What Bond do you envision?

AlphaOmegaSin

When reading the Novels?

For me it's Connery. The Covers of the Great Pan Releases depict a very Connery looking Bond -

Charmed & Dangerous

I envisage Connery too.

But it must have been tricky for the early illustrators to come up with an accurate or appropriate image of Bond before Connery - you can see there's a wide variety of interpretations:



Probably because Fleming didn't overly give a description of Bond's looks until From Russia With Love, when the best description appears in SMERSH's files.

Even Fleming's commissioned portrait of Bond (first image below) wasn't quite right and the illustrator John McLusky thought it too "pre-war" so changed it to a more rugged look (second image below) for the novels's serialisations as comic strips in the Daily Express:





In my mind the Fleming illustration looks more like Peter Cushing but the second does give Bond the 'piratical' look mentioned in the earliest novels.

DEFIANT 74205

I saw the films before I read the novels, so it's hard for me to picture anyone but Connery - my picture of Bond is slightly modified to the Fleming specifications: darker hair, scar on right cheek and a comma of hair over the right eyebrow.

Thunderpussy

I see a Richatd E Grant type, )

CmdrAtticus

When reading the novels...strange enough, when I was a novice in the 60's, I still did not picture Connery. I actually pictured Stewart Granger - because he looks a bit like Fleming (Fleming also considered him, though strange enough before he had to change his name - it used to be James Stewart). When Lazenby appeared, I could picture him as well. Then Dalton came along and he is real easy for me to visualize in any of the stories.
I can even picture Craig, though I wish his hair were darker.

Mr Mallory

Daniel Craig.

readpaulb

Anyone picture themselves?

I feel like a certain amount of attraction to both the Bond films and novels is that all men want to live vicariously through Bond. If I had to pick someone to see from the 3rd person perspective it would be Connery, but I think for the most part I read/listen to the novels almost in the perspective of being inside Bond, not a spectator.

Just finished listening to FRWL today so I couldn't resist adding my opinion.

Thunderpussy

What did you think of FRWL ? and have you read any of the other novels ?
It's always interesting to get other members opinions on the books. -{

readpaulb

Thunderpussy wrote:

What did you think of FRWL ? and have you read any of the other novels ?
It's always interesting to get other members opinions on the books. -{

I've read (or listened) to every book up to FRWL, and started Dr. No yesterday.

FRWL I enjoyed immensely, the only real complaint I could have with that book would be the fact that we don't see or hear from Bond until halfway through the book, which worked for the way Fleming told the story, but it just wasn't ideal for me. A minor complaint though.

CR was basically a perfect book as far as I'm concerned, which explains why the movie is so good, considering it follows it somewhat more than most movies follow books.

I liked Live and Let Die and Diamonds are Forever equally I'd say, both very good but not on the same level as the previous two I mentioned.

MR was of course tremendous, and far superior to the movie, Drax is maybe the best villain in the series for me so far.

I also read OHMSS a few years back because it is one of my favorite movies. That honestly could also be my favorite book as well, something about the story in both the novel and movie just grabs me. For me it would be a toss up between CR and OHMSS if I had to narrow it down to two.

Thunderpussy

OHMSS is a favourite of mine as is Moonraker, Pity we never got to see Drax as described By Fleming.

AlphaOmegaSin

What do you think of DAF? For me personally, it's a very underrated Novel.

Thunderpussy

I agree, -{ With DAF, I think Fleming really got into his stride as a writer. Some
Brilliant descriptive passages and characters. I'll admitted the villains aren't
great just a couple of hoods, But T Case is a great female character and Bond
even thinks of marriage and retiring to Japan. He even carries on the relationship
by moving her into his flat, as mentioned in FRWL.
So some might under rate DAF but I think it's a great adventure.

CmdrAtticus

I think Fleming went after the DAF plot because he was fascinated by the the whole process of how gems are mined and marketed and smuggled. He was also fascinated by the mobs in the US. However, it has little to do with foreign intelligence matters, so it was difficult for him to justify a way of bringing the Service into a smuggling operation. Bond vs. mobsters never clicked as well as Bond vs. international villains and spies.

I enjoyed the novel mainly because Fleming has such a talent for making his scenes come alive and is wonderful at describing the places Bond travels to.

AlphaOmegaSin

The Scene in DAF where Bond makes the Cannonball derail is something that I would like to see in a Future Film.

Barbel

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

The Scene in DAF where Bond makes the Cannonball derail is something that I would like to see in a Future Film.

+1. Maybe even the whole Spectreville sequence, too, if they can pull it off without seeming ridiculous.

AlphaOmegaSin

The DAF Audio Book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dadqDm8-xwE

CmdrAtticus

Barbel wrote:

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

The Scene in DAF where Bond makes the Cannonball derail is something that I would like to see in a Future Film.

+1. Maybe even the whole Spectreville sequence, too, if they can pull it off without seeming ridiculous.

It would be difficult since they have done so many train based action scenes in the series.

Revelator

When reading the novels I can't say I picture any of the film actors in my head. I tend to see a composite of Hoagy Carmichael, Fleming, the McLusky/Horak comic strip versions, and the Bond portrait commissioned by Fleming.

Gassy Man

Yikes, those book covers make him look like Peter Lawford, who is not at all what I picture when thinking of James Bond:

http://prettycleverfilms.com/files/2013/06/Peter-Lawford.jpg

AlphaOmegaSin

When reading the Gardner Novels, I envision Bond as the way Connery looked in NSNA (Bond is in his early 50's during the Gardner Continuation Books).