{"id":35965,"date":"2021-10-08T20:33:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T00:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=35965"},"modified":"2021-10-08T20:35:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T00:35:29","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-second-shot-kills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/08\/the-bootleg-files-the-second-shot-kills\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Second Shot Kills"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 781:<\/strong> \u201cThe Second Shot Kills\u201d (1972 fan film of the 007 franchise made by Welsh teenagers). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> Getting this released commercially is a bit tricky.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.<\/p>\n

This week, everyone with even the faintest connection to film scholarship has been writing articles in advance of the U.S. premiere of the new James Bond film \u201cNo Time To Die.\u201d However, there is a more intriguing 007 film that deserves attention \u2013 one that you probably never knew existed.
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In 1972, Welsh teenagers Keith Stephens-Borg and David Harnett went to a public telephone and placed a call to London to the office of Albert \u201cCubby\u201d Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, asking his permission for them to make their own 007 film. <\/p>\n

\u201cEventually we got through to Cubby Broccoli\u2019s secretary,\u201d Stephens-Borg would later recall in an interview with South Wales Argus. \u201cWe were all crammed in to the telephone box, jostling to try and hear what he was saying. We could hear him in the background saying we couldn\u2019t make the film. He then asked if it was a home video, and we said yes, then he said good luck with it. We took that to mean he had given his permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that shaky greenlight, Stephens-Borg and Harnett went on to create the first known James Bond fan film with \u201cThe Second Shot Kills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with an 8mm film camera and a \u00a3200 budget, the young filmmakers recruited local teens to fill out their cast \u2013 Stephens-Borg took on the 007 part for himself. The result is, not surprisingly, primitive but charming \u2013 sort of a cinematic folk art homage to the James Bond franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Second Shot Kills\u201d has its version of the gun barrel opening shot (albeit not as sophisticated as the real thing) and a pre-credit scene with Bond and an accomplice landing in an unidentified Southeast Asian country and managing to blow up some tanks (rather obvious toys) while fending off a one-man battalion protecting the machinery. The credit sequence lacks a theme song but has some interesting shots of crimson lava lamp-style orbs rising and sinking that vaguely recall the seductive animation used in the Bond opening credit sequences.<\/p>\n

To its credit, the film\u2019s plot kicks off nicely with a riff on the Bond-Moneypenny banter, following by Bond taking his assignment from a mostly off-screen M \u2013 in this case, trying to bust a gun-smuggling racket bringing illegal weapons into the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n

Much of \u201cThe Second Shot Kills\u201d works in a lo-fi manner that one would expect from a work of this genre. This Bond lives in an alternative universe of teenagers pretending to be adults \u2013 when a genuine adult turns up, the effect is quite jarring. The exotic locales one expects from the Bond flicks is replaced with less flashy settings \u2013 a cemetery doubles as a site of an information rendezvous-turned-betrayal while a parking garage has Bond being pursued by a Volkswagen Beetle doing roughly 5 miles per hour. <\/p>\n

The 8mm format did not always work to the young filmmakers\u2019 advantage \u2013 some shots are out of focus or overexposed, and the too-tight budget obviously prevented retakes. But the film shines when using the Newport Transporter Bridge as the setting for the finale chase and fight \u2013 the strange-looking structure provided an appropriately eccentric environment for this delightfully warped action sequence.<\/p>\n

After making \u201cThe Second Shot Kills,\u201d Stephens-Borg and Harnett abandoned cinema and moved on to other pursuits. Over time, the film was nearly lost to decay until 2010 when a digital restoration began. This effort may have polished the raw original work a bit too much \u2013 new posh instrumental music was added that seemed out of touch with the scrappy 1972 shenanigans and BAFTA-nominated actor Josh Ackland recorded the voice performance for M. This restored version had its first screening at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Wales, in September 2019.<\/p>\n

Since \u201cThe Second Shot Kills\u201d does not have the formal clearance for a full commercial release, the film exists as a jolly curio that can never be properly presented on DVD or Blu-ray. However, the film can be seen on YouTube \u2013 and if it isn\u2019t as sophisticated as \u201cNo Time to Die,\u201d it nonetheless keeps the spirit of Ian Fleming\u2019s secret agent alive amid the most unusual of circumstances.<\/p>\n