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ROBERT COTTON
(... AND WHERE IS IRMA BUNT, GENTLEMEN???) In OHMSS Blofeld gets an upgrade in both presence and capability. He's given a personality and even ends up trying to steal Bond's girlfriend. Far more effective than his earlier appearance, this Blofeld is at least physically up to challenging our hero. Imagine the Blofeld of YOLT fighting Bond on the sled run without laughing out loud. As Stan Lee would have put it, "'nuff said". And where IS Irma Bunt? Strongest female villain since Rosa Klebb. She even escapes in the end. Can't do better than that. BILL KOENIG Telly Savalas is an improvement on Donald Pleasance in that he´s more physically imposing. I know it´s unfair to judge Savalas by his future roles. Still, I keep expect him to take out a lollipop and ask, “Who loves ya, baby?’ Nevertheless, he´s reasonably convincing in ski chases. ED WERNER Now this is more like it!  Although Telly Savalas doesn't resemble Fleming's Blofeld in the least. He is by far the most believable of the three actors to portray him on film. Some Bond fans feel that Savalas acts too much like a common thug, but if the Blofeld character was portrayed the way Fleming envisioned him in the novel, Charles Gray, who played him in DAF would have been right on target. However, I don't think Gray has a menacing bone in his body (more on that next) and had it been cast that way, it would not have been half the film it is. Savalas nails his performance admirably. Once again, the villain seems able to carry his own with Bond in a one-on-one and acts like the criminal he is. The casting of Savalas and Rigg in this movie is, in large part, the reason it holds up so well some 38 years later.
JAMES McMAHON Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Telly Savalas fares much better as Blofeld than poor Donald Pleasence. For one, the role is much better written. He's a much more human character. The look is still all wrong to be Fleming's Blofeld, but thankfully that ridiculous scar is gone. Telly brings a calm confidence to the role, which always works best for a Bond villain. Think, Dr.No. Think Goldfinger. Though his accent seems wrong, Savalas movements seem right, the body language is good. He does a creditable job in a role he's not really well suited for at all. DEBORAH LIPP I'm in the minority here. I can't stand Savalas's portrayl of Blofeld. He's so gangster-ish, not at all the intellectual leader. He's just not Blofeld to me-he can't even get the cat to sit in his lap! I give Irma Bunt high marks because she's straight out of Fleming. However, both for Fleming and for the movies, she's a retread of an earlier, superior character. Irma is nothing more than an ostensibly heterosexual Rosa Klebb, with inferior footwear. She's creepy and Flemingesque, but not interesting or original. |
TOM ZIELINSKI
Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Director Peter Hunt got his way, dumped the absurd direction of the previous film and faithfully brought one of Fleming's best novels to the screen. Cubby Broccoli's Las Vegas gambling buddy Telly Savalas was cast as the mastermind villain and somehow, inexplicably, an American Blofeld works. An exquisite synergy of acting, direction, and screenplay made this film greater than the sum of its parts and Savalas (as well as Lazenby) in particular benefited greatly. Right from the pages of Fleming's novel, Blofeld's plan of biological warfare extortion is as Bondian as it gets, and hideout Piz Gloria is a godsend compared to a hollowed-out volcano. Savalas also shows some physicality in the ski and bobsled scenes that Pleasance could never have attempted without guffaws from the audience. The final scene where Tracy is murdered at Blofeld's hands is the climax to as near a perfect Bond villain (and Bond film) that has ever been made. Irma Bunt - Ilse Steppat does a great job as the homely, gruff Blofeld's number two. In the novels, Bunt was Blofeld's wife, but that is not established here. She oversees Ernst's allergy clinic at Piz Gloria, and when Bond finds her in his bed after his several trysts with the "angels of death", it is as jarring for the audience as it is for Bond. Bunt is the one who pulls the trigger of the gun that kills Tracy, and for that alone, Irma Bunt is a classic henchman. PAUL BAACK OHMSS is my favorite James Bond movie, and, while Telly Savalas isn't necessarily my dream casting for the Blofeld part, he does an adequate job of it -- and is a gigantic improvement over his predecessor Donald Pleasance. He has the advantage of a much better screenplay, one of the few that hew very closely to the original Ian Fleming novels, and so gets to do a lot of cool, i.e. evil, stuff. Savalas displays a real joy of performing here; it's clear that he's having a great time, and is able to communicate that to the audience without breaking character. While no real Bond fan likes the idea of an American Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Savalas' is the best of the EON series' on-screen characterizations.
No such qualifications need be appended to my enjoyment of Ilse Steppat's portrayal of the thoroughly nasty Irma Bunt. The way she speaks, the way she looks... she truly brings Ian Fleming's character to life. One can almost smell her cheap |
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