By Hank Reineke
As
the eagerly anticipated premiere of Skyfall,
the twenty-third James Bond film, counts down to its October 2012 release, Boston area fans of Britain’s favorite secret agent are
being afforded the rare opportunity to revel in all that has come before. The staff of the Somerville Theater (located on Davis Square in the
Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts), are in the midst of celebrating
the fiftieth anniversary of Ian Fleming’s super-spy on the big screen in a big way; with an ambitious year long series-encompassing
twenty-two film retrospective. The
architect of screenings is Ian Judge, the theater’s Director of
Programming. Judge has not only been managing
the nearly one-hundred year old theater for the past ten years, but he has long
shared a history with the venue having grown up only a few blocks away from its
gilded entrance. Built in 1914 as a posh
nine-hundred seat forum for vaudeville-era acts and stage plays, the theater
began screening films right from the advent of the silent era. Though the intimate, wonderfully decorative
auditorium retains its opulent splendor, the theater combines old world
elegance with new world technology. Three
years ago the venue’s grand balcony was completely refurbished and, perhaps
more importantly, the theater was fit with a Dolby digital sound system and twin
Norelco DP-70 projectors, the latter addition allowing the venue to be one of
the few cinemas in New England to have the capability of presenting films in
the 70mm format.
Judge,
it’s not too surprising to learn, especially given his enthusiasm and the
breadth of the 007 retrospective he’s programmed, has been a long-time fan of
the James Bond series. Though his
favorite Bond film is From Russia with
Love (1963), as a self-described “child of the ‘80s,†Judge admits to a
soft spot for Roger Moore’s swan song A
View to a Kill (1985), principally due to Christopher Walken’s smooth
portrayal of the genetically engineered psychotic industrialist Max Zorin.
Though
nothing short of nirvana for some, the concept of screening, chronologically,
every James Bond film from Dr. No
(1962) through Quantum of Solace
(2008) is, without doubt, something of a gamble. But although neighborhood repertory theaters
are closing and/or having to devise methods to cope with a sluggish economy and
studio pressure to move toward all-digital projection screenings, Judge was
adamant that the James Bond films should be screened as they had been over the
course of the last fifty years, in glorious 35mm. That’s one of the principle roles of the
repertory theater, Judge contends, as “that’s what we’re here for – to show
people the magic of the movies, and to make a profit doing so. Despite their availability on TV and DVD, the
Bond films still draw a crowd.†There
was never any consideration of cheating moviegoers by splashing the 007 back
catalog onto the big screen via digital-projection. It was important that the Bond series be presented
to fans in the most authentic manner possible outside use of a time-machine… by
sourcing the best 35mm prints available. “There’s no question of not
doing it on 35mm,†Judge explained, “It is the superior format for these films,
and the format they were intended to be shown in. We’re intensely defensive of the 35mm and
70mm film formats. So long as there are
prints for classic films, that is the way we intend to show them.â€
The
retrospective was launched on the weekend of March 2-4 with screenings of the
first five Sean Connery films and George Lazenby’s one-shot On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
(1969). The weekend of May 4-5 (which I
attended with my daughter Sara, one of innumerable father and child units
filling the seats) marked their second exclusive weekend of Bond films. The program featured such entries from the
‘70s as Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The old-timers (present company included) instantly
noted that the strikingly pristine prints featured the original and nostalgic
“United Artists – A Trans-America Company†animation prior to the series’
iconic “gun barrel†opening.
The 35mm prints offered were nothing short of gorgeous, with only Golden Gun suffering from occasional black scratches and speckling near reel changes. It was of little account. Though Moore’s sophomore effort was mostly disparaged by critics and Ian Fleming purists on its original Christmas 1974 release, if you were to judge solely by audience reaction to this, the ninth James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun was the most popular screened over the weekend. Though some of the cheeky dialogue and situations are, admittedly, a little dated and silly, the film never commits the crime of being un-entertaining; it shines through an incontrovertible swagger, Guy (Goldfinger) Hamilton’s benchmark directorial styling, and Ted Moore’s luscious cinematography. When I suggested to Mr. Judge that, perhaps, Golden Gun is the singular Bond film in most desperate need of reevaluation, he agreed, adding, “Seeing it on the big screen is a different experience, an impressive one. That print [we screened on Saturday] had the best color balance of any of the Bond prints we’ve gotten so far. I definitely think it is worthy of reevaluation – all old movies are.â€
There were other unexpected bonuses as well. Prior to Saturday afternoon’s (May 5) screening of Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun, attendees were treated to a pair of vintage cartoons. In a tongue-in-cheek - and somewhat subversive – take on the celebration of Cinco de Mayo, the theater offered the politically incorrect Warner Bros. short Chili Corn Corny (1965), which featured the mischievous Mexican mouse Speedy Gonzalez and his perennial adversary, the lisping and exasperating Daffy Duck. On the surface it was an odd choice of cartoon for a program of secret agent films, the Cinco de Mayo tribute not withstanding. But during the long-drive home back to New Jersey the following morning, I mused that the addition of Speedy and Daffy to the program might have been an attempt to contextualize and explain away the presence of James Bond’s own celebrated foil of the early 1970s: the cussing and equally non-P.C. Louisiana sheriff J. W. Pepper (Clifton James). The Man with the Golden Gun, on the other hand, was preceded by the more thematic Tom & Jerry spy spoof The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R. (MGM, 1967).
Judge is already working on the next series of screenings which, if all goes as planned, will take place in late summer once the wave of seasonal blockbuster films subside. The series will likely pick up where it left off with Moonraker (1979) and proceed, perhaps, through Licence to Kill (1989). But Judge admits that he might have to consider tweaking, if not abandoning, the chronological format when the time comes to book the Bond films from the past two decades. If one accepts the premise that the “classic†James Bond films are the Sean Connery titles of the 1960s and, to a lesser extent, the seven titles of the Roger Moore era, I asked Judge if he was concerned that movie-goers might pass on screenings of the more “modern†Bond films featuring Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan. “Yes, that is a concern,†Judge admitted, “not only because they lack Connery, but also because slightly older films don’t always have the aura of the 60s classics. I’m divided between [running the series] in order of release… versus bringing back the crowd-pleasers along with the newer ones, [perhaps re-screening] From Russia with Love and Goldfinger with a post-Connery title, just to draw them in.â€
Though that wasn’t his original vision for the program, it does make sound business sense. Judge is mindful that James Bond anoraks aren’t necessarily in the majority of those attending the retrospective screenings. Indeed, as the Somerville Theater’s James Bond weekends are deliberately spaced months apart from the last, Judge noted that the many otherwise supportive local patrons often aren’t mindful that the screenings are merely segments of their ambitious celebration of the longest-lasting franchise in motion picture history. “Some people don’t realize it’s a [year-long] series,†Judge admits, [and they’re] sometimes puzzled why certain titles were chosen, unaware of our attempt of “going in order.†Regardless, if time permits and interest in the retrospective remains high, Judge is also considering programming the two “renegade†James Bond films, Casino Royale (Columbia, 1967) and Never Say Never Again (Warner Bros., 1983).
Whatever the future brings, Judge is pleased that the Somerville Theater has “been open for 98 years this month and, amazingly, we are still serving the needs of the community with movies and live shows in much the same way we have for almost a century.â€
Click here for info about the Somerville Theater.