I returned to this "late Connery" Bond film after recently hearing the beautiful Leslie Bricuse theme music - and then having it in my head for way too long. I have recently been reading and talking with Internet film "critics" about how powerful a good film score can be and Twice's is no exception. Especially as the vocal version is sung by the great Nancy Sinatra.
But, the film itself is quite good. As others have noted, this is toward the end of Connery's second stint as Bond, and both he and the filmmakers are very sure-handed with the story, casting, direction and much else. But really the star of the show here is the extraordinary location photography in Japan. I have never (yet) visited that amazing country, but after watching this film I feel kind of like I have. From the close-in, and great car chase scenes in Tokyo to the truly unique helicopter aerial fight sequence over the slopes of a coastal island Twice takes the viewer on a travelogue of late-60s Japan all the while following the story's through line effectively.
Plot is typically simple Bond. A bald-headed baddie, played in a scenery chewing performance by the late, great Donald Pleasance, is snatching US and Russian spacecraft out of their orbits around the Earth and, for some reason that is never really explained, bringing them back to an underground lair off the coast of Japan. Yep, that's the Bond film plot, in a nutshell.
The set piece at the end of the film where Ninjas, lead by the mysterious head of Japan’s Secret Service, a bikini-clad Japanese MI6 operative and, of course Bond is one of the best closing battles of any Bond film. Watch the Ninja’s descending into the underground lair using ropes and shooting as they descend. Impossible to believe, but still great fun.
Not that plot ever really matters in a Bond film, because it is more about the suave, well-tailored titular Spy himself -- and who better ever played Bond than Connery? -- along with, natch, the gorgeous ladies, cool gadgets and great chase scenes. I realize it is a bit sexist to buy in to the Bond-as-alpha-male flirting with assorted female boy toys but hey, it was what pop culture was doing at the time. One truly odd scene at the opening of the film has Bond in bed with a Chinese woman in Hong Kong, uttering the truly bizarre line "Chinese women just taste different." Wow.
Come for the scenery, stay for Connery and the chase scenes. And the bikini clad female spies, or the underwear wearing spa attendants. OK, OK. I’ll stop ;-)
