The revolution of the sixties kicked off on October 5th, 1962. This was the day The Beatles released their first single “Love Me Do” and Sean Connery was launched on to the big screen as James Bond in Dr. No. Between these twin poles of movies and music the decade began. By 1967, The Beatles were the most influential band on the planet while Connery was the world’s best known actor, and iconic star of the most successful movie franchise of all time.

During the filming of the fifth James Bond movie You Only LIve Twice journalist and presenter Alan Whicker—best known for his rather snide, tabloid and often condescending reporting—made a documentary examining the success and cultural obsession with Ian Fleming’s super spy, or as he termed it “Bondomania.” Whicker bangs on about sex, sadism, amorality and violence, quizzing Connery, producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and screenwriter Roald Dahl—who disagrees with Whicker’s insinuation, describing Bond as a “tough, rather insensitive fellow who’s very good at his job.”
 

 
The Bond format of gadgets, girls and guns was set by the previous two movies Goldfinger and Thunderball. This time Dahl’s screenplay pushed the form to the limit—dumping most of Ian Fleming’s original novel and inventing his own comic book narrative—an action scene on average every five minutes—throwing Bond into unrelenting danger until the final climactic moments.

Dahl considered You Only Live Twice to be “Fleming’s worst book, with no plot in it,” and he therefore filled the movie with his own quirky inventions—rocket gobbling spacecraft, a volcanic island disguised as a mini Cape Canaveral, and so on. I think Dahl’s criticism harsh, as I am on the side who think Fleming’s books are actually superior to the films, as they reveal a conflicted Bond, insecure, violent, remorseful, smoking, drinking and popping pills to keep himself functioning. Fleming gave Bond an emotional narrative—from strong, confident agent to broken, haunted spy obsessing over his own mortality—which the films have generally ignored.

You Only Live Twice was the last Bond novel published in Fleming’s lifetime—he died of a heart attack, aged 56, two months after its appearance—the last novel The Man with the Golden Gun and the story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights were published posthumously. The film was to be Connery’s last Bond until Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. The title comes from a haiku Bond writes when he is “reborn” as “Taro Todoroki,” a mute Japanese coal miner, to gain access to Dr. Guntram Shatterhand or rather Ernst Stavros Blofeld’s Garden of Death.

You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face.

 
More behind the scenes of ‘You Only Live Twice,’ after the jump…

Stan Margulies, Gene Wilder and Mel Stuart.

Delightful collection of behind-the-scenes photos of the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, assembled from a variety of places around the Internet.

There are two bonus videos at the end. First, an extremely short video tour of the Chocolate Factory set and secondly, who can smack a little girl’s face with a bar arm? Apparently the Candyman can!
 

Peter Ostrum, Gene Wlder and Mel Stuart.
 

The Oompa Loompas with an unidentified fan.
 
More behind-the-scenes after the jump…

 
“Life,” as Forrest Gump’s Momma used to say, “is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Which suggests (as may have been the intention) that Mrs Gump was either illiterate or just too damned lazy to read the chocolate box menu card before cramming a fistful of soft centers into her gob.

Well, this enlightening little film, How Do They Put the Centers in Chocolates? shows exactly how those tasty surprises Mrs Gump favored so much are added to every box of chocolates.

Chocolate is produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. In 2007, archaeologists at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, uncovered the oldest known cultivation and use of cacao dating back to around 1100 to 1400 BC. Mayans used cacao to make a rather frothy drink, and it wasn’t until the Spanish invaded South America did rich Europeans first get a taste of the delightful stuff.

Cacao was a luxury, and it wasn’t until 1847, that Englishman Joseph Fry invented the modern chocolate bar when he mixed cacao butter with Dutched chocolate, added sugar and made a chocolate paste that could be molded.  Roald Dahl that fabulous writer and connoisseur of chocolate believed such historical events were more important than the tiresome facts of battles and kings taught at school:

“Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one’s life ... but 1932 the Mars Bar and 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit-Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared into the memory of every child in the country.”

Europe still consumes around 40% of the world’s chocolate, with Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom making up the top 5 of the per capita chocolate consumption table. The USA is 12th, ahead of Australia, Italy and Canada.
 

 
It may have ended in disaster for Jackie Gleason, but it launched the TV career of Roald Dahl. In 1961, Gleason was supposed to make his “triumphant return” to television with his celebrity quiz show You’re in the Picture, where famous guests had to place their heads through holes in a picture and by asking pertinent questions guess what picture was about. It was a bomb, but let’s not smirk too soon, as I am sure some dick TV exec is currently contemplating how to make this idea work again.

You’re in the Picture was so bad that when Gleason went on air the following week, he apologized to the American public. A big gesture, and one that today’s politicians and TV producers should think of adopting. The series was binned and a replacement show had to be found, pronto. In came producer David Susskind with an idea to capatilize on the success of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone which was then dominating the schedules. Susskind contacted Roald Dahl to help front a science-fiction and horror anthology series ‘Way Out. Dahl was suited to this role of series host, as he was best known for his sinister and darkly amusing tales of horror and fantasy, published in the New Yorker.

The idea was for Dahl to introduce each show with a brief amusing monologue, which related to that episode’s story. It was also decided that Dahl’s science-fiction/horror story “William and Mary” would kick the series off. It was a fun and frenetic time, as Dahl later recalled:

“There was a hell of a rush. And there was always a rush subsequently. The whole thing was done at a hectic pace. I mean, having gotten mine done, he (Susskind) then had to rush around and find other suitable stories, get them adapted quickly, and line up the cast. Jackie Babbin (‘Way Out‘s producer) did sterling work. David Susskind likes operating at a white heat and he’s very good at it.”

On March 31 1961, the first episode of ‘Way Out premiered to rave reviews.”:

Calling this first episode an “auspicious debut,” the New York Times praised the show for a tale “told tightly and lightly, with wry and brittle dialog.” A West Coast review added that “‘Way Out‘s chief asset could be its host Mr. Dahl, who practices literary witchcraft in the realm of the macabre and whose introduction to the series and the opener (which he wrote) was a joy… The story we were about to see, he said with a gentlemanly leer, was not for children, nor young lovers, nor people with queasy stomaches. It was for ‘wicked old women.’”

Dahl was described as “a thin Alfred Hitchcock, an East Coast Rod Serling.” But, while the series proved a hit in all the major cities, it didn’t fare so good across middle America, and after 14 episodes, the plug was pulled. A dam shame, one which Mike Dann, then head of CBS Network Programming has explained by saying the stories featured on ‘Way Out were:

“perhaps a little too macabre, a little too odd for television. Roald Dahl’s show simply was just too limited to be that successful.”

Perhaps, but sometimes it’s worth the risk of forgetting what the middle ground wants to achieve something better for all. Was ‘Way Out any good? I think so, but decide for yourself with these “lost episodes” from the series, including the first episode taken from Dahl’s story “William and Mary”. Enjoy.
 

‘Way Out: “William and Mary” (1961)
 
Roald Dahl introduces more episodes of ‘Way Out, after the jump…