ROBERT COTTON The man has no neck. Seriously. Blofeld becomes a cross-dressing erudite Englishman who lives for well timed one liners. This could truly be the only time Noel Coward's ghost has ever been captured on film. Far too happy and willing to explain his schemes, he does so every time he meets Bond. EVERY time. No menace whatsoever, but still a stronger villain than his namesake from YOLT. Wint and Kidd are the first overtly male gay killers in the series. Surprisingly effective throughout, they also end up being the only killers in the series to put Bond into a truly escape-proof situation. If it weren't for a plot device not only would Bond end up dead, our hero would be entombed within restful chartreuse curtains. Somehow fitting, considering his assassins . BILL KOENIG Blofeld should never dress in drag, period. Charles Gray does deliver Tom Mankiewicz´s more witty lines well (“Well if we destroy Kansas, the world may not hear about it for years.’). But that still doesn´t make up for Blofeld as a cross dresser. JAMES McMAHON Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Dicko Henderson back from the grave.  I've never liked the Bond film's penchant for bringing back actors a second time to play a different role and this case is no exception.  Charles Gray plays Blofeld far too warmly.  He's got a smug smirk that doesn't belong.  I think he somehow thought he was playing Liberace, instead.  It's a pretty thinly written part, and what Grey, whom I generally like, brings to role is all wrong. Messrs. Wint & Kidd - A great concept, very much in the Fleming mold, a pair of homosexual hitmen with a sense of the macabre.  It counts for less than it should because it's played too light.  The actors, Bruce Glover and Putter Smith, have good chemistry and good timing together. DEBORAH LIPP I know I'm in the minority here as well, but I adore Grey's portrayal. I think the plot of DAF is superb, even if the execution is faulty. The chain of smugglers, the chain of murders, the satellite, the kidnapping of the recluse, this is top-of-the-line stuff! Wint and Kidd rule. I mean, they're campy, but they're deadly and creepy and scary and campy, so don't laugh too loud. Wint and Kidd delight in the death they deal, and Glover and Smith play their roles with intense conviction. While I must downgrade Smith for his amateur performance (and after all, he's not an actor), as a couple, they work remarkably well. For a bizarre portrayal like this, you have to ask, does it work? I think it does. I think it works because, although Fleming wouldn't have gone for the gay humor, the scorpion, the little old lady floating in the river, and the funeral home scene have a potent combination of oddity and horror. I love most of the minor villains in DAF; Morton Slumber, Shady Tree, certainly Bambi & Thumper, and most especially Wint & Kidd. They create an atmosphere that is strange and funny but not laughable.

ED WERNER OK, here we have Blofeld for the third movie in a row and this time he's a wimp. Hell, he even runs around in drag. I thought Pleasance had no menace, but this guy is in a whole different league. Charles Gray was much more masculine as Henderson in YOLT. How can you bring back the same actor, who played a fairly memorable role two movies previous, then cast him as Bond's arch enemy? They should have signed one actor to portray Blofeld for all three movies. This jumping around is even more unforgivable than what they have done with poor Felix Leiter. TOM ZIELINSKI Charles Grey is a fine actor, but Blofeld as an effete snob is all wrong.  As written and directed, the depiction of the character is unforgivable.  The genius behind the plots of From Russia with Love, Thunderball, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service dressed in drag?  Geezus, it's embarrassing.  Some witty dialogue between Blofeld and Bond and a pretty good plot involving smuggling diamonds and (once again) holding the world for ransom work, but egad, the rest is really bad.  And could/would the brilliant Ernst Stavro Blofeld ever really say "Science was never my strong suit"?  I don't think so.  How could you, Tom Mankiewicz. A pair of genuinely creepy and dangerous homosexual assassins, Messrs. Wint and Kidd are charged by Blofeld to "close the smuggling pipeline."  They do so with efficiency, flair, and ingenuity except when it comes to James Bond who escapes their murderous doings let's see…one, two, no, THREE times.   Sometimes a bullet to the head is the best bet, lads.  Chicagoan (and father to Crispin) Bruce Glover plays Wint while musician Putter Smith is Kidd, though I can never keep them straight (in a manner of speaking).  The pair are fun to watch though, and are a highlight in an otherwise poor (though a guilty pleasure of mine) 007 outing. PAUL BAACK I'm ambivalent about Charles Gray as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. On the one hand, his... fey... characterization is totally at odds with what James Bond's nemesis should be. His scheme in this movie is so idiotic as to barely makes sense; this sort of plot would've been rejected by the producers of the "Rocky Jones" TV show. On the other hand, though, Tom Mankiewicz's screenplay, which attempts to walk the line between cleverness and stupidity, gives Gray some of the best lines of dialogue in the entire series. This Blofeld says the kind of things that a proper Blofeld would say! Too bad he's eventually reduced to dressing in drag to make an undignified escape from his lair. The gaiety continues with the main henchmen, Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd. Except, these guys are excellent! Again, the screenplay gives them amusingly macabre things to say and do; they may have wandered in from a late-period Hitchcock picture. It's only the end of the movie that lets them down; Glover's Mr. Wint comes to an especially undignified, stupidly cruel fag-joke end. Otherwise, these characters are quite comfortable in their own skins; they know exactly who they are and what they do, and they enjoy it, so that the audience may too. Hats off to Bruce Glover and Putter Smith for being some of the most entertaining bad guys in Bond history.

RETURN TO The HMSS Editor's Survey of the James Bond Film Villains Special Section:A DELECTATION OF EVIL HMSS Films Page HMSS Contents Page