Yesterday’s article looked at how Die Another Day (2002) saw the onscreen James Bond’s return to the world of private members’ clubs, for the first time in decades. And as well as showing us a club in Hong Kong, the film-makers introduced us to a central part of the Bond world:
Blades in ‘Die Another Day’ (2002)
Much has been said about Blades club, which appears in six of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond books. (I wrote an article about the literary incarnation of Blades here.) Yet after 40 years and 20 ‘official’ Bond films, this was the first time it appeared onscreen.
What we see on the big screen does not resemble the Blades depicted in the books, which was an 18th century London cards club with a geriatric membership, clearly modelled on Boodle’s, and with absolutely no suggestion of any sporting facilities. Here the name “Blades” has been extrapolated to be a fencing-themed club - and one with very 19th century decor.
Yet the film set is extremely interesting, with real research and attention to detail. It is worth explaining why...
The Blade’s clubroom seen in the film, which is mainly a fencing set, is modelled on the decor of the Reform Club.
This is because later in the same sequence, location filming in the real-life Reform Club was used for part of the swordfight, and the film-makers wanted to make the transition between the set and the club as seamless as possible.
But they also wanted to have the scope for the dramatic swordfight to break out into an outdoor courtyard.
The real-life Reform Club does not have an external courtyard like this, just a garden overlooking houses across Carlton House Terrace at the rear street - hence the set/location shoot hybrid.
It is worth looking at the frieze, high on the wall of the Blades set.
It is very closely modelled on the real-life classical friezes embedded into Charles Barry’s Reform Club rooms, repeated throughout the building. See the example of the frieze on the right, above the bookcases of the Reform Club’s Morning Room.
And the pillars on the studio set are perfectly in proportion (and perfectly-coloured in the right shade of gold) to match the identical pillars that recur through the real-life Reform Club building (seen, for instance, in the Library below).
The windows on the set are a perfect match for the dimensions of those in the real-life Reform Club. This is attention to detail, which is above and beyond the call of duty - while there will be matching of shots with club interiors, including the windowless central Saloon, we do not see any Reform Club windows in the film. Nevertheless, what is seen on the Blades set has the ring of authenticity about it.
Even the painted wooden panelling around the windows is exceptionally accurate, closing matching that found in the Reform Club’s coffee room, overlooking the rear garden.
And the interior doorways are spot-on - the triangle over the threshold, seen in the centre below, is a perfect match.
Where the portrayal takes some licence is with the choice of artwork furnishing the Club, which is ‘generically classical’, or else has weapons on display. It is not unusual for screen portrayals to lean into this, rather than researching the theme of a club - see, for instance, the portrayal of the “Reform Club” filmed in South Africa, for the 2021 TV adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days.
In real life, the Reform Club is a memorial to the Whig, Reformer, Liberal and Repealer politicians of the 1830s and 1840s who were its founders. Paintings of the likes of 1st Earl of Durham, Edward Ellice, the 2nd Earl Grey, Daniel O’Connell and Lord John Russell loom large.
But it is worth granting the film-makers some leeway here - this is not meant to portray a political club like the Reform Club, but a fencing-themed one, even if this has little basis in the Blades of Ian Fleming. (Interestingly, there was a London Fencing Club at the foot of St. James’s Street in the early 20th century - one of many ‘lost clubs.’)
The display cases monopolising the middle of the room are going a bit far, though. They make for a dramatic shattering of glass and the demolition of a suit of armour later on in the scene, but no London club has this - display cases are always on the side of a room, rather than being front and centre, unless there is a temporary exhibition.
The profusion of weaponry means that when Gustav Graves ups the stakes in his swordfight with Bond, he ditches his foil and seizes two sabres that are mounted on the wall.
This is one of many details of Die Another Day that beggar belief. Clubs are places of leisure, not museums. But antiques on walls are unlikely to be ready (or safe) to use in impromptu combat.
And then the scene shifts to the real-life Reform Club, into which the swordfight seamlessly breaks, making use of the first-floor gallery overlooking the Saloon.
They clearly had a lot of fun filming this scene.
Although to the trained eye, the lack of attention to detail in authentic artwork becomes noticeable, when Graves tears a painting. This is a generic portrait of an aristocrat depicted in a 17th century style (it is a copy of an 18th century painting, Gainsborough’s ‘The Blue Boy’, painted around 1770, but rendered in a 17th century style reminiscent of Van Dyck, with the original picture residing today in California), inserted for the tearing stunt. As noted, the Reform Club has no pictures like this - contrast to real 19th century paintings glimpsed a few seconds before and after in the background, which are the Club’s original paintings.
I will make one further critcism, which is of the scene transfer back, from the real Reform Club gallery, to the fencing set.
This does not match, if you look at the green doorway (which in real life leads to the Reform Club Librarian’s office, rather than to a fencing salon). The first transition was much better done with an edit, rather than with the camera capturing a poor studio likeness through the door.
And then they magically pace back into the fencing set, with the glimpse of corridor beyond the doorway not matching the Reform Club’s first-floor gallery.
Then after passing through the interior set once more, they have some fun shattering glass, and ending up in the exterior courtyard. Of course, this makes little sense in terms of internal dimensions - a few moments ago they were clearly on a first-floor balcony, and now they are apparently on the ground floor. But let’s go with a willing suspension of disbelief.
This, I suspect, is why they used a film set for this bit, rather than just location shoots at the Reform Club for the whole sequence
The film-makers invent a small stone terrace behind the Club - something much more likely to be seen in a country club, than in the clubs of St. James’s or Pall Mall.
The stone steps down from that terrace are interesting. They do not match any London club, but they are not dissimilar to the 21st century steps put in to give garden access to Charles Barry’s Travellers Club building, next door to the Reform Club.
Again, something I admire about the research here is the dimensions of the windows on the studio set depicting the rear of the clubhouse. There was no need to match the Reform Club so closely, but the designers did a great job here, of riffing off the Club’s real-life architecture.
Even if the raised set of steps and fountain take considerable licence! But I assume the fountain was in the (truly, truly terrible) script, and so the art department would have had to do as they were told.
The swordfight concludes, with Bond drawing a flesh wound from Gustav Graves. “Settle downstairs, shall we?” suggests Graves. The club setting still demands that honour is satisfied, as they conclude their wager which prompted the swordfight.
This very much resonates with the popular image of the Reform Club, thanks to Jules Verne (even if in real life, the Reform Club has never been a particular centre for making wagers).
We finish with another glimpse of the real-life Reform Club, thanks to further location shooting. Replacement paintings are being hauled in, to substitute the ones damaged in the sword fight.
And this shot of the Saloon may look very familiar to Bond fans. The same part of the Reform Club was used in the later Daniel Craig Bond films, to depict government offices.
Here, however, the Saloon portrays the main hallway of Blades, for Bond and Graves to finish their business, and settle their wager.
Having won, Bond gets his money from Graves, while also holding onto the African conflict diamond which is highly compromising for Graves.
Miranda Frost - previously described by Madonna’s character as “the finest blade in the Club” - agrees to make further arrangements for the characters to meet, “once I’ve smoothed things over with the Club.”
A nice final touch comes as a porter hands Bond an envelope: he is wearing a real-life Reform Club porter’s uniform from 2002, in brown livery with gold braiding. (Presumably, it was loaned for the film shoot?)
He quips, “The place needed redecorating anyway!”
More seriously, readers may remember my observation about the very first club seen in a Bond film, the colonial-era Queen’s Club in Dr. No, and how the only non-white face there was a servant. That holds true here, too, in the Blades scenes in 2002 - a commentary by the film-makers on Blades club as outdated?
Blades clearly has female members - Madonna's fencing coach Verity is a member of staff, but Miranda Frost is clearly established to be one of their most distinguished members. But beyond that, it is somewhat lacking in visible diversity, even though we see several dozen members in these scenes. This is, however, very much in keeping with the stuffy image of the Club in Fleming’s books.
The film’s close-up on the key in the envelope from ‘M’, sent to Bond at Blades, also gives us a look at the mosaic-tiled floor of the Reform Club’s central Saloon. We will see this floor again, in Quantum of Solace (2008)...
(This piece was adapted from an old Twitter thread I wrote on the topic four years ago.)
All screenshots above are copyright 2002, Danjaq LLC and Amazon.
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