The Thomas Crown Residence

The one character that Brosnan played that comes closest to James Bond is undoubtedly the suave gentleman thief in The Thomas Crown Affair. The film was produced in 1999, the same year as The World is not Enough, when Brosnan probably stood at the height of his Bond career. Therefore I thought it appropriate to include this film on the blog.

Thomas Crown is a self made billionaire who lives in a townhouse in Manhattan. The exterior is pictured on several occasions, for instance when Detective McCann arrives with his warrant to try to make a search and later in the film when Catherine Banning and her crew breaks in to the house.

The Thomas Crown townhouse is located on the upper east side. The address is never mentioned in the film but when Crown leaves the Metropolitan museum after stealing the Monet he tells the cab driver to go to 68th and Lexington. This is quite far from the real address though so Crown would have to walk about three blocks before reaching home.

The townhouse is actually located on 18 East 68th street, a part of the street that runs between Madison Avenue and 5th. It is still very recognizable and needless to say, his house on the upper east side is located in the most exclusive part of Manhattan.

United Nations HQ - New York

Probably the most uninspiring pre-title sequence in the entire series is the one from Live and let die 1973. Three British agents are killed in three different locations. One is killed in New York, which is the reason for M to send Bond over there to come up with some answers. The agent is attending a session in the United Nations when the film starts, and is killed with a sonic weapon through his headphone translator. The building pictured in the film, of course being the real United Nations building, is located in New York on the bank of the East river where it has been since the completion in 1952.

Of course Bond never visits the UN during his relatively short visit to New York, and a more interesting location would of course be the 'Oh cult voodoo shop' at 33 east 65th street. Even though the United Nations is not a very interesting Bond location it is more attractive as a tourist site. This is the very heart of world diplomacy and a visit is strongly recommended when one is in New York, regardless of the Bond connection.

You will have the best view over the building from the Brooklyn side, probably around the area of Hunters Point but the more classic view is the one from 1st avenue in Manhattan. Here you can see the line of flagpoles where the flags of all the 193 UN member states are flown.

In front of the building you can also find the classic "knotted revolver", designed by the Swedish painter and sculptor Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd. The sculpture was made after the killing of John Lennon in December 1980 and has ever since been a non-violence symbol. The revolver can be found on several places in Sweden and also in a few dozen countries throughout the world.

An interesting coincidence is the fact that Bond gets the barrel of his Walther PPK bent by henchman Tee Hee, when he meets with Mr Big in New York. Since the sculpture was made in the 80's it has absolutely no significance to the film or whatsoever, but I thought it was a fun trivia to mention.

Not surprisingly the city of New York is portrayed very dull and uninspiring, with the lack of a proper skyline or other famous sites like the Brooklyn bridge, World trade center or the Statue of Liberty. This is, as I have mentioned before, a consisting theme in Guy Hamilton's last three Bond films, from Diamonds to Golden gun. Live and let die is definitely one of the weaker films in the series, mainly due to the fact that it's just boring, even though it is better than both its predecessor and successor. Even though Moore was quite committed and plays a good first Bond (regardless of the extremely poor introduction), the fighting scenes follow the classic Moore manner and the pre-title sequence is the worst in the series. With John Barry unavailable to do the music he recommended his friend George Martin, who makes a solid work (although not anywhere near Barry or Arnold), even though the title song is far from being the masterpiece that so many others like to claim. The fact that Sir Paul is singing does not automatically make it the best song in the Bond history.

New York still feels like unexploited territory for Bond, but since so many other films have taken place there and so much has happened, it is questionable if there is anything left for Bond to do there.

Oh Cult Voodoo Shop - New York

-Something in heads? 
-Just browsing thank you...

After the killings of three agents from Mi6, Bond is sent to New York. The murders are linked to Kananga, Prime minister of an Island in the Caribbean, San Monique, who is currently visiting the United Nations. After arriving with Pan Am, CIA agent Charlie picks up Bond at the J.F.K airport. They're driving along Franklin D. Roosevelt drive when Whisper comes along in his Cadillac 'pimpmobile' and assassinates Charlie. The trail leads to the Oh Cult Voodoo shop.

Felix Leiter informs Bond from his office that the Cadillac is registered to a shop on 33 east 65th street. This address is actually correct and here, on the upper east side, you can still find the building. Today the ground floor houses 'Michael Dawkins', an exclusive boutique that sells hand crafted jewelry. Times have changed since 1973 and the Upper East Side is now one of the most expensive areas in Manhattan but the building and garage door from which Bond comes out is still very recognizable.

The owner was outside smoking and he asked why I was taking pictures of his shop. Apparently he was not aware of the part his shop played in the film some 35 years ago, and I was happy to enlighten him.

We also get a brief glimpse of the CIA office, from where Leiter and his people are watching Kananga's San Monique embassy. The building which is zoomed in on has been demolished and replaced with a skyscraper and the location is recognizeable only through the building in front of it. The view can be found on South street looking into Wall street.

When Leiter informs Bond about the shop on 65th street he also says 'it's only a block away from here'. This is not true however, because this view is found on the southern part of Manhattan. A factual error made by the film makers.

The same view and narrow building is also briefly visible in the Pierce Brosnan movie 'The Thomas Crown affair' when Brosnan is walking to his office after a quick visit at the Metropolitan Museum.