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whom serious film fans will admit did make the first “James Bond movie” with Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959.)

No. Serious film fans place "North by Northwest" into an entirely different category. Roger O. Thornhill was a "fish out of water". A New York City advertising executive who is mistaken for a spy who doesn't exist. He never signe dup to be an action man.

When Eva Marie-Saint asks him what his middle initial "O" stands for, he tells her it stands for "nothing". The letter is "O" is like the number zero. So it is a little joke, but it is supposed to represent something about Thornhill's character.

Yes, he rises to the occasion, but he is NOT a modern day Achilles or Scarlet Pimpernel. He is the middle of Kansas farmland being chased by a crop duster, wondering, how the hell did this happen? That is NOT James Bond Territory.

No. Serious film fans place "North by Northwest" into an entirely different category.

I cannot remember where I saw it, but there was a background feature on either the Hitchcock movie Notorious, or aon a TV special about James Bond. In the special, it suggested that Grant's character in Notorious was more like Bond (Grant plays a government agent) and Grant's entrance was rather like Connery's in Dr. No with only the back of his head being shown at first. In the same special, Cubby Broccoli's wife explained that they actually wanted Grant to play Bond but he was not interested.