For Conservative Movie Lovers: Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, and ‘Goldfinger’ Part 2

The name was Fleming, Valentine Fleming. But to his four young boys, Bond creator Ian Fleming among them, he was “Mokie” — a baby-talk bastardization of “Smokie,” so called because he always had a pipe dangling from his lips, the same way Sean Connery would one day sport a cigarette in his debut appearance as James Bond in Dr. No. Curiously, no one in turn-of-the-century England thought to arrest Mr. Fleming for smoking in the presence of his children, nor did social services batter down his door to cart the poor cancer-threatened kids away. He was their Pop, and they adored him, smoke and all.

Child-abusing barbarians, I know.

They were rich, the Flemings. Grandfather made his fortune pioneering investment trusts, and when Valentine came of age he inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds. Thus it was that his second son Ian, born in 1908, grew up in a world of wealth and privilege. Mother was a typical socialite, a lover of status and all the good things that money could buy, but Father was different. He ran for government office as a conservative, and was by all accounts a thorough patriot of crown and country much admired by everyone who met him. When war became imminent, there was never any question whether he would use his money and influence to weasel out of the fight. Valentine joined the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars of his own volition and trained for combat, counting among his friends a fellow officer named Winston Churchill.

Ian and his family watched with dread as their Dad headed off to the front in 1914, and for the next three years they saw him but seldom. Valentine sent his family cheery letters to lift their spirits, but his missives to Churchill laid bare the truth: (more…)

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Tags: Admiral John Henry Godfrey, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, Andrew Lycett, Anne Charteris (Fleming), BBC Radio
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 6:43 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Film, For Conservative Movie Lovers | 32295828 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2010/03/20/for-conservative-movie-lovers-ian-fleming-sean-connery-and-goldfinger-part-2/For+Conservative+Movie+Lovers%3A+Ian+Fleming%2C+Sean+Connery%2C+and+%E2%80%98Goldfinger%E2%80%99+Part+22010-03-20+13%3A43%3A29Leo+Grin

Daily Gut: Frommer = Tool

So the king of the travel guide racket, Arthur Frommer, has come out against Arizona. Yes, he claims he’ll no longer visit the state because it permit “thugs” to openly carry guns. He revealed this on his blog, after witnessing a protester carrying a rifle outside a building where the President was speaking.

Frommer says he’ll consider whether “tourists should safeguard themselves” by avoiding the crime-ridden hellhole that is the Grand Canyon. After I read about this, I decided to do a search to see if Frommer ever made similar pronouncements about other cities or states. I wondered if he had ever told people to avoid Washington DC, where, according to a US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004 report – that place topped the entire country in crime. (more…)

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Tags: Arizona, Arthur Frommer, chicago, crime, Detroit
Posted Aug 24th 2009 at 2:09 pm in Daily Gut, News, Politics | 210526113 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/08/24/daily-gut-frommer-tool/Daily+Gut%3A+Frommer+%3D+Tool2009-08-24+21%3A09%3A20Greg+Gutfeld

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying

I had a date with Judd Apatow.  It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot.  I needed a date to a premiere.  I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them.  It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality.

1) Go to the right places.  I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I did.  I was 21 and a Baptist virgin, and I found Betty from the William Morris commercial department there.  Check.

2) Wear something provocative to a Hollywood premiere so you can get free publicity.  I did that.  When I was an SNL castmember trying to increase my movie roles, I attended some Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan premiere (go figure – it was a flop!) in a see-through black shirt with a flowered bra underneath.  I felt ashamed, but I did get my picture in a few magazines.  All press is good press, and press leads to opportunity.

(more…)

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Tags: "Juno", "Year One", bestiality, blasphemy, circumcision jokes
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 7:15 pm in Featured Story, Religion, Reviews | 165426218 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/vjackson/2009/06/19/why-i-walked-out-of-year-one-crying/Why+I+Walked+Out+of+%27Year+One%27+Crying2009-06-20+02%3A15%3A06Victoria+Jackson

Lonewolf Diaries: “Violence Doesn’t Solve Problems…”

… Bull Crap. Listen, violence freed the slaves, took down the axis of evil and still manages to fix every remote control that I’ve ever owned. More recently, the use of force quickly brought an end to the escapades of a few Somali jackasses. Three shots fired, three men dead… And there was much rejoicing. To those of you still teaching the “violence doesn’t solve problems” myth to your kids… What are you thinking? Does anyone out there truly believe this insane rhetoric?

I find it funny that Hollywood leftists are the ones who’ve been pushing this ideal down our throats with one hand, while simultaneously producing the most brutally vile, “creative content” with the other. Libs love to paint Middle American conservatives as “Gun toting Neo-Cons with a thirst for violence,” yet more often than not, it’s those people who boycott their gratuitous, self-indulgent, crap-fests that they call films. Does anyone here honestly think that “Seung-Hi Choi” went on his Virginia-Tech shooting spree after getting fired up at an NRA rally? His pre-massacre phone-pictures showed him mimicking poses that he’d seen in “Tomb Raider” for crying out loud. Only in the United States could an entity such as Hollywood coin the term “Torture-Porn” for their content one moment, only to condemn a righteous war the next. (more…)

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Tags: bullies, kids, pirates, teachers, use of force
Posted Apr 14th 2009 at 6:09 pm in Lone Wolf Diaries | 106070228 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/04/14/lonewolf-diaries-violence-doesnt-solve-problems/Lonewolf+Diaries%3A+%22Violence+Doesn%27t+Solve+Problems...%222009-04-15+01%3A09%3A14Steven+Crowder

Rap Is Crap

Today, Grammy-winning rapper T.I. (Total Imbecile? Thug Idiot?) was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for illegally owning machine guns and silencers.  In the aftermath of his arrest, prosecutors informed T.I. that he could serve two decades in prison; he quickly agreed to 1000 hours of community service, touring around the U.S. talking to teens about the problems with drugs and gangs.  MTV made a show about him called “T.I.’s Road to Redemption.”  This from a guy who dealt drugs as a teen and got busted for coke in 1998. 

Here’s the thing: no matter how many hours of community service T.I. does, it will never make up for the crap he puts into the minds of his listeners.  His biggest hit is “Whatever You Like.”  Here’s a sample lyric “Whatever You Like”: Late night sex so wet you’re so tight …Let me put this big boy in yo life / The thang get so wet, it hit so right.  (more…)

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Tags: crime, drugs, Eminem, Kerry, MTV
Posted Mar 29th 2009 at 7:05 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 91034261 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/03/29/rap-is-crap/Rap+Is+Crap2009-03-29+14%3A05%3A07Ben+Shapiro

Where Have You Gone, Alvy Singer?

How did they do it? 

Let’s face it, liberals didn’t take over our schools, the entire American education system by protesting. Sure, they made a lot of noise with their complaining, their picketing, but did that do the trick? Did that turn the tide? Did that transform what was once a learning environment that inspired inquisitiveness and curiosity, into a showplace for materialism – where we once taught respect for our men and women in uniform, rather than offering extra credit for flag burning – where teachers once encouraged independence, rather than reliance – where we once taught the lessons of history, rather than condemning it – where we once instilled responsibility, rather than simply handing out condoms?  How did they change what was once a morally conservative, patriotic institution, proud and respectful of our military, our flag, our constitution, our history and our culture into something that can only be described as Liberals gone wild?  (more…)

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Tags: alvy singer, annie hall, beverly hills, diane keaton, gadgets
Posted Mar 8th 2009 at 10:23 am in Entertainment, Media Criticism, Video | 74342125 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/03/08/where-have-you-gone-alvy-singer/Where+Have+You+Gone%2C+Alvy+Singer%3F2009-03-08+18%3A23%3A55Schizoid+Mann

Watchmen: Lots to Like, Little to Love

I don’t judge movies by their source material, so I won’t judge “Watchmen” by the amazing graphic novel from which it comes. When we pay our 12 bucks to see a movie, nobody hands us a book to go along with it, so the moral contract between consumer and story-teller is that the story has to hold up on its own.

“Watchmen” works as a dark, post-modern, revisionist middle finger to the icons of our optimistic past. The plot isn’t its strong suit, the characters are what make “Watchmen” an impressive experience. Dr. Manhattan is a being who lost his unique electric field in a lab accident. He didn’t keep his hair, but he kept his blue penis, which is useful in revealing that he’s not Jewish. A Materialist god, Dr. Manhattan is losing his grasp on what it means to be human, even as he gains the ability to see life one molecule at a time. (more…)

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Tags: 300, abortion, alan moore, bush, Carter
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 4:07 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics, Reviews | 7424243 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/03/06/watchmen-has-lots-to-like-little-to-love/Watchmen%3A+Lots+to+Like%2C+Little+to+Love2009-03-07+00%3A07%3A01Doug+TenNapel