OHMSS and Dracula

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  • Incidentally, though Lee might have been too young to play Blofeld in OHMSS, and looking nothing at all like the bald baddie in YOLT, it would have been good to see him on skis, swooping down the slopes like a flying Dracula...
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 14,800
    Incidentally, though Lee might have been too young to play Blofeld in OHMSS, and looking nothing at all like the bald baddie in YOLT, it would have been good to see him on skis, swooping down the slopes like a flying Dracula...

    Lee's age in contrast with Lazenby's would have been perfect. And at 47 at the time, although a bit younger than the novel's Blofeld, he would have been the same age as Savalas. But I guess the departure would have been too far from YOLT in the eyes of many. Savalas looked far more dangerous than Pleasence, but he was balding so people could buy they were the same character.
  • Posts: 2,887
    The Dracula connection is intriguing, but a more direct inspiration for Blofeld is Count Schlick [as suggested by Craig Arthur from the Commander Bond forum, to whom I'm indebted for finding the following quotes]. Schlick dates from the young Fleming's time in Kitzbuhel. As Pearson wrote in his Fleming biography:

    "[Fleming] invented an endless story about Graf Schlick, the local lord of the manor who lived in the big castle at the end of the valley, and had him committing the most terrible crimes and perpetuating unspeakable tortures. At the end of one of these stories, when the Graf had performed multiple villainies upon some unprotesting virgin, retribution caught up with him." [He contracted leprosy from her.]

    Lycett gives more detail in his own Fleming biography:
    "[Fleming] was fascinated by the exploits of the local aristocrats, the von Lambergs. The Graf (or Count) Max von Lamberg had a formidable reputation for drinking and womanizing. While his wife and three children lived in the family castle, a sugary Gothic confection called the Schloss Kaps, Graf Max camped out in a nearby chalet with a blonde mistress who worked in the photographer's shop and who was consequently known as the Photo-Grafin. Count Max's exotic sister, Paula, was a close neighbour in the Schloss Lebenberg. She was an artist and sportswoman, widely known as the best female ski-jumper in the world. She married a Czech adventurer who adopted the name 'Count Schlick' and who started the first ski club in Kitzbuhel. Schlick ran through her money, but not before introducing her to motor racing which led to her death. She was competing with her husband in a race in Salzburg, when she mysteriously fell out of the carand was killed. Local gossip had it that she was pushed by Schlick who, having inherited her castle and land, methodically sold it off piece by piece. Ian liked to concoct stories about the evils perpetuated by Schlick, including graphic details of tortures the Count devised."

    Though Blofeld is less of a playboy than Schlick, he is also a wicked aristocrat (or self-styled aristo at least) plotting evil in Teutonic mountain hideout.
  • Posts: 14,800
    Both are not mutually exclusive. And the resemblances between the novels' plots are what interest me here.
  • Posts: 14,800
    Another interesting thing: ghost stories and basically horror stories in general (as ghost stories used to be synonymous with all kinds of horror stories) were traditionally published at Christmas and they were often set during Christmastime (something we now forget with Halloween being the holiday of the supernatural). Dracula might have been published in May and was not set during Christmas, but OHMSS certainly is and thus can be seen as a nod to the genre as a whole.

    Something both novels have in common as well is a strong connection to food and nourishment. Of course Bond is often gluttonous in all his novels, but since Blofeld wants to destroy livestocks, the theme is particularly important here. In Dracula, we have Jonathan Harker describing his meals in details, Renfield eating live animals and of course the vampire's diet.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,535
    By the way, Bram Stoker was explicitly mentioned by Fleming in chapter 8 of YOLT... And here we also have the Castle were Blofeld lives...
  • edited November 2014 Posts: 4,622
    The Fleming OHMSS and Stoker's Dracula parallels are apt. They are there. Good catch.
    Fleming I think was influenced by Stoker's work, especially as he was familiar with the classic vampire tale, and did, as pointed out, even once reference the author in his own YOLT.
    The YOLT Blofeld castle oozes Dracula imagery.

    As an aside, fans of Stoker's original work, might be interested in the "offical sequel" penned by his nephew, Dracula Un-dead (2009) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_the_Un-dead

    A readable spin on the original tale, although purists might find the spin to be a little too adventurous.

  • Posts: 14,800
    I have read some reviews. Even the positive ones made me want to not read it.
  • edited November 2014 Posts: 4,622
    I liked it. It was a good read. Decent page turner. I read the original Stoker, way back.
    If one doesn't like the way the sequel plays out, one can just ignore it. It's a continuation novel after all.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,535
    It has been mentioned in another thread. This is from YOLT:

    "Bond was now getting drowsy. It was four o'clock and the horizon of jagged grey, porcelain-shingled roof-tops was lightening. He poured down the last of the sake. It had the flat taste of too much. It was time he was in bed. But Tiger was obviously obsessed with this lunatic business, and subtle, authentic glimpses of Japan were coming through the ridiculous, nightmare story with its undertones of Poe, Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce. Tiger seemed unaffected by the lateness of the hour. The samurai face was perhaps etched in more sinister, more brutal lines. The hint of Tartar, tamed and civilized, lurked with less concealment, like a caged animal, in the dark pools of his eyes."
  • Posts: 14,800
    It makes perfect that Ian Fleming, in many ways a XIXth century writer (even though he was born eight years after its end), pays homage to Gothic writers of the XIXth century.

    Oh and how could I have not mentioned it: Dracula is a Count, so is, or so he claims to be, Blofeld, as Comte de Bleuville. On their own, each every one of these similarities mean nothing, or very little. But as a whole, it seems to me that Dracula inspired OHMSS.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I have to admit this is something I'd never thought about before, but I'm sure Fleming read Dracula. and may have subconsciously used elements from it.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,535
    Stoker could be an influence but also don't forget that in 1958, Fleming's cousin became... a Count! :D

    Christopher-Lee-Dracula-006.jpg

    ... with great success!
  • Posts: 4,622
    Ludovico wrote: »
    It makes perfect that Ian Fleming, in many ways a XIXth century writer (even though he was born eight years after its end), pays homage to Gothic writers of the XIXth century.

    Oh and how could I have not mentioned it: Dracula is a Count, so is, or so he claims to be, Blofeld, as Comte de Bleuville. On their own, each every one of these similarities mean nothing, or very little. But as a whole, it seems to me that Dracula inspired OHMSS.

    I am sold. You keep bolstering the case. Never caught this on my own, even though I had read Stoker. Well done!
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,535
    Well, this is interesting... or just a coincidence.

    Now that you have made me reread Dracula ;) :D (my pleasure, of course), I have found something funny. When the Demeter arrives in England, Stoker mentions the poem Casabianca and, guess what...

    Fleming did mentioned Casabianca in Moonraker!

    Probably nothing, but this is the place to mention it...
  • Posts: 14,800
    I don't think it is coincidence, although whether or not it was conscious is debatable.
  • Posts: 4,622
    I don't think its coincidence either. Fleming it seems did have interest in Stoker.
  • edited November 2014 Posts: 6,432
    Deconstructing Dracula it was very much a metaphor for the unknown, the destabilizing of English society or emphasising its perceived corrupt underbelly so to speak. Certainly commented or alluded to the change of woman's role in society of the time. Recurring themes in Bond.
  • Posts: 14,800
    I am bumping this thread again. Christopher Lee died not so long ago and as SP is getting closer to be released, I think it is fitting.
  • Posts: 14,800
    Bumping this thread again as Christmas is coming. And I have another similarity between the two and a striking one:

    In both novels the hero and the villain don't confront each other directly until after the hero escape the villain's lair. This is also a major difference between OHMSS novel and movie.
  • Posts: 613
    Donald E. Westlake's second story treatment for Tomorrow Never Dies opens in a mausoleum in Transylvania, and Bond first appears rising from a coffin! (The Westlake treatments were detailed in MI6 Confidential #32).
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,729
    Escalus5 wrote: »
    Donald E. Westlake's second story treatment for Tomorrow Never Dies opens in a mausoleum in Transylvania, and Bond first appears rising from a coffin! (The Westlake treatments were detailed in MI6 Confidential #32).

    You've reminded me that I really need to read that article. I ordered this issue a while back.
  • gumboltgumbolt Now with in-office photocopier
    Posts: 153
    And of course Blofeld's Angels of Death may be inspired by the female vampires, hypnosis replacing a good nibble on the neck. I'm tempted to dust down my old school copy of Dracula and read it with OHMSS again.
  • Posts: 14,800
    gumbolt wrote: »
    And of course Blofeld's Angels of Death may be inspired by the female vampires, hypnosis replacing a good nibble on the neck. I'm tempted to dust down my old school copy of Dracula and read it with OHMSS again.

    Vampires in general and Dracula in particular have hypnotic power over their victims. It's kind of fitting that this is what Blofeld uses to spread another kind of disease around the Europe.

    It is also not coincidental that OHMSS is one of the very few novels when Bond falls in love and the only one when he gets married. As if his persona and background adopts Harker's.
  • gumboltgumbolt Now with in-office photocopier
    Posts: 153
    Maybe THAT is why Diana Rigg famously ate garlic during filming of OHMSS - all the damn vampires!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    gumbolt wrote: »
    Maybe THAT is why Diana Rigg famously ate garlic during filming of OHMSS - all the damn vampires!

    Haha, good one.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,729
    gumbolt wrote: »
    Maybe THAT is why Diana Rigg famously ate garlic during filming of OHMSS - all the damn vampires!

    Haha, good one.

    Seconded. Damn sharp, @gumbolt! :)
  • Posts: 14,800
    Yes funny. She could have been a great Mina, when she was younger. Well, circa OHMSS actually.
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