 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jun 9, 2017 - 7:15 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
|
Although he did not receive credit for producing THE SAINT, Moore was in fact one of the program's producers. As I understand it, he formed Bamore Productions to buy the TV rights to the property from author Leslie Charteris and then partnered with Sir Lew Grade at ITV to finance and air the program. After the year-long break when the British television industry converted to color, Bamore, meaning Roger Moore, seems to have taken more control. When THE SAINT returned for Season 5 in 1966 it had become A Bamore Production. It would remain A Bamore Production until the last episode in 1969.
I've been sampling the episodes, some of which Moore directed.
As everyone here knows, I have a low opinion of EON Productions because of the way they screwed up the James Bond films. After what I've been seeing of THE SAINT, I can't help thinking they should have turned creative control over to Roger Moore. He'd do it their way if that was the job, but he'd do it his way if he'd have had the control. If he had steered the film series the way he steered THE SAINT, he would likely have kept James Bond on track in big screen terms. If Moore had produced, there'd be no Tom Mankiewicz misogyny, no Guy Hamilton self-ridicule, no Broccoli-mandated slapstick buffoonery. Moore would have brought the same dramatic preferences to the Bond films that he was doing in his non-Bond films. In other words, as they say in the bizness, he'd have "played the scene."
Yes, I think Roger Moore's sensibilities and talent were exactly what the 1970s Bond films needed at the creative level.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When Roger Moore was shooting his first James Bond, the producers held a large press conference. "What does it feel like to take over from Sean Connery?" was of course the first question, followed by "Why are you doing this?"
"Roger answered, 'When I was a young acting student at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, I was in a play and we were lucky enough to have Noel Coward in the audience. After the play was over, Noel came backstage and said to me, 'Young man, with your devastating good looks and your disastrous lack of talent, you should take any job ever offered you. And in the ulikely occurrence you're offered two jobs simultaneously, take the one that pays the most money.' And here I am.' He disarmed everybody.
Noel Coward had just died. He said, 'And pity Noel couldn't be here to watch me as Bond, because when he saw me in the play, I only had four expressions. Now I have six.' You just had to love him."
My Life as a Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dead Again (raises eyebrow)
|
|
|
|
|
|
I pretty much grew up with Roger Moore. As a kid in the sixties The Saint was on a lot, and I even had the Corgi die-cast model of his car. Loved the theme tunes, and knew straight away he was a perfect fit for Bond when Connery left.
Btw I always have said that as good as One Her Majesty's Secret Service was, it would have been so much better with either actor. If Moore had done it it would have had an actor with personality and someone Fleming actually thought was perfect, what a great start. If it had been Connery that tragic ending would have had the WALLOP! it deserved. Not a dry eye for him actually having settled on....OH! a wife.
The Persuades I gather hasn't aged well, but when I was at school, my best friend and I were The Persuaders! He chose to be the cool yank, and he thought he'd beat me to the plumb role. Nah, I was an Englishman then as now, so I was proud to take Sir Roger's role.
And I had the cool 7 inch single, bought by my uncle, of the theme by the wonderful John Barry. YESSSS!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
