The Violent World of James Bond
Ken Ferguson Talks to the Man Who Created the World’s Most Famous Secret Agent (Photoplay, November 1962)
Three Blind men shuffle along a hot sunny pavement rattling money boxes. From an adjacent club, a smartly-dressed man walks towards his parked car. As he opens the door death strikes swiftly from the silencers of the three blind men—and his body falls, riddled with bullets.
And for secret agent James Bond, number 007, another dangerous assignment has begun.
This is the opening scene of Dr. No, the first film in a series based on the exploits of Ian Fleming’s spry hero—James Bond. Bond himself is the conventional tall, dark and handsome hero, a man of sophistication with a passion for adventure and beautiful women.
The success of Fleming’s stories, all intelligently written, full of detail and highly intriguing plots, lies in the fact that they are laden with the two greatest selling commodities in fiction—sex and violence.
Bond lives and revels in a violent world filled with bizarre characters and outrageously seductive women.
The aim of every writer is to get the reader to hurry on to the next page. Fleming does this brilliantly.
I went to meet Fleming at his London office. dominated by a large desk and with paintings of beautiful women adorning the walls. The women were all reproductions of the front covers of Fleming’s books.
Fleming himself is a tall, strikingly handsome man in his fifties. His greying hair adds to his distinguished looks.
He sat behind the large desk, smoking a special brand of cigarette, and occasionally glancing at the weather outside, wishing no doubt he was back in Jamaica, where he writes most of his books.
“I spend a few months every year out there,” he said. “It’s much easier to concentrate. The sun shines more often too.”
It was in Jamaica that James Bond was born in the vivid imagination of Ian Fleming.
“In 1946,” said Fleming, “I built a house on the north shore, and arranged my life so that I could spend at least two months of the winter there. For the first six years 1 found plenty to do—underwater swimming, for instance, which I adore, getting to know the island and its people. Well, I’d just about explored my little reef and apart from this I was about to get married, which quite frankly scared the life out of me. I had created for myself a vacuum which needed to be filled by plunging myself into creative work.
“I needed something to relieve the tensions set up by my forthcoming marriage. So one day I decided to sit down and write a book.”
Combining his own thrilling adventures during his days with the Naval Intelligence Division with his own vivid and colourful imagination, Fleming gave birth to James Bond in the pages of Casino Royale.
In this adventure, set in a small French resort, Bond came face to face with his first master-crook, Le Chiffre, at the gambling tables. Le Chiffre was a notorious gambler and a member of the secret society known as SMERSH.
Bond’s plan was to beat him heavily at the tables so as to reduce his funds.
“The idea for the story was based on an actual incident that happened to me,” said Fleming.
“I was flying to Washington in 1941 with my chief for secret talks there just before America entered the war. Our plane stopped for an overnight stay in Lisbon. We were told that the place was full of German secret agents, and that the chief and his two assistants gambled heavily at one of the casinos out of town. I decided to gamble my £50 against them hoping to win heavily and reduce their funds. Unfortunately I lost the £50 and suffered a most humiliating experience.”
We then talked about the series of films that are being planned and adapted from his books—the already made Dr. No, which will be followed by From Russia With Love, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, Live And Let Die, Moonraker, and possibly, if it can be adapted for the screen, The Spy That Loved Me.
“You know,” said Fleming, “I have always wanted the Bond stories to be made into films. But I didn’t have much faith in film producers. Then I received an extremely attractive offer from Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli. I’d seen Saltzman’s Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and Broccoli’s The Trials of Oscar Wilde and was very impressed. We discussed the project and I found them to be very intelligent chaps. I put my faith in them.”
“And have you seen their translation of Dr. No?” I asked.
“Yes, I have. And I enjoyed it immensely. This chap, Sean Connery, is damn good. When I first met him I thought he was a bit on the large side and rugged. But he looks and moves very well indeed which, of course, is important. Intelligent sort of chap too. I think he makes a very good James Bond.”
James Bond proved to be the casting plum of the year and, as one might have imagined, a number of top stars were fighting for the part.
“Names like Cary Grant, James Mason and David Niven were mentioned,” said Fleming, “but after long chats with the producers we decided to go for a fresh face. Mr. Connery is certainly not new, but his face isn’t as identified as those of Grant, Mason, Niven, and so on. It was a gamble but I think it has paid off extremely well. The parts have been wonderfully cast, beautiful women, interesting villains.”
I took Fleming up on the amount of sadism he packs into his stories.
“Bond is subjected to the most horrible tortures,” I said.
“Yes, he is,” Fleming said. “But then Bulldog Drummond had to go through the mill before he got his man. Only in Drummond’s day, to be hit over the head with a cricket stump was extremely violent, and no doubt uncomfortable for poor Mr. Drummond. But today it’s rather laughable, isn’t it? Our methods of causing physical pain today are very different.”
No doubt if Bond were struck over the head with a cricket stump, his only physical discomfort would be a slight headache.
“My big problem now is thinking up original plots,” continued Fleming. “I always like to take my readers to exciting places and I like them to meet exciting people involved in an intriguing plot. I have never written about a place I haven’t myself visited. I like to absorb the atmosphere before I begin to write.”
Fleming tells me that it takes him about eight weeks to actually write a novel, but it takes a year to prepare, research, write and finally check the page proofs.
“I check those proofs over and over again,” smiled Fleming. “I’ve been embarrassed occasionally by my readers who’ve taken the trouble to write in and tell me that I have made a mistake.”
“I notice in your books you write in great detail. How do you get most of your information?” I asked.
“Well, what I don’t know myself other people usually do. I have a few friends who give me tremendous help when I’m stuck. Of course, the danger lies in over-doing it. One can easily bore the reader, so I don’t try to force it too much. Sometimes I do go on a bit. For instance, in Goldfinger I devoted three entire chapters to a game of golf. I expected to be inundated with letters from readers not interested in the game, but there were no complaints.”
Fleming has no intention of retiring James Bond. His latest novel, to be published next year, is the longest one yet.
“It gives me enormous pleasure writing a Bond story,” smiled Fleming, “and it is also an extremely profitable way of passing the time.”
Now that Bond has finally come to the screen, the tan dark handsome hero should acquire countless other fans who will, I’m sure, warm to his exciting adventures.
And, Mr. Fleming hopes, rush out and buy the other books.
Notes: As you might have guessed, I ran out of print interviews with Fleming three weeks ago. But during the course of this thread I learned of two more magazine interviews, in the UK version of Photoplay and in Modern Woman (Dec. 1963). Thanks to a very kind fellow researcher and collector I have obtained a copy of the first interview and present it below. If anyone can help with Modern Woman, let me know!
Fleming’s oft-told anecdote about gambling against Nazis, which inspired Casino Royale, was in fact heavily embellished. As Andrew Lycett wrote:
Regarding the rest of the interview, two points stand out.
First, the projected order of the Bond films: DN, FRWL, DAF, GF, LALD, MR, and maybe TSWLM!
If this was accurate and had been followed through, film history would have been much different! DAF would have been the third Bond movie for a start. But the publication of OHMSS and YOLT, plus the deal struck with McClory for TB, obviously changed things, since the producers would have been more interested in adapting the newer books. Mention of TSWLM also casts some doubt on Fleming supposedly banning any adaptation that wasn’t title-only.
Secondly, this interview reinforces what many other past interviews have—that Fleming was actually quite pleased with Sean Connery as Bond. Even Fleming’s wife and mistress affirmed this, which leads me to believe that the Fleming’s supposed unease with Connery was a fabrication from the filmmakers (quite likely from Terence Young, who enjoyed gossip and s**tstirring and was known for stretching the truth).