You old so and so. Technically we celebrated the special occasion #Bond_age_ style with the Layer Cake live tweet last week. We don’t know if Craigers is done with Bond. Hell, I don’t even know if Craigers knows if Craigers is done with Bond. Nonetheless, let’s take some time to wish our reigning Bond a happy 48th birthday and enjoy 10 fun facts about Craigers that you may or may not have known.
With the recent release of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) for home viewing, we felt it our duty to further spread the good word of U.N.C.L.E. The film easily topped Bond last year but still few went to see it. Why? WHY? Well, #Bond_age_ isn’t giving up on that sequel just yet. Tonight, Wednesday January 27th, join us for the Man from U.N.C.L.E. DVD Watch Party/Live Tweet.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Live Tweet begins at 9pm EST. Follow #Bond_age_ hashtag.
Guest programmer @d3sk has lined up a classic spy caper featuring some unknown schmoes named Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. I dunno. Maybe you’ve heard of them.
Director Stanley Donen followed up the smash Charade with Arabesque, a comedic thriller based on the 1961 The Cipher by Alex Gordon. Teamed again with composer Henry Mancini, Donen served up a free-form jazz version of Charade with Hitchockian devices and romance and a chase scene with a thresher. The bustling, busy, complicated shoot compelled Donen to tell his cinematographer Christopher Chellis that the next movie they make will be “something small, just two actors, and we’ll shoot and eat our way through France.” Donen’s next picture coincidentally was Two for the Road.
Join us as we give Arabesque the #Bond_age_ treatment on Wednesday, November 4th at 9pm EST. Follow #Bond_age_ hashtag.
Hello again, everyone.
#Bond_age_TV continues its final run of Man From UNCLE this week with a look at two more episodes from season 4. First up this week is the 4th season opener The Summit-Five Affair. Napoleon and Illya have to investigate a security breach at UNCLE’s Berlin HQ just before an important meeting of the heads of UNCLE. Guest stars this episode include TV veteran Lloyd Bochner and Dr. Cyclops himself Albert Dekker. Our second episode this week is The THRUSH Roulette Affair. At a casino in the Caribbean run by THRUSH, Napoleon and Illya have to stop a brainwashing scheme. This episode’s guest stars include Michael Rennie (The Day The Earth Stood Still). The fun begins at 9pm EST. Use the hashtag #UNCLEtweet. Join us!
In Like Flint:
Bonjour, Medames et Monsieurs.
You are probably wondering why I’ve called you all together, n’est-ce pas? Is it possible I’m here to announce tomorrow night’s Death on the Nile Live Tweet event? Mais non; that job has already been fulfilled by Monsieur @007Hertzrumble. He simply asked if I might throw up something about the film, as he has not seen it. So it falls to me, Mesdames et Monsieurs, to illuminate how this film came to be a #Bond_age_Choice.
Its appearance on our schedule is due mostly to the fact that some of us on Twitter had a conversation about wanting to livetweet it, and #Bond_age_ seemed the best fit for it. Hercule Poirot is, in his own inimitable way, as much a spy as James Bond. Indeed, he has acted for numerous governments in his long and remarkable career. However, unlike the blunt instrument that is James Bond, Hercule Poirot prided himself on using his “little grey cells” to solve the problems placed before him. In Death on the Nile, Poirot is brought to life by the wonderful actor Peter Ustinov, a man whom I grew up watching on TV in his travel shows, as well as the old cartoon Doctor Snuggles (Oi, you! Stop giggling!).
Ustinov alone makes anything worth watching, but Death on the Nile offers a stellar cast, including David Niven (Casino Royale ’67), Angela Lansbury (Murder She Wrote), Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas), George Kennedy (Airport), and Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey). Of particular interest to the #Bond_age_ crowd would be the casting of Lois Chiles (Moonraker), Harry Andrews (The Internecine Project, Modesty Blaise), and Simon MacCorkindale, TV’s Manimal (and who also starred in the Canadian Mission:Impossible-style series Counterstrike with Christopher Plummer.)
Add to that cast the wonderful backdrop of Egypt (and Pinewood Studios, home of James Bond), and there really is no mystery why Death on the Nile will be our #Bond_age_Choice tomorrow night starting at 9pm EST. I hope you will exercise your little grey cells, and join us for some vintage sleuthing from the world’s foremost Belgian detective.
