All posts tagged a view to a kill
My name is Bond. James Bond.
about cinematic 007
Lois Maxwell (1927-2007)
She originated the role of Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise, playing the character in fourteen films, from Dr. No (1962) until her final performance of the character in A View to a Kill (1985).
Maxwell lobbied for the role in James Bond, as her husband had had a heart attack and they needed the money. Director Terence Young, who once had turned her down on the grounds that she looked like she “smelled of soap”, offered her either Moneypenny or the recurring Bond girlfriend, Sylvia Trench, but she was uncomfortable with a revealing scene the latter had in the screenplay. The role as M’s secretary guaranteed just two days’ work at ₤100 per day; Maxwell supplied her own clothes. The Trench character, however, was eliminated after From Russia With Love.
In 1967, Maxwell angered Sean Connery for a time by appearing in the Italian spy spoof Operation Kid Brother with the star’s brother Neil Connery and Bernard Lee. In 1971, Maxwell was nearly replaced for Diamonds Are Forever after demanding a pay raise; her policewoman’s cap disguises hair she had already dyed for another role. In 1975, she plays Moneypenny weeping for the death of James Bond in a short scene with Bernard Lee as M in the French comedy Bons baisers de Hong Kong. For the filming of A View to a Kill, her final appearance, Bond producer Cubby Broccoli told her that the two of them were the only ones from Dr. No still working on the series. Maxwell asked that her character be killed off, but Broccoli recast the role instead. She was succeeded by Caroline Bliss and later Samantha Bond.
As Moneypenny, according to author Tom Lisanti, she was seen as an “anchor”, with her flirtatious repartee with Bond lending the films realism and humanism. For Moneypenny, Bond was “unobtainable”, freeing the characters to make outrageous sexual double entendres. At the same time, her character did little to imbue the series with changing feminist notions.
Although she is world famous for this role, her total screen time as Moneypenny in 14 films was less than twenty minutes, and she spoke fewer than 200 words.
from her Wikipedia page
