s good friend, fellow movie spy, and now award-winning box office rival, Michael Caine.

Lewis Gilbert also brought along one of the very few directors of photography who could have reasonably stepped into the very big shoes of series regular Ted Moore. Freddie Young had won the first of his four Oscars a couple of years prior for David Lean’s visually stunning 1963 70mm masterpiece, “Lawrence of Arabia.” For the sake of keeping things consistent, all the other key collaborators, were back on board in their regular roles, i.e., composer John Barry, credit designer Maurice Binder, and production designer Ken Adam. For once, they’d all have a nice budget to play with, too.

The script, however, was an issue. The novel “You Only Live Twice,” was the last Bond book published in Ian Fleming’s lifetime and the story was problematic for more than one reason. For starters, it was actually the third and final installment in what literary Bond fans call “the Blofeld Trilogy.” EON’s original intent had been to film the books in their original order. That way Blofeld, who had been teased as a character starting in “Dr. No,” would get his long-delayed onscreen introduction in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and finally suffer James Bond’s revenge in the follow-up, “You Only Live Twice.” Unfortunately, logistics made the ski chalet setting of “Majesty” impractical for the summer release EON and United Artists had their hearts set on.

The other problem was that the plot of Ian Fleming’s novel, which involved Blofeld setting up a lavish sanitarium for wealthy suicides, just didn’t seem to be the stuff of a James Bond movie. It also ended with Bond fathering a child with Kissy Suzuki. Only a few elements from the book would remain in the finished movie, most notably the Japanese setting, love interest Kissy, and friendly spy boss Tiger Tanaka.

There was also a problem with finding a writer. Richard Maibum, who had worked on every Bond up to this point, was deemed unavailable. A rumored screenplay by renowned author Kingsley Amis had been reportedly dismissed. Another script was commissioned by writer Harold Jack Bloom, but little of his work would remain in the finished film.

The final choice of screenwriter turned out to be an interesting one. Decades after his death, Roald Dahl remains one of the world’s most popular children’s writers with such film-friendly classics as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Witches,” “Matilda,” and “James and the Giant Peach” all too his credit. He might have seemed a far likelier choice for writing an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s children’s book, “Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang,” the gig that was apparently keeping Richard Maibum busy. Nevertheless, Dahl had written his share of adult thrillers and had actually performed wartime espionage and been friends with Fleming. Scads of 007-inspired spy spoofs were upping the humor ante and this would be a somewhat more tongue-in-cheek Bond. Dahl’s dark sense of humor would be a plus.

The main thrust of the film’s new plot was apparently invented by Cubby Broccoli, however. Upon seeing a dormant volcano while scouting locations, he came up with the idea of using it as a giant villain’s lair. With the U.S.-Soviet space race at full swing, the Russian-Chinese split a topical news item, and terrorism on the rise, the idea of SPECTRE hijacking spacecrafts in order to start a world war on behalf of Red Chinese clients seemed like a natural.

The Bond Girls (Rule of 3 + 1)

Once again, 007 does the espionage nasty with three beautiful women on his Japan adventure. Shockingly, however, the movie’s main love interest is not one of them.

Ling (Tsai Chow) — This lovely lady of Hong Kong engages in mildly racist pillow talk with Bond and then reveals herself to be an accomplice in the spy’s elaborately faked death. Though her part is small, actress Tsai Chow was already a recording artists and a major star of the London stage in “South Pacific” and “The World of Suzie Wong.” Her very long film career would include parts in “The Joy Luck Club,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and the 2006 Bond reboot, “Casino Royale.”

Helga Brandt (Karen Dor) — The latest Bond villainess with preying mantis-like tendencies, the dangerous Ms. Brandt is the secretary/in-house assassin of the wealthy SPECTRE operative, Mr. Osato. She has her way with Bond, then fails at killing him. It’s only natural that she winds up a victim of SPECTRE’s signature approach to personnel management, which in her case means being fed to the CEO’s pet piranhas. Actress Karen Dor has enjoyed a very long career in German films and television that continues to this day. She also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s unsuccessful spy thriller, “Topaz,” and the modestly titled horror flick, “The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism.”

Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) — The lovely Aki at first appears to be an enemy agent, but quickly turns out to be an able helper and a willing Bond sex partner, until her untimely end. Actress Akiko Wakabayashi is known to genre geeks around the world and not just for “You Only Live Twice.” Monster mavens know her for appearances in two films by “Godzilla” co-creator Ishirō Honda: “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” and “King Kong vs. Godzilla.” The name of the lead character was changed from Suki to Aki at her request.

Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) — Unusually virtuous by Bond girl standards, Kissy never actually gets to home plate with Bond, at least not during the actual movie. Nevertheless, this student of Japanese spy chief Tiger Tanaka proves an able aid to Bond, assisting in his not-so-believable transformation into a Japanese peasant and in foiling SPECTRE’s evil plans.

Actress Mie Hama was originally assigned to play Aki/Suki and was nearly let go from the project because of her difficulties learning English. As the story goes, Hama suggested the shame of being fired might force her to commit ritual suicide and the producers buckled. Her part, like that of nearly every other foreign player in an early Bond film, was eventually dubbed by another performer. Other roles include appearing alongside Akiko Wakabayashi in “King Kong vs. Godzilla.” She also made waves by promoting “You Only Live Twice” via a nude appearance in Playboy.

Friends and colleagues

Dikko Henderson (Charles Gray) — The avuncular, kimono-clad representative of MI6 in Japan only lives long enough to get Bond’s most famous cocktail preference wrong. The late actor, Charles Gray, was a wonderfully distinctive presence in well over 120 films and television productions. Today he is mainly remembered as the narrating “no neck” Criminologist who taught the world to dance the Time Warp in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — a film musical he claimed to have never seen. Gray would also have the rare distinction of being killed by SPECTRE and later heading it. He would return to the Bond series as none other than Ernst Stavro Blofeld in “Diamonds are Forever.”

Tiger Tanaka (Tetsurō Tamba) — Bond makes a new friend who, for a change, survives the film. It makes sense as the bold but crafty head of Japanese intelligence has a personal subway train and routinely forces guests to arrive via trap door as a precaution. Actor Tetsurō Tamba was a venerable presence in sixties Japanese cinema and had also worked in England, making him a natural leader among the Japanese cast. With 242 credits listed on IMDb, he has appeared in a number of films well known to Western cinephiles and cultists including “Pigs and Battleships,” “Harakiri,” and the notoriously gory and campy 1991 midnight-show staple, “Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky.” Also noted for his work as a spiritual teacher, Tamba passed on in 2006.

Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and M (Bernard Lee) — Bond’s unimpressed boss and his partner in flirtatious byplay return, this time dressed in full UK navel regalia. The comic business aboard one of her majesty’s atomic submarines is spry but brief, though they make an unusual appearance in the film’s final scene. Moneypenny/Lois Maxwell, we should say, looks adorable in uniform. We understand, however, that her hairstyle was thoroughly non-regulation for the English navy. Shocking.

Q (Desmond Llewelyn) — With gadgetry now a major part of the series, an appearance by the irascible armorer is now mandatory. This time, the perpetually annoyed Q finds himself forced to trudge to Japan to deliver “Little Nellie” — a thoroughly souped-up and tricked out autogyro. If Desmond Llewelyn’s irritation seems believable, it might have helped that the actor disagreed with director Lewis Gilbert’s costuming choices. Japan might be a warm country, but Llewelyn wasn’t thrilled with the military-style shirt and shorts he was given to wear. He didn’t think the very proper Q would permit himself to wear anything other than his standard business attire

The Nemesis

Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) — After being teased for years, the face of Bond’s most intractable enemy finally appears onscreen in “You Only Live Twice.” He is, of course, as diabolical and likely to feed an underperforming employee to carnivorous pets as ever. Sporting Blofeld’s trademark white Persian cat and a nasty scar on his right eye, the great character actor Donald Pleasence was already familiar to movie fans for hits like “The Great Escape” and “Fantastic Voyage.” He went on to even greater recognizability to horror fans for his portrayal of the heroic Dr. Sam Loomis in the “Halloween” series of slasher films. By the time of his death in 1996, Pleasence had racked up well over 200 film and television credits.

Lesser Bond Baddies

Assuming they aren’t personally killed by Mr. Bond, the hench people in “You Only Live Twice” have somewhat greater longevity than they did in “Thunderball.” Still, SPECTRE’s personnel practices remain below industry standard.

Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada) — Helga Brandt’s industrialist SPECTRE employer tries to have James Bond killed innumerable times, with predictable results. He manages to avoid the pet piranas that finally get Miss Brandt, but he still winds up getting a surprise bullet in the chest from Blofeld. Japanese-American actor Teru Shimada had recently appeared in 1966′s “Walk Don’t Run” with Cary Grant, but was actually nearing the end of a decades long career that began in the early 1930s.

Hans (Ronald Rich) — Blofeld’s gigantic body guard is repaid for his loyalty and diligence by being allowed to live long enough to get killed during the final battle. English actor Rich’s career appears to be a short one, but TV geeks should note that he did appear as the giant alien Trantis in the 1965 season of “Dr. Who” and in various roles in the 1968 run of “Benny Hill.”

SPECTRE #3 and #4 (Burt Kwouk and Michael Chow) – It would be easy to ignore these two very minor characters if it weren’t for the interesting guys playing them. You may remember that Burt Kwouk, the very talented performer who brilliantly portrayed manservant Kato opposite Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, also appeared in a similar, slightly larger, role in “Goldfinger.” As for Shanghai-born character actor and citizen of the world Michael Chow, he is best known in the West as a classy restaurateur. The first Mr. Chow location opened in London in 1968, followed by editions in Beverly Hills, New York City and, eventually, Miami and Las Vegas.

License to kill

Bond’s career in extra-judicial killings of often disarmed enemies began with the unlucky Prof. Dent in “Dr. No,” but it reaches a new high here. Admittedly, there are several moments where the morality of the situation might be vague — or where we’re not sure whether Bond has actually killed an assailant or merely subdued him. Bond very definitely instantly slays the killer of his MI6 contact, Dikko Henderson (Charles Gray), however. True, the man’s act was cowardly but, morals and legality aside, it might have made more sense to keep the assassin alive and find out what was up. He also immediately dispatches both Aki’s poisoner — before he even knows what the intruder is up to — as well as the quickly disarmed would-be assassin who assaults him with a bo (a Japanese quarterstaff) in the ninja dojo.

The gadgets

Production designer Ken Adam, efx man John Stears, and the whole EON team attempt to create an airborne companion to Bond’s Aston-Martin with “Little Nellie,” a tricked up autogyro that’s a sort of cross between a helicopter and a toy plane. The film version is equipped with enough armory to take out a banana republic with machine guns, flamethrowers, and missiles. Minus the fancy weaponry, it was the very real and serious creation of designer Ken Wallis, a retired RAF pilot.

Many other gadgets are so casually integrated into the “You Only Live Twice” storyline you might almost miss them. Below are some of our favorites.

* Ninja cigarettes that eject bullet-like projectiles.

* The water-proof sarcophagus used to stage Bond’s “burial” at sea

* The “Bird 1″ ship, with a front opening used to capture U.S. and Soviet spacecraft.

* Trap doors that both Blofeld and Tiger Tanaka use to create unwelcome surprises for coworkers.

* A giant magnet on a helicopter deployed by the Japanese to pick up a car filled with SPECTRE henchman and drop it in the nearby Pacific. (Since it seems unlikely the occupants could have lived, we wonder if Japanese secret services also have something like Double-O authority.)

* Mr. Osato’s spiffy X-ray desk for spotting concealed weapons.

* A pocket safecracking doodad which would come in handy if Bond ever decided to go full time to the wrong side of the law.

Note: Both the Murphy bed used in Bond’s fake assassination and Tiger Tanaka’s personal subway are sometimes considered Bond gadgets. However, since both were examples of what was very common mid-sixties technology, we don’t think they qualify as Bondian gadgetry any more than would a blender or an electric can opener.

The exotic locales

With the exception of the opening, just about all of “You Only Live Twice” takes place in Japan and the film’s exteriors were shot largely in the then-emerging economic powerhouse. Producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, director Lewis Gilbert, and cinematographer Freddie Young spent considerable time scouting Japanese locations. Their work paid off both in terms of visuals and, at least in the aforementioned case of the dormant volcano which became Blofeld’s lair, story ideas.

The outrageous villains’ lairs and good guy haunts

With the Bond films established as a series of reliable blockbusters, resident production design genius Ken Adam was allowed to go to town with a series of extraordinary sets, which meant more work and frayed nerves than ever. Adam has said that he and his staff were all but “living on valium” during the production of the film.

The most overtly spectacular set was obviously SPECTRE’s volcano-based super-bunker. Featuring a crater lake on top as camouflage, a rocket launch pad, and an internal light rail system, the Pinewood Studios set was very possibly the largest interior built for a film up to that point and one of the most expensive at $1 million. Ken Adam reportedly bragged that more steel was used in the set’s construction than in the London Hilton.

A more modest Adam classic is the lattice-work dome in which hot-headed U.S. and Soviets are persuaded to put off worldwide thermonuclear war while the intelligence boys at MI6 do their work. The design seems to have been influenced by R. Bunkminster Fuller’s then trendy geodesic domes.

Moving on, we’re also impressed by the apartment of the short-lived MI6 contact, Henderson. It’s a cheerful mix of British and Japanese design cliches. Tiger Tanaka’s underground office is, however, more up to the minute. Clearly, the EON team had noticed Japan’s increasing fascination with futuristic technology which was fueling the nation’s post-war economic renaissance. Similarly, the offices of bad guy Mr. Osato are an angular, half-insane variation on an ultra-modern mid-sixties interior.

The Opening

The “You Only Live Twice” pre-credit sequence is a departure from the “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” openings in that it is not actually a Bond mini-adventure. Instead, it’s a more complicated variation on the opening of “From Russia with Love”; it’s primarily a prologue designed to set up the story and tease us with another fake Bond death. Bond doesn’t even try to kill anyone. (He’ll make up for that later.)

We begin in outer space as a mysterious vehicle snatches an American space capsule, murdering an astronaut in the process. Next, we are in some kind of super-high level diplomatic meeting room in which the calm, thoughtful British must mediate between jingoistic Americans and nasty Soviets to avoid a rush to global thermonuclear war. Finally, we are in a garish Hong Kong boudoir as Bond has finished making love with the seemingly treacherous Ling (Tsai Chow). She traps Bond in a Murphy bed, where he meets an apparent quick end at the hands of machine gun wielding thugs. Afterwards, a police officer who appears to have known Bond philosophizes that, at least, Bond met his demise “on the job.”

A close-up of a shot of (presumably fake) blood fades out into an animated design reminiscent of a Japanese umbrella and we’re off for another striking credit sequence by Maurice Binder. As the lyrical title song plays, we are given Japanese-inspired abstract designs, shots of lava flowing inside a volcano, and the usual female silhouettes. Once again, we are being promised adventure, a bit of tasteless exoticism, violence and, naturally, sex, sex, sex.

The Music

By now, it was a foregone conclusion that composer John Barry would provide both the score and the title song. Barry’s “Goldfinger” lyrical collaborator, show tune specialist Leslie Bricusse, returns for one of the better songs in the Bond cannon. Barry seems to have decided to abandon the brassiness of “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” for a more romantic tune along the lines of “From Russia with Love,” only better.

Nancy Sinatra and her famous father, Frank, were friends of the EON team. So, it was only natural that she was brought on to perform the song, even though an earlier version had already been recorded by English singer Shirley Rodgers. The only difficulty was that the younger Sinatra, whose recent recording of “These Boots Were Made for Walking” had been a monster hit, was much more a rock and roll singer than a polished classic pop chanteuse. As Nancy Sinatra herself tells it, it took countless takes and a lot of editing to produce the sexy and charmingly wistful “You Only Live Twice” title track.

As for the instrumental score, composer Barry adds a bit of Japanese beauty to the mix, but it was the cosmos that inspired the most influential work. The haunting and majestic “Capsules in Space” is a definite influence on John Williams’ music for “Star Wars.”

Action Highlights

“You Only Live Twice” was instrumental in popularizing Asian martial arts in Western films and also for establishing ninjas as go-to pop culture badasses. The final battle, in which hundreds of ninjutsu-trained operatives invade Blofeld’s mega-lair, is certainly among the most spectacular fight scenes in the 007 cannon. It’s also probably responsible for a number of increasingly elaborate, you might even say overblown, Bond finales to follow.

An arguably even more thrilling set-piece, however comes much earlier in the film as Bond and Aki are pursued at the Kobe docks by a number of local SPECTRE henchmen. In a bold move, director Lewis Gilbert and camera-great Freddie Francis film part of the fight via a thrilling aerial shot of the ongoing action. Speaking of aerial shots, the airborne battle in which Bond and Little Nellie fend off “improper advances” from four machine-gun equipped aerial helicopters is an enjoyable blend of exciting aerial footage and back projection close-ups.

For those who enjoy a bit more hand-to-hand combat, we’re somewhat fond of a relatively brief but delightfully brutal fight between Bond and a sword wielding opponent, portrayed by uncredited Samoan-American pro-wrestler and fight choreographer Peter Fanene Mavia. Mavia, who unfortunately passed on at age 45, is today best remembered as the grandfather of wrestler-turned-action star Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson.

The ninja camp training sequence is also an enjoyable spin on the “Spartacus”-inspired SPECTRE training camp in “From Russia With Love.” It was probably the first time a truly gigantic Western audience was exposed to Asian martial arts in a major motion picture. It also contains a surprisingly faithful homage to the fight scenes in the Japanese samurai films that were then being discovered in art houses throughout America and Europe.

The one-liners

James Bond (Prior to making love to the evil Helga Brandt): The things I do for England!

Hong Kong Policeman #2: [finding the fake-deceased Bond in Ling's Hong Kong boudoir] At least he died on the job… he would have wanted it that way.

Kissy Suzuki: No honeymoon. This is business.
James Bond: [pushing aside a plate of oysters] Well, I won’t need these.

Mr. Osato: You should give up smoking. Cigarettes are very bad for your chest.
Helga Brandt: Mr. Osato believes in a healthy chest.
James Bond (observing Brandt’s upper torso): Really?

Tiger Tanaka (showing Bond a projectile equipped cigarette): It can save your life, this cigarette.
James Bond: You sound like a commercial.

James Bond: Well, if I’m going to be forced to watch television, may I smoke?
Blofeld: Yes. Give him his cigarettes. It won’t be the nicotine that kills you, Mr. Bond.

James Bond (having just dispatched an adversary into Blofeld’s piranha-infested indoor pool): Bon appetit!

Tiger Tanaka: You know what it is about you that fascinates them, don’t you? It’s the hair on your chest. Japanese men all have beautiful bare skin.
James Bond: Japanese proverb say, “Bird never make nest in bare tree.”

[About to have his chest hair waxed so he can pass for Japanese]
James Bond: Why don’t you just dye the parts that show?

James Bond (greeting Q, who has brought Little Nellie to Japan): Welcome to Japan, Dad. Is my little girl hot and ready?
Q: Look, 007, I’ve had a long and tiring journey, probably to no purpose, so I’m in no mood for juvenile quips.

Cocktails and other beverages

Bond’s drinking is more under control than usual here, though the super spy gets to show his knowledge of the finer points of Japan’s native beverage, the rice wine known as saki. It’s usually served warm — 98.4 degrees Fahrenheit, he reminds us. Bond seems considerably less enthralled with some Siamese vodka. Most famously, 007 politely endures confusion regarding his cocktail preferences by the soon-to-be-slain Dikko Henderson. The MI6 man offers him a vodka martini “stirred, not shaken,” in an incorrect Tom Collins glass, which Bond accepts without complaint. At another point, he is tempted into some morning drinking by a bottle of Dom Perignon 1959.

Random facts

* There are a number of jokes about cigarettes and cigarette smoking in “You Only Live Twice.” Considering the historic U.S. Surgeon General’s Report definitively naming smoking as a serious health risk had only come out in 1964, the same year heavy smoker and drinker Ian Fleming had died at age 56 of a heart attack, it was a highly topical subject. (To this day, you will find more smokers on film sets than elsewhere.)

* Donald Pleasence was actually a last-minute replacement as the first fully on-screen Blofeld. Czech actor Jan Werich was originally cast in the role and shot a few days worth of scrapped footage. The EON team decided that the bearded thespian’s grandfatherly appearance was too benign for the ultra-ruthless super villain.

* For whatever reason, Ernst Stavro Blofeld would, from this point on, be played by different actors with radically different looks in each film. Future Blofelds would include the relatively hulking “Kojak”-to-be Telly Savalas in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” who at least was as bald as the somewhat diminutive Donald Pleasence had been in the role. Blofeld would miraculously sport a full head of hair, however, when he was played by the aforementioned Charles Gray in 1971′s “Diamonds are Forever.”

* Donald Pleasence’s appearance and manner as Blofeld is pretty obviously the primary inspiration for Mike Myers’s Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series. (Evil’s speaking voice is just as obviously inspired by “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels.)

* Fans trying to put together a complete biography of Bond have made much of the ever humble 007′s reminder to Moneypenny that, “You forget, I took a first in Oriental languages at Cambridge.” This is a contradiction with the novels, where Bond was ejected from Eton College for an unsurprising infraction with female cleaning personnel and had to finish his education in Scotland.

* “You Only Live Twice” is actually the second time that Sean Connery, as a pre-coital Bond said, “The things I do for England!” The line was also shot during the filming of “Thunderball.” It made it into that film’s promotional material but was cut from the actual movie. Being too good a line to waste, it was re-used and included here.

* Ironically, screenwriter Roald Dahl’s World War II intelligence experiences were in some ways more Bondian than those of Ian Fleming. It was, in fact, his youthful gift for starting affairs with prominent women that seems to have attracted the attention of British spies working in North America trying to draw the United States into the war prior to Pearl Harbor. His most famous conquest in England’s service was playwright and conservative Republican politician Clare Booth Luce, the wife of the founder of Time magazine.

* When Mie Hama was unable to swim for her scenes, she was doubled by Australian actress Diane Cilento, an able swimmer who was married to Sean Connery at the time. Cilento, who passed on in 2011, is probably now best known for her supporting role in the 1974 cult classic, “The Wicker Man.” She also appeared in such notable 1960s features as “Tom Jones,” “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” and “Hombre.”

* Some have mistakenly said that the title, “You Only Live Twice” comes from a poem by Basho, Japan’s most famous poet. It’s actually from a not-quite haiku Bond attempts to compose in Basho’s style in Ian Fleming’s novel.

“You only live twice
Once when you’re born
And once when you look death in the face.”

Leslie Bricusse’s lyrics for the song, “You Only Live Twice,” equate the second life to falling in love. Much more romantic.

* By all accounts, Sean Connery and Diane Cilento had a pretty miserable time making “You Only Live Twice.” Spy mania and an aggressive Japanese press in particular seems to been a huge problem for the star and his bride. By the time “You Only Live Twice” was released, Connery had made it public that he would cease playing Bond. It turned out to be the first of three times that would happen.

The Romantic Ending

“You Only Live Twice” is, we think, the only Bond entry where the main romance seems to have gone not much further than passionate necking. Kissy abandons her resistance to Bond by the end of the film, but they are interrupted by an inopportune submarine and Moneypenny seems only to anxious to cut off any more funny business. All the more tragic as it looks like Bond and Kissy might not be allowed to see each other again.

“James Bond Will Return”

“The end of You Only Live Twice but James Bond will be back On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” read the final titles this time around. A similar credit was originally included at the end of “Thunderball” and later removed. In fact, James Bond did come back, but he would be George Lazenby.

How shocked was I, then, to find, a couple of years back, that the drink most associated with that show, and which I had assumed to be a super-sweet catastrophe, was actually kind of delicious? Pretty shocked. At least that was clearly the case when made correctly at a nice restaurant/bar like the sadly closed down Culver City outlet of Fraiche.

And so it was that I found myself looking for something that was somehow appropriate for the post-Turkey Day weekend, and the fact that I had a bunch of unsweetened cranberry juice sitting in my refrigerator from a prior adventure. After making Cosmopolitans a bunch of times this week, I will say that while a drink that only goes back to the mid-1980s wouldn’t usually be called a classic, I think the Cosmo just may be a real contender for boozy immortality.

The Cosmopolitan

1 1/2 ounces vodka
1 ounce Cointreau or triple sec
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce unsweetened cranberry juice
Twist of lemon or orange (garnish)

Since you’re probably still getting over your turkey, pie, and warm beer hangover, you’ll be happy to know that this is a pretty darn easy drink to make, once you’ve gathered the ingredients. Simply combine the listed liquids in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice and shake as vigorously as Carrie Bradshaw would try to shake off a sub-par boyfriend, or something. (Remember, I never watched the show.)

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and enjoy, secure in your masculinity or femininity, or whatever combination thereof may be apply.

****

I found that both the pleasant, but very sweet, Hiram Walker triple sec and the vastly more pricey and less sweet/slightly bitter Cointreau I used counterbalanced the tartness of the lime and unsweetened cranberry juice beautifully.  At least that was the case when my base spirit was good ol’ reliable Sky Vodka. The Cosmopolitan proved much less successful when I tried it with some 100 proof Smirnoff. With Cointreau it was, for lack of a better word, a bit nasty. With the sweeter triple sec, it was sweeter — but still nasty.

As for the garnishes, I recommend lemon peel to counter the sweetness of the triple sec if that’s what you’re using. Also, since The Cosmopolitan was, according to some, originally invented to be used with Absolut Citron and is still often made with lemon-infused/flavored vodkas, a touch of lemon flavor may be in order. Still, I loved the orange peel with my more upscale Mr. Big-budgeted version with Cointreau.

I have noticed, however, that some versions of this drink actually call for Rose’s sweetened lime juice instead of fresh squeezed, and I’m sure people are using super-sweet cranberry juice “cocktails” in this drink. Don’t.

This despite the fact that I and my Bullz-Eye compatriots have spent — and are spending — a fair amount of time actually writing up the Bond films for this very blog. (Check out the Bondian fan hub here.) Fortunately, the movie is turning out to be the most successful film in the uber-franchise in a long while — how long probably depends on whether you bother to adjust for inflation — so it’s going to be around awhile. That means the Bond celebration will also continue.

The Vesper, I should say, is a tricky and ironic drink among late period cocktail classics. Since it debuted in the very first James Bond novel,1953′s Casino Royale, and was created for 007 author Ian Fleming by his friend, Ivar Bryce, a fellow real-life spy, the supercool authenticity factor is off the charts. The scene in the 2006 film version where Bond finally orders the drink some 53 years after it was first invented was a special treat for diehard spy fans and cocktail lovers, and I’m both.

The downside here is that there are issues relating to the ever formulating changes in booze brands that has made the idea of the Vesper a bit more enthralling than the actual drink usually is. We’ll get to those, and a bit more history, after the very, very strong recipe below.

First, however, a word to wise boozer. If you drink a whole Vesper, you really should be done for the night. Mere mortals should not drink like functioning dipsomaniac superspies. You may want to consider cutting the portions here in half or pouring this drink into two glasses for you and a friend.

The Vesper

3 ounces gin (90 proof or above)
1 ounce vodka (100 proof or close, probably)
1/2 ounce Lillet Blanc
1-2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 lemon twist (garnish)

Combine your ingredients in cocktail shaker with a sufficiency of ice. Though heretical cocktail snobs will tell you to stir, this is an Ian Fleming cocktail and Mr. Fleming would certainly have you shake the drink. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or, if you really want to be classical, do as Bond asked the barman in the novel and serve it in a deep champagne goblet. Add your lemon twist, sip and surrender your car keys to the nearest trustworthy soul. Watch out for double agents.

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In the scene in the novel (included in the wiki I linked to above), CIA agent Felix Leiter expresses some skepticism about the as-yet unnamed Vesper, which Bond later names for the first of his two true loves, Vesper Lynd. It is a very big drink and not for pikers. It also a drink that, as cocktail historian David Wondrich and many others have admitted, hasn’t aged terribly well for a number of reasons.

First of all, all the ingredients have changed. Bond specifically requests Gordon’s Gin. Though it’s no longer considered on the high-end of the gin scale, I actually quite like today’s value-priced Gordon’s, but the flavor of today’s version can’t be the same as was back in ’53. Gordon’s is now only 80 proof. Back then, it was a higher proof and most, Wondrich included, now suggest using Tanqueray. This time around, I used the similarly high proof Beefeater, which seemed a bit more classical.

As for vodka, Wondrich and others seem to assume it would have been 100 proof. At $26.00 a bottle, I’m simply too cheap to buy 100 Stolichnaya, so I went with the $16.00 100 proof Smirnoff. I’ve never really been sold on Stoli and I doubt Bond or Mr. Fleming would have drunk a communist vodka.

Moving down the list of ingredients, I love Lillet Blanc. In fact, maybe my favorite thing about the Vesper is that it introduced me to this intriguing aperitif wine and occasional cocktail ingredient; it tastes like dry vermouth and sweet vermouth made love and birthed an independent-minded female child. However, it also apparently isn’t what it once was. Mr. Bond’s original recipe calls for the now long-gone Kina Lillet, which we are told had a bit more quinine than the present day Lillet Blanc.

That leads us to the use of the bitters, which are an attempt — some would argue a rather lame attempt — to compensate for the low level of quinine. Folks with more time and money than I have been known to actually purchase quinine powder. Since I’m not fighting a case of malaria right now, I chose not to.

So, what do I think of the Vesper? I’ve made this drink probably 10 times over the years and ordered it a few times in bars and, with a couple of exceptions, I’ve been disappointed in the taste while always enjoying the effect. A regular martini, either of the gin or vodka variety, will usually go down more pleasantly. Even so, if you want to drink the one drink that James Bond created on the spot, well, you’ve got no other choice. You’ll drink it and, by the time you’ve finished all that booze, you’ll like it.

In any case, it’s only human to want to try the drink James Bond made up.

In my mind, a spy is only as good as his full range of gear, and in honor of that I’m taking a looks at the Bond movies with the best collection of gadgets, and in the interest of perspective, the worst.

The Best

The Gadget Report:

While “From Russia With Love” was the first movie to really include Bond gadgets, it wouldn’t be until the classic “Goldfinger” where we saw the idea really take off. I’ve heard it remarked before, but it’s great how Connery’s Bond always sounded impressed with the gadgets he was given, as even in his line of work you didn’t see these things every day. What I really like is how many of the gadgets would set a trend for future films. This was Bond’s first watch, the first defining villain device, and of course the first (and maybe best) Bond car. Even with some clunkers like the rubber duck topped stealth wetsuit, like so many other things in “Goldfinger,” the quality of gadgets here would be a real trendsetter for films to come.

Gadget Highlights:

The Aston Martin DB5

Bulletproof Windows, Revolving License Plate, Forward Machine Guns, and Guaranteed First Date Sex

Industrial Laser

I Love How Completely Un-Phased Those Scientists Are

The Gadget Report:

Does a freaking awesome ninja army count as a gadget? No? Well James Bond’s strange trip to the far East is still loaded with high quality tech. You could definitely tell the series was starting to rely more and more on its prop department by this point as the ideas were getting more and more elaborate, yet still oddly appropriate for this world. My favorite part of this movie is all of the things that weren’t technically Bond gadgets but still awesome. Things like Bond’s contact’s personal subway system, the helicopter with the industrial magnet attached, or the quintessential villain lair in the hollowed out volcano all helped to make this one of the most memorable of the Bond movies.

Oh, and of course the actual Bond gadgets were awesome as well.

Gadget Highlights:

Rocket Launcher Cigarette

First One to Make a “Those Things Will Kill You” Joke Gets It

Attack Gyrocopter, A.K.A. “Little Nellie”

Yeah, well…Sean Connery Probably Thinks You Look Ridiculous

The Gadget Report:

Officially recognized by Wikipedia as the most gadget filled of all of the Bond movies, “Live and Let Die” was trying to make people forget that Roger Moore was the new Bond by loading it up with awesome gizmos. It almost works too as we are treated to the full gamut of devices that range from voodoo dolls, flutes that double as communicators, bug sweepers, robotic voodoo priests, enhanced mechanical prosthetic arms, flamethrowers, coffee makers (that surprisingly just make coffee), and the greatest Bond watch of all time, the Rolex Submariner with bullet deflecting magnet and saw watchface. The theme of the movie may have been black magic, but it’s the technology that steals the show.

Gadget Highlights:

The Rolex Submariner with Magnet

Once You Accept You’ll Never Own a Watch This Cool, Life Gets Surprisingly Easier

Clothing Brush Communicator

The Mistake Wasn’t Stealing Agent Maxwell Smart’s Phone, It was Answering it When he Called

The Gadget Report:

Roger Moore’s Bond movies were the most gadget filled, so it’s only appropriate that his best movie would feature some of his best tech. Besides the introduction of the iconic Bond villain Jaw’s teeth of destruction, there are actually a couple of slightly more practical spy devices like the portable water craft, and hidden micro-film reader. Of course, as nice as all of the appetizers all, they’re just there to wet your appetite for the main course in the form of the other contender for greatest Bond car of all time in the Lotus Esprit. Impossibly loaded with anti-personnel devices (including surface to air missiles) , the car’s real ace up the sleeve comes in the form of its underwater capabilities. It also doesn’t hurt that the beautiful build of the Lotus ensures its style all the while. This movie is a real gem of the franchise, and filled with more than enough shiny toys to match.

Gadget Highlights:

The Lotus Esprit (with underwater option)

The Only Thing it Can’t Do is Get 8 Miles to the Gallon

Ski Pole .30 Caliber Gun

“Damn Snowboarders”

The Gadget Report:

“Moonraker” gives us a pretty good indication what a sci-fi James Bond movie may look like (memo: make that movie), and as such yields some impressive technology. We’ve got perfume dispensers that double as flamethrowers, an exploding bola, gondolas with hover boat capabilities, a separate fully loaded weaponized boat, cigarette cases that can crack safes, and poison pens used to kill snakes. The highlight is definitely the laser gun featured in the finale, that can shoot in space. Much like many of the other great gadgets in the movie, as absurd as it sounds on paper it’s actually very entertaining within the context of the film. This is definitely one of Bonds’ heaviest gadget outings, and there’s a lot to love.

Gadget Highlights:

Wrist Dart Gun

When Accessorizing Your Tuxedo, Do not Neglect your Cufflinks

The Laser Gun

Oddly Enough, the Above Picture is More or Less in Context

The Worst:

The Gadget Report:

Appropriately, around the same time that Sean Connery and the studio stopped caring about the quality of their Bond movies, the prop department stopped caring about their gadgets. The word of the day for the gadgets on display is apathetic, as creativity doesn’t really exceed a fake fingerprint or over the counter voice changer, and bottoms out with the dumbest moon buggy ever devoted to film or a slightly more vicious dime store pocket finger trap. Considering how much weight Sean Connery had put on by this point, you would think they would have put more effort into giving him better toys, but alas that is not the case. Even the coolest invention in the movie (Q’s ring that can rig slot machines) just leaves me with the feeling the man was trying to earn enough money to get out of MI6 before they fired him for his invention quality.

Can’t say I blame him.

Gadget Low Points:

The Pocket Trap

“Oh…God WHY?!?!?”

Moon Buggy

About the Time James Bond Wished he’d Heeded Q’s Advice to bring the Aston Martin Back in One Piece

The Gadget Report:

This movie gets a lot of hate, mostly due to the terrible presence of amateur actor George Lazenby as James Bond. While it’s not quite that bad, what is unforgivable is the awful “Oscar bait” feel of the movie as someone thought it would be a good idea for Bond to be taken more seriously (and not in the good “Casino Royale” way). The biggest victim in the process, besides the audience, were the gadgets of which there are almost none. When the highlight of your spy arsenal is either a radioactive piece of lint that functions as a homing device, or a copy machine then you know you’re in for a rough couple of hours. Devoid of any personality from its star, this is one Bond movie that would have definitely benefited from a few more explosive everyday objects.

Gadget Low Points:

Radioactive Tracking Lint

Either MI6 had Budget Issues, or Q Started Taking to the Bottle Again

George Lazenby

The Most Useless Tool Ever in A Bond Movie

The Gadget Report:

The actual Golden Gun itself is a beautiful device, that is built from a pen, a cigarette lighter, a cigarette case, and a cuff link to form a one shot tool for the expert marksman. It’s unfortunately far and away the only gadget highlight though, as the rest of the movie feels like a game of HORSE for which prop guy could top the last for the worst gadget. You may think it’s the pedestrian spy store bought tracking device, only for that to be topped by a flying car that’s just a car with wings tied to it with little more than rope. Of course the ultimate gadget trick shot would be the fake nipple. There is no way to soften this with plot context as James Bond puts on a fake nipple to disguise himself in what is supposed to be a dramatic moment. To whoever had to design James Bond’s fake nipple, I feel bad, but you, my friend, won terrible gadget HORSE.

Gadget Low Points:

Flying AMC Matador

Not Pictured: Dignity

Fake Nipple Disguise

Always Trust a Man With A Third Nipple. Always

The Gadget Report:

This movie is definitely a case of Bond being completely outclassed by his nemeses in the gadget department. Whereas Max Zorin has a cane with steroid injector for his race horses, James Bond has a snowboard. Zorin has scanners in all of his walls to fully identify anyone in his building, and James Bond has an electric shaver with an audio bug in it. Zorin has a portable building that morphs into a villainous Zeppelin, and Bond has a pair of sunglasses that can see through tinted windows.

Actually now that I think about it, with the possible exception of that zeppelin, those are all kind of terrible.

Gadget Low Points:

Razor Sharp Butterflies

Couldn’t Find a Picture of the Actual Butterflies in this Movie, Which is Actually a Good Career Move

Tinted Window Viewing Sunglasses

Roger Moore Wore Sunglasses Because His Career Was so Bright

The Gadget Report:

Have you ever known someone who was encouraged to chase their dreams and escape their everyday dull lives, only to have it turn out that they really, really suck? The gadgets of this movie share that same quality, as for the most part they are typical, dull, but efficient inventions like X-Ray glasses, lockpicks, hook watches, and even a decent looking boat. They’re nothing that sets the world on fire, but nothing to be ashamed of either. But then the gadgets get the misguided notion to go for it all and really blow people’s minds, and things turn ugly. Suddenly we’re faced with a pair of flame thrower bagpipes and a ski jacked that doubles as a domed escape pod (of course I’m serious). While I supposed the gadgets could go back to their monotonous day job output, to tell you the truth I was being generous about those earlier. They also really sucked.

Gadget Low Points:

Bagpipe Flamethrowers

Nobody Cheated Like Rowdy Roddy Piper Cheated

Ski Jacket Escape Bubble

“This is Where I keep My Shame…”

Critics and filmmakers may prefer “From Russia With Love” and “Goldfinger,” and many complain about those long underwater sequences but, to a lot of fans, Bond #4 remains the ultimate in spy action, intrigue, gadgets, and girls, girls, girls. It also remains the all-time box office record holder of all the Bonds. It’s also only the second, and so far final, Bond film to ever win an Oscar — for special effects of course.

“Thunderball” (1965)

The Plot

Unperturbed by the 007-related deaths of Dr. No, Red Grant, Rosa Klebb, and countless other operatives, the amalgamated baddies of SPECTRE return with their most diabolical plot yet. The plan this time is nuclear blackmail, as SPECTRE Operative # 2 takes possession of two hydrogen bombs and informs England and the U.S. that they’ll either part with £100 million or kiss one or two of their favorite cities goodbye. Without any viable strategy other than complete capitulation, the only respectable option for the free world seems to be sending Bond to kill, copulate, and skin-dive his way to victory over nuclear terrorism.

The Backstory

With the series chugging along at the rate of roughly one movie a year and a worldwide spy craze underway, an observer might well have expected that the James Bond phenomenon had peaked with the blockbuster success of “Goldfinger.” Then again, a lot of people in 1965 were also figuring that those flash in the pan teen idols, the Beatles, had peaked with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

The EON Production team led by producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman knew that their hot streak was still very much in play. They cannily chose to triple-down with a budget roughly three times higher than the already relatively high ($3 million!) “Goldfinger” budget and all-out marketing and cross-promotional blitz. As luck and skill would have it, the most eagerly anticipated Bond film would ultimately top the box-office success of “Goldfinger” by $20 million with a worldwide take of $141.2 million — not quite enough cash to satisfy a Bond villain, but getting there.

The amazing part is that the film was ever made at all, as the project had been plagued by legal difficulties for years. “Thunderball” began life as a screenplay that James Bond creator Ian Fleming developed with, among others, screenwriter Jack Whittingham and producer Kevin McClory. Fleming eventually tired of the complexities of getting a Bond movie on the screen and abandoned the project. He nevertheless used a great deal of the abortive script’s story in his 1961 novel of “Thunderball.”

Things got complicated when producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman entered the mix. Broccoli and Saltman’s EON team originally initially saw “Thunderball” as the best kick-off for the Bond series, even if its action would have to be scaled back considerably to fit their budget. A lawsuit brought by Kevin McClory nixed the idea, even though writer Richard Maibum had already completed a screenplay.

The suit was eventually settled out of court by an ailing Ian Fleming. With Fleming having passed on and an obvious cash cow of enormous magnitude before him, victorious rights holder McClory agreed to an EON-produced film of “Thunderball” on certain conditions, including that he be the sole credited producer.

With McClory on board, it was time to reassemble the Bond team. Though flush with success, “Goldfinger” director Guy Hamilton pleaded exhaustion. In his stead, original Bond director Terrence Young was induced to return for one final outing, while such key personnel as editor Peter Hunt, director of photography Ted Moore, production designer Ken Adam, stunt man/action choreographer Bob Simmons, and composer John Barry all happily returned. As per the writing MO on the early Bond films, the work of American screenwriter Richard Maibum was given a more English make-over by a Brit, TV scribe John Hopkins. To handle the considerable challenge of filming underwater, EON turned to nature film specialists Ivan Tors Productions, who had achieved great success filming aquatic material for television with their hit shows,”Sea Hunt” and “Flipper.”

As for the stars, while the pressures of true superstardom were starting to weigh on Sean Connery, he was still on board and not yet ready to kill the golden but increasingly painful goose that was Bondage. For his leading lady, EON passed on three actresses soon to become superstars — Raquel Welch, Julie Christie, and Faye Dunaway — before settling on their final choice. More about that below.

The Bond Girls (Rule of 3 + 2)

Bond keeps up his sexual batting average with his usual three trips to home plate in “Thunderball.” Oddly enough, while more than maintaining his rascally ways when it comes to women, he manages what appear to be purely professional relations with two of the film’s five “Bond girls.”

Madame LaPorte (Mitsuoaka): The part was uncredited, and we never find out much about the French operative who assists Bond’s revenge mission against Jacques Bouvar in the opening sequence. Even so, the subtly exotic Madame LaPorte definitely lends an air of intrigue to the opening adventure. The French-Eurasian actress, Mitsuoaka, born Maryse Guy, was a former stripper who seems to have spent a lot of the sixties riding the spy wave around Europe, having already appeared in such early sixties capers as “License to Kill” and “Agente 077 Missione Bloody Mary.” She passed on in 1995.

Paula Caplan (Martine Beswick): Bond’s gorgeous “island girl” assistant appears to be an entirely competent MI6 operative. Even though we’ve barely seen them even flirt, Bond is clearly upset when she meets an unpleasant but honorable end under the custody of SPECTRE — though not so upset that he can’t handily boff an attractive enemy operative. Very much a cult star in her own right, this marks either the second or third and final Bond-girl appearance for actress Martine Beswick. She had also played one of the feisty-but-affectionate Gypsy women in “From Russia with Love” and might have appeared as one the dancing silhouetttes in the “Dr. No” credit sequence.

Patricia Fearing (Molly Peters): The well-intentioned physical therapist who rescues Bond from a wrenching encounter with a fitness machine is repaid for her trouble by Bond exercising his license to sexually harass. Since it’s still the mid-1960s, Molly quickly gives in to the manhandling, leading to a relatively explicit encounter in a sauna which reveals what appears to be her naked backside through a glass screen. Bond softens up towards her later, massaging the cute-as-a-button beauty with a mink-lined glove. Although she introduces a note of Doris Day-like spunk to her part, “Thunderball” proved to be pretty much the end of the movie line for Molly Peters.

Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) — James Bond might have a stunning track record of getting antagonistic women to switch teams, but Ms. Volpe turns out to be an impossible nut to crack, though not so difficult to get into bed. We first see her luring her lover, an unsuspecting NATO pilot, to his doom. She later offs her ex’s lookalike replacement (Paul Stassino) as he, in turn, is trying to kill James Bond. In this case, however, sex or no sex, the enemy of Bond’s enemy turns out to be an enemy. When a seriously irritated Bond uses her as a human shield against SPECTRE bullets, it’s an easily one of the most indelibly brutal kiss-offs in the Bond canon.

Luciana Paluzzi lost out to Claudine Auger for the lead role or “Thunderball,” but she clearly relished playing her joyfully irredeemable villainess and remains one of the most exciting of the early Bond girls. Though Paluzzi never became an international superstar, the actress racked up a total of 83 credits between 1954 and 1978.

Dominque “Domino” Derval (Claudine Auger) — In the novel, Bond’s first appreciative reaction to meeting the mercurial and seriously rude Domino Vitali is to smile and utter the word, “bitch.” Her French filmic counterpart has a sweeter disposition but is still the “kept woman” of Emilio Largo, a wealthy older brute who is hiding his true nature as an international supervillain. Like the character in the book, she proves to have a dark and nervy side of her own, especially when it comes to avenging crimes against her family.

Scores of talented actresses vied for the part of the woman originally written as Dominetta “Domino” Palazzi, but the gently beautiful Claudine Auger wound up with the part, and she is as sympathetic and alluring as she needs to be. (Even so, EON felt it necessary to soften her French accent by dubbing her part.) Auger had argued that she could relate to the role of Domino, who is under the romantic thumb of a much older man, because her career had begun after marrying 41 year-old writer-director Pierre Gaspard-Huit at age 18, and her scenes with Adolfo Celi as Largo do benefit from a hint of psychological realism. Her best known films — at least to English-speaking film geeks –are probably the fact-based World War II espionage thriller, “Triple Cross,” also directed by Terrence Young, and “Black Belly of the Tarantula,” a well-regarded Italian horror-mystery giallo from 1971 that united Auger with fellow Bond girls Barbara Bouchet (the 1967 Bond spoof “Casino Royale”) and Barbara Bach (1977′s “The Spy Who Loved Me”).

Friends and colleagues

Felix Leiter (Rik van Nutter) — The shape shifting ways of 007′s opposite number at the CIA continue as the avuncular everyman Cec Linder of “Goldfinger” is replaced by prematurely grey, suavely macho Rik van Nutter. If DVD commentaries are to be believed, the EON team was pleased enough with van Nutter’s stiff but watchable performance that he was signed to a contract for more appearances as Leiter. The story goes, however, that the writers could not figure out a proper role for Leiter in the next two Bond films. When the CIA man finally reappeared in 1971′s “Diamonds are Forever,” he was once again played by an entirely different actor. Van Nutter also appeared in a number of Italian action films under the name Clyde Rogers, but his post-”Thunderball” movie career seems to be mostly nonexistent.

Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and M (Bernard Lee) — Bond’s stern boss and his eternal partner in flirtatious byplay are back again. The comic business with both is fairly limited this time; there’s nuclear terror to be dealt with and not much time to spare.

Q (Desmond Llewelyn) — With the success of the gadgetry in “Goldfinger,” it was only natural that the part of the gizmo-bearing quartermaster would be beefed up further in the fourth 007 outing. So we have an extended and extremely funny sequence as Q, dressed like a typical British tourist with a tropical shirt and sporty fedora hat, gripes that he finds it “highly irregular” that he be forced to travel to the Bahamas to bring Bond the dangerous toys 007 clearly does not properly appreciate. Bond doesn’t seem particularly happy to see Q either. Oh, the buddy action comedy these two guys could have made.

The Nemeses

Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Anthony Dawson and Eric Pohlman) — The cat fancying supervillain is back and more dangerous than ever, especially if you work for him. Once again, Blofeld’s face is left unseen. As in “From Russia With Love,” his lower body is once again supplied by Anthony Dawson of “Dr. No” and his dialogue comes courtesy of actor Eric Pohlmann. Audiences would have to wait until the fifth Bond film before finally beholding the face of SPECTRE’s #1.

Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi)– An up-and-comer within the SPECTRE organization, Largo is Bond’s primary “Thunderball” antagonist, both in his attempt at nuclear blackmail on a massive scale as well as for the affections of Domino. Compared to the pirate Blackbeard by Ian Fleming, the film version of Largo sports an eye patch and a bit of piratical swagger. He is also a chip of the old Blofeld block when it comes to slaughtering his SPECTRE colleagues should they fall short.

Sicilian actor Adolfo Celi appeared in over 100 films, including a number of English language films where his performances were routinely looped on account of his thick accent. (In “Thunderball” he is dubbed by voice actor Ronald Rietti.) A fine performer who, for whatever reason, doesn’t quite manage to be as memorable as past Bond villains, Celi also appeared in the notorious Bond spoof, “Operation Kid Brother” with Neil Connery (Sean C.’s real life younger brother), as well as John Frankenheimer’s “Grand Prix” and Mario Bava’s Bondean comic strip fantasia, “Danger: Diabolik.”

(Short-lived) Lesser Bond Baddies

“Thunderball” features numerous disposable crooks and henchman. Not all of them rate a mention, but the memorable ones include…

Jacques Bouvar (Rose Alba/Bob Simmons) — An assassin very much in touch with his feminine side with whom Bond tangles in the pre-credit sequence.

Quist (Bill Cummings) — A would-be killer whom Bond regards as a “little fish” to be thrown back into the criminal sea. He soon meets a much bigger fish, Emilio Largo’s pet shark.

Count Lippe (Guy Doleman) — The aristocrat with ties to SPECTRE and Chinese Tongs tangles with Bond at Shrublands and is roasted in a sauna for his trouble. Surviving that unpleasantness, Lippe’s luck fails to improve as he later winds up being charred to a crisp in his car, thanks to a kill-order from Largo and the well-aimed bullets of Fiona Volpe.

Angelo Palazzi (Paul Stassino) — You spend years studying to fly, undergo painful plastic surgery to turn you into the exact double of a NATO pilot, ruthlessly murder him and all of his crew, steal two atomic bombs. Then, basking in afterglow of a job well done, you ask for a little raise. Next thing you know, the airhose that’s keeping you alive underwater gets cut with a knife by your supervisor, who leaves you behind for fish food. Working for SPECTRE sucks.

Vargas (Phillip Locke) — Probably out of respect for his skills as an assassin, Largo actually does not kill his apparent right hand man. He does, however, embarrass him in front of James Bond by somewhat mentioning that he avoids all distractions, neither smoking, nor drinking, nor “making love.” In any case, it’s Bond who ends up killing Vargas with a spear gun after Vargas’s bullets fail to do in the superspy, adding insult to terminal injury with a not so witty quip.

License to kill

After the cold blooded murder of the craven Prof. Dent in “Dr. No,” Bond was on relative good behavior in “From Russia with Love” and even more so in “Goldfinger,” generally only offing bad guys in fairly clear-cut cases of self-defense. “Thunderball” is a different story right from the start; the opening climaxes with Bond successfully completing his mission of death by very deliberately breaking the neck of Jacques Bouvar with a crowbar. Later, it appears that Bond intends to assassinate Largo when Domino, furious at the news that Largo has killed her NATO pilot brother, begs Bond to kill him for her, and 007 responds with a passionate kiss. (Of course, it’s Domino who eventually performs the deadly honors.) Later Bond saves his own life by using the extremely treacherous Fiona Volpe as a human shield against a SPECTRE assassin. Although most of the other killings we see are in self-defense, the biggest Bond film yet has its hero racking up by far the largest body count of any of the films so far.

Interestingly, the original novel is almost a pacifist tract in comparison. The scene where Domino requests Bond kill Largo has Bond confidently informing his new girlfriend that such things don’t usually happen, but that any SPECTRE agents captured are likely to get life in prison. It’s enough to make you imagine the literary Bond might have considered voting Labour from time to time.

The gadgets

A great deal of the financial success of “Goldfinger.” both at the box office and in terms of marketing tie-ins, came from the enormous appeal of the gadgets. No surprise, therefore, that “Thunderball” makes maximum use of all kinds of gadgetry, starting with the opening sequence in which Bond flees from his assassination of Jacques Bouvar with the use of a jet pack, setting off a 100 million youthful fantasies that someday we’d all be flying to work. Though that never happened, the jet packs were not miniatures, as you might assume, but very real military prototypes flown by actual test pilots.

The opening sequence also featured a return appearance of Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, presumably a different iteration than the one that got trashed in “Goldfinger.” This version includes a bullet-proof shield and handy water cannons. That’s only the beginning as Q arrives in Nassau with a plethora of devices and others appear out of nowhere, including:

- A waterproof wristwatch with a built-in Geiger counter, perfect for detecting underwater nuclear bombs.

- An pocket sized “rebreather” providing a few minutes of air when other sources of oxygen are unavailable or impractical under water. The U.S. military found the device so believable they were reportedly disappointed to find out that the production team could not provide details on how to make one work.

- A flare gun in a convenient pocket sized canister.

- A “harmless,” just slightly radioactive, homing “pill” which Q wants Bond to swallow immediately. A reluctant Bond waits until much later to do so. No word on whether Q ever got this gadget returned to him.

- Infrared camera with a built in Geiger counter, perfect for revealing your spy status to a cruel supervillain.

- A water jet, perfect for rapid underwater propulsion and leaving a trail of bright yellow gas behind it; clearly it wasn’t created with camouflage in mind.

- A tape recorder hidden inside a hollowed out book.

- A massive skyhook.

Not to be entirely left out, SPECTRE also has some gadgetry of its own this time around. Spiffiest of these is the electrified, retractable conference room chair which conveniently kills theiving and/or incompetent agents with a gigantic electric shock. It then conveniently drops down into the floor and disposes of the body, returning as a clean and seemingly harmless chair. Also noteworthy, and definitely the largest gadget in the film, is Emilio Largo’s yacht, the Disco Volante. It’s actually becomes two boats in times of high duress and also features a smoke screen and built in machine guns.

The exotic locales

“Thunderball” certainly doesn’t fall short on the scenery. The main setting for much of the film is the colorful Bahamas city of Nassau and and the nearby resort, Paradise Island. (Some additional material was shot in and around Miami.) In Nassau, the filmmakers went the extra step of asking the locale residents to re-stage the yearly Junkanoo, a Mardi Gras-like street parade usually held on Boxing Day (December 26). With Bond-mania in full-swing, the residents complied almost too enthusiastically for the production team: some of the floats and groups of marchers were James Bond-themed, presenting a challenge for the production team.

A bit less exotic but no less visually arresting, the pre-credit opening sequence featuring the death of Jacques Bouvar and Bond’s airborne escape is set at the spectacular Château d’Anet. It’s a massive renaissance era construction, originally built for the mistress of England’s Henry II, 50 miles outside Paris. The chateau remains both a private home and a tourist attraction to this day.

It might not qualify as “exotic,” but the Shrublands Health Clinic, which is given an amusingly satirical treatment in Ian Fleming’s novel, was a real sanitarium. Nevertheless, the visually impressive buildings used in the film actually belonged to a suburban aluminum company.

The outrageous villains lairs and good guy haunts

We suppose the great production designer Ken Adam can only take partial credit for the amazing interior of the Château d’Anet, but it’s still pretty outrageous. On the other hand, the secret SPECTRE boardroom, located inside the prosaic offices of a faux charity, is pure Adam insanity along the stylized, ultra-mod lines of his war room in “Dr. Strangelove” and the famed rumpus room from “Goldfinger.” Full of clean lines and exaggerated ultra-modern furniture, we find just how uncomfortable a chair can be as an untrustworthy SPECTRE member is given the electric sack by Blofeld and disappeared via a retractable chair.

Even more spectacular is the MI6 conference room where M and various dignitaries hold forth. With an oblong table where Bond sits with the other, mostly unseen, 00 agents and absurdly gigantic tapestries replaced by giant maps in later scenes, it’s a Fantasyland version of an English government building. Just as over the top, in its way, is the Nassau offices of local MI6 contact Pinder (Earl Cameron). The character of Pinder has little to do other than appear vaguely competent, but his office is more interesting and a good example of Ken Adam’s sense of humor. It’s an intelligence center in an island nation trying very hard not to look like an intelligence center, and so it winds up looking kind of like a U.S. based Tiki bar.

The Opening

The death of SPECTRE assassin Colonel Jacques Bouvar (spelled “Boitier” in the credits) is one of the more cleverly designed of the James Bond openings for a number of reasons. For starters, it appears to be another entirely disconnected James Bond mini-adventure while actually being partially connected to the main plot — Bouvar turns out to be a SPECTRE operative — and even foreshadowing later scenes.

It opens with the funeral of the seemingly dead Bouvar in a lavish French chateau. As Bond and his beautiful local contact, Madame LaPorte, watch a funeral, the nature of Bond’s assignment is made clear when he admits that he’s sorry Bouvar died of natural causes. Still, all is not as it appears as Bouvar’s beautiful widow — first played in a bit of a cheat on the audience by actress Rose Alba — turns out to be Bouvar himself, played in turn by James Bond stuntman #1 Bob Simmons. The fight, one of the most well-choreographed of the series, turns out to be literal bone-cruncher as Bond dispatches Bouvar by breaking his neck with a metal poker from a fireplace, throwing some nearby funereal roses on the corpse for good measure. Then it’s on to Bond’s escape from the chateau, which he accomplishes with a conveniently placed jet pack and his waiting Aston Martin DB 5′s handy-dandy bullet-proof shield and water-jets, which humorously impede Bond’s pursuers while cuing the aquatic themed credit sequence.

All in all, the opening sets the tone of “Thunderball” as the series entry which fully ups the ante on the James Bond formula following the huge success of “Goldfinger.” There’ll be more kills, more silliness, more blatant sex, more everything.

The Credits

Maurice Binder, who designed the credits on “Dr. No” as well as the iconic 007 gun barrel intro is back with one of the more visually beautiful Bond credit sequences. This time, silhouettes of bathing beauties and armed scuba divers blend with underwater imagery and bursts of fiery color. From this point on, Binder would design every EON Bond title through 1989′s “License to Kill.”

The Music

John Barry had established credibility as a pop songwriter as well as a film composer, and then some, with the massive success of the “Goldfinger” title song and soundtrack album. Originally re-teaming with “Goldfinger” cohorts singer Shirley Bassey and lyricist Leslie Bricusse, Barry and his collaborators took a cue from the oft-quoted Italian nick-name for James Bond with a sinister yet swinging ditty called “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” A reasonably killer version was recorded with Bassey but, for reasons which remain vague, her appropriately dramatic vocal stylings were replaced by the more subtle, jazz inflected approach of the very up-and-coming American songstress, Dionne Warwick, best known today for such Burt Bacharach-Hal David standards as “Walk On By” and “I Say A Little Prayer.”

Frankly, Warwick’s understated approach didn’t quite click with the song, though Barry was apparently satisfied. Even so, the word came from on-high at MGM that the “Thunderball” title track should actually contain the word “Thunderball.” The only problem was that the songwriters were stymied by the title, which didn’t seem to lend easily lend itself to pop lyrics.

Nevertheless, 27 year-old lyricist Don Black was enlisted to cobble together some couplets which may have been intended to describe the character of James Bond, but which could almost as easily apply to bad guy Emilio Largo. So odd and slapdash were the lyrics that emerging pop superstar Tom Jones was a bit baffled himself when tasked with singing the song. Following instructions to “sell” the song as hard as possible, Jones is said to have fainted as he completed the very lengthily sustained final note.

The result was was easily the campiest of the early Bond themes, but a memorable hit nevertheless. The song, its lyrics, the final note, and Maurice Binder’s “Thunderball” credit sequence were all spoofed very nicely by none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic in a 1998 music video for his theme for the Leslie Nielsen spoof film, “Spy Hard.”

Action Highlights

Simultaneously the most remarkable and the most widely criticized aspect of “Thunderball” are the lengthy underwater action scenes, particularly the colorful final battle in which armed frogmen from the U.S. Coast Guard and SPECTRE face off, including Bond and Emilio Largo. Without a doubt the fights are well staged and, especially in the recently restored Blu-Ray/digital version, visually splendid. Nevertheless, the argument has been made by many that they slow down the film and it’s hard to disagree. In fact, editor Peter Hunt had fashioned a shorter version of the climactic final battle, but was asked to lengthen it to include more of the spectacular footage the various photographics units had assembled. The completed version of the sequence ran roughly nine minutes and “Thunderball” was by far the lengthiest Bond film up that time, with a running time of 129 minutes.

Of course, “Thunderball” also features numerous land-based action sequences; so many that at times it feels like a frenetic modern-day action flick. Additional highlights include the opening fight-to-the-death with Col. Bouvar, the car chase that ends with Fiona Volpe’s destruction of Count Lippe, an on-foot chase through the junkanoo parade, and the final exciting hand-to-hand battle between Bond, Largo, and assorted henchmen aboard the Disco Volante. As with the final big hand-to-hand fight from “Goldfinger” and “From Russia With Love,” staging the final fight meant weeks of work for the cast, the director, and especially stunt man/coordinator Bob Simmons.

The one-liners

Though the story has a slightly serious atomic age edge, the silly side of Bond that had emerged in “Goldfinger” continues. “Thunderball” gives us more of those famous James Bond movie one-liners that are often witty but also often strike a precarious balance between cleverness and groan-inducing stupidity, not that there’s anything wrong with that. For example…

Bond (having just shot Vargas with a spear gun): I think he got the point.

Fiona Volpe (getting out of her car): Some men just don’t like to be driven.
Bond: No, some men don’t like to be taken for a ride.

Bond (deppositing the bullet-ridden body of Fiona Volpe with a dance club bystander): Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She’s just dead.

Bond (after making underwater love to Domino): I hope we didn’t scare the fishes.

Felix Leiter: Well, James, did you kill him?
James Bond: You know me better than that.

Bond (depositing his jet pack): No well-dressed man should be without one.

Bond (having just made sanitarium whoopee with Pat Fearing): Keep in touch.
Pat Fearing: Anytime, anyplace, James.
Bond: Another time, another place.

Bond (leaving “irrigation therapy”): See you later, irrigator.

Cocktails and other beverages

With a city or two on the edge of annihilation and the fate of the free world at stake, there’s only a little time for boozing it up. Bond has a martini or two, but he never bothers to explain how it should be prepared. Moreover, if you look closely you can see Bond whipping up what appears to be a martini served on the rocks for himself and Felix Leiter and, indeed, in the book they do drink them that way. Cocktails aficionados may find the thought of Bond and Leiter drinking martinis in this heretical fashion disturbing, but we must present the facts as they are.

Also, Emilio Largo is nice enough to serve Bond a Rum Collins. Bond, who was very specific in his drink requests with Auric Goldfinger, is too busy trying to intimidate Largo to fuss about the brand of rum or to insist on fresh lemon juice and simple syrup rather than Collins mix.

Random facts

* “Thunderball” is the first film in the series in which Bond habitually introduces himself as “James Bond” and not even once as “Bond, James Bond.”

* Despite the fact that the movie of “Thunderball” is a pretty straightforward adaptation of Ian Fleming’s novel, the legal settlement with McClory meant the film had to be credited as based on a screenplay by Jack Whittham and a story by McClory, Whittingham, and Fleming. It would have been more true to say it was based on a novel drawn from work by Whittingham, McClory, and others.

* The scene where Bond and the other 00 agents are told about Operation Thunderball was originally supposed to feature silent cameos by a number of other actors who were portraying assorted international men of mystery of film and television fame, of which there was an ever growing number. The gag was dropped as being overly broad and difficult too negotiate.

* Speaking of overly broad gags, fans of the Austin Powers series will notice a number of familiar moments in “Thunderball,” starting with the plot of “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” After having a number of his diabolical, but seriously outdated, plans dismissed, old-time spy supervillain Dr. Evil relents. “Oh, hell, lets just do what we always do. Hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage.”

* The success of “Thunderball” left Kevin McClory hungry for more and so his renewed lawsuit became endless fodder for entertainment news stories through the seventies and on into the 1980s. As the conflict escalated, McClory threatened to start a second Bond series of his own, even though he only held the rights to “Thunderball.” He eventually did make his own Bond movie and with Sean Connery in it to boot, the 1987 “Thunderball” remake. “Never Say Never Say Never Again.” McClory’s threat to continue remaking “Thunderball” in a series of Bond films fortunately never materialized, however. A 2008 book about the affair,”The Battle for Bond” by Robert Sellers, was itself caught up in legal issues with the Fleming estate.

* “Thunderball” is so far, one of only two Ian Fleming James Bond stories to have been remade. The other is the first James Bond novel, “Casino Royale,” which Fleming sold off the rights to separately.

* Efx wizard John Stears won the second and final James Bond Oscar. He would go on to win two more Oscars for the film we now call “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.”

* According to Robert Sellers, prior to settling on “Dr. No” as the first Bond film, the Bond producers approached Alfred Hitchcock, who seriously contemplated adapting “Thunderball” into the first Bond movie. Ian Fleming, apparently mad with enthusiasm to get the movie made, enthusiastically entertained the nation of having Hitchcock favorite James Stewart play Bond. We know, it sounds like the premise for a bad SNL sketch, but there it is.

* Despite the fact that Bond had badmouthed his rock and roll band in “Goldfinger,” Beatle Ringo Starr was apparently seen hanging around the “Thunderball” set. He had recently finished filming the Beatle’s somewhat Bond-esque follow-up to “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” which was also largely made in Nassau.

* Rik van Nutter may have been cast as Felix Leiter, it appears, as something of a favor and/or money saving move by Cubby Broccoli to appease van Nutter’s then wife, actress Anita Ekberg. Sex symbol Ekberg had been the female lead of the EON produced Bob Hope comedy, “Call Me Bwana.” A poster for the film featuring Ekberg had appeared in “From Russia With Love” and casting van Nutter may have been in lieu of an appearance fee.

* Most film productions employ a second unit or two to gather additional film material such as action sequences and inserts. “Thunderball” employed as many as seven units at various points in the production.

* A question for anyone who’s seen a real atomic bomb. Do they really have “Handle like eggs” written on them?

* While the song “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was left out of “Thunderball,” parts of the melody appear in the score and the song was on the original soundtrack album. There is, however, another unissued “Thunderball” theme that never got included on anything relating to the film. Country music great Johnny Cash took a wack at entering the 007 mythos with a theme song reminiscent of his version of “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” but it was rejected. Cash’s “Thunderball,” was not officially released in the United States until 2011, eight years after Cash’s passing. It would never have worked in the film but we kind of dig it, On the other hand, Cash’s song creates the incorrect impression that “Thunderball” is the name of the vehicle carrying the atom bonds.

* Director Terrence Young left “Thunderball” during post-production to work on another film, essentially leaving editor Peter Hunt as the creative head of the production. Like an awful lot of critics, Young also apparently felt that the finished film was slowed down by too much of the underwater footage.

* Ricou Browning, who directed the underwater footage for Ivan Tors Productions, is better known to entertainment obsessives as both the creator of the “Flipper” television series and the aquatically skilled actor who portrayed the monstrous title role in “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

* Kevin McClory’s best known non-Bond film was the highly successful and Oscar-winning, but not so critically respected , spectacular, “Around the World in Eighty Days.” The massive spectacle was overseen by mega-producer Mike Todd and starred Ian Fleming favorite David Niven.

* Probably because of the rushed editing of the film, it appears that there were small differences and inconsistencies in various theatrical, television, and home video versions of “Thunderball.” Eagle-eyed fans have, of course, had plenty of fun spotting the discrepancies.

* Fans have also spotted numerous apparent continuity errors. Many of these “errors” are actually quite deliberate. Editor Peter Hunt was a master of figuring out creative ways to move the story along more quickly. That often involved changing the order of scenes or doing other bits of cinema sleight-of-hand which create the appearance of an accidental error when, in fact, the error was highly calculated.

The Romantic Ending

In keeping with the more action-packed tone of “Thunderball,” Bond and Domino don’t waste any time cannoodling in the rubber raft they end up after the destruction of the Disco Volante. Instead the embracing pair is quickly whisked away via skyhook.

“James Bond Will Return”

This is noticeably absent from nearly all extant versions of “Thunderball” though the original version promised that 007 would return in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” Since the next film in the series was later changed to “You Only Live Twice,” the graphic was removed from most prints and never replaced.

The beautiful women from the James Bond films have intrigued us in many ways over the years, but seeing them join in on the action wielding all sorts of guns definitely added to the sex appeal. Above you’ll see a slideshow of some of the sexy Bond girls holding their firearms, starting the the sexy Tanya Roberts from “A View to a Kill” sporting her big hair from the 80s. Next we have an action shot of Olga Kurylenko from “Quantum of Solace” and then the elegant Daniela Bianchi pointing a gun at Bond in “From Russia with Love.” Michelle Yeoh handles some serious firepower in “Tomorrow Never Dies,” and then another action shot with Naomie Harris from “Skyfall.” The slideshow finishes up with three lovely Bond girls posing with their guns – Carey Lowell in “Licence to Kill,” Catrina Skepper in “The Living Daylights” and finally badass Grace Jones in “A View to a Kill.”

Barbara Bach points a gun at Bond in “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

Plenty of girls with guns in “Octopussy”