The Weapons of James Bond - Fact or Fiction?; The MBA Gyrojet, the REAL Golden Gun

You Only Live Twice; James Bond certainly did, returning as the most unlikely Japanese man since Benny Hill... the movie itself is a riot of Sixties-007; Space-rockets, Volcanoes and even a monorail. But what about those weird rocket guns Tiger Tanaka (Bond's colleague from the Japanese Secret Service) demonstrates?. Could they be real? - or just some special effect cooked up for added grooviness?. What about that cigarette - the one Bond kills a henchman with?. Are there such things as rockets in cigarettes?. Let's find out.

American Art Biehl designed an armour-piercing rocket. Teaming up with the legendary Bob Mainhardt to form MBAssociates (Often just MBA) the two went on to develop a range of weapons, a family that included rocket-pistols, machine-guns and an underwater version.

Above: The core of the Gyrojet family; as well as the pistol and carbines there was a converted Rohm derringer!

Below: A page from the 1968 Shooter's Bible

The concept was simple; a self-contained solid fuel mini-rocket would be fired from a pistol or rifle, with virtually zero recoil and more punch than conventional rounds. In practice, the early rounds often failed to fire or were off-target, until a design change introduced angled vents to impart spin as well as thrust. Spinning rounds - as any soldier knows - have extra velocity and accuracy. Even with the new design, manufacturing flaws meant the designs never really achieved their potential. Other design flaws, such as the lack of removable magazines made reloading cumbersome and slow.

The US Military were enthralled by the concept (who wouldn't be?), but after extensive testing, the flaws spelled the end for the Gyrojet. Apart from a few examples sold to personnel heading for Vietnam, most were sold commercially. Gyrojet survival flares, however, did rather better, being standard-issue to the USAF for years.

Above: Welcoming customers the MBA way. From the start the company had a different, refreshing approach.

The Plot Thickens...

After reading that quote, I revisited the film on Blu-Ray and, there's a golden Gyrojet pistol right there on Tanaka's table. It's not Serial #0007, which makes me wonder; where is #0007 today?. Either gun could be worth a fortune today... also on the table is, if you look closely, a multi-shot version that was intended to be showcased in the film. 

So, what of that Rocket-ciggy?, well, one of Bob Mainhardt's party pieces was to startle Pentagon types with a remarkable gadget called a Finjet. Launching them either from a plastic launching block or even Sweetheart drinking straws, he would fire them into anything deemed suitable as a target. The finjets came in various configurations, but were generally capable of killing a man at 100 yards. A further development was to be launched in a massive block slung below helicopters; similiar in concept to the flechette rockets being used in vietnam, if less practical. A parachute-retarded system was also envisaged where, after the parachute had stabilised the payload the launcher would fire masses of mini-rockets down onto the hapless enemy. 

Above: Tanaka issues 007 with a finjet fag...

Above: Certified at last!

 Below: Promotional shots featuring Karin Dor and a Gyrojet. Even the poster artist featured the hi-tech gun in a fairly impossible pose...

Above: Just imagine Scaramanga with one of these!. This model comes in presentation case with dummy rounds and a medal honouring a pioneer of rocketry.

The Babes of Bond

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For reasons that should be obvious in this age of enlightened equality, I will resist any temptations regarding sexist posts or articles about women featured in the James Bond films. But not that much.

So here it is; The Babes of Bond; celebrating the fifty years of the Bond Girl,

Variously disposable, vacant or downright bad news, the Bond Girl is a phenomenon unlike any other. Seen as a launch-pad to an acting career, often the Apollo 13, the call from Mr’s Broccoli and Saltzman was eagerly awaited by many an actress. Many famous names were made by just such a call, with Honor Blackman, Britt Ekland, Jane Seymour and Arsela Undress (Sorry) to name a few.

Starting from the very beginning, 1962’s Dr.No set the standard – the film featured, amongst others one Eunice Gayson.

Playing Bond’s girlfriend Sylvia Trench, this has to be one of the sexiest women in – or out of – the movies. I’m not sure when the press and public latched on to the whole Bond Girl ‘thing’, but it was clear that by the time Goldfinger hit the screen they were here to stay. Even the hairy-armpitted monster of feminism couldn’t kill off the Bond Girl – despite rising criticism of the films ‘objectifying’ women, the Bond Girl simply got smarter – with later BGs regularly getting the better of our man from MI6. Even the remarkably doe-eyed Moneypenny spurned Bond, with latter-day ‘Penny Samantha Bond (!) famously declaring that ‘You’ve never had me’ to a chastened Pierce Brosnan.

So. Lets take a gander at some of our favourite Bond Babes!. To do this important and serious subject justice, we shall firstly focus on the BBs of the 1960s…

DR.NO

 

Clockwise from Top Left; Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench, Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder – the scene on the beach remains one of the most memorable in cinema (Amusingly parodied by Daniel Craig's homage in Casino Royale).

Below; Zena Marshall plays the ill-fated Miss Taro.

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Lets not forget the real Bond girl; Lois Maxwell brought the role of Miss Moneypenny to life; no other actor featured in more Bonds, save the irrepressible Desmond Llewellyn.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Move over Sylvia!, poor Eunice was to be replaced in Bond's affections by Tatiana Romanova; Italian beauty queen Daniela Bianchi was possibly the only Bond girl even hotter than Sylvia Trench (Her last appearance).

Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb; the villain of the piece and an amoral killer.

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The film also featured two hellcat gypsy girls in a catfight scene; this starred Martine Beswick and Aliza Gur – and no, I haven't got any pictures, so there...

GOLDFINGER

Everyone's favourite Bond (Except mine) and something is becoming clear; the girl's names aren't exactly written straight-faced; sure, we could have guessed from Honey Ryder and Sylvia Trench that Ian Fleming liked a joke – but Pussy Galore?. The American press went wild-with Honor Blackman coquettishly suggesting it was rather a cute name...

Blackman came in from her run in The Avengers, thus paving the way for Diana Rigg to follow in OHMSS. Erm, Miss Galore is refreshingly independent, working as Goldfinger's personal pilot and heading her Flying Circus – but without the lesbianism implicit in the book. Despite her judo-tough character, she still succumbs to Bond's attempts at seduction – a scene that, with hindsight, seems distinctly uncomfortable now. Still, if we knew what would become unacceptable in thirty, forty or even fifty year's time, you wouldn't have been reading this bit. If, indeed you actually are reading and not just ogling the girlies...

 

Shirley Eaton plays Jill Masterson – Goldfinger's companion (They don't, thankfully) who helps him cheat at cards, tsk-tsk. Bond uncovers the skulduggery and Jill to boot. Betraying a Bond Baddie isn't a healthy move for any girl, though; inevitably she gets murdered. If you don't know where this is going I can lend you the DVD (Don't ask: I won't do any such thing); yes, she's covered in paint – GOLD paint!!!. People still think this would be fatal today, despite the myth being comprehensibly rumbled by various scientific types. Later, by an incredible co-incidence Bond bumps into none other than Tilly, Jill's sister – who's on a revenge trip of her own. 

Tania Mallet – sounds like a Bond name itself – plays Tilly Masterson, who is herself killed by Oddjob with his frisbee-death hat. Which all leads to Dink, played by Margaret Nolan. Now, I would never condone sexism, perish the thought. Google Nolan's name on image search with safe search off and you'll see two good reasons why.

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A regular in the Carry-On films (My raison-d'etre if I ever had one) and many a gentleman's magazine, Nolan is also the girl featured in the incredible title sequence, with images being projected onto her statuesque form;

Nadja Regin plays Bonita, a girl we see at the start of the film who seems to be there mainly to kiss the face off of Sean Connery.

THUNDERBALL

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Several Bond Babes here; Luciana Paluzzi plays Fiona Volpe, the girl on a motorcycle who dishes out retribution for SPECTRE by firing rockets, while Molly Peters is Patricia Fearing, a Health Spa employee she mainly fears the sack for letting Bond almost get pulled apart by a mechanical back-stretching machine. Of course, 007 lets it be known his silence can be bought with a bit of the usual...

Domino Derval is the main girl in this story, though; played by French actress Claudine Auger, Domino's brother is the treacherous Petacci who, after a facelift gasses the crew of an R.A.F. Vulcan and razzes the nukes for evil Mr.Largo. As seen above and below, Domino is a sizzler...

-->Martine Beswick – yes her from the Gypsy scene in FRWL - is Paula Caplan, an ally of Bond who ends up swallowing a suicide pill.
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YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

Tsai Chin is Ling, the undercover girl in Hong Kong who helps Bond stage his own death at the start of the film – flipping up the bed he's lying in so it can be apparently riddled with bullets. Karin Dor plays smoking-hot redhead Helga Brandt, who works for the ruthless Osato and who ends up as piranha food.

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The main girl, though is resourceful Aki, played by Akiko Wakabayashi. Despite the film repeatedly portraying Japanese women as servile, docile types, Aki saves Bond's skin twice, using her racy Toyota GT2000 to good effect – something that clashes with the view of Fleming's Bond that women drivers were a mild hazard in general... (MILD?, they're LETHAL...). Sadly, all good things and poor old Aki gets the old poison-down-the-thread treatment from a careless Ninja. Bond then, how bizarre is this; Bond then 'marries' Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) to help him in his quest to find Blofeld's volcanic lair.

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ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

Mrs.Bond? - well, yes, exactly; James Bond gets married!. The final Bond film of the sixties (Lets not bother with Casino Royale) sees new Bond George Lazenby rescue a suicidal girl from drowning. The daughter of crime boss Draco, Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo as portrayed by Diana Rigg is a complex and vulnerable character, lending some real weight to the back-story here. Of course, marrying 007 is a risky business, and especially so here – poor Tracy doesn't make it out of the honeymoon car alive, taking a bullet from Blofeld (Telly Savalas) hench-woman Irma Bunt in a revenge drive-by. Oddly, Rigg was one of two 'Avengers' in the cast – she played Emma Peel in the series, whereas Joanna Lumley – one of Blofeld's 'Angels of Death' – played Purdey in seventies spin-off 'The New Avengers'.

Did the women's equality movement of the seventies kill off the Bond girl?, was the ultimate lady-killer foiled by the machinations of the bra-burners?... Tune in next time (What's in this coffee?) for the answers!...

MOST SECRET - You Only Live Twice

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1967- The Year 

You Only Live Twice, the fifth Bond film couldn't have chosen a more turbulent and hectic year for its release (Assuming films choose any such thing). It was a good year for me; both my wife and myself were born in '67, the year remembered for the Summer of Love. Actually, however, love was rather thin on the ground; Vietnam was escalating and the Six Day War ended with Israel occupying the West Bank in Gaza. Domestically, race riots threatened to tear the United States apart, while Che Guevara was captured and killed.

Musically speaking, it was a time for optimism, with debut albums from The Doors, Pink Floyd and the Velvet Underground (& Nico), plus the Beatles confirmed their dominance with the legendary Sergeant Pepper album.

The sixties tidal wave of technological advancement continued unabashed, too; the heart transplant, Concorde and the first cryonic preservation of a human being all debuted in 1967. At the movies, people flocked to see A Fistful of Dollars and The Jungle Book, the first Super Bowl was won by the Green Bay Packers and Elvis married his sweetheart Priscilla in Vegas.

Appropriately enough, Space was a regular feature in the news that year, with the Superpowers and the UK signing the Outer Space Treaty and the naming of the first Apollo crew. Tragedy marred the conquest of space though; the Apollo fire killed three US Astronauts, and the USSR lost its first cosmonaut when a parachute failed.

Births and Deaths in 1967; Kurt Cobain, Vin Diesel, Julia Roberts and the splendid Jamie Foxx all took their first bows, alongside two future stars of Licence to Kill, namely Talisa Soto and Benicio del Toro. Bowing out were artists Edward Hopper and Magritte, actors Spencer Tracy, Jayne Mansfield, Vivien Leigh and the fantastic Basil Rathbone. The Beatles manager Brian Epstein died, as did Otis Redding. The British hero Donald Campbell died when his boat flipped on Coniston Water during a World speed record attempt.

The Music; John Barry's score for You Only Live Twice is a soaring, evocative work that deserves a place in any top ten – it really is inspiring, bringing the oriental theme of the film to life. Nancy Sinatra's rendition of the title track is possibly the best of the series, rivalling even Burley Chassis (Sorry Dame Shirley) with her triumphant Goldfinger and sparkling Diamonds are Forever.

There's a Plot, right? (SPOILER ALERT)

Wisely, the producers decided to break ranks and depart from Fleming's original – the previous films had been fairly faithful to the books, but now it was time for re-interpretation. Roald Dahl might seem an unlikely choice, but his screenplay helps lift this outing into the realm of the very best. It's one of my favourites, largely due to the script.

Here goes; Russia and America are both losing Astro/Cosmo-nauts, each, quite naturally blaming the other. War seems certain, so, for some reason only little old Britain can save the day...

Bond fakes his own death, rather ingeniously, complete with burial at sea – handily, though, he is retrieved by divers and taken aboard a Submarine where his shroud is cut open, revealing our man is alive and well. Suspicions point to Japan, so 007 goes to see the local MI6 man Henderson (Played with charm by Charles Gray, later to return as Blofeld in Diamonds), but he is murdered. Bond kills the assassin and discovers he came from the industrial giant Osato Chemicals. On the run from the Osato HQ, Bond is rescued by the lovely Aki, who tricks him into falling, literally, into the office of Tanaka – Japan's wily answer to 'M'. Ah so!. Bond then goes back to Osato posing as a businessman, but Osato sees through 007's cover and orders the sexy Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) to kill him.

After some malarkey with a helicopter and a magnet, Brandt (Still sexy) manages to fail to kill Bond in a confusing plane sequence and ends up being fed to the piranhas. Who owns the fangy fish? - why, Blofeld of course. (Here played by Donald Pleasance, the evil SPECTRE mastermind is the quintessential Bond baddie – see the Austin Powers movies for satisfyingly funny proof.)

Rather than just ask for any old helicopter, Bond sends for trusty old Desmond Llewellyn – yes, it's the 'Q' sequence, and what a sequence!. Pernickety as ever, Q has brought Little Nellie, which turns out to be a build-it-yourself miniature Gyro-copter – (If you are the one person living in a cave that hasn't seen this film, its worth it for Little Nellie alone) A look around the volcanic landscape of the area – and a dogfight with helicopters later and Bond is sure something's dodgy about the area. The Soviets lose a capsule to SPECTRE, ramping the tension up a notch, but our man is now busy training – for some reason – to become both Japanese and a Ninja to boot. Even using the cover of a newly wed couple, this has to be one of the silliest plot devices in a Bond film, with Sean Connery ending up looking like a six foot tall member of the Three Stooges in a kimono. Moving on...

Bond and his new 'wife' Kissy Suzuki (!) find out that what seems to be an innocent lake in a dormant volcano is; ta-daaa! Blofeld's secret base, complete with retractable metal roof, mono-rail, heli-pad and rocket launching/recovery facility. Yes, the now-legendary Ken Adam's $1,000,000 set really does deserve its place in the hall of fame – the gigantic set the perfect backdrop to Blofeld's maniacal scheme...

Bond sneaks in, rescuing the Astro-men, but is rumbled by Blofeld, whose own rocket is poised to capture the American space capsule, ensuring US nuclear reprisals against the Russians. Luckily, Bond has a rocket-firing cigarette and uses it to cause mayhem as he opens the hatchway to allow Tanaka's ninjas to abseil into the base. An enraged Blofeld shoots the hapless Osato, Tanaka saves Bond from a similar fate by flinging a shuriken* into Blofeld's wrist. Bond hits the self-destruct on Blofeld's rocket, Blofeld hits the self-destruct for the base. BIG old explosion; the surviving good-guys swim for it and are saved by submarine. Hooray!.

Toys for the Boys

YOLT features a smattering of gadgets throughout; from Bond's safe-breaking gizmo and Little Nellie to the arsenal at Tanaka's Castle of Ninjas. Among the fun-stuff there is the previously-mentioned rocket-fag and some rather high-tech looking rocket guns; actually Gyrojet pistols and rifles. Made in the USA, these featured gas propelled projectiles, but were notoriously inefficient – one round would blast through a target whereas the next might simply fall to the ground hissing furiously. Elvis Presley owned one of the pistols in his collection. 

Slightly older-school were the Katana swords and the shuriken, ** known as 'Ninja-Death Stars' amongst British children of my generation, but originally intended as distraction weapons. Thrown to the face or chest, these sharpened metal stars would cause terrible injury, allowing the user to either escape or draw his sword to finish the job.

Unlike the previous outing, Bond's trusty Aston is not seen. However, (the lovely) Aki drives a real stunner; a Toyota GT2000. Originally a hard-top, the producers felt the car unsuitable for filming, hence the convertible model seen in the film. (In addition, I heard rumours of Connery banging his head on the roof of the original and demanding a replacement.)

So there it is; a fantastic, exotic and timely adventure that certainly stands the test of time. Granted, the deference of the women seems quaint, as does the notion that, once more only a British agent can save the World. This was Connery's last film as Bond... at least that was his intention. Tired of the pressure of the role (He was even hounded in the bathroom by Japanese reporters), unhappy with the amount he was paid and keen to prove himself as a widely capable actor, Sean Connery announced his retirement from the Secret Service. Happily for us, his retirement was temporary...