I started reading and becoming a Bond fan, in the early 1960’s, by picking up a novel from the turnstile in the local drugstore.
So, a happy 50 years of watching and reading Bond novels!
It is true that the ‘original flavor and slant’ was kept most to the novels, in the movie “From Russia With Love”. The actor that played the SPECTRE-trained assassin, and the Russian Colonel Klebb, oozed with villainy usually noted from ‘that shadow world’. A joke thread can be made, in the movie, when the assassin starts to don his gloves. “Time for no more Mr. Nice Guy is here!” If you follow most TV ‘whodunits’ since then, you can remember the visual signal of the ‘donning of the gloves’ by the show’s evil-doer. Maybe a silent salute to this movie? (if you HAVE read the novel F.R.W.L., this guy was bad news from a way-back-when, before SPECTRE got hold of him!)
Always remember .... never order red wine with fish!
I remember those days when the only place in our town
to buy books was the drug store racks with the paperbacks
from .35 to .75,got started on Nick Carter then Ian Flemming
then on to every S/F book they got in
From Russia with Love is still my favorite
That was Robert shaw. He also played the boat captain in jaws.