Tag: Live and Let Die

“Live and Let Die”: Danish souvenir programme (1973)

COLLECTABLE

 
In December 1973, the Danish branch of United Artists released this 16-page souvenir programme in A6 format to mark the Danish cinema release of "Live and Let Die" (EON Productions 1973). The programme was distributed for free in selected cinemas during the film's theatrical run in Denmark (albeit without perforations).

The programme text touches upon Roger Moore's preparations for his first turn as James Bond 007 as well as the careers of the director, Guy Hamilton, and the other main actors, Jane Seymour (Solitaire) and Yaphet Kotto (Kananga/Mr Big). Among other subjects covered are the cult of voodoo, Ross Kananga's crocodile farm and kitesurfing.

Oddly, United Artists' Danish press department fails to mention that the main Bond girl in "Live and Let Die", Jane Seymour, had her first speaking part in a Danish film just three years earlier. At 19 years old, Seymour played the daughter of Danish actors Ebbe Rode and Helle Virkner in the English-language war drama "The Only Way" (Oktoberdage), shot in and around Copenhagen in 1970.

"The Only Way": Oscar winner Norman Wanstall ("Goldfinger") talks about his work on Jane Seymour's Danish film debut

Lev og lad dø - dansk filmprogram A

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“The Only Way”: Exclusive interview with Norman Wanstall (2017)

Did you know that three years before starring as Solitaire in "Live and Let Die" (1973), Jane Seymour made her film debut playing a Jewish ballerina in a Danish WWII drama?

And that the film, "The Only Way" (1970), was edited by none other than Norman Wanstall, the Oscar winning sound editor of "Goldfinger"?

Introducing 19-year-old Jane Seymour as Lillian Stein - framegrab from "The Only Way" (1970)

In the following exclusive, Norman Wanstall talks about his little-known contribution to Danish film history as an editor on ”The Only Way” (aka Oktoberdage).

”The Only Way” depicts the historical events of the night between 1 and 2 October 1943 when the Danish people saved several thousand Jews from a raid by the German occupying forces.

In her first speaking part, 19-year-old Jane Seymour plays Lillian Stein, the ballerina daughter of violin dealer Leo (Ebbe Rode) and Ruth Stein (Helle Virkner). When the Nazi security police decide to round up all the Jews in Denmark, the Steins are forced to flee. Luckily, their resourceful downstairs neighbour Mr Petersen (Ove Sprogøe) is a member of the Danish resistance and manages to get the Steins out of Copenhagen and to the coastal town of Gilleleje, where fishing boats carry the evacuated Jews across the Oresund strait to neutral Sweden.

Director Bent Christensen also co-wrote the original script for “The Only Way” with well-regarded Danish author Leif Panduro. Their previous collaboration ”Harry and the butler” (Harry og kammertjeneren, 1961) was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Foreign Language Film.

Apart from Jane Seymour and Martin Potter as Lillian's boyfriend, the entire cast of “The Only Way” consisted of Danish actors performing in English. As the story of the Danish resistance operation in 1943 was fairly well-known outside of Denmark, the film's producer, Mogens Skot-Hansen, decided that shooting in Danish would hinder the film's chances internationally. The film was co-produced by Danish company Laterna Film and the American-owned Hemisphere Productions, making the film an official Danish-Panamanian collaboration. Unfortunately, “The Only Way” was not much of a success neither in Denmark (where it was called “Oktoberdage”, ie. October Days) nor abroad.

Norman Wanstall, now aged 81, was sound editor on four of EON Productions' James Bond 007 films from 1962 to 1967. He has long since left the film industry but was happy to share his memories of editing “The Only Way” in this exclusive e-mail interview with James Bond•O•Rama.

Bonus trivia: Since “The Only Way”, two other Danish films have told the story of the resistance operation in 1943: ”A Day in October” (En dag i oktober, Kenneth Madsen, 1991) and ”Across the Waters” (Fuglene over sundet, Nicolo Donato, 2016).

Norman Wanstall at his Moviola editing desk - photo courtesy of N. Wanstall

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“Live and Let Die”: Danish View-Master reels (1973)

LALD ViewMaster DK

To mark the Danish theatrical release of "Live and Let Die", EON Productions' 1973 James Bond 007 film, GAF Corporation produced a set of View-Master reels based on the movie. The reels were marketed in the US, West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark (and perhaps other countries as well).

The three View-Master reels boiled the basic plot of "Live and Let Die" down to 21 sets of stereograms. When viewed through the ViewMaster viewer, the colour slides (taken from the film) appeared to be in stereoscopic 3-D.

"A View-Master disk holds 14 film slides in seven pairs, making up the seven stereoscopic images. Two film slides are viewed simultaneously, one for each eye, thus simulating binocular depth perception."
- from Wikipedia

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James Bond Agent 007 no. 3: “Live and Let Die” (1965)

COMIC

 
JB007 DK nr 3

Author: Henry Gammidge (uncredited) after Ian Fleming's novel "Live and Let Die" (1954)
Artist: John McLusky (uncredited)
Publisher: A/S Interpresse
Editor: N/A
Cover art: (uncredited)
Format: 52 pages
Publishing date: 1965
First published in the UK: Daily Express 15.12.1958-28.03.1959
Danish reprint: 007 James Bond no. 50 (as "Lev og lad dø")

Contents:
"Leve og lade dø" (Live and Let Die - newspaper strips reformatted to 17x26 cm magazine format)
"M.I.5" (text excerpt)
"Roy Allen" comic: "Smuglergods fra Khartoun" [Contraband from Khartoun]
"Roy Allen" comic: "Spion i København" [Spy in Copenhagen]
Ad for the Batman comic book
Back cover: Color photo of James Bond (Sean Connery) in "Goldfinger"

Front page scan courtesy of Carsten Olsen

“Live and Let Die”: Danish first edition (1958)

BOOKS

Scan: The Illustrated 007 Blog

 

Blodig vej til Jamaica (1958)

Jan Fleming

Danish first edition
Original:
Live and Let Die (Jonathan Cape 1954)
Publisher: Grafisk forlag
Translator: Grete Juel Jørgensen
Cover art:
H.M. Schneider

The title of Ian Fleming's second James Bond 007 novel, "Live and Let Die", was translated into Danish as "Blodig vej til Jamaica" (Bloody path to Jamaica). Only the current paperback edition from Rosenkilde & Bahnhof (2014) bears the literal translation which is also the Danish title of EON's film adaptation from 1973.

On the cover of this first edition, the author's name has been danicized into "Jan Fleming".

Later editions:
● Blodig vej til Jamaica ("Lommeromanen" nr. 385, Skrifola 1965)
● Lev og lad dø (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof 2014)