. . . INSIDE YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE explains how the Grim Reaper stalked this production from inception to premier. Pushed ahead of the movie adaptation of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE by legal problems filming the latter title, TWICE used little of Ian Fleming's novel of that name save its title. Fleming, nearly as hard a liver as his alter ego James Bond, was keyed in on his own mortality while writing this book. He'd survived a near-fatal heart attack, and thought it best to recuperate by traveling to Japan to research and write another Bond story. Beginning with a morbid "haiku" poem on the "Big D" (which seems to have too many syllables), Hollywood felt this actual novel did not lend itself to "picturization" to the same extent as books such as GONE WITH THE WIND, REBECCA, and DR. NO (to use producer David O. Selznick's term). After firing one screenwriter, they turned to Mr. Willie Wonka himself--Roald Dahl.
But the originator of the Exploding Blueberry Girl was not enough to ward off the specter of death from TWICE. First one airliner crashed near Tokyo's airport during the shoot, killing all on board. Then the actual flight intended to carry key crew members off island--if something hadn't come up at the last minute--smashed into a Japanese mountain peak, snuffing out 124 more souls! Two airliner disasters in a week! Talk about shades of FINAL DESTINATION! However, the closest death came to an actual cast or crew member (at least, as far as INSIDE's concerned) came during the filming of the helicopter battle between Bond's "Little Nellie" and the four SPECTRE choppers. Aerial photographer Johnnie Jordan's leg was sliced off by a SPECTRE blade. Japan's last surviving kamikaze pilot quickly landed Jordan's crippled craft, but reattachment surgery failed back in London and Jordan ordered his leg amputated so he could shoot ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. He survived that, but died falling out of a plane filming CATCH-22. This is only the tip of the startling information iceberg INSIDE YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, so do not miss this!
But the originator of the Exploding Blueberry Girl was not enough to ward off the specter of death from TWICE. First one airliner crashed near Tokyo's airport during the shoot, killing all on board. Then the actual flight intended to carry key crew members off island--if something hadn't come up at the last minute--smashed into a Japanese mountain peak, snuffing out 124 more souls! Two airliner disasters in a week! Talk about shades of FINAL DESTINATION! However, the closest death came to an actual cast or crew member (at least, as far as INSIDE's concerned) came during the filming of the helicopter battle between Bond's "Little Nellie" and the four SPECTRE choppers. Aerial photographer Johnnie Jordan's leg was sliced off by a SPECTRE blade. Japan's last surviving kamikaze pilot quickly landed Jordan's crippled craft, but reattachment surgery failed back in London and Jordan ordered his leg amputated so he could shoot ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. He survived that, but died falling out of a plane filming CATCH-22. This is only the tip of the startling information iceberg INSIDE YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, so do not miss this!
