Is Charles Gray's Blofeld in DAF based on a parody of Ian Fleming?

Dragonpol

timmer wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

.., but I have the sneaking suspicion that the Blofeld of DAF was based on Fleming by screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz as a little in-joke to refer to the light approach taken to the Fleming novels and stories from herre in in until about 1980 or so with a return to the gritty realism of For Your Eyes Only (1981),

You might be on to something here. Tom Mankiewicz was a mischievous sort.
Also to consider, Grey was a returning actor to the series, after his stint in YOLT. There might have been a desire just to bring him back because they liked him and wanted to work with his unique Charles Grey approach to the inconic Ernst - to create a separation from the Savalas version and the previous film, and to give a Sean a fresh take to play off against.
And of course there was the different dark-camp tone of the new film to be considered. Grey along with the casting of Bruce Glover as Wint were IMO especially inspired choices to capture the tone of the new film.

But I do see the Fleming similarity, especially with the English gentleman affectations (even if Ernst is decidely not English) and of course the cigarette holder.

Very well said. DAF is certainly very different from every other Bond film out there, and one of the main reasons for this is undoubtedly the choice of actors, which may actually have been rather inspired. Is it true to say too that Charles Gray as Ernst Stavro Blofeld was an earlier version of the Anti-Bonds like Yaphet Kotto's Dr Kananga and Christopher Lee's Scaramanga? All these films were of course directed by Guy Hamilton, too. I see definite links in the lightness of touch between Gray's Blofeld and Lee's Scaramanga. I wonder does anyone else?

oo7

Anti-Bonds?

Dragonpol

oo7 wrote:

Anti-Bonds?

By which I mean villains that believe they are the antidote of Bond in terms of their charm, sophistication and sauvity. So Gray's Blofeld, Kotto's Kananga and Lee's Scaramanga all fit into this category of Bond villain types.

Ludovico

Dragonpol wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

I will repeat it again: Charles Grey's Blofeld was a spoof of British villains. The only missing thing was the moustache to twirl.

Yes, but isn't it interesting that he was the only Bond villain who seemed to actually be British (Auric Goldfinger and Alec Trevelyan don't count). The British were never villains in the original Fleming Bond novels and short stories either, so it is quite odd, but then so is all of the film version of DAF!

What is even more odd is that Blofeld is not supposed to be British either. He is the quintessential anti-British villain, in appearance and background.

Yes, certainly. He's Polish or something. A very odd film that DAF, populated by very odd characters, too. It's kind of on a plane with the 1966 Batman film in terms of self-parody.

Half Polish, half Greek (from his mother side), of German descend... As foreign as one can be, from an Anglo-Saxon's perspective. They had it right in the early movies, when Eric Pohlmann voiced Blofeld, he had this out of this world voice, deep, baritone-bass, unemotional, calm, deadly serious.

Dragonpol

Ludovico wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

I will repeat it again: Charles Grey's Blofeld was a spoof of British villains. The only missing thing was the moustache to twirl.

Yes, but isn't it interesting that he was the only Bond villain who seemed to actually be British (Auric Goldfinger and Alec Trevelyan don't count). The British were never villains in the original Fleming Bond novels and short stories either, so it is quite odd, but then so is all of the film version of DAF!

What is even more odd is that Blofeld is not supposed to be British either. He is the quintessential anti-British villain, in appearance and background.

Yes, certainly. He's Polish or something. A very odd film that DAF, populated by very odd characters, too. It's kind of on a plane with the 1966 Batman film in terms of self-parody.

Half Polish, half Greek (from his mother side), of German descend... As foreign as one can be, from an Anglo-Saxon's perspective. They had it right in the early movies, when Eric Pohlmann voiced Blofeld, he had this out of this world voice, deep, baritone-bass, unemotional, calm, deadly serious.

Yes, it's a pity they did not continue with him as Blofeld. He was very effective in the part.

Ludovico

I suspect Pohlmann was not that great of an actor, outside his voice. I haven't seen him in anything, or at least don't remember seeing him in anything else. But I know many great voice actors are mediocre "complete" actors. Mark Hamill for instance.

Revelator

Ludovico wrote:

I suspect Pohlmann was not that great of an actor, outside his voice. I haven't seen him in anything, or at least don't remember seeing him in anything else. But I know many great voice actors are mediocre "complete" actors. Mark Hamill for instance.

Pohlmann actually has a huge list of acting credits, though many of them are for German-language media: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0688384/
He probably wasn't physically cast as Blofeld because he didn't look like particularly villainous. His wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pohlmann) says that he was classically-trained, so I suspect he was a decent enough actor. There are many good actors who never become household names.

Dragonpol

Revelator wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

I suspect Pohlmann was not that great of an actor, outside his voice. I haven't seen him in anything, or at least don't remember seeing him in anything else. But I know many great voice actors are mediocre "complete" actors. Mark Hamill for instance.

Pohlmann actually has a huge list of acting credits, though many of them are for German-language media: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0688384/
He probably wasn't physically cast as Blofeld because he didn't look like particularly villainous. His wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pohlmann) says that he was classically-trained, so I suspect he was a decent enough actor. There are many good actors who never become household names.

Thank you for those links. Very interesting to learn about a very underlooked Bond actor.

Ludovico

Revelator wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

I suspect Pohlmann was not that great of an actor, outside his voice. I haven't seen him in anything, or at least don't remember seeing him in anything else. But I know many great voice actors are mediocre "complete" actors. Mark Hamill for instance.

Pohlmann actually has a huge list of acting credits, though many of them are for German-language media: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0688384/
He probably wasn't physically cast as Blofeld because he didn't look like particularly villainous. His wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pohlmann) says that he was classically-trained, so I suspect he was a decent enough actor. There are many good actors who never become household names.

Oh that he was a busy man I knew that already. Hence I said I don't remember seeing him in anything else: with his normal voice, I might not have noticed. And you are right, household actors are not necessarily famous. So I will qualify what I said: he may not have been right for a "physical" Blofeld. Either his physique did not match the voice, or he did not look natural talking as Blofeld (God knows what he had to do to get that brilliant voice) or simply he as you said he may not have looked vllainous. Still, I always wondered what he'd look like in YOLT with the scar.