Jonathan Bernstein's Blog: jonathanbernsteinwrites.com, page 9

BRIDGET'S NETFLIX QUEUE OF SPY MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

 CARRY ON SPYING

It's not difficult to look at this year's blockbuster movies and figure out that they're being made by a generation of film-makers whose formative cinema experiences were Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Rocky.

But for British movie-goers who came of age anytime between the 1950s and the Eighties, the first film they saw was likely to be an entry in the endless Carry On series. The Carry On movies were a low-budget excuse to cram together a vast army of British character actors, radio comedians and veterans of theater farces, and have them pull faces, deliver familiar catchphrases and walk into walls. The series spoofed westerns, horror, historical epics, war films and, as seen above, spy movies.

So consistently successful were the Carry On films that they continued long into the cast's twilight years which made latter-day entries painful for both audiences and performers to endure, but the early movies, including Carry On Spying, retain a certain goofy charm and innocence which has only grown over the decades.

BRIDGET'S SPY SONG PLAYLIST

 SHIRLEY BASSEY - Theme from The Liquidator

So far on our voyage of spy songs we've discovered that Shirley Bassey bawled her way through two official Bond themes, and a single unused one. It turns out she also lent her titantic pipes to a sub-Bond movie from the mid-Sixties. It was called The Liquidator and starred Australian tough guy Rod Taylr and a small army of British character actors. While no classic, Bassey doesn't skimp on the drama as she negotiates her way through the song's many rhymes for liquidator.

BRIDGET'S NETFLIX QUEUE OF SPY MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

 INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE

His name's inch High. He's a private eye who's only an inch tall. Shouldn't someone be remaking this in the wake of Ant-Man?

BRIDGET'S SPY SONG PLAYLIST

 PERRY & THE HARMONICS- DO THE MONKEY WITH JAMES

Another brazen James Bond cash-in, this one praising Bond's ability to leap on every hot new dance craze of the day. The vocals on this are by a guy called Ed Townsend who went on to co-write Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On.  Useful fact, I know.

BRIDGET'S NETFLIX QUEUE OF SPY MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

 CHUCK

There's never been a better time to be a TV-obsessed nerd. If you've ever sent an aggrived tweet about your favorite show being cancelled due to anemic ratings, chances are someone somewhere is taking note of that tweet and using it as justification to reboot that show.

Star Trek's coming back. So are Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Prison Break and--not genre, but beloved by a very vocal and inclusive group--Gilmore Girls. 24 already came back and will return again, crazily without Jack Bauer. I would put money on Alias returning and, although my accuracy as a medium is far from 100%, I can imagine a time when we see the words Firefly and Netflix in the same sentence.  Heroes Reborn is already with us, but I can't imagine who has been weeping themselves to sleep in the years since it limped off the air. The actor Zachary Levi is apparently marooned in the reboot which reminds me that one much-loved, much-missed, little-watched cult show is just begging to be dug up from the grave and given a further shot at life.

Chuck.

The nerd in the big box store with the computer in his brain that made him all-knowing but also all-ass-kicking. Chuck managed to pull off the difficult feat of being funny, charming, warm-hearted, action-packed and generous to it's supporting cast, all of whom whom were given moments to shine.

I'm not asking for a new season; Chuck had pretty much run out of stories  by the end of Year 5. But the Gilmore Girls four-ninety-minute-episode model would be a perfect fit.

What do you say, nerds? Let's make Chuck happen again!

BRIDGET'S SPY SONG PLAYLIST

 SOCK IT TO 'EM, JB - REX GARVIN(AND THE MIGHTY CRAVERS)

From 1966, a time when James Bond mania was at it's most maniacal, here's a stomping, brass-heavy semi-instrumental that shouts out Dr. No, Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. And from 1980, here's a cover of the same song by The Specials.

 

BEST TRAILER EVER? or BEST TRAILER EVERRRRR! YOU DECIDE

Yes, it's the Bridget Wilder:Spy-In-Training trailer. Don't trailers usually come out before release rather than after? I don't know. Just enjoy...

 

BRIDGET'S SPY SONG PLAYLIST

 SHIRLEY BASSEY- MR. KISS KISS BANG BANG

Sam Smith may be the current reigning Bond theme warbler but the undisputed queen of James Bond tunes is Shirley Bassey. The Welsh foghorn is responsible for two stone-cold classics of the genre: "Goldfingaaaaaah!" and "Diamonds Are Forevaaaaah!" But she almost had a third Bond theme to her name. Bassey recorded "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'( as Japanese fans were wont to refer to Bond back in the day) as the theme to 1965's Thunderball but the producers wanted a song with the movie's title so they drafted in Tom Jones to record a song called Thunderball that has never been heard since.

At the same time Bassey was belting out the never-to-be-heard song, Dionne Warwick was in a studio doing her best with the same tune.

 

BRIDGET'S NETFLIX QUEUE OF SPY MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

KIM POSSIBLE

Call me, beep me, if you want to reach me. Disney's plucky, resourceful school student  cheerleader super spy fought ridiculous bad guys over the course of four seasons. Her trusty dork sidekick Ron Possible was a more problematic creation. It felt like it wasn't enough for Kim P to be brilliant, athletic and fearless, her companion had to be a sniveling, incompetent irritant with a pet mole-rat thing. Happily, the show did right by Ron in the long run and Kim Possible finally saw him as her destiny both in the fields of spying and teen romance.

 

BRIDGET'S SPY SONG PLAYLIST

 SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES- COME SPY WITH ME

What a milestone! The first Motown spy song in our long journey through secret agent-themed music.  This is the title song to the 1967 film starring one-time teen idol Troy Donahue. I could only find one clip on You Tube but it makes me want to see more.