My name is Grant,Cary Grant.

lounge60

lounge60

1959.
Shortly after the end of "North by northwest",Cary Grant is again on the set.
The new movie is "Casinò Royal",a spy story by a novel of British author Ian Fleming.
Grant is James Bond a MI5 secret agent.
The director is Howard Hawks,an Hollywood veteran and a Cary good friend.
Vesper is the newcomer,but famous model, Capucine,a Hawks's discovery.
Hawks retained the main plot of Bond vs Le Chiffre, the tension of the casino and a cleaned-up version of the torture scene. But the movie have a happy ending: nothing "The bitch is dead,Bond and Vesper ending togheter.
The movie is in theaters in 1960,and have a excellent success; is considered one of best Cary Grant's movies.
In december 2011 is released a restored version in blu ray.
Obviously "Casino Royal" is the first and last time that Cary Grant play the role of Bond.

imageoo.jpg


What happens to Sean Connery in this timeline?
We have the 007 series?
and what happens to the 60s secret agents trend?
 

Just Leo

Bond, 007 didn't become a serialized sensation until the third movie, Goldfinger, with Connery and a dynamite sound track. Dr No, and From Russia with Love could have been the end of it all.
 

Devolved

If your Casino Royale is in the theatres by 1960 then it doesn't interfere with Dr No in 1962.

The problem is Sean Connery. He is largely unknown and they wouldn't get an unknown to step into the shoes of a Legend like Cary Grant. It would be regarded as too great a risk by the studios. They will assume that Cary Grant's star power made the last movie successful.

I think they would have to go for another star. The short list for 1961 may look like this.

* for strong candidate IMO


Lawrence Harvey. For younger audiences

James Mason. Mature

David Niven!


Stanley Baker*

Richard Todd*

Stewart Granger

Michael Holden
 
lounge60

lounge60

After Cary Grant, Stewart Granger sound very well.
I see also Lawrence Harvey in part,but probably Granger is more in line with Grant.
 

Devolved

lounge60 said:
After Cary Grant, Stewart Granger sound very well.
I see also Lawrence Harvey in part,but probably Granger is more in line with Grant.
Click to expand...


I agree but I doubt Bond would take off the way it did if it weren't for Sean Connery who was seen as a young and 'fresh faced.' This was a plus in the 1960's when the old guard were being marginalised.
 

phx1138

I've had the same thought. I could be really good.:cool:

Two things: doesn't a happy ending mean the end of a series? (Happy ending would seem to obviate a return...& “The bitch is dead” is pretty harsh for 1960s Hollywood, which would tend to demand a happy ending...) Or do you think casting a new Bond "resets" it?

And what about Gene Kelly? As a dancer, he's certainly fit enough to do the fight scenes, & he's pretty enough to be the playboy Bond.

Also, don't you mean William Holden...?:confused:
 
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historyfool

I would propose Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson as well. Both had already some successes, both are stars, considered womanizers and have some experience with action movies. Of course they are about twenty years younger than Grant. Perhaps as a third Bond, if we follow the trend of older Bond actors?
 

Devolved

historyfool said:
I would propose Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson as well. Both had already some successes, both are stars, considered womanizers and have some experience with action movies. Of course they are about twenty years younger than Grant. Perhaps as a third Bond, if we follow the trend of older Bond actors?
Click to expand...

Tony Curtis!

"My name is Bond. James Bond from Brooklyn how are ya"
 

historyfool

Devolved said:
Tony Curtis!

"My name is Bond. James Bond from Brooklyn how are ya"
Click to expand...
Honestly I can´t remember looking a film with him in English. Lazy as I am I select mostly the German language option on the DVDs. Is his accent really that bad? And a wrong or bad fake accent never hindered Hollywood.
 

Devolved

historyfool said:
Honestly I can´t remember looking a film with him in English. Lazy as I am I select mostly the German language option on the DVDs. Is his accent really that bad? And a wrong or bad fake accent never hindered Hollywood.
Click to expand...

He did do an OK Carey Grant impersonation in Some like it hot.
 

Orville_third

Banned
This is a bigger change to Bond than my change. (I had a TL planned where the alternate wife of Terence Young* would play Pussy Galore...)

*A young Dutch lady who helped tend his wounds after the battle of Arnhem ITTL. She did star opposite Cary Grant, IOTL...
 

Deathsheadx

as long as Bond is played by a white male actor from the commonwealth with relatively good looks and screen presence we're good.
 
lounge60

lounge60

phx1138 said:
I've had the same thought. I could be really good.:cool:

Two things: doesn't a happy ending mean the end of a series? (Happy ending would seem to obviate a return...& “The bitch is dead” is pretty harsh for 1960s Hollywood, which would tend to demand a happy ending...) Or do you think casting a new Bond "resets" it?

And what about Gene Kelly? As a dancer, he's certainly fit enough to do the fight scenes, & he's pretty enough to be the playboy Bond.

Also, don't you mean William Holden...?:confused:
Click to expand...
Obviously in Hawks and Grant mind are nothing series; "Casino Royal" is a one shot movie.
After the succes of the movie,producers ask to Cary Grant to return as James Bond in a second movie: "From Russia with love",but Grant is not very interested.
Cary,poses two conditions: a lot of money for him, and his friend Alfred Hitchcock like director.
But Hitchcock is not interested at all,not for the second Bond movie,also in 1961-62 is at work on the script of "the birds".
So nothing new Bond movie.
The project is revamped in 1964. In search of a new Bond the producers found a Canadian born actor,Christopher Plummer.
Plummer is young, elegant,and is a good actor.
The shooting of "From Russia with love" begin in november 1964.
James Bond is Chris Plummer,Tatiana Romanova the Italian,but Yugoslavian born actress Sylva Koscina,and as Kerim Bey, Peter Ustinov.
The director is the American John Frankenheimer.
"From Russia with love" is released in december 1965,and is a good
success.
However the movie is criticized for his strong anticommunism.
The bad guys are the soviets of SMERSH,and the Colonel Rosa Klebb (a disturbing Hildegard Knef,a good German actress) is a
unforgettable villain.
A third Bond movie is released in late 1967; Plummer is 007 again,and the title is "Moonraker".
This time the director is a Englishman: Terence Young.
Moonraker is the story of Hugo Drax (Orson Welles) a British multi-millionaire businessman but in fact a ex nazi saboteur, a fanatic that want revenge against England for the wartime defeat of his Fatherland.
He now means to destroy London with the "Moonraker" a new ballistic missile that his industry have constructed for Britain, by means of a -stolen nuclear warhead that has been secretly fitted to the Moonraker.
He also plans to play the stock market the day before to make a huge profit from the imminent disaster.
Obviously Drax will be defeated by Bond.
Despite Moonraker is a good movie,at time is not a box office success.
This,and the fact that Chris Plummer is not more interested in role,determine the cessation of all project on James Bond.
You must wait 2011 for a new Bond movie,the "Moonraker" remake,with Ewan McGregor as James Bond.
 
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