Last Friday, they posted another picture I'd never seen before: a production still from Moonraker.
That's Roger Moore posing with the MP sports car driven by Manuela when Bond arrives in Rio. What's unusual about it is Moore is not wearing the outfit he's got on when the car appears in the film; he's in the tuxedo from the carnival sequence. Which immediately made me think: is this from one of the Adele Fatima scenes?
I have a minor obsession with actresses who were nearly Bond Girls - the Pia Lindströms, the Julie Christies, the Rachael Stirlings. Adele Fatima is different though. Adele Fatima was actually cast as Manuela in Moonraker, and filmed some scenes around Sugar Loaf Mountain. For some reason she was fired - there are rumours about her English skills - and Emily Bolton was flown out from the UK to replace her. It's why Manuela disappears with a cursory "I'll drop you off at the hotel".
Footage of Adele has never emerged, and the only photo I've ever seen of her that is actually, definitely Bond related is the cover of this magazine:
I'm not sure if Rog has been cropped out by the person uploading the picture, or if the magazine just really wanted to concentrate on the girl in the bikini. Either way, this looks like it was taken from the "Welcome to country XXX James Bond" press conference they always do with Bond and his girl. This press report from the Revistas Antigas twitter account (which I ran through Google Translate) highlights the beginning of filming in Brazil and Adele's participation.
(The piece also mentions two other Brazilian actors, Cecil Thire and Fabio Sabag who, as far as I can tell, didn't make it to the final cut either).
The mismatch between the outfit and the car is the key part of Thunderballs' photo which makes me think it was taken during Adele's brief filming block. When the car appears in the released version of Moonraker, Bond is wearing a groovy white suit with flares. He's in the Rolls ahead of the MP and it's a rare moment in the film where there's no back projection:
If this was the only scene the car appeared in, this is where they'd have taken the shot with Moore, and he'd have appeared in the publicity photo wearing the white suit. He's wearing his carnival tuxedo though. Either they dressed him up in the monkey suit just for a photo shoot on the beach with an anonymous car - which seems unlikely - or this shot was posed for during a missing scene between the carnival and Bond at the cable car station. Note that the caption says "...the natty little MP sports car driven by James Bond." It could be just a lazy publicist, or it could be that 007 drove to Sugar Loaf Mountain (the sexist pig Bond of Moonraker would definitely have pushed Manuela into the passenger seat).
Since Adele Fatima reportedly filmed at Sugar Loaf Mountain (the scene that followed), that seems to hint she was present at this photo shoot, raising the tantalising idea that there are pictures of her as Manuela out there. I've long given up seeing the actual footage, but I'd love to see Adele and Roger together, perhaps with her wearing Emily Bolton's orange dress. I really hope Thunderballs - or someone else - digs them up someday. Alternate universe Bonds are always fun.
