***

This BOND production has been called a "renegade" in some quarters. But I strongly disagree. The actual renegade BOND is Charles Feldman's CASINO ROYALE (1967). The reason NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN exists is because of Ian Fleming's carelessness when publishing his novel THUNDERBALL in 1961. Fleming failed to get permission from his collaborators on a failed BOND film project from 1959 and just used this material as a basis for his novel. These script collaborators, Jack Whittingham and Kevin McClory, sued and won the screen rights to THUNDERBALL. McClory wisely teamed up with EON Productions for his film in 1965, since Sean Connery as 007 was all the rage at the box office. Why United Artists and EON Productions didn't offer McClory another deal for his remake is a definite conundrum. But I guess it was just extreme greed on both sides that an agreement was never reached. This remake is superior to the original THUNDERBALL in many ways, especially Sean Connery's performance and the stylish villains. Both BOND film adaptations of the novel THUNDERBALL are in my BOND Top Ten movie list since both film productions complement each other rather well. Unfortunately, the traditional gun barrel opening and thus, a BOND pre-credit sequence, is missing due to EON having exclusive rights to Maurice Binder's design. Also missing is a BOND film score -- what we are stuck with here is positively dreadful. My hope is that now that MGM/UA owns the rights to this film, these missing elements can be created and placed into the film and a totally new music soundtrack can be supplied .... perhaps by John Barry? Well, I can dream can't I?