You Only Live Twice (1967) **

I was sort of burned by “A View to a Kill” as I realized I had written extensive user comments in 2012. This was after the same sort of extensive write-up for a review for the blog. I might include the user comments for the archive later.

 I did find some brief and rather tightly managed user comments in 2010 which I included for the archive earlier while watching “You Only Live Twice” (1967), featuring Bond (Connery, thought to be his final adieu to 007, lured back in with “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971)) in the Orient, investigating possible SPECTRE activity, “stealing” space shuttles while Russia and America orbit the planet, as Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence, with the scarred eye/face, “gentlemanly English voice with that obvious balance of genius and madness”, and demeanor of clear psychopathy) seeks to cause a World War between the Super Powers as the British believe there’s more than meets the eye.

 Bond in a faux marriage ceremony with Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama), learning the art of the ninja, preparing to study a volcano that could very well be a hidden headquarters for Blofeld, where his capsules open up claw mouths and seize space shuttles from both Russia and America orbiting the planet; but, for me, the Japanese setting is what provides this particular 007 film with a nice retreat from what we often see in the past and future Bond series. Not that I don’t enjoy trips across European or Caribbean locales, but the Orient getting its due and Bond mixing it up with those in Japan tied to Blofeld (and working with the British Secret Service), before descending into SPECTRE’s volcano, is just as ideal. The SPECTRE launching pad in a volcano and Tiger eventually leading his sword and machine gun carrying Ninja team inside it as Bond tries to get to an “exploder” button that would blow up the capsule (Blofeld made sure that it had CCCP on the side for extra emphasis on encouraging war) is quite a slambang finale.

I think you can definitely see how with each subsequent film, the 007 franchise was evolving, allowed to spend more so that productions could be more elaborate and exciting. While background projection is still quite present (Hitchcock was a studio set director, not interested in taking his productions “on location”), showing that Connery in speeding cars or in flight was obviously “on set”, the film nonetheless gives us plenty of entertaining action sequences involving Bond spying on the SPECTRE volcano onboard a small helicopter that was equipped with missiles, bombs that can detonate from small parachutes, and guns giving him some capabilities needed when a number of choppers are on your tail.

While there aren’t too many gimmick weapons, Bond does have a cigarette that can fire a blast wherever targeted and a safecracking tool that can open a combination lock at the office of Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada). I always forget that Charles Gray, as Henderson in Tokyo, was actually an ally of Bond, killed rather early during a conversation. And to further the uniqueness of this particular Bond film, M (Bernard Lee) and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) are onboard a submarine instead in their office in England when Bond gets in contact with them after his faked death (done to throw off adversaries), complete with a water grave salute. The Bond “death” at the beginning and Nancy Sinatra’s voice setting off the opening credits: quite a hook. I truly understand why this film is so well regarded among Bond aficionados. To emphasize Blofeld’s malevolence, he dumps sultry redhead, Karin Dor (as Helga Brandt, Mr. Osato’s second) into his pool of piranha (and another serviceable tall, thick thug that Bond ultimately nixes in combat) to prove to all of us that he will not accept “failure”. That he gets away, while also exploding his volcano headquarters so that no one else could investigate his methods behind his world war plans, is quite a ballsy move…always stretch out a good hero/villain feud if possible.  4/5