For my eyes only [antikvár]

FOR .or should I say a Forewarning, because John Glen is the man I like to call 'the actor-killer'. In 1975, I was appearing in the film Shout at the Devil and John was the second-unit director. The film was set just before the First World War and the Germans were moving giant plates of steel across Africa to repair one of their battleships. My co-star Lee Marvin and the director Peter Hunt were at the top of a hill, and I was at the bottom with John and his camera crew. The idea was that Lee would fire at the poor wretches pulling the enormous wheels that were transporting these plates. They would throw themselves to the ground to dodge the bullets and the enormous wheels would roll down the valley to where John and I were supposed to be. I say supposed, because when these wheels started hurtling downhill I, the young hero, was standing in front of the camera like a lemon while John and his crew were halfway up the hill on the other side of the valley. Thank you, John. My memory often plays havoc with me - too many Bonds and too many bangs (of the noisy variety of course). One thing I do remember of my time as James Bond is that John had more than one way of killing an actor. John was the editor of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, and editors see more of an actor's bad habits than anyone else. The editor rolls film backwards and forwards, day in, day out. In the end, he assembles all of the good takes and hopefully discards the bad ones. On the Bond films, however, the bad ones were never discarded - John would keep them and use them to assemble an end-of-shooting reel. This comprised all the very worst takes, including me scratching my crotch or blinking whenever I fired a gun. All in good fun, and incredibly bad taste, and most definitely for our eyes only. John directed my final three Bond films, and I certainly had a good time working with him. He is a marvellous technician. My only regret is that he's never given me another job since then. After this forewarning, I don't suppose he ever will.