h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The James Bond Films - 1962-1967 - A781139
Author: Danny B. [Still harping on about the Musicians' Guild (U150368)] - U182633

This is the first part of a four-part series. I was going to submit it as one Entry and let the subeditor worry about splitting it but the finished product would have been *huge*, so I've split it myself.

There was also the possiblity of turning it into a University project, but there are already a number of excellent James Bond entries in the Guide, so I've simply kept it as a series of linked articles.

The rest will follow as and when they're finished...

Good so far.

One quibble:

"With the help of his allies, Quarrel - John Kitzmiller in something of a groundbreaking role as a black man who was not only one of the good guys, but brave and loyal with it - and Honey Rider (Andress), who makes a living collecting and selling valuable sea shells, Bond must discover who is behind the plot and stop it, as the Americans are soon to attempt to put a rocket in orbit of the moon." - erk! Can you split this up a bit? Or at least make the punctuation consistent (both actors in brackets or after dashes, not a mixture).

More as I read the other articles ...

Gif

'Erk' indeed

How about:

"Bond must discover who is behind the plot and stop it, as the Americans are soon to attempt to put a rocket in orbit of the moon. In Jamaica, Bond acquires two allies: Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) - something of a groundbreaking role as a black man who was not only one of the good guys, but brave and loyal with it - and Honey Rider (Andress), who makes a living collecting and selling valuable sea shells."

Hi Danny,

I'm going to start wading my way through all these entries, so bear with me. This is fantastic stuff by the way.

1. The section 'One False Start' has the following para: 'By this time Broccoli and Saltzman had purchased the rights to ... Kevin McLory's name pops up several times throughout the history of the Bond films.'

I think this would be better mentioned at the beginning of the Thunderball section - it's too much info early on when all you really need to mention here is that McLory worked on an unused script.

2. Under Dr No, you write: '...it was difficult to see anyone else playing the role, a problem that the producers would eventually face.'

How about 'a problem that would come back to haunt the producers later on.'

3. From Russia With Love

'Again, the film remains close to the original, although in the film the villains are working for SPECTRE, rather than for Soviet intelligence's SMERSH5 organization.'

A little confusing. Maybe 'although, as before, SMERSH5, the villainous organisation from the novels, was swapped for SPECTRE.'

You go on to describe how the film begins, though to be accurate, the film begins with a marvellous double bluff as Bond is seen to be killed only for him to be revealled to be a look-alike in the villains' training operation. Might be too much to add in though

'The film also sees the first appearance of SPECTRE leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is never seen and is ...'

Again, confusing. How about 'The film also introduces SPECTRE leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, though his face is not seen and he is...

4. You Only Live Twice
Might be worth mentioning that YOLT was only decided on as the next picture very late on - originally the next one was intended to be OHMSS (the novel of YOLT follows on from the ending of OHMSS, with Bond avenging the death of his wife - basically the sequence that opens Diamonds are Forever)

5. James Bond Will return in...

Just a stylistic thing, the bullet points could be written as if continuing the header, so they would read:

The second part of this entry, which looks at the story of the James Bond films from 1969 to 1979.

The third part, which covers the Bond story from 1981 to 1992.

... and the fourth part, which takes the story from 1994 ...


Superb, Danny. Off to have a look at the next one...

Jimster

I used to know nothing about Bond except that I always watch the films when they're on TV.

Now I probably know *too* much!

Great entry, plenty of depth, interesting behind-the-scenes stuff.

Wow!



- Jimi X

Wow, Jimster, you really *have* read it all!

Anyway, I've put in the comments on Part I. On to Part II...

And Jimi - sorry about the information overload

Danny B.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations. A very fine read. I had much pleasure reading all these yesterday. I'm glad you thought The Spy Who Loved me was one of the tops as it is one of my fave Bond Films too.

Congrats on the others too. You might find they've been picked by some mysterious scouty type people too

Oh damn wrong article to put some of those comment

Orcus!

I hope you haven't used up all your picks on these articles - I knew there was another argument for writing it all as one gigantic Entry

' hope you haven't used up all your picks on these articles '

Er... well...couldn't very well have one picked and not the others now could we

Anyway, I was struggling to find much else I liked this time and there are four so I've had to leave one for someone else...

Much obliged

(And the third one's just popped up on my email as well )