Bond, James Bond

[Barry]

I had read all the James Bond novels, except for the last, The Man with the Golden Gun, which had not been published yet, before I had seen my first Bond Movie, Goldfinger. Dr. No and From Russia with Love were NOT popular movies when first released in the U.S. and I saw them the next year when they were re-released.
 
In 1954 Ian Fleming sold the rights to “Casino Royale” to CBS and Barry Nelson was the first on screen James Bond in a one hour TV show. By anyone’s standards this was a bad idea for a TV, whose censorship would not allow the real novel to be brought to the screen at that time.
 
Sean Connery is almost everyone’s favorite bond. Terrance Young and Connery changed the character to be suitable for movie audiences. 
Bond is an assassin, his mission was often to kill people, sometimes in “cold blood.” The movies made Bond a secret agent who killed only when his life was threatened.
 
Bond was a snob and very fussy. The movies made Bond “sophisticated” with specialized tastes.
 
Bond was racist.  He disliked anyone who was not from his section of Great Britain. Bond had no sense of humor. He lived on a “civil servants” salary, which he discloses in Moonraker. He would get a tax-free bonus a the end of the year if he killed enough people.  He could not have afforded the extravagant live style of the movie Bond. One reason double Os like going on missions is that they would get unlimited expenses. So they can stay a the best hotels and go to the best restaurants.
 
While Connery is the best movie Bond, Daniel Craig, with talent and rare coincidences, to me, is the closet to the book Bond. Coincidence? Well there were two major lawsuits about Bond that began in eh 1950s and ended during Craigs Tenure.
First, is that EON productions did not have the rights to Casino Royale.  CBS sold it to Colgems and they sold it to Sony. Finally, EON got it and did their first Craig movie.
Second is a bit mor complicated. Kevin McClory, in 1959, wrote the screenplay, with Fleming to “Thunderball.” He owned the rights to that script and was the producer on the movie. He then used that script to make “Never Say Never Again.” He was to claim that he also owned the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE which was why they had not been used in a Bond movie since 1972. A few years ago he died and EON bought the rights from his estate and they were used in the last movie and may conclude in this one.
 
Roger Moore, wrote in  his books that he saw Bond as a comic book super-hero and portrayed that way.  I didn’t like them very much. The only one I did really like was “For Your Eyes Only” where he played it straight. He said he hated that movie.
 
Timothy Dalton was closest to the book Bond at the time and I thought he did well. But his pictures didn’t, probably because of a failing studio hat did not promote these movies.
 
George Lazenby was a new, ego centric actor, who hurt the series. Given time, he might have developed into something good, but he gave up on himself.  He was okay but I liked the movie.  I won’t get into David Niven…he didn’t play Bond but a parody of the character in Casino Royale.


 
Great
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
ON Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Skyfall
 
 
Very Good
Thunderball
Casino Royale (Craig)
For Your Eyes Only
Goldeneye
License to Kill
 
 
 
Good
SPECTRE
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough
The Living Daylights
You Only Live Twice
 
Okay
Spy Who Loved Me
Die Another Day
Diamonds are Forever
Never Say Never Again
 
 
Bad
Live and Let Die
Man With the Golden Gun
Moonraker
Octopussy
A View to A kill
Quantum of Solace
Casino Royale (CBS)
Casino Royale (Colgems)
 

[TRainH2O]

Barry, as always, you are a literal, living database of all things movie/books/graphic novels.

Although I have never read any of Mr. Fleming's 007 novels, Sean Connery would have been my favorite Bond until Daniel Craig strapped on a Walther PPK. 

His persona on screen combined with the modern editing and story-telling really sell Craig, in my opinion.

[AVSCraig]

Barry, as always, you are a literal, living database of all things movie/books/graphic novels.

Although I have never read any of Mr. Fleming's 007 novels, Sean Connery would have been my favorite Bond until Daniel Craig strapped on a Walther PPK.

His persona on screen combined with the modern editing and story-telling really sell Craig, in my opinion.

I like all the Daniel Craig Bond movies - even Quantum of Solace!

[TRainH2O]

I like all the Daniel Craig Bond movies - even Quantum of Solace!

I agree 1000%.

I've said it before and I'll say it again............Craig IS Bond, Bale IS Batman. 

[tripplej]

Thanks Barry for your great insight. I can't wait to see the latest bond movie..

[AVSCraig]

I agree 1000%.

I've said it before and I'll say it again............Craig IS Bond, Bale IS Batman.

Damn straight - about time to watch the 4 Craig Bond movies again and the Nolan Batman trilogy - all in 4K ! 

[bmoney]

Love all things bond

[Barry]

 I thought you’d like to know that there is a connection between the movies of Spider-Man and James Bond.
 
Sony pictures bought the rights to the Colgems production of Casino Royale. They then licensed material from Kevin McClory who own the rights to the thunder ball script. They wanted to make their own movies but they lost a court battle.
 
MGM, which now was the producer of the James Bond movies wanted to have all the rights back to Casino Royale so that they could make a movie of it.   MGM had the domestic rights to the property of Spider-Man and Sony apparently had the foreign rights to it and therefore could not make a movie.
 
So MGM traded Spider-Man for Casino Royale. This proved to be a great success for both movie companies.

[bmoney]

trading pieces of IP is very intriguing.  thanks for that insight