Spies Thighs & Private Eyes
After being sent through the ringer physically during Doctor No, a book which sees Bond abused by everything from hot plates to giant squid, he gets to take things relatively easy this time around, as the bulk of the story involves Bond doing little more than embarrassing eccentric millionaire and suspected SMERSH operative Auric Goldfinger in a series of sporting encounters.
From Russia with Love ends on a cliffhanger. James Bond is down! Poisoned by a crafty Russian agent! What will happen? Proceed to the next book to find out! Unfortunately, the cliffhanger is always better than the resolution, and Dr. No picks up the thread by going, “Boy, that sure was close, but now James is all better,” and away we go to Jamaica without much bother.
Diamonds are Forever was a vacation for 007, an enjoyable breather Ian Fleming took in between more substantial books. From Russia with Love finds Bond and the Bond books back in top form for one of the best-loved stories in the entire franchise. From Russia with Love deserves its lofty ranking, though to be honest, at the end of the adventure, we have another sightseeing excursion for Bond.
Riding the tide of Jason King, Wyngarde was approached by RCA with the prospect of recording an album. Getting popular TV personalities to record albums was all the rage, and when they promised Wyngarde complete creative freedom, he agreed. And thus we start down the road toward infamy.
The Moneypenny Diaries is presented as excerpts from the secret diary of Jane “Miss” Moneypenny. It's a complex, bittersweet, even realistic alternate point of view of James Bond, as well as a meditation on the politics of the 1960s and the impact of Bond’s lifestyle and attitude on those around him — especially the women. It’s also a damn sight better than most of the official Bond continuation novels.
Kerwin Matthews has the hair for the role of OSS 117, but he lacks the cool. There’s no swagger, no menace. The clothes don’t look as cool on him as they do on Sean Connery. He is underwhelming in a genre which demands a lot more. As a result, OSS 117 is Unleashed doesn’t feel very unleashed., but I guess you can’t lure them in with OSS 117 is Sufficient.
During the making of GoldenEye, Bond producers started planning for a sequel. Crime fiction writer Donald Westlake was hired to write the screenplay. The process never resulted in a finished movie, but it did give Westlake fodder to rework into Forever and a Death.
