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  1. Driving Miss Tracy – The Erich Glavitza CBn Interview Part 3

    By Heiko Baumann on 2019-04-19

    In part One and Two of this interview, former racing and stunt driver Erich Glavitza from Austria told us how he got the job as a stunt driver for the 6thJames Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. We also heard about his preparations, how he managed to get enough cars, the necessary equipment and find the drivers. After that, he told us about the rehearsals, working with the movie crew and how he taught Dianna Rigg how to drive on ice. It is widely known that back then, leading actor George Lazenby wasn’t the easiest guy to work with, and Glavitza told us about this special experience, too. 

    In this third and final part, we’re going to hear about the shooting of the car stunts. Also, Glavitza reveals the hitherto virtually unknown names of the other drivers – as far as he remembers them 50 years later – and talks about his life after Bond.

    Erich, after we heard about all these preparations, please tell us about the actual shooting…

    About time, eh? (laughs) We started with the scene at the telephone booth in Lauterbrunnen with the Cougar driving off with screeching tyres. I had some concerns, and said “Screeching tyres on an icy road? Not even a hamster would buy that.” But Peter Hunt just shrugged it off and said “No one will notice that, anyway.” And he was right – nobody did. Then came the pursuit before the race, which was shot on the road coming from Grindelwald. When that was done, we did the opening scene of the race with me crashing through the gate. 

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  2. Driving Miss Tracy – The Erich Glavitza CBn Interview Part 2

    By Heiko Baumann on 2019-04-12

    In the first part of this interview, former racing and stunt driver Erich Glavitza from Austria gave a detailed account about how he got “a call from James Bond” which resulted in him getting hired for the 6th James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. In this second part, you’ll read about the rehearsals with the film crew and the drivers, teaching Diana Rigg how to drive on ice and the experience of working with her and George Lazenby.

    Erich, in the first part, we heard about how you got the job and how you got the cars and the necessary equipment. But the racing scenes wasn’t everything they wanted you to do…

    Erich Glavitza and Diana Rigg

    There also was the car chase before the race. I was to be the stunt driver for Tracy’s dark red Ford Mercury Cougar XR-7. It was a real beast of a car, with a 7-litre V8 engine and around 400 horsepower. It definitely needed more and better spikes than the other cars. Also, our chief mechanic Willy Neuner had to modify the suspension and the shock absorbers to improve the handling. The power steering wasn’t optimal, and the brakes… oh well, we didn’t need to brake that much, anyway. The car was great fun, so I didn’t care that much.
    Of course, all the action had to be well-planned. There were lots of meetings and discussions on how to mount the cameras on and inside the cars, how to shoot the street chase and all those things.

    continue reading…
  3. Driving Miss Tracy – The Erich Glavitza CBn Interview Part 1

    By Heiko Baumann on 2019-04-07

    A few years ago, Bond expert Charles Helfenstein asked me to be his translator on a trip to Switzerland where he wanted to research for his forthcoming book “The Making of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’”. One day we were standing on a meadow outside Lauterbrunnen, trying to find the exact location where the ice racing scenes were shot. He told me that he had interviewed so many people who had worked on the film, but that he was unable to find any of the drivers who were involved in the shooting of that ice race. And it still was that way when the book was finally published (and much lauded) in 2009.

    Erich Glavitza at the James
    Bond Club Deutschland
    meeting in Frankfurt.

    Fast forward to 2019. The German fan club James Bond Club Deutschland (of which I’m a board member) has a special guest on it’s annual meeting. One Dr Erich Glavitza, author of a recently published book “Vollgas oder Nix! – Meine wilden 60er mit Rindt, James Bond und McQueen” (Full Speed or Nothing! – My Wild Sixties with [German-Austrian F1 driver Jochen] Rindt, James Bond and McQueen). Back in 1969, he was the head of a group of young Austrian racing drivers who drove in those ice racing scenes. He told many stories from the shooting of OHMSS, answered questions and signed books and autographs. He later joined us for dinner were I was lucky to be seated close to him. 
    He recounted many more anecdotes, not only from OHMSS but also Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans” movie for which he was a stunt driver and even played a small role. As he’d been well connected in the international racing scene since the early sixties, there were a lot of Formula One stories, too.
    His book is (currently) only available in German, so I asked him for an interview for an English Bond fan site (this one) to make his account accessible for the international Bond fan community. He agreed, also to my idea that in order to save time and effort I’d make rough (and abridged) translations of his book and the stories he told on that day to create sort of an interview. Of course I also asked some additional question which he was happy to answer. This one’s for you, Charles.

    continue reading…
  4. BOND 25 moves…

    By Helmut Schierer on 2019-02-16

    …to April 8, 2020, according to the official James Bond 007 twitter feed:

    The release date for Bond 25 has changed. Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli: “We are absolutely thrilled to be releasing Bond 25 on 8 April 2020.”

    Variety reports that Universal at the same time moved its 9th Fast & Furious vehicle back six weeks from April to May 2020, the likely reason for BOND 25’s move.

  5. Arise United Artists Releasing…

    By Helmut Schierer on 2019-02-06
    D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin (seated) and Douglas Fairbanks at the signing of the contract establishing the United Artists motion-picture studio in 1919.

    A hundred years after United Artists was formed as a film studio, the release venture run jointly by MGM-Annapurna announced that their operation shall henceforth adopt the monicker United Artists Releasing.

    United Artists was the studio that originally trusted producers Broccoli and Saltzman to start their James Bond film series. In over 60 years of operating independently the studio produced, co-produced and distributed countless diverse classics of cinema history like Chaplin’s Modern Times and The Great Dictator, Hitchcock’s Rebecca, the James Bond and Pink Panther films, Midnight Cowboy, the Rocky films, Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now.

    The box office failure and negative publicity of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate led to the end of United Artists’ film production and its merger with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer to MGM/UA. Subsequently, United Artists existed as a monicker attached to various MGM productions.

    BOND 25 is going to be a major tentpole production for the United Artists Releasing operation, which will distribute the film on the US market.

  6. BOND 25 – A Winter Sleep’s Tale…

    By Helmut Schierer on 2019-02-05

    The other day I ran into a bear and he asked me…

    Perhaps I need to elaborate on this a little.

    I was going for a lazy stroll in the snowy Alps, as you do, and I was just passing this cave near St. Moritz, when a deep bearish voice called out:

    ‘Hey you – aren’t you one of the guys from CommanderBond.net? Gimme the low down, what’s the news about BOND 25, any juicy details from shooting yet?’

    By the entrance to the cave a tall bear was putting on a battered black and white dog tooth suit over a dark blue shirt and a black knitted silk tie, apparently the morning toilet after a long winter hibernation. When I saw him putting black John Lobb shoes on his huge paws I knew I was talking to a hardcore Bond fan. They are everywhere. And they tend to be fussy about their appearance. 

    ‘Sir, indeed I happen to be working for CBn. You, Sir, on the other hand are a bear. And judging from appearances I should have thought you have more pressing matters to attend to than a Bond film,’ I said.

    ‘What do you think I’m leaving my cave for this early, Mission Impossible?’ my new acquaintance said while he fiddled with a metal expanding bracelet to fit an expensive looking watch around his left forepaw. The hairs of his pelt stuck through the links of the bracelet, but otherwise he was looking every inch the worldly bear. 

    That’s what makes all the difference, Bond fans can climb right out of a cave and blend in nearly everywhere without effort.

    ‘Well then, what’s the last thing you remember? Before taking your nap in there?’ I asked him.

    The bear’s face turned thoughtful. ’Lemme see…last thing I heard was BOND 25 would be in theatres November 2019. And that Craig will return!’ So this furry Bond fan was still thinking BOND 25 would be right in the middle of shooting now…

    ‘That was in summer of 2017 – you’ve missed lots of stuff!’

    ‘Did I? What in particular?’

    ‘You asked for it…

    ‘At first, there wasn’t any news about BOND 25 beyond Craig returning. And that Purvis & Wade would do the script, but that hardly counts as news. What there was was a distinct absence of information: no distributor, no director. Plenty of speculation, largely the typical nonsense stuff the media rehashes when they need a spin on a story, who’s doing the title song, who’s returning – or not – and so on. A lot of it focussed on who was possibly directing, so the media speculation mirrored that of the fans, Mendes returning…’

    ‘Ugh, no!’ my new friend the bear muttered. 

    ‘…then not returning, Villeneuve maybe doing it…’

    ‘Denis Villeneuve, wow!’

    ‘…Nolan maybe doing it…’

    ‘Nolan, wow!’ 

    ‘…and finally all hell broke loose when it was announced that Danny Boyle had made a pitch for BOND 25.’

    ‘Danny Boyle, that’s awesome! Can’t wait to see it!’

    ‘You won’t have to.’

    ‘Didn’t they like his pitch?’

    ‘To the contrary, they were so taken by it that from March to August 2018 Boyle was officially directing BOND 25, shooting a script he developed on the go with John Hodge – while the Purvis and Wade effort supposedly was scrapped. The production, according to people in the know, was going full speed ahead when they suddenly hit “creative differences” and everything came to a standstill.’

    ‘Oh my,’ the bear was making a sad bear-face. ‘A Danny Boyle Bond film would have been so awesome…’ He was sniffling a little. It’s a disturbing sight, a huge bear sniffling.

    ‘Some people thought so, yes. But then, whenever a door closes, it does so for a reason – or however that Zen quote about doors goes…’

    ‘What did they mean with “creative differences” – ain’t that p.r. talk for excrement hitting the airscrew?’ the bear asked. 

    ‘Honestly, I haven’t the foggiest. Talk in the media suggests it was something to do with rewriting the script, a task Purvis and Wade were possibly hired for again. Tabloids speculated wildly about who was to blame for what kind of blasphemy that finally broke the camel’s back. Bond actually dying was mentioned, but how much of that is true – if anything at all – nobody can say for sure.’

    My friend the bear looked paler by the minute. It seemed catching up with his favourite franchise didn’t exactly agree with his digestion. While filling him in on events I spared him not a lot, not Gary Barber’s catapult exit from MGM, not Annapurna’s financial woes, which was supposed to team up with MGM for distribution. 

    ‘God, that’s awful…does it get any worse?’

    He didn’t yet know about BOND 25’s delay. He’s a bear after all, you never know with bears. Better slip him that detail together with something more uplifting.

    ‘Depends how you look at it. Distribution of BOND 25, as of yet, will be split between MGM-Annapurna for the US and Universal for the rest of the world. Might be that hints to MGM’s future – or not, take your pick. And Barber hasn’t been replaced as of yet, nor is MGM’s fate decided ’

    Now he looked close to tears. ‘What a mess! Will there even be something to distribute when they lost their director and their script too?’

    ‘Well, it’s not clear how much of a loss that script was. Some claim Hodge may have worked from Purvis and Wade’s first effort all along; nobody outside can say for sure. Whatever Hodge cooked up also could still feature in BOND 25, depending on how a new director and Eon tackle it. And here comes the good news: after weeks of searching they found their replacement for Boyle – Cary J. Fukunaga. And it’s said he will also touch up the script.’

    His face lit up. ’The one who directed True Detective? Hey, that’s pretty cool!’

    ‘Of course, all that kerfuffle comes at a price. You will not like hearing BOND 25 got pushed back a bit, from November 2019 to February 2020 – Valentine’s Day.’ 

    ‘That’s still over a year!’ He looked seriously miffed now.

    ‘Yes, but you picked just the right time to wake up: shooting is set to begin in March, with location work in Italy set for April.’

    ‘Italy again, I like that! It’s warm in Italy!’

    ‘Further locations may include Norway and possibly Canada too…’

    ‘I like Norway and Canada. Plenty bears there!’ 

    The bear was fiddling now for some time with a smart phone; difficult to handle with his paws.

    ‘And why is none of this stuff up on CommanderBond.net? Damn, fans like me depend on you guys. Do your bloody duty!’ he growled at me.

    ‘In truth, I was just going to write it when you called me over…’

  7. Lewis Gilbert dies at 97

    By Helmut Schierer on 2018-02-27

    According to news reported by From Sweden With Love, Anders Frejdh’s Swedish Bond fan page, Lewis Gilbert, director of Bond classics You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, has passed away.

    Gilbert started out early as a child actor during the 1920s and 1930s, later switching to other production-related jobs. After assisting at Alfred Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn, Gilbert began his direction career with documentaries during the Second World War. After the war, he branched out into scriptwriting and producing films and directed a number of productions based on true events from the war, 1960’s Sink the Bismarck just one of them.

    In 1966 he adapted Bill Naughton’s play Alfie with Michael Caine more or less on a shoestring budget. The film won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes and got an Oscar nomination in the best picture category, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Gilbert.

    In 1967 he directed You Only Live Twice, the Bond film that started a trend to largely ignore Ian Fleming’s source material in favour of escapist spectacle, huge set pieces and extensive stunt work. While overshadowed by Sean Connery’s obvious reluctance to further suffer as the focus of a global super-spy craze (and cameraman John Jordan’s severe accident during shooting) the film was only slightly less successful at the box office than its predecessor Thunderball.

    So solid was Gilbert’s work on 007 that Eon asked him back to direct not once but twice – and both times to shoot remakes of his original, this time with Roger Moore as Bond. The Spy Who Loved Me from 1977 and 1979’s Moonraker today have a somewhat mixed reputation with the fanbase; yet they are regarded as classics in their own right with wider interested film aficionados and critics. And of course they grossed spectacularly in the year of their original release.

    Gilbert’s post-Bond career included a number of smaller productions, Shirley Valentine perhaps the most notable amongst these. In 1997 he was awarded the CBE and in 2001 he was made Fellow of the British Film Institute.

    An earlier version of this article did not name the source. CBn thanks Anders Frejdh for breaking the news on this.

     

     

     

  8. Karin Dor 1938 – 2017

    By Heiko Baumann on 2017-11-08
    Image: The James Bond Blu-ray Collection © 2015 Danjaq, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. TM Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
    Image: The James Bond Blu-ray Collection © 2015 Danjaq, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. TM Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

    German actress Karin Dor, known to Bond fans as henchwoman Helga Brandt in You Only Live Twice (1967) was born in February 1938 in Wiesbaden (Germany) as Kätherose Derr. In 1954, she married Austrian director Harald Reinl, who was 30 years her senior and father of her only child, her son Andreas. This was only possible because she made herself two years older than she actually was. She subsequently played in many of his movies, especially his (in Germany) hugely popular Edgar Wallace and Karl May movies (the latter being a series of German “Western” movies in which one of the main characters went by the name of “Old Shatterhand” played by Lex Barker) and she became one of Germany’s most popular and busiest actresses of the 1960s.

    Her success didn’t go unnoticed by the Bond producers and they were eager to cast her for You Only Live Twice. How eager? Dor told German movie journalst Billy Kocian: “Mr. Saltzman only wanted to pay 40.000 Marks (about $10.000 at the time), but upon this offer I just turned around on my heels and walked away. I had plenty of offers and my husband earned a lot of money at the time. Saltzman came running after me, and with a face as white as chalk, he grudingly signed the contract, hissing: ‘I never signed anything like that in my whole life.'”. In the end, she was paid 200.000 Marks (other sources even claim 250.000) for the role.

    After the success of You Only Live Twice, Dor played in many international movies, most noteably in Hitchcock’s Topaz and had guest roles in TV series like Ironside or It Takes a Thief.

    Her divorce from Harald Reinl in 1968 and a carcinosis affected her movie career but did not stop it, she was always busy through the years. In 1986 she married her third husband, stuntman George Robotham and moved to the United States with him. A marriage with a German businessman only lasted from 1972 to 1974.

    She still had roles in Germany TV series and movies, but after her husband’s death in 2007, she focussed on playing theater, especially a play that was written for her, named “You Only Love Thrice”, at the Komödie im Bayerischen Hof in Munich.

    In July 2016, she had an accident from which she suffered a massive concussion. She seemed to have recovered rather soon but her return to the stage turned out to be to early. She had to rest and wasn’t even allowed to read newspapers by early 2017. In July 2017, her manager told German tabloid “Bild” that Dor wouldn’t return and that the only thing fans could do for her was pray.

    Karin Dor passed away on November 6th 2017.

  9. Craig speaks truth to Stephen Colbert

    By Helmut Schierer on 2017-08-16

    And the truth is: ‘Yes.’

    Meaning he actually will be back playing James Bond in BOND 25.

    This somehow contradicts Craig’s own earlier statements in a radio interview with Magic 106.7 from the same day, where he claimed that ‘No decision has been made at the moment.’

    In CBS’ The Late Show Daniel Craig now sounded somewhat different, telling host Stephen Colbert he had known for months he would be back. And that it would be his last Bond film.

    But anyway, this is the truth now:

    Daniel Craig will be back for BOND 25. One last time.

    One last time?

     

  10. BOND 25, soon in your neighbourhood theatre…

    By Helmut Schierer on 2017-07-25

    Rejoice – in just about 27 months James Bond fans can expect to meet 007 again at the cinema. And this time it’s not one of numerous more or less informed rumour outlets to claim such, but James Bond’s very own official and certified twitter account. According to yesterday’s lean tweet, BOND 25 will start in the US market on November 8th 2019, with a possible October release in the UK.

    Further details include that Bond veterans Purvis and Wade are responsible for the script – no surprise – and that further details are to be announced at a later date. Now that sounds interesting…