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I don't think any actress could do anything more with the horrid dialogue and direction that came out of DAD. I don't mind DAD as a whole as much as others seem to, but the Jinx character drags it down almost as low as CGI para-surfing as far as the low lows we can't get rid of in the experience. It also could've used more Mr. Blond.
The producers tapped Jan Werich, his English was limited as he was Czech. So it can be assumed that he would have been dubbed by the wonderful Eric Pohlmann. To bring that deep sinister voice to the screen. But mere weeks into shooting Lewis Gilbert decided that Jan didn't look the part. The role was re-cast with Donald Pleasance brought in. Out went a Blofeld with hair, out went a deep voiced sinister man. Instead we got a scar face and a rather weak voice. Some lauded Donald's portrayal of Blofeld. Donald himself said he took the money did his 8 weeks and left!
What if Lewis hadn't persuaded the producers to recast the role and Jan Werich had become the first Blofeld on screen? Can we picture him with Eric's voice? Would he have likely stayed on and come back for the next two films?
What say you Mi6...what if Jan Werich had remained as Blofeld in YOLT?
Blofeld has little screentime in YOLT, which means that he needed to make a big impact in a very short amount of time and while none of us has seen Jan Werich's performance, an elderly bearded Eastern European man hardly seems like the most original choice for a villain in a 1967 spy flick.
Having him be a small, weak-looking man, with an odd facial scar and a soft voice was a very left-field choice but it worked because it totally went against what everyone expected that type of villain to look like and almost seemed to make him more sinister.
At the end, I doubt that Werich would have been particularly memorable in this role and Lewis Gilbert made the right choice of recasting the part. I am however surprised that neither Broccoli, nor Saltzman, thought for a moment of choosing an actor who would have corresponded more to the Blofeld glimpsed in Thunderball. With hindsight, it is difficult to imagine anyone other than Pleasance since his portray is so iconic, but I would have liked to see something closer to the incarnation portrayed by Anthony Dawson and voiced by Pohlmann.
I wonder what everyone saw in Jan when he was first cast? I would have loved to have the voice of Eric Pohlmann as Blofeld, it would tie the previous films together stronger. I think with this voice anyone would look more menacing then Pleasance.
But I may be biased because I am not a fan of how Blofeld is written and portrayed in this film.
He was a good actor, especially in comical roles. But no Blofeld: I think he would have looked like Max Von Sydow - rest his soul - on NSNA. Harmless, affable, nice... The contrary of what Blofeld is meant to represent, and, morover, much less outrageous than Charles Gray.
I do wish we could get to see footage of him as Blofeld during the brief shoot before he was recast. I suspect that footage is forever lost.
That means we'll never get to see what was filmed of Lazenby's Phinian chase in OHMSS, the tour of the Disco Volante in TB, the Kerim Bey "that, my friend is life" scene from FRWL, Honey staked out for the crabs, etc.
I guess they never thought to lock an actor up for the role for a multi-picture deal. I am sad we missed out on Pohlmann doing the voice. I can just imagine him describing what the piranha fish. Or even holding up the X-ray. (Kill Bond now.)
A shame for that reason alone.
A lot to consider here. We now live in a world where it seems all series are about continuity and continuing storylines, but back then it was about each individual project. Even television shows were usually stand-alone aside from occasional two-parters. Eon just focused on getting them out and aside from having Connery and the Mi6 staff, didn't worry whether Blofeld or Felix were the same or if the films really followed on except for a few references back to the other films. OHMSS was the first to really make a lot of references to previous missions.
What say you Mi6? What if the producers had cast James Mason as Hugo Drax in MR?
One of Mason's strengths was his great voice. I think it was Burt Reynolds who did a good impression of him. I also don't know if Cubby would've wanted to pay Mason what he may have been wanting. This is part of why I think many villains are memorable in the series because they were unknowns to large audiences and didn't come with instant familiarity. This is why myself and some other fans weren't thrilled by the casting of Christoph Waltz as Blofeld/Oberhauser.
I loved the line delivery of Mason and could see him elevating some of the dialogue of Drax. Not that I can find faults in the way Lonsdale handled the role. I loved the unibrow look of Lonsdale it upped his creepiness in the role.
I can't quite visualize it either. It just would've felt different.
I think Mason playing Drax would've been a bit like John Barry scoring the film: playing it straight, ignoring (or rather, gliding over) the silliness, bringing out the emotions that one would imagine a man like Drax would feel. Lonsdale, on the other hand, gave the role a more playful quality. He played into the Bond villain tropes with dry humor. Not that I don't enjoy that!
How would Corinne Clery have fared as Holly?
Regarding Mason as Drax, I'm afraid it may have been redundant after Stromberg who was already an aging villain employing Jaws. Afterwards, his presence and his age would have offered new narrative perspectives that would have been very interesting and which have already been discussed here (an old man who knows Earth is doomed and who wishes to save it by creating to a master race). However, the script would probably have been the same and I do not imagine such perspectives to be explored. Mason would have been great but, again, so soon after Stromberg, having a younger antagonist was refreshing.
First, given it was the NSNA people who were after Barry, and not Barry after them, I'm sure he would've demanded authorship of the title song to accept the gig, rather than being forced to integrate someone else's composition into his score. Considering Michel Legrand composed the NSNA song in the end, I'm sure they would have accepted this condition for Barry.
Second, given Barry was still composing for Bond in those days, it's quite easy to imagine what a score for NSNA would've been like. A stately sound, with the music never reaching the frantic pace of earlier scores such as YOLT. Strings, brass and woodwinds would've been the bread and butter. There is this often-repeated idea that Barry adjusted his instrumentation of the scores, and/or of the Bond theme, to suit the current Bond actor-- the synths for Lazenby, the guitar for Connery, the strings for Moore. I think it's plausible, but not absolutely certain, to think this was true in the late sixties to early seventies. At the tail end of the Moore era and the beginning of the Dalton era, however, it seems more likely to me that Barry was just trying to keep things fresh for himself, rather than reshaping his music for changing actors (otherwise why the guitars in AVTAK?). Considering all this, would Barry have brought back the electric guitar for Connery in NSNA in some capacity? (Not to play the Bond theme, since he couldn't have used it.) Well, it's a possibility. I could see him integrating some non-orchestral instrument into his score, guitar or otherwise, to make it a little more interesting, however, I don't think this would have been because of the film or the lead actor, but simply to keep himself creatively stimulated.
Third, regarding the absence of the Bond theme in NSNA, it's interesting to note the AVTAK score, which is probably at least an hour long, contains about five minutes of the Bond theme, at most, but is unmistakably and effectively Bondian. (OP, by comparison, uses it a lot, but I believe that had to do with an effort to emphasize the "official" Bond brand against the competing NSNA.) So it's not like Barry really depended on the theme. As mentioned before, I'm sure he would've come up with a solid action theme for NSNA. However, the Bond theme isn't merely action music; it can also be used for suspense, mystery and intrigue. It's a musical summation and representation of all the Bond films have to offer, and of the character of Bond. It's a cool, exciting and dangerous composition. Would Barry have composed another "Bond theme" to make up for the absence of the original, with the purpose of using it as secondary musical material, much like he did in AVTAK? Would he have taken it in the same direction as the original theme? Let's remember Barry composed the 007 theme as an alternate Bond theme of sorts back in the sixties, and that was a fairly different piece of music. Or would have Barry done away with any kind of "Bond theme" and just employed his title song in instrumental form? I could see this happening. The song itself could have embodied the qualities of the original Bond theme, as it often did in his earlier scores --with bold, dramatic, seductive theme songs--, and could have been employed for action, romance or suspense. The song could have been the new Bond theme.
Fourth, Michel Legrand spoke of how he didn't want to try to recreate the feel of the music of the "official" Bond film series in his score. In the book The Music of James Bond, Legrand stated: "The idea of Never Say Never Again was to bring a distance, an irony, a second layer of connection to the official series, in relation to Connery’s age. Immediately there was a distinction." One can sense that in his score, which has a whimsical, lighthearted quality. I can't see Barry doing this in his music at all, even on request. Had they brought him on board, they would have gotten authentic Bond music.
Fifth, had Barry agreed to score NSNA, it would no doubt have been an improvement over Legrand's work, especially in the action music. But even James Horner would have done much better.
Lastly, I think Barry would have never agreed to score NSNA. Doing that would've likely signified the end of both his working relationship with Cubby Broccoli, and his participation in the "official" Bond films. Even if he was nearing the end of his contribution to the Bond saga (something he might've known at the time, or not), to think of throwing it away for a single film made by the competition, whose franchise prospects were limited by legal reasons, would have been a very bad idea.