James Bond – The Daniel Craig Arc from CASINO ROYALE to SPECTRE!

Podcast Episode

James Bond – The Daniel Craig Arc from CASINO ROYALE to SPECTRE!

Join Dan Tom and a special guest, our agent in Montreal "Eddie," in looking at the Daniel Craig arc - get ready for NO TIME TO DIE!

 

Join Dan Tom and a special guest, our agent in Montreal “Eddie,” in looking at the Daniel Craig arc – get ready for NO TIME TO DIE!

We look at what we call the “connective tissue” holding the four Craig movies together: CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, SKYFALL and SPECTRE!

Let’s go!

We are using the picture from the Apple TV show “Being James Bond”, coming September 7, 2021. (Source EPK-TV)

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In this episode we examine:

  • Bond’s age throughout the first four Daniel Craig movies
  • Callbacks to some scenes in those movies that may come back in play in No Time To Die
  • The role of the writers Purvis and Wade
  • How Ian Fleming influenced this story arc (and where he didn’t)
  • Some of the trailers for No Time To Die, with a bit of speculation
  • And More …

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The last 13 minutes

Elsa thinks Marvin was so kind, and she sees him on the train and tells him she is alone. She looks worried and goes to a berth (1A) with Marvin, who says to her: “I don’t trust you – you’re in the spy racket too. The lovely neglected wife and I fell for it.” He pulls a gun on her and asks if the other two are on the train. If so, he says, they are dead. Elsa is trying to play her role. Marvin was going to have the train searched when she tells Marvin she knows who he is and loves him. Chaos outside as the air force is shooting at the train. He kisses her. We see Ashenden (Brodie) and The General go into the same car with Elsa and Marvin. Marvin quips, “I congratulate you all – especially Madam. When does the shooting begin?” Ashenden tells Elsa to wait outside, as The General says, “It is my job.”

In a surprise move, Elsa pulls a gun on Ashenden (Brodie) and The General, as a flashback to what she told Brodie earlier – “I’d rather see you dead than go through with this.”

Elsa is with Marvin when the planes start bombing the train – he whispers in her ear: “Chivalrous German spy saves British lady from British bombs. “

Just then, bombs wreck the tracks just ahead of the train, and it derails, before The General can take care of Marvin. In the ensuing wreckage, Marvin shoots The General, then both die. Elsa and Brodie survive. The General at the beginning of the movie who got Elsa and Brodie to agree gets a note (a lot of notes in this movie): “ Home safely but never again. Mr. and Mrs. Ashenden”
The scene shifts to newspaper headlines with the successes of the Allies!

Again, following Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps the year before (where we saw the first train scene in a spy movie), we see additional train scenes in this movie, and of course in many spy movies to follow like From Russia With Love (Bond and Red Grant, and Tee Hee), Mission Impossible– 1996 (Hunt vs. Phelps, and the helicopter chase), Bourne Ultimatum (Waterloo station and Russian railway station), The Spy Who Loved Me (Bond and Jaws), SPECTRE (Bond and Mr. Hinx), Skyfall, Octopussy and many more.

Meet Dr. No and SPECTRE

Meet Dr. No and SPECTRE

In Dr. No’s lair, Dr. No confronts Bond.  His lair is exquisitely detailed and furnished with the finest things.  A huge aquarium, artwork everywhere, rich, ornate carved wooden furnishings, silver candelabra, crystal goblets – the best of the best.   And we learn of SPECTRE for the first time – and we will hear about this evil organization in many EON Production Bond films to come.   Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence  Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion.  so here, we meet Dr. No and SPECTRE and understand a lot more of their background.

The West and East refused his services . . .  so he is out to show them how short-sighted they were.   He lost both hands in a radiation accident (in the film). In the book, the Tongs who he stole gold from cut off his hands.  In either case, he has metal hands that are very powerful.  There is a great dialogue between Bond and Dr. No in this clip – pay attention to all the words – they have all been carefully crafted to deliver Dr. No’s message –  the West and East will pay for not taking his services.   And Dr. No never fails . . . Joseph Wiseman plays Dr. No magnificently and convincingly.

The Duke of Wellington is Dr. No’s “Guest”

As Dr. No walks away from Bond after telling his henchmen to “soften him up” he walks past the back of a portrait on an easel – to his left as he walks past.   In a previous scene, when Bond is walking up those same steps to sit at the dining table, he stops for a moment to look at the portrait.   It is the Duke of Wellington.   Simple right?

No.  In actuality, this portrait was stolen from the National Gallery in London in August of 1961, before filming began in January 1962 for Dr. No, and was still missing when they filmed this scene.  Brilliantly, EON Productions worked this real fact into the movie – here, Dr. No has the portrait!  In real life,  it was recovered in 1965, as the culprit who was in possession of the stolen portrait had been sending letters demanding that $140,000 pounds be donated to charities and that the person who stole it should not be prosecuted.

Eventually, the culprit gave up and sent a letter to the newspaper, the Daily Mirror, along with a left-luggage ticket from New Station in Birmingham.  When police when to there, they found the missing portrait, but unframed.  The portrait was brought to London and returned to the National Gallery.

On Location

And in a recent visit to London,  we saw Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington safely hanging on the wall, in full view of all,  at the National Gallery!   So, when you head to the National Gallery in London, go see the Duke – but also visit Room 34, where Daniel Craig as Bond meets his new, young Quartermaster in Skyfall, sitting on a bench in the gallery room, facing Turners “Fighting Temeraire” painting on the wall.  We sat in the same location (but they used different benches in the movie) that Bond and Q sat in Skyfall!  Cool.  Again, fun to be at the actual filming locations and in the same space as the actors!  And the National Gallery is fabulous.  Go there!

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