I am a Bond freak. When I say that I'm a Bond freak, I mean that I've read every Bond novel, read every Bond comic strip, played every Bond video game, and even owned every figure in the Sideshow Collectibles James Bond line (though all but the inaugural figure were sold to help the wife and me find our first apartment). So believe me when I tell you that I am an authority on Bond. Hell, I even wrote a few papers in college on Casino Royale and its importance in modern literature.
The Bond novels are, on the whole, a very different beast than the Bond films. The novels are dark and gritty and realistic, more akin to a classic detective story than a grandiose, globe-trotting espionage thriller. Casino Royale created a genre when it was released in 1953. It was authentic and real, partly because Ian Fleming was in the British Secret Service in World War II and also worked as a journalist. Both jobs were integral to the creation of Bond. The novels read like a real life account of real life events. And the detail that Fleming put into his writing, describing even the minutia of Bond's drinks and meals, was almost nauseating. Never had someone given so much care to creating a character and the world he inhabited. The action was raw, the drama was real, and the passionate lovemaking was raunchy and plentiful.
It was no surprise that, almost immediately, someone would try to make a film based on the character. CBS produced a short film on Casino Royale that premiered on their TV program Climax! CBS obviouslt didn't understand the book because they took out all the defining elements and produced a short film about a smarmy CIA agent named Jimmy Bond who was about as shallow as the drinks he was enjoying in his fight against Le Chiffre. It left such a bad taste in Fleming's mouth that he almost didn't take the film deal presented to him by Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli. That deal changed the film industry forever.
Casino Royale, the first novel and logical starting point for a new film series, was locked up with CBS who still owned the rights from the Climax! TV special. So a new starting point had to be found. And found it was...in Dr. No.
Dr. No is one of those rare examples of catching lighting in a bottle. Saltzman and Broccoli choase the perfect director in Terrence Young (who was as much the real life Bond as anyone was and perhaps even more so than Ian Fleming). the perfect composer in John Barry (who is uncredited but the undisputed master of the James Bond scores though Monty Norman technically is credited as the writer), and perfect cast. Though Fleming was vehemently against Sean Connery being cast in the starring role, few will argue against him being the definitive Bond. And no one will argue against him being a better choice than Fleming's pick, his cousin and later Bond villain Christopher Lee, who would play Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. And with the casting of Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder, a new standard in the series was set...sexy. She set the bar. And with the success that followed the film, it would be a high bar to reach.
Dr. No was followed by From Russia with Love. Terrence Young returned to direct and Connery returned as Bond. The really defining characteristic about these first two Bond films is how closely they adhere to the novels. With the exception of a few scenes that were not included due to budget restraints, the films are nearly identical to their literary counterparts. That's where Goldfinger comes in.
Goldfinger, by many, is considered to be the definitive Bond film but it is also the start of a slight diverging from the source material and inclusion of gadgetry (which would be taken to ridiculousness in the 70's Roger Moore era films) that began to define the film Bond as a different and much more successful animal than the literary novels.
After a dispute over money, Saltzman and Broccoli turned to Guy Hamilton to direct Goldfinger and it may have been the best decision they'd made since convincing Fleming to sign the rights of his books over to them. Hamilton introduced the pre-credits sequence. I know what you are going to say: "But, Dave! Young included one in From Russia with Love." And you'd be right. Except that it set up the story by introducing us to a Super Soldier version of Robert Shaw. The pre-credits sequence in Goldfinger had nothing to do with the rest of the film and was plain old gratuitous action that Michael Bay would be proud to claim as his own.
Hamilton also brought in some of the most lucrative product placement deals the film industry will see. Bond wore Rolex watches (it wasn't always an Omega) and drove Aston Martin automobiles. Bond no longer wears a Rolex, but few items are so associated with a character as Bond with his Aston Martin DB5.
And speaking of Aston Martin, the gadget filled car was another divergence from the novel. There is a chase in an Aston Martin, but it is pretty run of the mill. But the film brought in oil slicks and missile firing headlights and revolving license plates and the oh so famous tire spikes.
But, Hamilton didn't go too far off page with his 007 directorial debut. The classic scenes in the Fountainebleau, and the golf course, and the buzz-saw (though it was changed to a laser in the film) were all intact. And the vile, evil genius of Auric Goldfinger was kept intact. Gert Frobe delivered (though it was overdubbed) one of the most iconic lines in the franchise after Bond asks if he expects hims to talk responding with a half chuckled "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!" The story was bigger and more complex than any of the previous films and once again the film was a success. It helped solidify Bond in the psyche of the film going public as a mainstay. When there's a new bond film, you go see it.
After Thunderball, the films began to employ more flash than substance. There are a few gems in there, like On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Yeah! I went there! I loved that one. And if you haven't seen it lately and just remember all the wardrobe bashing..watch it again...it's brilliant), and Live and Let Die, but the series lacked a certain quality that only Young and Hamilton could truly bring out in it. The guys just understood the character and what the novels were trying to accomplish. They are more responsible than Conner, in my mind anyway, for the success of the franchise. And Hamilton in particular for all the new standards he set with Goldfinger.
Leave the weapons loaded Aston in the garage this weekend and drive the family sedan to introduce the family to the real Bond...the one and only Bond...and fall in love with Honor Blackman all over again.
Dave Starkiller
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