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Title Track: GF
Title Credits: GF
Main Villain: DN (close, but it has to be the depraved Dr.)
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: GF
Overall Plot: GF (irradiating Fort Knox, how ingenious!)
Dialogue: GF (the back and forth between Bond and Goldfinger is simple to good)
Score: GF
Settings: DN
Action: GF
Humour: DN (“Make sure he doesn’t get away” will always win this one)
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: GF
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: GF (Bond in his Ivory Dinner Jacket, smoking, looking at his watch, just oozes style and glamour)
Bond Performance: DN
17
DN: 8
GF: 9
Two titans fought hard but it’s GF’s day. GF is my #5 and DN is my #4. Along with the rest of my top five (FRWL, OHMSS, CR) make up the peak of the Bondian tree, a cut above the rest.
We'll see now if DN has any more success against the slightly more controversial Thunderball! First, my scores...
Title Track: TB (now attempting to use the unholy amalgam of the Bond theme and Three Blind Mice, and TB edges it out)
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN (both beautiful but shallow, so Honey's iconic entrance carries it)
Henchman: TB (counting Fiona here, against Professor Dent)
Overall Plot: TB (always fond of this one, simple but threatening)
Dialogue: DN (the witticisms had started to become a bit rote by TB)
Score: TB
Settings: DN (Caribbean vs. Caribbean, and I can't help but think DN gets more mileage out of Jamaica)
Action: TB
Humour: DN (see Dialogue)
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN (Vargas and the hot and cold are just silly, especially compared to Dr. No's lair)
Suspense: DN (Bond is in believable danger more often, and there's no underwater nonsense)
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN (more intense)
Dr. No edges it by a margin of 9-8! I prefer by quite a bit over Thunderball, but once again the more established Bond is able to score some easy points. I should also note that TB's flaws are really concentrated in a few areas, but the make it a fairly bloated experience. But anyway, enough from me, let's see your scores!
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
Dr No wins 9-8
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: Tie
Henchman: TB (counting Fiona here, against Professor Dent)
Overall Plot: TB (always fond of this one, simple but threatening)
Dialogue: Tie
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN (Bond is in believable danger more often, and there's no underwater nonsense)
Minor Characters: TB
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: TB
12- TB/ 3- DN/ 2-Ties
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: Tie
Action: TB
Humour: TB (This one gets it based on the exchange Bond has with the stranger on the dance floor immediately after Volpe's death alone. "Mind if my friend sits this one out? She's just dead!" Classic.)
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 9
TB: 7
Tie: 1
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: TB
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: TB
Clear 14-3 victory for TB.
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: TB
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 5
TB: 12
A huge surprise as with the GF result, I rank DN far higher than TB.
DN vs.FRWL
Title Track: DN
Title Credits: FRWL
Main Villain: FRWL
Main Bond Girl: FRWL
Henchman: FRWL
Overall Plot: FRWL
Dialogue: FRWL
Score: FRWL
Settings: DN
Action: FRWL
Humour: FRWL
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: FRWL
Suspense: FRWL
Minor Characters: FRWL
Glamour: FRWL
Bond Performance: FRWL
DN: 3
FRWL: 14
DN vs.GF
Title Track: GF
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: GF
Main Bond Girl: GF
Henchman: GF
Overall Plot: GF
Dialogue: GF
Score: GF
Settings: DN
Action: GF
Humour: GF
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: GF
Suspense: GF
Minor Characters: GF
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: GF
DN: 4
GF: 13
DN vs.TB
Title Track: DN
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: TB
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 8
TB: 9
Title Track: TB
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: TB
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: TB
Suspense: TB
Minor Characters: TB
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: TB
DN: 0
TB: 17
Wow...everyone on here knows I love TB but that score even surprised me !!!
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: TB
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TB
Minor Characters: TB
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: TB
TB: 16
DN: 1
Not surprised at all.
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TB
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
TB wins 12-5. I still love them both.
Title Credits: TB - Binder at the top of his game.
Main Villain: DN - The definitive Bond villain v a generic Eurobaddie with an eye patch? Comfortable win for Julius.
Main Bond Girl: DN - The definitive Bond girl v a generic Eurobabe with no discernible personality to speak of? Comfortable win for Honeychile.
Henchman: TB - Fiona smashes it out of the park despite the slimy Professor Dent being a decent secondary villain.
Overall Plot: DN - I'll take true Fleming over a Mclory inspired committee plot that manages to be woefully less than the sum of its parts.
Dialogue: DN - Close but the overall script just seems tighter and more solid in DN. loads of great scenes (M's office, the photographer at Pussfellers, Dent and No, dinner with No). TB just feels slightly flat (Fiona scenes excepted) as the bloat starts to set in. DN is Citizen Kane Orson Welles, TB is CR67 Orson Welles.
Score: TB - Bond theme aside Monty is never going to compete with Barry at his bombastic best.
Settings: DN - Gives a much better sense of place. TB just feels longer like a succession of beach clubs.
Action: TB - Despite the criticism it gets the underwater stuff is technically phenomenal. Also probably the most underrated stunt of the series in Bond climbing up the hydrofoil's err foil.
Humour: TB - For the Shrublands scenes alone.
Cinematography: TB - First Bond in panavision. Must have been damn spectacular back in the day.
Benign Bizarre: DN - Wins just for the tarantula room alone but Dr No himself is also exceptionally creepy.
Suspense: DN - Wins by default as TB doesn't have any.
Minor Characters: DN - Quarrel, Pussfeller and Leiter are way better than Pinder, Paula and Leiter.
Glamour: TB - Seems like an advert for the jet set life style at times.
Bond Performance: DN - Keeps on getting better with age. It's debatable if Sean ever topped this. Only his FRWL comes close. By TB the disenchantment was clearly setting in.
DN only scrapes it 9-8 but wins the ones that matter and is by far the superior film.
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: TB
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TB
Minor Characters: TB
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 5
TB: 12
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: TB
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: DN
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 9
TB:8
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: DN
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN: 10
TB:7
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: DN
Action: TB
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB (I really dislike all the greyness of the PTS and Shrublands sequence but it pops when it gets to the beach!)
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN = 9
TB = 8
I enjoy DN more than TB. But the individual elements of TB are great. I always give TB a pass being at the height of Bondmania. It has so many great parts but DN is my preferred option - although I'd say TB could have won Dialogue here and maybe even Bond girl but then DN could have won glamour, title track and humour. They're all quite close in categories. And both directed by my favourite Terence Young.
Title Credits: TB (When you think of Bond title sequence, this has to be one of the first that come to mind. Binder's best work)
Main Villain: TB (Largo is menacing and pure evil. I'll take him over the underutilized DN)
Main Bond Girl: TB (Domino is one of my favorite Connery Bond girls, Honey is mid-pack)
Henchman: TB (I'm assuming Fiona Volpe counts in this category, which makes this an easy one)
Overall Plot: TB (Classic Bond plot, stealing of nuclear weapons by SPECTRE)
Dialogue: DN (TB has some great lines and exchanges, but DN is stronger as a whole)
Score: TB (The underwater stuff sets the scene so well)
Settings: TB (Both Bahamas and Jamaica are great locales, but Bahamas is just so beautiful here)
Action: TB (Underwater sequences are jaw-dropping for their time)
Humour: TB
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN (Quirrell puts this one for DN)
Glamour: TB (TB defines Glamour)
Bond Performance: DN
12-5 for TB
These two are close together in my rankings 9-12 range, but by the elements, TB has that classic Bond formula to a T
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: TB
Score: TB
Settings: DN
Action: TB
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: TIE
DN: 10
TB: 6
TIE: 1
A fair reflection of my rankings, methinks.
Title Track: Thunderball (25-75)
Tom Jones provides one of the classic Bond theme tunes.
Title Credits: Thunderball (10-90)
The best of the Sean Connery era credits, by far.
Main Villain: Dr. No (55-45)
Largo is one of the classic villains, but Dr. No has a degree of sinister about him that Largo lacks.
Main Bond Girl: Dr. No (60-40)
I like Domino quite a bit, but she is forgettable at times and doesn't match the appeal of Honey.
Henchman: Thunderball (25-75)
The original femme fatale.
Overall Plot: Dr. No (65-35)
Sometimes simplicity is best. Thunderball is an intriguing plot at face value, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
Dialogue: Dr. No (55-45)
Great peaks and a more consistently pleasing script, however thin the difference.
Score: Thunderball (30-70)
Not one of my favorite Barry scores, but he provides a strong set of themes nonetheless.
Settings: Thunderball (40-60)
Thunderball's settings engage with the adventure more rather than being an obstacle course as it takes on in Dr. No.
Action: Dr. No (60-40)
I won't deny Thunderball has more juice in certain moments, but I'm docking it for the underwater and speed boat scenes that I find hard to sit through.
Humor: Thunderball (25-75)
One of my favorite lines comes from M, "Well, now that we're all here."
Cinematography: Thunderball (40-60)
The scope of Thunderball is well captured.
Benign Bizarre: Dr. No (70-30)
Amongst other more noteworthy things, it had better use of a geiger counter.
Suspense: Dr. No (90-10)
The spectacle of Thunderball is the focal point over keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.
Minor Characters: Dr. No (75-25)
Better overall quality and contribution to the film.
Glamor: Dr. No (75-25)
Thunderball sees less of Bond in the tuxedo.
Bond Performance: Dr. No (75-25)
This is where the gap begins to widen between the Sean Connery performances.
Dr. No (10) (51-49) (7) Thunderball
Title Credits: TB
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TB
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TB
Settings: DN
Action: TB
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TB
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TB
Bond Performance: DN
DN - 11
TB - 6
Title Track: YOLT
Title Credits: YOLT (always had a fondness for this one, for some reason)
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: DN (the first of many Red Grant clones can't measure up to Prof. Dent)
Overall Plot: DN (mostly for its cogency)
Dialogue: DN
Score: YOLT
Settings: YOLT (Volcano. Lair.)
Action: YOLT (the final battle is still iconic)
Humour: DN
Cinematography: YOLT
Benign Bizarre: YOLT (again, volcano lair, and iconic Blofeld)
Suspense: DN (YOLT is ultimately too silly)
Minor Characters: YOLT (for Aki and Tiger, great as Quarrel is)
Glamour: YOLT
Bond Performance: DN (Connery was well and truly bored by this point)
And YOLT triumphs 9-8! My first surprising margin of the game,and it seemed like a winnable matchup. Let's see if DN can pull its first victory on your scorecards.
Title Credits: YOLT
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: YOLT
Settings: YOLT
Action: YOLT
Humour: DN
Cinematography: YOLT
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: YOLT
Bond Performance: DN
DN - 10
YOLT - 7
Title Track: YOLT
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl:YOLT
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: YOLT
Settings: YOLT
Action: YOLT
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: YOLT
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: YOLT
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
DN wins 10-7
Title Credits: YOLT
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl:DN
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: YOLT
Settings: YOLT
Action: YOLT
Humour: YOLT
(Osato: What happened to Williamson?
BOND: Williamson? Oh, yes! He died rather suddenly, poor chap.
Osato: Ah, so. From what?
BOND: He fell into a pulverizer at the works.
Osato: Ah, so. How shocking. A very honourable death, all the same.)
Cinematography: YOLT
Benign Bizarre: TIE
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: YOLT
Glamour: YOLT
Bond Performance: DN
YOLT: 9
DN: 5
TIE: 1
Title Credits: YOLT (Languid and exotic. Aided by the title track)
Main Villain: DN (DN is one of my faves - the way he is built up. The scene with Dent and DN's disembodied voice is marvellous).
Main Bond Girl: DN (Honey trumps Kissy)
Henchman: DN (Dent wins it over Hans, Helga or Osato)
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN Connery is ice cold in this - and his dialogue is a big part of it. The scene with Doctor No is a ripper.
Score: YOLT (Right in the sweet spot of Barry scores. He was on a fierce roll - even by his high standards. The music is a big part of why I enjoy the film)
Settings: YOLT (I adore the way Jamaica is presented in DN but I'll give this to YOLT. I like the way Japan is presented and takes its time. The rituals and panoramas - wonderful)
Action: YOLT (The office fight, the rooftop fight and the final attack on the volcano)
Humour: DN
Cinematography: YOLT (I love both of these film's cinematography but YOLT wins this one.)
Benign Bizarre: DN (I'm tempted to go YOLT - but I like the metal hands, spiders in cages, shadowy rooms, dragons, three blind mice. There's something very sinister and creepy that pervades DN.)
Suspense: DN (Aside from the finale I don't find YOLT particularly suspenseful. DN has great individual suspense and suspense across the narrative. I feel as if Young has a knack for it more than Gilbert.)
Minor Characters: DN (Quarrel, Felix, Miss Taro, Sisters Lily and Rose, Pussfeller - YOLT has Tiger and Aki but I like the overall minor characters in DN.)
Glamour: DN (I instinctively put this as YOLT - but I really analysed my feelings on this and actually I'll give it to DN - the casino scene is Bond glamour in concentrated form. Connery looks much better in DN - including his suits. I love YOLT's glamour but I think DN's glamour appeals to me more.)
Bond Performance: DN (Debut 007 trumps Sayonara 007)
DN - 11
YOLT - 6
DN is Russian Caviar - YOLT Peking Duck...But I love them both.
Title Credits: YOLT
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: YOLT
Settings: YOLT
Action: YOLT
Humour: DN
Cinematography: YOLT
Benign Bizarre: YOLT
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: YOLT
Bond Performance: DN
DN - 9
YOLT - 8