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Episode 9-Sean Connery James Bond
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Welcome to the 9th episode! Shakin Shaner is joined by Jeff as they pay homage to Sean Connery and learn how he defined James Bond and helped create the blockbuster and an enduring franchise. Sean Connery was the first to portray James Bond in the movies, but did you know he was not the first to play Bond? A great tribute to the legacy of Sean Connery as Bond....James Bond!
Join them as they explore Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds are Forever, the Bond girls, the villains, henchmen, the great quips, and the action and adventure that is James Bond.
Sean Connery Bond Movies
Dr. No: Released in 1962, it is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, and Jack Lord, it is the first film in the James Bond series In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American space launch from Cape Canaveral with a radio beam weapon. Although it was the first of the Bond books to be made into a film, Dr. No was not the first of Fleming's novels. Casino Royale was the debut for the character; however, the film makes a few references to threads from earlier books.
Many aspects of a typical James Bond film were established in Dr. No: the film begins with an introduction to the character through the view of a gun barrel and a highly stylised main title sequence, both of which were created by Maurice BinderIt also established the iconic "James Bond" theme music.
From Russia With Love: Released in 1963, the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery's second role as MI6 agent James Bond. In the film, Bond is sent to assist in the defection of Soviet consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova in Turkey, where SPECTRE plans to avenge Bond's killing of Dr. No.
From Russia with Love was a critical and commercial success. It took in more than $78 million in worldwide box-office receipts, far more than its $2 million budget and more than its predecessor Dr. No, thereby becoming a blockbuster in 1960s cinema.
Goldfinger: Released in 1964, the third installment in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title character Auric Goldfinger, along with Shirley Eaton as the iconic Bond girl Jill Masterson.
The film's plot has Bond investigating gold smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger and eventually uncovering Goldfinger's plans to contaminate the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. Goldfinger was the first Bond film to win an Oscar (for Best Sound Editing) and opened to largely favorable critical reception. The film was a financial success, recouping its budget in two weeks and grossing over $120 million worldwide.
Thunderball: Released in 1965, the fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming.
The film follows Bond's mission to find two NATO atomic bombs stolen by SPECTRE, which holds the world for ransom of £100 million in diamonds. The search leads Bond to the Bahamas, where he encounters Emilio Largo, the card-playing, eye patch-wearing SPECTRE Number Two. Backed by CIA agent Felix Leiter and Largo's mistress, Domino Derval, Bond's search culminates in an underwater battle with Largo's henchmen. The film was exceptionally successful: its worldwide box office receipts of $141.2 million exceeded not only that of every one of its predecessors, but that of every one of the five Bond films that followed it.
You Only Live Twice: Released in 1967, is the fifth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is the first James Bond film to discard most of Fleming's plot, using only a few characters and locations from the book as the background for an entirely new story.
In the film, Bond is dispatched to Japan after American and Soviet crewed spacecraft disappear mysteriously in orbit, each nation blaming the other amidst the Cold War. Bond travels secretly to a remote Japanese island to find the perpetrators, and comes face-to-face with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. You Only Live Twice was a great success, receiving positive reviews and grossing over $111 million in worldwide box office. However, the film was the first in the series to have a decline in box-office revenue owing to the over-saturation of the spy movie genre contributed to by the franchise's imitators including the recent competing film, the poorly received competing licensed James Bond film, Casino Royale, from Columbia Pictures that was released previously in the same year.
Diamonds are Forever: Released in 1971, is the seventh in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sixth and final Eon film to star Sean Connery, who returned to the role as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, having declined to reprise the role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).
The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name. The story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a smuggling ring, and soon uncovering a plot by his old enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld to use the diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon. Bond has to battle his enemy for one last time, to stop the smuggling and stall Blofeld's plan of destroying Washington, D.C., and extorting the world with nuclear supremacy.
After George Lazenby left the series, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli tested other actors, but studio United Artists wanted Sean Connery back, paying a then-record $1.25 million salary for him to return.
Never Say Never Again: Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators McClory and Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond. The lawsuit was settled out of court and Bond film series producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, fearing a rival McClory film, allowed him to retain certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot, and characters and for McClory to receive sole producer credit on this film; Broccoli and Saltzman instead served as executive producers.
Released in 1983, is Connery's truly final brush with the role, however, this non-EON sanctioned remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, is not an official-canon Bond film.