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OT: (But Not Entirely) Connery, Sean Connery -- RIP

posted 4 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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No, Sean Connery was not in Psycho...though it is possible he was considered for Sam Loomis. After all, he was on the short list for Mitch Brenner in The Birds(documented) and we know he played Mark Rutland in Marnie. By 1959, Connery had Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" on his resume(a substantial hit), and was on Hollywood's radar quickly.

Hitchcock saw in the Sean Connery of Marnie the makings of "his next Cary Grant" and offered Connery a multi-picture contract that Connery graciously turned down -- he wanted to be his own man once freed of the Bond contract. This did not stop Hitchcock from trying to get Connery in a Hitchcock film later. He tried to interest Connery to play Richard Hannay in a film of "The Three Hostages." Incredibly, Hitch offered Connery the FRENCH protagonist Andre, in Topaz(I've seen storyboards for the film with Connery drawn AS Andre.) There is no record of Connery being offered Richard Blaney in Frenzy, but some critics thought he should have been/could have been Blaney. And Connery graciously allowed Hitchcock to float his name as the star of the unmade "Short Night" at the end of Hitchcock's life and career in the late 70s.

At Hitchcock's 1979 AFI salute -- the one where Hitchcock looked so sadly out of it even as he was surrounded by many of his greatest stars -- Sean Connery was there along with Tony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles. As the now officially bald Connery stood , Hitchcock visibly murmured to Cary Grant -- "Who is THAT?" -- and Connery laughed and yelled across the room, "Its me, Hitch -- Sean Connery." Hitch was perhaps the only person who needed to know THAT.

Connery -- I've got to use the word again -- "graciously" accepted Marnie as a famous film, and a Hitchcock film even as he knew, I think, that it wasn't really one of the Hitchcock greats. I think he said "I like it, with reservations." When the AFI honored CONNERY(much more alert than Hitchcock) in 2006, a special sequence was allowed for Tippi Hedren to come on stage introduce Marnie and praise Connery. He took it well -- though it was clear he had become and stayed a much bigger star than Hedren. Connery knew that his Hitchcock film MATTERED, whether he liked it or not.

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That's the "Hitchcock crossover" for Sean Connery(one Hitchcock film, that's it), but his magnitude as a star was celebrated much more broadly on his death at age 90 on the auspicious day of Halloween, 2020.

For me personally, exactly who is REALLY a movie star is wobbly thing these days. They are all paid zillions more than I am but -- Armie Hammer? A movie star? Not really, not yet.

Sean Connery a movie star? A big YES. Pretty much out of the gate (Darby O'Gill and THEN Bond in 1962) and over the decades. He retired in 2003 after a rather overblown CGI comic book movie called "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." He didn't much like the movie, but he was clearly its great, big, over the title anchor star. He went out on top(much like Cary Grant decades earlier.) And -- unlike too many other stars -- he didn't do a TV movie(or even an HBO movie -- those are "cheats" where guys like Pacino and DeNiro hid out); he didn't do a TV SERIES. He wasn't a supporting "name" to a new star. (And no, that's not what he was in "The Untouchables," either.)

I recall at his AFI salute, somebody called him a "great big movie star" with pride. No excuses for Connery's stardom because his "great, big" size was part of his stardom. So many male movie stars are pretty short(Hoffman, Pacino, DeNiro, Redford, Cruise -- the close up is their friend), but Connery was well over 6 feet and strapping (as Arnold Schwarzenegger noted in his tribute yesterday, Connery, too, stared out as a bodybuilding champ, but I would note with REAL muscles, no steroids involved.)

Connery pulled off something interesting, physically. In his Bond films and Marnie, he was clean shaven, wore a toupee and was very handsome, but came the 70's, the toupee often came off and he made do as a bald star(not shaven-headed like Brynner or Willis, bald with an older man's look), and he was STILL handsome. A beard or moustache complimented the baldness, but he had that size and that smile and that overt sensuality, and it worked for decades.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

He also had that Scottish brogue. It made for easy impressions (just like Arnold's.) Its funny --- comedians aren't allowed to do "person of color" accents anymore(see: Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's), but WASPy accents are fair game. The best Connery comedy impression had to be Darrell Hammond's on SNL(back when it was funny), where he played Connery as an unintelligent, obnoxious tormentor of Will Farell's Alex Trebek on "Celebrity Jeopardy"("Ah, we meet again , Trebek!") The gag was that the question categories were made child-simple for these unintelligent celebs, and they STILL blew it. ("What sound does a cow make?" "I don't know" "Moo!" "That's the sound your mother made last night, Trebek!") Very funny stuff and reportedly Connery saw it and loved it.

Connery had a more interesting career than you'd think. His "first set" of Bonds totaled five in all, coming out one to two a year from Dr. No in 1962 to You Only Live Twice in 1967. The one-two punch of Goldfinger(1964) and Thunderball(1965) were worldwide blockbusters at the level of "Titanic" in 1997. But there was a downturn in box office for You Only Live Twice(the dopey Bond spoof Casino Royale cut into it, and the spy craze was fading) and Connery took that as his cue: "I'm out."

Connery then set out to become what none of the later Bonds could be: he became an A-list, top rank movie star on his name alone. That's why Connery's Bond MATTERS...its the only Bond truly played by a superstar.

That said, Connery answered the siren call of Bond twice more. Psycho connection: John Gavin was hired as the first "American Bond" for "Diamonds Are Forever" in 1971, but Connery was instead lured back with the best pay deal for a star in history PLUS only a few weeks work(its a skimpy film) PLUS getting to make some dramatic films of his choice(only one was made: The Offence.) At least Gavin got paid off in full.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

A full 11 years later, into the "Big 80's," Connery was lured back in 1983 to play Bond in a "non-Bond production" called "Never Say Never Again"(get it?) which was based on the legal loophole that a guy owned the rights to "Thunderball" and simply remade it. Connery was into his fifties by then but still strapping and hairy and manly and though this was a rather slow and lackluster Bond...it surely was a hit.

And it was a hit that Connery needed. Like many another 'long term star," Connery actually had a rather fallow period. He was always bankable, but often making movies nobody saw (Cuba, Wrong is Right.)

I personally think that in the 70's, Connery was rather ignored as other stars took the stage. Burt Reynolds turned down "Zardoz" and left Connery to show off his physique in a red "man diaper" but in a decidedly offbeat film. Meanwhile, Robert Shaw seemed to get the Connery career for a few years after "Jaws"(even as Shaw played support to Connery in "Robin and Marion.") But Shaw died young and Reynolds faded and Connery rather re-invented himself in the 80's.

The turning point was "The Untouchables"(1987), which was a hit and won Connery his only Oscar (Best Supporting Actor, rather the wrong category.) Importantly, "The Untouchables" gave Connery his "second career": as father figure(or sometimes literal father) to younger, newer stars. Here , it was to Kevin Costner. In "The Presidio," to Mark Harmon(not a movie star, but now a big one on TV. In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," to Harrison Ford ("Indiana Jones father is...James Bond!") To...DUSTIN HOFFMAN? (Family Business, a crime drama. To Wesley Snipes("Rising Sun," where Connery's black garb and facial hair is what Darrell Hammond emulated on SNL.) To Nicholas Cage(The Rock.) And so forth and so on, even as Connery could still play romantic leads opposite women like Michelle Pffeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

After his last "60's Bond" (You Only Live Twice), Connery was always a name, but rather floundered as Hollywood itself floundered in a time of reinvention. You can find Connery looking good but getting no traction in movies like Shalako(a spaghetti Western of sorts), The Molly Maguires(coal mining drama), The Red Tent(?) , and the afore-mentioned Zardoz.

And yet, his name was always big enough to make "The Anderson Tapes" a good NYC caper film(with Martin Arbogast Balsam playing a rather flamboyant gay man); Murder on the Orient Express a good all-star mystery(Connery is the biggest star, but Balsam and Tony Perkins are on that train, too), Robin and Marian(with Audrey Hepburn's return to the screen after almost a decade) a poignant romance of older age; and -- above all -- "The Man Who Would Be King" the ultimate pairing of our two great British/Scottish stars -- Connery and Caine. (Huston had planned this buddy adventure first for Gable and Bogart, then for Burton and O'Toole, and upon offering it to Newman and Redford, got from Newman: "Its got to be Connery and Caine."

Yep, its true: even in his "down" period(the 70's), Connery still got some great parts to play in great movies.

I also offer up Connery in Peter Hyams" "Outland"(1981.) Hyams had a kind of potboiler reputation, but his potboilers were also thoughtful and exciting(Capricorn One, The Star Chamber.) "Outland" is High Noon in space, and Big Sean is a figure of strength and bravery in that one.

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[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

Nothing can EVER be OT with Psycho... Psycho IS life. Only Hitch and Kubrick have that all-encompassing universality that makes it easy to tie ANY conversation or topic back to their films. He he.

It's been a tough year for Bond and Avenger's fans. Honor "Pussy Galore/Cathy Gale" Blackman died earlier this year, as did (non-Connery) Bond Girl (and another ex-Avenger girl) Diana Rigg. Michael "Drax" Lonsdale and Max "Blofeld" von Sydow also died this year. OH, incidentally, Michel Piccoli from Topaz died this year also.

Anyway, I think these are Connery's 20 Best Films:

Dr. No (1962) d. Terence Young
From Russia With Love (1963) d. Terence Young
Goldfinger (1964) d. Guy Hamilton
Marnie (1964) d. Alfred Hitchcock
Thunderball (1965) d. Terence Young
The Hill (1965) d. Sidney Lumet
You Only Live Twice (1967) d. Lewis Gilbert
The Red Tent (1969) d. Mikhail Kalatozov
The Molly Maguires (1970) d. Martin Ritt
The Anderson Tapes (1971) d. Sidney Lumet
The Offence (1973) d. Sidney Lumet
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) d. Sidney Lumet
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) d. John Huston
Robin and Marion (1976) d. Richard Lester
Outland (1981) d. Peter Hyams
Time Bandits (1981) d. Terry Gilliam
The Name of the Rose (1986) d. Jean-Jacques Annaud
The Untouchables (1987) d. Brian De Palma
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) d. Steven Spielberg
Hunt for the Red October (1990) d. John McTiernan

*The Great Train Robbery and The Wind and the Lion are pretty good, too.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Nothing can EVER be OT with Psycho... Psycho IS life. Only Hitch and Kubrick have that all-encompassing universality that makes it easy to tie ANY conversation or topic back to their films. He he.

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Aha...somebody who GETS it. Welcome, welcome! Nonetheless, I shall honor the OT devotees with those restrictive letters.

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It's been a tough year for Bond and Avenger's fans. Honor "Pussy Galore/Cathy Gale" Blackman died earlier this year, as did (non-Connery) Bond Girl (and another ex-Avenger girl) Diana Rigg. Michael "Drax" Lonsdale and Max "Blofeld" von Sydow also died this year.

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Indeed. The loss of Pussy Galore and her Bond in the same year is momentous. And Diana Rigg played the only Mrs. Bond(though not to Connery; its always been a "big miss" that Connery didn't do On Her Majesty's Secret Service.) And some villains....always all those great villains.

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OH, incidentally, Michel Piccoli from Topaz died this year also.

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I will note that in the same Xmas December of 1969, we saw TWO different "male model unknowns" attempt to fill the shoes of Sean Connery, and fail:

George Lazenby , as James Bond in OHMSS...a tough assignment, the first Bond after the REAL Bond...in Lazenby's favor, I think he came closest to Connery's SIZE.

Frederick Stafford, as "Andre" in Topaz. As I noted, I've seen drawings of Connery as Andre in wishful Topaz storyboards, I expect Hitchcock was thinking Connery when he cast Stafford. Or thinking Cary Grant. What he got was...John Gavin?

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Where Lazenby and Stafford perhaps most failed against Connery was that "certain something" that makes a superstar, and in Connery's case it was that weirdly "heroic sexual sadism" that made him a bit "forbidden fruit" in the 60's.

Its odd...all the Bonds AFTER the Connery six were made in R-rated times(but never R-rated.) And yet it is the Connery Bonds of the 60s that seem the most sexual and sadistic...they were at once a jolt to the 50's-era ending and a come-on to worldwide audiences that CRAVED that kind of content. (Psycho rather led the way on this, but Bond went the rest of the distance, particularly with sex.)

Connery's "sensual sadism" perhaps ended by the time he took on his "father roles" in the 80's and beyond...but it was part of his history(he beats up a few guys in "The Untouchables" with confidence.)

[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Dr. No (1962) d. Terence Young
From Russia With Love (1963) d. Terence Young
Goldfinger (1964) d. Guy Hamilton
Marnie (1964) d. Alfred Hitchcock
Thunderball (1965) d. Terence Young
The Hill (1965) d. Sidney Lumet
You Only Live Twice (1967) d. Lewis Gilbert
The Red Tent (1969) d. Mikhail Kalatozov
The Molly Maguires (1970) d. Martin Ritt
The Anderson Tapes (1971) d. Sidney Lumet
The Offence (1973) d. Sidney Lumet
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) d. Sidney Lumet
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) d. John Huston
Robin and Marion (1976) d. Richard Lester
Outland (1981) d. Peter Hyams
Time Bandits (1981) d. Terry Gilliam
The Name of the Rose (1986) d. Jean-Jacques Annaud
The Untouchables (1987) d. Brian De Palma
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) d. Steven Spielberg
Hunt for the Red October (1990) d. John McTiernan

*The Great Train Robbery and The Wind and the Lion are pretty good, too.

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That's a great list and it reminds us what a "long distance runner" Connery was. Given the state of the movies in 2020, I'm not sure many actors are left who will pile up that many good to great ones.

I'm also pleased to realize that I have seen all of them except The Red Tent and The Offence. I gotta correct that.

The reason I saw almost all of them is that Connery WAS a favorite movie star, and so I went out and saw most of those films first run. Others of the same type are: Hackman, Pacino, Nicholson and -- with reservations -- Eastwood and DeNiro (I'm not as much into their "star personas.")

Also interesting: you "stop" in 1990 with The Hunt for Red October and yet..Connery worked for another 13 years!

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Dr. No (1962) d. Terence Young
From Russia With Love (1963) d. Terence Young
Goldfinger (1964) d. Guy Hamilton
Marnie (1964) d. Alfred Hitchcock
Thunderball (1965) d. Terence Young
The Hill (1965) d. Sidney Lumet
You Only Live Twice (1967) d. Lewis Gilbert

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Interesting, you include all 5 of the "original Connery Bonds" on your list, but notably skip "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) and "Never Say Never Again"(1983.)

Its understandable. The "original 60's Bonds" are really when Connery AND his Bonds MATTERED. (Which is ironic given how small scale they look next to the Brosnan/Craig era Bonds.)

"Diamonds Are Forever" spent so much money on bringing Connery back -- and at such a reduced schedule of weeks on the job -- that it has a cheap, skimpy feeling to it. And it is "jokey" -- "the first Roger Moore Bond, but with Connery," someone wrote. (That said, Connery's early mano-y-mano in an elevator with a brawny brute had the danger that Moore could never get.)

"Never Say Never Again" (1983) simply neither looks nor sounds like a Bond(no "official theme music") and though it was great seeing Connery back in the role(and clean shaven with toupee -- now an "alien" look for him), the actor himself knew he had been stuck in an amateur-ville production that resulted in an overlong, anticlimactic movie (the mano-y-mano in THIS one was fun, but rather silly.)

[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

Diamonds Are Forever is "Guilty Pleasure Connery" for me, along with Never Say Never Again, Meteor and Zardoz.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Diamonds Are Forever is "Guilty Pleasure Connery" for me, along with Never Say Never Again, Meteor and Zardoz.

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Ah..I forgot "Meteor" which was famous as I recall for being AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL'S attempt at a disaster movie...a few years too late and with big names in...well, an American-International film. There can be no doubt that Connery did a few for the bucks....

Zardoz is memorable I think for its "art film" trappings(John Boorman made it) and for Connery's willingness to sexualize his near-naked male body as women had been doing with theirs for years.

Diamonds are Forever and NSNA were "for the bucks but with the wish fulfillment" of getting Connery back as Bond...and that was pretty alluring. We took what we got and liked it. One critic noted that Connery was actually more "flabby" in his 40s in Diamonds than in his 50's in NSNA. Of course, Sean Connery flabby is better than most of us, fit.

[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Some of the films Connery did with Lumet - intense psychological dramas (like The Hill and The Offence), stylish thrillers like (The Anderson Tapes and Murder on the Orient Express) - are the types of films Hitchcock SHOULD have been doing in his last years. Only Frenzy really fit the bill.

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Some trivia: Sidney Lumet paid a visit to Hitchcock's office in 1971 or early 1972 and asked if he could see any of Frenzy -- which was in editing. Hitchcock cleared a showing for Lumet in the office screening room of the rape-murder of Brenda Blaney(ONLY that scene; ONLY Lumet allowed to see it.) I wonder what thoughts coursed through Lumet's mind.

The truth of the matter is that Hitchcock WANTED to make more movies like "Frenzy"(including an EARLIER NYC movie called "Frenzy") but Lew Wasserman and Universal generally stopped that and steered him to spy movies. They allowed the British Frenzy almost as a mercy request (and weirdly, because Democrat Lew Wasserman didn't want any psycho movies being made on LBJ's Presidential watch; Nixon's coming to power "cleared" Frenzy.)

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*Murder on the Orient Express had Connery, Perkins AND Balsam in it

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That's one of the reasons I love it. Connery was a favorite star, and Perkins and Balsam were a great nostalgia act(they also did Catch-22 together.) Indeed, Lumet said his friend Connery agreed to do "Orient Express" as the "first star hired" -- and Connery BROUGHT IN all the other stars, which also included fellow Hitchcock stars Perkins, Balsam...Ingrid Bergman...and John Gielgud.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I was heartened to see news stories offering up the Bond series and The Untouchables as Connery's claims to fame. It makes sense: The Untouchables has his only Oscar winning role(heck, his only Oscar nominated role?) , and though it set up the "template" of "Sean Connery, father figure," it IS a great role on its own. SPOILERS: Connery is "the last honest cop in Chicago" reluctantly dragged into fighting not only Capone's mob but crooked Chicago cops -- though it comes as a surprise, it DOES seem inevitable that he HAS to die for his heroism. Connery dies at the end of the second act; he is sorely missed (and avenged) through the third and his performance pays off even when he is gone.

The Untouchables was my favorite film of 1987 and of the 80's, and Connery is a big part of that. (Along with the music, the muscular Panavision imagery, DePalma's under-control direction, the David Mamet script, the set-pieces, the overall cast, DeNiro's oddly disconnected cameo as Capone -- and the basic idea of "an action picture with tragic emotion.")

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Backing up to the 60's, we find that Connery both in his Bonds and in "Marnie," sold something very alluring and dangerous at the same time: the concept of a brawny man with a certain sadistic edge and a certain sexuality to his sadism. This made his love/sex scenes in the Bond films all the more landmark(here was a hero who bedded many women and killed many men AND bad women). , and his fight scenes in the Bond films all the more vicious(his mano-y-mano with Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love is savage and to the death) and...his work as a "normal" husband in Marnie all the more twisted (the man threatens the woman of his unwanted affections with jail if she doesn't marry him, and then rapes her when she refuses sex on the forced honeymoon.) Connery "got away" with all this misbehavior because he was so handsome and commanding on the one hand, and acting "on the side of good" on the other(versus international bad guys; versus Marnie's deep seated psychological trauma on the other.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

The Connery of "Marnie" sounds in the one big "asterisk" to all this, an "asterisk" I personally had to face when, in announcing my sadness over Connery's death yesterday, I was met with a female "harrumph": "It doesn't bother me...he said it was alright to slap a woman!"

The interview clip with Barbara Walters(from the 80's?) made the rounds yesterday, but seemed overwhelmed by all the honors given to "one of the last of the great movie stars." In short: he said it, but it DIDN'T MATTER.

I think it didn't matter because -- particularly viewing the clip again -- it seems to have been said somewhat tongue in cheek, there's been no woman ever come forward to accuse him of abuse(we know, in the metoo era there was plenty reason to) and Connery seems to be another one of those long-married male movie stars(the second time), who had all manner of affairs with female co-stars and other women, none of whom complained.

In the years after he gave that interview, Connery was always sought out for major movie roles, and got that loving AFI salute in 2006. The gossip press simply didn't matter to him.

Among all the photos I found of Connery on the internet yesterday, one I'd never seen was of Cary Grant with Connery in the sixties(Connery's clean shaven in toupee) and it is a very "knowing" photo: HERE are two REAL movie stars...and among the few who retired at the top, no cameo roles*, no TV. (*less an unbilled one for Connery in "Robin Hood" for Costner).

To the critic who said "Cary Grant would have tipped Matt Damon to park his car," I'll add "Sean Connery would have tipped Matt Damon to park his car...and warned him of a beating if he got a scratch on it."

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I've always loved Connery's reading of a line in "The Untouchables," as he prepares to joust on horseback with Capone's men over an open field , and as Morricone's stirring music comes up on the soundtrack. Connery grins in the face of death and says:

"What the hell, you're gonna die of SOMETHING!"

That day has come. And for me, at my age, its the end of a lifetime of watching Connery in movies. I grew up on him. He was a real movie star.

RIP.

[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

Thanks for those words, Reverend.

By the way, Connery died in the Bahamas... in bed. As the Hong Kong cop in You Only Live Twice said, "At least he died on the job." I wonder if he had Tsai Chin (aka Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu's daughter) giving him "very best duck" as a send off. I sure hope so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coeQ35dvLR4&t=10s

Another tie in: Christopher Lee (a relative of Fleming!) was originally considered to play the very Fu Manchu-like Dr. No opposite Connery in 1962. Lee did end up as a Moore-era Bond villain when he played Scaramanga in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun. Connery missed his chance to kill Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu onscreen but at least he got to bed Fu Manchu's daughter.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Thanks for those words, Reverend.

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Heh. Well, after all, the day I post this is...Sunday.

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By the way, Connery died in the Bahamas... in bed. As the Hong Kong cop in You Only Live Twice said, "At least he died on the job."

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Ha. Yes...fitting. Its interesting how both Thunderball and Help! were both "Bahamas movies" that came out in 1965, rather cementing the island as the summer home of Bond and The Beatles. I'm not sure if Connery eventually stayed in the Bahamas permanently -- I think he lived in tax-light Spain for many years.

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I wonder if he had Tsai Chin (aka Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu's daughter) giving him "very best duck" as a send off. I sure hope so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coeQ35dvLR4&t=10s

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There can be no doubt that many a young male's fantasy life was fueled by the 60a Bond pictures. For "legitimate reasons," the women as sexual fantasies have been phased out in the Craig era, but...oh to have grown up on Connery.

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Another tie in: Christopher Lee (a relative of Fleming!) was originally considered to play the very Fu Manchu-like Dr. No opposite Connery in 1962. Lee did end up as a Moore-era Bond villain when he played Scaramanga in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun. Connery missed his chance to kill Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu onscreen but at least he got to bed Fu Manchu's daughter.

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This is all news to me...and I do tend to collect it. Thanks.

I'd have to go to the IMDb trivia pages, but I think that many of the famous early Bond villains were "second choices." I recall reading that Burl Ives was almost the villain in Thunderball played by Adolfo Celi(Burl Ives...in that WETSUIT?) And Christopher Lee as Dr. No? Perhaps he had not quite shaken that "Hammer reputation" -- it seemed to be a bane for a few years before Lee could break through to "legitimate Hollywood works." (As Peter Cushing did with "Star Wars" closer to his end.)

[–] christomacin (4655) 4 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Well, this was according to Christopher Lee in some interviews... he did tend to toot his own horn a bit, although, he was apparently a relative of Fleming's. Lee had already played an Oriental criminal mastermind in the 1961 Hammer film "Terror of the Tongs".... whether that helped or hurt his chances of getting the part of Dr. No is debatable.

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This "Hammer bias" may, frankly, be my own. It seems that Cushing and Lee were so identified with those movies(starring together or apart in them) that it took a long time to see them in "regular" Hollywood OR international fare. However, both men lived long enough to get cast a LOT in such fare, particularly Lee.

As for whether or not Lee was REALLY considered for Dr. No...I don't know. When a role is "put out for bid" I suppose LOTs of actors are considered, so it was probably true.

There is also this: I loved how Blofeld went from being bald andmousy Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice to bald and macho Telly Savalas in OHMSS to...non-bald Charles Gray in Diamonds Are Forever. Then eventually Max Von Sydow and now Chris Walz...

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*Burl Ives in a wetsuit... I can't unsee that image in my mind.. lol. I can imagine Burl Ives giving Claudine "Domino" Auger his "mendacity speech" from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof during the torture scene on the Disco Volonte in Thunderball.

---Ha. I always loved how Burl Eyes could sing those "cuddly tunes" like Holly Jolly Xmas and "Ugly Bug Ball"(Disney) and..play such big, menacing men in dramas.

[–] swanstep (2715) 4 years ago

The best Connery comedy impression had to be Darrell Hammond's on SNL(back when it was funny), where he played Connery as an unintelligent, obnoxious tormentor of Will Farell's Alex Trebek on "Celebrity Jeopardy"("Ah, we meet again , Trebek!")

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/darrell-hammond-on-sean-connery-impression-the-single-most-successful-thing-i-ever-did-as-a-performer

Watching a few of the Celebrity Jeopardy segments on youtube now, it's clear that it took the segment a while to find its feet. The Connery impression gets better and better, e.g., as it melds the 'old Connery' core of the impression with a bit more 'young Sean' in the hair, etc.. Hammond and the writers only gradually learn to accentuate the madness of his being obsessed with Trabek. That worked so well because it extended Connery's memorable & enjoyable character from an otherwise dreadful '80s film, Highlander, that sooner or later almost everyone rents or sees on cable. Whereas a lot of repeated-skits on SNL wear out their welcomes fast, Celebrity Jeopardy with Connery got richer and funnier as it went along. Needless to say, people would be thrilled if SNL got Ferrell and Hammond back for one or more go arounds of the gag.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/darrell-hammond-on-sean-connery-impression-the-single-most-successful-thing-i-ever-did-as-a-performer

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Interesting article. Darrell Hammond was an ace SNL impressionist -- I daresay THE SNL impressionist -- and stayed on the show for a long, long time. If out of all of those impressions, his Connery gig was the most successful -- that is saying something.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Watching a few of the Celebrity Jeopardy segments on youtube now, it's clear that it took the segment a while to find its feet. The Connery impression gets better and better, e.g., as it melds the 'old Connery' core of the impression with a bit more 'young Sean' in the hair, etc.. Hammond and the writers only gradually learn to accentuate the madness of his being obsessed with Trabek.

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Yes, I recall watching that happen, and Hammond said that indeed, over time, he elected to create that "weird, dumb Connery" character in lieu of the standard impression. Indeed, Hammond said that he had to do Connery a little WORSE than accurate to create that dumb, Trebek-obsessed guy.

In some ways -- and this happens a lot on SNL when things "click" -- the Connery/Trebek jokes became easy to do. Always have Connery infer that he had relations with Trebek's mother; always write insulting answers about Trebek. The HILARIOUS version of that was when Connery wrote a "straight" answer, and Trebek was MOVED. Trebek: "My God...you've written a straight answer." Connery: "Well, I felt it was time to show you some respect. And I'm sorry for insulting you in the past." A pause. The two men almost hugging. Mutual respect shown. And the answer was fully revealed and it was ANOTHER , feces-based joke. And the sadistic Connery LAUGHED at Trebek. And laughed and laughed and laughed.

Indeed, Hammond created that "Connery laugh" and made IT part of the gag.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

( That worked so well because it extended Connery's memorable & enjoyable character from an otherwise dreadful '80s film, Highlander, that sooner or later almost everyone rents or sees on cable. )

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Its weird about Highlander. I always forget about it in the Connery oeuvre, and yet it got famous and yielded sequels and HAS to be one of Connery's most famous movies, even if some of us would say its a bad one. I think he appeared briefly in one of the sequels. Odd: Connery turned down "Lord of the Rings" and he turned down the Fishburne role in "The Matrix" but...he accepted Highlander?

That said, I've always felt his dark attire and beard/hair look on SNL was "Connery in Rising Sun."

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Whereas a lot of repeated-skits on SNL wear out their welcomes fast, Celebrity Jeopardy with Connery got richer and funnier as it went along.

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Yes. They "spaced it out." They also brought it back for the 45 Anniversary Special -- Hammond and Farrell were long off the show.

The sketch always spoofed SEVERAL celebrities. Hammond was a cast member, so big movie stars could come on and play OTHER movie stars -- Ben Stiller as Tom Cruise comes to mind. Former cast member Norm MacDonald did a spot-on Burt Reynolds(chewing gum, snapping off one liners.) I KNOW there were some good female ones, but I cant remember who they played. And Tom Hanks played...Tom Hanks...as a total idiot. Very funny.

I think Hammond's Connery "emerged" from all the other celebrity impressions and kept the skit going-- even as "new" celebrities would join the panel. A brilliant idea.

And this: the idea was to make some gentle fun at a truth about a LOT of our movie and TV stars. They just aren't that smart. They got street smarts and they got charisma and they get very rich, but very few could get a good grade in trig.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Needless to say, people would be thrilled if SNL got Ferrell and Hammond back for one or more go arounds of the gag.

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In real life, Connery has passed, and Trebek is fighting a super-heartening extra-rounds battle with cancer.

Ferrell and Hammond came back to do Jeopardy on the 45th Anniversary show; perhaps time will have passed to bring Connery and Trebek back on the 50th.

After all, SNL did skits about Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn long after their passing...

[–] swanstep (2715) 4 years ago

He retired in 2003 after a rather overblown CGI comic book movie called "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." He didn't much like the movie, but he was clearly its great, big, over the title anchor star. He went out on top

At the time The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was known or at least rumoured to be quite troubled. Connery and young-ish director Stephen Norrington were said to have clashed a lot. Early word was ominous.

Anyhow, the film had a huge premiere in London and (must have been a slow day!) it got maybe 10 minutes of coverage on some Entertainment Tonight-type show that I just lucked into seeing. Connery was the big star holding court on the red carpet but the director, Norrington hadn't shown up, and there was clearly a bit of tension about this. Several actors were asked why the director wasn't there. In effect, various reporters were a bit too gleefully and aggressively probing for dirt on the production's problems while all the actors were just trying to be professional and not talk down their movie, etc.. Connery as the big dog had a bit more freedom to speak out than the other actors and pushed back against a few reporters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQCi8OhjIIo
The video unfortunately doesn't capture what happened a little further down the line. Connery got to the guy who was asking everyone about the director and, as I remember it, the following exchange occurred:

Reporter: Mr Connery, your director's not here tonight. Where is he?
Connery: Have you checked the local lunatic asylum?

It'd be funny line from anyone, but in Connery's voice and with his (slightly testy/feisty that night as you can see from the previous video; very Danny from Man Who Would be King actually) not-missing-a-beat timing it gave me one of the biggest belly-laughs I've ever had from a recorded live source. I *still* chuckle about it from the memory.

[–] swanstep (2715) 4 years ago

Vulture.com has an article arguing that without Sean Connery's Bond the the quippy action-heroes of the '80s and beyond (to Tony Stark at least) never happen:
https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/sean-connery-is-the-reason-we-have-action-movie-wisecracks.html
I'd say that Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief and, especially, NbNW is *the* action-quipster prototype (as well as being the prototype for Bond's looks-good-in-a-suit-side....and we know that Grant was courted for Bond to further cinch this point). But the author has a point in that the decade-long reign of Connery's Bond definitely was *so* huge and profitable that it really did cement the quipster-actioner as a cornerstone genre for the movie business. And in Bond's immediate wake you get The Man from Rio (w. Jean-Paul Belmondo), In Like Flint (w. Coburn), Matt Helm movies (w. Dean Martin), various attempts to do Lady Bond-types, Man from Uncle and Get Smart on TV, and on and on. Sometimes a star is just someone who makes a lot of people in the biz. a lot of money and there can be no doubt that Connery's Bond made directly and indirectly a lot of people rich, paid a lot of mortgages and for kids' educations, and so on.

BTW, thinking about it now, the darker side of Connery's Bond seems to me to pick up on a strand of cruelty that's there in Grant's earlier roles for Hitchcock (and that also floated around below the surface in earlier superficially-comic films like The Awful Truth). In Suspicion and Notorious Grant is the dashing, almost too-good-looking guy who's definitely capable of being cruel to you and who *might* kill you (if you're a woman). Connery's action-quipster Bond in this way combines a couple of different phases of Grant's screen-persona.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

The video unfortunately doesn't capture what happened a little further down the line. Connery got to the guy who was asking everyone about the director and, as I remember it, the following exchange occurred:

Reporter: Mr Connery, your director's not here tonight. Where is he?
Connery: Have you checked the local lunatic asylum?

It'd be funny line from anyone, but in Connery's voice and with his (slightly testy/feisty that night as you can see from the previous video; very Danny from Man Who Would be King actually) not-missing-a-beat timing it gave me one of the biggest belly-laughs I've ever had from a recorded live source. I *still* chuckle about it from the memory.

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The video alone is well funny enough and does seem to capture the Connery I've read about(only read about)...no nonsense, assertive in his old age (notice how much he accosts the reporters as "kids" or as he more famously called younger executives, "boys".) Word is that Connery was really, really tired of the non-professionalism of the new breed of "pop director" and simply decided to quit after "LXG" (as it was called in comic circles.) Of course, you can also say that he was just a Mean Old Man.

A male relative and I traded "Connery showbiz stories" back and forth over the years. Just as with all those Hitchcock bios, where we could feel we were in the office or at home with Hitch...these "Connery tales" were vicarious "you are there" fun. For instance, Connery was ALWAYS on time for conference calls and personal meetings(versus Robert Redford, famously an hour late for everything.) And in some call with Superagent Mike Ovitz on a movie proposal, Connery looped in a younger agent and said "me and the boy here think this script is s...t.") Ovitz almost fired the younger agent, but Connery made the movie("Just Cause") because the director was an art dealer friend of Ovitz(or Connery.) And Connery and the boy were RIGHT. .I've seen Just Cause.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

It remains interesting to me that Connery quit in 2003 after LXG, and Gene Hackman quit in 2004 after "Welcome to Mooseport"(a perfectly minor comedy, neither good nor bad.) Both born in 1930, both seemed tired of the whole thing -- and more than rich enough to care.

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood -- also born in 1930 -- has gone on and on, and while I do hope he takes a lead role after 90, his star power is considerably reduced and -- less his Leone and Dirty Harry movies -- I don't think he is as entertaining a movie star as Connery or Hackman. (There, I said it -- here come the arrows.) Not crazy about a lot of his cheapjack directorial efforts, either -- though obviously some were very good, too.

PS. Connery's anger over the LXG director extended backwards to the PRODUCER of "Never Say Never Again." Connery contended that one reason the movie was so long and boring was that "the producer doesn't know what he's doing." Evidently director Irvin Kershner (off of Empire Strikes Back and an old Connery movie called A Fine Madness), did. Still , production dragged on forever.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Vulture.com has an article arguing that without Sean Connery's Bond the the quippy action-heroes of the '80s and beyond (to Tony Stark at least) never happen:
https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/sean-connery-is-the-reason-we-have-action-movie-wisecracks.html

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I'll take a look at the article, but I buy the premise "as is," agreeing with you below:

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I'd say that Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief and, especially, NbNW is *the* action-quipster prototype (as well as being the prototype for Bond's looks-good-in-a-suit-side....and we know that Grant was courted for Bond to further cinch this point).

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There you go. I(and you, and others) have felt that the James Bond movie really combined the action, characters (hero, villain and henchmen, sexy heroine) and structure of NXNW with the casino scenes in To Catch a Thief. I would add that Grant's general grumpiness in To Catch a Thief -- his loner affect, his war killer past -- shows up in Bond, too. I daresay when Eon made Dr. No in 1962, they were grateful for the "Hitchocck template" to make their first movie as much as for the Fleming novels. Grant WAS courted for Bond(I believe he said he'd do one and no more) as was Vandamm himself, James Mason. The smart play (as later with Dirty Harry and Superman) was to go with a younger man(Eastwood) or an unknown(Chris Reeve.) So it was here with the younger, semi-unknown Connery.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

But the author has a point in that the decade-long reign of Connery's Bond definitely was *so* huge and profitable that it really did cement the quipster-actioner as a cornerstone genre for the movie business.

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Its funny. The 60's -- I am thinking -- brought us at least two crazes: the spy movie and TV show(from Bond) and the mega musical(from The Sound of Music.) Blockbusters ALWAYS generate knock offs, and TV in particular was having fun doing "cheapjack backlot Bond."

But the megamusicals eventually ran aground(though I love Paint Your Wagon) and the spy craze sank like a stone. I think folks forget that the Roger Moore Bonds really rather "propped up the franchise" by making mini-versions of Shaft, Enter the Dragon, Jaws, and Star Wars in the 70's -- they weren't REALLY spy movies anymore.

Sidebar: age and time and health helped bring Hitchcock down, but I daresay NOTHING sank him more than the Bond series. It was NXNW with a lot more sex(bikinis and lingerie) and more violence. Bosley Crowther of the NYC panned "Torn Curtain" saying "with James Bond out there, Hitchcock is going to have to do a lot more than this to compete" -- and Hitchcock did not WANT to compete. "North by Northwest" was "one and done."

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

And in Bond's immediate wake you get The Man from Rio (w. Jean-Paul Belmondo), In Like Flint (w. Coburn), Matt Helm movies (w. Dean Martin),

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I will note that given that James Bond was a "British production," the American knock offs of Matt Helm(especially, with ol' Dino slumming) and Flint were conspicuously silly and kid-oriented(even with bikinis.) It was as if American studios just didn't know how to do Bond "funny but serious" as Connery did it. (Bond shoots villain with spear gun, says "Well, he got the point." Somehow it WORKS.)

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various attempts to do Lady Bond-types,

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I was watching one the other night on streaming called "Deadlier Than the Male." Kim Novak's then-husband Richard Johnson is a passable Bond type(he's playing the famous Bulldog Drummond), the great Nigel Green is the villain(but alas, with poor dialogue and a ridiculous death.) But the selling point is Elke Sommer(blonde) and Sylvia Koscina(redhead) as va-va-voom female assassins and the effect is just right(wouldn't you prefer to be spear-gunned by two women in bikinis?) Not a good movie, but Bondian enough.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Man from Uncle and Get Smart on TV, and on and on.

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I contend that America "got Bond right" better on TV than at the movies. The Man FROM UNCLE, The Wild Wild West and I Spy provided weekly adventures that belied their cheapness with great dialogue, famous guest stars, gorgeous women, and good fight scenes. (I Spy also got location footage around the world.) And these were VICIOUS shows. It was before Congress sanitized TV, and the bad guys usually DIED hard, not off to jail for them.

Get Smart had fun with all this -- and it co- creator Mel Brooks would blossom later.

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Sometimes a star is just someone who makes a lot of people in the biz. a lot of money and there can be no doubt that Connery's Bond made directly and indirectly a lot of people rich, paid for a lot of educations, and so on.

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"Hard headed Scot" Connery got this early -- resented it as he realized how much the Bond movies were making off his work -- and henceforth drove very hard bargains with both the Bond producers and other fillmakers, forever and ever right up to LXG. (He did some indie work for Sidney Lumet, though.)

Watching the "old man" Connery fending off those interviewers("You from the National Enquirer? News of the World? How old are you? I've been workin' my ass off around the world that long.".) one is reminded that when he was young and Bond, he was subjected to Beatles-level chasing and hounding by rabid fans, female and male alike. Those last LXG interviews were probably just good clean fun to the man.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

BTW, thinking about it now, the darker side of Connery's Bond seems to me to pick up on a strand of cruelty that's there in Grant's earlier roles for Hitchcock (and that also floated around below the surface in earlier superficially-comic films like The Awful Truth).

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Yes, Hitchcock rather "discovered" Grant's dark side, but it was always there. Conversely, Grant turned Hitchcock DOWN a lot...and seemed to gravitate to the roles that DID explore his dark side more.

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In Suspicion and Notorious Grant is the dashing, almost too-good-looking guy who's definitely capable of being cruel to you and who *might* kill you (if you're a woman). Connery's action-quipster Bond in this way combines a couple of different phases of Grant's screen-persona.

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Agreed. Grant is possibly a killer in Suspicion, a very cruel man in Notorious(til he comes round at the end) and deadly beneath his grumpy exterior in To Catch a Thief. Hitchcock also explored this male cruelty with Stewart in Rear Window and Vertigo, but Stewart's aging looks always distracted a bit -- Grant could make a woman swoon for him AND menace her.

Came the sixties, Hitchcock was done with Stewart(less the non-romantic "Blind Man" role never filmed) and tried but could not get Grant for Marnie and Torn Curtain. His attention shifted to younger men and -- seeing Connery in Dr. No -- Hitchcock GOT it. HERE was his next "cruel, handsome lover man." (Paul Newman in Torn Curtain also treats Julie Andrews like crap for about an hour, but he's faking it -- Connery was the real deal.)

Growing up, my parents and folks like them tried to warn me off two directors -- Hitchcock and Wilder -- as both made "kind of sleazy movies about not very nice people." All these years later I realize those parental types were right about those movies but -- hey, we can't help but watch them.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

It is dangerous ground upon which to trod, but "one hears" that women sometimes like that "bad boy" too. Hitchcock's didn't wear leather jackets and ride motorcycles, but in their suits and ties(and often with their wealth), they often projected a kind of sexual menace that women...might fantasize about?
We're talking the range from "ignoring women" to "dominating women."

All that said, Cary Grant in North by Northwest wasn't really all that "dark." He's rich, he's a ladies man, he's twice divorced he's...self absorbed. And he does say to Eve Kendall late in the game "I may go back to hating you, it was more fun." But he is a good egg, overall, a hero waiting to be tested, discovered and loved.

Its Cary's nicest Hitchcock role...

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

BBHH: Bond, Beatles, Hammer, Hitchcock. Many of the sensibilities of modern cinema (and music) came from British influences.... add the Spaghetti Westerns from Italy/Spain/West Germany in for good measure.

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Yes...I would note that none other than Alfred Hitchcock followed this "international trend" after such All-American films as Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Torn Curtain was set largely in East Germany(the Germans were imported to Universal in LA, though.) Topaz mixed Universal locales with location work in Copenhagen, Paris, NYC, and DC(Cuba was doubled in California). Frenzy was purely a British production, purely filmed in London and environs. Hitchcock saw the "international cinema" as where he had to be..rightly or wrongly. Only for his final film, Family Plot, did Hitchcock return to America -- and he refused to say WHERE in America( a fictional city and a fictional town filmed in both LA and SF.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Back on the Connery watch:

There are several freeways in the city where I live, and two of them had big "mobile billboards" with Sean Connery's RIP on them ("Sean Connery 1930-2020"). One had Connery against a dark background "as he was near the end"(bald, beard, white hair.) The other had Connery as Bond. With hair.

These new-fangled billboards can be programmed on a daily basis, several ads appear for about 30 seconds each and rotate to the next. But that Connery got his moment is reflective that he was a "national figure" in America, and in his home based of Scotland, and around the world. A very big name, and indeed, one of the Last Movie Stars.

Interesting: Connery's final film(LXG) was 17 years ago, but it seems like only yesterday.(Cliché patrol!) Like Cary Grant before him (who retired astonishingly young at 62; Connery was 73)...Connery lived on in our minds as a major star, an "untouchable" if you will, and always one we hoped would come back "just one more time." Like Grant, Connery wisely did not.

LXG was on the other night, and I watched it. The CGI is indeed way too much, but as summer movies(from a "graphic novel") go...the premise was good: a "Magnificent Seven" (or Avengers, or Dirty Dozen) composed entirely of famous literary figures (Captain Nemo, The Inivisble Man, Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray..Tom Sawyer?) and led by Alan Quartermain(Connery.)

Most impressive: Connery at 72 "sold" a number of fight scenes where he believably fist-fought and defeated varlous foes...he sold his height and his size and his anger and...for a 72-year old man...obviously had to do some strenuous physical movement work to pull this off. Connery went out as an ACTION HERO(and with both his beard AND a toupee, looking great.)

Interesting, one of the team was Lina Harker from "Dracula" -- now a "heroine" with the capacity to "turn vampire" and rip out the throats of her foes. A "good bad girl." Plus --one of the team turns traitor.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

SPOILER: At the end of LXG, Connery is stabbed and dies slowly. You can say that's a fitting end to a career but...African natives bury Connery under a haze of resurrection mumbo-jumbo, and the last shot of the film suggests...Connery will return.

A nice thought.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

A little more:

For Connery to end up on billboards in 2020 reflects a level of stardom that few achieve in Hollywood.

I reviewed Connery's 70s films and he indeed seemed to struggle in projects like The Red Tent, The Next Man, and The Terrorists (remember them? I don't.) Meanwhile Robert Shaw parlayed Jaws into The Deep and Black Sunday and Avalanche Express and Swashbuckler(well that last one's rather campy.)

But Connery held on. Even in the 70's, his brand was powerful enough to make a different in "mini-classics" like Orient Express(where he is clearly the starriest star) and with his friend Caine in "The Man Who Would Be King."

I've noted before that a slew of 70's male movie stars all collapsed as leading men -- Elliott Gould, George Segal, Ryan O'Neal, Jon Voight -- but a few survived, Nicholson, Pacino and DeNiro among them. Well -- Connery survived too ...and went back FURTHER than Nicholson et al.

And this: Connery made his name as the first James Bond, and has ended up the only Bond who got superstardom outside the role -- but those Bond movies aren't really very good as MOVIES, are they? Overlong, lumpy in the narrative structure, silly in the jokes..none of them at the quality control level of North by Northwest. (The music for the "boats" climax of From Russia With Love sounds like a bad B movie, even as the rest of FRWL is actually a pretty good thriller. But the helicopter chase is a weak copy of Hitchcock's crop duster)

And yet: the Bond movies proved more than good enough, and blockbusters which, in the Connery era , brought a heavy dose of sex, violence and sadism -- "all for King and Country" to movie screens everywhere.