SPY CRAFT

Nobody does it better than Bond.

The James Bond adventure Thunderball was British produced but was first seen by the public in Japan today in 1965. Its promotional art included the tatekan sized promo you see above, plus the two pieces below. It was the fourth Bond movie, and follows Ian Fleming’s novel closely due to the screenplay coming first. Sean Connery gives the role of James Bond his usual combination of panache and brute physicality, and with co-stars that include Claudine Auger, Martine Beswick, and Luciana Paluzzi the distaff side of the ledger is more than balanced. We checked several rankings and Thunderball generally sits in the top tier—six of twenty-seven on Rotten Tomatoes, seven of twenty-five on Chicago Film Scene, ditto at Esquire, and five of twenty-five at Entertainment Weekly. We’d rank it a little lower (how is it better than Live and Let Die?) but it’s fun, fast, and rewatchable every several years. If you haven’t seen it in years maybe now is the time.

Japan, Thunderball, Sean Connery, Adolfo Celi, Claudine Auger, Luciana Paluzzi, Martine Beswick, Rik Van Nutter, Molly Peters, Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, James Bond, poster art, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT