Hollywood Icons Celebrates James Bond....Day 175 of Bond 365

Happy Wednesday evening! It has been a long day of work and then off to a wine and canvas event with a good friend that I haven't seen in some time. We both had a lot of fun, but there's a reason I paint abstracts; I'll never be a master painter. Anyway, I just got settled and have less than two hours to post today and I already I'm beat, so this will be a shorter post.

Let's start with a Bond history lesson. Can you name the United Kingdom theatrical release of a James Bond film that premiered this day some years ago? I'll give you some hints:

• It marked a directorial debut of this person, who had been working with the franchise on a few previous bond films; 
• It combined the plots from two Ian Fleming short stories; 
• Filming locations included Greece, Italy, Spain, and England -- and some underwater footage in the Bahamas; 
• The film generated just shy of $200 Million; 
• Marked the last time the film was solely distributed by this company; 
• One of the stars was married to a person that starred in a later Bond film;
• One of the stars went on to be cast as Ian Fleming in a television project;
• Lewis Collins had been considered for James Bond in this film; 
• It did not feature Bernard Lee's M because he had passed away prior to filming his parts; 
• Apparently, one of the stars resorted to drinking to calm their nerves prior to completing certain scenes that involved heights; 
• One of the sets had been previously used for a war film; and
• The singer of the theme song appeared on screen.

I'll let you mull it over for a few minutes, or at least to the end of this post...

While I was the grocery store this morning, I came across this lovely face: 

It's a special collector's edition from Hollywood Icons and I think it may be the first retrospective magazine to focus on James Bond from Dr. No to Spectre, which will be out later this year. And, kudos to the group for including the "renegade" Bond films that included Barry Nelson's Casino Royale (1954), the parody of Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). Besides covering each film in at least a two-page spread, there were sections covering Ian Fleming, James Bond's Walther PPK, gadgets, cars (vroom!) and of course, beautiful women that have been in love with our British agent. Thumbing through the issue, I see a mix of photos familiar and new, so I think, for a collector it's a nod to pick up. The magazine costs $12.99 and weighs in at 115 pages. 

And, if you still cannot think of the movie that premiered, then it was the twelfth Bond film that premiered this day in 1981: For Your Eyes Only! 

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