• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

'Moonraker's Dolly'—Braces Or Not?

Austin Popper said:
It may well be true that Moonraker was "sanitized" in the way theorized, as movies often are. The thing is, it's not done in secret. It's well known. If secrecy is attempted, the secret does not last long. There are paper trails, old prints, news stories, mentions in interviews, petitions signed by angry fans, and on and on. So far, at least as far as I can tell, the story of Dolly's braces having been removed is yet to rise above speculations about rumors. Where's the beef?

It also may just as easily be true that some of us have memories that don't belong in this timeline/probability/alternate reality/dimension for whatever reason. The evidence seems to consist of "That ain't how I remember it!"

Also possible is that our memories don't work the way we think they do. This is the only one of the explanations that has any scientific basis. It's also the only one that seems to fit in with my experiences of being wrong about stuff for several decades.
Click to expand...

Can't say for sure here of course but it's my experience that most cuts were simply made for running time rather than anything else.
I have come across changes being made for "watermarking" purposes to determine who is "pirating " content and it seems that the distributors often have more than one "final" cut. It may be for local sensibilities -eg no nazi symbols in Germany for example, but I often think it's just alternate takes that have made it through. It's why they can come back now and do all the "directors cuts" as so much extra and alternative footage is often around.
I suppose someone needs to ask Blanche Ravalec herself as I'm sure she would remember if she was asked to wear braces for shooting on the day (given the age I doubt braces being "added" at the time digitally - removed maybe)
 
Lobeydosser said:
Can't say for sure here of course but it's my experience that most cuts were simply made for running time rather than anything else.
I have come across changes being made for "watermarking" purposes to determine who is "pirating " content and it seems that the distributors often have more than one "final" cut. It may be for local sensibilities -eg no nazi symbols in Germany for example, but I often think it's just alternate takes that have made it through. It's why they can come back now and do all the "directors cuts" as so much extra and alternative footage is often around.
I suppose someone needs to ask Blanche Ravalec herself as I'm sure she would remember if she was asked to wear braces for shooting on the day (given the age I doubt braces being "added" at the time digitally - removed maybe)
Click to expand...
A fan with a 007 blog site wrote to her agent in 2016.

He never posted a follow up so presumably never heard back

http://www.jamesbondthesecretagent.com/2016/02/did-blanche-ravalec-where-brances-in.html
 
Lobeydosser said:
... I suppose someone needs to ask Blanche Ravalec herself as I'm sure she would remember if she was asked to wear braces for shooting on the day (given the age I doubt braces being "added" at the time digitally - removed maybe)
Click to expand...

Ms. Ravalec supposedly stated she never wore braces years ago ...

EnolaGaia said:
The Dolly braces topic has come up multiple times on movie (etc.) forums over the years. On one of the ones I checked yesterday (which I can't seem to locate again ... ) it was claimed Blanche Ravalec herself had stated she never wore braces in Moonraker.
Click to expand...
Belshazzar said:
Even the actress, Blanche Ravalec, has commented: "No, Dolly has never worn the braces. It was never intended for that matter".
Click to expand...
 
Lobeydosser said:
Well somewhat related, one of my first real jobs was in a small computer and video store back before the likes of Blockbuster existed. As independants we dealt directly with the various reps of the film companies when films came out on video release. When a film came out we would buy one master copy and the rights to say 10 copies and would recieve one tape plus packaging for the rest (plus carboard props, posters etc ). We would then use our professional video duplication kit (we also did home cine film to video) to run of both VHS and Betamax copies (masters were usually Betamax) for rental use. When a film was no longer current, some of the copies would get taped over and re-used as something else. Even then we would discover through speaking with our competitors in the area or word of mouth that sometimes we might recieve a different "cut" of a movie than someone else. So I would expect similar to happen with the cinema chains and the original releases. In my example above the "short" version was in the ABC (part EMI back then I think ?) and the longer version was at an independant.
I wonder what an original Beta master of Star Wars would be worth now ? - they weren't cheap back then as films would be on rental 6 months to a year before being made availble to the public to purchase - Rainman was the first film to go out to rental and public sale at the same time. Caused a lot of upset as the sale copies were like £10 and our rental "master" was still something like £800 (dont recall exactly now, but it was that kind of differance). The big chains like Blockbuster, Global, Kingsway etc then started to take over as they had the buying power to push us small independants out and we moved to new premises and became a computer shop only.

Edit - also to add we would see differences between the "original" copies we were sent to make rentals from and the subsequent sell through version when they were eventually released for sale, so for example that Star wars Beta "master" would almost certainly be different from the tape version released later to the public.
Click to expand...
I miss these days. Video stores. Old cinema's. :)
 
Aurora Newman said:
I miss these days. Video stores. Old cinema's. :)
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the ol' video store! In the late 80s a couple of friends and myself would rent a couple of films every so often – one 'good' one, which we always preceded with something of a little less quality. This is why I've seen Maniac Cop (tagline: you have the right to remain silent... forever!); Maniac Cop 2 (tagline: you have the right to remain silent... forever!); Reanimator; Tetsuo: The Iron Man; far too many Troma and China O'Brien films than I like to remember. You get the idea...

Oddly, I can recall very few of the 'main' features.
 
cycleboy2 said:
Ah yes, the ol' video store! In the late 80s a couple of friends and myself would rent a couple of films every so often – one 'good' one, which we always preceded with something of a little less quality. This is why I've seen Maniac Cop (tagline: you have the right to remain silent... forever!); Maniac Cop 2 (tagline: you have the right to remain silent... forever!); Reanimator; Tetsuo: The Iron Man; far too many Troma and China O'Brien films than I like to remember. You get the idea...

Oddly, I can recall very few of the 'main' features.
Click to expand...
i get the idea I've seen all of those except ReAnimater and Tetsuo. Love the Chick in China O'Brien 2 who did the strip and shot the cop. The cops laugh as she's stripping is hilarious. I saw it on video in 93, I used to style my hair like hers when I was at school. For she was a bad ass modern day femme fatale. I also managed to get the song she stripped to on cassette later down the line. :)
 
Aurora Newman said:
i get the idea I've seen all of those except ReAnimater and Tetsuo. Love the Chick in China O'Brien 2 who did the strip and shot the cop. The cops laugh as she's stripping is hilarious. I saw it on video in 93, I used to style my hair like hers when I was at school. For she was a bad ass modern day femme fatale. I also managed to get the song she stripped to on cassette later down the line. :)
Click to expand...
I also thought the one who strips on stage in Roadhouse is pretty cool
 
OneWingedBird said:
I wonder if the character had braces in the novelisation? I'm thinking it wasn't that unusual for novelisations to have slight or even not so slight differences from the movie (Pretty in Pink had an entirely different ending).

That may be how the idea got into many people's imagination.
Click to expand...
I do remember that scene with bDolly having braces ,but i have never read the novel ,so i know what to think about it .Th actress who played Dolly was interviewed about this and she said she had never worn braces during the filming
 
I've only seen Moonraker once, as a child in the 80s. I am one of those who recall her having braces and I only discovered that she didn't and that there was this "Mandela effect" going on with the film in the past few years. I've spoken to a few friends and one or two others had the same memory.

I asked one friend if he could remember anything unusual about Jaws' girlfriend and he said "she had massive tits".
 
Ogdred Weary said:
I've only seen Moonraker once, as a child in the 80s. I am one of those who recall her having braces and I only discovered that she didn't and that there was this "Mandela effect" going on with the film in the past few years. I've spoken to a few friends and one or two others had the same memory.

I asked one friend if he could remember anything unusual about Jaws' girlfriend and he said "she had massive tits".
Click to expand...
Well, he's not wrong... :reyes:
 
I've watched the film, several times as a youngster, and never thought Dolly had braces. To me the 'joke' was that he was huge and she was little and his smile was somewhat more unusual than hers - yet true love meant she was smiling back at his enormous metal gnashers!

There is a scene where Bond activates an electronic door lock in the film and the combination is the 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' UFO tones, that pleased me no end :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top