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Some parts of it are better than what we've got with Connery.
Though the way of Draco's death (by elephant stampede), I though find silly, it's no surprised that it's considered once again for The Man With The Golden Gun, also why Olympe's not mentioned, what happened to her? Was he still with Olympe in this script?
The Hippie Colony was also weird, I though see it working in the Moore Bond films, and also the Moneypenny scene being prudish about the erotic carvings, those would have fit into the Moore Era.
I though liked Bond walking with a dog in an isolated place.
The Bond joining SPECTRE thing was also a bit interesting, showing the moral conflict in the character (I think the closest that we could get to this is in the Dynamite Comics Agent of SPECTRE ), I also liked the fist fight between Bond and Blofeld much better than all of the Bond-Blofeld confrontations that we've got, I think this is where they've recognized Lazenby's strengths in physical fights.
I also liked the Chase sequences between Bond and Irma Bunt including the London underground scene.
The weirdest for me would be the scene involving that Sandra character, what's her intention? That's weird.
Those were interesting......
Me too. It's a suitably colorful way of dispatching a supervillain.
Indeed! Apparently Maibaum wanted to amp up the irony of having Blofeld being killed by a feline. The podcast has quite a few laughs at the idea of death-by-kittens, though I will reserve judgment until I'm able to read the treatment and see how Maibaum set up the scene.
I'll certainly give the podcast a watch when I have the time (would love to read the treatment too). These treatments/early scripts for Bond films are very interesting though. Many very odd, sometimes even un-filmable ideas in there that certainly deviate from what we actually get. Just shows how much creative freedom producers give their writers only to reject/refine later on in the process.
Special thanks to TheCommanderBond.net for the info.
https://commanderbond.net/63/the-fake-script.html
While we already knew about the various openings, all the other informations are totally new and quite unexpected. It's nice to see some elements from the novel (mostly Rufus B. Saye running a diamond shop), but overall these scripts seem far from Fleming and the lack of Las Vegas is quite surprising and regrettable in my opinion considering it's such a big part of DAF's identity (both the novel and the movie).
Tonally the ideas seem closer to what DAF will ultimately be: over the top, far from OHMSS and Fleming's spirit. In many ways, the craziness of some of these elements doesn't really fit Lazenby's Bond's portray and atmosphere.
Without reading the treatments it's difficult to accurately judge their overall tone, since a lot of the podcast consisted of the host and guest focusing on the oddest parts. We also have to remember that even OHMSS had its crazy bits (the angels of death, "you love chickens") and crazier bits that existed only in the treatments (the aquatic car, the chimp who helps Bond escape, and so on).
But the rough impression I received was that the treatments aimed at being a true follow-up to OHMSS and had lots of bold material that might have made for a cracking film: M being kidnapped, Moneypenny in the field, Bond in depression over Tracy, a Tiffany Case closer to the literary one, Bond infiltrating Spectre, Bond being targeted by other double Os, the return of Marc-Ange Draco, and a heated final confrontation between Bond and Blofeld.
Regarding the far eastern locations, these were suggested by Harry Saltzman, who thought filming there would be inexpensive and would release United Artist's frozen funds. Then UA decided to make the entire film in America, primarily at Universal Studios, which brought the locale back to Vegas (after Connery was cast UA found a way to move the production's home base back to Pinewood).
To be honest, I find India and Thailand more interesting locations than Vegas, and though they're not true to Fleming's original, we have to concede that if DAF was going to be a real follow-up to OHMSS, then grafting Blofeld and a revenge plot onto the story would have meant disposing of many elements from the novel.
In any case, the Taschen book reveals that though the early treatments were set in Asia, "by the time Maibaum's first draft was submitted on July 8, 1970, the plot was closer to the original novel...Early drafts of the screenplay featured scenes set on board a Victorian locomotive and a climactic confrontation with Blofeld at a hydroelectric power plant."
Broccoli considered the story "a little too tame, too much like any spy thriller," so Maibaum then wrote a script whose villain was Goldfinger's twin brother, a Swedish shipping magnate armed with a laser gun in the hull of a supertanker. The script climaxed with a flotilla of exotic boats chasing the villain across Lake Mead. Guy Hamilton "found boats boring" and scrapped the finale, then Mankiewicz came onboard, Broccoli had his dream about Howard Hughes, and the film lurched into yet another direction....
True, even though these crazy bits were from another era, back when Connery was set to star and when Hunt wasn't the director. So, I guess Hunt would probably have translated them to the screen in a more down to earth way, without necessarily embracing the over the top aspect.
Regarding the pre-title sequence, I think I remember that, according to The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the first treatment was the one beginning with Bond in his London flat and with a chase through the city and it was a latter treatment that had Bond mourning in a small cottage before being attacked by a Land Rover driven by Bunt. What is surprising is that this podcast explains the reverse, with the first treatment being set in Bond's cottage and the latest in London. So, I guess either Charles Helfenstein made a mistake in his book, or, when this podcast's host describes the third treatment, it is in reality Maibaum's earliest script.
http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0149
And good luck on getting anything 007 from Iowa's Special Collections Library. You need to get permission from both EON Productions and Richard Maibaum's son. I asked about getting "Goldfinger" and "Dr. No." As you can imagine EON said no. And for Maibaum's son, I didn't get any response.
I'm guessing it's like most research library collections, where you're not allowed to make or receive copies of the material without jumping through several hoops. At best you're allowed to view the materials at the library and take notes. I can think of only three books that have taken advantage of the Maibaum collection: Adrian Turner's book on Goldfinger and Charles Helfenstein's Making of volumes on OHMSS and TLD.
Presumably as much as Mankiewicz or Wood were paid to crank out their silly scenarios. I've already posted why dismissing these treatments is shortsighted, so I'll leave it at that.