North By Northwest – Part 2

Podcast Episode

North By Northwest – Part 2

Join Dan and Tom as they are Cracking the Code of Spy Movies. Today they navigate through part 2 of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic, NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Join Dan and Tom as they dive deeply into Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 “monumental” spy thriller, North by Northwest.  Some have called this the first Bond movie!  From New York City to Chicago to Mount Rushmore, the thrill is on!

We look at scenes, comparisons to other spy movies, actors and insights into the key scenes and backstories!    Fun stuff for one of the best spy films ever created, with one iconic scene that everyone knows, the Crop Duster scene!

This is part 2 of a 2 Part North by Northwest podcast.

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This 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic is one of the great spy movies.
In part 2 of this podcast, we’ll examine:
  • The Crop Duster Scene
  •  How the Crop Duster Scene influenced a scene in the movie From Russia With Love
  •  How did they get to that address in Chicago
  •  The Auction Scene
  •  The double pursuit
  •  Roger’s death
  •  Roger’s influence on women
  •  Mount Rushmore
  •  The last train ride

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Funeral in Berlin (1966) – Scene Analysis & Connections – Part 1

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North By Northwest – Part 1

Podcast Episode

North By Northwest – Part 1

Join Dan and Tom as they are Cracking the Code of Spy Movies. Today they navigate through part 1 of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic, NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Join Dan and Tom as they dive deeply into Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 “monumental” spy thriller, North by Northwest.  Some have called this the first Bond movie!  From New York City to Chicago to Mount Rushmore, the thrill is on!

We look at scenes, comparisons to other spy movies, actors and insights into the key scenes and backstories!    Fun stuff for one of the best spy films ever created, with one iconic scene that everyone knows, the Crop Duster scene!

This is part 1 of a 2 Part North by Northwest podcast.

Related Content

This 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest,  is one of the great spy movies of all time.

In part 1 of this podcast, we’ll examine:

  • The overall plot of North by Northwest
  • Is this really the first James Bond movie (albeit without James Bond)?
  • Roger’s unfortunate case of mistaken identity
  • How two early scenes may have influenced On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
    • Let’s all sit in the back seat and I’ll joke around
    • Is that how you hold a cigarette?
  • Where the line “Pay the 2 dollars” originated
  • How Hitchcock got the shot of the United Nations building
  • The sexual conversations Eve and Roger have on the train
    • Including one word that had to be overdubbed
  •  A reference to David O. Selznick

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10 Reasons to Watch SABOTAGE (1936)

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Harry Palmer, Len Deighton, Billion Dollar Brain with Rob Mallows!

Rob Mallows of DeightonDossier.net joins Dan and Tom as our prelude to our Billion Dollar Brain podcast!  We talk about Len Deighton, The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin with a focus on Billion Dollar Brain!  

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C2E2 Show Chicago: What Do Real Spy Movie Fans Think?

Podcast Episode

C2E2 Show Chicago: What Do Real Spy Movie Fans Think?

In our new segment, Opinions of Real Spy Movie Fans, we talk to a bunch of real people who attended C2E2 about what spy movies they like!

Tom and Dan head down to the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo in Chicago to try to find some real spy movie fans!

In our new segment, Opinions of Real Spy Movie Fans, we talk to a bunch of real people who talk about what spy movies they like!

NOTE: No Time To Die release has been postponed until November 2020.  At the time of this recording, it was scheduled for April 2020.

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Mr. Townsend’s Death

In this scene, Roger learns that Mr. Townsend is not the man he thinks he is. Roger (Cary Grant) finally meets the real Mr. Townsend and realizes he’s been duped. In this clip, we see the meeting at the United Nations building and what happens to Mr. Townsend.  Pay attention to the camera angles – fantastic – especially the last one!

Now this is a train scene

Most Erotic Conversation!  Of all the train scenes we’ve seen in spy movies, this clip shows one of the most erotic conversations ever.  It puts any conversation between James Bond and a Bond Girl to shame.  And this is in 1959!

The quips between Eve and Roger are amazing.  They even had to dub out a line that was too risqué. Watch Eve’s lips in the clip and see what you think!  Listen to our podcast to hear our take on this scene!

North By Northwest (1959)

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller, North by Northwest is a movie about an advertising executive who gets caught up in the world of spies. A case of mistaken identity early in the movie sets Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and the audience up for a thrilling journey across America.

In this curation (and in the podcast), we examine things beyond just the scope of the movie, and its interrelationship with other movies and events:

  • A crafty, yet charming villain, much like Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill
  • Suspense on a train
  • How the henchmen put Thornhill in the car which foretells a scene in James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
  • An unknown criminal organization – Can you say Spectre or Quantum?
  • Stars from the television shows “Get Smart” and Man From U.N.C.L.E. are the good guys in this movie year’s before their tv spy-dom
  • A joke that is told is based on an old vaudeville routine and first showed up on film in the 1945 movie Ziegfeld Follies
  • Airplanes trying to run the hero down, a la James Bond in From Russia With Love
  • And many others

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The Precursor To Bond’s Appeal To Women?

This scene is short but impactfully funny.  Roger is trying to escape and ends up cutting through this woman’s room.  At first, she’s aghast.  Then she sees Roger and changes her tune. She only utters the same word twice.  Both times have very different meanings.   Roger’s reaction is wonderful.

This movie came out four years before the James Bond movie Dr. No, but Roger’s sex appeal to women here sure carries over to the Bond series.

All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger – Part 2

Podcast Episode

All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger – Part 2

Join Tom and Dan for part 2 as they go gold mining for the unique elements and special highlights of Goldfinger, and how other spy movies and real-world events affected Goldfinger, in the James Bond podcast, All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger!

From a listener: “You’re the men with the midas touch, engaging & fun, as always!” – Eddie

GOLDFINGER was one of producer Cubby Broccoli’s favorite Bond films – top 3 of the 17 he produced.

Join Tom and Dan as they go gold mining for the unique elements and special highlights of Goldfinger, and how other spy movies and real-world events affected Goldfinger, in the James Bond podcast, All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger!

This is Part 2 of a 2-part podcast!

Come join us on all of our podcasts as we’re Cracking the Code of Spy Movies!

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Goldfinger was one of the most loved James Bond movies of all time!
We have a 2-part podcast on Goldfinger, and here are the Episode Notes for Part 2.

Listen to All That Glitters – the Gold in GOLDFINGER – Part 1 and remember to Subscribe to our show, Cracking the Code of Spy Movies so that you are always up to date on new episodes!

Goldfinger Part 2 Episode Notes

  • “No. Mr. Bond I expect you to die,” three noteworthy facts, and history of real lasers! Do you know the laser was invented?   You will!
  • “My name is Pussy Galore” and Goldfinger’s Lockheed Jetstar discussions!
  • “A martini, shaken not stirred” fact!  Sean Connery fact!
  • “Operation Grand Slam “and Mob Bosses insights! Great Ken Adam set!
  • Mr. Solo heads to his pressing engagement insights! Oddjob in control!
  • The iron and metal yard where the Lincoln and Solo are crushed – key points
  • SpyMovieNavigator recently followed the route Oddjob takes, the Kentucky Friend Chicken where Leiter and Simmons are waiting to track Bond, and the iron and metal yard – we filmed them all (see videos) and discuss this too.
  • The Auric Stud Farm where Bond discovers Goldfinger’s real plans for Fort Knox
  • Rock A Bye Baby – The Baby is asleep assault on Fort Knox discussion
  • Bond versus Oddjob at Fort Knox talk? Who was injured filming this?
  • Bond to Washington, D.C. and Goldfinger plays his Golden harp talk!
  • How other  James Bond films relate past and future!

Listen to our other James Bond podcasts, from Dr. No to Billie Eilish and No Time To Die!


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All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger – Part 1

Podcast Episode

All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger – Part 1

Join Tom and Dan as we go gold mining for the unique elements and special highlights of Goldfinger, and how other spy movies and real-world events affected Goldfinger, in the James Bond podcast, All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger! This is Part 1 of a 2-part podcast!

 

From a listener: “You’re the men with the midas touch, engaging & fun, as always!” – Eddie

GOLDFINGER was one of producer Cubby Broccoli’s favorite Bond films – top 3 of the 17 he produced.

Join Tom and Dan as we go gold mining for the unique elements and special highlights of Goldfinger, and how other spy movies and real-world events affected Goldfinger, in the James Bond podcast, All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger!

This is Part 1 of a 2-part podcast! Look for Part 2!

Come join us on all of our podcasts as we’re Cracking the Code of Spy Movies!

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All That Glitters – The Gold in Goldfinger – Part 1,

Episode Notes:

Goldfinger is one of the best-loved James Bond films of all time!

Goldfinger Part One Episode Notes: the following topics are discussed in this episode!  Take a listen now to the All That Glitters – the Gold in Goldfinger Part 1 now and remember to Subscribe to our show through your favorite podcast app!

  • Of the 17 James Bond 007 films that Albert “Cubby” Broccoli produced, one of his three favorites was box office GOLD, namely Goldfinger!
  • Pre-title sequence: James Bond exits the water in a dry-suit, with a duck affixed to his dry suit hood, as a decoy. But, after he blows up the nitro barrels and the drug lab successfully, he unzips the dry to suit and removes it to reveal that he is wearing evening wear complete with bow tie and carnation. Impossible right?  We tell you why it IS possible and who actually did it!
  • Title Sequence: who designed the Goldfinger title sequence and the Goldfinger posters, and what are the important things the sequence shows, and poster discussion
  • The Fontainebleau scene and which actors really made it to Miami Beach, Florida for these scenes?
  • The Bond/Goldfinger relationship is established over the “Golden Girl!”
  • Discussion of SpyMovieNavigator’s recent trip to the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach Florida and what has changed!
  • “Golden Girl” discussion and implications!
  • The Gold in Goldfinger is everywhere. . .
  • Discussion of the golf match between Bond and Goldfinger and SpyMovieNavigator’s recent visit to Stoke Poges Club in Stoke Park where these scenes were filmed! Fabulous!
  • DB5 car chase and death of Tilly Masterson discussion – DB5 details, and the emotional side of Bond discussed, and sound effects discussed

 

 

 

 

 


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No Time To Die Oscars Trailer Reaction!

Podcast Episode

No Time To Die Oscars Trailer Reaction!

Join Dan and Tom as they dive into the latest James Bond, No Time To Die trailer that appeared as an ad on the Oscars, February 9, 2020!

Join Dan and Tom as they dive into the latest No Time To Die trailer that appeared as an ad on the Oscars, February 9, 2020!

We examine the new scenes that are in the trailer and try to make sense of what is happening in each new scene and what it might mean for the entire film!

It’s a quick listen, so download it now!  And please subscribe to our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies channel through your favorite podcast app!

Click here to watch the trailer.

 

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In the No Time To Die Oscars Ad/Trailer podcast, we talk about the new scenes that they reveal to us:

  • Bond burning a note that is inscribed, “Forgive Me” and the implications of who might be the author of this note
  • Bond standing in front of a grave – we look at body language, implications, and whose grave it may be
  • Bond in a tux shot, with people seeming to part to get out of his way – but one woman is smiling
  • Shot of Safin telling Bond, “James Bond.  Your job has been made redundant.”  Explanation and implications
  • Bond addressing Safin in retort, “Not as long as there are people like you in the world.”  What is Bond thinking here?
  • The shot of Bond and Swann is analyzed – and what is going on in the background!

 

 


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In NO TIME TO DIE, It IS Time for Somebody To Die!

Podcast Episode

In NO TIME TO DIE, It IS Time for Somebody To Die!

Today we look at the strengths and weaknesses of some of the speculative scenarios that are possible directions for EON to take on the James Bond movie, No Time to Die. What are the potential character plot twists that might unfold in No Time To Die? We'll look at Nomi, Bond, Leiter, and Swann.

We’ve watched the No Time To Die trailer a lot.  We are intrigued.  The photography, special effects, lighting – all so enticing and yet – not all that revealing.   Or is there something to be revealed here on several of the main characters?  This podcast is pure speculation!

FOCUS:  What are the potential character plot twists that might unfold in No Time To Die?   We’ll look at Nomi, Bond, Leiter, and Swann.

Today we are going to look at the strengths and weaknesses of some of the speculative scenarios that are possible directions for EON to take with No Time to Die.

So let’s speculate – and send us your speculations and insights through a voice message on our website, or message us on Facebook!  We might include your comments in our next show on the subject!!

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Tom Pizzato:                      00:02                     Hi, this is Tom Pizzato and Dan Silvestri from spymovienavigator.com — the worldwide community of spy movie fans – spy movie, podcasts, videos, discussions, and more. If you like our podcast, please give us a five-star rating on iTunes and Google Play. That helps us a lot like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram too. When you have feedback and idea for a podcast, something you want to say, just click the big red button on our website that says, “send us a voicemail” or send us a message from our Facebook page. We may include it on our show

Dan Silvestri:                     00:33                     In No Time to Die, it is time for somebody to die. We’ve watched the No Time to Die trailer a lot, we’re intrigued. The photography, special effects, lighting also enticing and yet not all that revealing or is there something to be revealed here on several of the main characters?

Tom Pizzato:                      00:55                     Now, pretty much the rest of this podcast is going to be pure speculation. We don’t know until April what happens, Dan. So, that said, we’re going to look at the strengths and weaknesses of some of the speculative scenarios and possible directions that EON might take with No Time to Die.

Dan Silvestri:                     01:12                     Yeah. And we’re going to look at what are the potential character plot twists here that might unfold in No Time to Die. We’re going to speculate with the rest of the world and let’s have some fun. So let’s go look at a few of the main characters here. That’s what we’ll do. Nomi, Bond, Leiter, and Swann. As we know, there is a ton of rumors and speculation flying about what will actually happen in No Time to Die. The world.

Tom Pizzato:                      01:39                     Beautiful thing about speculation, huh?

Dan Silvestri:                     01:41                     Yeah. The world is going nuts with this movie, so I think it’s going to be, it’s going to be a huge hit. They’ve done a great job of getting all of us to talk about this pretty much nonstop since the trailer came out. So we’re going to jump right in with the speculation too. And as Tom said before, send us your speculations. We’d love to hear your insights and speculations. Send us a voice message on our website, or message us through Facebook and we’ll include your comments in one of our future shows. That’ll be fun.

Dan Silvestri:                     02:11                     For Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, of course, there has been the most speculation and we’re going to have some fun with that.

Dan Silvestri:                     02:19                     Four things can happen we think with Nomi: One) she could really be introduced as the next 007 and really replace James Bond going forward in the franchise.

Tom Pizzato:                      02:24                     Yeah Dan, How really likely is that?

Dan Silvestri:                     02:30                     That’s a good question. Well, she is introducing the trailer as we know as a double agent and she’s been gone for two years. We know she’s a badass. She’s already had to make two kills to get her double-O status.

Tom Pizzato:                      02:48                     I love, I love that requirement. It’s like you got to kill two people and then we make you licensed to kill.

Dan Silvestri:                     02:55                     Which is kind of weird but okay, so we know she’s, she’s already tough and then we hear her be a badass in the trailer when she tells bond though “the world has moved on commander bond. So stay in your lane. You get my way, I’ll put a bullet in your knee. The one that works.” I thought she’s fantastic. She delivers those lines with authority. Beautiful. So I think this reveals a lot about Nomi. A) she’s in control. You get in my way. So she’s got a way, she’s authorized to get her job done and does not want interference from Bond.

Tom Pizzato:                      03:36                     And it’s interesting Because Bond is used to getting things his way.

Dan Silvestri:                     03:39                     Yeah. So they’re already making her a very, very strong double-O. And B) she’s comfortable with her threat to put a bullet in his knee and would likely do it if she had to. I think she’d say, yeah, fine. You know what? Bam, there ya go. You little bastard. So wow. You know unlike Jersey numbers in sports that are sometimes retired for great athletes, maybe the 007 number is not retired just because Bond retires. So Nomi may be introduced as 007. That was a big rumor in the beginning. And of course, they didn’t tell you that in the trailer. But obviously, she’s not James Bond or the next James Bond. And Barbara Broccoli once said: I always feel that Bond is a male character. That is just a fact. We have to make movies about women and women’s stories, but we have to create female characters that are not just for a gimmick that turns a male character into a woman. And she took, she said that at the Bond 25 launch in Jamaica. So yeah, obviously 007, a woman, is not going to be James Bond. It’s like, okay, that’s pretty clear. And no matter, you know, Barbara Broccoli could say that all the time because that’s going to be true. You’re not going to have a female 007 as James Bond.

Tom Pizzato:                      05:02                     Okay, so, with that then Nomi is not going to be James Bond in our opinion then. Right?

Dan Silvestri:                     05:09                     Well, she’s not going to be James Bond. She could be 007 and she could replace James Bond. That’s what we’re speculating on here.

Tom Pizzato:                      05:16                     So this is one of the four areas of speculation.

Dan Silvestri:                     05:19                     The question is, will she be the franchise 007 agent in continuing 007 movies with no Bond or will James Bond return?

Tom Pizzato:                      05:31                     Well then that would lead us to speculation two, which would make the first one be absolutely impossible. Well, our speculation two then, the first one is that she becomes the next Bond. The second way to look at the next 007, replacing Bond. Then the next thing then would you know, you take the opposite of that. She could die in this movie.

Dan Silvestri:                     05:54                     We’re going to talk about that next. So Hey, here’s our second option: Nomi will die in this movie. Like Tom said. Okay, look, somebody has to die in this movie.

Tom Pizzato:                      06:05                     Well, why does somebody have to die? It’s No Time to Die. Nobody should be dying.

Dan Silvestri:                     06:09                     I know, but somebody is going to die and it’s going to be someone other than the character played by a Rami Malek, Safin. Is it Safin? I think that’s how you pronounce it. No one’s ever said it that I’ve heard. Somebody else is going to die. So could it be Swann? Could it be Nomi, it could be Felix. It’s happened before, obviously, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service his wife gets killed. He’s lost his love before, Bond. And we’ll talk about this a little bit later because he’s basically, Bond has had a tragic life. I mean, he’s got a pretty tough life, but let’s see. But maybe if it’s Nomi who will die, but wait, here’s our thought: EON Productions is going all-out to create this very powerful double-O agent in Nomi. And as Barbara Broccoli just said, as we just talked about, Hey, she wants to make movies about women and with strong women’s stories and so on. So that isn’t just a gimmick. So we think, look, you’re putting all this effort into No Time to Die for Nomi to be in this film as a strong double-O agent. EON has invested a lot into developing this female agent in the, in the modern world of advancing women’s causes and status and so on. So she gonna die. Ah, ah, yeah. I say probably not too.

Tom Pizzato:                      07:32                     All right. So we went with the thing that she replaces 007 she becomes a new 007. We then went to the speculation of she would die. So then what’s the third area of speculation we needed to tackle?

Dan Silvestri:                     07:46                     Well and I kind of like, I like these last two that Nomi will achieve equal status to James Bond in Bond films to come. This is what I think would be brilliant. And she’ll stay on as a powerful woman, double-O agent to maybe team up with Bond on cases in missions in the future or have parallel stories going on with Nomi and Bond in the same movie and teaming up at some point. This seems to be a very good idea to us at spymovienavigator.com and to us on our show here, Cracking the Code of Spy Movies. Why? It really is a perfect solution. Bring Bond back. Again they still have the issue that if he retired because of his age. As we said in the previous podcast, how do you bring them back? I mean, they do hint openly that he’s older and he’s been gone a while and so on here, but it’s the movies so they can bring them back. Right. Casino Royale was a reboot.

Tom Pizzato:                      08:44                     You know, they, they bring in new Bonds over time. So I mean they can do that

Dan Silvestri:                     08:48                     and look what they did with Casino Royale, you know, that was a reboot, but it wasn’t a reboot to 1962 it had modern technology.

Tom Pizzato:                      08:55                     It’s not just technology and also brought modern things. I know the game they’re playing, Texas Hold ’em, it’s not Chemin de fer.

Dan Silvestri:                     09:02                     That’s a good point. Yeah. So yeah, and with our willing suspension of disbelief is like, yeah, okay, we’re going to accept it and go with it. So we’re fine with that. We just love Bond. Judy Dench was still M again, you know, in the reboot and through Skyfall. So yeah, it could be done.

Tom Pizzato:                      09:25                     The weird thing to me about Judy Dench being M in the reboot. Is that the way they did this whole Daniel arc. With these stories going back to Casino Royale and then going forward with this whole series of related movies. You had nothing there about Tracy dying, about Tracy at all and her dying yet in previous Bond films, prior to Daniel, there were references made to the fact that he had a wife before.

Dan Silvestri:                     09:57                     Well, I’m going to give him a break here and say, Hey, this was a reboot and maybe these first four movies with Daniel Craig here are you know before that happened. So again, it’s the movies. They could do whatever the hell they want and we’ll eventually say, yeah, that’s okay. So anyway,

Tom Pizzato:                      10:17                     It’s EON Productions all bow down.

Dan Silvestri:                     10:20                     I mean, they’ve taken things out of order the whole time ever since they started with Dr. No. So with the order of the books versus the order of the movies with Quarrel getting killed in the Dr. No movie, the first movie. But, so anyway, we think this would be great though. You have two equal double-O agents that EON Productions can do whatever the heck they want with going forward. Wow. Yeah, I think that’s great.

Tom Pizzato:                      10:45                     I think that that, that’s a really good concept. So we’ve covered three of the four scenarios of what we think might have with Nomi. Let’s go ahead and get to the fourth one. And this one’s kind of Disney-like when you were talking to me about this one… You were talking about using Nomi and extending the double-O brand and creating a spinoff, which is different than what you were just talking about in the third scenario. Which is where they were like co-partners almost. It’s, you’re talking about in this fourth scenario, maybe they’re using this to spin off this Nomi character into a whole new series of movies.

Dan Silvestri:                     11:23                     Yeah. And I think that’s a possibility. Why not? I mean, others have done it and sure. It’s another investment in extending your brand and hoping this new brand extension works and that costs money to do all that. But Hey, they might be, and then they’re competing head-on with Atomic Blonde and Anna and all these other female spy movies. So, Hey, it’s a possibility, I think.

Tom Pizzato:                      11:52                     Yeah. But those movies did not make nearly the money as Mission: Impossible or a James Bond film.

Dan Silvestri:                     11:57                     Yeah. But they’re going to, this is going to have the Bond brand really. So it is a different scenario. I mean it’s possible. Is it likely? I don’t know. But it’s a strong scenario and it could happen. What do I like to happen? I think it would be fun if they actually did it and then they can either both, they could be cameos in each other’s movies and stuff. It’d be kind of cool.

Tom Pizzato:                      12:20                     Well the thing that intrigues me about this idea is that EON Productions could actually start getting to some kind of an alternating schedule. So like we’re having to wait five years for this movie. So if they could sit there and say, okay, every other year we’re going to put out a Nomi movie or a James Bond movie and alternate through there that gives them the time to do the development they need to do whichever character and whichever story. And still, be able to get out more frequently than this five-year hiatus gives us,

Dan Silvestri:                     12:54                     Yeah, that’s a good point. And that would be kind of fun. Everybody would say, Hey, wow, this is kind of cool. So that’s the end of our Nomi treatment. There are four different scenarios that could happen with Nomi and in this next film, No Time to Die. So we’re gonna look at James Bond now. Okay. Yeah. Lots of speculation as we just talked about in the Nomi treatment. What can happen to Bond?

Tom Pizzato:                      13:17                     Of course, Dan, he is going to die and they’re going to just wrap up the series.

Dan Silvestri:                     13:20                     Yeah, there you go. He dies and that’s, that curtain comes down, end of Bond – boom. EON Productions as a $7 billion franchise based on Bond. Right. The longest-running film franchise in history at stake here. Yeah. So they could make Bond die in this movie. Ah nah. I’m thinking. No.

Tom Pizzato:                      13:45                     Well you know they supposedly, the reason they changed directors was because the other director wanted to kill Bond off.

Dan Silvestri:                     13:53                     Yeah. But there was very strong speculation early on, before the trailer even came out, about Bond dying in this movie. They even said, Oh, you have Moneypenny hovering over Bond at the end and Bond looks like he might be dead. And she says, this is No Time to Die and then boom, it ends. That was one speculation. So is he going to die in this movie? No. Could he be dying in this movie? Yeah, I think that’s a possible scenario that he could be dying at the end of this movie. And

Tom Pizzato:                      14:26                     so that’s, that’s kind of along the lines of what we talked about in our previous podcast and in January where we were talking about, you know where James Bond was like Coca-Cola and why this is No Time to Die.

Dan Silvestri:                     14:39                     Yeah. So I mean, again, we’re looking at all sides so he could die or they could leave us hanging, whether he’ll live on to fight another day, you know, this is a nice little close for them to say, well, we don’t know. I mean Ian Fleming did this in “From Russia with Love”, the novel he wrote, he got poisoned at the end. You didn’t know if Bond was going to survive or not at the end of the novel.

Tom Pizzato:                      15:07                     we talked about that in that last podcast as well.

Dan Silvestri:                     15:10                     Yeah. So I mean this could happen. So, okay. So if EON wants time to think about what they’re going to do next with Nomi and the, you know, female, double-0 agent, this would give them a lot of time to think whatever.

Tom Pizzato:                     15:16                     And Bond in general, what do they do with the fact that they’ve got this guy who’s old and retired now?

Dan Silvestri:                     15:27                     This could be a very neat little scenario for them: a dying Bond. Okay, so we’re going to see, that’s another possibility. Here’s another one. He stays retired even after getting pulled back in by Leiter and MI6 and we’re still left wondering what will happen to 007 or Bond or Nomi? Well, maybe he stays retired as we said before, EON does have a problem bringing a retired Bond back if he’s too old. Well, they do. It’s like, okay, well now we bring back a young Bond How’s that fit in? Another reboot? Nah, I don’t think so.

Tom Pizzato:                      16:05                     Well see. I actually, I disagree with you on that, but go on.

Dan Silvestri                      16:08                     yeah, you think they could reboot it again?

Tom Pizzato:                      16:10                     Absolutely. I mean that’s, they’ve done that right?

Dan Silvestri:                     16:13                     Oh, can they. Yeah. I said, can they? Oh, of course they can. It’s the movies, but yeah, I just don’t see them doing it. But would we accept it? Yeah. Yeah, we would probably accept it. We’ll just have, suck it up and accept that Bond came back younger and this whole retirement thing was maybe a future concept, but maybe the new movies are just prequels to there. I’m retiring in this movie. They can do whatever the heck they want and we’ll, we’re going to go with it. We’re going to, we want more Bond movies. We, so I dunno. It’s fun guessing.

Tom Pizzato:                      16:50                     And that’s all we’re doing.

Dan Silvestri:                     16:51                     Yeah. So here we go. And then I think the last possibility for Bond, in No Time to Die, is he comes out of retirement and he stays out of retirement and he’s reassigned his 007 number. If it’s been reassigned, we don’t really know that for sure yet. Okay. That’s, that’s cool too. I think that would be all right. So again, the age thing still lingers over his head and this scenario though, but again, fill in the blanks and future movies of the younger Bond this strong Nomi, eh, it could be done. So he comes out of retirement, stays out of retirement and we got Bond back and a strong female double-O agent. Not bad.

Tom Pizzato:                      17:31                     Yeah. I’m not into that idea. I actually think, I actually think that uh, number one makes the most sense: Him dying and you know, gives EON time to see what public reaction to the movie was. And how they brought Lashana in and try to figure out what that Nomi character can do for them. So it gives them, it gives them some wiggle room and we’re all about analytics these days. What are the analytics from the moviegoers on this and how do we take it? The dying scenario to me gives them the most flexibility.

Dan Silvestri:                     18:11                     Yeah, it does. It does. All right. Now we’re going to take a look at Felix Leiter. This is a fun one. Felix Leiter has appeared in nine Bond films of the 24 prior to No Time to Die, this will be his 10th appearance. Seven different actors played Felix lighter. But Jeffrey Wright will have the most appearances as Felix Leiter at three with No Time to Die.

Tom Pizzato:                      18:38                     As an aside, Ian Fleming developed the name Felix Leiter from the middle name of a friend, Ivar Felix Bryce, and Leiter, which was a surname of another friend.

Dan Silvestri:                     18:47                     He did that a lot where he took,

Tom Pizzato:                      18:49                     and we’ve talked about that in other when we did our whole thing on the Ian Fleming manuscripts. How he did that a lot in his writing.

Dan Silvestri:                     18:57                     Yeah. So anyway, Felix here has been a big part of Bond’s life and in the trailer for No Time to Die, Felix comes to Bond who was retired and says to him, I need a favor, brother. You’re the only one I trust for this.

Tom Pizzato:                      19:14                     Well, and what I love about that is that means this has to be something really covert because he can’t trust his CIA brethren.

Dan Silvestri:                     19:22                     Yeah, that’s a good point, Tom. Because he is in the CIA. And Bond’s the only guy he could trust and Bond is retired. So yeah, this is big. So that’s pretty good. So Bond’s, strong bond with Felix is what seems to really jostle bond out of retirement and into this chase again. So yeah, so that’s a good point. He’s coming to Bond, not the CIA, his other cohorts in the CIA, but to Bond for this special mission. So

Tom Pizzato:                      19:55                     he’s going to bring Bond back out of retirement. But what’s going to then happen with Felix? Right? What are the options?

Dan Silvestri:                     20:03                     We’ve got a couple of things that could, that could happen to Felix. One is Felix entices Bond out of retirement. They succeed in their mission together and Bond feels like, Hey, this retirement thing is overrated. I’m back. This is a plausible scenario. Likely, I don’t know, probably not.

Tom Pizzato:                      20:25                     But retirement is a good thing.

Dan Silvestri:                     20:28                     Well why not? I mean, why not? He could be enticed out of it and think, eh, what the heck, I’m coming back.

Tom Pizzato:                      20:34                     Okay, so then Felix and Bond go on. Save the world in future movies.

Dan Silvestri:                     20:39                     Yeah.

Tom Pizzato:                      20:40                     Okay.

Dan Silvestri:                     20:41                     The other scenario would be, and I’d be disappointed, Felix dies.

Tom Pizzato:                      20:48                     (sighs)

Dan Silvestri:                     20:48                     Again, someone has to die. Maybe it’s Safin. Maybe it’s Felix and Safin. And maybe Felix comes to Bond and says he needs him. And in between that meeting and Bond unretiring Felix is killed. That would get Bond out of retirement in a heartbeat. Remember in Licence to Kill where Bond goes rogue to carry out his personal vendetta against Franz Sanchez who fed Leiter to the sharks. I mean if he gets killed, Bond would definitely come out of retirement to go retaliate and get whoever killed Felix Leiter.

Tom Pizzato:                      21:27                     That’s true.

Dan Silvestri:                     21:27                     Right. So this might be a very strong case.

Tom Pizzato:                      21:32                     The interesting thing is you’re referencing Licence to Kill, which is Felix having prosthetic leg and stuff like that. This is nowhere into the Daniel Craig things. So this whole, he went to seek revenge with his personal vendetta Either happens before the Daniel series starts or the Daniel series just totally ignores the past.

Dan Silvestri:                     21:54                     Yeah. It paints a picture of the portrait of James Bond and what he is and what we would do and what he’s willing to do.

Tom Pizzato:                      22:03                     And the fact that he had such a strong bond with Felix in License to Kill. We know that he’s got a strong bond for this guy.

Dan Silvestri:                     22:10                     Yeah. I mean, I hate to see Felix go, especially Jeffrey Wright. I think he’s been terrific.

Tom Pizzato:                      22:14                     Oh, he’s been absolutely wonderful. Now the interesting thing too for me here is in “Live and Let Die”, which was Fleming’s second novel. It’s actually where he wrote about Leiter getting mauled. Right. So that whole scene in License to Kill actually comes out of Fleming’s second book. And I mean even the line “he disagreed with, with something that ate him”. That was actually in “Live and Let Die”: a note pinned to Leiter in “Live and Let Die” that they just took into License to Kill.

Dan Silvestri:                     22:49                     Yeah. EON Productions and their screenwriters have done this kind of thing a lot. And, pretty well though

Tom Pizzato:                      22:57                     And the other thing though is that Fleming in that book was originally was going to have Leiter die and he had to be convinced to keep him alive. So Leiter dying really to me doesn’t sound too far-fetched. Although again, as we’ve mentioned, these story arcs are a little weird, his character does live on in some of the Bond continuation books. Yes. So where are we in time is the interesting part to me here.

Dan Silvestri:                     23:27                     The continuity thing has never been the biggest issue with the Bond series. Again, it’s our willing suspension of disbelief. It’s like, yeah, okay. It’s a little mixed up, but somewhere in there that makes sense somehow. But it may be the time now and maybe there’s another CIA operative that Bond will get close with and develop a relationship with in the future and whatever. And of course, Nomi is there to maybe be a presence for the MI6 for a long time. But this relationship with Felix and CIA and so on, I’d hate to see it end here, but that’s another possible scenario for Felix and one that sounds pretty strong.

Dan Silvestri:                     24:13                     All right. Lastly, we have to mention Swann. She’s either believable or not in the trailer. When she says to Bond, “Why would I betray you? In general, and this is my opinion, when people answer questions with another question, they’re covering something up and they’re really not answering your questions.

Dan Silvestri:                     24:33                     Like it’s like, why would I betray you? That doesn’t answer anything. It’s putting a question on you, so that’s clever for a trailer especially. Because we have no idea what’s going on and that’s good. So what are her dark secrets that they have not explored yet? It kind of says that in there. We haven’t gotten to your secrets yet. This is an exciting part of the trailer and, it makes us keep wondering throughout the trailer and till April. What’s going to happen?

Tom Pizzato:                      25:04                     We’ll find out in April.

Dan Silvestri:                     25:05                     Yeah. So what’s the first scenario for Swann? So maybe it’s all a mix-up. Here’s one possible scenario with Swann. Swann, though her father was a SPECTRE operative is clean. Tracy Di Vincenzo was clean in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, even though her father, Draco, ran a criminal organization.

Tom Pizzato:                      25:25                     So, now actually the interesting thing to me here is there’s been no acknowledgment of Tracy in the Daniel Craig arc. We’ve talked about this a couple of times. Is Swann a Tracy replacement? She’s got a dirty dad, she’s clean, do Bond and Swann get married and then she meets an unfortunate end. Is this, I mean, are they going to really do that kind of mirroring of what they did in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service with Madeline instead of Tracy?

Dan Silvestri:                     25:58                     Yeah. So if she’s clean, that’s a possible scenario, right? He ends up marrying, or maybe he did marry her. We don’t even know. You’ve been gone for a long time. Yeah. But the scene here, when she’s opening the box with the Phantom of the Opera mask, I mean that’s the eerie part that makes you question this whole scenario. Is she clean or not clean? Which is,

Tom Pizzato:                      26:19                     I love that when she opens that up.

Dan Silvestri:                     26:21                     Yeah. So you don’t really know. Was this in her possession all along or did she just happen upon it or did somebody?

Tom Pizzato:                      26:31                     Maybe she got it mailed to her. Maybe Safin sent it to her.

Dan Silvestri:                     26:34                     her and she’s just opening it. We don’t know. That’s the big question here.

Tom Pizzato:                      26:38                     That’s what I love about this part of the trailer is the look on her face when she opens that thing up and she’s like, and she looks at that mask. Is it “hello old friend” or is it, “what the heck is this?” Or “I know what this is and Oh my, I don’t like where this is going to go.” All three of those are possible with the expression she has on her face.

Dan Silvestri:                     26:59                     I look at her face and I think, Oh, she’s thinking, Oh no, I gotta do this. You know, that’s what I’m looking for. I’m thinking she’s looking at that going. Okay, shoot, I gotta do this. So I don’t know. So that’s one possible scenario. So the second scenario is maybe Swann is not so clean and she’s maybe infiltrated MI6 as a double agent. When Bond sees her in the hallway of MI6 when he says he won’t lose his control.

Tom Pizzato:                      27:26                     Yeah. He has that pause as he sees Nomi and Swan walking together.

Dan Silvestri:                     27:32                     Yeah. And he’s shocked. Is he doubting his control now that he’s seen her? That maybe she’s working for MI6 based on what he actually knows about her and that we don’t know yet. Oh, that’s also a possible scenario.

Tom Pizzato:                      27:46                     Well, I especially because the interesting thing to me is in Spectre when Swan and Bond meet Blofeld, there does not appear to be any recognition between Blofeld and Swann. Yeah. And so, but her dad worked for Spectre. Yeah. Mr. White. Yeah. So it’s

Dan Silvestri:                     28:09                     so Bond keeps getting involved in these people that have, uh, underworld connections. I, yeah. Why does he do that?

Tom Pizzato:                      28:16                     Yeah, exactly.

Dan Silvestri:                     28:18                     Anyway, this scenario, if this is a scenario where she’s not so clean, it cannot end well. Really cue the music. Maybe we will hear her Swann song as she ties.

Tom Pizzato:                      28:30                     Oh, Dan, you didn’t go there.

Dan Silvestri:                     28:34                     All right. So this would not be the first time Bond would lose his woman for one reason or another. This did happen to the other fellow because Bond is the other fella, Casino Royale 2006 he loses Vesper in the movie and in the novel by Fleming. Of course, like we just said On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in both the movie and the book he loses his wife Tracy. In Fleming’s book, “Moonraker“, Bond loses the woman at the end. He says I was going to take you off to a farmhouse in France. Her name is Gala, says to him, “I’m sorry I can’t oblige.” “Well, goodbye Gala.” And they, they go off, he loses her and later, you know, he’s talking about this is as though man, this, could have been a good relationship. Even in the book “Diamonds are Forever”, Bond really falls for Tiffany Case, but soon she’s out of his life.

Tom Pizzato:                      29:29                     He falls for all of these women.

Dan Silvestri:                     29:31                     Well he doesn’t, not in a serious way. He likes them all and he wants to have sex and whatever with them all. But in some of these cases, he really falls for them. Like this could be a love kind of thing. In Tiffany Case’s case, he really thought and he tells, it tells M, I think in from “Russia with Love”, he thought they could’ve gotten married, but she runs off with some American military officer and goes back to America. So again, he loses somebody he really cared about. It’s happened to Bond a lot. And so I think sometimes in both the films in the, in the novel Bond does not get a woman. We always think he always gets his woman. He does not always get his woman. And in this particular case, maybe Swann is another one that for one reason or another will get away or be killed. I don’t know.

Tom Pizzato:                      30:29                     All right. That’s possible. We’ve looked at the scenarios then of what could happen, what we think could happen to Nomi, to Bond, to Felix and to Madeline.

Dan Silvestri:                     30:39                     Yeah. And we know somebody who is not the evil bad guy is going to die. I just know that

Tom Pizzato:                      30:48                     (laughing) You just know it. Dan, this is what is the beauty of speculation.

Dan Silvestri:                     30:52                     Yeah, of course. It’s speculation. We don’t have any inside info here. We’re just speculating like the rest of the world. So who will it be? Send us your thoughts right now by sending us a voice message from our website. It’s spymovienavigator.com. Hit the big red button on the right of the screen that says “send us a voicemail” and we’ll put you in our next podcast about No Time to Die. Let’s see who can speculate the best. Go do it now. Send us a message we want to hear from you.

Dan Silvestri:                     31:20                     Did people like the trailer? Overwhelmingly it seems people like the trailer. In fact, most people love the trailer. We did a little poll on Twitter about the trailer of course, not a scientific poll and overwhelmingly those who responded mostly rated it ‘A’ with some ‘B’s. Nobody didn’t like the trailer and we loved the trailer. They did a fabulous job on the trailer. We can’t wait to see the movie.

Tom Pizzato:                      31:48                     Now, Dan, I think you and I have to go to London to see it. Because it releases there before it releases in the US that week in between the two

Dan Silvestri:                     31:55                     That might be fun. Let’s do it. I got to see this, right when it comes out.

Dan Silvestri:                     32:01                     Alright, let’s go to London and see it before it opens in the US that might be fun.

Dan Silvestri:                     32:08                     This has been Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato. We’re finished with our speculating. Head to our website now to send us the voice message with your speculations and guesses and you will be on our show and keep listening. We appreciate it very much. Let’s keep Cracking the Code of Spy Movies together.

 


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Hi, this is Dan Silvestri – while Tom Pizzato is traveling at the time of this recording – so I’m here solo, doing a podcast on some James Bond collectibles that are in our vault!  Think about owning a cool James Bond movie replica, or a prop manufactured for the movie that may have made it into the film or not, or an actual screen-used prop!  These are all fun to collect, so let’s take a look!

If you have listened to other podcasts of our, you know I am into collectibles, especially autographs.  But I have things from ancient Rome, NASA (US space program) collectibles and more.

So, naturally, I have some spy movie collectibles, especially Bond!

Autographs

Let’s start with a few autographs.

  • Sean Connery, one of my top favorite Bonds, is certainly an area of interest, and so I have a signed publicity still of Sean Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love,in the train car.  This is very cool, and so I actually framed it myself and found a small, inexpensive digital recorder and speaker kit – I don’t even know if they make them anymore . . . and attached the kit to the rear of the frame (takes 4 double A batteries) and the “play” button to the side of the frame.   When you press the button on my Sean Connery signed and framed photograph, it is Sean Connery, as Bond, saying, “A martini, shaken, not stirred” with the James Bond theme music playing.  Very fun!
  • I also have a Pierce Brosnan signed photograph, and just recently bought a George Lazenby signed photograph from Anders Frejdh (FRAID). This last one was from the 50th-anniversary tour for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of my all-time favorite Bond films.   I’m going to try to get all of the Bonds – Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, and Roger Moore.
  • My favorite Felix Leiter before Jeffrey Wright is David Hedison.  I say before Wright, but I probably like them both equally.  So I have purchased a David Hedison signed check!  This is very cool. This item was purchased at auction and had a PSA/DNA Pre-Certified Status – meaning it was reviewed by experts at PSA/DNA and is guaranteed to pass final testing and marking.   And bank check are great – because they tell a story in themselves: this one is made out to the Beverly Hills Postmaster for $15, on October 25, 1968 – for stamps!
  • One of my favorite autographs is Caroline Munro’s!  Of course, she plays Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me – Stromberg’s assistant who comes to collect Bond and Triple X (posing as Mr. and Mrs. Sterling) in Sardinia Italy and is later the helicopter pilot chasing bond driving the Lotus into the water, and the first woman Bond kills on-screen!  Tom and I met with her in London once for a few hours – she is a delight!  She signed a bunch of autographs for us, and we took pictures with her.  Wonderful woman!  Inscription on card: “Dear Dan – it’s so lovely to meet with you – your knowledge of Bond is amazing – Thank you so much for the lovely afternoon – All my Best Wishes, Caroline Munro as Naomi 007”   How lovely indeed!

Other things and props

I would love to own some screen-used props from the Bond movies – these are hard to come by and very expensive.   I know a guy who has one of the spearguns from Thunderball!  So, I have some stuff which is cool – made for the films and might be buried in some shots.

  • I have a $100 bill from Licence to Kill – you remember the shot where Bond highjacks Sanchez’s drug delivery plane, and Bond cuts open the packets of money and the bills are flying all over the place – I have one of those bills!  This one looks pretty good from a distance and does say on the upper left: “THIS IS NOT VALID.  IT IS FOR USE IN MOTION PICTURES ONLY AND IS NON-NEGOTiABLE.  ITS USE FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF LAW.”    Its provenance is that the bill was originally obtained at the shooting location in Key West Florida (Sugar Loaf Key) at the airport office from the airport manager who was keeping a bunch as a collectible from the film.
  • I also own a $100 bill from the Pierce Brosnan Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.  When Bond breaks into the safe, there are a few piles of bills stacked on the left side of the safe.  This one I have looks like a real $100 bill – except . . . it has printed in the upper right-hand corner: “For Motion Picture Use Only” – and if you notice in this scene in the film, the bills are stacked in piles strategically to cover the upper right corner of the bills!   This one is cool!  So maybe it as somewhere in one of those stacks!  It was originally obtained from Pinewood Studios.
  • In Licence to Kill, again, one of my favorite Bond movies, the title sequence shows a casino table, a roulette table to be specific, and there are chips all over the table.   I have two clay chips: a green $25 chip and a purplish $100 chip.  Again, there are piles of chips, and others made for the movie but these are marked Casino de Isthmus and have the top-hat and cane indented patterns along the edges, which were the ones used for the movie.   My contact says that these chips can be seen in the opening title sequence of the film.
  • From Octopussy,  I have a $100 Rupee paper money prop, issued from the fictitious Reserve Bank of Indapur.  The seller claims it was used in the film scene where Bond and Kamal Khan are playing backgammon, and Bond wins $200,000 Rupees.  Khan starts writing a check and Bond says, “I prefer cash.”
  • From Casino Royale, I have 4 playing cards that were made for the movie (probably nowhere on-screen) that have Casino Royale logo on the backside twice and the crown logo.   AND a $500 chip, with Casino Royale around the center, and the crown pattern along the edges.  Cool!  These were probably overruns, and never used in the film, or who knows – they could be in the background somewhere, or in the card shoe!  But fun to have!

Books:

I have one weird book that is apparently a collectible.   A friend found it in a used book shop, and it is a hard-cover only about 5.5  inches by 7.25 inches, it is entitled: “The Book of Bond – Or Every Man His Own 007” and is written as though it was by Lt. Col. William (Bill) Tanner *M’s assistant) who authored the book.     It is “written” by him – a fictional character!  It is a Viking Press book from 1965, and on the inside cover flap is priced at $2.50 US.  The book is broken up into chapters entitled things like, Drink.  Looks.   Smokes. Etc. and in the margins, to validate what is written, are the initials of the title of the relevant Bond story, like FRWL (From Russia With Love), along with a number indicating the relevant chapter.  And he does something similar for the short story collections.  And it really is about YOU becoming like 007 in all these chapter aspects, and more amusing than serious for sure.  This is really written by Kingsley Amis, who wrote three books including “The James Bond Dossier” and the first Bond continuation novel, “Colonel Sun”, under the pen name, Robert Markham.  Thanks to my friends on Facebook, Nick, Oliver and Daryl for this insight!  Very odd indeed!

If anyone knows more about this book, email me at Dan@SpyMovieNavigator.com – I have found some info on it but not a ton.   I know there were two different versions of the book.  On one version the cover reversed and the opposite side said the Bible – in case you wanted to read clandestinely!  My version, the cover does not have anything printed on its reverse side.  Even in this used book store, it was priced at $40!

Replicas

If you remember in Casino Royale (2006) when Alex Dimitrios is playing poker and Bond joins in at the Ocean Club, Dimitrios wants to up the stakes and throws in a keyring with an Aston Martin DB5, and car key, as part of the pot.   Well, I purchased the same kind of DB5 keyring along with the Lotus Esprit keyring – you remember the Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me that turns into a submersible.   These are VERY cool and are available with a lot of other reproductions and collectible at 007.com, and their US counterpart https://usa.007store.com/.   Tell them SpyMovieNavigator.com sent you!  They have a lot of 007 collectibles and are awesome to work with.

There are also other prop shops and online stores to purchase real movie props and additional replicas.   We will get you more info on these places, on our website.   Tons of fun stuff on the 007.com site!

Well, this concludes our quick look at some of the James Bond memorabilia that we have  – remember, there are lots of places online to purchase movie memorabilia.   We have a place near us in Chicago which we are going to visit, and the guy has tons of movie memorabilia, including spy movie stuff!  So look for that podcast soon, and maybe even a video!

This has been Dan Silvestri – and Tom Pizzato is still on vacation even after recording this – hah!  If you were listening to this podcast. Check out our YouTube channel.   We plan on shooting a video of the items for your viewing pleasure!

Have fun collecting, always ask about the provenance (history of ownership of the item,)  and have a great time!  Please tell your friends about our podcasts, and give us a 5-star rating!   Thanks!

 


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James Bond is Like Coca-Cola Which is Why for Bond, This is NO TIME TO DIE!

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Join Dan and Tom as we explore No Time To Die and see why James Bond will survive his next mission, looking back at how changing the Coca-Cola formula in 1985 is similar to the formula change that is being attempted with the Bond franchise!  This is a unique look at Bond and No Time To Die!

Be part of Cracking the Code of Spy Movies and send us a voice message by clicking the red button to the right of the screen.

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  • Fun stuff!

On this show, we reference the following links:

Commercials (these links will take you to YouTube):

  •  I’d like to buy the world a Coke – (link)
  • Archaeology – (link)

Article:  Creative Father of the ‘Pepsi Generation’ Turned Lifestyle Into a Selling Point, By  Betsy McKay. Updated Aug. 4, 2007 12:01 am ET in The Wall Street Journal (link)


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Spies in Disguise – A Quick-Fire Look

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Dan Silvestri:
Hi, this is Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato, join us as we’re Cracking The Code Of Spy Movies. Check us out on our website https://spymovienavigator.com and please subscribe to our show through your favorite podcast app. Happy holidays to all our listeners all around the world. We appreciate you listening and happy new year. Today we’re going to take a quick-fire look at the movie Spies in Disguise, which was released in the US on Christmas Day 2019.

Tom Pizzato:
This one’s a bit different than our normal movie discussion is. Spies in Disguise, it’s an animated movie really geared for kids. And Dan, as you know, we normally have been talking about non-kid based movies. Now this movie was actually based on this short animation film called Pigeon: Impossible which should kind of give you a hint as to what they were thinking. And that’s only a six-minute video. You can find it on YouTube.

Dan Silvestri:
All right: Now we’re not going to do one of our in-depth shows on this movie, but this movie is a great intro to spy movies for kids and adults have something to see here as well. Right, Tom?

Tom Pizzato:
Yeah, absolutely. This is definitely a movie that there’s stuff in there for the adults as well as the kids.

Dan Silvestri:
Now, Tom saw the movie, I’ve watched all the trailers and read some articles on the movie but Tom actually saw the movie. So he’s going to go through most of this stuff here. And I just want to say during the holiday season here, I’m just finishing off a pack of red velvet pizzelle Italian cookies, Tom, and yeah, you want one here? I’ve got the package here. Have some.

TOM: Yeah. I’m ok.

DAN: They’re delicious. They’re Italian waffle cookies by the way. And a cup of coffee. It’s like, Oh, that’s great. But I digress just a bit.

TOM: That’s a good way to go ahead and record a podcast, Dan, eat something.

DAN: So Tom’s going to tell you about the movie.

Tom Pizzato:
I’m going to actually start off by saying I saw the 2D version of this movie. There is a 3D version of this and from what I’ve heard online, you know, looking at reviews and listening to podcasts on it, the 3D is actually really good. Unfortunately, the timing we had on Christmas day, which is when I went the only one available at the time, we could go was the 2D showing. So you know, I can’t, I can’t really comment on the 3D but I have read good things about how they did that.

Dan Silvestri:
Yeah, now Tom, you went with a family member to see Spies in Disguise. We talked about it a little bit before, but why did you go see it? And it really is a kid’s movie, right?

Tom Pizzato:
Yeah. It’s a cartoon. But why did I go to it? I believe our website is called SpyMovieNavigator.com. And this is a spy movie. And I think we shouldn’t really distinguish between whether it’s an adult movie or a kid movie. And so I wanted to see what it was and quite honestly, I was pretty curious after looking at the trailers how this thing was going to work out.

Dan Silvestri:
Yeah. Yeah. And you, like I said, there’s, there’s stuff in here for adults too, right?

Tom Pizzato:
Oh yeah, there’s, there’s definitely stuff that’ll keep the adults happy that they went, okay. So yeah, if you look at what we do on our podcast, we’re looking at how spy movies have influenced other spy movies or how real-world events have influenced spy movies. And there’s definitely some homage paid in this movie to other spy movies and the whole genre in general. So it’s actually kind of interesting to see, okay. Even though this is a cartoon based for kids, how they bring some of that stuff together. So we decided that a quick-fire sounded like a good idea to do for this one. Although this is geared at kids, this is an animation movie and Dan as, you know, I’m a big fan of animated movies. Again, adults do have something to see here. And we went on Christmas Day and I don’t know if in other countries if the movie theaters are even open there, but in the US actually, Christmas is a fairly big day for the movie theaters.

Tom Pizzato:
It was fairly full for the showing we went at three o’clock in the afternoon showing. And it was interesting to me because at one moment I thought there was a kid’s laugh track because the laughter was so loud and I’m looking around and the kids just love this thing. And actually, after the movie was over I went up to the bunch of parents because you don’t want to approach the kids and ask them, you know, what’d you guys, what’d your kids think of the movie? And with one exception they were all like, Oh I love it. I love it, I love it. The one small exception was there was a really small child there who told me that it was bad “because there was a bad guy in it, but that it got better when they caught the bad guy.” That’s cute.

Tom Pizzato:
But also, if you’re a parent trying to figure out if you’re going to take your kid to this in the US this is rated parental guidance or PG, there’s a bad guy. There’s some a few explosions in it. So you know as you’re trying to figure out whether you bring your kid or not. Just realize that this isn’t a G-rated movie, it’s a PG-rated movie because there is some of this, some of this stuff in there. Not a lot, but again, this one little kid was a little taken back by it.

DAN: Yeah. So, there are references though. Like you, I think you’re hinting that there’s references to other spy movies in this movie.

TOM: Yeah. And I was totally looking forward to how they were going to do that. How are they going to tie that stuff in?

Tom Pizzato:
There is a pre-title sequence that just like a lot of other spy movies do, this thing really feels like a BOND set up in terms of the way the pre-titles work. It does have a, it looks like it’s opening with like this fuse kind of a thing, and then they pull back and it’s a laser.

DAN: kind of like a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE thing.

TOM: Yeah. So it felt kind of like, Oh, they’re starting like with this MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE thing. They pull back and it’s a laser. Now we do actually have, if you go out to our YouTube channel, we do have a video, “The Top 12 Uses of Lasers in Spy Movies”. It’s fun. It’s a fun video. Shows you other, other places that lasers were used in spy movies. Now there’s also a knock off of the: “Bond, James Bond” line from the BOND series. And that got a bigger response from the parents as most of the kids wouldn’t know “Bond, James Bond”.

DAN: Okay, so the adults in the audience, are going okay I know that. So what is the line? Can you say what the line is?

TOM: I’m not going to give it away.

DAN: Oh, come on.

TOM: No. Walter says it in the movie and Walter is, and I’ll explain who the characters are, but he’s this nerd, younger person who is the gadget geek guy.

DAN: So he’s kind of the Q guy.

TOM: Yeah. He’s kind of like the Q guy and he’s the, he’s the nerd science guy. I don’t want to give away the line because if you, when you’d go to it, if you understand science, you’ll catch it. If you don’t, you might want to look it up.

DAN: That’s all you’re going to say. All right.

TOM: That’s all. That’s all I’m going to say. Cause it was actually, I thought it was fairly clever the way they did it for the Walter character.

DAN: Okay. Alright.

TOM: As I mentioned before, there are some explosions. Nothing major, but there are some in there, there are underwater sequences that kind of, you know, we’ve seen in different spy movies,

DAN: Thunderball.

TOM: yeah, in Thunderball and others. However, we had just done a quick-fire last month on Charlie’s Angels where the whole movie seemed to be a regurgitation of other spy movies. This one wasn’t like that. There was definite homage paid to BOND, HUNT, and BOURNE, but a lot of this movie really felt fresh.

DAN: All right, Tom. I know the directors of this film watched all of the BOND films, all the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and all the BOURNE movies to prep themselves for this film. So I read that in an article on syfy.com and it was a great little article by the way. Go read that if you like to go find it. Can you give us like an example of what some of the homages paid were here or what’s,

TOM: Yeah, we’ll go through a bunch of those as we go through this podcast and I’ll say in that article they actually expressly mentioned the pre-title sequence and how they designed that to really have a Bondian feel. It really does in the way they set it up and go right into the titles and the music and they really nail that pretty well in my opinion.

Tom Pizzato: Now, the basic premise of this movie, again, it’s a kid’s movie, is that the super spy drinks a potion and turns into a pigeon,

DAN: turns into a pigeon, right? Yeah. Yes. I’ve seen that in the trailers.

TOM: one of those darned birds.

DAN: Right. And the trailers are, we have a trailer actually on our homepage, on our website. If you want to take a look at it now. Wow. So he turns into a pigeon.

TOM: He turns into a pigeon.

DAN: Now, is that the disguise?

TOM: It’s not really a disguise. But, from a disguise perspective. What a beautiful way for a spy to go anywhere he or she wants to go. You become a pigeon. You’re not going to be known, I mean, there’s a scene in the Piazza San Marco in Venice where there’s just a ton of pigeons. You want to be unobserved.

Tom Pizzato:It’s a great way to do it. And actually, the Walter character says “pigeons are everywhere and nobody notices them. They’re the most perfect form a spy can take”. At least it beast swimming with a bird with a scuba mask on.

DAN: Oh, you mean the like the one BOND where it’s coming out of the water in the beginning of Goldfinger. That’s what you’re talking about?

TOM: Yeah, exactly.

DAN: I was a little confused there. I was like, what? I got it. All right.

TOM: Now, the basic premise of this movie is there’s the superstar spy named Lance, and he’s voiced by Will Smith. And it’s interesting when they drew him, they wanted to draw him kind of like martini glass shaped. So he’s got very big shoulders, very, very narrow. As he comes down.

Tom Pizzato:
Now he meets this young gadget guy named Walter. Now let’s think about this. We have Lance and we have Walter kind of sounds to me like Walter Lanz. So I think this was a shout out to the great cartoonist, Walter Lanz who directed the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series and gave us Woody Woodpecker. So I think that was one of those little when I saw or heard these names, I’m like, that’s Walter Lanz.

DAN: These guys are clever with stuff like that. So that’s good that.

TOM: They absolutely are. Now Lance, the superspy, accidentally drinks a potion that Walter was working on and it turns Lance into a pigeon. But Walter doesn’t have the antidote for this. So, he’s a pigeon for a lot of the movie and he’s on the trail of a bad guy named Killian and Lance is used to doing everything on his own.

Tom Pizzato:
He’s a super spy. If you think about Bond. Bond doesn’t really use a lot of support from a lot of people. There’s a little bit there, but not a ton. If you think about Bourne, it’s the same type of thing. And Ethan Hunt has the team, so he’s not quite as out on his own. But again, remember Lance turns into a pigeon and at one point he says, “I fly solo”.

DAN: All right, that’s a good line.

TOM: So it’s, it’s pretty good, but he eventually has to get realizes since he’s now in a pigeon form, he needs some help. And Walter’s the guy who’s going to do this. Nice. Now, one of the things, where they took an idea that was used in other spy movies that they bring forward in here, is the concept of the double pursuit. And we’ve talked about this in the past in our 39 Steps, The 39 Steps podcast.

DAN: Yeah, Check out our podcast on The 39 Steps (Link). We talk a lot about the double pursuit idea here. And it’s really is a cool idea and a lot of spy movies do use this concept.

TOM: So this movie, the super spy, Lance, his agency thinks he’s gone bad because they can’t find him cause he’s a pigeon.

DAN: Oh, an agent gone rogue.

TOM: Yeah, they think he’s an agent gone rogue. So they’re trying to catch him and then you still, and you have the pursuit with the, with Killian the bad guy, right? So you’ve got the double pursuit where the bad guy wants him and the, and the agency wants Lance as well. So it’s kind of interesting from that perspective. There are also high-end car chases, submarines, some muted explosions and a lot of the fun stuff we’re used to seeing in spy movies. Toward the end, Walter figures out the antidote and Lance is brought back to his human form.

Tom Pizzato: However, Lance needs to go back to the pigeon form to save Walter who had been grabbed by Killian. So we actually see Lance’s conflict of should I use this potion again or not to go on should I become a pigeon again or not.

DAN: That’s a nice little built-in conflict there. That’s kind of cool. Yeah, I like that.

TOM: Now, especially for the kids. Walter’s character is really good. He’s this gadget guy and I really imagine him as a young version of Ben Whishaw, his version of Q in JAMES BOND. Not really a Desmond version, but if you take, if you take Ben’s version of him,

DAN: Yeah, I can see that in the trailers and I was actually thinking that in the trailers. I said this is kinda like the new Q, Ben Whishaw’s Q. Yeah. That’s good.

Tom Pizzato:
Yeah. So, and now there is a gadget lab in the movie, which I love. So they’re walking through there. It’s very close in concept to the old Q labs in the pre-Daniel Craig BOND movies where they walk through and there’s all this stuff happening in the background. And so Lance walks through it, we get to see all of that stuff as well. So it’s kinda, it’s kinda cool to see that brought forward.

Dan Silvestri:
Yeah, I read this other article, and I, and I think maybe from these articles, at least it’s, there’s, there’s always a hidden message in this movie of promoting the kids and making them do good things and whatever else. And so in this one article, I just read about this said the gadgets were actually rooted in, in science, so, and they’re again trying to show or encourage kids that they can go pursue a science career and so on. So you think in the whole movie, Tom, that there are these messages that are going through this that are these positive messages for kids?

Tom Pizzato:
Oh, absolutely. There’s a lot, there’s a lot of it. It’s great. It’s great to be weird. Is one of the things they talk about because Walter’s this geeky science guy, right? And so there’s parts of that that are, are put through here. Even if you take the take-off, they take on “Bond, James Bond”, there’s a science bent to that. So this is Walter’s a science guy who wants to take and create these gadgets to help the world. But unlike in the adult-oriented spy movies, the gadgets are much cuter and in fact, none of them can hurt people. So they’re their gadgets designed to incapacitate or freeze or deflate a human body.

DAN: That sounds bad.

TOM: force someone to tell the truth or stun them. I mean, there’s this one device called Kitty Glitter and they use it in the movie a lot and it’s used to distract people from whatever they were doing and pretty much stops them in their tracks and they get a smile on their face. You can think of glitter in the air with cat images. All right. I mean, it sounds odd, but this is an animated movie for kids and it actually works in this movie. There’s even a trick pen type of a gadget that’s used to do some of this stuff as well. But again, it’s all harmless stuff showing how we can use science to do good and use it also to help fight crime.

Dan Silvestri: All right, There was another article I read in the LA Times that said, one of the things that directors wanted to highlight is that violence is not the answer. It’s the kind of fighting, the idea of fighting another kind of fighting the idea that maybe Lance had to fight fire with fire kind of thing. You know, that they were saying that violence doesn’t always make sense. And so this obviously makes perfect sense with Walter ‘s gadgets not hurting anyone.

TOM: Well, yeah, and that’s Walter’s gadgets, right? So Killian has some stuff that does blow things up. Ah, okay. All right. So there’s even a gadget that just really cracked me up. It’s, it’s called the Inflatable Hug and this thing, when I saw that they get instantly,

DAN: That’s a great name again, I’ve got to give credit to whoever came up with that.

TOM: So yeah, it’s cute. It doesn’t hurt you. It’s very similar to a gadget that was used in the James Bond movie. The World is Not Enough, and I don’t remember what they called it in that movie if they even gave it a name, but it was the inflatable jacket thing. That saves Bond and Elektra when they’re in that avalanche, like puts that bubble around them. Oh yeah. So, it’s used differently in this movie, but it looks similar and its goal is to protect whatever’s in it, just like in The World is Not Enough. And now when I saw that I was just like wow. Instantly it took me back to that film. So it was really cool to see that.

Dan Silvestri:
So there, they’re probably obviously conscious of that whole scene in The World Is Not Enough. And they’re kind of rolling it in. {pun intended}

Tom Pizzato:
yeah, they’re exactly rolling it in and they roll it in a couple of times without overdoing it. But it’s actually, I actually thought it was really cool. There’s also the line, “I need a code name” and that plays directly into the code name theories with JAMES BOND and more directly into the BOURNE movies. With Jason Bourne being the code name for David Webb.

Dan Silvestri:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, I read another article at headtopics.com and it said the directors, was it Quane and Bruno, right, Quane and Bruno. They wanted to dig a little bit into the idea that sometimes the only thing separating heroes and villains is perspective and so this whole good versus evil kind of good and bad stuff. They wanted to kind of dig into a little bit in this movie and when I read that I thought, well that’s again, you look at Quantum of Solace with Bond when Mathis and bond get together in, in the, in his home, in Italy on, he’s trying to get Mathis to help them and Mathis tells Bond. He says, when one’s young, it seems very easy to distinguish between right and wrong, but as one gets older it all becomes more difficult to villains and heroes get all mixed up. So it’s the same kind of look. It sounded like they were doing again, certainly know about Quantum of Solace and wanted to kind of touch on that in this movie about this good versus bad kind of thing and dig into that a little bit. So you see that kind of thread going through there too, Tom?

Tom Pizzato:
Oh, absolutely. Especially with the double pursuit. Yeah, because to the agency Lance’s a bad guy. Yeah. Right. They’ve got to capture him even though he’s out trying to be the good guy so that it does get, you know, what is your perspective, which way you see this? One of the things we see in this movie that we see fairly often in other spy movies is the spy seeing the bad guy coming at him through a reflection. Somebody is coming at the spy from behind and the good spy sees the bad person coming in the reflection of something. So if you think back to the pre-title sequence of Goldfinger and Bond is looking into, in the pre-title, he’s looking into her eyes and he sees the guy getting ready to hit him from behind. Yeah. This technique’s used a few times in Spies in Disguise as well. Like some other spy movies. There are quite a few quips in this thing. And we also hear the line, “I’m taking everything from you”: which is similar to things we’ve heard in some spy movies like in Mission: Impossible III, Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character uses a similar line like that. Spectre or even in the trailer to No Time to Die. You get that theme come through. And that comes in this movie as well.

Dan Silvestri:
So, Tom, I’ve watched all the trailers and I wanted to ask you about the music because, in the trailers it sounded, it sounded pretty cool.

Tom Pizzato: Yeah, I think they did a really good job with the music in this. It sets the mood of the scenes very well. It’s generally uplifting. Most of it’s unique but very modern. But I did feel a hint of Lalo Schifrin’s “Theme from Mission: Impossible” a couple of times. Which was, which was kind of fun. It wasn’t quite it, but it was kind of, it kind of had that feel to it, which I really enjoyed.

Now I mentioned that there’s a villain in this and this guy’s a medicine guy. He’s got a robotic hand. Think Dr. No, but much more functional. He has an eye that glows red and is just pretty nasty. Plus just like in a lot of spy movies, the villain doesn’t do the dirty work.

DAN: You mean the big villain.

TOM: Yeah, the big villain. He or she has people do the dirty work for him or her and in this case, Killian has an army of drones which blow things up. They attack people and do other things like that and to me, it’s a really good thing if we look at how real-world impacts and how other movies impact these spy movies, there’s a proliferation of drones that’s happening right now in the world. Sure. Kids have seen that. A lot of kids have probably played with drones. So bringing this into the movie brings a real-world aspect.

Dan Silvestri:Yeah. And we had, the military has drones that actually do go blow things up. So

Tom Pizzato:
absolutely. It’s not just pizza delivery.

Dan Silvestri:
Yeah. Yeah. Tom, Spiderman, I think earlier in this year, earlier in 2019 we had the movie a Spider-man: Far From Home. And in that movie, Spiderman has to fight off an army of drones. So kinda, it’s kind of a touch of irony, the actor here, isn’t it? The guy Tom Holland was the Spiderman guy, right?

Tom Pizzato: Yeah. So Tom Holland played Peter Parker in Spider-man: Far From Home. He’s also the voice of Walter in Spies in Disguise.

DAN: That’s a cool connection there.

TOM: And he had to fight an army of drones in both movies. So kind of a nice little, nice little tie in here.

Now, one opportunity I totally think they missed here. And again, it’s, I’m a, I’m an animation film fan. So to me, it’s like, I look for things like this, but they didn’t have a song in here. And we talked about the music a second ago. They didn’t have a song in here, like the “Friend Like Me” song in Aladdin.

DAN: Oh, I love that song.

TOM: And to me like that movie or “Under The Sea” in The Little Mermaid. If they had a song, something like that, they could’ve flashed all these animated characterizations that kind of were paying homage to all different spy movies and all different movies.

Tom Pizzato:
I mean, you think about what you can do with animation there and tying, you know, you might have an image that’s on the screen for a second or a second and a half and then you’re onto the next one. I really think they missed an opportunity by not doing that.

DAN: Oh, that would’ve been fun.

TOM: Because if you talk to a kid about those two movies of, The Little Mermaid or Aladdin, those are two of the songs they’ll talk about.

All right. So that was a missed opportunity in my opinion. But there was one thing that they did in the end credits. The kind of irked me a little bit. First, a little bit of background about me. I’m an animation film fan and I collect animation cell art. These are the pictures that make up one frame of an animated movie. So, especially in the old school days, they would literally paint the picture onto a piece of acetate and take its picture.

Tom Pizzato:And that would become a frame in the movie. Now, in my opinion, the animation artist is equal, if not more important than the voice talent and the creation of a movie when it’s an animation film. So if you think, if you think about the animated movies by Disney, before Robin Williams was the genie in Aladdin, can you name two other voices in a Disney movie prior to Robin? Most people can’t unless you’re a geek like me and I know most of them. Okay. But you know the characters by sight, you know, you know the visual of the character that the animator created by sight.

In many JAMES BOND movies, the actor who physically performs the role may not be the actor whose voice you hear. So do you know who dubbed the voice for Honey Rider in Dr. No? Or Draco in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service?

Tom Pizzato:
Or did you know that Michael Collins dubbed the English version of the voice of Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger? Yes. The voice talent is important and needs to be credited, but so do the animation artists or directors or the animation directors for the various characters in an animated movie. Unfortunately, EON Productions hasn’t done that with the BOND character voices. They’re all uncredited. Spies in Disguise doesn’t credit the artist with their character. What I really like to see is in some of the Disney films, they actually credit, you’ll see it in a box where it’s like, here’s the character and then here’s the voice, here’s the animation team behind it to really give the crediting and the fact that both pieces are pretty much equally important and I think that’s a good practice. I wish they had done it here. Okay. Now this whole dialogue about the voice talent here and crediting is all about the credit.

Tom Pizzato:
I’m not saying the voice casting wasn’t good. It was actually very good. It really was. And you know, like Will Smith,  I go hot and cold with Will Smith. He voiced this really well.

DAN: Yeah, I thought all the trailers I saw were well done.

TOM: And Tom Holland voices Walter really well. Rachel Brosnahan, Rashida Jones, Reba McEntire, Karen Gillan there, and others voiced the large roles and they did a really good job. I just wish that the crediting for the animator who was there. So I’m going to get off my soapbox now.

DAN: I was going to say, take a step down.

Tom: I’m sorry. I just that’s one of those things that just annoy me. I think Spies in Disguise does what it tries to do quite well. It’s a spy movie that’ll get many kids hooked on spy movies. You should be happy to take a kid to see it.

Tom Pizzato: Keeping in mind that it in the US is rated PG, not G, so there is a bit of violence or nothing rough and a few explosions and a bad guy. There are a couple of adult-themed innuendos that are in here. There’s one if you’ll see the trailer for it and right when he takes the potion that starts to turn him into a pigeon, his hands shrink and then he looks down his pants. It’s, it’s quick, but it’s one of those things that, you know, little kids won’t catch it, but the little bit older kids will snicker at it. And then again, there is a villain here. The movie does pay homage to the real world and other spy movies without feeling like it was trying to rip anything off: Unlike Charlie’s Angels. And it really was fun to watch.

Just don’t expect to see the same level of film you’re going to see if you’re going to a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE or a JAMES BOND film. Now, if you aren’t going to go with a child, you might not want to run out to see it. And I’m not sure it was, it was fine. I enjoyed it. But like, you know, Dan, you didn’t run out and see it because you didn’t have it. Right. But if you have kids or nephews or nieces, you can go ahead and take them and have a guilty pleasure. So let’s go ahead and end this thing. I need to get some Kitty Glitter.

Dan Silvestri:
All right, that’s good. This has been Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato. We appreciate you listening as together. We’re Cracking the Code of Spy Movies. Check us out at our website. https://spymovienavigator.com. Please subscribe to our show through your favorite podcast app. Participate in our podcast by sending us a voice message through our website or a message through Facebook about any of our podcasts. Questions you’d like answered, comments or podcasts you’d like us to do.

 

 


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Charlie’s Angels (2019) – A Quick-Fire Look

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Join Tom and Dan in Cracking the Code of Spy Movies! Here we take a Quick-Fire look at the new 2019 movie, Charlie's Angels and analyze its originality, what movies influenced it and what the overall impression is.

A new movie called Charlie’s Angels released in the US on 14-November-2019.

Join Tom and Dan in Cracking the Code of Spy Movies! Here we take a Quick-Fire look at the new 2019 movie, Charlie’s Angels and analyze its originality, what movies influenced it and what the overall impression is.

This is lively, so join us now!

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  • This is Quick-Fire look – we did this within a week of the movie release!
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<em>The 39 Steps</em>

Podcast Episode

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock is considered by many to the first spy movie ever made! If you came to our site as a Bond, Bourne, Hunt, Smiley, or other spy movie fan, you might not have seen this film. Join Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato as they examine how The 39 Steps, considered by many to be the first spy movie, has influenced other spy movies that came after it. We'll also look at what happenings in the real world that influenced this spy movie.

The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock is considered by many to the first spy movie ever made!  If you came to our site as a Bond, Bourne, Hunt, Smiley, or other spy movie fan, you might not have seen this film.

Released in 1935, this movie sets the table for future spy movies to come. From helicopter chases and train chases to pursuit through unknown lands, this film is a must for all spy movie fans!

Join Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato as they examine how The 39 Steps, considered by many to be the first spy movie, has influenced other spy movies that came after it.  We’ll also look at what happenings in the real world that influenced this spy movie.

 

Related Content

The 39 Steps

Hannay – Robert Donat
Pamala – Madeleine Carrol
Miss Smith – Lucie Mannheim
Professor Jordan – Godfrey Tearle
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Summary on Wikipedia

The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, released in 1935, is considered by many to be the first spy film. So, if you are a spy movie fan, then we must take a close look at The 39 Steps to see exactly what this film is about, how it may have influenced other spy films to come, and what happenings in the real world influenced this spy film. As in many Hitchcock movies, like North By Northwest, Notorious, The Man Who Knew Too Much – an innocent bystander is thrust into the world of espionage.

A woman agent who has no affiliation with any country is trying to stop England’s secrets of air defense from falling into the hands of some certain brilliant agent of a foreign power who wants these secrets. Not because she loves England, but because they will pay her better. This is what she tells Hannay – that at the theater where they had just come from, there were two men who wanted to kill her. She and Hannay went back to Hannay’s flat. And he looks to the street from his flat window, he sees two men – waiting. She tells Hannay that he is in just as much trouble as her now – and if he ever heard of The 39 Steps. Their chief has a dozen names and can look like a 100 people, but the one thing he cannot disguise is he has the top part of his right-hand little finger missing. She wants a map of Scotland because that is where the man she must visit next is.
This film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carrol.

If you are a spy movie fan, you can watch the entire 1935 film on YouTube.

More Details

The film opens in a theater, in London, where a man on stage is about to answer virtually any questions the audience may ask. He is, in a sense, Mr. Know-It-All, called in the film Mr. Memory, who every day commits to memory 50 facts in a variety of categories (science, history, geography, etc.). There is a haunting musical theme that is associated with Mr. Memory that sticks in Hannay’s head.

A man walks in in a trench coat and sits down. Later a woman is shown at the bar. The man in the trench coat, who turns out to be Hannay, asks how far Winnipeg is from Montreal – and Mr. Memory indicates that the gentleman is a Canadian. So, we see he is not a Brit. After a bunch of questions, an official-looking gentleman comes in (police) and there is a scuffle with a guy at the bar. During the commotion, Hannay finds himself face-to-face with a woman. After a while, she asks if she could go home with him. He says, “well, it’s your funeral.” Spoiler: He turns out to be correct.

They leave the music hall and go to his place, 122 (looks like) Portland Place: Portland Mansion. He has a furnished flat as he is from Canada here for only a few months. He asks her name: “Smith.” She looks Eastern European, has an accent – Smith? Ok, now we are a little suspicious of her and who she is.

The Death of the Spy

Hannay sees Smith come into his room in this flat, with a piece of paper, stumbling, and saying, “You’re next!” She falls, revealing a knife sunk halfway into her back. She collapses and dies. Hannay does not know what to do next. The local police think he has killed her – it was in his flat. And he flees, remembering what she said about Scotland.
Not so easy to get out of his flat. The men are still there waiting for him now.

Hannay’s Getaway from his Flat – the Milkman Scene

Because Hannay is now being watched – and he does not know who wants to get him – the police for the murder he did not commit, or the people who killed the spy – he must devise a clever way to get out of his flat. The milkman scene is a classic, and we see other bait and switch scenes in future spy moves too, like in James Bond’s The Living Daylights where the enemy spy kills the milkman, then disguises himself as the milkman so he can get into the safe house where a Russian agent is kept who are defecting to the West. Here, Hannay needs the milkman’s uniform as a disguise to try to escape the two guys waiting to kill him.

The Trains Scene, Flying Scotsman

He heads for the train, the Flying Scotsman. In this clip, we see the death scene, but cuts to the train scene – Hannay is aboard and two are in pursuit of him.
This is the first of many train scenes (chases, fights, key meetings) we will see in spy movies to come! (Just a few to think about: Secret Agent, From Russia With Love, Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Mission: Impossible 1, Casino Royale, Skyfall, and others). Here, for the first time, is the original chase scene on the train – with tense moments, intense drama, and a man, Hannay, trying to escape from the officials who are after him, who think he killed the woman spy in his flat.

Just pay attention to the clanging of the wheels, the lighting on the train, the bridge, the pursuit – all part of the blueprint for future spy movies. Two gentlemen read a newspaper across from him on the train about the murder and how Hannay is wanted by the police. The police are aboard the train after a stop and are looking for him. He enters a compartment and kisses a strange woman, who turns him in – but later becomes an ally after a while. The bridge in the movie is the Forth Bridge in Scotland, which opened in 1890, and it is still around and can be visited. The foot chase on the train creates tension and distress. Hannay, while innocent, is trying to escape. The chase is a foreshadowing of future chase scenes and fight scenes on trains as we will see in Spy Train, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Mission Impossible 1 and others. His escape to the bridge, Forth Bridge, is electrifying and for the viewer, a relief. The train is stopped on the bridge as the police look for him. This somewhat foreshadows View to a Kill bridge scene in San Francisco for Roger Moore’s Bond. Here, the police re-board the train thinking Hannay got back on, but Hannay did not.

Wandering now around Scotland, he stops and talks to a man, and asks if there are any newcomers around – he says yes an Englishman, a professor, and yes, he is near the town that the spy was to go to. Hannay must stay the night at this farm, meets the man’s wife, who misses Glasgow where she is from. He flatters her. She seems to like him. This scene is important because, as Hannay reads the newspaper he sees that the murder has been traced to Scotland. He knows they are on him. The wife knows that he is the man they are after. In fact, she awakes in the middle of the night, her husband notices, and she tells Hannay the police are coming and he better hurry. The husband thinks they are making love, but he tells the husband the police are after him and pays the man 5 pounds. But when the police come to the door, the wife knows her husband will turn Hannay in. Margaret (she reveals her name) gives him her husband’s “Sunday” coat.

With police still in pursuit, he runs. A small helicopter is looking for him too – ah, remember we will see more helicopter pursuits in spy films, like in From Russia With Love! He runs and is running along a river – the Forth Bridge transverses the estuary (Firth) of the River Forth – so this is probably the River Forth, not far from Alt-Na-Shellach (now we think it is called Achnashellach) – a large estate that he was looking for.

Hannay finds the estate, rings the bell, asks for the Master, and says to ask him if he knows Miss Annabella Smith (the spy). He enters, the police show up, and the maid answering the door denies any strangers are there. Hannay introduces himself as Mr. Hammond and he is from Miss Smith. The people know about the murderer being in Scotland, so know he is Hannay and asks if Annabella was killed and why he is here in Scotland. He says she was coming to see you. That the foreign agent who killed her is headed up by a man who had part of his little finger missing. He reveals that part of his (Professor Jordan ) little finger is missing and that he is about to convey some very vital information out of the country.

He shoots Hannay, and he falls. Turns out the bullet hits the hymnbook that was in the farmer’s “Sunday” coat. Hannay escapes to the sheriff. He turns him into the police who have been after him. The other two men who killed Smith are outside the police station. Hannay escapes through the window. He loses himself in a parade and the woman on the train (Pamela) turns him in again and Hannay tells her to call England and Scotland Yard. She says no. She and Hannay are in a car being taken somewhere. It is a suspicious situation. Pamala and he are now wondering – and Hannay says I bet your Sherriff principal has the top joint of his little finger missing. Pamela overhears something that makes her believe Hannay is telling the truth.

Handcuffed together, Pamela and Hannay escape.

The police are still on his tracks as he stays at an inn with Pamela and they show up to ask the innkeeper about new travelers. But they are supposedly in the good graces of the wife and she sends off the police. Pamala now decides Hannay has been speaking the truth. Eventually, they make it back to England. The haunting Mr. Memory musical theme is still in Hannay’s head as he has been whistling it in various scenes. Is Pamela the first Spy Girl (ala “Bond Girl”)? If so, she is tough and self-sufficient, and a model for future spy women. Think Ursula Andres as Honey Rider in Dr. No.

For spy movie fans, this movie has continuous action – not the kind of special effects action scenes in modern spy films – but continuous action that creates tension onscreen and in the viewer’s mind.

The Theater Finale

Back in London, Pamela goes to Scotland Yard – she had phoned from Scotland (unbeknownst to us). Scotland Yard is not believing her. They want Hannay. She goes to the theater. They follow. Hannay is in the theater too. The tension is police are following her to get to Hannay. Hannay sees someone up in a box, borrows specs and sees a hand with the top knuckle of the little finger missing!

Mr. Memory is now on stage! Hannay figures it out – Mr. Memory has committed all the secret plans to memory and Hannay thinks Professor Jordan will get him out of the country after the show. Hannay is cornered by the police and he shouts out to Mr. Memory, ”What are the 39 Steps?” Mr. Memory starts to speak, “The 39 Steps is an organization of spies collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of . . .” and he is shot by Professor Jordan, who leaps from the box and eventually onto the stage (ala John Wilkes Booth) and is caught. Hannay: “Mr. Memory – what is the secret formula you were taking out of the country?” Mr. Memory: “The first feature of the engine is….renders the engine completely silent.” And he dies. The secret is safe! Hannay is innocent!


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From Russia with Love

From Russia With Love, editorial content, 007, James Bond, spy movie podcasts, EON Production movies, espionage, Sean Connery
From Russia With Love poster

From Russia With Love is the 5th Ian Fleming James Bond 007 novel (1957), 2nd EON Productions James Bond 007 film (1963).

In this curation of the movie, we talk about other movies as they relate to From Russia With Love and lots of other insights into the scenes like:

  • The Pre-title sequence is unique – and we discuss the use of masks here, and how The List of Adrian Messenger, and later Mission: Impossible TV series and movies use masks.
  • President Kennedy boosts Ian Fleming book sales
  • No throwbacks
  • Cats in films
  • Istanbul – Klebb demonstrates same-sex tendencies
  • Bring on the gadgets
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  • On location at some film sites
  • AR-7 rifle specs
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  • On location at the Blue Mosque
  • Bosphorus River Ferry
  • Fight to the death on the Orient Express
  • Other movies mentioned here in relation to From Russia With Love: The 39 Steps, The Spy Who Loved Me, SPECTRE, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, North by Northwest, Quantum of  Solace
  • SpyMovieNavigator on location in Scotland
  • SPECTRE – a job for life. . .
  • Venice gondola scenes and Venice canals, Bridge of Signs, – a discussion of potential meanings

All About Spy Movies

Here’s what we do at SpyMovieNavigator
and our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies show –
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The Ipcress File 6-Part TV Series is hot!
Here is our interview with Steven Saltzman, the Executive Producer of the series, talking about the production details! Lots of great insights!




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Just like you, we love movies – and some of the best are Spy Movies!  Our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies show is the best place to hear great discussions on movies about spies!  And as enthusiasts, we noticed something interesting . . . Spy Movies are all connected.

Greatest Spy Movies / Spy Films / Spy Movie News / Spy Movies for Kids
Spy Movie Reviews / Spy Movie Analysis / All about Spy Movies!

Spy Movie Navigator is where those connections come alive. If you love movies, then we invite you to navigate through some of the best, which are movies about spies – listen to James Bond podcasts, Jason Bourne podcasts, Ethan Hunt and  Mission Impossible podcasts, even the “Best of the Rest, ”  including spy films from 1935 – new releases!  See how each has influenced the others, as well as how they’ve impacted and been impacted by the world around us and other movies as well.

Join us in

Cracking the Code of Spy Movies!
Decoding the scenes & hidden connections!

 Spy Movie News & Interviews too!

You can navigate by movie franchise or listen to one of our fun info-packed Podcasts. There are also spy movie-related articles, a trivia quiz, and so much more including tours we take to the very places we all know and love from our favorite movies. If you love Spy Movies, you’ve come to the right place!  James Bond movie information and insights, as well as Mission: Impossible info, Jason Bourne information and more!

Immerse yourself in epsionage!

Spy Movie podcasts, videos, discussions, reviews and more!  The best spy films and spy movie info is here for you!  Secret agents rule!  Espionage movies dominate!  Here are the best spy movies, the top spy films!  Click on your favorite spy movie category, then find the movie you want to learn more about!  Next, watch the video clips as we discover unique elements in each spy movie.  How does it interrelate with other spy movies?  Has it influenced or been influenced by other spy movies?  Are James Bond movie’s cars the best?

James Bond 007, Mission: Impossible, Jason Bourne, and the Best of the Rest!

And we visit spy filming locations around the world and produce videos of those locations!  So take a trip from home, or take a spy movie tour!  Check our YouTube Channel!

There are more espionage movies outside the top three genres, so we created the Best of the Rest.  So, this covers movies from The 39 Steps in 1935, through current spy movie thrillers like Atomic Blonde.    And, for each curated movie, we have a podcast that you can download.  As a community, we are looking for you to contribute as well – with articles, photos, and videos.  Let’s build this Worldwide Community of Spy Movie Fans together!  Spy Movie podcasts, videos, discussions, and more! Unique spy movie information all in one place!

So, click on your favorite and get going!  Leave us a Voicemail (red button on right) with questions and ideas!  You are part of the community!

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