VENINI GLASS

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

An Italian subsidiary of Drax Enterprises Corporation in Moonraker, its Venice laboratory is testing a nerve gas that can destroy all human life on the planet Earth.

Tipped off by documents he finds at Drax‘s (MICHAEL LONSDALE) California estate, Bond (ROGER MOORE) breaks into the facility by using the five-note Close Encounters of the Third Kind entry code, discovers the experiments, and actually uses the nerve gas on the scientists. Later, hoping to expose the facility to M (BERNARD LEE) and Freddie Gray (GEOFFREY KEEN), Bond discovers that Drax has entirely changed the composition of the laboratory, turning it into a huge drawing room.

Venini Glass’s public museum is also a setting in the film for a raucous fight between Bond and Chang (TOSHIRO SUGA). After disposing of Chang, who is thrown through an upper-story glass window, Bond finds additional clues that lead him to another Drax facility in Rio de Janeiro.

VENICE

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Site of the Venice International Grandmasters chess tournament between Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) and Mac Adams (Peter Madden) in From Russia with Love. It’s also the ultimate destination for Bond (Sean Connery) and Tania (Daniela Bianchi) when they leave Yugoslavia in a stolen motorboat later in the same film.

In Moonraker, Venice is a principal location and the site of a spirited gondola chase that eventually turns into a ridiculous hovercraft ride.

In Casino Royale, it’s where James Bond (Daniel Craig) recuperates with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) before he retrieves his considerable poker winnings. Unfortunately, Vesper betrays him, steals the money, and prepares to give it to Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) and his SPECTRE henchmen. Bond chases her down, fights a swarm of bad guys, and destroys a canal-adjacent building in the process—a building in which a guilt-ridden Vesper is trapped in a sunken freight elevator, and prefers to let herself drown rather than accept the help of the man she betrayed.

UNDERWATER HATCH

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

An important feature of the Disco Volante yacht in Thunderball. Employing an army of frogmen in Nassau, Largo (ADOLFO CELI) uses the hatch to move the hijacked A-bombs from the wrecked NATO bomber to their underwater storage cave. Later, the Disco Volante transports one of the weapons to a wreck off Miami’s Buoy Point.

UNDERWATER BATTLE

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

The huge action-filled concluding sequence in Thunderball. It was filmed in segments over a period of six days in the waters off Nassau, with sixty divers from Miami-based Ivan Tors Studios. One important sequence was filmed around a sunken US Navy landing craft, where Bond (Sean Connery) lures two SPECTRE frogmen to their deaths. The rest of the battle spread itself across the Nassau seascape.

Filming an underwater war was, at times, almost too realistic. In one scene, Bond flicks a switch on his trick backpack and fires an explosive spear at an enemy diver. In the actual sequence, Courtney Brown, portraying the SPECTRE diver, was given an explosive charge to place on the outside of his wet suit. When the spear was fired—on a line—it was designed to strike the charge and create an underwater explosion of black powder. Unfortunately, Brown placed the charge underneath his wet suit instead, so when the spear hit, it blew a hole right through the suit, severely burning his skin and landing him in Princess Margaret Hospital.

Bond’s jet-propelled diving backpack—designed by Jordan Klein—which gives him super underwater speed, was actually a nonfunctional prop. A piano wire attached to a speedboat propelled Bond’s double, Frank Cousins, through the water. If Cousins had turned his face at any moment, the force of being pulled at such speed would have torn the diver’s mask from his face.

Most of the battle took place in twenty feet of water off Nassau’s Clifton Pier. Into the battle, the producers threw every piece of equipment in the Thunderball arsenal, including the SPECTRE bomb sled, the scooters, and the scores of CO2 guns that sprayed a lethal underwater rain of spears among the fighting ranks, the free-swimming, orange-suited US Navy aqua-paras versus the black-suited underwater SPECTRE flotilla. Seemingly invincible behind their spear-firing sleds, Emilio Largo’s frogmen are systematically overwhelmed in hand-to-hand combat by Bond and his aqua-paras.

“The underwater sequences, especially the final battle, were too long,” recalled director Terence Young, who became disenchanted with Thunderball during its final weeks of shooting. “The trouble was that people kept wondering what the hell was going on. Of all the Bond films, Thunderball was the only one where the audience had at least a half hour of meditation during those long underwater sequences. People began to ask questions that we didn’t want them to ask until they were on their way home.

“I thought that the first underwater scenes were delightful, especially the opening sequence in which the Disco Volante sends out her divers to recover the hijacked atomic bombs. But in the later fight sequences, we kept repeating ourselves. There was nothing you could do except fire a spear at somebody, pull his mask off, or cut his lifeline. So when you’ve done that stuff forty-five times, the audience is naturally going to clamor for something new.”[1]


[1] Terence Young, interview by Steven Jay Rubin, London, June 25, 1977.

UNDER THE PRESIDENT’S FEET

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

The site in Washington, D.C., where SPECTRE plants one of the hijacked nuclear warheads in Never Say Never Again. It’s recovered in time, thanks to James Bond (SEAN CONNERY), who also helps recover the second bomb in the Tears of Allah archaeological dig.

UDELL, RONALD

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

(August 20, 1911–????): Pinewood Studios construction manager, and production designer Ken Adam’s right-hand man on many of the early James Bond films. Udell’s motto, which Adam took literally, was “If you can draw it, we can build it.” Udell and his team of craftsmen at Pinewood encouraged Adam during the early days of the Bond series to try out new materials and techniques that were within the series’ initially low budgets. When the film series took off, Udell was intimately involved in the huge set constructions that became a trademark of the Bond films, including the interior and exterior of Fort Knox in Goldfinger and the huge volcano missile base in You Only Live Twice.

Udell’s first film at Pinewood was the classic suspense thriller Green for Danger (1946). By the mid-1950s, he was one of six construction managers who supervised all construction at Pinewood. He worked closely with the other five: Harold Combden, Bill Surridge, Jock Lyall, Bert Mansell, and Ted Hughes. Each team moved from construction to construction, and there was a camaraderie among the various teams that is unknown today. It was common for Udell to be involved in as many as six to eight films at once. He was appointed chief construction manager for the studio in 1969.

Udell’s relationship with Ken Adam had begun on The Hidden Room (1949), a suspense thriller directed by Edward Dmytryk. For Dr. No in 1962, Udell was delighted to work on the unusual sets designed by Adam for the film. “We had a budget of 17,000 pounds for all of the interiors,” he recalled. “We had just enough money to finish everything except the most important set: Dr. No’s reactor room. Since the producers were extremely happy with the rushes, they went back to United Artists and fought for another 7,000 pounds to finish the reactor room.

“We used a lot of fiberglass on Dr. No, which was a new material. We gave it a metallic finish with an Italian jewelry spray. For the reactor room, which was built on Stage E, Ken originally wanted one slick catwalk—where Bond has the fight with Chang, the fuel elements technician—with no visible means of suspension. For safety reasons, we convinced him to design two supports into the set.”[1]

Though Bill Surridge supervised the constructions for From Russia with Love, Udell was heavily involved on Goldfinger. One of his initial assignments was to build a ramp for the out-of-control Mercedes-Benz that goes over a cliff and slams into a side of the Auric Enterprises building. “We went to the Harefield Quarry for the stunt,” Udell remembered, “and we discovered that the only place we could build the ramp was over a pigsty. So that’s exactly where we built it. While John Stears and his crew filled the car with petrol jelly, all of these pigs were constantly bleating.”

Six months before Goldfinger began principal photography, Udell was planting an avenue of trees that would eventually lead up to his Fort Knox replica, which was built full scale in the Black Park woodland next to the studio. The trees were identical to ones photographed during a helicopter tour of the actual Fort Knox in Kentucky. Udell also remembered the difficulty of maneuvering the one-ton vault door from the interior stage to the outdoor set, where US troops battled Goldfinger’s Grand Slam Task Force.

For Thunderball, Udell and his team journeyed to a Royal Air Force base in Alton, where a plaster mold was made of a full-scale Vulcan bomber. The mold was then taken to the Bahamas, where the bomber was constructed out of fiberglass and then lowered into the Caribbean off Nassau’s Clifton Pier. A separate bomb bay was constructed and photographed from underneath for when Bond explores the wreck of the bomber.

Between February and May 1965, Udell was consumed by the Thunderball project—one of the most expensive films ever based at Pinewood to that point. But even Thunderball paled in comparison to You Only Live Twice, which involved the construction of a full-scale rocket base within the cone of an extinct volcano.

Udell retired from Pinewood Studios in August 1976, a month before principal photography began on The Spy Who Loved Me. He has since passed away, but a date of death was not available at press time.

 


[1] Ronald Udell, interview by Steven Jay Rubin, London, June 19, 1977.

UDAIPUR, INDIA

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Beautiful city on the subcontinent that became a principal filming location in Octopussy. Founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh II, it is known as the City of Sunrise. Shooting began there on September 21, 1982, and continued for three weeks.

TYLER, KELL

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Shapely actress who portrayed Linda, the bored jet-setter whose “drop-in” yacht guest turns out to be the new 007 (TIMOTHY DALTON), in The Living Daylights teaser.

TWO WEEKS

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

The amount of time 007 (SEAN CONNERY) has devoted to the unusual war games conducted by M (EDWARD FOX) in Never Say Never Again. M claims that Bond’s record is suspect. After all, he was killed once. On another occasion, on a beach in the Black Sea, he lost both legs to a land mine. And on a third outing, he suffered a severe arm injury. That’s enough for M to send Bond to the Shrublands health clinic.

TWO TONS

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

The amount of free heroin Dr. Kananga (YAPHET KOTTO) plans to distribute through his chain of American Fillet of Soul nightclubs in Live and Let Die. The shipment has a U.S. street value of $1 billion. The impact should put his competitors out of business and double the number of addicts in the United States.

UNDERWATER INFRARED CAMERA

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

One of the gadgets supplied to 007 (SEAN CONNERY) by Q (DESMOND LLEWELYN) in Thunderball. Bond uses it to take pictures of the Disco Volante‘s underwater hatch. It takes eight pictures in rapid succession.

VARIG FLIGHT 128

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Jaws‘s (RICHARD KIEL) airline flight to Rio de Janeiro in Moonraker. In a humorous moment, his cobalt-steel teeth trigger the flight’s security device. Jaws smiles at the attendant and moves on.

VAN NUTTER, RIK

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

(May 1, 1929–October 15, 2005; birth name: Frederick Allen Nutter): Handsome, silver-haired American actor, briefly in feature films, who portrayed Felix Leiter in Thunderball. Van Nutter (pronounced “Van NOOT-er”) was married to actress Anita Ekberg in the early 1960s, and it was through the couple’s friendship with Bond producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and his wife, Dana, that Van Nutter was first considered for the role of Leiter.

“We were having one of those immense Italian dinners in London with Cubby and Dana,” recalled Van Nutter, “when Cubby suddenly came out and said that I looked just like Felix Leiter. Now, I had read all of the Bond books, and I knew that Felix had straw-colored hair, blue eyes, and long legs. So I fit the bill physically. I later met [Thunderball director] Terence Young, who tested me with some of the Bond girls. The tests worked out fine, and I made plans to travel to Nassau that spring of 1965.”

A native of Los Angeles, Van Nutter made his uncredited motion picture debut as Victor in the Italian horror comedy Uncle Was a Vampire (1959), which also featured future Bond player Christopher Lee as Baron Roderico da Frankurten.

VA-402

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Identification number of the St. Georges, a British surveillance and communications ship disguised as a Greek fishing trawler in For Your Eyes Only. Carrying the registry of Valletta, a Greek city, the St. Georges is sunk when her fishing nets snare a World War Il mine.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS BACKLOT

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Shooting site of the madcap parking-lot car chase in Diamonds Are Forever. It simulated the parking lot of downtown Las Vegas’s Mint Hotel.

UNITED STATES

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Fourth target selected in the Domination video-game battle between Largo (KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER) and James Bond (SEAN CONNERY) in Never Say Never Again. It’s worth $42,000, and Largo wins, sending a powerful shock to Bond, which topples him to the floor. Getting to his feet, Bond challenges his nemesis to one more game for the rest of the world.

UNITED NATIONS

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Site of a British agent’s assassination in Live and Let Die. It’s the first of three killings performed by the agents of island diplomat and drug smuggler Dr. Kananga (YAPHET KOTTO). At the UN, Dawes, the agent, is killed when someone sabotages his translation headset, sending a lethal high-pitched tone to his brain.

UNITED ARTISTS

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Motion-picture production and distribution company founded in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith. Since 1962, it has released every James Bond film except the 1967 Casino Royale spoof (Columbia Pictures) and Never Say Never Again (Warner Brothers).

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