You Only Live Twice, by Ian Fleming

(pb; 1964: twelfth book in the original 007/James Bond series)

Review:

Caveat: spoilers in this review.

It's been nine months since Ernesto Stavro Blofeld and Fraulein Irma Bunt gunned down Tracy di Vincenzo, Bond's bride of a few hours, on their honeymoon. Bond is an emotional and professional wreck.

M., concerned about one of his best agents, figures 007 needs a real challenge to kick him out of his doldrums. So M. sends Bond to Japan to get additional intel on the Russian drug trade from Tiger Tanaka, the samurai-hearted head of the Japanese Secret Service.

Tanaka agrees to give Bond unofficial access to the Russian files (dubbed "MAGIC 44"), if Bond will do him a big favor -- also off the record.

The favor: kill Doctor Guntram Shatterhand, a Swiss multimillionaire and amateur botanist, whose remote island castle in Kyushu houses a "garden of death," where five hundred or more Japanese people have gone to commit culturally-approved suicide. This garden is full of rare poisonous plants and animals; one wrong move there means instantaneous, painful expiration.

Tanaka considers Shatterhand, as well as Shatterhand's wife, the ugly Emmy, a mass murderer. And he sees no end to these "honorable" killings, so the only way to stop them is by killing the Shatterhands. Since Tanaka would face repercussions for such actions, it falls to Bond to do the deeds.

Bond accepts the secret assignment: the intel is too important. Also, more importantly, Bond is startled when he recognizes the Shatterhands from their photos -- they're Ernesto Stavro Blofeld and Fraulein Irma Bunt, who killed Tracy at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Helped by Kissy Suzuki, a one-time Hollywood film star and Ama awabi shell diver, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's private garden. Once inside the garden, Bond confronts Blofeld and Bunt, once and for all...

Structurally, You Only Live Twice is a template replica of Doctor No, but Twice's location -- Japan, with its distinctive social mores -- renders that (possible) complaint moot. Not only that, but Bond's attitude is different; he's resumed his womanizing ways, but he's less cool in how he handles his women: his dead bride has humanized him a bit more.

You Only Live Twice is not as radical, tone-wise, as On Her Majesty's is, nor is the cliffhanger ending as shocking, but it is a stand-out entry in a consistently-pleasing series.

Followed by The Man with the Golden Gun.

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You Only Live Twice was released stateside as a film on June 13,1967.

Sean Connery played Bond. Mie Hama played Kissy Suzuki. Tetsuro Tamba played Tiger Tanaka. Donald Pleasence played Ernesto Stavro Blofeld. Charles Gray (who later played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever) played Dikko Henderson.

Bernard Lee played M.. Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny. Desmond Llewelyn played Q (whose character is not in the novel). Burt Kwouk played "SPECTRE #3".

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay.

Lewis Gilbert (who also lensed The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) directed.

(Side-note: Fleming gives a shout-out to David Niven, who would later play one of the James Bonds in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, when Kissy Suzuki, talking about her Hollywood experiences, tells Bond: "They were all disgusting to me in Hollywood... Nobody treated me honourably except for [David] Niven.")

Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming

(pb; 1959: seventh book in the original 007/James Bond series) 

 Review

 Bond battles Auric Goldfinger, a wealthy gold bullion collector and SMERSH agent. Bond first encounters Goldfinger when he busts the polite but petty millionaire as a card cheat, fleecing millions from Junius Du Pont (a Bond acquaintance from Casino Royale). Not long after that – coincidentally – Bond finds himself investigating Goldfinger again, this time because Goldfinger's bullion fever (illicitly indulged in) threatens to break the Bank of England while funding the Russian Secret Service known as SMERSH. 

Goldfinger is Bond by the numbers. It's still hard to put down, because Fleming's lean, action-minded prose keeps the humor-spiced plot percolating at a decent pace. However, Goldfinger is a bland bad guy, when compared to past Bond villains, and Pussy Galore – a lesbian flirtatious cat burglar – is an unlikely romantic match for Bond, given her sexual predilections. Not only that, but there's not much build-up between Bond and Galore, who doesn't appear until midway through the novel. In his dealings with Galore, Bond is not the gentleman/take-things-slowly Bond of the previous six books─this is Bond's cinematic/slutty version.

These nits aside, there are other saving graces in Goldfinger, other than Fleming's able writing. One of the graces is Oddjob, Goldfinger's razor-edged bowler-throwing Korean assassin-handy man, who's quite a character, despite his ape-like speech: the scenes where Bond baits the stoical Oddjob are priceless. There's also Fleming's constant referencing of past Bond adventures – most, if not all, of the books are well represented here. Felix Leiter, the CIA-agent-turned-Pinkerton who appeared in Casino Royale, Live And Let Die, and Diamonds Are Forever, is also back. 

While Goldfinger is not one of the better Bond novels, it's still a fun read. Followed by For Your Eyes Only. 

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 The film version of Goldfinger was released stateside on January 9, 1965. Guy Hamilton directed, from a script by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn.

Sean Connery played Bond. Honor Blackman played Pussy Galore. Gert Fröbe played Goldfinger. Harold Sakata, billed as Harold Sakata {Tosh Togo}, played Oddjob. Cec Linder played Felix Leiter.  

Bernard Lee played 'M.' Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny. Desmond Llwellyn played 'Q.'

Burt Kwouk played Mr. Ling. Bill Nagy played Midnight. Martin Benson played Solo.

Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming

(pb; 1953: first book in the original 007/James Bond series)


Review:

The first James Bond novel finds British Secret Service agent James Bond matching wits with Le Chiffre, a SMERSH* financial associate/agent in Royale-les-Eaux. Bond’s mission is to break Le Chiffre, who’s in financial – and possibly fatal – trouble. Bond has helpers: Felix Leiter, a CIA agent (later a recurring character in the series); Mathis (a French agent); and Vesper Lynd, a fellow Secret Service agent.

However, things go awry when Lynd gets kidnapped by Le Chiffre -- and that's just the start of Bond and his fellow agents' problems.

The tone of this novel is abrasive, occasionally violent and taciturn, much like Bond himself. This is not the suave Bond seen in the films: he’s a lady killer, but his view of women (particularly fellow agents) is much darker and misogynistic.

Since Casino is the first novel of a series, there is a lot of set-up. The action sequences are sparse, but when they happen -- later in the book -- it is especially nasty. The ending, especially the last line, is a brutal and effective set-up for the Bond novels that follow.

Casino is an initially awkward, but ultimately raw and worthwhile read.

(*SMERSH is Fleming’s fictional Russian equivalent of the British Secret Service. The acronym SMERSH is “a conjunction of two Russian words: ‘Smyert Shpionam,’ meaning roughly: ‘Death to Spies.’”).

Followed by Live And Let Die.

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The first version of Casino Royale was filmed for television – a disappointing effort, from what I’ve read.

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The comedic second version, "suggested" by the source novel, was released stateside in movie theaters on April 28, 1967.

David Niven played Sir James Bond. Charles Boyer played Le Grand. William Holden played Ransome. Kurt Kasznar played Smernov. John Huston played "McTarry aka M". Deborah Kerr played "Agent Mimi aka Lady Fiona". (John Huston also directed the "scenes at James Bond's house" and the "castle at Scotland scenes.")

Woody Allen played "Jimmy Bond - Dr. Noah". Barbara Bouchet played Moneypenny. Terence Cooper played "Cooper, James Bond - 007". Daliah Lavi played "The Detainer - 007".

Peter Sellers played "Evelyn Tremble, James Bond - 007". Ursula Andress played "Vesper Lynd - 007". Jacqueline Bisset played Miss Goodthighs. Orson Welles played Le Chiffre.

Joanna Pettet played Mata Bond. George Raft played himself. Jean-Paul Belmondo played "French Legionnaire". Geoffrey Bayldon played Q.

An uncredited Peter O'Toole played Piper. An uncredited Burt Kwouk played "Chinese General". An uncredited Caroline Munro played "Guard Girl". An uncredited David Prowse played Frankenstein's Creature.

Val Guest directed "scenes with Woody Allen and additional scenes with David Niven." Ken Hughes directed the "Berlin scenes." Joseph McGrath directed "scenes with Peter Sellers, Orson Welles and Ursula Andress." Robert Parrish directed "scenes with Peter Sellers and Orson Welles." An uncredited Richard Talmadge directed the "Casino Royale finale."

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A third version is scheduled for stateside release on November 17, 2006.

Daniel Craig played James Bond. Judi Dench reprised her role of M. Eva Green played Vesper Lynd. Mads Mikkelsen played Le Chiffre. Jeffrey Wright played Felix Leiter. Giancarlo Giannini played René Mathis. Vlastina Svátková played a "Waitress".
 

Martin Campbell, who directed GoldenEye, is set to direct.