Trivia for
For Your Eyes Only (1981)

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• This was the first Bond film to be based on one of Ian Fleming's short stories (instead of one of his novels). Interestingly, there are several scenes in this film lifted from other Fleming tales. Examples: The assault on the smugglers' boat and warehouse is lifted intact from a short story entitled "Risico", and the sequence featuring Bond and Melina being dragged through the coral is actually lifted from the climax from the book, "Live and Let Die". The Identigraph appeared in slightly different form in the book, "Goldfinger".
  
  
• "For Your Eyes Only" and "Eyes Only" are intelligence and government terms that relate to the confidentiality and privacy of information. It means that such information is for access by such authorized persons only who generally may not disclose or discuss the information with outside third parties except with other authorized personnel.
  
  
• The title song received a Best Song Academy Award nomination and was featured in a song and dance number at the Oscars on 29 March 1982. It featured dancers dressed as villains and henchman such as Dr. No and Ernst Stavro Blofeld as well as the real Harold Sakata and real Richard Kiel reprising their roles as Oddjob and Jaws respectively. A dancer played James Bond and at the end of the sequence he took off in a rocket with Sheena Easton who had been singing the title song live. This was just one of a medley of five song and dance numbers for each Best Song nominee on the night and it also acted as a preamble to the presentation by Roger Moore of the Irving Thalberg Honorary Award to 'Albert R Broccoli' n honor of the James Bond movie series.
  
  

• The voice of the Man in Wheelchair (unofficially Ernst Stavro Blofeld) in one of the movie's trailers is different to the voice of the character in the actual movie.
  
  
• Final appearance of Blofeld in the EON productions Bond series.
  
  
• Carole Bouquet had previously visited the set of Moonraker (1979) as the actress is French and interiors and some exteriors of that movie were filmed in Paris, France. She was remembered when it came to casting this movie. Two actors in the movie had previously appeared in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967). John Hollis (Bald Man in wheelchair aka unofficially Ernst Stavro Blofeld) played a monk whilst John Wells (Dennis Thatcher) was Q's assistant Fordise.
  
  
• The title song "For Your Eyes Only" sung by Sheena Easton was a Top 10 hit in both the UK and US charts where it went to No. #8 and No. #4 respectively. It charted in the USA on 25 July 1981 and the song also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.
  
  
• The name of the underwater apparatus that confronts James Bond with a man inside whilst they were in the Neptune submarine is called a JIM Suit, named after its creator Jim Jarratt.
  
  
• The Chinese Proverb about revenge quoted by James Bond to Melina Havelock was: "Before setting out on revenge, you first dig two graves."
  
  
• Bibi Dahl's nickname for Aris Kristatos was Uncle Harry.
  
  
• The name of the intelligence organizations that the Identigraph could connect with the photographic files of includes the Sûreté, Interpol, the Mossad, the CIA and the West German Police.
  
  
• The favorite type of nuts that were eaten by both Milos Columbo and the parrot Max were Pistachio Nuts.
  
  
• The name of the wine that Aris Kristatos offers James Bond and Luigi Ferrara when they meet at the outdoor ice-skating rink was the warm mulled spice wine, Glühwein.
  
  
• The apéritifs that James Bond and Aris Kristatos have at the casino restaurant were an Ouzo for Bond and a Whisky for Kristatos. For dinner, Kristatos suggests a Kefalonía Robola white wine wherein Bond concurs as this is too scented for his palate and suggests a Theotaki Aspro which is a white wine made in Corfu.
  
  
• The amount of time that James Bond and Melina Havelock had underwater at a depth of 584 feet with a mixture of oxygen and helium was eight minutes.
  
  
• "For Your Eyes Only" was the first collection of Ian Fleming James Bond short stories and was first published on 11 April 1960. The collection was subtitled "Five Secret Occasions in the life of James Bond" and was the eighth James Bond book. It included the short stories "The Hildebrand Rarity", "Quantum of Solace", "From A View To A Kill", "Risico" and "For Your Eyes Only". The last two of these provided material for the film along with some story elements from the novels "Goldfinger" and "Live And Let Die". Fleming's working title for the "For Your Eyes Only" story was "Man's Work" whilst its title when it was written as a TV episode for CBS was "Rough Justice" then as "Death Leaves an Echo".
  
  
• The restaurant table tape-recording ploy which is derived from the Ian Fleming "For Your Eyes Only" collection's short story "Risico" was actually a gag seventeen years earlier in the James Bond spoof movie Carry on Spying (1964).
  
  
• There was much media interest for a time in the film's controversial poster. It showed a pair of woman's legs in the foreground and apparently it was not known for a time to whom they belonged. More than one model alleged they were the owners of the legs but it was finally revealed they belonged to then 22 year old New York model Joyce Bartle.
  
  
• It was during this production that Cassandra Harris introduced then husband Pierce Brosnan to producer Albert R. Broccoli.
  
  
• The literal translations of some of this film's foreign language titles include Only For Your Eyes (France, Italy, Spain); On A Deadly Mission (Germany); Agent 007: Strict Confidence (Denmark); From A Lethal Viewpoint (Sweden); Top Secret (Finland); 007 For Your Eyes Only (Brazil); Only [strictly] For Your Eyes (Norway) and 007 Only For Your Eyes (Portugal)
  
  
• The license plate number of the black Everflex top white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow - Silver Wraith II belonging to Aristotle Kristatos was E 667.
  
  
• Sheena Easton becomes the first and only ever vocalist to appear during the opening titles sequence of a James Bond movie.
  
  
• Cameo: [Michael G. Wilson] a Greek priest at a village wedding in Corfu.
  
  
• The character of the father of Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), Sir Timothy Havelock played by Jack Hedley, was inspired by oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He was once personally acquainted with James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
  
  
• Last EON Productions James Bond movie soley released by United Artists. They would merge with MGM before the release of the next Bond film, Octopussy (1983).
  
  
• The company Autosafe provided the car alarms stickers for James Bond's Lotus Esprit which read "BURGLAR PROTECTED".
  
  
• The film's MacGuffin, the ATAC computer device which sinks with the St. Georges spy ship, was an ultra-low frequency coded transmission machine which was used to launch ballistic nuclear missiles. The ATAC acronym stood for Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator.
  
  
• This has been the only ever cinema-released James Bond film to date not to feature the M character. The M character did not also appear in the telemovie "Climax!: Casino Royale (#1.3)" (1954).
  
  
• Wide public interest in the 1980 Lake Placid USA Winter Olympics was the inspiration for the production to use a Winter Olympics location and to include story action within its associated sports. The film used the Italian Alps location of Cortina D'Ampezzo which had hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics. As such, there are sequences set at Cortina D'Ampezzo's Winter Olympic venues. Winter sports featured in the film include the biathlon, ski jump, ice hockey, downhill skiing, ice skating, cross-country skiing and bobsled toboggan run. Cast member Lynn-Holly Johnson (now Givens) was a professional ice skater and her character in the film was an aspiring Winter Olympic medalist funded by Aristotle Kristatos.
  
  
• Roger Moore announced that he was reluctant to play 007 again, since he was nearly 54, but was lured back at the last moment for an undisclosed sum. To avoid any continuity problems associated with a new actor playing Bond, the scriptwriters included a scene in which 007 visits the grave of his murdered wife.
  
  
• Director John Glen had previously edited and was second-unit director on a number of previous Bond films.
  
  
• This was the first James Bond script to be written by regular James Bond writing duo team Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson. This writing partnership would continue until Licence to Kill (1989). It was also the first James Bond movie directed by John Glen whose first Bond movie he worked on was On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as second unit director.
  
  
• The card game played at the casino was Chemin de Fer / Baccarat.
  
  
• Peter R. Hunt was the original choice of director for this movie. He had helmed On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), an earlier Bond movie which has a number of similarities and connections with this movie. However, Hunt was unavailable to return to the series being contracted to other films, namely Death Hunt (1981), ironically also having a snow setting.
  
  
• Milos Columbo's nickname was The Dove. His signet symbol was a white dove.
  
  
• Melina Havelock's inspiration was the heroine Electra from Greek Mythology. Elektra was also the name of one of the leading Bond Girls in the later James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough (1999).
  
  
• The names of some of Aris Kristatos' henchmen included Eric Kriegler, Emile Locque, Apostis, and Claus.
  
  
• The third act ascent upon the mountain hide-out monastery lair in Greece and known as Meteora Rock in real life was inspired by the assault on the cliff-side rock bunker on the Greek island of Navarone in the movie The Guns of Navarone (1961). That movie and North by Northwest (1959) were the inspiration for writers for this Bond picture.
  
  
• The name of the hotel that James Bond stays at in Cortina D'Ampezzo was the Miramonte Hotel, the hotel that appeared in The Pink Panther (1963).
  
  
• The name of the Havelock's blue and yellow pet parrot was Max. He would later be also seen in The Living Daylights (1987).
  
  
• The name of the white submarine that James Bond and Melina Havelock use to search for the wreck of the St. Georges was The Neptune. The name of the mini yellow submarine that confronted them was Mantis.
  
  
• The name of the Bond girl Judy Havelock in the "For Your Eyes Only" short story was changed to Melina Havelock for the film. Nor was her mother called Judy, she was named Iona - both were in keeping with the Greek feel of the film. The Cuban Hector Gonzales character name also comes from this short story where he was known as Major Gonzales. The Lisl Baum character from the "Risico" short story also had a name change to Contessa (Countess) Lisl Von Schlaf for the movie. The Aris Kristatos and Columbo (aka The Dove) character names also come from the "Risico" short story. Henrico Columbo in the short-story became Milos Columbo for the film.
  
  
• A major problem occurred during production which threatened to stop the filmmakers filming. The monks who lived in the monastery on top of the Meteora Mountain placed sheets and plastic on top of the roofs and external infrastructure so as to halt filming. They allegedly did not like the violence associated with James Bond. Reportedly, Roger Moore told them that he had once been a Saint! [See: "The Saint" (1962)]. A special hearing of the Greek Supreme Court was convened where a panel of judges decreed that the monks only had rights over the interiors of the mountain-top monastery but the exteriors were the domain of the people and the local government. The film crew were eventually able to film at the location which included a gigantic fall by stuntman Rick Sylvester. They did not actually film inside the monastery (known as St. Cyril's in the film) but built a set on top of a neighboring rock for some of the hideout's exteriors. The interiors were filmed back at Pinewood Studios on a set designed by Peter Lamont.
  
  
• The name of the old monastery which was built on top of the mountain rock was St. Cyrils.
  
  
• Product placements and promotional tie-ins seen in the movie included Olin Skis, Bogner Ski Suits, Seiko Time (U.K.) watches, Diner's Club, Philips Industries, Garmont Boots, Mitsui Yamaha UK motorbikes, Tyrolia Ski Bindings, Visa Card, Lotus Cars, S.A. Automobile Citroën, American Express, Kelloggs, Interflora Florists, Scubapro Diving Equipment, Jewel Water Buggies, Osel Mantis one-man submersibles, Perry Oceanographic submarines, and Normalair-Garrett (NGL) Deep Dive 55 sea diving helmets, wet-suits and breathing equipment including the Deep-Dive 500 lift support system.
  
  
• It was an early intention of the production to put James Bond in a scene with Greece's classic architectural building, The Parthenon. Old world architecture had previously been a backdrop for Bond in From Russia with Love (1963) (Istanbul and The Basilica Cistern) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) (Cairo and The Pyramids). But in this case permission was refused to film at The Parthenon. Greece is a also major setting in the first non-Ian Fleming James Bond novel by Kingsley Amis, "Colonel Sun".
  
  
• The name of Aris Kristato's boat was the Santa Marva.
  
  
• Topol asked producer Albert R. Broccoli to invite former co-producer Harry Saltzman to the Premiere and he did.
  
  
• Topol was injured when he was hit by flying debris during the dockside action sequence.
  
  
• Playboy Magazine, which had had a long association with James Bond, ran a competition in the magazine for a reader to become a Bond Girl in 1980. The winner was Robbin Young and she appeared in the flower shop scene when motorbikes crash into the florist's front window. Playboy published some of the James Bond short stories by Ian Fleming including "The Hildebrand Rarity" in 1960 and the James Bond character was seen reading a copy of the magazine in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).
  
  
• Regular James Bond film production designer Ken Adam did not work on the movie because he had gone to work in Hollywood on Herbert Ross's musical, Pennies from Heaven (1981).
  
  
• Roger Moore has said that he took a small amount of Valium and drank a glass of beer before some of the scary climbing sequences.
  
  
• The opening scene where James Bond visits his late wife's grave was an idea conceived by director John Glen.
  
  
• A line of dialogue had to be cut from the opening helicopter sequence due to legal reasons involving Kevin McClory. The bald man could not be called Blofeld as Kevin McClory had won a court case some years previous and owned the rights to the use of SPECTRE and Blofeld. The line read something like "I thought we should celebrate the tenth anniversary of our last meeting", which ten years previous was 1971 and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). This was the last time the character of Blofeld had appeared in an EON Productions Bond movie.
  
  
• Stuntman Paolo Rigoni died during the filming of the bobsled chase.
  
  
• The pre-title sequence is a dig at Kevin McClory, who owns the rights to Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE. The unnamed man in a wheelchair is obviously meant to be Blofeld, and disposing of him so early was producer Albert R. Broccoli's way of saying that the success of 007 did not depend on him.
  
  
• To enter the identigraph booth, Q enters a five digit code. Those five digits were the first five notes to the chorus of "Nobody Does It Better", the theme to a previous Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). James Bond responds by entering the final two notes. See also Moonraker (1979).
  
  
• Bernard Lee, who played M for the last eleven 007 films, died while preparing for the role. As a mark of respect, Albert R. Broccoli refused to recast the role, changing the script to say that M was on leave. A number of scenes originally intended to include M were re-written with Q, of note is the confessional scene.
  
  
• One of the Bond girls was played by Caroline Cossey, stage name Tula, who was later revealed to be a male to female transsexual. She appears as one of the poolside girls, in a white bikini.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [John Glen] [pigeon] Bond almost loses his footing during his climb to the monastery when a pigeon from a nest unexpectedly flies in his face.
  
  
• The character of Countess Lisl was played by Cassandra Harris who, at the time of filming, was married to future Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan would be offered the part just five years later but be unable to appear as Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) due to "Remington Steele" (1982) commitments.
  
  
• In earlier drafts of the script, the chase sequence in the snow had James Bond pursued by bad guys in snowmobiles rather than on motorcycles.
  
  
• The name of the mission to retrieve the missing ATAC device was code-named Operation Undertow.
  
  
• For a time it was believed that Roger Moore would not be returning to the role of James Bond. A round of screen tests for a new James Bond were held and James Brolin, Lambert Wilson and Timothy Dalton were considered. Maryam d'Abo, who would become the Bond Girl Kara Milovy in the later film The Living Daylights (1987), played Tatiana Romanova in the screen tests.
  
  
• Director John Glen has indicated that for a time it was considered bringing back the Jaws character for a third time but eventually the idea was rejected as it was believed that he did not fit the tone of this film.
  
  
• After this movie, the Bill Tanner Mi6 Chief of Staff character would not appear again in the series until GoldenEye (1995).
  
  
• The name of the Havelock's yacht was the Triana.
  
  
• The close-ups of Carole Bouquet and Roger Moore for the underwater scenes were actually filmed in a studio with a windfan to produce the effect of floating hair. The scenes were then played in slow motion with the bubbles added in.
  
  
• The original poster for the film, the image of Bond framed by a pair of sexy legs, was banned in some cities as being too suggestive. The film received a "Special X" rating (equivalent to today's NC-17) when it was first released in Saskatchewan, Canada, despite it being rated PG or equivalent virtually everywhere else. The rating was later downgraded.
  
  
• Julian Glover, who played Aristotle Kristatos, was a candiate to play James Bond in the sixties.
  
  
• In the opening sequence, James Bond visits his deceased wife's grave at Stoke Poges Church. The gravestone reads "TERESA BOND 1943 - 1969. Beloved wife of JAMES BOND. We have all the time in the world." The last section is both a quote and name of the title song from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). This was the movie in which Bond's wife was killed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas).
  
  
• The stunt double for Cassandra Harris (Lisl) was injured when hit by the dune buggy in the beach scene.
  
  
• Topol was cast after Albert R. Broccoli's wife Dana Broccoli met him at a party.
  
  
• Emile Locque (Michael Gothard) does not have a single line in this film, although we do see him talk on a phone inside his car at one point.
  
  
• At one point, it wasn't certain that Roger Moore would return. Actors considered for the role of Bond included: Lewis Collins, David Warbeck, 'Michael Billington (II)' , David Robb, Michael Jayston, Nicholas Clay and Ian Ogilvy. Oglivy, like Moore, spent several years playing The Saint on TV (Moore in "The Saint" (1962), Ogilvy in "Return of the Saint" (1978)), and would years later play a Bond-like character in a TV commercial.
  
  
• Roger Moore has said he considers this his best Bond film.
  
  
• "For Your Eyes Only" and the other Ian Fleming short stories used as the basis for this film were originally conceived in the 1950s as scripts for a never-produced James Bond TV series.
  
  
• First credited appearance of MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner, played here by James Villiers. The character had previously appeared (played by an uncredited Michael Goodliffe) in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). The character would be resurrected as a regular in the Brosnan Bond films, played by Michael Kitchen in GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999).
  
  
• Steven Spielberg was very much interested in directing a James Bond film and did have talks with Albert R. Broccoli to direct this film, but at the same time George Lucas offered Spielberg the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
  
  
• Deborah Harry (Blondie) recorded a theme song for this film, which was rejected by the producers. It appears on their 1982 album "The Hunter".
  
  
• The reason the underwater close-ups of Carole Bouquet had to be faked was that the actress had sinus trouble that made it impossible for her to dive or remain underwater.
  
  
• Was originally planned for production and release in 1979 as the follow-up to The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). It was even announced as such in the closing credits of the earlier film. However, it was decided to make Moonraker (1979) instead, which delayed production of For Your Eyes Only for several years. Following the release of Moonraker (1979), some newspapers erroneously announced that the next James Bond film would be called "The Sea Wolves". Roger Moore did make a film entitled The Sea Wolves (1980) between making Moonraker (1979) and this movie... but it was not a Bond movie.
  
  
• The bald man who tries to kill Bond at the start of the film is not referred to by name, but is intended to be Ernest Stavro Blofeld, the cat-loving supervillain who appeared in several earlier Bond films. Several books on Bond film history have suggested that this cameo was intended as a direct response to producer Kevin McClory, who at the time owned the rights to Blofeld and was planning to mount a rival Bond film production (eventually released as Never Say Never Again (1983)) featuring Blofeld.
  
  
• Begging Bond to spare his life, Ernst Blofeld baffles viewers with the cryptic line "I'll buy you a delicatessen, in stainless steel!" It is reported that the phrase is attributable to Albert R. Broccoli, who recalled accounts of 1930s New York mafia gangsters offering full-service delis as a bribe to cohorts, complete with stainless steel countertops.
  
  
• John Moreno is dubbed.
  
  
• John Hollis is dubbed.
  
  
• John Wyman is dubbed.
  
  
• The film saved United Artists from financial ruin. At the time of the film's release, the studio was still reeling from 'Michael Cimino' 's Heaven's Gate (1980), a notorious $40,000,000 bomb that was about to force UA to file bankruptcy. When this film took in a worldwide gross of $194,900,000, the studio was saved and afterwards turned its focus toward blockbusters and less on personal films.
  
  
• This was the first James Bond movie to have a music video produced in association with the film. This was the song sung by Sheena Easton who for the first time was the first artist to appear in the opening titles. Since For Your Eyes Only and the rise of the MTV Generation, all Bond films have had music video tie-ins.
  
  
• The license plate number of the metallic copper colored Lotus Turbo 2.2 sports car with ski-racks that James Bond drives in Cortina D'Ampezzo was OPW 678W. It was not colored white (as with the earlier car) due to potential schematic color clashing of the white of snow and ice with the car. The white version of the car seen earlier in the film had the license plate number OPW 654W.
  
  
• Snow had to be trucked into the ski resort of Cortina.
  
  
• Melina Havelock's yellow Citroën was a 2CV Deux Chevaux and its license plate number was M - 1026 - A.
  
  
• A helicopter of General Gogol was a hired Polish Mil Mi-2 (standard Soviet light helicopter, manufactured in Poland), with registration SP-SAP repainted to 8P-8AP and a factory pilot.
  
  
• Charles Dance's first screen movie role was as the thug Claus in this film.
  
  
• Hockey jerseys in the rink brawl scenes are exact replicas of the "Montreal Canadiens" and "Toronto Maple Leafs" NHL jerseys at the time, minus the logos.
  
  
• Some changes were made from the original stories. The Havelocks were changed from being Jamaican to being an Anglo-Greek couple, and their daughter Judy was renamed Melina.
  
  
• The original poster featured a woman holding a crossbow. Photographed from behind, her outfit left the bottom half of her buttocks exposed. This involved having the model wear a bikini bottoms back-to-front. The image caused outrage amongst various groups, prompting the studio to come up with some alternative posters.
  
  
• Lynn-Holly Johnson got the part after Cubby Broccoli had seen her in Ice Castles (1978).
  
  
• The graveyard that Bond visits at the start of the film is located at Stoke Poges. The adjacent golf course is the same one where Sean Connery played golf with Gert Fröbe in Goldfinger (1964).
  
  
• The helicopter sequence in the pre-credits sequence involves Beckton Gas Works, which Stanley Kubrick converted to Vietnam in 1987 for Full Metal Jacket (1987).
  
  
• The exploding Lotus at the start of the film was a tacit acknowledgment that Bond would not be relying on fancy gadgets in this film as he had done in the last few entries in the series.
  
  
• Roger Moore was not happy about the scene where he cold-bloodedly kills Locque by pushing his teetering car off a cliff. Although Moore acknowledged that this was a Bond thing to do, he didn't feel that it was a Roger Moore Bond thing to do.
  
  

• SPOILER: The secret coded message that was seen at James Bond's hotel room in Cortina's Miramonte Hotel and caused by evaporating hot water on the bathroom mirror read: "TOFANA 10AM".
  
  
• SPOILER: The code-phrases used for when James Bond makes contact with Luigi Ferrara were "The snow this year is better at Innsbruck" and reply, "But not at St. Moritz."
  
  
• SPOILER: Director John Glen estimated that every foot of film shot during the attempted drowning of Melina and Bond by Kristatos cost about £ 2,700 UK pounds.
  
  
• SPOILER: The assassination of The Havelocks (Melina's parents) was originally intended to be part of the pre-credits sequence. The reaction shot of the murder was intended to cut to a close-up on her face whereby the look of anger and revenge in her eyes would then segue into the main titles sequence.
  
  

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