The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Benson, Raymond

  Of torture scenes, ICEBREAKER provides the most interesting one. Bond is hung naked in igloo-like surroundings and is repeatedly dipped into freezing water.

  All things considered, how do the Gardner books compare with the Fleming series? Although the updating of the character and his world takes some getting used to, James Bond is still basically the same man he was in the sixties. Gardner lacks the elaborate command of the English language so distinctive in Fleming; but the new author's stories are fast-moving and engaging narratives. Though all are weak in plausibility and detail, they valiantly attempt to recapture the spirit of the original series. FOR SPECIAL SERVICES is by far the most successful of the three books, and ICEBREAKER is definitely the weakest. Gardner will be continuing the series with three more books. One must acknowledge the fact that he had a truly difficult task to perform—following in Ian Fleming's footsteps. Despite the faults of the new series, Gardner must be credited with having guts to continue the Bond saga at all; and, as the sales of the books attest, he must be congratulated for pulling it off.

  PART FIVE: THE FILMS

  Oddjob "blows a fuse." The late Harold Sakata as the Korean bodyguard in Goldfinger. (Photo by Loomis Dean, Life Magazine. © Copyright 1964 by Time, Inc.)

  INTRODUCTION

  Title credits designer Maurice Binder told a Museum of Modem Art audience in 1979 that he had fifteen minutes before a conference to come up with a design for the opening of the first James Bond film, Dr. No. He scribbled down his ideas and rushed to the meeting. The result was the famous gun-barrel logo which begins every 007 picture in the Eon Productions series. First, the United Artists logo silently appears on the screen. Next the audience hears (very loudly) the John Barry orchestra blasting out "The James Bond Theme," as two white circles roll onto the screen from the left, dancing about until they converge. The circle enlarges and suddenly the audience is looking through a gun barrel. From the right walks James Bond, who turns and fires a gun at the camera. The action freezes and a red wash flows down from the top of the screen. The figure fades out to a white circle again. The circle moves around the screen as if it's searching for a place to settle; when it finally stops, the circle disappears and we are at some exotic location. Following this sequence, another traditional element—the pre-credits sequence—is played out until the main title credits appear and the theme song of the picture is heard.

  Adherence to a traditional formula created by the films' producers, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, is a major reason for the success of the Bond series. This formula has proven that James Bond is a very marketable item, and Eon Productions, Ltd., formed by Broccoli and Saltzman back in 1961 to make the films, is one of the most successful operations in the history of cinema. To date, there have been thirteen James Bond films (excluding Casino Royale, produced by Charles K. Feldman in 1967, and Never Say Never Again, produced by Jack Schwartzman with Kevin McClory as executive producer in 1983) and each has made money. The only film that was not a runaway hit was On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), but it has since proven to be financially successful. This film fell short precisely because it broke several traditions, especially in its concept

  The formula fundamentally follows this outline: James Bond (played by a star that audiences admire) goes to investigate mysterious goings-on involving intemational security; finds a villain (usually with a superstrong henchman/sidekick) in his own super-technological headquarters; infiltrates the headquarters and eventually blows it up with the help of gadgetry, a military force of good guys and/or his own resourcefulness. The formula, begun in the first film, Dr. No, was more or less repeated in Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, and Octopussy.

  John Brosnan in James Bond in the Cinema considers Goldfinger the best film in the series, which was at its peak at the time, with all the elements of the formula working in top form. After Goldfinger, Brosnan notes, the producers were faced with the problem of topping it and were forced to repeat the formula, disguised by bigger budgets, more exotic locations and set-pieces, more gadgets, more slapstick comedy, and more special effects.

  THE PRODUCERS

  Albert R. Broccoli was born in New York in 1909 and spent the early part of his life working for relatives in a number of different jobs, including one as an assistant undertaker (which explains the profusion of coffin/undertaker jokes in the Bond films). He became a tea boy at 20th Century-Fox studios and rose in the ranks to assistant director. After World War II he cofounded Warwick Films and coproduced such features as The Red Beret and Zarak (both directed by Terence Young), Hell Below Zero (written by Richard Maibaum), The Black Knight, Cockleshell Heroes, and The Man Inside, all in the 1950s. Broccoli became interested in the James Bond novels, but when he inquired about purchasing film options, he discovered that Harry Saltzman had already done so.

  Saltzman was born in Quebec in 1915 and had an early vaudeville and circus background. He lived in France for quite a while, working in theatrical circles. After World War II, he moved to the United States and found work in television. Saltzman successfully co-produced John Osborne's Look Back in Anger on Broadway, ultimately co-producing the film as well. Forming a partnership with John Osborne and director Tony Richardson, Saltzman made two more superb British films, The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. After the latter, Saltzman left the partnership, discovered the Bond novels, approached Ian Fleming and bought the rights to the entire series, excepting only CASINO ROYALE (which had already been sold and was then owned by Charles K. Feldman), and THUNDERBALL (which came under litigation as soon it was published in 1961). Shortly before the option on the books ran out, Saltzman met Broccoli and they formed Eon Productions, Ltd. Dr. No was their first James Bond film.

  From the very beginning Broccoli and Saltzman had total control over the Bond pictures. They dictated to what degree the screenplay should reflect the novel, decided what elements should go into the film and approved final casting. It was their decision to make the films more humorous than the novels. It took a couple of films to find the right mixture of seriousness and humor to suit them, but once they did, the formula was set. Convincing Broccoli and Saltzman to depart from the formula would be no easy task for a director or script writer.

  Broccoli and Saltzman also dictate the amount of sex and violence in the films. Dr. No, the most violent of the pictures, featured the first and only instance in which 007 shoots a man in cold blood. After Dr. No, the violence was toned down considerably, and by the time Goldfinger rolled around, action scenes were stylized and bloodless. Audiences are never asked to watch gory bloodletting in the Bond films. The same applies to sex. The first three films offered several seduction scenes, and Bond was certainly something of a male chauvinist by today's standards. After Goldfinger, however, sex in the films became basically voyeuristic, limited to shots of lovely women in scanty bikinis or evening gowns; the camera almost always fades out as Bond's seduction of the heroine begins. The Bond films are family films, Saltzman liked to stress.

  Broccoli and Saltzman's formula envelops the idea of making the films total cinema, i.e., high standards of production, lots of action and breathtaking stunts, on-location shooting in exotic places around the world, exaggerated sound effects, and exhilarating musical scores. John Brosnan points out that the films are actually several miniature films (with beginnings, middles, and ends) strung together as set-pieces (Broccoli calls them "bumps") to create the overall whole. For instance, in Dr. No, we have the London sequence, the Kingston sequences (including the scenes with Miss Taro and Professor Dent), the Crab Key sequence, and the scenes in Dr. No's laboratory. The later films begin to lose the overall continuity between these set-pieces, and by Moonraker (1979), it is very difficult to follow the storyline, which gets lost in the shuffle. Perhaps the producers didn't care at this point whether the total movie made sense or not—it was the set-piece formula that had a
lways worked before, and that is what they would continue to use.

  The Bond films producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, at a recent press conference in New York. Ever since co-producer Harry Saltzman left Eon Productions in 1974, Broccoli has held the reins of the films alone. (Photo by Richard Schenkman.)

  THE SCREENPLAYS

  The man responsible for most of the Bond screenplays is Richard Maibaum. Maibaum was born in New York, like Broccoli, in 1909. He began to study law, but became a writer for radio. His play The Tree was produced in New York in 1932, and he acted in several productions of the New York Shakespeare Repertory Theatre. His play Sweet Mystery of Life was produced on Broadway in 1935, after which he moved to Hollywood, where he wrote They Gave Me a Gun and I Wanted Wings for MGM. After World War II, he worked for Paramount and wrote the screenplay for the 1949 film of The Great Gatsby, among others. In 1954, he wrote Hell Below Zero for producer Albert R. Broccoli.

  When Broccoli first approached him about doing a Bond film, reportedly Maibaum felt that the Fleming novels were too violent and sexy to adapt to the screen. Even Fleming's biographer, John Pearson, agreed that the books were dead serious, and lacked humor. Sean Connery, who played James Bond in six of the films, has said that his wife at the time, Diane Cilento, read the first screenplay and advised Connery not to take the role unless some humor was added. Although the producers, along with director Terence Young, certainly deserve a share of the credit, Maibaum is probably the man most responsible for lacing the Bond screenplays with humor. Herein lies the major difference between the novels and the films—the latter are played for laughs. The humor in the early pictures was subtle and tongue-in-cheek; but it grew over the years to broad farce. John Brosnan calls Moonraker the "most expensive slapstick movie since It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

  The films also differ from the novels in plot details. The early movies tend to follow Fleming's original storylines for the most part; but the fifth film, You Only Live Twice, is nothing like the novel. Written by Roald Dahl, it is virtually a remake of Dr. No on a much grander scale. The Spy Who Loved Me is easily discernible as a remake of You Only Live Twice; and all of the films since Goldfinger contain sequences that rehash scenes from earlier efforts.

  Roger Moore with co-producer Harry Saltzman on the set of Live and Let Die in New Orleans. (UPI Photo.)

  Two films have screenplays that are fairly close to the Fleming originals: From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS). Not surprisingly, these are two of the best films in the series. OHMSS adheres almost perfectly to the novel, even daring to include the tragic ending—Bond's new bride is shot to death by archenemy Blofeld. As mentioned before, this is the only film that was not a runaway success. But From Russia With Love, the second film in the series, was very successful. Only a couple of departures from the original plot were made, i.e., changing the criminal organization from SMERSH to SPECTRE, and adding the Blofeld character.

  Maibaum collaborated on ten of the thirteen Bond films (he wrote OHMSS alone). His cowriters included Berkley Mather, Johanna Harwood, Paul Dehn, John Hopkins, Tom Mankiewicz, Christopher Wood, George MacDonald Fraser, and Michael G. Wilson. This impressive track record can only indicate that Maibaum's work is an important element in the successful Bond formula.

  THE DIRECTORS

  Departing from the modem tradition of auteurism, which emphasizes directorial control of all creative aspects of a film, the producers of the 007 series have forced their directors to work within strict artistic boundaries. But certain stylistic differences can be discerned among the chief directors of the Bonds, and play a subtle yet important part in the success or failure of the films.

  Terence Young directed three of the best Bond films: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball. Born in 1915, Young has had a fairly active career, having directed a number of films including Corridor of Mirrors (1948), The Red Beret and Zarak (1953 and 1956, respectively, both for producer Albert R. Broccoli), and Too Hot to Handle (1960). Since making the Bond films he achieved acclaim for directing Wait Until Dark (1967), and has gone on to direct other films such as Red Sun (1971).

  Terence Young, the man who directed Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball. (Photo by Richard Schenkman.)

  Young's directorial style is the most realistic of all the Bond helmsmen. He maintains a stricter balance between seriousness and humor than others have; thus his films manage to avoid silliness. By the same token, his films move slower in contrast with most of the others and dynamic levels are kept more in the midrange. This helps as well as hinders the effectiveness of his efforts. Thunderball is the weakest of the three films in terms of excitement and suspense; but it is impressive visually. Violence is more pervasive in Young's films than in the others: there is the cold-blooded murder of Professor Dent and the breaking of the flash bulb on Quarrel's cheek in Dr. No; the gypsy girl fight and the brutal battle between Bond and Red Grant in From Russia With Love; and the murder of Domino's brother and the execution of Largo's henchman by throwing him to the sharks in Thunderball. All of these violent acts are presented with a high degree of realism—more blood, genuine fright on the part of the victims, and a cold point of view toward the act. Young also tends to pull strong performances from his actoss—From Russia With Love features perhaps the best ensemble acting of all the Bond films.

  Guy Hamilton, director of Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man With the Golden Gun, was born in 1922 and was once an as sistant to veteran director Carol Reed. Among his film credits are An Inspector Calls (1954), The Man in the Middle (1964), Funeral in Berlin (1965), and The Battle of Britain (1969). Hamilton's style incorporates quick editing, a faster pace, and a much more humorous approach to the material. This new style works extremely well in Goldfinger, works for the most part in Diamonds Are Forever, but backfires in his two later films. Hamilton's direction of Goldfinger was inspired and fresh, and ranks as the most trend-setting directorial job of all the films.

  Lewis Gilbert, the director of You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker, was born in 1920 and has had a career as both a writer and director. His directorial efforts include Albert RN (1953), The Good Die Young (1954), Reach for the Sky (1956), Sink the Bismarck (1960), and Alfie (1966). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction of the last film. The most obvious stylistic element common to all three Gilbert-directed Bond films is that all are big productions. These films are the most expensive of the series (Moonraker holds the record with a budget of $30,000,000); and all, unfortunately, are basically variations of the same film. You Only Live Twice goes as far as the producers possibly can in terms of lavish sets, exotic locations, and far-out gadgets. The other two films repeat all this—only locations and hardware have been changed. Gilbert also uses a faster cutting style than Hamilton or Young. Gilbert's films move from one set-piece to another so rapidly that the audience barely has time to comprehend the change of locale. As a result, these three films suffer from overkill to the point that James Bond as a character scarcely exists. He is like a pinball in these films, bouncing around from place to place, getting in and out of predicaments—the action is so unrealistic that the films could be labelled science fiction comedy-fantasies. Moonraker in particular suffers from this flaw: it is so unrealistic as to be absurd—but this may be due more to the screenplay than the direction.

  The other two directors, Peter Hunt (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and John Glen (For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy), made impressive directorial debuts with their Bond films. Both men were Bond film veterans—Hunt was the editor and second unit director for previous Bond films, as was Glen. Their work will be discussed with their respective films.

  ACTORS AND CHARACTERS

  When the producers received the go-ahead from United Artists to make the first Bond film, the big question was: Who was going to play James Bond? Many names were tossed around, including David Niven (who would play Sir James Bond in the 007 sp
oof, Casino Royale), Richard Burton, and, believe it or not, James Stewart. But because Dr. No had a relatively small budget, Broccoli and Saltzman were forced to go with an unknown. After many interviews and auditions, the producers came up with a handful of names. Reportedly, second on the list was Roger Moore. First on the list, as we have seen already, was Sean Connery.

  Born in Edinburgh in 1930, Thomas Sean Connery was the son of a truck driver. He held many jobs, including newspaper boy, milkman, coffin polisher, cement mixer, and merchant seaman. He landed a chorus part in the British production of South Pacific, which led him to films. Before making Dr. No, Connery starred in four forgettable films: Another Time, Another Place (1958), Walt Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), and Frightened City (1960). It was the role of James Bond that made Sean Connery a star. By the mid-sixties he was the number one box-office draw the world over, and it wasn't because of his non-Bond films such as Hitchcock's Mamie or Sidney Lumet's The Hill. Connery became so identified with the character of James Bond that it was hard for audiences to accept anyone else in the part. The ad campaign for You Only Live Twice read: "Sean Connery Is James Bond in Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice." Inevitably, this alter-ego complex became too much for Connery, and he tried more than once to leave the Bond series. His boredom with the role is quite evident in You Only Live Twice, after which he quit, but he was persuaded to return once more four years later in Diamonds Are Forever.