The James Bond Bedside Companion (9 page)

At the beginning of 1960, Ian Fleming may not have realized the tremendous scope with which his creation would become a cult figure. Kevin McClory, however, somehow sensed the James Bond potential. That January, McClory visited Fleming at Goldeneye in order to find out what was happening with the film project. As reported in John Pearson's biography of Fleming, Fleming told McClory he wanted to hand the screenplay to MCA with his and Bryce's joint recommendation for McClory to produce the film. But if a studio rejected the film on the basis of McClory as producer, then it was up to McClory to sell himself to the studio, back out, or go to court. McClory,
feeling
rejected and betrayed, left Goldeneye only
hours after he had arrived. For Fleming, the film project completely died in the next few months. But the Xanadu Productions experience would return to haunt him.

Ian Fleming's new novel that year, the ninth James Bond book, was
THUNDERBALL,
based on the screenplay,
Longitude 78 West
,
that had been written by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and himself.

John Pearson suggested a possible reason for Fleming's not acknowledging the story's source. He was accustomed to using discarded film or TV scripts as bases for novels.
DOCTOR NO
was originally a film script written for producer Henry Morganthau III. Four of the short stones in
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
were adapted from his television scripts. The consequences, however, were not revealed until
THUNDERBALL
was published a year later in the spring of 1961.

In March of 1960, Ian Fleming met an important fan of his books. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a good friend of Mrs. Marion "Oatsie" Leiter, with whom Fleming was well acquainted. Mrs. Leiter happened to be dining with the Kennedys on March 13 and Fleming had come by to see her in Washington on his way back from Jamaica. He had come to the city on the invitation of Henry Brandon, the
Sunday Times
correspondent there. While Mrs. Leiter and Fleming were driving through Georgetown, they saw the senator and his wife walking down a street. Mrs. Leiter stopped the car and asked if she could bring a visitor to dinner. When Kennedy learned that the visitor was Ian Fleming, he connected the name with James Bond and replied, "By all means." The men took to each other, and Fleming soon also came to know Robert Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. In the future, Fleming sent them all signed copies of his books.

In April,
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
was published. The jacket, again by Richard Chopping, featured an eye looking through a hole in an unpainted wooden door. The book received fair notices, and the story "Quantum of Solace" was compared to the work of Somerset Maugham. The
London Times
said, ". . . the Bond ambience is pervasive and there is lots of sunshine." Francis Iles in
Guardian
found the anthology better than the novels. But Christopher Pym (Kingsley Amis) in the
Spectator
complained that each new Bond adventure got less probable and more preposterous and was losing the "zing." The book was published in America by Viking Press in August. Fleming's kindest critic in the United States, James Sandoe, said that the book featured "urban savagery and mighty smooth tale-spinning." Anthony Boucher again praised Fleming's readable and "smooth" prose, but complained about the weakness of the stories.

In November, Fleming was invited to spend two weeks in Kuwait as a guest of the Kuwait Oil Company. He had been requested to write a book about the country's way of life and how the oil industry affected it. It was a condition of the deal that the book should have the approval of the oil company before publication. Fleming wrote the book with zest, because the adventurous past of the country naturally fascinated him. The book was called STATE OF EXCITEMENT—IMPRESSIONS OF KUWAIT. When it was finished, the Kuwait Oil Company approved the book but felt it was their duty to show the manuscript to the Kuwait Government. The sheikhs didn't particularly take to some of Fleming's comments and criticisms referring to the country's history of pirating and bloodshed. They wanted to project a more "civilized" image to the world, and banned the publication of the book. As a result, the only bound copy belonged to Fleming. (It is now in the Lilly Library at Indiana University.)

In December, while Fleming was on holiday with Anne in the Swiss Alps, two men became involved with James Bond who would be responsible for the most successful film series of all time. Harry Saltzman, a Canadian producer who had just left his company, Woodfall Films, had taken an interest in the James Bond novels. In a dramatic coup, he secured a six-month option on all of the existing and future Fleming titles except for CASINO ROYALE, which had been sold to Gregory Ratoff in 1955 (and which his widow had sold to Charles K. Feldman). Little did he know that another producer, Albert R. Broccoli, had also become interested in the Fleming novels. This London-based New Yorker had been co-producer of Warwick Films, and had attempted to gain interest in the Bonds from Columbia Pictures as early as 1957. Broccoli did not meet Saltzman, however, until a few months later.

I
an Fleming experimented with the structure of his tenth James Bond book that January and February of 1961. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was certainly an oddity in the series in that the story was told from the point of view of a female character. James Bond did not enter the tale until two-thirds into the book. The original manuscript was 113 pages, and few revisions were made. Being the shortest Bond novel, it is only fifteen chapters long.

On March 17,
Life
magazine published an article featuring a list of John F. Kennedy's favorite books.

In ninth place was FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE by Ian Fleming. This literally made Bond in America overnight. From then on, Fleming was "in," and sales improved almost immediately. What was so striking about
Life
's
list of books was that the other nine books were mostly biographies of political leaders and sophisticated nonfiction. Fleming's book was the only one of its type on the list. It was good public relations for Kennedy as well—it showed that even a President can enjoy a little "sex, sadism, and snobbery."

That same month, Kevin McClory read an advance copy of THUNDERBALL. He found that Fleming had made no acknowledgement to him or Jack Whittingham for what was essentially a work of joint authorship. THUNDERBALL contained the plot that was created over the last two years. McClory and Whittingham immediately petitioned the high court for an injunction to hold up publication of the book, which was set for April. At the hearing on March 25, evidence was given that 32,000 copies of THUNDERBALL had already been shipped to booksellers, and a hefty amount of money had already been spent on advance publicity. The judge ruled that the book could be published, but that it in no way affected or slanted in either Fleming's or McClory's and Whittingham's favor the result of the trial. Unfortunately, it was two years before the case was resolved.

Regardless of legal problems, THUNDERBALL was certainly a success. Perhaps the publicity of the hearing helped sales. The book had another colorful Richard Chopping jacket featuring a skeletal hand and wrist with a knife sticking through the bones and into two playing cards. The
London Times
said, "Mr. Fleming's special magic lies in his power to impart sophistication to his mighty nonsense." Viking Press published THUNDERBALL in the United States, and it sold better than any of its predecessors. Anthony Boucher wrote: "As usual, Ian Fleming has less story to tell in 90,000 words than Buchan managed in 40,000; but THUNDERBALL is still an enjoyably extravagant adventure." L. G. Offord said the book was "just about as wild as ever, with a walloping climax."

The stress and tension from the snowballing of James Bond became too much for Fleming. On April 12, during a
Sunday
Times
Tuesday conference, he had a major heart attack. That afternoon he was
admitted to London Clinic, where he remained for a month. He was told by his doctor that he must cut down on his smoking and drinking and get plenty of rest. But how could the creator of James Bond exist without living life to the fullest? It simply wasn't possible. Fleming chose to disregard his doctors' orders after he left the clinic, confiding to his friends that he didn't intend to spend his life not being able to enjoy it.

While he was in the hospital, Fleming wrote a children's book called CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG about the adventures of an eccentric family who owned a magical car. The car was able to fly, sail, and catch crooks. It's entirely schoolboy fantasy stuff,
but heightened by Fleming's knack for detail. It must have been good therapy for him to write the book. His own philosophy of life was planted in the words of Commander Pott, the father of the fictional household: "Never say 'no' to adventures. Always say 'yes,' otherwise you'll lead a very dull life."

That May, while Fleming was recuperating in France with Anne, Harry Saltzman's six-month option on the novels was about up. It was then that Saltzman was introduced, through the writer Wolf Mankowitz, to Albert R. Broccoli. Saltzman had the option, and Broccoli had the connections. They decided to form a partnership and created Eon Productions Ltd. "Cubby" Broccoli, as he is called by almost everyone who knows him, first offered the Bond film package to Columbia Pictures, who turned him down. Broccoli had several connections at United Artists, and on June 21, he and Saltzman met with UA executives to discuss the package. The London UA head, David Picker, a fan of the novels, highly recommended buying the package. Broccoli and Saltzman signed that very day for a six-picture deal. THUNDERBALL, surprisingly, was chosen as the first film.

Broccoli hired Richard Maibaum, a screenwriter with whom he had worked a few times before, to adapt the book, despite the fact that more than one screenplay by a group of writers existed already. Maibaum's first draft of the
Thunderball
screenplay followed the novel fairly closely, except that Blofeld's initial meeting with SPECTRE to discuss Plan Omega preceded the Shrublands sequence. When the screenplay was submitted to United Artists, it was rejected because the title was in litigation at the time. Broccoli and Saltzman had failed to secure the rights to the book because of McClory's injunction.

Therefore, DOCTOR NO was chosen as an alternate, and United Artists agreed to finance the film for $900,000. Maibaum immediately began working on the script, with the help of several other writers. Terence Young, another acquaintance of Broccoli from the Warwick days, was chosen to direct. That August, a talent search began for the actor who would play James Bond.

By October, the producers had their leading man. Sean Connery, a rugged, darkly handsome Scottish actor was chosen from over a thousand possibilities. He was signed to a picture-a-year deal until 1967. Connery didn't really match Fleming's description of James Bond. Bond wasn't necessarily Scottish, although Fleming made him so in his subsequent novels, and Connery lacked the "long, thin scar" on his right cheek and the "cold blue eyes." But he was quickly molded into a particular image that audiences seemed to like. Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond became a cinematic landmark. One way in which he made the character his own was by giving Bond a sense of humor. Connery was responsible for many of the one-liners and asides which made the film Bond a more sardonic and wittier character than Fleming's secret agent.

The film world held a curious, but somehow alienating, fascination for Fleming. He didn't particularly care to become involved with the proceedings. The people weren't his sort. But he was excited by the fact that films were being made from his books. Although his first reaction to Sean Connery's casting was negative, once he saw how the actor looked in character, he changed his mind. Fleming gladly posed for publicity shots on the sets and with the actors. He enjoyed camping up his own image, but preferred to leave the filmmaking to Eon Productions.

Interestingly, in August of 1961 Fleming sent a "critique" of Hitchcock's
North
by Northwest
to
Ivan Bryce. He liked the film enormously but complained about the fact that the "master of suspense" tended to throw away the plot by adding touches of comedy. Preferring to "keep jokes at a minimum," Fleming hoped that the future James Bond films would be told with a "straight face" and a "desperate sense of urgency." He added that the kind of film he had in mind was Clouzot's
The Wages of Fear. (
Perhaps this is indicative of what he might have thought of the United Artists Bond films had he lived to see more than the first two.)

E
arly in 1962,
Dr. No
began production with locations in Jamaica, and Ian Fleming sat down at Goldeneye to write ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.

The first time Fleming visited the set of
Dr. No
,
Terence Young was in the middle of shooting the scene in which Honeychile Rider (Ursula Andress) was coming out of the water onto the beach where Bond was hiding. Young's shot was ruined by four people walking down the beach towards the area. Young screamed and waved for them to lie down. The four men hit the sand and the remainder of the scene was shot. Half an hour later, Young remembered the men on the beach and sent someone to look for them. The men turned out to be Fleming, Noel Coward, Stephen Spender, the poet, and Peter Quennell, the author and critic.

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
is one of Fleming's best novels. Originally titled
THE BELLES OF HELL,
it was 196 pages long. The original manuscript contained several sections that were added later in England, including the technical descriptions of biological warfare and heraldry. For expertise on heraldry, Fleming contacted the Rouge Dragon at the College of Arms, Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees. The Comte de la Lanne-Mirrlees researched the Bond family and created a special coat of arms for the character. To express his appreciation, Fleming dedicated the book to "Sable Basilisk Pursuivant" (the clever reference to a basilisk, a type of dragon, avoided giving the Comte unwanted publicity).