Goldfinger (1964)

Bond is back! This time he has to stop Auric Goldfinger from contaminating all the gold at Fort Knox, so his own gold stocks will rise in value.

The film opens with what is now recognised as the Bond pre-title sequence where we find Bond on his last mission – here he blows things up and escapes in a wet suit, only for a white (completely dry) tuxedo to be reviled under it! We are now in the Bondian world. After Dr No and From Russia With Love (both are good espionage thrillers – more so with From Russia With Love) you’re taken into a larger scale adventure, larger stakes, larger sets, and larger henchmen! This film is with no doubt the blueprint for what comes for next few decades. This is the real first ‘Bond Movie’.

This film is just iconic, Jill Masterson killed by being covered in nothing but gold paint, Aston Martin DB5 and now Connery himself. Talking of icons - “Pay attention 007”. The first real Q scene is in this film, the DB5 being the first real gadget – radar, machine guns, revolving number plates, smoke screen, oil slick and of course the ejector seat! “…You’re joking!” “I never joke about my work 007.”. Llewellyn’s Q is a fantastic character, showing Bond contempt for not only how he treats the gadgets he makes, but also for how Bond conducts himself. A beautiful relationship is born.

Of course this blueprint sets up many more Bondian items upon the now checklist. Action scenes with bite, like the car chase around Goldfinger's factory. Characters are now…well, colourful is the best way to put it! Pussy Galore for one, a feisty femme fatale, a match for Bond. She can easily match him in cunning, guile and in may ways strength. The silent henchman was born in this film, Oddjob. A Korean bulk of a figure, who has a tendency to kill people by using his hat as a Frisbee! Goldfinger is the first really interesting villain, he’s not working for SPECTRE – he’s out for himself, his motivation is one of greed and the power that comes with wealth.

 

With the end of the film, the raid on Fort Knox, we see for the first time a large scale ending in the series. Here it doesn’t get much larger – a daylight raid on one of the most secure facilities, seemingly killing tens of thousands of soldiers, a nuclear dirty bomb and hundreds of extras fighting it out. This is just outstanding and even now nearly fifty years on it stands the test of time. Classic has never been used in a better context – this is an all time classic and is indeed the blueprint for what is to come.

This film doesn’t set a foot wrong from start to finish, perfectly directed and acted. The music score adds so much to the scale and is a character in its own right. Connery is just superb – you can tell he’s comfortable in the role by here, but more importantly he’s not lazy portraying Bond. It’s a clever, well-balanced performance. This film is James Bond perfection.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Rhys

From Russia With Love (1963)

In this adventure, Bond is on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as LEKTOR. He needs to find the machine before the evil SPECTRE organisation discovers it forst. Whilst romantically linked to a Russian cipher agent, Tatiana, Bond sneaks through Istanbul whilst SPECTRE agents- including Donald Grant and ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb.

Whilst Dr. No felt quite patchy- quite experimental in places- From Russia With Love is much more consistent; it feels much more like you expect a Bond film to feel. There’s obviously been a bit of tinkering with the formula as it were.

There are a number of firsts here. It’s the first time we see Blofeld (although the actor’s face is not seen); it’s also the first time we see Q (the great Desmond Llewelyn) who gives Bond one of my favourite gadgets of the entire franchise- the multi-purpose attaché case.

There are some great performances in the film – Lotte Lenya is brilliant as ex-SMERSH now SPECTRE agent Rosa Klebb, an absolutely fearsome woman; I especially like the scene where she declares Grant fit for action by punching him in the stomach with a knuckleduster and there are some distinctly Sapphic overtones in her recruitment scene with Tatiana. Her showdown with Bond- with the infamous poison-tipped steel shoes- looks a bit laughable now but it’s fun.

Pedro Armendariz is great as Bond’s Istanbul contact Kerim Bey and there’s an easy camaraderie between Bond and Bey which is nice to see. Robert Shaw is chilling as Donald ‘Red’ Grant – a psychopath recruited by Klebb . His credentials are shown in a tense pre-credits sequence which shows him killing Bond (it’s a training exercise with a fake).. He’s seen skulking menacingly on the train and the final fight between him and Bond is well choreographed and quite thrilling, not to mention a little brutal.

In some ways, From Russia With Love could be seen as a sequel of sorts to Dr. No- SPECTRE’s role is extended and Kronsteen’s plan incorporates revenge for No’s death (as MI6 would obviously send Bond). .

Unlike Dr No, there is no waiting to meet any of the main characters- Klebb, SPECTRE and Grant are all introduced very quickly, as is Tatiana (although it takes a while for Tatiana and Bond to actually meet). Tatiana is a very passive character- used as a pawn on all sides (first by Klebb, then by Bond and finally Grant)- which is a little frustrating, coming after Honey Ryder but Daniela Bianchi does well with what she’s given. It is very satisfying when the worm turns.

There are some decent set-pieces of action: the raid on the Russian embassy in order to steal the LEKTOR device is nicely staged. The scene in the gypsy camp- from belly-dancing through to full-scale invasion- is also impressive. The boat chase- where Bond detonates the old drums- also looks good and (more impressively) stands up.

All said, the Bond formula is still a work in progress at this point but there’s a lot going right in this.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Tez

'Now, Pay Attention, 007...': A Tribute To Desmond Llewelyn

For the first time since Daniel Craig has donned the legendary tux, the character Q is to appear in a Bond film. In Skyfall, Q will be played by Ben Whishaw.

Whilst there have been several actors to take the role of Q but, to me, there is only one man worthy of that initial: the late, great Desmond Llewelyn.

Llewelyn played Q, MI6's gadget-master, in no less than seventeen Bond films (starting with From Russia With Love and ending with The World Is Not Enough; Q is only absent from Live And Let Die as producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman felt the films were getting too reliant on the gadgets and decided to play them down). Very little is known about Q beyond his work for MI6 although he is referred to as ‘Major Boothroyd’ by Anya in The Spy Who Loved Me.

The gadgets are as integral a part to a Bond film as the villains and the Bond girls. Each film has a scene where Q equips Bond with whatever he may need for that particular mission. Rhys has written a brilliantpiece about the gadgets, so I won't mention too many, but some of my favourites include Bond's attaché case in From Russia With Love, the tooled-up Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger and the gyrocopter Little Nellie in You Only Live Twice.

The relationship between Bond and Q is an interesting one. Q seems to view Bond as an eternal adolescent, unable to take things seriously or appreciate the tech he's being given. Q frequently has to ask Bond to 'pay attention' whilst he explains how the gadgets work. Q seems to be generally exasperated with Bond's playboy lifestyle- in Octopussy, he jokes ‘007 on an island populated exclusively by women? We won't see him till dawn!' Q can often be irascible and a bit grouchy but he always takes pride in his gadgets, frequently pointing out a feature he's particularly proud of, and- as he says in Goldfinger- 'I never joke about my work'.

Despite this seeming antagonism, there are hints that Bond and Q have a depth of mutual respect. When Bond gets married at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he offers Bond a helping hand should he need it outside of MI6 and he poses as Bond's uncle in License To Kill to get some needed kit to him once he's had his 00 status rescinded. Bond tries to dismiss him, but Q rightly states: ‘Oh, don't be an idiot, 007. I know exactly what you're up to, and quite frankly, you're going to need my help. Remember, if it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago’

Perhaps the best example of their mutual respect is in The World Is Not Enough. Bond seems genuinely moved at the news of Q's retirement and Q gives him a last piece of advice:

As final exits go, that's a pretty good one. This was Llewelyn’s last Bond film, with John Cleese taking over the role of Q for Die Another Day.

What about the man behind the role?

Llewelyn was born in Newport, South Wales on 12 September 1914. He originally wanted to become a minister but caught the acting bug during his time at Radley College. He has accepted to RADA in the mid 1930s but his acting ambitions were put on hold due to the start of the Second World War. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers but was captured by the German army in France in 1940 and was held as a prisoner-of-war in Colditz for five years. After the war, he resumed his acting career, working with longtime Bond director Terence Young on war movie They Were Not Divided (1950) and was eventually cast as Q. Ironically, despite playing a gadget master on film, Llewelyn was ‘hopeless’ with them in real life.

Outside the Bond franchise, he appeared in uncredited roles in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) and Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), as well as playing George Coggins in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (1968) and The Colonel in television series Follyfoot.

Llewelyn sadly passed away in December 1999, at the age of eighty-five, in a car accident, a few weeks after the premiere of The World Is Not Enough. His contribution to the Bond franchise is immeasurable and he is sadly missed.

Ben Whishaw's got some pretty big shoes to fill.

Tez