GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #58

JAMES BOND

The most famous spy in literature, 007 is a patriotic English espionage agent who takes on titanic villains with unmatched fearlessness and zest.  The "00" is a code number that designates him as an agent licensed to kill - a prerogative Bond exercises in each of his adventures.  Tall, dark, handsome, and rugged, Bond is an elegant man of the world who enjoys gambling, the best food, cognac, champagne, and other luxurious trappings of wealth - especially the beautiful women who are invariably attracted to him.  He spends an inordinate amount of time engaged in sexual activities, but not so much that he does not perform his primary job.

The son of a Swiss mother and a Scottish father, Bond nevertheless feels deeply patriotic about England and is willing to endure torture and risk his life repeatedly in his efforts to smash plots engineered by Russian organizations and freewheeling super-criminals intent on world conquest.  A brilliant marksman, Bond is also a superb athlete who can easily dominate three ordinary men in hand-to-hand combat with his knowledge of martial arts.  He carries a .25 Beretta automatic in his shoulder holster and drives a pre-WWII Bentley outfitted with a number of ingenious lethal gadgets.

The Bond novels have a repetitive plot structure.  "M", Bond's superior, generally summons the hero to his office and tells him of a monstrous conspiracy, usually directed by or beneficial to the Soviet Union.  Bond is instructed to destroy the organization and kill its leader.  He usually finds his way into the enemy's lair, only to be captured and tortured until a beautiful woman rescues him, enabling him to complete his mission.  Bond is fallible, relying on the help of others (most frequently lusting, beautiful women) to get him out of tight situations.  He was not born a superman but developed his many extraordinary abilities through the application of his mind and body.  "M" would describe him as simply a middle-grade civil servant who somehow finds himself thrust into extremely difficult situations.

Creator Ian Fleming based the look of Bond on American composer and singer Hoagy Carmichael.  The same facial structure, but with cold eyes and a cruel mouth.  The name was from real-life American ornithologist James Bond.  As Fleming said, "I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.  I wanted him to be a blunt instrument.  I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find.  James Bond is the dullest name I ever heard."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ian Fleming (1908-1964) was born in London, educated at Eton, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, the University of Munich, and the University of Geneva.  After serving as the Moscow correspondent for Reuter's, he spent several years as a banker and stockbroker.  But in 1939 he returned to Moscow, ostensibly as a reporter for The London Times but actually (and unofficially) as a representative of the Foreign Office.  He also performed secret service work as a personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence.  During WWII Fleming decided to write a thriller.  He had no literary pretensions, he simply wanted to make money.  From the books alone he earned $2.8 million.  In the years since his death none of the Bond novels have been out of print and they still sell in huge numbers, both hardcover and paperback.  And the films based on the books have grossed some of the largest sums in cinematic history.  The popularity of 007 in the U.S. skyrocketed when it was learned that Pres. John F. Kennedy was an avid fan.

NOVELS

1953 "Casino Royale"/  1954 "Live and Let Die" (Bluebook May 1954)/  1955 "Moonraker" (Astounding Science Fiction May 1956)/  1956 "Diamonds Are Forever"/  1957 "From Russia, with Love"/  1958 "Dr. No"/  1959 "Goldfinger"/  1960 "For Your Eyes Only" (5 short stories)/  1961 "Thunderball" (Argosy December 1961)/  1962 "The Spy Who Loved Me"/  1963 "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (Playboy April - June 1963)/  1964 "You Only Live Twice" (Playboy April - June 1964)/  1965 "The Man with the Golden Gun" (Playboy April - July 1965)/  1966 "Octopussy" (3 short stories - Playboy March - April 1966).

SHORT STORIES

"Quantum of Solace" (Cosmopolitan May 1959)/  "The Hildebrand Rarity" (Playboy March 1960)/  "From a View to a Kill" (Argosy March 1961)/  "The Living Daylights" (Argosy June 1962)/  "The Property of a Lady" (Playboy January 1964)

Fleming eventually tired of his hero, calling the books "trivial piffle".  His stories are old-fashioned fairy tales told in a contemporary setting.  The forces of good have superhuman strengths - physically, intellectually, and morally - and the forces of evil are almost inhumanly ruthless and vicious.  As in the great myths of another age, good emerges triumphant.

TELEVISION

A one-hour adaptation of "Casino Royale" was presented on the anthology series "Climax!" on October 21, 1954.  It was the only appearance on TV of James Bond.  Barry Nelson played Bond, and Peter Lorre was LeChiffre.  CBS paid Ian Fleming $1000 for the film rights.

COMICS

A daily comic strip was drawn by John McLusky and published in the Daily Express, which syndicated the strip internationally.  The comic strips were adaptations of Fleming's novels beginning with "Casino Royale" on July 7, 1958 and continuing through May, 1977.  When the last Fleming story had been adapted McLusky then began producing original stories.  The interesting thing about the comic strip was that Bond bore an uncanny resemblance to Sean Connery who would later portray the hero on film.  After the film series began, McLusky made his Bond resemble Connery more closely.

DC Comics released a version of "Dr. No" in the January 1963 issue of Showcase, an anthology comic book series.

FILMS

Fleming's handsome secret agent was transferred - intact with attentive females, wildly inventive weaponry, and a gallery of grotesque supervillains - to the screen for the first time in 1963, spawning the most successful series of thrillers and revitalizing the espionage genre.  The series was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli.  The longest running film series of all time, the Bond series became the backbone of the British film industry, grossing over $7 billion, and becoming the sixth-highest money-making franchise to date.

"Dr. No" United Artists, 1963.  Sean Connery, Joseph Wiseman, Ursula Andress, Jack Lord (CIA agent Felix Leiter), Bernard Lee ("M"), Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny).  Director: Terence Young.  Bond arrives in Jamaica from London to investigate the strange disappearance of an English agent and his secretary from a normally calm listening post.  Attempts are made on Bond's life (a poisonous tarantula is placed in his bed).  he traces his adversaries to Crab Key Island where an evil Eurasian scientist, Dr. No (Wiseman), has barricaded himself and is attempting to capture American moon rockets sent up from nearby Florida.  Penetrating the base, Bond is momentarily diverted by another trespasser, Honey Wilder (Andress), who is collecting shells.

"From Russia, with Love" UA, 1964.  Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Pedro Armendariz, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya.  Director: Young.  SPECTRE, a worldwide organization conspiring against both the United States and Soviet Union, attempts to eliminate Bond by sending their top agent, a tough middle-aged woman (Lenya) and a trained executioner (Shaw) to waylay him in Istanbul.  Bond falls into a baited trap while trying to obtain a secret Russian decoder from a Russian girl who is apparently a defector.

"Goldfinger" UA, 1964.  Connery, Gert Frobe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Harold Sakata.  Director: Guy Hamilton.  England's gold reserves are being depleted and European millionaire Goldfinger (Frobe) is thought to be responsible.  When Bond romances Goldfinger's secretary (Eaton) to learn how he cheats at cards at a lush Florida hotel, the villain kills her by painting her body in gold and keeping oxygen from entering her pores.  Bond learns that Goldfinger plans an attack on Fort Knox, and in just one sexual encounter he manages to enlist the aid of a Goldfinger lieutenant, the man-hating Pussy Galore (Blackman).  He must also fight to the death the Korean henchman named Oddjob (Sakata) whose steel-rimmed hat is a deathly throwing device.

"Thunderball" UA, 1965.  Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celli, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik Van Nutter (Felix Leiter).  Director: Young.  In the Bahamas, Bond utilizes underwater and aerial devices to stop SPECTRE aquanauts from raising two atomic bombs from a sunken NATO plane and halts the organization's plan to threaten American cities for a $1 million ransom.

In 1967 a rival studio filmed "Casino Royale" as a wild spoof of the Bond/espionage genre.  David Niven is an aging 007 who comes out of retirement to tangle with international agents Deborah Kerr, Orson Welles, William Holden, Charles Boyer, and John Huston.  Peter Sellers is the inventor of a sure way to win at baccarat, Joanna Pettet is Bond's illegitimate daughter, and Woody Allen is his inept nephew Jimmy Bond, the secret head of SMERSH.  The Columbia film was the work of five directors - John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, and Joe McGrath.

"You Only Live Twice" UA, 1967.  Connery, Akiko Wekabayashi, Tetsuro Tamba, Mie Hama, Karin Dor, Donald Pleasance.  Director: Lewis Gilbert.  Assassins incapacitate Bond as he arrives in Japan searching for the American and Russian space capsules that have been captured by SPECTRE.  He recovers and continues his work in secret.  His quest leads him to a false lake inside a volcanic island, under which is an immense spaceship and SPECTRE's chief, Blofeld (Pleasance), an unseen presence in previous films.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" UA, 1970.  Connery declined to play Bond again.  Australian male model George Lazenby was assigned the role after a worldwide search.  Diana Rigg, telly Savalas (Blofeld), Ilse Steppat.  Director: Peter Hunt.  Against the awesome splendor of the Swiss Alps, in a SPECTRE mountaintop stronghold, Bond rescues and courts the fiery daughter of a Corsican bandit (Rigg).  There is a happy peasant wedding, but all of Blofeld's guns have not been stilled.

"Diamonds Are Forever" UA, 1971.  Connery (persuaded to return), Jill St. John, Charles Gray (Blofeld), Lana Wood, Jimmy Dean.  Director: Hamilton.  Diamonds are being smuggled bloodily out of South Africa and Amsterdam.  Bond traces them to Las Vegas, where Blofeld and his double use the gems and an imprisoned young millionaire in a scheme for world domination.  The climax occurs on an oil derrick off the California coast.

"Live and Let Die" UA, 1973.  Roger Moore (the new Bond), Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, Clifton James, Geoffrey Holder.  Director: Hamilton.  Bond travels from New York's Harlem to New Orleans and then to a Caribbean island to tangle with voodoo, tarot cards, and a supergang of Blacks dealing in heroin.

"The Man with the Golden Gun" UA, 1974.  Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Clifton James, Richard Loo.  Director: Hamilton.  007 has the assignment of tracking down a missing solar energy scientist and an aristocratic international assassin, Scaramanga (Lee) who is aided by a midget named Nick Nack (Villechaize).  Much of the action takes place in the Far East.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" UA, 1977.  Moore, Barbara Bach, Curt Jurgens, Richard Kiel, Caroline Munro.  Director: Gilbert.  A British and Soviet ballistic missile submarine disappears and Bond is summoned to investigate.  He encounters Jaws (Kiel) a tall assassin with razor sharp steel teeth.

"Moonraker" UA, 1979.  Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Kiel, Corinne Clery.  Director: Gilbert.  Moonraker, a space shuttle manufactured by Drax Industries, is hijacked in mid-air.  Bond is assigned to investigate.  Bond deals with assassin Jaws again.  Bond spends a lot of screen time in outer space fighting the bad guys.

"For Your Eyes Only" UA, 1981.  Moore, Carole Bouquet, Chaim Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover.  Director: John Glen.  Based on two short stories, "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico".  Bond attempts to locate a missile command system while becoming tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek businessmen.

"Never Say Never Again" WB, 1983.  Connery, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max Von Sydow, Barbara Carrera, Kim Basinger.  Director: Irvin Kershner.  A remake of "Thunderball", this was Connery's final appearance as Bond (he was 52 at the time).  An aging Bond is brought back to investigate the theft of two nuclear weapons by SPECTRE.

"Octopussy" UA, 1983.  Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan.  Director: Glen.  The title is from a short story, but bears no resemblance to the Fleming tale.  Bond is assigned the task of following a megalomaniacal Soviet general who is stealing jewelry and art objects from the Kremlin.  This leads Bond to a wealthy exiled Afghan prince (Jourdan) and his associate Octopussy (Adams) and a plot involving nuclear weapons.

"A View to a Kill" MGM/UA, 1985.  Moore, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Walken.  Director: Glen.  Title is from a short story, but an original story.  Bond is pitted against Walken who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley.

"The Living Daylights" MGM/UA, 1987.  Timothy Dalton (the new Bond), Maryam d'Abo, Joe Don Baker, John Rhys-Davies.  Director: Glen.  Based partly on the short story.  Bond is assigned to help a KGB General defect, while a KGB sniper posing as a female cellist tries to kill him.

"License to Kill" MGM/UA, 1989.  Dalton, Carey Lowell, Robert Davi, Anthony Zerbe.  Director: Glen.  Bond and CIA agent Felix Leiter are brought into service by the DEA to assist in capturing a drug lord.

"Golden Eye" MGM/UA, 1995.  Pierce Brosnan (the new Bond), Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker.  Director: Martin Campbell.  The plot centers around a past incident, involving the destruction of a Soviet chemical weapon facility in 1986, and the present day dissolution of the Soviet Union.

"Tomorrow Never Dies" MGM/UA, 1997.  Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Teri Hatcher, Judi Dench.  Director: Roger Spottiswoode.  Bond is involved with a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border, cyber-terrorists, and a plot to bring China and the U.K. to the brink of war.

"The World Is Not Enough" MGM, 1999.  Brosnan, Robert Carlyle, Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, Dench.  Director: Michael Apted.  A billionaire is assassinated by a terrorist and Bond is assigned to protect the dead man's daughter.  During the assignment Bond unravels a scheme to increase petroleum prices by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul.

"Die Another Day" MGM/20th Century Fox, 2002.  Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, John Cleese, Dench.  Director: Lee Tamahori.  Bond attempts to locate a mole in British Intelligence who betrayed him and is connected to a North Korean operative whom Bond thought he had killed.

"Casino Royale" Sony, 2006.  Daniel Craig (new Bond), Dench, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright.  Director: Campbell.  Bond's assignment is to bankrupt terrorist financier LeChiffre in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.  Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd (Green) a treasury employee assigned to provide the money he needs for the game.

"Quantum of Solace" Sony, 2008.  Craig, Dench, Wright, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Gianini.  Director: Marc Foster.  A direct sequel to "Casino Royale".  Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd.  The trail eventually leads him to a wealthy businessman who is a member of the Quantum organization which intends a coup in Bolivia to seize control of the country's water supply.

"Skyfall" Sony, 2012.  Craig, Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris.  Director: Sam Mendes.  Bond investigates an attack on MI6 that leads to a wider plot by a former agent to discredit and kill "M" (Dench) as revenge for abandoning him.

"Spectre" Sony, 2015.  Craig, Christopher Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Harris, Fiennes, Monica Bellucci.  Director: Mendes.  Bond is pitted against SPECTRE and their leader Blofeld (Waltz) who plans to launch a national surveillance network to mastermind criminal activities across the globe.

"No Time to Die" Universal/UA, 2021.  Craig, Rami Malek, Fiennes, Waltz, Seydoux.  Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga.  Bond has left active service with MI6 and is recruited by the CIA to find a kidnapped scientist which leads to a showdown with a powerful adversary.  Craig's last film as Bond, the 25th in the series.  Bond seems to die in the end.