Another variant of the 'Bond is what every man would like to be...' meme

It was Global James Bond Day yesterday, which marks the release of the first James Bond film, Dr No in 1962. I thought I’d search through the British Newspaper Archive for contemporaneous reviews of the film. One of those I found, published in The Tatler on 17th October that year, was quite interesting for more than one reason.
 

From The Tatler, 17th October 1962

The review is positive, though the reviewer, Elspeth Grant, viewed the film as a comedy. 

She begins:

‘Mr Ian Fleming’s Dr No is billed as “The First James Bond Film!” – and I don’t mind how many more the producers, Messrs Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli, have up their sleeves, providing they are as much fun as this one, which Mr Terence Young has directed with skill.’

The review ends:
 

‘Mr Bond has so many perils to brave – it’s no wonder he feels it necessary to fortify himself with a stiff vodka martini at frequent intervals: by the end of this killing picture, you’ll probably want one yourself – if you can stop giggling long enough to drink it.’

Also included in the review is a sentence that has a ring of familiarity.
 

‘Every male will instantly identify himself with this devastating he-man, and no doubt many a swooning female will wish she had half the luck of the Misses Eunice Gayson, Lois Maxwell, Zena Marshall and the ravishing Ursula Andress.’

If not exactly a variant of Raymond Mortimer’s phrase, that James Bond is 'what every man would like to be, and what every woman would like to have between her sheets', Elspeth Grant’s line certainly conveys the same idea.

When James Bond went cruising

Over the decades, James Bond has been used to advertise a range of products, among them clothes, shoes and tea, that have had no official connection to the books or films. In 1963, James Bond was used to advertise cruises.
 
A supplement to Tatler magazine in May 1963 included an advertisement for Union-Castle cruises. The advertisement, ‘No pistol packing for James Bond’, features an illustration of James Bond by a swimming pool on board a cruise ship and in the company of a bikini-clad woman. The accompanying text reveals that they are on the Windsor Castle, a cruise ship on its way to Cape Town, and that M is sending Bond there for rest and recuperation. The woman, called Orchid, is an agent too, as she confesses to Bond that M ‘sent me to keep an eye on you’.
 

Union-Castle advert in the Tatler, 29 May 1963 (c) Illustrated London News Group

Published after the film version of Dr No was released, the advertisement inevitably contains nods to the film. James Bond resembles Sean Connery, and from the text it’s clear that Bond has consumed ‘vodka martinis at shipboard prices’. The books have not been forgotten either; another activity that Bond has enjoyed is ‘bridge at 1d-a-hundred’, the copywriter presumably being aware of the bridge game in Moonraker. 
 
The second advert (‘Holiday with pay-off for James Bond’) was published in the Tatler in October 1963. This time, Bond is holidaying on the Blue Lagoon beach near Mombasa, having travelled on the cruise ship the Kenya Castle. Later, Bond will travel on to Durban via Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Beira. Bond’s holiday is again courtesy of M, apparently to thank Bond for his efforts on ‘the Klemanski case’. Bond again has female company, a blonde, bikini-clad woman (not Orchid, it seems). ‘James, promise me you haven’t brought any weapons on this holiday,’ she asks. ‘Only for fishing…,’ he replies as he suggestively clasps a spear-gun.
 

Union-Castle advert in the Tatler, 16 October 1963 (c) Illustrated London News Group

Again, Bond resembles Sean Connery, and while the advertisement doesn’t include other obvious references to Dr No or From Russia With Love, which had been released in the same month, the scene curiously prefigures the beach scene in Thunderball (1965), in which Bond is with female company (in that case Domino) and armed with a spear-gun.
 
The Union-Castle advertisements were published at a time when exotic travel was becoming more affordable and cruising was gaining in popularity; the film Carry On Cruising, which poked gentle fun at the industry and its passengers, was released in 1962.
 
The advertisements also remind us of the part that the novels played in generating James Bond’s advertising power. Over time, the films would come to dominate, and the tropes or memes presented in advertising featuring Bond would derive largely, and probably exclusively, from the films only (though of course these contain memes that can be traced back to the books). In 1963, however, the books were still influential.
 
After all, the cruise advertisements were published, as they acknowledged, ‘with a bow to Ian Fleming, author of the excellent ‘James Bond’ books, published by Jonathan Cape: and to Eon Productions, whose film ‘Dr No’ is the first of a series based on these books’.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and spy fiction of the 1950s, '60s and '70s

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Harper Collins, 2017), Mike Ripley's examination of the golden age of British thrillers. It's a period that began, the author contends, with Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, published in 1953, and ended in the late 1970s with tough heroics of Jack Higgins' novels and the methodical thrillers of Frederick Forsyth. In between, there were Fleming wannabes, the realistic spy thrillers of Len Deighton and John le Carré, and a whole host of bestselling books by authors who remain hugely popular still, such as Alistair MacLean, or are now long out of print and largely forgotten.

The identification of this period as a golden age is contentious – others would argue that that period belonged to the likes of John Buchan, Sapper, Peter Cheyney, and E Phillips Oppenheim – but there's no denying that the twenty year period saw an explosion of British thriller writers (many influenced by Ian Fleming or more generally the success of James Bond) who would dominate the thriller market across the world.

For me, the book gave me a sense of nostalgia. Not that I read any of these books at the time. Being born in the 1970s, I was too young, but some of the books that Mike Ripley mentions were on the bookshelves at home, among them Eric Ambler's The Levanter, John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (or was it Smiley's People?), and When Eight Bells Toil by Alistair MacLean. Such thrillers seeped into my consciousness at an early age.

Later, I began collecting thrillers, mainly published in the mid/late 1960s, that attempted to fill the void left by Ian Fleming, their heroes often being described on the back cover as the new James Bond or even better than James Bond (as if that were possible). Many of these are discussed by Mike Ripley too, such as DIECAST by John Michael Brett, Sergeant Death by James Mayo, and Where the Spies Are by James Leasor.
 

Some of Bond's many rivals

Since reading Mike Ripley's book, I've been inspired to catch up on the many thrillers that I've missed. I decided, fairly randomly, to begin with a novel by Desmond Bagley, the author of some sixteen adventures and spy novels which invariably featured rugged locations, even more rugged heroes, and Land Rovers. Bagley wrote between 1963 and 1983, the book I chose, Running Blind, being published in 1970.

Running Blind is a Cold War thriller than falls somewhere between the realistic environment of George Smiley and the more fantastic world of James Bond. In the novel, former British agent Alan Stewart makes a routine visit to Iceland, where his girlfriend lives, but is met by another agent, who persuades him to deliver a package. When an attempt is made on his life, he realises he's been set up, forcing him to go on the run across Iceland's volcanic terrain, pursued by Russian, British, and American agents.  

It's an exciting read, and while it's rather different to the James Bond books (except, maybe, John Gardner's Nobody Lives for Ever), the influence of Ian Fleming, or indeed the James Bond films, is not far away. There's a moment when Alan Stewart enters the room of Slade, a British agent whom Stewart suspects of having gone over to the Russians. Stewart looks out for a trick of the trade – hairs dabbed with saliva and stuck across the doors of the wardrobe that would be dislodged if the doors were opened.

A device of a similar nature is described in Casino Royale. When James Bond returns to his hotel room at Royale-les-Eaux, he inspects the hairs lodged in the drawer of the writing desk to make sure the drawer hadn't been opened. It's possible, though, that Desmond Bagley had been thinking of the film version of Dr No, in which Bond dabs a hair with saliva and sticks it across the doors of his wardrobe.
 

James Bond takes precautions

At another point, when Stewart confronts Slade, Slade tells him that he's 'been reading too much Fleming'. Then, as Stewart turns out the contents of Slade's wallet, he observes wryly that he found no plans for the latest guided missile or laser death ray that a master spy might have been expected to carry. A nod perhaps, at least with regard to the laser, to the film of Goldfinger. 

I expect that Running Blind will be the first of many thrillers from the 'golden age' that I'll discover and rediscover thanks to Mike Ripley's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and along the way be reminded (as if I needed reminding) of the enormous influence that Ian Fleming's work has had on thriller and spy fiction. As Mike Ripley notes, Casino Royale wasn't so much the spy novel that ended all spy novels, but the novel that launched many more.

James Bond in a Caribbean mystery

With Young Bond author Charlie Higson on writing duties, it was inevitable that ITV's 2013 adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Caribbean Mystery should include a few nods to James Bond. I was reminded of these when the drama was repeated recently on ITV3.

The title card of ITV's adaptation of A Caribbean Mystery

In the story, amateur sleuth Miss Marple is holidaying on an unnamed Caribbean island. As ever, murder follows in her wake, the first victim among Miss Marple's fellow hotel guests being a retired major who realises that a serial killer is in their midst. Miss Marple is soon on the case.

Voodoo plays a role in the plot, and we see performers put on a Voodoo-inspired show for the hotel guests, much like the entertainment that greets James Bond's arrival in San Monique in Live and Let Die.

However, it is the Voodoo scenes at the end (or indeed in the pre-titles sequence) of Live and Let Die that appear to be referenced more closely. One of the performers carries a snake with which he playfully threatens the major. He also wears headgear made out of animal skin, and has white paint on the upper part of his face and black paint on his nose and around his eyes to create the appearance of a skull.
 

A Caribbean Mystery: The major is confronted by a Voodoo performer and a snake

The costume is presumably fairly typical of Voodoo ceremonies, but the performer nevertheless brings to mind the high priest (or whatever he is) in Live and Let Die, who wears a goat-skin headdress and threatens Solitaire with a snake, while his make-up replicates that worn by Baron Samedi.
 

Scenes from the Voodoo ceremony in Live and Let Die

There is another allusion to Live and Let Die when we see a close-up of the face of hotel owner Molly Kendall (who believes herself responsible for the series of murders), which turns into a flaming skull. This recalls Maurice Binder's titles in Live and Let Die, in which a flaming skull is a prominent motif.

Flaming skulls in A Caribbean Mystery (top) and Live and Let Die

More generally, the background music for A Caribbean Mystery incorporates Bondian notes and phrases, especially whenever the handsome hotel waiter, Errol (who knows how to mix a cocktail), appears on the scene.
 

Errol (Kingsley Ben-Adir) in A Caribbean Mystery

A cameo appearance of Charlie Higson, however, provides a much more obvious nod to James Bond. He plays an ornithologist who visits the hotel to give a lecture on birds. His name? James Bond, author of Birds of the West Indies.
 

The ornithologist James Bond, as played by Charlie Higson in A Caribbean Mystery

By coincidence, Ian Fleming (played by Jeremy Crutchley) is in the audience. He tells Miss Marple that he has been working on a novel (the events of the mystery must date before 1953), but he is stuck for the name of his hero. When James Bond introduces himself with the words "My name is Bond, James Bond", inspiration strikes. (James Bond was in fact named after the ornithologist, though not quite in the manner depicted!) 

Ian Fleming (Jeremy Crutchley) in A Caribbean Mystery

Interestingly, James Bond (the ornithologist) is introduced as a representative of the Audubon Society, the American bird protection society that Fleming mentions in Dr No. That novel gets another nod when James Bond points out that the island is rich in guano; Ian Fleming tells a puzzled Miss Marple that guano is bird droppings.

The 2013 adaptation of A Caribbean Mystery is very enjoyable tale of murder and intrigue, and the James Bond references are an added bonus. Well worth watching.

Two Bond-related spy-story anthologies

I came out of a secondhand bookshop recently clutching two copies of the same book: Great Spy Stories, published in 1978 by Marks and Spencer in association with William Heinemann and Martin Secker and Warburg. The volume is an anthology of spy novels, and includes Dr No, Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios (a book Bond himself reads in From Russia, with Love) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré. As far as I can establish, both copies of the book are the same edition, but they have different dustjacket designs. Both covers, however, reflect contemporaneous approaches to the artwork of spy fiction, containing tropes or memes of current at time.

One version has a relatively simple design, showing a gun packaged in brown paper postmarked Berlin on a black background. The artwork appears to owe much to the covers of Len Deighton's spy novels, such as Spy Story, published by Cape in 1974 (with a cover by Bond cover artist, Raymond Hawkey), and the paperback edition of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This may have given prospective readers a sense that they were about to read stories from the murky, cynical end of the spy fiction spectrum; perhaps appropriately Dr No is placed last.

The second design displays a collection of gadgets and others tools of the spy trade, and has a something of an old-fashioned quality about it, and arguably Dr No fits more comfortably within this cover. Indeed the cover may have been inspired by the covers of the Pan paperbacks published in 1974. These show spy-related objects and motifs reflecting the story arranged in a form of still-life. That said, some of Len Deighton's books also take this approach, such as the cover of An Expensive Way to Die (Cape, 1967), also designed by Raymond Hawkey. This still-life-style of cover has remained closely associated with spy stories and Bond; Raymond Benson's The James Bond Bedside Companion (1984) has just that style of artwork. 

While in the bookshop, I spotted another spy-story anthology. This was Favourite Spy Stories, published in 1981 by Littlehampton Book Services  Alas, there was no place in it for Ian Fleming, but it did have one very Bondian aspect to its cover: an image of a a spy in a classic Bond pose. This image (excuse the poor quality) very closely copies a photograph of George Lazenby's James Bond leaning against a lamppost, but the image has its origins in the poster artwork of earlier Bond artwork, notably From Russia With Love.

  
Comparing the images, I've noticed that, curiously, George Lazenby is putting his weight on the 'wrong' leg; the photograph looks natural enough, but Lazenby must have felt uncomfortable posing in that manner (you may wish to have a try yourself). Since then, this classic-pose meme has been utilised many times, often in the posters of Bond and non-Bond films alike, to indicate espionage-themed adventures.

Going underground - the buildings inspired by James Bond

Hampshire's Daily Echo reported the other week on a curious James Bond-inspired building project. The Plaza Theatre in Romsey dates to the 1930s, and so when it was time to refurbish the toilets, one of the theatre members looked for a design that was in-keeping with the period. He turned for inspiration to the London Underground scenes in Skyfall, which were thought to show contemporaneous elements to the structures.

While I'm not certain that any of the disused platforms, tunnels and escalators of Charing Cross tube station, which were used for Skyfall, or parts of other stations, such as Temple, which were used mainly for exterior shots, in fact date to the 1930s, it is interesting that the Bond films serve as a resource for design and history. Another example of this can be seen in a rather grander building project.

In 2008, while in conversation with Christopher Frayling to coincide with the publication of Ken Adam Designs the Movies: James Bond and Beyond, Sir Ken Adam, responsible for some of the most iconic sets seen in the Bond films, mentioned that renowned architect Sir Norman Foster took inspiration for his design of Canary Wharf underground station from Ken Adam's sets for The Spy Who Loved Me.

Looking at the underground station, the source of the inspiration seems clear. The main hall of the station contains elements that resemble the docking bay of the Liparus, Stromberg's submarine-swallowing supertanker. The central columns, the domed roof, and the black side panels of the station all find some equivalence in the design of the tanker.

But it is possible that Sir Norman Foster turned to another classic Ken Adam set. As users of Canary Wharf tube station exit the station via the escalators, they can look up at the glass and metal roof overhead. If you think you've seen that roof somewhere before, then you're probably thinking of the grille in Dr No's ante-room. There is a distinct similarity.

Regardless of whether it was indeed based on Bond-film sets, Canary Wharf is perhaps the most Bondian of tube stations. We have seen James Bond exploring the London Underground in two films – Skyfall, of course, and Die Another Day, in which the fictional tube station, Vauxhall Cross, was created based on Aldwych station. Given that Canary Wharf is an active and very busy station, it seem unlikely that it would appear in a Bond film, but should James Bond ever visit it, he might think it looks strangely familiar.

How Ann Fleming was kept awake by Three Blind Mice

In a letter to Clarissa Avon (Countess of Avon), written at Goldeneye on 16th February 1964, Ann Fleming wrote, “A new garage at end of garden has a juke box which plays from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., especially a loud syncopated version of 'Three Blind Mice'”. A few days later, on the 22nd February, Ann wrote to Evelyn Waugh, mentioning the music.

“A new 'gas station' at garden gate possessed of infernal machine called 'sound system'. It relays calypso from 9 p.m. To 3 a.m. Special favourite being a syncopated version of 'Three Blind Mice'.”

The references to 'Three Blind Mice' are interesting, given that a calypso version of the nursery rhyme featured in the soundtrack of Dr No, released in 1962. The song, actually titled 'Kingston Calypso', was composed by Monty Norman and performed by the Jamaican band, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. In the film, the music accompanies the three blind beggars – in fact assassins sent by Dr No – on their way to kill Strangways. Was this the song that disturbed Ann Fleming so much?


 
It's possible. The soundtrack album was a chart hit, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, thanks in part to the success of Dr No, were billed as 'Jamaica's no. 1 band', and doubtless their music was heard across the island.

Advert from the Gleaner

On the other hand, if Ann Fleming had been hearing the Dr No album, it would seem curious that she doesn't mention it or reflect on the irony of being kept awake by the music of a film based on her husband's novel (although any lack of recognition is understandable, given that she failed to find the film gripping during a preview in 1962). Moreover, 'Kingston Calypso' was never released as a single or included on any of the band's albums that had been released by early 1964, and so opportunities for recordings of the track to be heard in isolation were limited (unless the version that Ann heard was a cover).

A more likely candidate is 'Three Blind Mice' by Prince Buster (Cecil Bustamente Campbell), who was a pioneer of ska music in Jamaica in the early 1960s. His version of 'Three Blind Mice', which appeared on the B-side of the single 'Spider and Fly' in 1963, is a ska track and much more in keeping with the syncopated sound heard by Ann Fleming.


 
Ska and Dr No seem a world apart, but Ann Fleming's letters reveal something of a connection. Monty Norman's 'Kingston Calypso', inspired by the film's more or less faithful portrayal of the three blind beggars in Ian Fleming's novel, was among the first of a number of Jamaican versions of 'Three Blind Mice', and helped to give the nursery rhyme a particular place in Jamaican culture.

Reference:

Amory, M, 1985 The letters of Ann Fleming, Collins Harvill

Who thought up the phrase 'Bond, James Bond'?

Bond, James Bond. Three words that together constitute a phrase famous the world over. As essential a line in the Bond films as 'shaken, not stirred', another three-word phrase with a near-identical structure, the phrase routinely makes lists of top movie quotes, and is much imitated and parodied in films and beyond.


 
'Bond, James Bond' was first heard in Dr No (1962), being, appropriately, the first words Bond utters on the big screen. The extent to which its structure and function makes the phrase particularly memorable and adaptable is arguable, but its success was almost guaranteed as soon as it was delivered by an impossibly cool Sean Connery, with a little help from the James Bond theme triggered by the phrase. The effect was more or less replicated at the end of Casino Royale (2006) – there were reports of cinema-goers cheering when the much-anticipated phrase was delivered by Daniel Craig's Bond – bringing the 'Bond, James Bond' meme to new audiences and giving it fresh impetus for its imitation in popular culture.

Who created the phrase? Well, Ian Fleming, naturally. In the novel of Casino Royale (1953), Bond replies to Felix Leiter, who's just introduced himself, with the words, “Mine's Bond – James Bond.” In Goldfinger (1959), Mr Du Pont says to Goldfinger: “Like you to meet Bond, James Bond.” There's a “Bond, James Bond” in Dr No (1957) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), and a “My name's Bond, James Bond” in Thunderball (1961) and 'Octopussy' (1966, but written early 1962). There may be others, but just these examples demonstrate that the phrase was a standard one for Ian Fleming, that it appeared throughout the sequence of novels, and crucially that it pre-dated the film series.

Such facts were brought to mind as I read the description for lot 261 in a catalogue for Christie's auction of James Bond memorabilia, toys and games, film props and other items held on 17th September 1998 (I'll write more about this catalogue in a forthcoming post). Lot 261 comprised a collection of film scripts – those of the first three Bond films – owned by British novelist and scriptwriter Berkely Mather, who co-wrote Dr No, and made smaller contributions to From Russia With Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964).

Looking through the catalogue entry, I was a little surprised to read that “famous one-liners, often attributed to Fleming, were apparently Mather's inspiration. These are said to include '[The name is] Bond – James Bond'; and Bond's celebrated preference for vodka Martini '...shaken, not stirred.'” While there may be a case for Mather's claim to the latter, at least in that more concise form, his claim for the former seems unfounded.

That said, the catalogue entry also states, rather interestingly, that when he was given the task of working on the Dr No script, Berkely Mather had never read a Bond novel, and had to borrow his son's paperback copy of Dr No (which is included in the lot). With this in mind, it is perhaps remarkable nonetheless that while reading the book, Mather alighted on 'Bond, James Bond', which in isolation in 1961/2 must have seemed a fairly innocuous line. Much of the novel's dialogue provided the basis for the dialogue in the film, but it was heavily modified and rarely survived intact. 'Bond, James Bond' did survive, however, possibly because it is brief and has a pleasing structure that catches the ear when delivered. It is, in short, cinematic.

While 'Bond, James Bond' is certainly Fleming's invention (it cannot join, say, 'Elementary, my dear Watson' in any list of phrases which are popularly attributed to a character but never originated with their authors), we may have Berkely Mather to thank for spotting its potential as a memorable one-liner and including it in his script.

Book preview: James Bond and Popular Culture

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas presents for Bond fans. December will see the publication of a book of essays about the James Bond phenomenon. James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy examines how James Bond has inspired many aspects of popular culture, including Doctor Who, the animated television comedy series Archer, Japan’s Nakano Spy School Films, and the 1960s Italian Eurospy genre, and analyses Bond’s phenomenal literary and filmic influence over the past 50-plus years, with essays covering James Bond's role in film, television, literature, and lifestyle.

The volume has been edited by Bond and spy-fiction expert Michele Brittany, a book reviews editor for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, a correspondent for Bleeding Cool, a comic book news site, and the author of Spy-fi & Superspies, a blog about all things spy-related.

The book sounds like a essential reading, although I must declare an interest: I'm responsible for one of the essays. 'Modelling Bond: The Cultural Perception of James Bond on the Eve of the Eon Production Films' focuses on a Bond-themed marketing campaign for men's clothing. In 1961, six advertisements for Courtelle, a UK-based clothing company, was placed in the Daily Express and Daily Mirror. Prefiguring the use of product tie-ins and the appearance of Bond actors as 'brand ambassadors', James Bond himself (as drawn by an artist) modelled the clothes and received a plug for his latest adventure, while the content suggested in no uncertain terms that these were the clothes to wear if you wanted a James Bond lifestyle.

One of the Courtelle advertisements to feature James Bond. Image copyright Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd

The adverts reveal that even before the release of Dr No in the cinema in 1962, James Bond had been identified as an aspirational figure. What's more, the adverts show how the image of Bond evolved outside Fleming's novels on the eve of the film series. The essay identifies the traits taken from the books and those introduced by copywriters, assesses the extent of other influences, such as other spy literature, films and television, and discusses how far this hybrid Bond diverged from Fleming's prototype.

In addition, the essay compares the 'Courtelle' Bond with contemporary depictions similarly uninformed by the Bond films and examines the impact of the film series on the expression of Bondian iconography. Finally, the essay discusses the proposition that different Bonds have emerged as a result of ever-evolving cultural environments.

The book, priced at $40, is available to order now from the publisher McFarland, or through Amazon (currently priced at £23 in the UK) and other retailers. The perfect Bondian Christmas present!

Why was Dr No the first Bond film?

My bedtime reading at the moment is David V Picker's memoir about his time in the film industry, Musts, Maybes, and Nevers: A Book About the Movies. In this very entertaining book, David Picker recalls his time as a film producer and, primarily, a studio executive, first at United Artists, then Paramount and Columbia. As head of production at United Artists, David Picker's job was to identify worthwhile and potentially profitable projects, help develop them, secure the money, and ensure that the films were delivered on time and to budget. Among the films he 'green-lit' were Midnight Cowboy, A Hard Day's Night, and, to the gratitude of millions of Bond fans, Dr No.

David Picker's account of how he said yes to Dr No offers an interesting perspective to the well known, and complex, story of how Fleming's novels made it to the screen (big and small), involving false starts, split ownership of rights, expiring options, and Fleming's idiosyncratic way of doing business. There are two aspects of Picker's tale, however, that differ from the standard narrative: the question of why Dr No and not Thunderball was chosen as the first Bond film, and Fleming's attitude towards films.

In his autobiography, When the Snow Melts (1998), Cubby Broccoli tells us that he and co-producer Harry Saltzman decided to film Thunderball as the first Bond film, but switched to Dr No to avoid legal complications when Kevin McClory, who had co-written the screen treatments on which Fleming's novel was based, filed an injunction to stop the film's development. This has long been the accepted version and is repeated in a number of books chronicling the history of the Bond films, among them Andrew Lycett's biography of Ian Fleming (1995), The Incredible World of 007 by Lee Pfeiffer and Philip Lisa (1995), and Bond Films by Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington (2002).

According to David Picker, however, the issue was simply about money. United Artists had set a budget of $1.1 million and David Picker felt that Thunderball would be too expensive to film. Dr No, on the other hand, seemed more achievable based on the parameters UA set. Picker implies that the suggestion of Dr No was his and that he persuaded Broccoli and Saltzman to consider the change. How far this is true is uncertain; everyone has their own view of an event, and it may be the case that the prohibitive cost of filming Thunderball was raised by Picker in addition to any discussion about pending litigation.

As for Ian Fleming's attitude to films, David Picker writes that his early attempts (independent of Saltzman and Broccoli) to secure the rights to film the Bond rights came to nothing, because, as he puts it, “Mr Fleming didn't like movies” and refused to sell the rights. I was surprised by this, as according to Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming very actively pursued film and TV deals. Indeed, Fleming deliberately made Moonraker cinematic to attract film makers, and his novel Dr No was based on one of his screen treatments, Commander James Gunn. While Fleming's interest flagged after so many expressions of interest and preliminary developments stalled, it doesn't appear likely that Fleming ever refused to sell the rights to his novels.

I have to admit being sceptical of both David Picker's claims. That they have gained little foothold in 'Bond history' may be a reflection on the degree of their veracity. From a memetic perspective, they have had little chance of competing with the established narrative, not least because David Picker's version has been little known. In contrast, the memes that legal action prevented Thunderball from being the first Bond film and that Fleming was willing to make a deal for film rights have become well established in the cultural environment, and reinforced through repetition with the publication of each new history of the Bond films.

How dangerous are Skyfall's komodo dragons?

Visit London Zoo and you have the chance to meet, and even adopt, one of the stars of Skyfall, but I wouldn't ask for his autograph. Raja the komodo dragon makes his screen debut in a scene in Macau's Golden Dragon Casino. The reptile was measured and filmed in his London enclosure and recreated in the casino's komodo dragon pit using the magic of CGI. In the scene, James Bond falls into the pit and fights off a casino thug before escaping by jumping on to the back of a komodo dragon and leaping to safety. Meanwhile, a second komodo dragon rushes out from the shadows, grabs the thug by the leg and drags him away and presumably eats him.

To me, the scene, incorporating a bizarre death by exotic animal, captures the essence of the Bond films. Raja the komodo dragon takes his place alongside, among other animals, the piranhas of You Only Live Twice, the sharks of Thunderball, the alligators and crocodiles of Live and Let Die, and the scorpion of Diamonds Are Forever in the Bond villain's menagerie of dangerous animals. Indeed, director Sam Mendes had Bond step on to the komodo dragons in tribute to the scene in Live and Let Die in which Bond uses the backs of crocodiles as stepping stones.

But seeing the komodo dragon reminded me of the decision to replace the giant centipede that crawls up Bond's body in the novel of Dr No with a tarantula in the film version. Raymond Benson suggests in The James Bond Bedtime Companion that the producers felt that the threat posed by the centipede, not the most well-known of creatures, would have been lost on most audience members, whereas tarantulas are popularly perceived to be deadly (although one can imagine practical problems filming with a centipede). In reality, giant centipedes are about as dangerous as the most venomous species of tarantula; both are harmful to humans, but neither is (usually) deadly. As for the tarantula in Dr No, it appears to be the pink-toed tarantula, which is venomous enough to kill frogs, but not James Bond.

In the same vein as the centipede, I wonder whether the impact of the komodo dragon scene is reduced, and that the peril faced by Bond not fully appreciated, because of uncertainties about how dangerous komodo dragons actually are to humans. In fact, while cases of komodo dragons attacking, let alone killing, humans are rare, they are by no means unknown. In their native habitats on the islands of eastern Indonesia, komodo dragons hunt small and domestic animals, such as snakes, chickens, goats, cats and dogs, and occasionally larger animals, including water buffalo. And in areas of human settlement or activity, attacks on humans have inevitably been recorded. Recently, two workers at Komodo National Park were bitten by a komodo dragon that entered a park office. The men were immediately transferred to hospital; the saliva of Komodo dragons is toxic, and if bites are untreated, septicaemia can set in. Worse cases were recorded in 2007, when a boy of nine was mauled by a komodo dragon in Komodo National Park, and in 2009, when a farmer was mauled after falling from a tree. Tragically, both died later from their injuries.

So to answer the question posed in the post’s title, the komodo dragons in Skyfall do pose a threat to James Bond, and deserve as much respect as a dangerous animal as do sharks, piranhas and crocodiles.

Celebrities recall iconic scenes of Ursula Andress and Daniel Craig

When tennis champion Andy Murray returned to the beach after a swim in the sea in Florida recently, the UK's tabloid press was struck by a remarkable similarity. In that moment, Andy Murray was Daniel Craig's James Bond emerging from the sea in Casino Royale (2006). “Watch out Daniel Craig! Andy Murray has his very own James Bond moment as he emerges from sea after Miami Masters win,” read the Daily Mail headline. The Daily Express reported that Murray “jumped into the sea before emerging to show off his toned torso just like 007 star Daniel Craig.”

Even a cursory glance at the photograph of Andy Murray and the image of Daniel Craig in the sea in Casino Royale shows that the comparison is superficial to say the least. Murray's shorts weren't even close to Craig's La Perla trunks, and the only factors to support the comparison were that both Murray and Craig happened to be in the sea, they were walking towards the beach, and were well-toned. But while the comparison was tenuous, it was also inevitable, as Andy Murray follows a long line of celebrities who have been compared to James Bond simply after being photographed wading out of the sea.

In July 2010, when fashion designer Giorgio Armani was photographed in the sea wearing a pair of unflattering Emporio Armani Speedos, a headline in the Daily Mail read, “Giorgio Armani, 76, fails to pull off the Daniel Craig look in his tight white swimming trunks.” A year later, however, Armani had chosen a better pair of trunks, and this time the Daily Mail reported that he “looked fighting fit on the beach” on the island of Formentera, adding that Armani's reception the previous year, which the Mail reminded readers drew unfavourable comparisons with Daniel Craig, was perhaps what prompted the change of trunks.

Singer Rod Stewart was matched against Daniel Craig when he was seen on the beach of St Tropez in 2007. The Daily Mail's headline read, “Rod looks less 007 and more double oh no in his alarmingly tight trunks.” And in January that year, TV and radio presenter Jonathan Ross caught the eye of the Daily Mail when he was photographed on a Florida beach. Admittedly, his trunks were similar to those worn by Daniel Craig, though for the Mail the comparison was again not in his favour. “He cut a slightly less dashing figure than the muscular Craig as he played Frisbee at the water's edge”, opined journalist Kristina Pedesen.

Female celebrities enjoying a swim in the sea have not escaped the tabloid gaze either, and inevitably the media turn to another classic image from the Bond films for their principal reference point: that of Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder emerging from the sea onto the beach of Crab Key in Dr No (1962).

In March 2012, lawyer Nancy Dell'Olio was compared to Ursula Andress as she posed on a Jamaican beach for a Hello! magazine shoot. Despite the fact that Dell'Olio's bikini was frilly and purple, while that of Ursula Andress was white with belt and knife accessories, the Mail ran the headline, “Making waves: Nancy Dell’Olio, 50, strips down to a bikini to re-create THAT Dr No beach scene.” Later, in June 2012, Sally Bercow, the wife of House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, was snapped returning to the beach after a swim in Barbados. The Daily Mail reported that she “appeared to be doing her best to impersonate Bond girl Ursula Andress.”

The use of the comparison isn't confined to the Daily Mail. A September 2010 edition of the Daily Express reported on a fashion shoot on a Florida beach at which former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, modelled a white bikini. “Geri spices up the beach in a Bond girl bikini”, ran the headline. An earlier edition, published in April 2006, reported that Scarlet Johansson was holidaying at the Goldeneye resort. Prompted in part by the significance of the location, as well as the fact that Scarlet Johansson was photographed wearing a bikini, the Express commented that “she is more than a match for the legendary Ursula Andress.” A rather weaker link to the beach scene in Dr No was made in the Express in January 2002. Tennis star Anna Kournikova, playing in a tournament in Auckland, happened to be wearing belted shorts, but that was enough to prompt a comparison with Ursula Andress' iconic scene. The shorts were “designed in a style similar to Bond girl Ursula Andress’s famous bikini in the 1962 film, Dr No”, the paper reported.

In fact, it is not difficult to find celebrities being compared to Daniel Craig or Ursula Andress when trawling through any UK tabloid newspaper. For example, a quick search of The Sun website brought up articles in which comedian Jimmy Carr and actor Adam Sandler had been photographed on the beach and compared to Daniel Craig, and singers Sarah Harding and Ashlee Simpson had been compared to Ursula Andress.

Yes, it's lazy journalism (and it's debatable whether any of these features actually merit publication), but it nevertheless provides evidence that two iconic scenes in the Bond series have a life beyond the films and the context of James Bond and function successfully as memes in their own right. The scenes are memorable, they are frequently recalled and are persistent.

That said, it is notable that none of the newspaper stories pre-dates 2002. Obviously no one could be compared with Daniel Craig before 2006, but it seems that routine comparisons with Ursula Andress weren't made until after well after 2000. It is possible that a rise in such comparisons in the media reflects a change in the style of journalism over the years, but a resurgence in the popularity of the Bond series evident since Pierce Brosnan's tenure as Bond and during three significant anniversaries over the past 10 years (40 years of the Bond films, Ian Fleming's centenary, and 50 years of the Bond films) is likely to have been an important factor. Such renewed interest has led, for example, to endless polls of favourite Bond scenes or celebrity recreations of iconic scenes. The Bond films themselves have brought fresh attention to Ursula Andress' beach scene, specifically Halle Berry's nod to the scene in Die Another Day, and  Daniel Craig's own beach scene, which, while not necessarily written as a homage to Ursula Andress, naturally invited comparisons in the media. And any interest that Ursula Andress' scene gains reflects back on Daniel Craig's scene, which then attracts more attention, setting up something of a feedback mechanism.

With the beach scenes of Daniel Craig and Ursula Andress equally well established in cultural space, comparisons are irresistible to newspaper editors, who now have instant reference points every time a female or male celebrity is photographed staggering out of the sea after a swim.

Reception committee: Fleming and Bond arrive in Jamaica

In the novel Dr No, as James Bond flies into Kingston airport at the start of his investigation of Dr No's nefarious activities (Dr No, chapter 4), he runs into a photographer from the Daily Gleaner, who is eager to take Bond's picture. Bond is understandably keen to remain in the shadows and is worried about details of his visit reaching the paper. When Ian Fleming wrote this episode, which also appeared in the screen adaptation, he was writing from personal experience. Like Bond, he invariably gained the attention of the Press on his arrival in Jamaica, but, at least in the early days, he had his own reasons for wanting to keep his visits low key.

When celebrities came to Jamaica, the Daily Gleaner made sure that its readers knew about it. The paper even had a dedicated column, “Airport News”, to report the arrival and departure of notable visitors. Ian Fleming built Goldeneye, his Jamaican home, in 1946, and very soon afterwards the Gleaner, initially because of Fleming's association with the wealthy so-called 'resident-visitor' Ivor Bryce, had recognised Fleming as someone newsworthy. In February 1947, the Gleaner ran a story about wealthy visitors buying property in Montego Bay, and mentioned Fleming's recent purchase.

By 1947, Ian Fleming's relationship with Lady Ann Rothermere, the wife of newspaper proprietor Lord Rothermere, was some six years old. Ian and Ann were determined to keep their affair discreet, and on her first visit to Goldeneye in 1948, Ann had brought Loelia, Duchess of Westminster as a chaperone to help deflect suspicions and gossip.

Ann and Ian's flight into Kingston (Palidadoes) Airport on 12th January, however, had not passed unnoticed, and the following day, their arrival was reported in the Daily Gleaner. Fortunately for Ian and Ann, the piece, accompanied by a photograph of the couple, revealed nothing of their relationship, and appeared to suggest that Ian and Ann had to some extent made separate holiday plans. Readers learnt that Ann was to be in Jamaica for three weeks and was to stay with Ivor Bryce, as well as Ian Fleming, while Ian was planning to remain in the country for six weeks at Goldeneye.

When Fleming described James Bond's arrival into Jamaica in Dr No (1958), he was in essence recalling his own experience. The Gleaner's reporter who greets Bond at the airport asks Bond the same questions that the reporter must have asked Fleming: how long will you be in Jamaica ('in transit', Bond answers), and where will you staying ('Myrtle Bank')? There was also a flash of the camera and the prospect of Bond's picture appearing in print.

Ian Fleming drew from a wide range of sources and experiences when he wrote the James Bond books. Some of these experiences, such as his wartime role and post-war journalism, form an important part of Bond's character and adventures. But there are other, seemingly less significant events, including arriving in Jamaica, which also contribute and add fine detail to the stories.

More on Peter Anthony's screentests for Bond

Fifty years ago, the public was introduced to a man who was set to star as James Bond in Dr No. His name was Peter Anthony, a model who had appeared in the pages the lifestyle and fashion magazine for men, Man About Town, and worked with Terence Donovan, pioneer of the 'Blow-up' school of photography. Peter had won a competition to find an actor to play James Bond, which had been run by the Daily Express and was to be judged by Harry Saltzman, Cubby Broccoli, Ian Fleming, Ken Hughes, and Express journalist, Patricia Lewis.

You can read about the competition in an earlier post. Since posting the article, I was contacted by Andy, a relative of Peter, who told me that Peter had read the article and had been enthralled by it. Naturally, I was excited to hear this, and was keen to continue my correspondence and find out more about Peter's brush with the world of James Bond.

So last year, Andy and I exchanged emails; I asked some questions and Andy passed them on to Peter to answer. One of my questions was about Peter's audition for Dr No. I learnt that Peter received a letter from Eon Productions to arrange the screentest. He was also sent the two-page audition script, which was of the scene set in M's office where M orders Bond to discard the Beretta in favour of the Walther PPK.

Peter's dialogue was a little different to the version that appears in the final film. Bond enters M's office and is quizzed about his last assignment in which his beloved Beretta jammed. M tells Bond that the gun has to go, and Bond reluctantly agrees. There is no armourer and no mention of the Walther PPK.

One of the biggest surprises was learning that Peter had auditioned for the role of Bond a second time, in this case in 1970/1 for Diamonds Are Forever. With the Daily Express having no involvement, Eon Productions approached Peter and sent him once again two pages of the script. At the time, Peter was living in New York and was required to fly to Los Angeles for the screentest. Peter remembers that he performed his test in the morning and was later taken to meet Broccoli and Saltzman and, he thinks, Guy Hamilton.

Peter performed the scene in which Bond introduces himself as Peter Franks to Tiffany Case. The script Peter received again differed from the scene in the final film. There was extra dialogue in Peter's script. For example, Bond asks Tiffany whether he can smoke, and a few lines later is asked to guess what the 'T' in T Case shown on the doorbell stands for. The scene is also conflated with the later scene in which the real Peter Franks arrives at Tiffany's apartment. Franks knocks on the door of the apartment and is then knocked out cold by Bond. The vicious fight in the lift is absent.

Whether the scripts for both films were especially adapted for the screentests, or that they were subsequently rewritten, is uncertain, but both give us insights into the nature of screentests in the early days of the Bond films.

Peter's auditions for the role of James Bond provide a fascinating footnote in the history of the Bond films. Though Peter never won the role, he had clearly impressed Broccoli and Saltzman, and not many actors can say that they lost out to Sean Connery twice. Peter really could have been Bond.

I am immensely grateful to Peter Anthony and Andy for responding to my questions, providing such wonderful information, and generally helping me with my research.

Seashells and other tips for surviving the economic storm, by Ian Fleming

In 1948, Ian Fleming had not long established himself in Jamaica – he moved into his winter retreat, Goldeneye, in December 1946 – but even by that time was concerned with issues that affected the country. An edition of Jamaica's foremost newspaper, the Daily Gleaner, published in March 1948, carried an article by Ian Fleming. In it, he gave suggestions for the 'island's development' in the face of economic uncertainty. Reading the article now, we also detect the germ of an idea that would resurface nine years later in his novel, Dr No.

As now, the world in 1948 was experiencing an economic crisis. The Second World War had cost nations dearly. European states were heavily in debt, unemployment was high, and industry was still reeling from the war effort and the destruction of infrastructure. Recovery followed the implementation of the United States' Marshall Plan in 1947, but it was slow, and in 1948, the world's economy remained turbulent.

Ian Fleming recognised that Jamaica had not escaped these difficulties, and so he offered some advice on the what steps the inhabitants of Jamaica could take to lessen the impact of the 'economic hurricane' that was approaching. Supporting a plea from the Gleaner for Jamaica to make more use of its natural resources, Fleming suggested that for every tree cut down, two more should be planted, thus allowing the country to develop a sustainable resource. More wood could be used for shoes. The people in Europe, he said, had largely rejected shoes made with leather soles, preferring instead shoes with wooden soles and heels. This presented a basis for a thriving industry. Such shoes could readily be made in Jamaica and sold to visitors.

More use, Fleming wrote, could be made of the island's fish and shell fish. French restaurants would pay handsomely for the fat mussels normally used as bait by fishermen. A list should be prepared of all the edible sea food available in Jamaican waters, accompanied by advice on how to cook it. And a greater range of fish could be salted and preserved; Jamaicans need not rely solely on salted cod to get them through times of reduced fresh fish supply.

Fleming also urged people to look after their livestock more carefully, for instance by keeping them off the road. Animals are an important economic asset and should be protected. Fleming thought that native plants, another asset, were unreasonably regarded by the local population as weeds. Money could be made by selling the cuttings and seeds of those plants.

Finally, Ian Fleming suggested that the inhabitants of fishing villages collect the seashells brought in over the year and sell them at wayside stalls. The shells make excellent garden and household ornaments and souvenirs for tourists.

If this idea seems familiar, then it is because Fleming appears to have returned to it in his 1957 novel, Dr No. Honeychile Rider memorably emerges from the sea onto the beach of Dr No's island and meets James Bond. She clutches some seashells and tells Bond that she is collecting them for a dealer in Miami. Fleming wrote the novel in 1956, but clearly it was not the first time that he had thought about the economic value of seashells. The idea originated nine years earlier and was expressed again through a character that would become so iconic in the James Bond phenomenon, thanks in no small part to Ursula Andress's portrayal in the 1962 film.

How did the Gleaner cover Dr No?

The arrival of the James Bond team in a region is big news. It generates a lot of publicity, draws in the crowds, and, as we've already seen with the filming of Skyfall, brings economic benefits. This was true back in 1962 with the filming of the first Bond film, Dr No, as it is now. The Daily Gleaner, Jamaica's renowned newspaper, was well placed to record the reaction in Jamaica to the arrival of Eon Productions and the stars of Dr No, Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. Let's look at some of the coverage.

January 16, 1962
The Dr No team arrived in Jamaica on Sunday 14th January. Albert Broccoli was reported as saying that the crew would be in Jamaica for about five or six weeks, and that they'd be filming all over the island. What's more, the film would be a top feature. Sean Connery had already been in the island for about a week. He admitted that 'perhaps I have a little of James Bond in me'. Director Terence Young was to view local artists at the Copacabana Club the Wednesday evening (17th) for the cabaret scenes.

January 17, 1962
The Gleaner reported that cameras started rolling the day before (Tuesday 16 January). The first scenes to be shot were at the Palisadoes airport. It also stated that a number of roles had gone to Jamaicans, among them Miss Jamaica 1961, Marguerite LeWars, who played the photographer in the pay of Dr No.

January 31, 1962
Ursula Andress arrived in Jamaica on January 29. The piece reported that she was to play Honey, and was staying at the Courtleigh Manor Hotel in Kingston. The film crew was about to move to the north coast for filming.

February 7, 1962
The film crew arrived on the 6th January at St Ann's Bay in Ocho Rios on the north coast. It noted that Ian Fleming had a home in Jamaica.

February 8, 1962
The Gleaner published a report on the attempts by locals of the Ocho Rios area to obtain jobs on Dr No. Eon Productions was seeking about 100 people. The report doesn't state whether the work was for extras or production staff. The report notes that there was a sense of a local grievance; councillor Sydney James considered it unfair that most jobs had gone to Kingstonians.

February 27, 1962
A writ on behalf of musicians Carlos Malcolm and Ernest Ranglin was served by their representative, Hugh Levy Jr, on Eon Productions. Levy claimed that Malcolm had been engaged to compose music for the film and supervise the recordings, while Ranglin was employed to look after the arrangements. Levy was seeking to recover £1,064.

September 1963
The film was premièred in Jamaica at the Regal and Carib cinemas. Proceeds from the evening went to the Jamaican Youth Club's Council. The Gleaner's report also discussed Jamaica's importance as a destination for film-makers.

November 1, 1964
The Sunday Gleaner revealed that some cinemas in Kingston were still showing Dr No, and cinema goers were looking forward to Goldfinger. The report focused on the emergence of Bond spoofs and imitations.

James Bond memes escape

A few years ago, I was watching an old British comedy film starring Charlie Drake, a comedian and singer popular especially in the 1950s and ’60s. The film was called The Cracksman, and featured Drake as a locksmith tricked by a burglar into robbing a bank. In one scene, Drake’s character crawls through a ventilation shaft. I can’t remember the exact line, but he says something like, ‘Now I know how James Bond feels’, referring to the scene in Dr No (1962) in which Bond, imprisoned by Dr No, escapes through a shaft. Released in 1963, The Cracksman shows that it didn’t take long for aspects from the Bond film to seep into wider popular culture.

The ventilation shaft scene in Dr No has faded as an individual meme readily manifested in non-Bond films, televisions shows, books and so on, but as the Bond series progressed, others have emerged and become very successful in that they are replicated often and reasonably accurately, and have survived well over the decades.

A good example is the Q meme. This is expressed as a science boffin or inventor who distributes gadgets and weapons to the hero. A variant has a computer geek instead of an absent-minded professor type. The meme, which was best-defined in Goldfinger (1964) in the scene where Q (Desmond Llewelyn) explains the gadget-filled Aston Martin to Bond, has found its way into many action films, helped by repetition of the idea in subsequent Bond films and by the fact that it’s a convenient device for film makers to incorporate useful objects into their plots. Batman Begins (2005), in which Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox arms Bruce Wayne with weapons, is a recent example (and an interesting case of one superhero genre borrowing the conventions of another).

The James-Bond-uniform meme is just as successful. Any action hero (or indeed any leading male character) in a dinner suit brings to mind James Bond, and this is acknowledged by film makers. Executive Decision (1996), to give an example, starred Kurt Russell as a desk-bound government intelligence officer. He is called in the middle of a black-tie function to join a commando team on a passenger plane to defuse a bomb. When, still wearing his dinner suit, he is introduced to the team, a member of the team asks, ‘Who’s this, 007?’. The dinner suit is so strongly associated with James Bond that Clive Owen was touted in the press as a possible James Bond after appearing in Croupier (1998) wearing a dinner suit throughout.

Another successful meme is the shaken-not-stirred meme, repeated in the Bond series each time Bond orders a Martini. Its spread into wider popular culture has also been helped by its being applicable beyond Bond and spy-film culture, enabling it to enter the general lexicon as a phrase in its own right.

There are others, such as the use of ‘for your eyes only’ as saying, and the placement of a short action sequence (as if concluding an earlier adventure) before the main titles in a film. These have emerged or have been developed in the Bond series, but have become successful with wider repetition and adaptation by others.