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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - 12/18/69 The Last Great James Bond Movie Premiered (40 years ago)
12.18.09 | Perdogg

Posted on 12/17/2009 3:08:00 PM PST by Perdogg

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To: Perdogg

One of my favorites...


41 posted on 12/18/2009 5:59:32 AM PST by Guenevere (....)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Wow - I’ve watched Gettysburg a half dozen times and never noticed! Cool - thanks for pointing that out!


42 posted on 12/18/2009 6:07:25 AM PST by meowmeow (In Loving Memory of Our Dear Viking Kitty (1987-2006))
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To: omega4179

Did you notice all of Bond’s clothing was from Slazenger?


43 posted on 12/18/2009 6:34:06 AM PST by Perdogg (Sarah Palin-Jim DeMint 2012 - Liz Cheney for Sec of State - Duncan Hunter SecDef)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Interesting. I never knew Goldfinger’s voice was dubbed.


44 posted on 12/18/2009 8:25:57 AM PST by yarddog
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To: SJSAMPLE
The slide on the Beretta (?) is locked back.

Should be a Walther PPK.

45 posted on 12/18/2009 10:55:22 AM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

Bond showed a preference for the Beretta as early as “Dr. No”. Remember, he was forced by “Q” to take the Walther.

Something about the slide and barrel say “Beretta”, but I could be wrong.


46 posted on 12/18/2009 11:00:01 AM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SJSAMPLE; buccaneer81

Sorry, it was “M” that force the Walther upon Bond.


47 posted on 12/18/2009 11:00:57 AM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SJSAMPLE; buccaneer81

Looking at it again, it could be a PPK.
I thought the trigger guard had more of a taper, but the early models might not have.


48 posted on 12/18/2009 11:07:11 AM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: SJSAMPLE; buccaneer81

In Novel, Major Boothroyd gave Bond a S&W Airweight as well.


49 posted on 12/18/2009 11:21:01 AM PST by Perdogg (Sarah Palin-Jim DeMint 2012 - Liz Cheney for Sec of State - Duncan Hunter SecDef)
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To: Perdogg

An interesting and surprisingly little known fact is that Major Boothroyd was a real person and that was his real name.

He wrote Fleming, telling him how much he enjoyed his first Bond novel. He corrected Fleming’s designation of the Beretta as something like 6.75mm, as a .25 was really 6.35. He also told Fleming that a real OO7 would not have used a .25.

It turned out that a friend of Fleming at Holland & Holland had already corrected him on the .25 caliber but had not mentioned the Beretta as unsuitable. Fleming wrote Maj. Boothroyd and asked for a good suggestion of a spy’s gun and the Major wrote him back with the PPK in .32 idea.

To Major Boothroyd’s embarrassment, Fleming described the .32 as “hitting like a brick through a plate glass window.” as of course Boothroyd knew it was no powerhouse.

They became friends and Major Boothroyd said that Fleming, while not knowledgeable on guns was an excellent shot.

There is more to the story but I am tired of typing.


50 posted on 12/18/2009 12:18:42 PM PST by yarddog
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To: yarddog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_firearms

When Ian Fleming wrote the first of the James Bond novels, Casino Royale, he had no idea the direction in which the stories would go, let alone how many he would eventually write. So when he introduced Bond as using a Beretta 418 in a flat chamois leather holster he probably didn’t think too much about it. He had used a .25 ACP Baby Browning during the Second World War when he was in Naval Intelligence and felt it was an appropriate side arm for a secret agent on an undercover mission.

Shortly before the publication of From Russia, with Love in 1956, Fleming received a fan letter from an author and gun collector, Geoffrey Boothroyd. He told Fleming that he admired the Bond novels apart from the hero’s choice of weapon. Boothroyd felt the Beretta 418 was “a lady’s gun” with no real stopping power.[1] He also objected to the choice of holster. Boothroyd proposed that Bond should use a revolver like the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight. It had no external hammer, so it would not catch on Bond’s clothes. The Smith & Wesson could be kept in a Berns-Martin triple draw holster held in place with a spring clip which would decrease Bond’s draw time. Boothroyd also said the suppressors Bond occasionally used were rarely silent and actually reduced the gun’s stopping power.

Fleming thanked Boothroyd for his letter and made a few points of his own in his reply. He felt that Bond ought to have an automatic instead of a revolver; perhaps Boothroyd could recommend one? Fleming agreed that the Beretta 418 lacked power, but pointed out that Bond had used more powerful weapons when necessary, such as the Colt Army Special he uses in Moonraker. Fleming also said that he had seen a silenced Sten gun during the war and the weapon had hardly made a whisper.

Unless Fleming was describing a pistol and not a revolver under the dash in Bond’s car in the first and third novels, “Colt Army Special .45” is a misnomer. Colt did produce a double action revolver early in the twentieth century that was given the name “Army Special,” but Colt built that revolver on what it called its .41 caliber frame, first introduced in 1888 as the “New Army and Navy.” Colt released a smokeless powder version in the early 1900s, now called the Army Special, a name Colt continued until it released the Official Police model in the late 1920s, typically chambered in .38 Special or .32-20 Winchester, but never in .45 caliber. That large caliber was restricted to Colt’s New Service, first released in 1905, and the Colt Shooting Master, issued in the 1930s.[1]

Ultimately Boothroyd recommended the Walther PPK 7.65 mm as being the best choice for an automatic of that size, with its ammunition available everywhere. He suggested, however, that 007 ought to have a revolver for long-range work. Fleming asked Boothroyd if he could lend his illustrator Richard Chopping one of his guns to be painted for the cover of From Russia, with Love. Boothroyd lent Chopping a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver that had the trigger guard removed for faster firing.

Fleming had Bond’s Beretta caught in his holster at the end of From Russia, with Love, an event that almost costs the secret agent his life. In the next novel, Dr. No, a Major Boothroyd recommends that Bond switch guns. Major Boothroyd chose the Walther PPK 7.65mm after testing the Walther PPK, the Japanese M-14, the Russian Tokarev, and the Sauer M-38.

Bond is issued a Walther PPK but is told to carry it in a Berns-Martin triple draw holster, which is designed only to carry revolvers. This mistake was possibly due to an error in Fleming’s notes, transposing the Walther PPK for the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight. However, Fleming lore says that Fleming had bought such a holster and had it sent to Jamaica, making this error all the more puzzling. It has been argued over the years that Q-branch could have modified this legendary holster to accommodate automatics, but this is unlikely- the design of the holster was centered around the cylinder of a revolver, where the spring clip would “grip” the pistol.


51 posted on 12/18/2009 12:29:37 PM PST by Perdogg (Sarah Palin-Jim DeMint 2012 - Liz Cheney for Sec of State - Duncan Hunter SecDef)
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To: Guenevere; SJSAMPLE; omega4179; Larry Lucido; fieldmarshaldj; Clemenza; buccaneer81; Impy; ...
Since we have 22" of snow in the Metro Washington DC area, I have decided to post all of the major James Bond Ski/Snow related scenes. Enjoy. btw, don't get any ideas about Sophie Marceau, she's mine! ;)

Escape from The Piz Gloria

Bond 77

Snow Job-California Girls-5 Days to Alaska-Main Theme

Car Chase - Brace yourself

Black Knight to White Bishop

Ice Bandits

Invisible Car Ice Chase
52 posted on 12/19/2009 12:36:15 PM PST by Perdogg (Sarah Palin-Jim DeMint 2012 - Liz Cheney for Sec of State - Duncan Hunter SecDef)
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To: Perdogg
LOL, post away!

My husband was out shopping, and a store manager heard about the heavy snow in DC and flipped her lid...

..she lit in about Obama and the mess he has made and was just furious...!!!!...as she goes, so goes the nation....tip of the iceberg.

53 posted on 12/19/2009 3:18:45 PM PST by Guenevere (....)
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To: Perdogg

Gupta in TND is loosely based on Bill Ayers. ;)


54 posted on 12/20/2009 12:22:26 AM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN | NO "INDIVIDUAL MANDATE"!!!!!!!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; Perdogg

I don’t know I like Neill in that short screen test. I think that might have worked.

Brolin would have been horrid. I can see him now, slipping in and out of a terrible accent. He wasn’t married to her yet of course and the OHMSS theme didn’t have lyrics but just imagine Streisand singing a Bond theme. ;d


55 posted on 12/20/2009 12:31:44 AM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN | NO "INDIVIDUAL MANDATE"!!!!!!!)
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To: Impy; Perdogg

No, but I could picture Streisand as a henchman. The love child of Col. Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt.

BTW, as a sad trivia factoid, the actress that played Blofeld’s henchwoman Irma Bunt, Ilse Steppat, died of a heart attack only 3 days after the premiere of OHMSS on 12/21/1969, 40 years ago Monday.


56 posted on 12/20/2009 1:50:01 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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