Tom Carlile, and the Eyes of Bond

By Jim Burns (James H. Burns)

The recent mention at a friend's website of the late 007 publicist, Tom Carlile, brought back many happy memories.

As described, Tom was a long-time movie press reperesentative, whose friendships ranged from John Wayne, to Anthony Hopkins. By the early '80s, and possibly before, one of Tom's regular gigs was, for each James Bond film, to set up an office at United Artists', and later MGM/UA's, Manhattan offices--and sort of serve as a point man for the Cubby Broccoli, 007 operation.

Tom's Bond connections, though, went right back to the "franchise's" BEGINNINGS. It was Tom who had set up many of the most famous Bond publicity photos (including the shot of Ian Fleming, astride a portable chair, on location, in front of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE's locomotive). Tom had also come up with an ingenious method to solve the then brewing controversy over Pussy Galore's name (in GOLDFINGER, of course)--a brou-ha-ha difficult to imagine, today!--by, simply, having actress Honor Blackman pose with Prince Charles at a London charity event.

By the time I met Tom, he was already in his late fifties, or early sixties. I would have been nineteen, but some how, we hit it off. (I was busy doing a ton of articles about movies (ultimately ranging for such folks as FANTASTIC FILMS, to GENTLEMAN'S QUARTERLY, and ESQUIRE), and I think Tom got a kick out of ALL of the different freelancers, and young editors, he was encountering.

(Tom, in a respite from the film business, at one point in the 1960s, had once written HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of words, for a multitude of movie articles, in some ridiculously short period of time, along the lines of six months or so...!)

Frequently, particularly around the time of A VIEW TO A KILL, Tom would call during the day, just to schmooze, and to take a break from what was surely a busy schedule. Tom was a veritable font of amazing movie stories. But our conversations rambled EVERYWHERE...!

Adding no less to the fascination, was that Tom looked like he could have walked RIGHT OUT OF an Ian Fleming novel. Somehow resembling, to me at least, Lyndon Johnson, Carlile stood well over six-foot-three-inches tall. (And, in fact, though I'm hardly a shrimp, Tom's height still made me feel like a little kid, or Herve Villechaize, when we'd go walking down the street, somewhere...!)

The first time Tom and I ever went to lunch, he took me to some remarkable soul food restaurant in the West 50s. (And yes, visions of the Fillet of Soul--LIVE AND LET DIE'S fateful eatery--were definitey playing in my head!)

As intimated, Tom Carlile was indeed a great guy--

Whom I still miss.

Back in the early '80s, there was another bonus to covering the Bond pictures.

Now, that was not the best era for Bond fans. If you had been reared on Ian Fleming, and/or the early Connery Bonds, the film series had long since taken a turn for the silly, or--even when the filmmakers tried to do a relatively straight storyline, the scripts were straight in miliieu only: Their script logic, sense of character, action, and intrigue, were still, woefully, lacking. (Nor was Roger Moore the reason for the scenarios' demise. Moore--while probably aways just a bit too "pretty" to make a truly Flemingesque Bond--had proved many times over, particularly in the black and white SAINT television shows, and a film entitled THE WILD GEESE, that he was more than capable of playing a "tough,Conneryesque, man-of-action.")

But a few months after each Bond picture's release, if you were an enthusiast, you'd start hoping that the next picture would be better, that Broccoli and company would actually adhere to their promises to return the series to its roots--

To at least try to emulate the greatness of DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER...

(To this day, in fact, there are SEVERAL Fleming plots, that have never been adapted.)

And then, more information would filter out: The new film's locale, co-stars, basic plot premise...

Excitement, or interest, at least, would mount.

And then, if you were a journalist, about four to six month's before the Bond picture's actual premiere, you'd go up to the publicity offices, to pick photos for whatever 007-themed articles you were working on.

And, suddenly, you were presented with enormous volumes, packed with HUNDREDS of shots, from the Bond epic.

And at that point, the new Bond film--

As illustrated, COMPLETELY, by the black and white proof sheets in front of you--

Was what existed in your mind.

The photos--the shots, the sequences, the scenes--ALWAYS looked terrific.

And if your subconcious was steeped in the work of Ian Fleming (not to mention early Bond director, Terence Young), you could easily--no, AUTOMATICALLY--envision the latest film as a worthy, engaging, continuation of the series' best entries.

Nowadays, when I think of the writing I did about Bond, through the mid-80s, it's with more than a smile, of course, that I remember Tom Carlile--

But, also, those 007 films that only ever played, in my brain....

Jim Burns (James H. Burns)

© Copyright 2002 James H. Burns

James H. (Jim) Burns, a writer/actor living in Long Island, New York, has written for such magazines as GENTLEMAN'S QUARTERLY, ESQUIRE and TWILIGHT ZONE. He can be heard frequently on Sporting News Radio, as well as other talk shows, in the United States.