Sean Connery Is James Bond!


"Sean Connery Is James Bond!" was the slogan that attempted to draw audiences away from Casino Royale (1967) which claimed "Casino Royale is too big for one James Bond"
The folks at Eon had nothing to worry about with the competition. Casino Royale was a costly fiasco and offered no real competition or entertainment value. On the other hand Eon tied in its fortunes with a star who wanted to leave the series.
You Only Twice began the silly season for the James Bond films. So far gadgets were not overly intrusive and there was still some basis in the real world. But Raold Dahl's script changed that, resulting in the silliest moments to date in the series. For example we have James Bond trying to pass as Japanese. It doesn't work and Connery doesn't seem to be working hard at it, either. Also, the attempt to kill Bond by some inept thugs in a car chase indicates the bad guys are going to be pushovers and lack any subtlety at all. The last thing they would want to do is draw attention to themselves.
It gets worse with the helicopter attack. Why risk discovery of your terribly expensive and elaborate base by attacking someone who saw nothing? Dahl's logic is very faulty in the storyline. It may create some amusing incidents, but no one comes across looking particularly intelligent here.
Another weakness is the poor process and rear-screen photography, the worst so far in the series. (They appear to have been cleaned up a bit for the DVD.) The matte lines in the airplane scene are horrible and the rear-screen projections do not match the foreground. There are some decent models for the rocket scenes.
On the plus side, this was John Barry's best score yet for the series, despite Nancy Sinatra's mediocre singing. Barry reused his "007 Theme", first appearing in From Russia With Love, and composed some very effective music for the scenes in space.
Sean Connery was growing tired of Bond and did not want to play the character again. He later allowed himself to be lured back for Diamonds Are Forever starring in the worst Bond film until Moonraker.
The relationship between the books and the movies was becoming tenuous at best. YOLT should have followed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but the book's plot was thrown away on an overblown effects fest, starring an actor who was no longer interested in giving the role his best work.
The next film would attempt to take Bond a bit closer to his roots, but after that it was off to Fantasyland.

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