From SPECTRE With Love: Blofeld Trilogy Now Available

James Bond’s arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld has come to represent all the things we love to hate about fictional super-villains in the 007 universe, and now Penguin Books have released ‘The Blofeld Trilogy’, which brings together in a single paperback edition the three Ian Fleming novels which feature the head of SPECTRE.

Released in paperback in the UK at the beginning of October, the new Penguin Classics edition, with an action-packed 720 pages, brings together the Bond novels ‘Thunderball’, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, and ‘You Only Live Twice’, and retails at £14.99. With a preface by journalist Nick Lezard, the collection ought to take pride of place on any 007 fan’s bookshelves, and especially in the collection of any scheming super-crook with dreams of global domination or the blackmail of the world’s leading powers. A quick read of these three novels can offer some great tips on how to go about it (and where things could also go wrong).

There are various theories about how Bond author Ian Fleming chose the name for his famous villain. One theory claims that the name was inspired by the English cricket commentator Henry Blofeld’s father, with whom the Bond novelist went to school. Another (more credible) theory is that Fleming saw the name ‘Ernst Blofeld’ in the membership book of his favourite gentlemen’s club. Fleming had a habit of mentally filing away unusual or exotic names for later use in his Bond novels, and many such names appear in his private notebooks.

Blofeld on Screen: Never Say Never?

On the big screen, as we all know, the world’s favourite gangster was played in the EON series by Anthony Dawson (in shadow profile only), Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas, and Charles Gray. Blofeld also had a final (?) brief appearance in the pre-credits of Roger Moore’s Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ in 1981. In 1983, the charming but ruthless Blofeld was resurrected in Kevin McClory’s alternative Bond film ‘Never Say Never Again’, played by Max Von Sydow, who was up against Sean Connery’s return to the role of 007.

There were apparently serious plans at one point to show the death of Blofeld in ‘Never Say Never Again’, fatally scratched by the poison-tipped claws of his own white cat, but this scenario (regrettably) was dropped. It is also not widely known that Donald Pleasance was not the first choice to play Blofeld in ‘You Only Live Twice’. The original Czech actor (who can be seen in some publicity shots taken on the giant Pinewood volcano set) was not deemed suitable after one-two days filming, and Pleasance was contacted in something of a rush, with little real guidance on how to play the role. Various experiments were made with makeup to make the character of Blofeld more threatening, none of which worked, until the now-famous scar across the eye was settled on, which one critic said looked like a cracked egg. Although quite short in stature, Pleasance could still convey a sense of menace, and audiences in 1967 found Blofeld’s first appearance on screen one of the high-points in the film. In a rare interview he once gave to the British magazine Starburst, Pleasance paid credit to the tremendous boost that the last-minute role gave his career. However, he was less impressed by the fact that his white cat kept nervously peeing on him in key scenes!

Telly Savalas gave a more ‘physical’ dimension to his version of Blofeld, and in fact kept his interpretation (encouraged by director Peter Hunt) very close to the Fleming novel. The choice of Charles Gray for Blofeld in 1971 was controversial, as he had already played a small role in ‘You Only Live Twice’, but the filmmakers wanted to avoid the bald-headed image of Blofeld from YOLT and OHMSS, and re-discover the silky-smooth and pseudo-aristocratic (but still mad) version of Blofeld from the original Fleming novel of YOLT. In the event, Gray was able to convey quite a quirky and bizarre side to Blofeld, who at one point was quite happy to engage in a bit of cross-dressing. Gray’s Blofeld did not suffer fools gladly, and what he lacked in menace he made up for in ambition. According to Cubby Broccoli, DAF was certainly a favourite of reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes, who also appreciated the ironic satire in the Californian sequences. Another interesting Blofeld fact is that, in the early EON script for ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ in 1971, there was originally going to be a final Blofeld sequence beyond the oil-rig, involving Bond in hot pursuit of Blofeld as he tries to escape in his ‘Bath-o-Sub’ across the sea. Alas, this was also dropped.

A Modern Moriarty?

Bizarrely, it was reported earlier this year from Japan that somebody had tried to set up a Blofeld-style Garden of Death (which featured in the novel ‘You Only Live Twice’), hoping to cash in on suicidal students, but the scheme was quickly stopped by Japanese police. But the enduring appeal of Blofeld remains, especially to fans of villainy in literary history. Some experts have drawn comparisons between the villain ‘Moriarty’ in the Sherlock Holmes novels and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Had Fleming lived longer, there is little doubt he would have returned to Blofeld or SPECTRE in some form or another in his novels.

Interestingly, in the original brain-storming sessions for ideas for the script of EON’s ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), one scenario was the return of SPECTRE or possibly the appearance of some young terrorist descendents of SPECTRE. But Cubby Broccoli seems to have moved away from this idea in 1976-77, as by then Kevin McClory was mounting a media campaign to publicise his own plans to re-use Blofeld. More recently, there have been numerous unconfirmed rumours that Blofeld could re-appear in a future Daniel Craig 007 film, which shows that there remains an abiding fascination with Fleming’s famous creation.

The Blofeld Trilogy, by Ian Fleming (Penguin Classics, £14.99), is available now in all good UK bookshops.