Helicopter drama
The tranquil, sylvan calm of Mid Argyll – the hunting ground for archaeologists and historians alike – will be shattered during the filming on location, which starts today and will continue for two weeks, of From Russia With Love, the latest Ian Fleming thriller starring Sean Connery as James Bond, the suave British Secret Service agent.
Location shooting, which originally ought to have gone on in Turkey, but was abandoned owing to the weather there, will be centred mainly in the Loch Leathan area midway on the old road between Kilmichael-Glassary and Ford.
The disclosure of the film company programme of location shooting in Mid Argyll quashed earlier reports that it was to have gone ahead in the Oban area.
The bulk of the film party – director Terence Young, camera crews, technicians and other staff – arrived in Mid Argyll over the weekend, but the main interest was, of course, centred on lovely Daniela Bianchi, Sean Connery’s 21-year-old Italian leading lady who plays his Russian girlfriend in the film.
Miss Bianchi arrived on Sunday last and is staying at the Victoria Hotel, Lochgilphead.
Connery, whose parents live in Edinburgh, visited over the weekend and then motored to Lochgilphead on Monday.
Befitting one whose life so often depends on his Beretta pistol, Bond figures in several dangerous sequences on location; involving the shooting down of a helicopter in the Loch Leathan area and a speedboat chase near Lochgilphead, the spot for which has not yet been chosen.
Bond, as would be expected of a British Secret Service agent whom foreign agents are anxious to eliminate, figures in a dramatic fight for his life.
Fleeing from his pursuers in a lorry, Bond soon finds his enemies are anything but orthodox – for they next attack him from the air, a fusillade of grenades and other equally lethal ammunition whistling down from a helicopter.
Bond, a film spokesman said yesterday, will leave the lorry and take to the heather, where from behind a rock he uses his high-powered rifle to good effect, shooting the pilot, which of course brings the helicopter and passengers crashing to an ignominious end.
Later, and not quite safe, Bond has to take to the water in a high-speed launch in an effort to escape. Nothing short of violent death stops his pursuers, who, in a small armada of similar high-speed launches, give chase, only to earn a quick demise when the hero hurls a few bombs in their direction.
Connery has achieved considerable success in Britain, the continent and abroad with his first James Bond film Dr No.
Terence Young, the director of the latest James Bond thriller From Russia with Love, which is at present being filmed on location in Mid Argyll, and his assistant art director, Michael White, were at the weekend involved in an incident as dramatic as any in the picture when their helicopter crashed into the sea after taking off from the jetty at Crinan.
Mr Young and Mr White were on their way to look for fresh location sites when the accident occurred.
Two members of the unit, John Stears, special effects man, and Manny Michael, a stuntman, dived in and rescued the occupants of the helicopter.
Said Mr Young afterwards: ‘We are lucky to be alive. If the cabin of the helicopter had not shattered when we hit the water we would probably have been trapped and drowned. A camera mounting prevented me opening the door on my side.
‘We rose off the jetty and swung out over the sea. Moments later we were in the water. I had a job unfastening my safety belt.’
The pilot, Cyril Sweetman, escaped after being trapped in the helicopter which sank in 20 feet of water.
Mr Stears said: ‘The pilot could not swim and was in poor shape when he finally surfaced.’
Sean Connery, the star of the film who was on the jetty with his leading lady, Miss Daniela Bianchi, said: ‘There was an explosion as the helicopter hit the sea. It went straight under. Those inside were rescued so fast I never had time to get my tie off.’