Mister 8

By Francesco Francavilla, artist of Zorro, the Black Coat, and the spy comic Left on Mission that will one day be reviewed here, a poster for Quantum of Solace:

Quantum of Solace by Francesco Francavilla

And following that, one from the original James Bond film, Dr. No:

Dr. No by Francesco Francavilla

Francesco writes on his sketch blog that a limited number of prints will be available for purchase. For information, write him an email at his official site. I’ve bought art from Francesco in the past, and think he’s an all-around swell guy.

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

Clicking posters will take you to the site where I originally found them, and you’ll find they’re often available for purchase. For the complete collection of Harry Palmer film posters, check out the Harry Palmer Movie Site!

BONUS: Dinner, Harry Palmer style!

So, I finally had time to sit down tonight to watch The IPCRESS File again, and made good on my plans to have a Harry Palmer / Len Deighton inspired dinner with my wife as well. I wound up making omelets following Len’s example in The Truth About Len Deighton, with ingredients from Palmer’s movie recipe — mushrooms, green peppers, onions and cheese. And yes, I crack my eggs one handed! In addition, we had green peas (or, as I believe some of you call them, English peas or petit pois) with onions sauteed in butter. I had a slice of smoked salmon. My vegetarian wife enjoyed “facon” on her omelet.

For dessert, we didn’t turn to Deighton, but to Caine, who provided a recipe for bread n’ butter pudding in a 1989 interview with the New York Times. I adjusted the recipe a little, and got the wrong kind of raisins accidentally, but it still turned out to be quite delicious. Here’s a picture of the pudding before the finishing touches were put on (looks like someone snuck a bite!):

MICHAEL CAINE’S BREAD-AND-BUTTER PUDDING

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 3/4 cup dark rum
• 4 cups milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 30 slices good-quality white bread
• 6 ripe bananas, peeled and cut in 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2 pint whipping cream.

1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 14-cup glass baking dish with one tablespoon of butter.

2.Soak the raisins in one-half cup of the rum.

3.Combine the milk, eggs, remaining rum and one-quarter cup of the sugar. Set aside.

4. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Dip each slice in the custard and arrange in the baking dish. Alternate layers of bread with layers of bananas sprinkled with raisins and one tablespoon of sugar. There should be five layers of bread, four of bananas.

5.Pour any of the remaining custard over all and bake for one hour. Place under the broiler for about five minutes, or until brown. Whip the cream with the remaining sugar and serve with the warm pudding.

Yield: Eight to 10 servings.

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

In our round-up of IPCRESS File posters, I posted two that, until today, I thought were the same with elements rearranged and glasses drawn afterward:

As you can see, I was mistaken. They’re clearly not the same — the faces hold different expressions, the hand pulling the jacket is present in one, but not the other, and the color pallette is different. The two posters, drawn by different unknown (does anyone have credit information for these posters?) artists used the following publicity photo as reference:

I asked Kees Stam of the Harry Palmer Movie Site if he knew the origin of the pic, but his best guess is that it was a promotional still made before the film was shot (he even has a promotional postcard featuring the image, which I think can be seen on this page of rare IPCRESS File stills).

So the thought that this still was shot early in the planning of the film might solve the mystery of why Harry isn’t wearing his specs in this pic. In any case, he’s not going to hit anything with that gun. I’ve seen how bad his vision is.

We’re closing in on that contest due date of Dec. 12, and I wanted to remind you all to keep working on your entries.  By way of inspiring you, here’s a peek at the current leader of the pack:

Horse Under Water poster

THE DETAILS:

Here’s the challenge: Give us a glimpse of what an adaptation of Horse Under Water might look like. Show us a movie poster, a scripted scene, a theme song, an animation, a trailer, a level from a video game, a comic, a selection from a radio play, etc. etc. We’re not too particular. Just get it to us by midnight EST on Dec. 12th by emailing your submission (or a link to your submission) to mister8 (at) mister8.com! Improve your odds with multiple entries!

This contest is open to anyone in the world, except for yours truly. I’ll be doing solo judging on this one, in case any COBRAS or friends of the site want to enter. I promise to be fair and impartial!

GRAND PRIZE:

Len Deighton Autograph

Above is a rarish sort of item, a Trivial Pursuit Baby Boomer Edition card with the question “Whose spy novels included An Expensive Place to Die and Billion Dollar Brain?” The answer, of course, is Len Deighton, whose autograph is scrawled on the back of the card (the tape is on the plastic card holder, not on the card itself). I recently purchased this from an autograph dealer who wrote: “This would have been forwarded through his publishing house back in the ’90’s and was returned from his residence in Ireland. He has since moved and since arriving in the United States has been to my knowledge next to impossible to obtain.”

OTHER PRIZES:

I’m still working on putting these together, but will likely be a mix of new and used copies of Len’s novels!

THE FINE PRINT:

By submitting an entry, you agree to allow us to display, discuss, and make available for download your material. Shipping will be on me.