Historical Dictionary of Ian Fleming’s James Bond released in US

CommanderBond.net ^ | 04 Oct, 2009 | Written by Devin Zydel

[Perdogg]

Fusing together entries on Fleming’s famous 00-agent and detailed information on cases of espionage, real-life spies, MI5, SIS, CIA, KGB, and others, Historical Dictionary of Ian Fleming’s James Bond asks the question: What proportion of Fleming’s output is authentic, and what comes directly from the his imagination?

[Elle Bee]

Felix Leiter and Bond take the Studillac up to Saratoga Springs to the races and the sulfur baths in one novel .. I think it was the Harlem/Caribbean drug smuggling thingie ... cant remember the name of the book just now

[Perdogg]

It was Diamonds are Forever. Bond had to payoff a Jockey who threw a horserace.

[Perdogg]

You are thinking of Live and Let Die the movie. There was no drug angle in any of the novels, just Risico the short story..

[antisocial]

I can’t post pictures, but these are pretty spiffy.

http://www.1956goldenhawk.com/diffhawk.htm

[Elle Bee]

you're correct I'm confusing the - ugh - movie Live and Let Die with the with the book Dimonds Are Forever

They drive up to Saratoga Springs in Leiter's Studalack

.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Here in the films they make you believe all he quaffs are variations on the martini. Bourbon whiskey doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. I’m surprised Sake appears as his #2 preference. Drinking a hot alcoholic beverage seems... bleh (of course, I don’t drink, so...).

[fieldmarshaldj]

After seeing that roster of adult beverages he consumed, I’m surprised his liver didn’t hoist the white flag. The real JB would’ve been done in by cirrhosis, if not a bullet, before he made 50.

[fieldmarshaldj]

What was funny was seeing the SPECTRE thug from FRWL suddenly become the warm and cuddly General Gogol before long. =8-0

[Perdogg]

You have to remember that You Only Live Twice is the novel after OHMSS, Bond is still an emotional wreck, then he is sent to Japan.

[Perdogg]

The beginning of Thunderball is where all of these issues are addressed. The part, apparently, was based on Fleming's experience and was not as result of the McClory-Whittingham-Bryce-Fleming screenplay.

[Cincinatus]

I always thought “Dr. No” was the best of all the Bond films.

The second one, From Russia with love has always been my favorite. The first four movies (including Goldfinger and Thunderball) were all reasonably close to the books. Although the gimmicks started taking over in Goldfinger, after You only live twice, it was all over.

Just as the original Sherlock Holmes stories were re-made with Jeremy Brett in the 1980's, I've always thought that someone should re-make the original Bond novels. He was more like a real person in the books and you can trace his physical and mental deterioration in the books.

[Perdogg]

I actually liked DAF, some fans say it’s boring.

[fieldmarshaldj]

That’s what threw the whole movie franchise off, because exclusive film fans don’t realize YOLT should be occurring AFTER OHMSS. I’m struggling to remember at the moment if they intended to film OHMSS immediately after TB (which should’ve said in the end credits, “JB will return in...”). They had to use the opener of DAF to make it look like JB was finally out to avenge his wife’s murder, when he buried alive the cosmetically-altered Blofeld double, with his line, “See you in hell...”

Confusing as well is that it seemed like JB wouldn’t have been “introduced” to Blofeld in YOLT since he would’ve already met him face to face in OHMSS (and the scene in YOLT would’ve been the first time he’d have met Blofeld in the film franchise). That’s the problem when they alter the novels to fit the films, of course.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Are you speaking to his experiences at the health clinic (”eliminate all free radicals”) ? Or did they not have that in the novel as they did in TB and the subpar remake, Never Say Never Again ?

[fieldmarshaldj]

YOLT’s biggest problem is that it became far too cartoonish. Connery’s experience with making it in Japan (especially to the point that fearless and crazy fans were going so far as to get his autograph by climbing into his bathroom stall) apparently caused him to decide to prematurely conclude his playing the role (and depriving us of seeing him in ostensibly the best-written JB film in OHMSS).

[fieldmarshaldj]

Not boring really, it was too camp and silly. Blofeld was too funny and not as cold and threatening as his two predecessors in the role, and Connery looked too prematurely old, tired and out-of-shape. In the ridiculous scene with Bambi and Thumper, if Connery had literally to fight the two of them, you know those women could’ve killed him.

[Perdogg]

The Bloefeld trilogy is Thunderball, OHMSS, and You Only Live Twice. However, eventhough the “Spy who Loved Me” is after Thunderball, Bond is in North America as part of Operation Bedlum (The worldwide hunt for Bloefeld).

[Perdogg]

I was refering to the novel not the movie.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The first Bond film I ever saw in a theater, “For Your Eyes Only”, back in 1981 (I was 7), the opening scene as you may recall, was the only one where they heavily referenced OHMSS, starting at Tracy’s gravesite, and ostensibly ending with Roger Moore’s JB killing Blofeld (although I don’t think they ever called him by name, you clearly were supposed to know who he was, by then he was confined to a wheelchair - but I was never clear if that was because of his accident at the end of DAF). I forgot if it was that Kevin McClory who was constantly at legal odds with Broccoli & Co. had the rights to the Blofeld name and was why they couldn’t say it. Set me straight if I’m in error over that.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Ah, OK. I didn’t know your opinion of the film, if you disagree or not. I’ve only scanned some of the novels. Only read partway through GF, and that was probably 15 years ago.