For Your Eyes Only

No, that’s OK; go ahead and talk about what you read here!

A few months back we found that The Hound was a James Bond wannbe and the rest of us enjoyed the stories and movies, so when it came time to make up topics, I could not help but go bounding into all things Bond. I know that we’ve had a lot of fun this month and I hope others have, as well.

To wrap things up, we are talking about Bond Villain and villainesses. Since few have touched on the female baddies, I will touch on two, (so to speak. It’s the men I’d…never mind. Those Bond movies are so corrupting!). I hate to place any spoilers in, though. I know the Hound and others have not seen all the movies, yet may . Suffice it to say that the one who seemed such a victim but was in actuality the driving bad force in one movie was a surprise; if the actress’s acting was not exactly on par with the man we thought was the real fiend;(and he was fiendish enough, thank you!)

In “Goldeneye” we had a tough-as-nails-,(but according to the men), sexy-as-all-heck Framke Jannsen as Xenia Onatopp. At one point she and other baddies are on a train and Bond is coming straight for them. In one of the best lines ever she quietly smiles and almost rapturously breathes, “He’s going  to derail the train!” She’s excited and aroused. It’s so funny!

We move on to a badguy that many mentioned this month, “Jaws”. Richard Kiel was fierce in his first role in “The Spy Who Loved Me” and then repeated his role in “Moonraker“, where he gained our compassion.
[Note: the man is so big that his house has specially made oversized furniture. I once heard his wife in an interview. They live near the giant redwoods in California. It seems they give him peace…they are bigger than he is.]

The character of “Blofeld” was portrayed by different actors in different movies. I am not sure what that actually means to moviedom. The character was portrayed by ,(among others), Telly Savalas, made famous as “Kojak” the tough cop or the insane member of the “Dirty Dozen” and Max von Sydow, best known from Ingmar Bergman movies and as Jesus Christ in “The Greatest Story Ever Told“. (Diverse enough for you?)

The only other repeat baddie I can remember in a James Bond movie was played by Robbie Coltrane, who played a leader of Russian organized crime, Zukovsky. Although his character is amusing in “Goldeneye“, we see heart and the fact that he is a Bond ‘freinemy’ in “The World is Not Enough“.

Many fine actors played Bond badguys, but not all of them found a handle on the parts. Jonathan Pryce was one, as mentioned in previous posts; Louis Jourdan is another. Christopher Lee did not do himself justice, either, and even one of my all-time favorite actors, the terribly charming Curt Jurgens, did not inspire the quiet fear that he should have, (such as embodied in Joseph Wiseman‘s “Dr.No“).

Which leads me to the most attractive badguys, and there are only two who truly touch me.(A girl can fantasize, can’t she?)

When it comes to baddies in my personal life, I’ve steered-clear of troublemakers. But a girl can have it both ways in her dreams and Alex Tevelyan, the former Agent 006, is worth dreaming about!
They can scar Sean Bean up on one cheek all they want and he is still more attractive than almost every other man in this world. At one point in “Goldeneye” he steals a kiss from a Bond girl. When Bond shows up, he taunts his former colleague with: “Lovely, girl; she tastes like…strawberries“. Bond replies, “I wouldn’t know“. Alex retorts, (a little too harshly, too quickly), “I would.” Well, now, even my husband knows that Sean Bean could have found out that I tasted like strawberries any day of the week.

But even with that, I may have the biggest place for a badguy in my heart reserved by Renard, the kidnapper/terrorist in “The World Is Not Enough“. Robert Carlyle, famous recently for his portrayal of Rumplestiltskin, [aka Mr.Gold], on the TV series “Once Upon a Time“, actually makes one sorry for the man, even as we rout for Bond to kill him and save the world. It’s true, although I surprise myself by writing it.

How about it? Anyone else find these badboys “niiiiiice”?
Any other sympathetic baddies occur to you besides Renard and Jaws?