CommanderBond.net

A CommanderBond.net Special Feature

Ian Fleming's Last Story
The Poppy Is
Also A Flower

Top notch stuff: well-researched, well-written, loads of glorious rare pictures I've never seen before (as well as hard info about the plot of the film, which I've never seen anywhere else), and all beautifully packaged as is the CBN way. Loved it.

Same here. Best thing yet on this subject.

That was a great read. In the back of my mind, I'm considering Barbara Broccoli's comment about Devil May Care possibly being a leftover manuscript Fleming left behind.

A fascinating and very well-written article. I knew of THE POPPY IS ALSO A FLOWER (never seen it, and neither, for that matter, have I seen Young's INCHON, but I've always wanted to since I'm interested in Korea and understand that it's also one of those legendarily awful films that's worth watching just as an education in how badly a flick can misfire), but I hadn't thought about it in connection with DEVIL MAY CARE. But the name of Faulks' leading Bond girl now seems a very obvious nod!

And the locations Eisinger mentions tally with some speculation put forward by zencat on the boards the other day. Hmmm....

Thanks everybody – I loved writing this piece. Evan did a Herculean job of formatting this and improving the graphics I had located.

There are so many weird things about this curiosity.

Fleming’s last story. Terence Young leaving Thunderball along with the continuity girl – which partially explains why there are so many continuity errors in that film.

It also explains why Terence wasn’t invited to direct a Bond film again. Can you imagine that conversation?

“Hey Cubby, I’m kinda tired of this Bond thing. I’m going to direct and produce my own Fleming film. I’m getting Jo Eisinger to write the script. Didn’t you two have competing Oscar Wilde projects a while back? Ta Ta!”

Harold “Odd Job” Sakata – fighting and speaking.

22 stars. Almost as many titles. Loomis informed me that the Japanese poster title translates as “Evil Symphony.”

Eisinger’s quotes are awesome.

Young’s quote about the “based on fact” remind me of Cubby’s famous “It’s not science fiction – it’s science fact” regarding Moonraker.

The research continues. This poppy may have more seeds.

Didn't Young claim he was offered FOR YOUR EYES ONLY? I think it's in Peter Haining's JAMES BOND: A CELEBRATION.

From memory, Young's story was rather tall-sounding. He said something like: "They wanted me back because it was thought that FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was going to be the last of the Bond films, and they thought it would be nice if the man who directed the first one also directed the final one."

FYEO (or any Bond film) planned as the final Bond film? Don't think so. Still, that was Young's claim, as I recall.

My only question is, why couldn't Ian include it in his Bond cannon? Because the premise of the story is defenately Bondian.

Perhaps DMC might fix that..

Most entertaining and informative! Must have been hell to dig out all those facts about this cinematic curiosity. Excellent work!

PS: I've seen the film as a 13-year-old in a practically empty theater (700-plus seats/about 9 actually vacated) in 1980. The film was advertised with the sole emphasis on the Fleming connection ('BY THE CREATOR OF 007 JAMES BOND!!!') but it seems the public has already learned by word-of-mouth that Bond doesn't have any role in it. Needless to say, I was severely disappointed, but enjoyed the film nonetheless in spite of my disappointment. By next Friday (traditional change-of-films in theaters back then) TPIAAF was gone and, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been shown on big-screen again, at least in my hometown.

This post has been edited by Trident: 22 May 2008 - 17:15

What a great article. I've always been interested in this film, and would love to see it simply out of curiosity. For those of you who have seen it, what sort of Bond/Fleming elements stood out? Was Young's directing style reminiscent of his Bond work? Wish I could find a good copy of this film.

Marvellous work, doublenoughtspy.
Wonderfully rendered and researched.
Terrific to see a piece on this overlooked gem.
The movie itself is a mess but very well worth tracking down.

Top notch to you and Delmo Walters Jnr

I seem to recall him claiming they offered him For Your Eyes Only too, but not because it was the last. He turned it down because it wasn't the last IIRC. He said something to the effect of --I directed the first (Dr. No), the best (Russia), and the biggest (Thunderball), I would only come back to direct the last.-

He also claimed he "fixed" the problems of Goldfinger. Right...

To answer Single-O-Seven's question - there aren't really any moments that scream Terence Young to me.

In fairness - I've only seen bad VHS versions of the film. A well known producer has asked me to track down a 35mm copy of the film so we can do a "proper" DVD of it so maybe someday the world will be treated to the special edition Poppy...

There are some decent performances...Wallach does chew through his scene like only he can.

The banter between Marshall and Howard is amusing in some places.

Stylisticly it is pretty pedestrian though.