EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE

“A James Bond Festival”
In the days when James Bond could only be seen in cinemas there were a multitude of prints of each film in circulation of varying quality. Many of the 35mm prints had been shipped around the country and became damaged through continued use. This meant that the Bond films could look completely different depending on where you saw them. The version of The Spy Who Loved Me shown in Aberdeen could be faded, spliced and even missing frames when it finally ended up in Bristol. Film was regarded as a commodity and it was unusual for new prints to be struck unless they were classics being re-released theatrically, or prestigious art films screened at the National Film Theatre.

The James Bond Festival returned to the London Pavilion for another two weeks from Thursday January 22, 1981. The prints used for this festival were struck from the original negatives and looked far better than any others screened since the films initial release, although by now the venue itself was looking decidedly shabby.

“No one comes close to James Bond 007”
For Your Eyes Only screened for the press on the morning of Tuesday June 23 at the ODEON Leicester Square, and then had its Royal Charity Premiere on the evening of Wednesday June 24, 1981 in the presence of Prince Charles with his fiancé Lady Diana Spencer and Princess Margaret. Also attending were stars Roger Moore, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover, Geoffrey Keen, James Villiers and main title singer Sheena Easton. Director John Glen, Executive producer and co-screenwriter Michael G. Wilson, and main title designer Maurice Binder also attended the premiere. Invited celebrity guests included Michael & Shakira Caine, and director Bryan Forbes accompanied by his actress wife Nanette Newman.

Cassandra Harris also attended the For Your Eyes Only premiere with her husband Pierce Brosnan. It was Israeli actor Topol who suggested to producer Albert R. Broccoli that he should also invite his former partner Harry Saltzman and the pair were reunited for the first time in several years. Harry Saltzman attended with his children Hilary (1962-2019) and Christopher (1967-1991). The For Your Eyes Only premiere was one of Saltzman's first public appearances following the death of his wife Jacqueline in 1980. Following the release of Dr. No in 1962, producers Broccoli & Saltzman founded a company responsible for the copyright and trademarks to the characters, elements, and other material related to James Bond on screen. The company was called DANJAQ, a combination of Broccoli & Saltzman's respective wives’ names Dana and Jacqueline. Their sister company EON Productions was responsible for the actual production of the films. In 1975 Harry Saltzman's personal financial difficulties forced him to sell his 50% share of DANJAQ to United Artists.

For Your Eyes Only was seen by the public from Thursday June 25th and set an all-time opening-day record for any film at any cinema in the UK with a gross of £14,998, continuing to play at the ODEON Leicester Square for 11-weeks following its Royal Premiere, and also at the ODEON Marble Arch for 12-weeks from Thursday August 20, 1981. Roger Moore's fifth James Bond film then had a 16-week run at the Classic cinema in Oxford Street from Thursday September 3, 1981, and a 6-week engagement at the Ritz in Leicester Square from Thursday November 12th. For Your Eyes Only finished its West End run with a 4-week engagement at the Plaza Lower Regent Street, playing in the 181-seat screen 4 from Saturday December 26, 1982.

On Friday May 27, 1983 a special anniversary documentary was broadcast on the ITV television network in the UK. James Bond: The First 21 Years, was made by London Weekend Television and featured clips from the first 12 James Bond films, but was ostensibly designed to promote the upcoming release of Octopussy. The one-hour programme featured many former Bond film actors and celebrities, including Paul McCartney, and US president Ronald Regan singing the praises of fictional super spy 007 as if he was a real person!

“James Bond's All Time High”
The 13th film in the official series was screened for the press on the morning of Monday June 6, 1983 at the Plaza cinema, Piccadilly Circus. Octopussy then had its Royal World Charity Premiere at the ODEON Leicester Square later that evening. The premiere was attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, stars Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan (pictured below with his wife Berte), Kirstina Wayborn, Kabir Bedi, Vijay Amritraj, Walter Gotell, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, producer Albert R. Broccoli, director John Glen, and executive producer/co-screenwriter Michael G. Wilson. Octopussy main title designer Maurice Binder, singer Rita Coolidge and lyricist Tim Rice. Also attending was Chaim Topol who had played Milos Columbo in For Your Eyes Only (1981). This Israeli actor was currently in London undertaking rehearsals for the revival of the stage musical Fiddler On The Roof at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, where which he reprised his starring role as Tevye. Among the invited celebrity guests were The Man With The Golden Gun title singer Lulu, For Your Eyes Only villain Julian Glover, along with Wimbledon tennis champion John McEnroe, popular entertainer Cilla Black, and broadcasters David Frost and Terry Wogan. ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘You Only Live Twice’ lyricist Leslie Bricusse was also invited to the Octopussy premiere, and with Hollywood stars Tom Selleck and Liza Minnelli, also attended the after-show party at the Kensington Roof Gardens, celebrating 21 years of James Bond in the cinema. Although he had briefly returned to London to score Octopussy, composer John Barry did not attend the premiere because at this time he was a UK tax exile, and living in New York. Returning to the series after a one-film absence, John Barry remained loyal to the EON series and had turned down the offer to score Never Say Never Again (1983).

After nine days at the ODEON Leicester Square the film had broken the house record taking £113,704. After the first five weeks playing exclusively at the ODEON Leicester Square Octopussy had taken £426,773, which was then an all-time record for any film that played there. Octopussy transferred to the Empire 2, Leicester Square from Wednesday August 17, 1983, and then opened at the ODEON Marble Arch the following day where it played in a 70mm version on the largest cinema screen in the country. Both cinemas retained Octopussy until Thursday December 8, 1983.

“Double Double-O-Seven”
Although billed in the press as ‘The Battle of the Bonds’, Sean Connery’s comeback as 007 in Never Say Never Again didn’t really amount to a battle at the cinema as the films were never really in direct competition in the UK. Octopussy screened across the country from June to December 1983; whilst Never Say Never Again didn’t open in London until Wednesday December 14, 1983 (it had opened in the USA on October 7, 1983). However, the presence of a rival James Bond film clearly concerned EON Productions and United International Pictures, then distributors of the Bond films in the UK.

A week before the opening of Never Say Never Again a triple-bill of Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only and Thunderball opened at the 1,330-seat Empire 1 cinema, Leicester Square, which then had a huge screen (60 feet wide by 25 feet high). The print of Thunderball was struck from the original negative in 1979 and was a clear signal to the makers of the rival film that although Roger Moore was the ‘official’ James Bond, it was Sean Connery in the same series that made the Never Say Never Again story first! Only one print of Thunderball was in circulation at that time, so at the ODEON Marble Arch Diamonds Are Forever was substituted in its place. A unique quad-crown poster was created for this exclusive Empire Leicester Square engagement utilising the Roger Moore For Your Eyes Only poster pose, but with a redrawn generic face. These quads would only be displayed at the Empire and in the London underground, so are among the rarest of all James Bond posters.

Never Say Never Again was first shown in London on the morning of Sunday November 13, 1983 at the Warner Theatre, Leicester Square. The special screening, at the invitation of distributors Columbia-EMI-Warner, was essentially for crew members prior to the films UK release. The print screened included the uncut version of the scene where Bond, with Domino, ride a horse over the parapet of the fortress where 007 has been kept prisoner by Largo. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals took exception to the scene on the grounds of alleged animal cruelty, as the horse is clearly seen hitting the water from a great height. The RSPCA persuaded the British Board of Film Censors to cut the film before its release in the UK. Under the provision of the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937, an 8-second cut was made remove a shot which contains cruel treatment of a horse. All subsequent UK prints of the film (including home media releases and TV screenings) feature a re-edited version of this scene removing the horse hitting the water and using an alternate angle of the animal swimming away safely. Also, in the scene where Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) knocks Bond off the Q motorbike and instructs him to throw his Walther P5 to the ground, the sound effect on the preview print made the gun sound like it was a child’s hollow plastic toy hitting the ground; in all subsequent prints the sound effect was changed to make it sound like a heavy metal firearm had been tossed on to the concrete floor.

As part of its West End run Never Say Never Again screened for eight weeks at the Studio 4, Oxford Circus from Friday December 16, 1983; also playing at the 616-seat ABC 1, Shaftesbury Avenue and 328-seat Classic 1, Tottenham Court Road for six weeks. Never Say Never Again also played for six weeks at the 491-seat Classic 1, Haymarket until Friday January 27, 1984, when it transferred to the smaller 222-seat screen 3 for a further three weeks.

“James Bond will return”
From the heights of ‘Bondmania’ two decades earlier when around 12,000 prints of Thunderball were in circulation across the world, the last remaining one suitable for cinema exhibition was junked in 1984. There was one last release of Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only which a had three-week run in London at the 378-seat Plaza 2, Piccadilly Circus from Friday August 24, 1984. The double-bill had already briefly played at the Classic 1, Oxford Street and Cinecenta, Panton Street in the last week of December 1983. This final pairing had a very limited release in provincial cinemas in early 1984, and did not prove as successful as earlier revivals as both films were already available to rent on video.

From the spectacular post-war high of 1.64-billion admissions in 1946, UK cinema attendance gradually declined to an all-time low of just 54-million in 1984. With most films already available to rent on video (and bootleg copies of the films easily obtainable if you knew the right/wrong people), the golden age of cinema-going was coming to an end. Although each subsequent James Bond film has had a Royal Charity Premiere in London and initial release across the country, it is the home cinema market which now accounts for much of the series’ continued success.

From the early 1980s, video became more popular and affordable and TV screenings of the films increased in their frequency. Hardcore Bond fans could own flawless (by the standards of the day) copies on laserdisc – with making-of documentaries and rare behind-the-scenes material. The advent of DVD and subsequently Blu-ray and more recently 4K UHD, means that fans can now enjoy their favourites in a quality that far exceeds how the films looked on their original release in cinemas. Free from scratches, tears, missing frames and the well-remembered end of the reel snowstorm… but that was part of the fun, wasn’t it?

...in part two of this exclusive article

...and also in a new and exclusive article looking at the studio
that brought James Bond to the big screen...

©007 MAGAZINE 2021
Part one first published February 25, 2016
Updated version first published June 23, 2021

 FACT FILES