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More Reynold Brown

Last week we featured some of the work of poster artist Reynold Brown. 

 Here are a few more samples of his  incredible work...

SILENT STAR preproduction art

Der schweigende Stern (en: The Silent Star) is 1 1960 East German film produced in 1960. It is based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem. 
A much-shortened 1962 Crown International Pictures English dubbed release in the USA used the name First Spaceship on Venus.

The Green Slime

This 1968 Japanese-American monster/space movie was probably the turning point for me as a kid. Before this, I met all these cheesy movies with "Golly Gee!!!" and I remember seeing this one and thinking "Hmm, not bad but those monsters are pretty silly looking!"

Here is an article from Famous Monsters of Filmland #57 

007 Girls, part 4

SInce a red headed evil henchwoman worked so well in THUNDERBALL, I guess the casting people of the next 007 film, 1967's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, thought it'd work again. But Karin Dor (born February 22, 1938, Wiesbaden, Germany) wasn't a very good actress, at least in this writer's opinion, as well as most 007 fans. Her character, Hilda Brandt, gets eaten by piranha after she tortures Bond.

Karin Dor

Mie Hama

Akiko Wakabayashi  portrayed Aki, who goes into a fake marriage with Bond to help the mission, but is soon killed by ninjas.

Mie Hama (born 1943) and Akiko Wakabayashi (1941) were both veterens of the GODZILLA films. Mie was cast as Japanese secret agent Kissy Suzuki. Strangely, her name is never spoken in the film. Also in the odd column is the fact that this is the only 007 film in which James Bond doesn't drive a car at any point in the movie. But he IS driven by Mie in one of the rarest of 007 sports carts, the Toyota 2000 GT.

The Toyota 2000GT was never produced as a convertible. It was customised in the film because Connery couldn't fit in the coupe.

McGinnis painting for film's poster

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2002's DIE ANOTHER DAY was the 20th "Official" Bond film, 21st if you count NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and 22nd if including the spoof "CASINO ROYAL" from 1967.

This was Pierce Brosnan's fourth and final fling as Bond. The film was rather good, but we're not here to debate that..we're here to check out the Bond Girls.

Halle Berry as CIA operative is unforgettable in a role that they have tried before, but it just doesn't work: Female Spy The (Near) Equal of James Bond. If you want that kind of stuff, I direct you to MR AND MRS SMITH.

Madonna sang the theme song for DIE ANOTHER DAY and had a larger than cameo role (although her action scenes were done by stuntwoman Karen Sheppard). Although she had no romantic tryst with Bond, I'll  put her character Verity as a minor Bond girl.

On Madonna's right is Rosamund Pike playing Miranda Frost. She sexes James, turns out to be a traitor and is killed by Halle Berry in the finale.

Pike was born in London in 1979.She plays the part of Kate Sumner in the 2011 Bond-spoof film Johnny English Reborn, playing a psychologist and English's love interest.

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Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. While it was a very good film, it was somewhat lacking in the dishy femme department.

Brooklyn born Talisa Soto , born in 1967, played Lupe Lamora, the baddie's terrorised girlfriend.  Talisa went on to star in such dramatic classics as MORTAL KOMBAT, SPY HARD, and VAMPIRELLA.

The Main Bond Babe in this film was played by Carey Lowell (born 1961), another attempt at a "female co-spy" that woefully failed.

007 Girls, part 3

THUNDERBALL, released in 1965, was the fourth James Bond film and offered no less than four ladies for our BEST 007 GIRL contest.

Beswick with Sean Connery

    Making her second of two small yet important roles in the series, Martine Beswick portrays Paula Capan,  007's assistant in Jamaica. She is killed by the bad guys after a couple of scenes.

  Martine also a part in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE as a gypsy girl. She was born in 1941 in Jamaica and went on to appear in films such as ONE MILLION YEARS BC and PREHISTORIC WOMEN.

  Another minor Bond girl, one of 3 he beds this time out, is Patricia Fearing, played by Molly Peters. This was Peters' largest film role. She was born in 1942 and was a model before her appearance as a physical therapist at the clinic Bond is sent to for some rehab at the beginning of the film.

Molly Peters

Getting far more screen time as one of the best evil henchmenwomen of the franchise was Fiona Volpe, as played by Italian redhead  Luciana Paluzzi. She was born in 1937 and was a staple in Italian action films of the 60s. She was memorable in 1968's THE GREEN SLIME as the love interest of Robert Horton and Richard Jakael on a doomed space station.

Paluzzi as Fiona

She also appeared in the pilot episode of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. previous to her role in THUNDERBALL in which she  gets two of the best scenes in the whole 007 mythos. In the first, after they make love and she betrays him to her goons, Bomd taunts her with his famous exchange:

James Bond: My dear girl, don't flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for Queen and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure, do you? 

Fiona: But of course, I forgot your ego, Mr. Bond. James Bond, the one where he has to make love to a woman, and she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents, and turns to the side of right and virtue... 

[she steps on Bond's foot] 

Fiona: ... but not this one! 

A few minutes later, then, the famous Death of Fiona scene in which 007 uses her to block a bullet shot by one of her henchmen

Now we come to one of the better 007 Babes, French actress Claudine Auger as Domino. Born in 1941, she was a runner up for the 1958 Miss World title. She appeared in many European films after her stint with Bond. The one piece swimsuit she wore in that film was most edgy:

The role of Domino was originally to be an Italian woman: Dominetta Petacchi. Auger impressed the producers so much that they re-wrote the part to that of a French woman to better suit Auger. Although she took lessons to perfect her English, her voice was eventually dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl 

Robert McGinnis art

No other pop illustrator captures beautiful women the way Robert McGinnis does. Not Frazetta, not Vallejo. McGinnis art has graced over 1200 paperback book covers and over 40 movie posters, many of them iconic such as the Barbarella and James Bond posters.

He was born in 1926 in Cincinnati and worked for Disney for a short time before joining the Merchant Marine. In 1958 he began doing covers for Dell paperbacks.He also illustrated for magazines such as  Ladies' Home Journal, Women's Home Companion, Good Housekeeping, TIME, Argosy, Guideposts, and The Saturday Evening Post.

for more McGinnis paperbacks, click here

 McGinnis created the famous James Bond stance with Bond holding a .22 marksman's pistol . He co-painted, with Frank McCarthy, a number of dramatic scenes for Thunderball, then You Only Live Twice. Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die, and The Man With The Golden Gun were poster illos he did solo.