STACK #137 Mar 2016

FEATURE DVD & BD

SPECTRE – SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – made its first appearance in Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel Thunderball . The author, who had worked in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, invented SPECTRE after genuinely believing that Thunderball hit cinemas in 1962, consequently dating the film. SPECTRE consists of an amalgamation of criminal organisations including the Soviet SMERSH, the Gestapo and the Mafia. Fleming based the name of Ernst Stavro Blofeld on a friend with whom he attended Eton. the Cold War would be over by the time

Telly Savalas as Blofeld

ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (1969) From a lair in the Swiss Alps, Blofeld holds the world to ransom again. Threatening to wipe out agriculture with toxic bacteria deployed by brainwashed women, he demands a pardon for his past crimes. A side scheme involves him being recognised as the true heir to the title ‘Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp’.

Charles Gray as Blofeld

DVD & BD

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971) In his final confrontation with SPECTRE (until 2015), Bond goes undercover to investigate a diamond smuggling ring and discovers that Blofeld requires the gems to power a giant orbital laser, aimed at the world’s nuclear weapons and giving him the upper hand in the arms race.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) A wheelchair-bound Blofeld finally meets his end in the opening sequence, when Bond hooks him with a helicopter skid and drops him into an industrial smokestack.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983) Blofeld gets some screen time – and hair – in this “unofficial” Bond film, which is an unofficial remake of Thunderball . Yes, that's Max Von Sydow as SPECTRE #1.

SPECTRE (2015) The title reveals who Bond is up against, but who is in charge of SPECTRE these days? Is the sinister Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) actually… Ernst Stavro Blofeld?

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