Helga Brandt (Karin Dor 1938-2017) is the helicopter pilot/henchwoman of the minor villain Mr. Osato in the 1967 James Bond film, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.
Helga works for Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada), the Japanese industrialist and member of the criminal organization SPECTRE. She is only an assistant who basically does all the hard and dirty tasks, and poses as a smiling and sexy secretary. She is a 28 year-old German woman, has mid-length red hair and a lot of blue eye-liner on her brown eyes. She is serious in her job but also likes to get some pleasure for herself sometimes, given she is a seductive single young woman. However, she always remains very devoted to her bosses, although her person and even her life have no importance to them.
We first see Helga when James Bond (Sean Connery) is posing as Mr. Fisher, the new managing director of Empire Chemical. During this meeting with Mr. Osato, she is wearing a bright orange blouse and white high heels. Mr. Osato introduces her as his secretary, who proceeds to offer Bond a glass of champagne. Osato covertly x-rays Bond's chest which reveals his Walther PPK under his jacket. Osato reprimands him for his nasty smoking habit, to which Helga adds, "Mr. Osato believes in a healthy chest", as she thrusts her breasts out toward him after serving the champagne. Helga proceeds to take notes during the interview. After 007 leaves, Osato orders her to kill him. Not surprised by this order, she calmly uses the phone to arrange a car-load of assassins to intercept Bond outside, but the attempt fails.
Next we see Bond get captured while investigating the Ning-Po, a ship linked to Osato Chemicals, and he is taken aboard and brought to Helga's cabin. There she is waiting on a couch with her sexy legs crossed, and dressed very seductively. She is wearing a black slinky dress that appears more like a slip, with a sheer black semi-see-through shawl. Helga is also smoking a cigarette, proving that she doesn't practice what she preaches.
Helga is an expert torturer, but she apparently wants to have a little bit of pleasure during her job and spares Bond the violent interrogation when she attempts to seduce him. She kisses him and 007 claims that he is an industrial spy. Helga sensually replies that she knows that (not knowing "Fisher" is James Bond) and keeps kissing and caressing him. Bond offers Helga $150,000 to help him escape back to Tokyo. She refuses at first, stating that Osato would have her killed. But being very horny, she cuts his bonds and Bond uses the blade to cut off her speghetti straps on her dress. The pair have sex there in the ship cabin.
Helga then pretends to be helping him flee in a small Meyers 200 plane, which she pilots. She is wearing a leather flying helmet with goggles, flight jacket and pants. She starts to apply lipstick on her lips while Bond is offering his protection from her bosses. However, she doesn't want to follow him anymore and decides to stay devoted to her employers. Her lipstick is explosive and she drops it to Bond, blocks Bond's arm with a wood plank and uses a parachute to get herself to safety, leaving Bond to die in the crash. She then looks at the crashing plane with satisfaction, from her parachute, persuaded that Bond is going to die and that she has just succeeded her task. Unfortunately for her, Bond is able to break the plank and regain control of the aircraft. He then lands safely and gets out of it before it explodes, unbeknownst to Helga who still thinks she has killed him.
The following day, Brandt is in the operations room of SPECTRE's volcanic launch site, where she assists in the capture of a Soviet spacecraft. She is wearing a red blouse and skirt with purple heels. Blofeld summons Osato and Number 11, which is another name for Helga. They enter his quarters, where Blofield immediately reprimands them for failing to recognise and kill Bond. Both of them are perplexed due to the fact that they thought they had been successful in disposing of Bond. Osato then shifts the whole blame to Brandt. Feeling she is going to be punished for the failure, Helga gets very nervous and tries to say it's not her fault but Osato's one, but Blofeld reminds her that he does not tolerate failure and bids them to leave. Osato is given a second chance, but Helga is going to pay a terrible price for her mistake. She implores Blofeld with her eyes hoping she won't have to endure any punishment, but on her way across a metal bridge that is suspended above a piranha pool, Blofield pushes a button. Helga goes sliding down into the water, seeing the piranhas converging on her and screams with horror, knowing she is doomed. The hungry fishes make short work of the alluring but deadly German redhead. She dies being devoured alive to the bones in a few seconds, screaming with horrific pain, and all Osato can do is look on in terror as the secretary disappears under the voracious fishes, knowing the poor girl has just paid with her life for his failure too.
Trivia
- Helga's death in the film is very similar to that of Stromberg's Assistant , as they were both fed to carnivorous animals. The Assistant was fed to Stromberg's pet shark in the 1977 James Bond film, "The Spy Who Loved Me".
- Karin Dor appeared as Juanita de Cordoba in the 1969 Alfred Hitchcock film "Topaz".
- Karin Dor appeared as the evil scientist Maleva Kerstein in the 1970 Spanish-German horror sci-fi film, "Assignment Terror".
Quotes
- "Dom Perignon 59. Are you really sure you won't change your mind ?...", while offering champaign to 007 and her boss.
- "Mr Osato believes in a healthy chest", while serving a drink to 007 and intentionaly putting her breasts forward.
- "I've got you now!", enjoying herself while having Bond tied in her cabin on the Ning-Po.
- You know what this is ? Plastic surgeons call it a dermatome. They use it to slice off skin. I hope you won't force me to use it...", while threatening Bond with a scalpel but flirting with him too.
- "I know that...", while sensually kissing Bond and listening him admitting he's a spy.
- "I'm afraid not... Osato would kill me!", answering Bond's offer to give her money and follow him to London. Of course, she eventually accepts it in order to have sex with Bond.
- "I'm afraid I have another appointment tonight, Mr Fisher! I'm awfully sorry to leave you, but I have to get out!", while trapping Bond in a small plane and leaving him to crash.
- "It was in all the newspaper", while being summoned by her boss Blofeld that Bond is still alive.
- "You should have killed him yourself... you had plenty of opportunities!", knowing she's in big trouble and trying to defend herself by involving Osato who just put the whole failure on her shoulders.
- "Aaaaah ! Osato ! NEIIIIIIIIIIN !...", Helga's last words as she painfully dies eaten alive by dozen of piranhas in a few seconds, as a punishment for her failure to kill Bond.
Video
- Video clip (demise): http://www.mediafire.com/view/ciu16a40t4mhwlz/YouOnlyLiveTwice_KarinDor3.gif
Gallery
