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Blofeld...why oh why...

ThomasCrown76ThomasCrown76 Augusta, ks
in Bond Movies Posts: 757
Watching diamonds are forever--the weakest of the Connery bonds--and I am wondering what convinced guy Hamilton to cast Charles grey as blofeld. He gives off no menace, no threat whatsoever. It's like casting Jerry Lewis as the joker. I hate the guy Hamilton bonds.

Comments

  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,330
    Do what I do, pretend Grey's Blofeld is Henderson from YOLT passing himself off as Blofeld to hide the real Blofeld's identity. :))
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Charles Gray could play menacing, but I think as the mood of the film was basically
    Light comedy. The actors must have been told to play it light, as everyone's having
    Fun?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited October 2015 Posts: 17,804
    Thunderpussy wrote: »
    Charles Gray could play menacing, but I think as the mood of the film was basically
    Light comedy. The actors must have been told to play it light, as everyone's having
    Fun?

    Yes, Guy Hamilton the director of DAF (and later TMWTGG) told Christopher Lee to play it lightly and have fun as the villain Scaramanga (source: John Brosnan's James Bond in the Cinema, 1981, 2nd ed.) so I assume that he simply told Charles Gray the same thing as regards Blofeld.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Although, Christopher Lee's performance is fantastic, I wonder how more
    Menacing he could have been! if he wasn't playing it light. :))
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,804
    Thunderpussy wrote: »
    Although, Christopher Lee's performance is fantastic, I wonder how more
    Menacing he could have been! if he wasn't playing it light. :))

    Indeed, many say that Lee is the best thing in the film (and Roger Moore aside) it's hard to disagree with that!
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I'd be one, not my favourite Bond film but Lee is brilliant, infact I think
    Charles Gray could have made a wonderfully unhinged Blofeld.
  • ChevronChevron Northern Ireland
    Posts: 370
    Reading this thread makes me want to watch Hammer's The Devil Ride's Out again. Christoper Lee for once is the good guy and Charles Grey is the bad guy who gets the wonderful line, "I will not be back... But something will..." So he can do menacing.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    edited October 2015 Posts: 15,423
    Apparently, no one has seen Charles Gray's Hammer films (but the good chap up there) or his episodes from the Danger Man series where he plays utterly menacing characters. Did someone actually forget he also played Mycroft Holmes in Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes series?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I think that's the point we're making he could be menacing but was
    probably told by the director to play it for laughs.
  • SpectreNumberTwoSpectreNumberTwo
    edited October 2015 Posts: 389
    OK here I go, Blofeld through history (MOVIES only)
    Blofeld is the uber Bond villian IMHO, the best versions of Blofeld are I believe in FRWL & TB because he's never seen so maintains that threat of anominity, YOLT we see Blofeld & he's a characture, Donald Pleasance does his best but he's not very scary, then we get OHMSS, we see Blofeld again but with a new face which is fine, in fact in this movie, Telly Savalas actually was the best part of it so go figure, then we get Charles Greys version in DAF which given the overall feel of the movie fitted quite well as it's very camp/kitsch so Blofield is not menacing "Right Idea Mr Bond", "But wrong pussy".
    Forgeting FYEO we get to SP & Waltz is sly but very threatening, quite good really despite the dodgy script & back story. In fact I'd really like to see him back with a more expanded role.
  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    Posts: 4,554
    Charles Grey wasn't supposed to be menacjng. Heck...was anyone? Maybe the henchman who threw Plenty out the window (I didn't know there was a pool down there is a classic line). No, the whole film was pure camp.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 14,824
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Thunderpussy wrote: »
    Although, Christopher Lee's performance is fantastic, I wonder how more
    Menacing he could have been! if he wasn't playing it light. :))

    Indeed, many say that Lee is the best thing in the film (and Roger Moore aside) it's hard to disagree with that!

    Maybe Lee played Scaramanga as he wanted and to hell with Hamilton's request. He was like that, no nonsense.

    Regarding Charles Gray he was very menacing in The Devil Rides Out, against... Christopher Lee playing a good guy.
  • MayDayDiVicenzoMayDayDiVicenzo Here and there
    Posts: 5,080
    Not sure why this warrents its own thread, but I'm not sure Gray's Blofeld was meant to be menacing or threatening as you put it.

    I love Gray's incarnation- better than Pleasance, anyhow. He's got some absolute golden lines in the film.
  • DariusDarius UK
    Posts: 354
    I think that the biggest mistake made with Blofeld was showing his face. In earlier movies, the face of the cat was a visual metonym for Blofeld's face -- that of a highly evolved and deadly predator, which is an appropriate face for an organisation like SPECTRE.

    Somehow, seeing Charles Grey camp up the character robbed it of all the previous menace and mystery experienced in FRWL and TB.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    I understand Gray wanted a lighter version of Blofeld/was told to do so, but in the end, it was still a butchery of the character. Blofeld isn't meant to be light - he's the ultimate archnemesis of Bond. The unseen Blofeld is still by far the most intimidating. Telly Savalas wasn't bad as Bond, but despite the fact that he was probably most true to the books as Blofeld, I never found him intimidating or threatening. And Donald Pleasance was good until the reveal. Then he looks absolutely pitiful when standing in comparison to Bond.
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