Friday, May 26, 2017

Before 007, Roger Moore Starred with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders — Some Interesting Trivia on the TV Series, Courtesy of No Pasarán

Sir Roger Moore's fellow James Bond actors. as well as other celebrities, join in an outpouring to pay homage after the actor's death.

As Sir Roger himself said of 007, his most famous role:
“Now they’ve found the Bond — Daniel Craig…. I always said Sean played Bond as a killer and I played Bond as a lover. I think that Daniel Craig is even more of a killer. He has this superb intensity; he’s a glorious actor.”
Of course, Roger Moore became famous for handful of TV series. Almost unknown in America, The Persuaders became one of the greatest television hits in Europe, with John Barry's haunting theme music and co-starring Tony Curtis.

One fan is No Pasarán's main blogger, who indeed has authored a number of entries on the TV series' trivia page. Among which are:

Originally, the title of the TV series was going to be "The Friendly Persuaders", but because that sounded too close to a Gary Cooper western (Friendly Persuasion (1956)), it was shortened.
Because Roger Moore deemed that no good photos exist of him as a child, the black and white boyhood picture of Brett Sinclair in the opening credits is that of his son Geoffrey Moore

The filmed sequences presenting Danny Wilde and Brett Sinclair in the opening credits were not filmed expressly for said credits but were taken from various early episodes (all of them in Southern Europe), mainly The Persuaders!: Overture (1971) (the two men racing their sports cars, Tony Curtis and Roger Moore distracted by a blonde in a bikini walking between them, Brett flirting with two beauties) and The Persuaders!: Powerswitch (1971) (the water-skiing shots and Danny shown as a businessman at work at a desk)

Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz of Hungarian immigrants. And if you pay attention, you will find the actor sprinkling inside jokes to his origins through the series. In The Persuaders!: Greensleeves (1971), for instance, his character pretends to be Brett Sinclair's new butler, Grzegorz (Gregor), and explains his (fake) East European accent by his being from a "Hun-GAA-rian" from "BU-dapesht" (unfortunately for Danny Wilde, the black beauty from an African republic that he shares this with speaks the language perfectly). Torn from his Paris hotel shower in The Persuaders!: The Old, the New, and the Deadly (1971) by the telephone ringing which turns out to be a wrong phone number, a dripping wet Danny states, "No, this is not Mr Schwartz, you got the wrong room!"

Related: A 7-Year-Old Spots a Celebrity in an Airport, His Heart Sinking When Roger Moore's Autograph Does Not Read "James Bond"; What Happens Next?

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Can't America Impeach Trump and Remove Him from Office? Asks French Radio Channel Giddily; GOP's Reen Answers with One Single Monosyllable

Est-ce l'Amérique peut se déTrumper ? asks French radio in a play on words meaning both Can America unTrump itself and Can America undo its blunder.

Among the guests of Laurent Goumarre's Le Nouveau Rendez-Vous on the France Inter radio channel devoted to the question whether Donald Trump can be impeached — or, rather, removed from office (a number of people seem to think that they are one and the same) — were Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, Samuel Doux (scénariste, réalisateur et auteur), Kid Francescoli (Chanteur), Norman Spinrad (auteur de science-fiction américain), Constance Borde (Représentante en France du parti démocrate), and Eric Fottorino (Journaliste et écrivain), as well as, last but not least, Paul Reen (représentant du Parti Républicain en France).

Notably, Alice Antheaume spent three and a half minutes in a mocking monologue over Donald Trump's tendency for writing tweets. After Christop Bourseiller went on and on for two and a half minutes with an editorial on the possibility of Donald Trump's impeachment and removal for office, Paul Reen answered with a single monosyllable.

Go to the France Inter link to hear the whole debate…

A 7-Year-Old Spots a Celebrity in an Airport, His Heart Sinking When Roger Moore's Autograph Does Not Read "James Bond"; What Happens Next?

In the wake of the passing of Sir Roger Moore, one Mark Williamson posts the following reminiscence (is it his own or someone other's?) on Facebook (cheers to Michael White).

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Good-Bye, 007; Farewell, Lord Sinclair: RIP Sir Roger Moore (1927-2017)


A good obituary of Roger Moore appears in the Daily Mail thanks to Alexander Robertson and Marc Johnson — cheers to Sarah Hoyt who reveals that
HE WAS MY FIRST CRUSH WHEN I SAW HIM IN THE PERSUADERS.  I WAS TEN.
From the documentary, A Matter of Class:
Here is Roger Moore’s own story, as told by the famous actor himself. This profile also includes the recollections of colleagues and friends like Gregory Peck, Michael Caine, Tony Curtis, Carroll Baker and Maud Adams.
A couple of interesting quotes:
When Sean Connery played James Bond, he played it as the bad boy womanizer. And when Roger Moore played Bond, he played it as the man that — maybe — would marry the heroine …if the circumstances were right.
Jackie Collins (26:53)

With women, I think the difference between Sean and Roger was that Sean macho'ed them into bed, and Roger loved [laughed?] them into it…
Michael Caine
Meanwhile, Adrien Guilleminot has a long interesting commentary (en français) on the James Bond films in the Géo monthly.
The Daily Mail includes a selection of Sir Roger's quotes

IN HIS OWN SUAVE WORDS... 

Women have played a big part in my life on and off-screen and I think I’ve finally worked them out. I always make sure I have the last word. That word is ‘yes’.

‘It just gave me a stiff neck’ — explaining why taking Viagra left him neither shaken nor stirred.

Intelligence is my most endearing quality, according to [his wife] Kristina. That’s her Swedish sense of humour.

Being eternally known as Bond has no downside. People call me Mr Bond when we’re out and I don’t mind a bit. Why would I?

‘I had creaking knees and my leading ladies could have been my granddaughters’ — on his last appearance as James Bond in A View To A Kill, aged 57.

‘I lie all the time. I say different people, otherwise you’ll upset somebody’ — on his favourite Bond girl.

I’m one lucky b******. In my early acting years, I was told that to succeed you needed personality, talent and luck in equal measure. I contest that. For me it’s been 99 per cent luck. It’s no good being talented and not being in the right place at the right time.

The saddest thing about ageing is that most of my friends are now ‘in the other room’. I miss David Niven the most. I still can’t watch his films without shedding a tear.

Some of the things I’ve done in my life I’m ashamed of. We don’t talk about those, though. If I could give my younger self some advice it would be: ‘Grow up!’

I still have some of Bond’s suits in my wardrobe, but they don’t fit me now. In the 007 days I was so thin that if I turned sideways you could mark me absent.

My mum instilled in me the proverb: ‘I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.’ Those words are always with me and I’m a believer in showing kindness to others and not expecting repayment.

Medicine has always fascinated me and I’m a hypochondriac. It’s not that I wake up every morning and think: ‘I’m dying.’ At my age, I know I am.

Related: A 7-Year-Old Spots a Celebrity in an Airport, His Heart Sinking When Roger Moore's Autograph Does Not Read "James Bond"; What Happens Next?

Before 007, Roger Moore Starred with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders — Some Interesting Trivia on the TV Series, Courtesy of No Pasarán

MSM Headline Scoop: Who Does the Perpetrator of a Terrorist Attack in the UK Turn Out to Be? "An Englishman"

Reporting on the Manchester attack by one Salman Abedi, like all other MSM outlets, is the newspaper 20 Minutes. In that perspective, it is worth remembering that after it was discovered
that the March attack on Westminster bridge was one Khalid Masood, one French article provided the remarkable scoop that "The Assailant Is Allegedly [wait for it…] a 41-Year-Old Englishman." As for the free subway daily mentioned above, it also headlined the critical information, the stunning revelation, that… The Author of the Attack Was English.

Neither article — ain't that incredibly strange? — seems to be found online anymore, not in any case on their original respective websites. Reading the 20 Minutes filler from March, incidentally, it looks suspiciously obvious that the headline was not written by the journalist, but added by an editor. One with an agenda. But, then again, I repeat myself, don't I? Aren't they — MSM editors — all with an agenda?

Related: • Manchester Bomber Identified as Muslim Terrorist, Liberals Worry about ‘Islamophobia’

• Nothing to see here, folks (Lefty media deflects after yet another atrocity)
Stephanopoulos: “This is also likely to inflame anti-Islamic sentiment across Britain, across Europe.”

Martha Raddatz, whose wedding Barack Obama attended, agreed: “It will likely create backlash.”

A backlash? What about the little girls whose lives were so horribly snuffed out, and their survivors? What about their feelings? Much of the media obfuscated for as long as they could. Maybe, they claimed, it was all a big mistake, the carnage caused by “balloons exploding?”

As the hours went by and no names were released, it became more and more certain what had happened, just like when an arrested politician isn’t ID’d by his party affiliation in the first two paragraphs, you can 100 percent take it to the bank that he’s a Democrat.

Same thing in terrorism: When the killer is named, say, Dylann Roof, the public will be informed instantly. When the much more likely scenario unfolds, and the killer is one Salman Abedi, well, his next of kin must be notified … in Libya.

But he’s “homegrown,” and don’t you forget it. An accomplice may have been arrested, but he was a “lone wolf.” ISIS took responsibility, but don’t sweat it. As Obama told us, ISIS is “the j.v.”