The James Bond Chronicles: 'Living Daylights' Ushers in Dawn of Dalton Era

Big Hollywood ^ | by Lawrence Meyers

[Perdogg]

The exit of Roger Moore from the James Bond franchise opens the door to better films, a return to espionage plots and an outstanding new lead.

[devolve]

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Terrible mistake/mismatch in the unbelievable early ‘car chase’ in Goldeneye

A vintage Aston Martin DB5 against a modern Ferrari 355 GTS

A classic scene would have been to use a red Ferrari 308 GTS - already very well known from the Magnum PI TV series - and a more even match to the DOHC straight 6 in the DB5

As Ian Fleming was big on have the James Bond Bentley’s in his novels fitted with superchargers - fitting the old vintage DB5 with twin turbochargers (common on many swift modified foreign cars today and in the ALMS racing and rally series cars - and even on the Ford F150 V6 ‘Ecoboost’ engine would nearly double or even exceed double the horsepower and torque of Bond’s aging DOHC straight-6 engine)

Producers and Techies - Get a clue.....

The Jaguar Type-E nearly became James Bond’s movie car - I believe the director drove his personal E-Type Jag to the set every day - but Jaguar muffed the deal for some dumb reason -

LITTLE KNOW 007 FUN-FACT STUFFEROO:

For filming of “Die Another Day” the Aston Martin Vanquish and the Jaguar XKR were both fitted with Ford Boss 302 V8 High-Performance engines and also 4WD drivelines from Ford SUVs/trucks for the snow and ice chase scenes

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[abb]

Encore network has been running the Bond films this month. They’ve been remastered and done in HD. They really look good on a wide-screen TV. Lots of depth in the scenery.

[Loud Mime]

For those of you who are unaware of the link between Sir William Stephenson and Ian Fleming, read the linked article. It's good beer talk.

[Erik Latranyi]

I despise Daniel Craig.

He has no charm.

He looks like he could play the live-action version of Charlie Brown......I mean, he is balding!

[devolve]

[GSP.FAN]

I watched it yesterday with the kids,i really enjoyed it.

I gotta disagree with you on the Afghanistan part loved the scenery and the fight on the plane is excellent stunt work,not fond of heights and that stunt always gets me going.

[Impy]

It is a great shame Dalton’s tenure was so short. He was great, loved both his movies. He is probably the best actor to play Bond (Connery is great but he usually plays Connery). His Moneypenny was much better than Bronsnan’s (she seemed to have a creepy dynamic with him). Craig should take a page from him.

I love Goldeneye already (easily Brosnan’s best) but it would been even better with Dalton, for whom it was written.

As time passes I like Brosnan less and less.

I agree the biggest problem with TLD was the villian confusion. Joe Don Baker (who played a Felix Lieter substiute in later films) as the arms dealer with the wax figurines of himself dressed like Hitler and Napoleon was super lame. The Soviet General played by Jeroen Krabbe should have remained the primary focus. There were also a couple zingers that they obviously wrote for Moore.

Bond working with the Mujahadeen is funny post 9/11.

Too bad Walter Gotell was too sick. I’d like to see Bond rip his girlfriend’s shirt off. ;d Rhys-Davies was good though.

[al_c]

Did not like this film at all. It didn’t seem like a Bond movie to me.

[ReformationFan]

“Saw TLD the day it was released in 1987 at a late showing. The crowd was raucous, to say the least. Alas, it was the last Bond film that had that classic feel to it. Dalton was great, though it’s too bad he didn’t begin the role a decade earlier when Rog was clearly getting long in the tooth (although he could’ve started as early as ‘69 in OHMSS, he probably was too young — though he was the calibre of actor he could’ve easily and credibly inhabited the role for 25 years or longer).”

Agree. Thanks for sharing the memory.I saw it on opening weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. It really redeemed the series for me after Roger Moore’s tired and lackluster finale with “A View To A Kill”(he should’ve ended his Bond career with the much better “Octopussy” instead IMHO). I thought Dalton was terrific and figured he’d be playing Bond every other year until 1999. Alas, it was not to be. But TLD is still the best of the post-1960s Bond films.