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Comments
Collins never was anything really special outside of the Professionals series, which I have on bluray, he turned out to be a second rate actor instead of the Gentleman Moore whom was a great ambassador of the franchise and never said a bad word about anybody who took on the cape he wore so brilliantly. He was without a doubt a class act who enriched the franchise.
Dalton was the weakest thing in the film with his accent slipping etc .
Lewis would have made LTK a big success imho.
Yes. It sounds quite charming actually.
Aah, are you off your meds again Bazza?
What would Roger Moore have been without Bond, though? A fading TV actor with just The Saint and the one-off season of The Persuaders to his name which couldn't even get a second season? Sometimes a certain role opens the door to other golden opportunities and without that role that actor would largely be forgotten. How many other small-screen actors were denied their big cinematic break and never established themselves beyond their initial TV careers? We only ever read about the big name American stars that had to wait for their success to come after being turned down for countless roles, but what about the ones that never became an established household name like Freddie Prinze Jr who was denied the role of Spiderman in Sam Raimi's first movie? Then there's Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame, Matthew Perry, David Caruso, Jensen Ackles, Michael C. Hall, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff, Tim Olyphant, to name but a few, and all these had (or have) a clear advantage over Collins as they were all American with an agent based in Tinseltown. It's a cruel business and getting a highly-prized role can be down to serendipity or knowing the right people. more than it is down to raw talent.
Ass for Roger Moore he was a class act where Bodie/Collins never really played anything else than tough guy. I also think that between Moore and Collins, Roger was the more versatile actor.
I still think that real star quality is something that belongs to Moore and far less than Collins who'd make a great 00 agent but just not the 007 role.
Roger Moore was always a movie star and had the quality, looking back for me Cubby recognized that and was never really serious about Collins except as a bargaining tool. And there is the difference between Moore and Collins in a nutshell.
The wild geese was a great movie about mercenaries, code name : the wild Geese was an awefull movie. even at Collins own Game Moore beat him hands down.
Even his embassy movie was done before by his series the Professionals better.
I think that Collins while a working horse actor is one of those moments we escaped from poor 007 movies. I think Collins would have killed the franchise.
Collins would certainly have got stuck into the action. Also I think John Glen would have been ideal to direct Collins.
I would have brought him in for AVTAK, he would have been perfect for that film .
Wasted chance for a balanced actor rather than Dalton for example,who just couldn’t performed both the 2 vital elements of Bond.
And as @Fire_and_Ice_Returns says,he would have been perfect under John Glen’s guidance and direction.
This is where our opinions differ. Whilst I think Roger Moore was a "star" I don't think he was an actor in the proper sense of the word, nor was he a very versatile actor. For instance, I don't think he could sell himself as a tough guy without coming over as a school-bully which was why his Bond character had to change. Moore was an actor that had many Hollywood doors opened to him by his affair and eventual marriage to Dorothy Squires. At first, the cynical press saw this merely as a calculated move by Moore to raise his profile, labelling him the "Big Knit" due to his magazine work. Moore would part ways with Squires in 1961 when he had achieved the fame he sought. Moore met his next wife on an Italian production The Rape of the Sabine Women. Hardly a classic movie anyone wants to bring up here.
Is this the same Cubby that signed John Gavin to star in DAF, LALD and TMWTGG we're talking about here? It was Saltzman that insisted on a British actor playing 007 and Moore seemed the best gamble at the time. Though Saltzman wasn't particularly fond of Moore as the final choice, he was smart enough to insist that he lose a lot of weight and get in shape for his first Bond role. Moore complains about this in his Roger Moore as James Bond book that came out in '73. To say that Moore "was always a movie star" is hindsight, not something the producers or the studio were confident about at the time, hence the huge promotional campaign that accompanied LALD in '73. When the same big promotion wasn't afforded TMWTGG, that movie didn't do very well at all. So much so, UA wanted to get rid of Moore and replace him with another actor. This is the moment where the stoic and partnerless Cubby you talk of stuck to his guns and sided with Moore, not before this.
Another example that Moore wasn't a proper actor (we agree on star) is when Tony Klinger, assistant to the producer on Gold (1974), tried to get Steven Spielberg to direct the movie after having been impressed by Duel, Roger Moore vetoed the choice on the basis of Spielberg's youth. Though Klinger adds: "Roger was, I think, a little insecure about his acting ability, and as a consequence was always protective of his image, like most movie stars that are less actor and more star. I guess that's why we got the message loud and clear that he turned down our first choice for the director for Gold."
Beautifully put, Tony. Moore was less actor and more star.
Code Name: Wild Geese was an Italian/German production that had nothing to do with the first movie called Wild Geese, and was made on a shoestring budget with a lot of foreign actors speaking their native tongue and dubbed afterwards. Eastwood had a similar problem as Collins whereby he couldn't understand what the other actors were saying when he delivered his own lines, but got away with it by removing most of his own dialogue from his movies. Obviously, Collins couldn't do that. As I said this was an Italian/German production, the same way that The Rape of the Sabine Women was, so how did Moore beat Collins hands down at his own game? Both movies were terrible. It would be like basing Moore's suitability for Bond on The Rape of the Sabine Women.
So you're blaming Collins for the story and direction of Who Dares Wins?
Considering you still maintain that Jodie Whittaker is a great Dr. Who, I'll take that as a recommendation.
We will never know as Cubby whom I rate much higher than the current EON management chose to work with Moore a proven actor for the franchise and probably the reason we still have the franchise running. And Collins never made it to the big times because he was such a great actor. Or wasn't he.
After all Moore has done some great work outside the franchise, of which Gold, Shout at the Devil, North sea Highjack, the maked face, the sea wolves, wild geese, The Man Who Haunted Himself make excellent watching outside of the 007 formula.
And he used the 007 franchise very well for UNICEF.
What ever you like about Collins he never was the caliber man Moore was for the franchise and as an actor.
Cubby was right in keeping Moore on the job. And FYEO & OP are flipping great movies.
And he did look the part.
Definitely more than Dalton,i think Collins would have been a better Bond,he had the bonus of being very witty and delivering one-liners excellently.
Personally, I don’t mind FYEO, but OP and AVTAK are skippable and Moore got way too long in the tooth with his geriatric antics. Dalton was a breath of fresh air.
As for Collins, I have never watched the Professionals. Had he not been allegedly aggressive, he might have got the part.
I was also thinking about that scene in Who Dares Wins where he tells Judy Davis "why don't you drive me back to your apartment and I'll tell you all about me". Great stuff.