James Bond 007 - Fireball

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Movie
German title James Bond 007 - Fireball
Original title Thunderball
Logo thunderball de.svg
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1965
length 130 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Terence Young
script Richard Maibaum ,
John Hopkins
production Kevin McClory
music John Barry ,
theme song: Tom Jones
camera Ted Moore
cut Ernest Hosler
occupation
synchronization
chronology

←  Predecessor
James Bond 007 - Goldfinger

Successor  →
James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice

James Bond 007 - Fireball (original title Thunderball ) is the fourth part of the Eon Productions Ltd. produced the James Bond series. The last time the film was directed by Terence Young , the role of MI6 agent James Bond is cast by Sean Connery . The film grossed more than 140 million US dollars worldwide and was the most successful film in the series until it was released by Skyfall in 2012 , adjusted for inflation . It was the second James Bond film to receive an Oscar after Goldfinger . The film opened in German cinemas on December 17, 1965.

In 1983, a remake, Say Never Never, was released in cinemas that was not produced by EON Productions.

action

Bond exposes and kills Jacques Bouvar, disguised as a grieving widow, an agent of the Phantom crime organization ( SPECTER for Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) after his pretended funeral in Bouvar's villa. Thereupon he flees from Bouvar's henchmen with the help of a rocket backpack and his Aston Martin DB5 .

The leading men of the criminal organization under the leadership of Ernst Stavro Blofeld meet at the Phantom headquarters in Paris . Phantom intends to extort a ransom of US $ 280 million from the United Nations under the direction of Emilio Largo . In order to carry out the plan, Phantom member Graf Lippe has stayed in a hotel near a NATO base in southern England . Coincidentally, Bond is in the same hotel relaxing. Lippe tries to kill Bond on a stretch bench to which he has previously been tied for medical purposes by turning the device on to full power. However, Bond only passed out and survived the attack.

Shortly afterwards, Lippe, together with his mercenary Angelo and the Specter assassin Fiona, kills the NATO pilot Francois Derval and steals his ID, so that the mercenary, whose appearance has been approximated by cosmetic operations to that of the man who was killed, can be brought to the NATO base without any problems can penetrate. There he boards a plane of the type Avro Vulcan , the two atomic bombs is equipped, kill the crew and flies the machine to Largo. There Angelo, because he suddenly demanded a significantly higher fee shortly beforehand, is killed by Largo after the order has been fulfilled, and the atomic bombs are brought on board Largo's yacht.

In his room, Bond sees people entering the hotel with a corpse at the same time. He pursues them and finds the pilot's body on the stretch bench. He is nearly killed by a phantom agent, but manages to overpower him and turn on the fire alarm.

The next morning, Bond leaves his hotel for an MI6 neighborhood. This leads to a chase with Graf Lippe, who wants to kill Bond. However, since Lippe had recently been accused by Blofeld of jeopardizing the company by choosing Angelo, Fiona was hired to kill Lippe. On a motorcycle she shoots Lippe's car off the street, which is why Bond ultimately survived the chase. In the quarters, Bond learns of the loss of the atomic bombs. The Phantom Organization is demanding that if they fail to do so, it threatens to destroy a city in the United Kingdom or in the United States with the atomic bombs. Based on a photo of Francois Derval and his sister Domino, Bond decides to contact her. He meets her while diving in Nassau , where the photo was taken, and goes out to eat with her. In the evening, Bond visits a casino and meets Largo, whose lover is Domino. Largo and Bond know each other and play baccarat against each other . Largo invites Bond to his Palmyra country house .

The CIA agent Felix Leiter and Bond meet Q in Nassau . He equips Bond with a Geiger counter in the form of a wristwatch , an underwater camera that can take infrared images at night, a miniature flare gun and several miniature air cylinders that are supposed to replace a defective compressed air cylinder .

During the night, Bond tries to measure radioactivity on the Disco Volante , Largo's yacht , because he suspects the atomic bombs there. However, he cannot confirm this. On the way back to the hotel he is picked up by Fiona, who lives in the same hotel.

During a flight, Bond and Leiter explore Largo's estate and discover a shark tank with golden grotto sharks. Bond then accepts his invitation.

That night, Bond breaks into Largo's house. However, Largo's men notice the break-in and there is a duel between Bond and an enemy man, with both falling into the shark tank. Largo closes this with an electrically extendable cover and chases the sharks on both of them. Bond kills his opponent and, with the help of his miniature air bottle, escapes through a tunnel into the basin from which the sharks came. From there he comes back to land undetected.

In his hotel room, Fiona waits for Bond, who first spends a night of love with him, but then threatens him with a gun and, with the help of some men, wants to bring him to Largo. But Bond escapes when he sets the car, which is stuck in a traffic jam, on fire with a bottle of liquor and disappears in the crowd of carnival . He is shot in the leg, and the criminals follow his blood trail to a nightclub . Largo's men want to shoot Bond from a hiding place there, while Fiona dances with him so as not to cause a stir. But they don't meet him, but Fiona, whom Bond had asked to dance. Fiona dies and Bond manages to escape.

While searching for the hijacked plane and ladder, Bond discovers the camouflaged Avro Vulcan near Largo's estate. Bond dives after her, takes Angelo's identification tag and wristwatch from the dead Angelo as evidence of the death of Domino's brother, and establishes that the bombs have disappeared. Hoping that Domino knows about the whereabouts of the nuclear weapons, he visits her and can persuade her to work against Largo.

Meanwhile, Bond goes on board the Volante disco , which is supposed to charge the bombs. While the bombs are being reloaded, Bond is exposed by Largo, who sets his men on him. He managed to escape, but was locked in a storage room under water. Back at the Volante disco, Largo realizes that Domino is working against him, ties her up and tries to torture her. Before that, however, Dr. Kutz, who brings him to arm the nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Bond finds himself in a bay. There he sends a signal to a helicopter with a ladder on it and is brought on board by him. Several combat divers jump into the sea from an airplane, who use harpoons and diving knives to fight the enemies, who are also underwater and similarly equipped. Shortly afterwards, Bond, who jumps out of the helicopter, comes to the aid of the allies. Together they can defeat the enemy.

Kutz frees Domino from his chains. Bond goes on board the Disco Volante at the same time . There it comes to a fight between him and Largo, who receives support from his men, with Bond bringing the boat to top speed. The followers of Largo can be defeated quickly, but after a bitter fight Largo defeats Bond and is planning to kill him when Domino suddenly appears and shoots him with a harpoon. At the last moment, Bond, Domino and their rescuer escape from the boat before it crashes against a rock.

Now in the middle of the sea, an airplane throws Domino and Bond off a life raft and rope that is tied to a helium balloon . Both attach themselves to it and take off due to the plane that catches the rope .

production

controversy

Fireball was originally intended as the first episode of a planned television series or as a stand-alone film. For this project, Ian Fleming worked on the short story and script with writers Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham . When the idea of ​​a series was dropped, Fleming took over the story and built it up into a novel . The book was then published in 1961 as the ninth James Bond novel. At the beginning only Fleming was given as the author. His co-authors sued him, which led to the fact that not Fireball was made as the first Bond film, but Dr. No .

As a result of the lawsuit, McClory and Whittingham were named as co-authors in later editions of the novel, although Fleming continued to be the lead author. In addition, McClory received the filming rights. After the commercial success of the first three James Bond films, the producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman , who owned the filming rights to the other James Bond titles (except Casino Royale ), agreed with Kevin McClory on the filming of Fireball . This was due to the production process and the distribution of the profits of the film by Eon Productions Ltd. involved. In return, McClory was banned from filming this story for ten years.

After that deadline in 1975, Kevin McClory began planning a remake of the story. Up until the remake, Never Say Never in 1983, McClory on the one hand and the producers of the James Bond series and United Artists on the other faced each other in court proceedings . Since then, McClory has repeatedly tried to produce a new version and also to sell the rights assigned to him.

occupation

Sean Connery had signed a contract in 1961 to direct a James Bond film every year from 1962 to 1967. So he was also available for fireball .

Several well-known actresses were considered for the role of the Bond girl Domino. Producer Albert R. Broccoli's first choice was Julie Christie , who got his attention with her appearance in the film Beloved Spinner . But after he met her, Broccoli was allegedly no longer convinced of her and instead favored Raquel Welch , who he had noticed on the cover of the October issue of Life magazine in 1964 . Apparently Welch was also offered the role, but she decided to shoot the film The Fantastic Journey instead of Thunderball . For a while it looked like Faye Dunaway was playing dominoes, but she decided on another project too. A number of lesser-known actresses were also considered, including Maria Grazia Buccella , Yvonne Monlaur , Mary Menzies and Gloria Paul . Ultimately, Claudine Auger got the role. Parts of the script had to be rewritten to give Domino a French origin instead of the Italian one. Even so, her voice was dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl in the film. In the underwater scenes, Evelyne Boren acted as a double for Claudine Auger.

Luciana Paluzzi, who was also eligible for the role of Domino, was given the role of villain Fiona Kelly. Since Paluzzi is Italian, the name of the character she played was changed to the Italian Volpe.

The Italian actor Adolfo Celi was signed as Bond's opponent Emilio Largo. He was also dubbed due to his strong Sicilian accent, by Robert Rietty.

Rik Van Nutter was hired as the third actor of the CIA agent Felix Leiter. He was dubbed in the finished film.

Martine Beswick can be seen in the role of Paula Caplan. After appearing in Greetings from Moscow , she is now playing her second role in a Bond film.

Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee and Desmond Llewelyn appear again as Moneypenny, M and Q.

title

The title of the film was taken from Ian Fleming's novel of the same name. In the film, the name of the operation to recover the nuclear warheads is Fireball .

Filming and locations

The privately owned Villa
Rock Point in northern New Providence was used as the filming location for Largo's Palmyra estate .

The shooting took place from February 16, 1965 to July 9, 1965.

The film was shot in the following countries:

Gadgets

  • The Aston Martin DB5 Bond car that was already used in Goldfinger ; however, this version was equipped with a stern water cannon, which was neither mentioned nor used in the previous film
  • In the opening sequence, Bond uses a rocket backpack (Bell Textron Jet) to escape from an estate
  • Tracking pill : When Bond swallows this (radioactive but harmless) pill , it sends out a signal that can only be received by a specific device
  • Mini oral air tank: When this small device is placed in the mouth, it delivers air underwater for about four minutes
  • Wrist watch with built-in Geiger counter
  • High-tech compressed air tank with attached propeller drive and harpoon function
  • SLR camera with infrared film for underwater pictures and built-in Geiger counter

Film music

The title song should first be interpreted by Johnny Cash , who composed his title Thunderball and included motifs from the film in the text. After choosing the song sung by Tom Jones , the cash track remained unreleased until 1995.

Then a song called Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was intended as the theme song and had already been recorded. The melody of the song still appears in the film as the melody that Bond and Fiona dance to. In addition, the club in which Bond flees from Fiona is called "Kiss Kiss Club" in the film. The text version was sung by Dionne Warwick and was previously only included on the 1992 CD Best of Bond.

The soundtrack first appeared on LP on United Artists Records in 1965 . In the 1980s, the first CD pressing was released by EMI. After the 40-year James Bond anniversary, a revised version was released by Capitol Records in 2003. The Extended Version contains extended pieces of music from the original soundtrack, which were cut away due to the limited capacity of the LP.

Original edition (1965/1984)

  1. Thunderball (02:50)
  2. Chateau Flight (02:26)
  3. The Spa (02:40)
  4. Switching The Body (02:45)
  5. The Bomb (05:42)
  6. Cafe Martinique (03:42)
  7. Thunderball - Instrumental (04:16)
  8. Death Of Fiona (02:39)
  9. Bond Below Disco Volante (04:12)
  10. Search For Vulcan (02:32)
  11. 007 (02:30)
  12. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (02:45)

Extended Version (2003)

  1. Thunderball - Main Title (03:03) sung by Tom Jones
  2. Chateau Fight (02:31)
  3. The Spa (02:42)
  4. Switching The Body (02:48)
  5. The Bomb (05:45)
  6. Cafe Martinique (03:45)
  7. Thunderball (03:57)
  8. Death of Fiona (02:31)
  9. Bond Below Disco Volante (04:05)
  10. Search For Vulcan (02:24)
  11. 007 (02:27)
  12. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (03:18)
  13. Gunbarrel / Traction Table / Gassing The Plane / Car Chase (04:43)
  14. Bond Meets Domino / Shark Tank / Lights Out For Paula / For King and Country (08:18)
  15. Street Chase (03:23)
  16. Finding The Plane / Underwater Ballet / Bond With SPECTER Frogmen / Head To The Rescue /… (10:15)
  17. Underwater Mayhem / Death of Largo / End Titles (10:21)
  18. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (02:41) Mono sound recording

In Germany, Alan Corb sang a German version of the theme song under the title Feuerball as well as a German version Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang .

synchronization

The film was dubbed by Ultra Film Synchron GmbH in Berlin.

role actor Voice actor
James Bond Sean Connery Gert Günther Hoffmann
Domino Derval Claudine Auger Rose-Marie Kirstein
Emilio Largo Adolfo Celi Martin Hirthe
Fiona Volpe Luciana Paluzzi Margot Leonard
Felix Head Rik van Nutter Michael Chevalier
Count Lippe Guy Doleman Rainer Brandt
Patricia Fearing Molly Peters Marianne Mosa
Paula Caplan Martine Beswick Uta Hallant
M. Bernard Lee Konrad Wagner
Moneypenny Lois Maxwell Lola Luigi
Q Desmond Llewelyn Harald Wolff
Vargas Philip Locke Christian Rode
Ladislav Kütze George Pravda Heinz Engelmann
Janni Michael Brennan Hans Walter Clasen
Angelo Palazzi / Major Francois Derval Paul Stassino Horst Niendorf
Ernst Stavro Blofeld Anthony Dawson Wilhelm Borchert
Phantom No. 5 (England) Philip Stone Friedrich Schoenfelder
Phantom No. 11 (USA) Murray Kash Wolfgang Lukschy

The film was changed in the German dubbing at the point where Bond includes Graf Lippe in the steam bath, so that Bond trills a funny song when he leaves. In the original he doesn't, but according to the film's English audio commentary, the producers had indeed intended to have Connery sing a song. This was finally omitted because of the character portrayal of Bonds.

premiere

The first showing of the film took place on December 9, 1965 in Tokyo. The official premiere took place in the United States on December 21, 1965 at the Manhattan Paramount Theater in New York.

The premiere of the film in the United Kingdom took place on December 29, 1965 as a so-called "double premiere" at the same time in the Pavilion cinemas in Piccadilly Circus and Rialto in Coventry Street in London.

The film was shown in German cinemas from December 17, 1965.

publication

The film ran for the first time on German television on May 1, 1985 at 8:15 p.m. on ARD.

Aftermath

Financial success

The budget for the film was an estimated $ 9 million. The film was a huge commercial hit, grossing over $ 141 million worldwide, including about $ 63.5 million in the United States alone.

Contemporary reviews

“Bond adventure drawn out with lots of underwater fights. Although the hero loves and kills on Her Majesty's behalf again this time, the events are much more unrealistic than in the more skillfully designed predecessors. "

“Despite the usual Bond ingredients - cruelty, sex and technical superlatives - and a lot of effort, this film lags behind the previous ones in terms of tension and perfection. Our fundamental objections, however, remain. "

Spiegel was not entirely satisfied with the film either. 007 is said to have "shrunk to a comic strip figure" and, in contrast to the novel, the plot is not exciting. In contrast to the two previous films from the 007 series, in which "the technically sophisticated but possible Bond death made the appeal of the brutal revue", the director here "parodied the Bond scam itself - and thus tension in ( un) voluntary comedy shot. "

Awards

The film received the 1966 Oscar for best visual effects. It also won the Laurel Award for Best Action Drama.

Others

English logo of the film
  • The solo-for-UNCLE reunion film The Fifteen Years Later Affair got the title Thunderball in Germany in 1983 .
  • In Germany in 1965 a movie poster in which Sean Connery shot an opponent with a harpoon was banned. The reason was not the representation of violence, but the bikini of a Bond girl was too small. As a result, the cleavage was shown only slightly smaller in order to achieve approval.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for James Bond 007 - Fireball . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2004 (PDF; test number: 34 952 V / DVD).
  2. Steve Rubin, Siegfried Tesche: The background story to 25 years of Bond . 2nd Edition. Kino Verlag, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-89324-026-8 , p. 77 .
  3. Biography for Mary Menzies. IMDb , accessed June 4, 2013 .
  4. a b James Bond 007 - Fireball (1965) - Trivia. IMDb , accessed June 4, 2013 .
  5. a b c d e f g Production Notes - Thunderball. In: mi6-hq.com. Accessed June 1, 2013 .
  6. Evelyn Boren. Retrieved June 4, 2013 .
  7. imdb.com
  8. a b Box office / business for James Bond 007 - Fireball. IMDb , accessed June 4, 2013 .
  9. ^ Siegfried Tesche: The great James Bond atlas. Wissen Media Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-07305-9
  10. Johnny Cash's Unused Theme Song for James Bond's Thunderball That Eric Alper , March 23, 2015
  11. ^ Johnny Cash - The Man In Black, 1963-1969, Plus Bear Family Records , 1995
  12. James Bond 007 - Fireball. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
  13. a b Release dates for James Bond 007 - Fireball. IMDb , accessed June 1, 2013 .
  14. YEAR 1980–2000. Retrieved February 18, 2018 .
  15. James Bond 007 - Fireball. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 7, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  16. Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 484/1965
  17. Am Himmelshaken , in: Der Spiegel No. 53/1965 of December 29, 1965, accessed online on October 3, 2019
  18. a b Welt am Sonntag : James Bond is ready for a museum. NRW, p. 15, No. 46, WS, November 11, 2012.