#31. Operation Double 007
31. Operation
Double 007 (1967) - Season 5, episode 508
"This is beginning to look pretty serious. We'd better call Sean in."
Plot: James
Bond is busy, so his younger brother Neil has to step in and save the
day. Neil, of course, is played by Sean Connery's actual
younger
brother, Neil Connery. I shit you not. This was an actual movie.
Famous for:
The opening theme song. Oh, and also... for the fact that
Neil Connery plays a character literally named "Neil Connery."
Mr. Connery's brother
My favorite riff:
First off, every time they make a quip about a
character needing Sean, or preferring Sean, or asking Neil for Sean's autograph,
it kills me. And that's why, for
a few years back in the 90s, this was one of my top three or four MST3k episodes.
It was because of all the hilarious "I'd rather have Sean" riffs.
"Oh, he's hardly Sean, I realize, but he comes cheap."
Neil (after fixing a girl's bow): Any reward?
Joel: Uh, yeah, can I get your brother's autograph?
My
other favorite part of this episode is the opening theme song.
You
see, because this was technically "a James Bond movie", it
also
needed "a James Bond theme song" at the beginning. So there's
this
lady
(Christy) singing a song called "The Man For Me" over the opening
credits. And in the song, our singer waxes nostalgic about this
amazing man (Neil Connery), and all these amazing things that this guy
can do. It's actually a pretty good song. If you want to hear
it on its own, here you go. It probably could have been a real James Bond theme, it's quite catchy.
The
song is actually fun enough on its own (I love how the singer likes to
randomly hiss and growl). But then Joel and the Bots start throwing in
their own lyrics as well, about the amazing things this guy can do that
maybe aren't quite that amazing...
And yeah, like I said, at one
time this was easily one of my favorite MST3k episodes. That opening
credits scene alone is so fun.
Singing lady: Because HEEEEEEE loves me! HEEEEEE
holds me!Joel: HEEEEEEE likes to wear mittens!Crow: HEEEEEEE prefers stuffing to potatoes!Tom Servo: HEEEEEEEE sat on his glasses onnnnnnce!
Comments:
I have such mixed feelings about this episode these days.
For
starters, it's such a fricking goofy idea for a movie. Hey,
let's make a James Bond movie. Only, let's not pay
for Sean Connery. Instead, let's take his non-actor brother
Neil,
and we'll pay him instead, and we'll try to pass him off as James Bond's brother.
Oh yeah, and then we'll fill in the rest of the movie with actual
actors and actual characters from actual James Bond films. I bet the
audience will love it.
The former (and apparently current) Miss Moneypenny
The former (and apparently current) bad guy from Thunderball
This
is SUCH a goofy idea for a movie, and on paper, it should be the
funniest MST3k episode of them all. I mean, the setup is great.
The idea is great. The execution is great. The main character
isn't even played by an actor. And on top of that, it also has some of
the
best riffs
of the first five seasons.
"Ex. cuse. me. I'm. Three minutes. Late."
"That's. Okay. We're a. Pretty loose. Group."
"Operation Double Double-O Girl Scout."
This
movie has SO much going for it, and the good parts of it are SO good...
but the problem is that the movie itself is actually kind of boring.
I mean, I love the IDEA of this movie. But the
problem is
that James Bond films (especially the old ones) tended to be rather talky, drawn out, and
boring. And this movie, which is trying very much to
be a
James Bond movie, is no exception. So imagine a talky
James
Bond film from the mid 60s, and then take out all the action scenes,
and the big expensive set pieces, and replace them with scenes
about lipreading. And voila, you have Operation Double 007. An episode that SHOULD
be
among the MST3k greats, but sadly, it just falls short.
And
believe me, nobody wants to love this episode more than I do.
For YEARS it was one of my favorites. But watching
it now, twenty years later, it is SO close to a great episode... but it's just a little too slow.
"Thank you for touching me, sir. That will keep me going for
the entire day."
Operation Double 007 is fun for what it is.
I just wish it could have been a little bit more.
"Uh oh. You know when there's four people on a screenplay
there's gonna be trouble."
Trivia:
Even though MST3k fans know this as Operation Double 007, that's only
the name it went under for the MST3k episode. The movie's actual title
was either "Operation Kid Brother" or "Ok Connery", depending on which
commemorative poster you are looking at. In fact, if you listen to the
opening theme song, you can hear the backup singers literally say "Okay
Connery" over and over in the background. It took me years to figure
out what they were saying, by the way, it's a lot harder to pick out
because of their Italian accents.
But anyway, yeah, this movie
is only known as Operation Double 007 if you're an MST3k fan. To
everyone else in the world, it was Operation Kid Brother.
"Operation Double Double-O Hee Haw."
Other personal favorite things
about this episode:
Okay, here's one of my all-time favorite MST3k references.
You know
that
famous scene at the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
When Indy is about to cut down the rope bridge and kill all
the
bad guys? And right before he does, he turns to Mola Ram, and he very badassedly
says,
"Prepare to meet Kali. IN HELL!" Remember that?
It's
one of my all-time favorite movie one liners.
"Prepare to meet Kali. IN HELL!"
Well
the MST3K writers must have loved that line too, because
they reference it in two different episodes here in my top
fifty. One of them will come later, when I get to The Painted
Hills,
but
Operation Double 007 was the FIRST time they referenced it in
one of their episodes. And of course they also threw in a
"Hey Neil, aren't you Sean's brother?" reference at the exact same
time, as a bonus. Just because they knew how much I would love it.
In any case, here's the line. One of the greatest riffs in MST3k history. It's at the very end of the movie, when the
bad guy is about to kill Dr. Neil Connery.
"Prepare to meet Kali's brother."
"NEAR HELL!"
God, I love this show so much sometimes. :)
