The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Raymond Benson

  Well, without being arrogant, that was established very simply, on the floor, by me. I knew what I wanted. I didn't think the picture was going to be anywhere near as popular as it was. I thought it was going to be a thing for rather highbrow tastes. I thought an awful lot of the jokes were going to be in-jokes. I think it caught on very well . . .

  When you analyze it and this is no disrespect to Ian, they (the books) were very sophisticated "B"-picture movie plots. If someone tells you, "a James Bond film," you'd say, "My God, that's for Monogram," or Republic Pictures, who used to be around in those days. You would have never thought of it for a serious "A" film. But it had considerable sophistication, and this was very consciously put in by Ian . . .

  One wanted the films to have a very slick quality. We wanted to make them as sophisticated as we could, and above all I gave the picture an enormous sense of tempo, in fact, it changed styles of filmmaking.

  (From "The Terence Young Interview" by Richard Schenkman, Bondage Number 10)

  Young and editor Peter Hunt worked hand in hand to create this tempo and it's a style that stuck throughout the series. At first, Young remembers, Hunt was mortified by the cuts he was asked to make. But after a screening of a rough cut, Hunt was very enthusiastic, and on From Russia With Love, the editor was cutting the film with an outrageous extroverted zeal. According to Young, the head of the Cinémathèque in France declared that Dr. No was "one of the great innovative films. Years from now, all films will be made like this." Television action films especially adopted the editing style of Dr. No.

  Young's style tends to be slightly more realistic than that of other Bond directors. All of the more violent scenes in Young's efforts are presented with a hard-edged seriousness, save for the exaggerated sound effects. The murders of Strangways and his secretary at the beginning of Dr. No may be the bloodiest scenes in all of the films. The sequence in which Quarrel's face is slashed by a broken flash cube is unnerving. Because this violence is portrayed with some degree of realism, the humor in the film comes as a pleasant surprise. This element boosted the series' success: the audience is released from a tense action scene by a witty one-liner from Bond. The juxtaposition of gravity with levity was probably Terence Young's idea (with the aid of Connery's ad libs), and it is what makes the Bond films so much fun to watch. Unfortunately, the later films lost touch with this key element, and began to play the serious action scenes for laughs as well.

  James Bond's bedside companion this time isn't very friendly! On the set of Dr. No. (UPI Photo.)

  Although Young was successful in establishing an original style for the films, his efforts tend to be a little sloppy technically. Of course, budgets were smaller in those days. There are continuity problems in all three of Young's Bond pictures, and there are instances in which Young's mise en scène does not focus our attention on the appropriate action. For instance, when Bond is leaving the Kingston airport in Dr. No, a black female snaps Bond's photograph. Because the camera has placed her in a corner of the frame, it is easy to miss this action (and it's referred to later in the film). But the atmosphere and moods of Young's films override any technical problems that may exist. His three pictures are definitely among the best of the series.

  ACTORS AND CHARACTERS

  Sean Connery's first appearance as James Bond, based loosely on Paul Muni's entrance in the film Juarez, is a marvelous sequence. The camera does not reveal Bond's face until a key moment. We first discover Bond in a casino in London, playing chemin de fer with an attractive woman. We see only his shoulders, the back of his head, and his hands. The woman loses to Bond twice before she looks hard at him and says, "I admire your luck, Mr., er. . ." The camera finally reveals Connery; he lights a cigarette and replies with that now-famous phrase and with absolutely no warmth: "Bond. James Bond." The "James Bond Theme" fades up on the soundtrack, and we have ourselves a piece of classic cinema.

  Sean Connery is wonderful as Bond in Dr. No, although readers of the novels would recognize that he is not quite the image that is painted by Fleming. But Connery embodies a ruggedness and an intense screen presence which transcends any preconceived notions about the character. With Dr. No, Sean Connery became James Bond and was quite unable to escape the image until recently.

  The James Bond of the films, as mentioned earlier, is a little different from the character in the novels. The Bond in the books is 99 percent humorless; the film Bond is witty and has the perfect double entendre for every occasion. It was probably a wise choice on the filmmakers' part to create a Bond with a sense of humor. The novels contain humor, to be sure, but the fact that Bond is so serious about everything he does helps create that humor. It might not have worked as such on the screen; therefore we have Fleming's Bond, and we have Bond as created by United Artists.

  Connery probably gives his most professional and sincere performance as Bond in Dr. No. Although his Scottish burr comes through stronger in this film than in any of the others, Connery portrays Bond with an assured toughness that epitomizes the machismo male. Exuding coldness, Connery portrays Bond as the hardened, dedicated civil servant Fleming created; yet the darkly handsome Connery is also able to turn on a charm that captivated his female audience.

  Ursula Andress, who at the time had little film experience, was chosen to play the first Bond movie heroine, Honeychile Rider (in the film her name is Honey Ryder). Andress is adequate in the role, and certainly attractive. Her entrance in Dr. No, like Connery's, is a special moment. The camera catches her emerging from the sea onto the beach dressed in a skimpy white bikini (in the novel she was naked). Andress benefits from having a well-written role; Honey in the film is able to relate some of her past history (direct from the novel), which is something later Bond heroines are denied. Andress' foreign accent helps emphasize Honey's lack of a formal education—her delivery comes off as slightly childlike, which works perfectly.

  A veteran American stage actor, Joseph Wiseman, portrays the evil Dr. Julius No. Although he doesn't resemble the Dr. No of the novel, he conveys many of the literary character's qualities. Wiseman achieves Dr. No's "gliding" effect in movement, as well as the monotonous and sinister voice which hints ever so slightly at impending doom. (Wiseman was employed later in Thunderball to provide the voice of the unseen Ernst Stavro Blofeld.) The film Dr. No also does not have mechanical pincers for hands—instead, he has metal hands that look like black gloves, which, although not as perverse as pincers, work well enough on the screen. These metal hands are the primary cause of Dr. No's death in the film—he is unable to grip a slippery steel girder and pull himself out of the nuclear reactor pool.

  Jack Lord was cast as Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA friend. This character has been a continuing source of frustration for Bond fans, for he has never been portrayed successfully on film. No fewer than six actors have been cast as Leiter, and only one comes close to being right for the role. Jack Lord is one of the weakest of the five Leiters. Felix Leiter is supposed to be buoyant, jovial, and above all, a friendly Texan. Jack Lord comes across as wooden, humorless, and a little boring. Add to this the fact that the character is unnecessary to this script, and the part of Felix Leiter must count as one of Dr. No'sfew failures.

  John Kilzmiller, on the other hand, is very effective as Quarrel, the Cayman Islander who meets his death on Dr. No's island. The script treats Quarrel as comic relief by using the character's superstitions as the basis for a laugh or two, which comes off as somewhat derogatory. But Kitzmiller is able to play the warmth and good nature of the character, which is what made him so appealing in the book.

  Quarrel in the film also becomes the first in a series of what John Brosnan, in James Bond in the Cinema, calls the "Obligatory Sacrificial Lambs." In every Bond film, at least one good character is killed by the enemy. Quarrel meets his death by being burned alive, in a graphic sequence, by Dr. No's "dragon" tank. The Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb not only serves to give the villains some credibility, but it also allows James Bond a moment to show a l
ittle emotion (but not much).

  The Bond film veterans, Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell, make their first appearances as M and Miss Moneypenny in Dr. No. Lee's scene with Connery is one of the best M/Bond sequences in the series, allowing the actor to show several sides of M's character—testiness, authority, and paternalism. The first of the Bond/ Moneypenny flirtation scenes features a moment of verbal volleyball between the two characters. This is something created by the filmmakers—these scenes never existed in the Fleming novels.

  Other actors/characters in Dr. No worth mentioning are Anthony Dawson as Professor Dent, Zena Marshall as Miss Taro, and Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench. Dawson (who also attempts to strangle Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder) is good as the shifty hireling who attempts to kill Bond three times. Zena Marshall, an attractive Oriental actress, exudes the wanton seductive qualities common to all female villains in the series. Variations on this type of character recur in almost all of the remaining films. Sylvia Trench was to be a continuing character in the series, but appeared only in the first two films. She was to have taken part in a running joke involving Bond being repeatedly called away on assignments as Sylvia and he are on the verge of making love. Eunice Gayson is able to portray a somewhat comic sexuality; it is too bad the character was discontinued when director Terence Young left the series (Sylvia had been his idea).

  OTHER ASPECTS

  The distinctive look of a Bond film began in Dr. No with Ken Adam's marvelous design for Dr. No's laboratory. Although many of his designs for the films look very 1960s today, they established a pattern that would be copied in other spy films throughout the decade. The first of his expressionistic designs is the room where Professor Dent is instructed to place a tarantula in Bond's bed. It's an eerie room with a sloping ceiling containing a large circular grille for illumination; it is the setting for the audience's first glimpse of Dr. No's world. Dr. No's dining room is also an impressive set, containing a wall-size aquarium. It was co-scriptwriter Johanna Harwood who suggested including a recently stolen Goya painting, "The Duke of Wellington," in Dr. No's dining room—an in-joke that received favorable critical reaction when the film was released. (Audiences who did not realize the painting had been missing when the film opened might not have grasped the significance of Bond's double take when he sees the painting.)

  Ted Moore begins his long reign as cinematographer for the Bond films with Dr. No. His work in the film is admirable, especially in the outdoor location sequences. Peter Hunt's editing prowess helps establish the pace and rhythm of the film, and his quick cuts in fight sequences are especially noteworthy. It is almost impossible to perceive the cuts between the real actors and stuntmen during a Peter Hunt-edited fight scene. The special effects work in the film is performed by Frank George, whose model of Dr. No's fortress looks convincingly real when it is blown up at the film's end.

  Monty Norman, a British composer whose other credits include the music for Irma La Douce, composed the score for Dr. No. The music features several Jamaican calypso songs which are performed on-screen by Byron Lee's all-Chinese band. The importance and appeal of the Bond films' musical scores were established with the first film—not only was "The James Bond Theme" an enormously successful hit, but other songs like "Under the Mango Tree" and "Jamaica Jump-Up" were published in sheet music. Steven Rubin, in his book The James Bond Films, claims that John Barry (whose orchestra performs "The James Bond Theme" for the film) actually composed the song. The story goes that Broccoli and Saltzman were unhappy with Monty Norman's theme and at the last minute asked Barry to compose one. Adapting a couple of tunes he had written for his jazz band, The John Barry Seven, the composer whipped up the famous theme in a few hours without having seen the film. Due to contractual obligations, Monty Norman has always received the credit for the Bond theme. But the producers made it up to Barry by hiring him to score no fewer than nine of the remaining Bond films.

  Produced on a small budget but relying on the creative talents of a selected team of individuals, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman produced, in Dr. No, the beginning of a cinematic phenomenon. The film was surprisingly successful in England when it was released in October, 1962, and did very well in America when it was released there seven months later. James Bond's future in the cinema seemed confirmed at this point.

  FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)

  PRODUCTION

  With Dr. No a surprise hit, United Artists gave the go-ahead for Broccoli and Saltzman to make the next James Bond film. From Russia With Love was chosen for a number of reasons: it was one of Fleming's best novels; it had well-drawn characters and an exotic location (Istanbul) and it was a familiar title to the public. John F. Kennedy, you will recall, had listed this novel as one of his ten favorite books a year before production began.

  The producers used most of the same production people who made Dr. No, and the result is again one of the best in the series. Many fans consider it the best Bond film simply because it is close to Fleming's original story. But as John Brosnan points out in his study of the films, From Russia With Love is out of step with the rest of the series. The formula, which is perfected in the third film, is noticeably absent in From Russia With Love. Missing are Ken Adam's futuristic, expressionistic sets, as well as the science fiction aspects that would dominate most of the Bond films. From Russia With Love tells a straight spy story, keeping well within the bounds of realism. The film is also very well cast, with strong performances by theater veterans Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya, as well as a good performance by Connery.

  With a larger budget than was allowed on Dr. No, production of the second James Bond film began in 1962. Location filming took place in Istanbul, where the crew encountered many problems. The outdoor boat chase sequence caused innumerable difficulties, and the scene was finally reshot near England after two tries on location. Actor Pedro Armendariz, who portrayed Kerim Bey, was very ill during shooting; it was soon discovered he had a terminal disease. When Terence Young learned this, he rearranged the shooting schedule so that all of Armendariz's scenes could be shot immediately, and a stand-in could be used later if needed. (Arrnendariz reportedly killed himself in the hospital soon after shooting had been completed, rather than submit to a long and painful illness.)

  On location in Istanbul for the gypsy girlfight in From Russia With Love. (UPI Photo.)

  Sean Connery with co-star Daniela Bianchi in Istanbul for the filming of From Russia With Love. (Wide World Photo.)

  The remainder of the film was shot near Pinewood Studios in England. For instance, the SPECTRE training camp was set up on the studio lawn. From Russia With Love was released in England in October of 1963, and was released six months later in the United States.

  From Russia With Love begins with a pre-credits sequence which, from this point on, would become a continuing device in the series. It was reportedly Harry Saltzman who came up with this idea, which other filmmakers began to copy. TV action series began using pre-credits sequences as well. Many times the Bond pre-credits scenes have nothing to do with the main body of the films; but in From Russia With Love, the sequence is not only related, but serves as a foreshadowing of things to come.

  Saltzman's idea was to have the film, which involved a plot to assassinate James Bond, begin with the actual assassination—only it wouldn't really be Bond! The scene shows Red Grant, the SPECTRE assassin, stalking James Bond through a moonlit garden (Young supposedly based the scene on one in Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad) and eventually strangling the British agent with a garroting wire. But a SPECTRE official walks up to the dead body and removes a mask, revealing the agent to be someone else entirely. The scene is effective, and immediately creates a mysterious atmosphere that pervades the entire film. From this point on, the dangerous presence of Red Grant is emphasized by the memory of this scene.

  Another important decision the producers made affecting the film and the ones that followed was the creation of James Bond gadgetry. Q Branch, the Armoury of the S
ecret Service, comes into its own in From Russia With Love and provides James Bond with a black attaché case containing all sorts of weaponry and devices. The early films' use of gadgetry, for the most part, was clever and amusing; but beginning with Thunderball, these contraptions began to dominate the screen and reduce the characters and the stories to simple manipulators of machinery.

  The attaché case was actually based on Fleming's original idea. In the novel, the case contained a secret compartment and a flat throwing knife hidden in the lining. The film adds a sniperscope (with infra-red lens), ammunition, hidden gold sovereigns, and a tear gas cartridge which can be triggered only by using a trick method of opening the case. All of these devices come into play at crucial times during the film, and unlike the use of such implements in other Bond films, 007 must here rely on his wits and quick thinking to activate them.

  SCREENPLAY

  From Russia With Love is one of Richard Maibaum's most successful Bond screenplays mainly because of his faithful adaptation (with the help of Johanna Harwood) of the Fleming novel.

  The most obvious difference in the story is the inclusion of SPECTRE. Continuing where he left off in Dr. No, Maibaum took Fleming's lead and changed the villain's organization from SMERSH (the Russians) to SPECTRE. In the novel, SMERSH is conducting a personal vendetta against James Bond. In the film, SPECTRE is playing both ends against the middle, as they pit the Russians against the British. SPECTRE's plot is to steal the Lektor coding machine (changed from Fleming's Spektor coding machine for obvious reasons) from the Russians and hand it over to James Bond through the actions of an innocent Russian girl. Their next step is to murder Bond in an embarrassing fashion and repossess the Lektor for resale to the Russians. The addition of SPECTRE complicates the plot somewhat, but not enough to do any real damage to the action of the story. The Russian girl, Tatiana Romanova, is still ordered by Rosa Klebb (who in the film retains her status in SMERSH but is secretly a member of SPECTRE) to seduce Bond and allow him to take the Lektor machine from the Russian Consulate in Istanbul. Red Grant; now a SPECTRE assassin rather than an employee of SMERSH, still stalks Bond throughout the story until the final confrontation aboard the Orient Express.