The Director's Chair - Lewis Gilbert

Lewis Gilbert became the third director to helm a James Bond film in 1967, when he directed You Only Live Twice - the fifth James Bond adventure.

Gilbert began his filmmaking career by making wartime documentaries during World War II. This theme continued into his feature film output as well, as he directed many succesful war films in the 1950s, such as Reach For The Sky(a personal favourite), Carve Her Name With Pride and Sink The Bismark!.

One of Gilbert's most famous films was the 1966 film starring Michael Caine, Alfie, which received five Academy Award nominations. The following year, Gilbert entered the world of Bond. The film was the most over-the-top, large-scale, fantastical Bond film to date. It featured predatory spacecraft, a villain's lair inside a hollow volcano and the first appearance of the so-far faceless Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The volcano set required an enormous construction to be built on the lot at Pinewood studios, which cost as much as the first Bond film, Dr. No.

It would be another ten years until Gilbert returned to Bond, and he did so in The Spy Who Loved Me. The film was the first made after the disappointing The Man With The Golden Gun and the breakup of the Broccoli-Saltzman producing partnership. Therefore, the stakes were high, and the film needed to deliver. Once again, Gilbert brought an over-the-top, large-scale epic to the screen. As before, the showpiece set required an enormous construction, and this time it was decided to build it on a stage, but no stage existed that was big enough - so one was built. The huge 007 Stage was built around the set - which was the interior of a supertanker. And like the spacecraft of You Only Live Twice, this vehicle swallowed others - in this case, nuclear submarines. In many ways, Spy is a reworking of the plot from Gilbert's first Bond film.

Gilbert was back again for Moonraker in 1979. This film went beyond all the others in terms of size and fantasy. It involved spacecraft once again, and involved a lot of humour, often slapstick, silly humour. However, the film performed well at the box office, despite often being held in low regard by Bond fans. It exemplifies the over-the-top style of Lewis Gilbert's Bond films.

Lewis Gilbert's legacy in the Bond films is that his three are perhaps the three biggest Bond films, and although they are not my personal favourites they are enjoyable spectacles. Lewis Gilbert himself said that his claim to fame was that he filmed in the three largest sets ever constructed for the Bond series.