You Only Live Twice **** (1967, Sean Connery, Donald Pleasence, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Karin Dor) – Classic Movie Review 1025

Director Lewis Gilbert’s spectacular 1967 spy adventure You Only Live Twice is the fifth Bond movie. It boasts the astounding Japanese volcano that opens up to reveal an underground space station and has 007 Sean Connery’s James Bond going to Japan to confront the uber-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld and bizarrely turning into a Japanese man to attend a wedding ceremony.

It is based on a posh Roald Dahl screenplay steeped in his own brand of black humour, long-legged women and fabulous Sixties gadgets and sees Bond surprisingly revealing that he gained a first class honours degree in Oriental languages at Cambridge.

Making his mark for ever, Donald Pleasence is a huge, camp asset as the bald, facially scarred, lovingly white-cat-stroking Blofeld, the megalomaniac head of SPECTRE, planning world domination and to ignite a global nuclear war from within his $500,000 hideout set at Pinewood Studios.

Originally cast Jan Werich was not considered menacing enough during filming, and Pleasence took over in the role. His ideas for Blofeld’s appearance included a hump, a limp, a beard and a lame hand, before he settled on the scar, which he found uncomfortable because of the glue that attached it to his eye.

You Only Live Twice is big, brash, colourful and gleefully overloaded with costly, spectacular set pieces, which help to make it one of the most lively and eye-catching of the entire series. Happily, the old team of M, Miss Moneypenny and Q (Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn) are all present and correct.

Charles Gray, who has only a bit part as a good guy, Dikko Henderson, 007’s Japan contact, went on to play the villain Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Burt Kwouk, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tsai Chin and Karin Dor are also in the cast. Tetsurô Tanba, who plays Tanaka, went on to become a religious leader in Japan.

The lovely Kate O’Mara, who died on 30 March 2014, aged 74, appears as Miss Moneypenny’s assistant.

It is only very remotely based on the novel by Ian Fleming; Harold Jack Bloom is credited with additional story material. As such, it is the first Bond film to dump most of Fleming’s plot, only using a few characters and locations from the novel as background for a new story. Unfortunately, this set a disappointing trend.

Nancy Sinatra sings the title song (composed by John Barry with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), which proves one of the best theme tunes. The score is the fourth of the series composed by John Barry.

Finally around this time people started noticing how special production designer Ken Adam’s sets for the series are. The film is mainly his triumph, with the volcano base unforgettable. The extraordinary volcano set was built at Britain’s Pinewood studios. The exteriors were filmed on location in Japan.

The stylish title designs are by Maurice Binder. The action sequences are directed by Bob Simmons.

You Only Live Twice premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, setting an opening day record. It was the first premiere of a James Bond film attended by Queen Elizabeth II. The film cost under $10 million and grossed $43 million in the United States, where it was number one for seven weeks, and $68 million elsewhere, so it took more than $111 million in total worldwide. Even so, it was the first Bond film to suffer a decline in box-office revenue. There were just too many spy films around and the 1967 competing James Bond film Casino Royale was a messy flop, slightly damaging 077’s credibility.

It was the first Bond film in which 007 isn’t in the UK at all. M and Moneypenny have portable offices, an idea reused in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

Burt Kwouk (1930- 2016) played in two other Bond movies, Goldfinger (1964) and Casino Royale (1967), but is best remembered as Inspector Clouseau’s manservant Cato opposite Peter Sellers in seven Pink Panther films.

It is the first Bond film directed by Lewis Gilbert, who made the 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me and the 1979 Moonraker with Roger Moore.

During filming it was announced that Connery would retire as Bond, but after On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, he returned in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever and in 1983’s non-Eon Bond film Never Say Never Again.

The cast are Sean Connery as James Bond, Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki, Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki, Tetsurō Tamba as Tiger Tanaka, Teru Shimada as Mr Osato, Karin Dor as Helga Brandt, Donald Pleasence as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bernard Lee as M, Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, Desmond Llewelyn as Q, Charles Gray as Dikko Henderson, Tsai Chin as Chinese Girl, Peter Fanene Maivia as Car Driver,  Burt Kwouk as Spectre Number 3,  Michael Chow as Spectre 4, Ronald Rich as Blofeld’s bodyguard Hans, David Toguri as Assassin, John Stone as Submarine Captain, Norman Jones as Astronaut, Paul Carson as Astronaut, Laurence Herder as Cosmonaut, Richard Graydon as Cosmonaut, Bill Mitchell as Astronaut, George Roubicek as Astronaut, Alexander Knox as the US President, Ed Bishop as NASA Hawaii technician, Shane Rimmer as NASA Hawaii technician, Richard Marner as Soviet Controller, and Anthony Ainley as Hong Kong Policeman.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1025

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Blofeld in (clockwise from upper-left) You Only Live Twice (Donald Pleasence), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Telly Savalas), Never Say Never Again (Max Von Sydow), and Diamonds are Forever (Charles Gray).

Lois Maxwell, Akiko Wakabayashi, Sean Connery, Karin Dor and Mie Hama examine the set of Blofeld’s hideout at Pinewood Studios during a break in filming.

Aki’s Toyota 2000GT Open-Top was ranked as the seventh best car in the James Bond series.

The scene of the Japanese fishing village.

The Little Nellie WA-116 autogyro with its creator and pilot, Ken Wallis.