Seems like James Bond is everywhere these days. A new Bond film came out recently, there are Bond movie marathons on the tube, and the new issue of Mad Classics has a retrospective of Mad magazine parodies of the old Bond flicks.
The Mad retrospective caused me to recall some things trans-related to James Bond that influenced me when I was a newbie femulator.
I can never forget the opening sequence of Thunderball, which had the bad guy disguised as his wife purportedly attending his own funeral.
The femulation was in two consecutive scenes. In the first scene, I am sure that the bad guy en femme was actually played by a woman because you can catch a glimpse of an attractive blonde under the thin veil covering her face, but in the second scene, the veil has suddenly became thicker and you cannot see the features of the grieving "widow" as she fights Bond and is revealed as male. Despite the obvious (to me), I always fantasized that the leggy blonde in the first scene was the bad guy en femme.
Another trans-related Bond memory actually appeared in a Mad musical parody of the Sean Connery Bond films (Mad #94, April 1965).
In the beginning of the parody (click on image above to magnify it), a bevy of scantily clad female admirers surround Bond, while another female stands to the side admiring Bond's revolver. Bond asks why the she is admiring his revolver and not him.
The female reveals that "she" is actually agent 008 in training and that his girdle is killing him. The secret agent in training was not very attractive, but he was wearing a wig, dress, and a girdle and that definitely was of interest to me.
Finally, I recall another comic book parody loosely based on the Bond films. The spy in this parody was gay and named Jamie. He goes to a hair salon for some work unaware that the salon is run by the enemy. While under the hair dryer, the hair stylist puts him under a spell that reveals his sub-conscious feelings that he really wants to be a woman. He then undergoes a makeover and soon appears seated in the hair salon chair dressed as a pretty leggy blonde in a short dress and high heels with the other hair stylists gushing over him about how fabulous "she" looks.
When Jamie returns to spy headquarters en femme, his superior is aghast, but he has a cure, i.e., a sexual encounter with a female. Sure enough, the cure works and soon the now macho Jamie confronts the brains behind the enemy operation that transformed him into a woman: his mother.
As you can imagine, I read that comic book over and over again and wished I could be so lucky as to walk into the enemy's hair salon.
By the way, this story appeared in a one-shot comic book in the mid- to late-1960s. I lost the book in a purge a long time ago. I have no idea who published it or what was the name of the comic book, but I do recall that the book contained two stories and they appeared throughout the book with one story appearing on the top half of each page, while the other story appeared on the bottom half of each page. If anyone can provide any other information about this comic book I would greatly appreciate it, so that I can track down a copy to add to my collection.)
There was actually a transsexual in one of the James Bond movies, "For Your Eyes Only"
ReplyDeleteShe is Caroline Cossey (Tula), I saw her on the "Tonight" show and it was her book "My Story" that was the first book about trans-person that I every bought. I was so nervous going into the bookstore to buy, I thought everyone in the store was watching me.
She also did an interview for Playboy which I also went out and bought. I still have both of them
You are correct that a woman is playing the "widow" in the first part of the sequence. According to IMDB an actress named Rose Alba is playing the role. A stuntman named Bob Simmons plays the "widow" during the fight.
ReplyDeleteDiana --- Tula was a knock-out 007 girl.
ReplyDeleteLauralee --- Thank you for the confirmation.