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July 21, 2003

Solitaire

Jane Seymour Week at the Flea™ starts with a tribute to her first film appearance. Solitaire is the best Bond Girl ever.

solitaire_great_sideshot.jpg

Live and Let Die was also Roger Moore's first Bond and, if not for Moonraker, his best. Voodoo, tarot cards and Jane Seymour were all formative pop-culture influences of this film on an impressionable young Flea.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at July 21, 2003 11:32 AM

Comments

It's hard to take Moonraker very seriously (I'd actually vote for View to a Kill or Octopussy as better Moore Bond flicks, for various reasons). I'd agree, though, that Live and Let Die is one of the best, marred only by the goofiest dispatching of a major villain of the entire series.

Posted by: *** Dave at July 21, 2003 01:43 PM

Moonraker would be the single silliest Bond if it weren't for Christopher Lee's masterwork in Thunderball. I love it for its silly qualities and also the scenes in Rio which remind me of the glamorous life I need to pursue with greater vigour.

Now trying to remember how Mr. Big gets it in the end...

Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at July 21, 2003 04:22 PM

An expanding gas cannister, part of an anti-shark gun (!) gets stuffed down Mr Big's mouth (!!) while he and Bond struggle in the shark tank, sending Mr Big floating up to the top of the cavern(!!!), where he explodes(!!!!) like an overinflated balloon.

Not quite as demeaning as being used as a wrecking ball, as in Diamonds Are Forever, but the fx footage is blurry and awful, which doesn't keep it from being unrealistic, too.

Not quite The End, of course, since Tee-Hee has to interrupt Bond's train tryst with Solitaire, foreshadowing exactly the same denouement in Man with the Golden Gun, which, I suppose, is trumping of the Bond & Bond Girl Make Out in a Boat meme of the Connery era.

Posted by: *** Dave at July 21, 2003 05:51 PM

And at the risk of being an Utter Geek, Christopher Lee wasn't in Thunderball.

Posted by: *** Dave at July 21, 2003 05:53 PM

Oops! You are quite right. I was thinking of Christopher Lee in The Man With the Golden Gun which, if memory serves, also starred Herve Villachez.

Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at July 21, 2003 07:10 PM

Wow, now this is my kind of week!

I'll be amazed to see how you can possibly beat this picture, Nick... *lol*

Posted by: Paul Jané at July 22, 2003 12:52 AM

But Jane Seymour in Battlestar Galactica was a wonderful experience for a 6-year-old kid.

Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at July 22, 2003 04:30 AM

About the Tarot of the Witches by Fergus Hall

I have to admit that this has to be the ugliest deck of tarot cards I have ever seen in all the years I've been reading cards. Originally designed for "Live and Let Die," this deck of cards was released commercially and has unfortunately been with us ever since.

The cards in the film had a red, patterned background featuring the "007" emblem, the commercial set has the same pattern in blue.


Posted by: Rue at July 22, 2003 08:57 AM

boo-hah.

I had to wipe the drool off the keyboard.

Posted by: Cam at July 22, 2003 11:18 AM

Cam: Sorry about the keyboard.

Rue: I have the deck featuring the blue pattern. I have seen newer releases without the Bond-logo on the back. An attempt to distance the deck from the film? I have wondered if the ones with the Bond pattern are collectible.

Sean: Me too. More Galactica on Thursday!

Paul: I point to today's installment.

And, Dave: I look forward to your insights on the place of Playboy in American politics and popular culture.

Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at July 22, 2003 12:30 PM

Mr. Flea, I have consulted my sources and they inform me that the cards are collectible as James Bond memorabilia, but not in the context of collectible tarot decks.

Posted by: Rue at July 23, 2003 11:32 AM

By the way, Voodoo and Santeria are the first 2 religions I researched when I began 'searching' in the mid-eighties.

Oh, BTW, I don't think Jane is hot. Beautiful, yes, hot no. But what do I know? I'm not gay :)
Nice picks and lots of detail, Mr Flea. You've outdone yourself with Jane Seymour week. Bravo!

Posted by: Rue at July 23, 2003 03:54 PM

Funny that. I can assure you most gay men think she's hot. Hmm, time for some less feminine Bond Girls? Nobody took me up on a Lorenzo Lamas week so you may be stuck with Victoria Beckham next.

Also, thanks for the information about the Bond vs. tarot collectibles... The so-called Tarot of the Witches holds more appeal for its Bond connection than as tarot so I am not too surprised. I personally enjoy the Vertigo Tarot but that is probably mostly for the comic connections.

Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at July 23, 2003 05:11 PM

Ach geez, not Posh Spice Week...

Posted by: Paul Jané at July 23, 2003 10:34 PM

Ha!

But seriously, it is a possibility. I obviously spent too much time in England.

Posted by: Nicholas Packwood at July 23, 2003 10:36 PM