Posted on 08/12/2014 8:22:58 AM PDT by Borges
He’s best remembered as the creator of James Bond, but before he became a successful author, Ian Fleming was a man of many parts. Something of a playboy in his younger years, he was a traveller and a linguist before he worked as a journalist and a stockbroker in the 1930s.
At the outbreak of war, Ian Lancaster Fleming was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Intelligence Division, and worked at the Admiralty directly under the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral John Godfrey.
It was a role he found he had remarkable aptitude for, and he was to play a pivotal role in the British and Allied special intelligence efforts throughout hostilities, contributing to the work of the Political Warfare Executive, Joint Intelligence Committee, the Special Operations Executive and the US Secret Intelligence Service.
Many of his experiences would find their way into the books he began writing in the early 1950s, which featured the creation that would make him famous - James Bond.
The hard-nosed, laconic MI6 agent was a hit in both literary and cinematic terms, and Fleming’s novels and short stories have arguably shaped British culture, not to mention the spy fiction genre.
Beyond the creation of 007 himself, here are just a few of the reasons why Ian Fleming rightly remains celebrated some 50 years after his death.
Whether 007’s famous introductory line was written by Fleming or not, he is clearly responsible for it.
In 2001 it was voted as the "best-loved one-liner in cinema" by British cinemagoers, and is regarded as one of the top 25 greatest movie quotes of all time by the American Film Institute.
Of course, much of its fame derives from the insouciant drawl with which it is first delivered by Bond in his screen debut Dr. No - which leads us onto…
It’s true that ‘Big Tam’ was already a well-established film and TV actor before landing the role of 007, but the majority of his pre-Bond roles were dopes, muscle or (in the case of Darby O’Gill and the Little People) singing Irishmen.
Bond made Connery – without Fleming’s creation, it seems unlikely that he could have had the relatively serious career he went on to. Would he, for example, have ever been given the lead in Sidney Lumet’s magnificent The Hill without his Bond stardom?
The CIA
Depending upon one’s outlook, it’s debatable whether Fleming should be ‘thanked’ for his role in the creation of co-ordinated American intelligence gathering, but he certainly played an instrumental part in it.
Early in World War Two, while in the role of Personal Assistant to the British Director of Naval Intelligence, Fleming wrote a blueprint for the construction of the US Office of the Coordinator of Information, the department which eventually became the CIA.
Honey Rider
Ursula Andress, appearing out of the sea, in that bikini, in Dr. No is a moment that is practically a rite of passage for teenage boys everywhere.
Fleming had written Ryder as being naked save for a belt that held her knife – but this was 1962, so some propriety had to remain.
A major part of the success of that first Bond film, Andress’ appearance shot her to stardom and the bikini she wore in the film was sold at auction in 2001 for a remarkable £41,125.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The first of many 007 clones that would appear on big and small screens after the success of the Bond films, the popular US TV show was in part created by Fleming, who was approached for advice by its producer Norman Felton.
The author came up with the name and character of Napoleon Solo, and proposed his sidekick should be a female spy called April Dancer – a character that later got her own short-lived spinoff show, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.
Entertaining character names
Fleming had a distaste for fictional heroes with flamboyant names – he chose James Bond as being “brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon” – but it didn’t stop him giving lesser characters in his novels some pretty ostentatious nomenclature.
Step forward uber-villains Auric Goldfinger, Francisco Scaramanga and Serrafino Spang; female characters are often even more gaudily named, such as the aforementioned Honeychile Rider, Kissy Suzuki, and of course the incomparable Pussy Galore.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
While convalescing from his second heart attack, Fleming decided to turn the bedtime stories he told his young son Caspar into a children’s novel.
The magical car at the centre of the stories, based on the ones driven by 1920s playboy racer Count Louis Zborowski, was named for the noise made by its engine.
Fleming died before the book was published, but the film upon which it was based has become a Bank Holiday staple and a family favourite.
Modern-day spy characters
Prior to the 1950s, lead characters in spy fiction tended to be square-chinned heroes like Dick Barton and Richard Hannay, devoted to fair play and true-blue British values.
Fleming deliberately wrote Bond as a darker, often cruel character with vices and foibles.
While other writers such as Eric Ambler and Desmond Cory had begun writing more realistic, bleaker secret agent stories, it was the success of Bond that opened the door for future teak-tough but emotionally flawed operatives such as Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and 24’s Jack Bauer ... both proud bearers of their forefather's initials.
I heard the name came from an ornithologist and that it was a tongue in cheek reference to the agent being an expert with “birds”.
“Thrilling Cities”
Big Bond fan. Best book You only live twice. Wish they had not screwed up the plot. Would have made a great Connery movie.
Even tho he used a lot of sexual innuendos, Fleming never used four letter words.
I saw an interview of him many years ago. It was a grainy black and white film. The interview was pretty long and when the guy asked him why he never used four letter words, he at first said it was his Scottish parents but after thinking about it, he said he just didn’t like to see curse words in print.
The Bond films rarely used more than the titles of his stories.
The first four films (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball) are all reasonably close to the novels, except for substituting SPECTRE for SMERSH. The series became more comic book after that.
Dr. No went almost word for word in places but the more they made the farther they got from the book plots. Goldfinger went pretty much by the book tho in the book Goldfinger really was going to steal the gold instead of make it radio active.
After Thunderball they pretty much abandoned the stories as written.
The novels also weren’t very comic from what I’ve heard. The jokey tone of the films came not from Fleming but from ‘North by Northwest’. Cary Grant was offered the role of Bond as Hitchcock was offered the direction of Dr No. Both declined.
bump
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The novels are still a good read, even though they’re dated. The man could write a hell of a yarn.
Highly recommended.
BTW the first Bond story was produced on US TV. It was Casino Royale and starred Barry Nelson.
Truth be told it's been all downhill after Ursula Undressed
I have it. Not really a movie, it was a tv show and it was bad. They called him Jimmy.
Nice inside joke with the painting in Dr NO s lair.
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