NOVEL
Month: December 2016
James Bond Agent 007 no. 15: “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1968)
COMIC
“The Spy Who Loved Me”: Danish ad sheets (1977)
These are the original Danish ad sheets for "The Spy Who Loved Me" (EON Productions 1977), issued by the film's local distributor United Artists.
The press book was distributed to cinema owners in Denmark to mark the film's theatrical release in August 1977.
“For Special Services”: Danish first edition (1990)
NOVEL
“Live and Let Die”: Danish View-Master reels (1973)
To mark the Danish theatrical release of "Live and Let Die", EON Productions' 1973 James Bond 007 film, GAF Corporation produced a set of View-Master reels based on the movie. The reels were marketed in the US, West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark (and perhaps other countries as well).
The three View-Master reels boiled the basic plot of "Live and Let Die" down to 21 sets of stereograms. When viewed through the ViewMaster viewer, the colour slides (taken from the film) appeared to be in stereoscopic 3-D.
"A View-Master disk holds 14 film slides in seven pairs, making up the seven stereoscopic images. Two film slides are viewed simultaneously, one for each eye, thus simulating binocular depth perception."
- from Wikipedia
Exclusive interview: Caroline Munro & Martine Beswick – part 2 (2016)
On September 1, 2016, Bond•O•Rama.dk had the pleasure of sharing a table with legendary Bond girls Caroline Munro and Martine Beswick. This is the second half of our three-way conversation.
Caroline Munro (b. 1949) adorned the set of “James Bond 007 - Casino Royale” (1967) at the age of 16 as an uncredited "Guard Girl”. Ten years later, she made quite a sensation as Stromberg's scantily clad helicopter pilot Naomi in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977)
Martine Beswick (b. 1941) made her striking film debut as Zora, one of the fighting gypsy women in "From Russia with Love" (1963). The film's director, Terence Young, asked Beswick to return for "Thunderball" (1965), now in the role of Nassau agent and Bond ally Paula Caplan.
Bond•O•Rama met Caroline Munro, now 67 years old, and Martine Beswick, 75, at the design hotel The Thief in Oslo. Whereas the first part of the interview concerned the two cult actresses' roles in the James Bond 007 film series, this second part is devoted to their collaborations with Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Stone, Hervé Villechaize and notorious B-movie producers Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus among others.
● Read part one of the interview: Caroline Munro & Martine Beswick discuss their Bond girl experiences
BI: Brian Iskov/Bond•O•Rama.dk
CM: Caroline Munro
MB: Martine Beswick
Ray Harryhausen
BI: You both worked with Ray Harryhausen. And you, Caroline, are connected to the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation as well?
CM: I was a trustee, and now I'm a ... they call me patron. Which sounds really well-put, but I quite like that.
MB: Yes, very grand. Because you are. Ha ha.
CM: I don't know about that. But I spread the word, and of course I was in "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1973), and Martine was in "One Million Years B.C." (1966).
BI: What was that like?
CM: Oh, amazing.
MB: We loved him. I just thought he was fabulous and brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
CM: So special ... and genius, really, at what he did. Willis O'Brien had started it with his "King Kong" (1933), but Ray kind of took it to another level and just went with it. He named it Dynarama, didn't he? [Dynamation, ed.] It was just so special, the process, and all the big ones ...
MB: ... acknowledge him for making it work, starting them, actually. [Steven] Spielberg ...
CM: Yes. He was sort of their person they look to, and they said, yep, we want to do that.
MB: He was the inspiration to a lot of these guys. I feel very privileged to have worked with him. Don't you?
CM: Me too, absolutely. We're very close with Vanessa, his daughter. She's lovely.
MB: She was on the cruise with us last year. Hi hi.
CM: She was! Yes, she and her husband. They're both farmers. He's a sheep farmer, Ray's son-in-law, and Vanessa is a farmer's wife now. A very selective one, but a farmer's wife.
Exclusive interview: Caroline Munro & Martine Beswick – part 1 (2016)
On September 1, 2016, Bond•O•Rama.dk had the pleasure of sharing a table with legendary Bond girls Caroline Munro and Martine Beswick. This is the first half of our three-way conversation.
Caroline Munro (b. 1949) adorned the set of “James Bond 007 - Casino Royale” (1967) at the age of 16 as an uncredited "Guard Girl”. Ten years later, she made quite a sensation as Stromberg's scantily clad helicopter pilot Naomi in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977).
Martine Beswick (b. 1941) made her striking film debut as Zora, one of the fighting gypsy women in "From Russia with Love" (1963). The film's director, Terence Young, asked Beswick to return for "Thunderball" (1965), now in the role of Nassau agent and Bond ally Paula Caplan.
Beswick, now 75 years old, has since retired from acting, whereas 67-year-old Munro still does the occasional tiny cameo. The two lovely and charming women are however much in demand as guests of honour at horror, sci-fi and James Bond conventions all around the world. Beswick and Munro prefer to travel and appear together, and as the bosom friends merrily chattered away, completing each other's sentences almost telepathically, their chemistry was immediately apparent to Bond•O•Rama's special correspondent.
Ditto their contrasting personalities. As soon as Caroline Munro learned that yours truly was yet to have lunch at 3pm, she warmly offered to share her pot of tea with me. She came across as sweet, motherly and somewhat innocent compared to the more devil-may-care, outspoken "big sis" Martine Beswick. Both were exceedingly fun and endearing.
Bond•O•Rama met Caroline Munro and Martine Beswick at the design hotel The Thief in Oslo, where George Lazenby had held court at a press conference earlier that day. This first part of the interview (edited for clarity) primarily touches upon subjects related to James Bond 007. Part two, focusing on Beswick and Munro's film work outside of the Bond series, will follow shortly. [EDIT: Read part two here.]
A very special thank you to Morten Steingrimsen and “James Bond in Oslo” for facilitating this interview.
● Bond•O•Rama meets George Lazenby: "James Bond in Oslo"
● Exclusive career interview: George Lazenby, part 1
● Exclusive career interview: George Lazenby, part 2
