. . . "Major Boothroyd" character, who eventually morphed into "Q," turns out to have been an early critic of Fleming's first Bond novel, CASINO ROYALE. Geoffrey Boothroyd of Glasgow, Scotland, is introduced here by Eon Production Company's original "James Bond," Sean Connery, on the set of GOLDFINGER in 1964. Boothroyd discloses that in early printings of that first novel, Bond was using a "lady's gun" plus a distinctively fey "chamois" soft leather holster sure to have gotten their user killed during his first shoot-out. If Geoffrey Boothroyd had the sensibility of author J.K. Rowling, he would say at this point that Fleming's original gun choice for Bond was an effort to telegraph the fact that Agent 007 is gayer than Hogwart's headmaster Albus Dumbledore. (Anyone who has seen even one of the many Bond flicks will recognize James' penchant for bedding anything in a skirt as a desperate attempt at "over-compensation." His superficial "love 'em and leave 'em" approach to females makes SHALLOW HAL look like Casanova in comparison.) At any rate, Boothroyd persuaded Fleming to "man up," and shove a great big gun between Bond's mitts (the now infamous Walther PPK).
2 Reviews
For Bond Fans Only
Michael_Elliott4 July 2010
Guns of James Bond, The (1964)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
BBC produced documentary has Sean Connery hosting as he introduces gun expert Geoffrey Boothroyd. Boothroyd talks about the various weapons used by James Bond and why he feels the Walther isn't a good gun to use. He talks about Ian Flemming using this gun and we also get three demons of other guns and the damage they could have been done. This here is certainly for Bond die-hards only. There's nothing too wrong here but it was a decent little short as it's clear Boothroyd knows what he's talking about and he gives good opinions on why certain weapons just wouldn't work. This film runs a very quick five-minutes and is pretty simple all around. The one good thing is that we see some footage of Connery on the GOLDFINGER set.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
BBC produced documentary has Sean Connery hosting as he introduces gun expert Geoffrey Boothroyd. Boothroyd talks about the various weapons used by James Bond and why he feels the Walther isn't a good gun to use. He talks about Ian Flemming using this gun and we also get three demons of other guns and the damage they could have been done. This here is certainly for Bond die-hards only. There's nothing too wrong here but it was a decent little short as it's clear Boothroyd knows what he's talking about and he gives good opinions on why certain weapons just wouldn't work. This film runs a very quick five-minutes and is pretty simple all around. The one good thing is that we see some footage of Connery on the GOLDFINGER set.
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