"This Organization Does Not Tolerate Failure..."

I don't know if this image is official or fan-made, but it made this long-time Bond fan smile... and with the rumors that Christophe Waltz is playing SPECTRE mastermind Ernst Stavros Blofeld in the as-yet-untitled film, I'm hopeful that we can put that QUANTUM idiocy behind us and welcome the original evil empire back to the series.

IN LIKE FLINT in HD

I'll be placing my pre-order for the Twilight Time Blu-ray release of In Like Flint as soon as it becomes available tomorrow afternoon. 

The company did a great job with the first Derek Flint film, Our Man Flint, which I received last week. While I had some minor issues with the picture quality of the video transfer (shame that 20th Century Fox didn't provide Twilight Time with a better master), the new supplements were worth the price of the disc all by themselves. John Cork and his Cloverland crew did a terrific job on the new retrospective featurettes, and it was cool to see my online blog "buddy," Matthew Bradford (alias "Tanner" of the great Dounle-O Section blog) onscreen as one of the talking heads.

As much as I enjoy the first Flint film, I have a slight preference toward its sequel. It's not really as good as its predecessor - and somewhat more overtly comic - but it was the first Derek Flint adventure I saw as a teenager (on the WCSH 6 Sunday morning "Great Show" movie). At the time, I was just becoming the James Bond/superspy fan that I am today, and In Like Flint was really the first of the Bond imitators/spoofs I ever saw.

The Spies No One Remembers.... Except Me

There are a few James Bond knock-offs that I remember watching on TV in the late 70s (& 1980) that I have never heard anyone else mention. One of these was Billion Dollar Threat, a 1979 TV movie that starred Dale Robinette as secret agent Robert Sands, who must foil the nefarious plan of mad scientist Horatio Black - played by none other than John Steed himself, Patrick Macnee - to destroy the ozone layer with a nuclear missile.

I actually taped this one off of TV, so I watched it a number of times. It was a pretty fair - if cheap - little Bondian adventure, written by Hammer Studios vet Jimmy Sangster (Deadlier Than The Male), who seemed to have a penchant for this type of stuff....

Because Sangster also wrote the 1980 ABC telefilm, Once Upon A Spy, which starred a pre-Cheers Ted Danson as a computer expert/reluctant spy who is drafted into a mission to stop another mad scientist - this time portrayed by The Man With The Golden Gun, Scaramanga, in the guise of Sir Christopher Lee - who has a laser cannon (another one?). I remember it as being a bit more deliberately campy than Billion Dollar Threat, in a Man From U.N.C.L.E. sort of way.

Sangster didn't write (I wonder how he missed out on this one), but legitimate 007 veteran Richard Maibaum (Goldfinger, Thunderball, et al) did, the same year's S*H*E - Security Hazards Expert, which starred Cornelia Sharpe as Lavinia Keane, a sort of female Bond in a globetrotting adventure that I remember watching but am unable to recall a single detail of. Omar Sharif played her adversary, an International blackmailer.

None of these are available on DVD, although S*H*E did get a VHS release.I would really like to see all of these again one day....

Happy Birthday, 007

Today is Global James Bond Day, celebrating 50 years of Ian Fleming's creation on the silver screen. And this is a video montage of great moments from the 007 films, set to Scouting for Girls' song, "I Wish I Was James Bond."

Don't we all?

Monday Morning Musings - SpyFi Edition

Welcome to another installment of my early Monday morning musings, where I catch up on whatever's been going on over the weekend.

• OPEN CHANNEL "D." Last Friday, several of the spy blogs I visit were reporting that Amazon had the complete Man From U.N.C.L.E. DVD collection on sale for more than half off the retail price, for one day only! It only took a little begging, but Brandi bought it for me, and it should be here Tuesday. I'm a huge U.N.CL.E. fan, and I've been rather desperate to get my hands on this set, and although money will be tight for a couple weeks because of it, I'm thrilled that it's on the way!

• Speaking of old TV shows, a couple weeks back, I traded in some old stuff and picked up the second seasons of Get Smart and the 80's private eye show, Simon & Simon. We're about halfway through the seasons (Brandi also likes S&S quite a bit), and having a lot of fun revisiting these shows. The second season of Smart is probably its best, and S&S is fun 80's escapism with a couple of charismatic leads.

At the same time, I picked up the latest Transporter movie on Blu-Ray (it was a buck cheaper than the 2-disc DVD). I loved it. It was ludicrous, and not quite as good as Transporter 2, but close, and a damned fun ride. Jason Statham rules.

• And, speaking of spies (U.N.C.L.E., Smart, etc.), I recently found all my Nick Carter, Killmaster paperbacks at my parents' house, and brought them home. I've got about thirty of them (nearly 300 were published), some from the 70's and quite a bunch from the 80's. Nick Carter was an American secret agent for AXE, whose paperback original adventures ran the gamut from straight Cold War intrigue to over-the-top pseudo-sci-fi adventures that would have embarrassed Roger Moore's Bond! Many different authors contributed anonymously to the series over the years. I loved the books as a teen, and I'm having a great time re-reading some of them now. I'm currently working my way through The Eyes of the Tiger, and it's silly, refreshingly un-PC fun.

• I also got an advance DVD screener of the Quantum of Solace DVD last Friday, and, well, I still don't like it. My least favorite Bond film in years. All my original complaints remain – except that I've warmed (slightly) toward the Jack White/Alicia Keyes theme. Otherwise, I still think it's a near-incoherent mess, and I think the film editors should be shot.

• Not spy related: I received the Buck Rogers statue from ReelArt Studios, last week, as well. It's friggin' gorgeous. Not only is it marvelously sculpted and flawlessly painted, but it's a minor marvel of engineering, with Buck and his flaming jetpack perched atop a billowing pillar of smoke. If you're a fan of the character and can afford it, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Have a great week, everyone!

Quantum of Solace

I don't recall being so underwhelmed and disappointed in a James Bond film since sitting through A View to A Kill in 1985. And at least then I liked the theme song.

Quantum of Solace isn't quite a disaster, but it's a remarkably inept piece of filmmaking, and a frustrating film to watch. The script clearly needed a few more passes through the word processor, but being rushed to completion just before last year's writer's strike prevented that. Also, the decision to hand arguably the most action-driven Bond film ever to a director whose sole previous credits are art house indie dramas was a major miscalculation. And that theme song! Inane lyrics can be tolerable if they're accompanied by a memorable melody, but Alicia Keyes and Jack White's "Another Way To Die" (a rejected film title?) has no discernible melody at all.

Much has been written comparing Quantum's action scenes to those in the Jason Bourne films, but they really have nothing in common besides frenetic, rapid fire cutting. In the various Bourne films, the action is fast and brutal, but it can be tracked. The action scenes in Quantum are so badly edited that the viewer is uncertain as to how many players are in the scenes (how many cars were chasing Bond in the teaser?), the geography of the sequence (the rooftop chase), or what's actually happening (can anyone tell me exactly what the grappling hook in the Haiti boat chase was actually hooked to?). Coupled with director Marc Forster's arty cut-aways, the action sequences of Quantum have no sense of place, no rhythm, no rise and fall, no cohesion at all.

The plot has tons of potential, but is riddled with subplots and elements that are introduced and then promptly forgotten, non-sequiter dialogue (what exactly was the hood in Haiti supposed to "pay better attention" to?), unmemorable supporting characters (Mr. Greene's henchman, "Elvis"), and tediously repeated exposition (how many times do we need to be told how our governments have to deal with bad guys or how M just isn't sure she can trust 007?). As in Casino Royale, Bond once again comes across as a thug, indiscriminate in his use of violence, and, now in this film, a klutz who can't seem to hang onto his gun. (Surprisingly, though, he's now invisible – able to tail suspects in plain sight and never be noticed!) The script also fails by not giving Bond and villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric) any good face-to-face confrontations – they only exchange dialogue twice; the first time Bond has two or three lines, and the second is at the climax.

Oh, and putting the gunbarrel at the end? Yeah, I know what they were going for there, but it was stupid decision. The whole point of that trademark sequence is to kick off the movie on a note of eager anticipation; here it just felt like a rerun of Casino Royale's closing scene. And what was with that horridly tepid title sequence? Daniel Klienman, where did you go?

So, did I like anything? Well, yeah. The cast, almost without exception, rises above the limitations of the script, delivering excellent performances across the board. Forster obviously knows how to work with actors. Daniel Craig, who has to work with probably the least amount of dialogue ever given to Bond, still manages to carry the film on his intense, thoughtful performance. The death of Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) is powerful stuff, well played and directed. Olga Kurylenko's Camille is one of the best and most interesting Bond girls in the series – a marred beauty with a mission and motive of her own, and her climactic scenes with Bond are magnificent. Jeffrey Wright returns to the role of Felix Lieter, even if this time his part mostly consists of silently scowling; his one scene with Bond in the bar shows great chemistry, though, and is a highlight of the film. Judi Dench, as usual, shines.

David Arnold's score was excellent – he seems to actually get stronger with each film.

And I do like the introduction of the Quantum criminal organization; it's almost like having SPECTRE back again, even if the name's not nearly as cool, and Mister White's (Jesper Christensen) a pretty humdrum substitute for Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Now, bear in mind that I've only seen the film once so far, and maybe upon subsequent viewings, my opinions will change. But, I've had mixed feelings about this "Bond: Year One" approach all along, and Quantum of Solace seemed to really emphasize the elements I've had the most misgivings about. All this talk about returning the character to his Ian Fleming roots is just a lovely-sounding PR routine – Fleming's Bond wasn't the near-sociopathic killer/imitation Bourne that Craig has been given to play. And, while I've always preferred the more down-to-Earth Bond films – From Russia With love, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only, Licence To Kill – part of the charm of the Bond franchise has been its slightly bigger than life quality; it's what separates Bond from the other spies. Mister Greene's plot to corner the Bolivian water supply just doesn't seem worthy of 007's attentions.

I hope that they've got this tyro-Bond thing out of their system now, and that the next film opens with the gunbarrel, brings back Moneypenny and Q, and gives Daniel Craig's Bond a chance to save the world – or at least England – from a dire threat.

Then Bond will truly be back.

Quantum of Solace Poster Revealed

Well, it's not as exciting as the classic Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy James Bond posters of the Sixties and Seventies, or even Dan Gouzee's poster art for the Bond films Moonraker and Octopussy, but it's an improvement over most of the cut & paste/Photoshop jobs of the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan eras. If you have to have a photographic poster instead of a painting, this is a decent approach. It at least sets a bit of a mood.

To see some truly awesome Bond film art from around the world, I highly recommend James Bond Movie Posters: The Official 007 Collection, by Tony Nourmand. It's one of my favorite art books ever.

In related news, as everyone probably knows by now, the Jack White and Alicia Keys theme song for Quantum of Solace, "Another Way To Die," is now available to listen to online. Personally, I think it's just awful. Of course, it's meant to accompany the opening titles, so maybe with the graphics it will be more palatable. And a lot of people who are more knowledgeable about music than me seem to think it's pretty good, so what do I know?

Here's a link.

More Nocturnal Musings

It's after 2 AM and there's a night construction crew about twenty feet from my front door repaving the road. Now, I'd normally be awake now anyway, but the constant rumbling, bright lights, back-up beeping, and periodic seismic tremors that shake this old farmhouse's dirt foundation and rattle the dishes is a bit distracting. I hope Brandi is sleeping through it all okay, otherwise tomorrow's going to be a really tough day for her.

This is another catch-all "musings" post, as I've been a bit busy over the last couple of days, so be prepared for rapid subject shifts.

• Friday I picked up the DVD of George A. Romero's latest "Dead" film, Diary of the Dead. Reviews had been mixed, but I am a huge Romero fan – not only of the original "Dead" trilogy, but of films like Martin, The Crazies, Creepshow, and especially Knightriders – so there was no way I wasn't going to add this latest installment to my collection. Brandi and I watched it last night, and I loved it. I thought it was much better than Land of the Dead (tho I liked that one better than most people, I think) and I feel that it's the best of these "camcorder mockumentaries" I've seen so far. Once again, I think Romero proved that he makes the smartest zombie movies, and if you're a Romero fan, you should check it out.

• Ray Harryhausen's birthday was on Sunday. He turned 88 years old. Although he's allowed his name to be attached to some questionable stuff lately – like those horrible Ray Harryhausen Presents comic books from Bluewater – he's still one of my personal gods. His films are magical, and all the moreso because he created their effects scenes entirely by hand and, most often, virtually alone (he sometimes employed a cameraman to shoot his animation). Nowadays it takes a huge crew of people and lots of expensive computers to mimic what the maestro managed on his own with vastly less sophisticated technology. And even with all those people, today's CGI creatures and characters have none of the personality and, well, character, of those he created in his tiny studio in the Sixties and Seventies.

Don't believe me? Watch 20 Million Miles To Earth again and marvel at the physicality and "emoting' of the Venusian "Ymir," and remind yourself that it was a rubber model only about a foot tall. Or spin the Jason And the Argonauts DVD and study the sequence where Jason and his crewmates battle a squad of sword-wielding skeletons. The choreography is as elaborate and precise as any modern kung fu fight scene or classic MGM musical number directed by Busby Berkeley. Like I said: magic.

Happy belated birthday, Mister Harryhausen, sir.

• Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries made its debut last weekend at the Wizard World Chicago comic book convention. I'm told sales were pretty slow for just about everyone – in this economy, I'm not surprised, I guess. I thought the book would be on sale tomorrow, but my publisher tells me that though it's printed and has shipped from the printer, it may still take a couple weeks for the distributor to process it and ship it out to stores. So, I still don't know exactly when it will be on the shelves. It's kind of frustrating... grrrr.

• Finally, the first official teaser trailer for the next James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, made its online debut yesterday. Looks bloody awesome!


And if the production company has that yanked off YouTube, you can also find a better-quality version of it on MSN here.

Moore, Roger Moore

While Roger Moore may be my least favorite James Bond, I've always liked him as an actor and personality.

His characterization of Bond was generally too light for my tastes (although he had his moments, and both The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only are among my favorite Bond flicks), but I thought he was a fantastic, charming Simon Templar, and I'm a big fan of his work in 70's adventure films like ffolkes and The Wild Geese.

Hell, he also made a great – if somewhat more suave and urbane than is traditional – Sherlock Holmes, in the television movie Sherlock Holmes In New York.

He has a new autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, coming out, and I'm looking forward to reading it. If it's half as fun as Roger Moore's James Bond Diary, in which he chronicled his hiring as the new James Bond in '72 and the making of Live And Let Die, it should be a very entertaining read.

Fleming @ 100

Today marks the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, Agent 007 of Her Majesty's Secret Service, licensed to kill.

A mere dozen novels and two short story collections beget a series of 21 "official" Bond films (plus two rogue productions), various radio adaptations, a long-running newspaper comic strip, a handful of comic books, scores of non-fiction tomes, an astounding range or merchandise, spin-offs (i.e. James Bond Jr.) and a highly-successful series of pastiche novels by authors like Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson. The latest of these, Devil May Care, by Sebastian Faulks, goes on sale today.

It's no secret that I'm a Bond fan, but I'm a Fleming fan, too. That's not always the case, as I know many people who love the movies, but have never cracked the cover of one of the source novels. And that's a shame. Fleming's prose style is definitely of an earlier era, but it flows so smoothly and moves so quickly, that it's not difficult to read. On the contrary, I can't imagine anyone not getting caught up and swept along by an Ian Fleming adventure novel.

Recently, I transferred my VHS tapes of two Ian Fleming TV biopics – The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (alias Spymaker) with Jason Connery and Goldeneye, starring Charles Dance (in an amazing performance) – to DVD. Both films took great liberties with the details of Fleming's life, striving to enhance the similarities between Fleming and his famous creation. And now there's talk of another one – this time intended as a big-budget theatrical feature – to be produced by (and possibly starring) Leonardo Dicaprio.

I find that astounding, and a great tribute to the man and an indication of the significance of his impact on global popular culture. Seriously, how many writers' lives are made into movies, never mind three?

Happy Birthday, sir. And thanks.

Chris In Real Life (or what passes for it)

Sorry I haven't posted much lately.

I've been struggling – as always – with my various writing assignments and my similarly varied health issues. I recently started a new diet (yeah, I know), and I've lost around 15 pounds. Not a lot, but a start. The hardest part is that I've had to cut out caffeine, and the past week of caffeine withdrawal was a singular sort of hell. I also went to the dentist for the first time in probably 25 years. Lucked out there, though: not a single cavity, just some minor bone damage from gingivitis, which I'm told should be easy to clear up with a couple of cleaning sessions and a little more diligence with my oral hygiene.

Currently reading the Donald Westlake novel, What's So Funny?, the latest – I think – Dortmunder book. So far, it's starting out promisingly. I'm also reading In The Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling, a modern take on the interplanetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs, et al. I'm hoping to pick up the new James Bond novel, Devil May Care soon, which I believe is supposed to be released this week.

The initial orders for Femme Noir were not as good as we'd hoped, but my optimistic and far-seeing publishers, Ape Entertainment, are still firmly behind the book, and not only will they be publishing the entire 4-issue miniseries as promised, but they've asked for an immediate, 48-page, one-shot follow-up. Joe Staton and I have already come up with a story idea, and we'll be starting on the new book – which I'm referring to as the Femme Noir Annual – just as soon as we've got the last issue of the miniseries off to the printer. The title will be Femme Noir: Supernatural Crime, and will guest star the skull-visaged vigilante known as Brother Grim. The idea is that our heroine and Grim will work the same macabre mystery separately from different angles, and then collide at the climax.

Should be fun, if I can pull it off.

By the way, I would still appreciate it if people kept plugging Femme Noir around the web and to their comics retailers. The third issue (which is probably the strongest issue in this miniseries) will be in the June edition of the Diamond PREVIEWS catalog, which comes out this week, and we can use all the help we can get. I'd be thrilled if we could buck the odds and actually increase the numbers for the later issues in the mini.

Here's the order info: Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries #3 of 4, from Ape Entertainment, at the bottom of page 206. The Diamond Item codes are: JUN083647 for Cover "A" by Joe Staton and Alfredo Lopez and JUN083648 for Cover "B" by Phil Hester (Green Arrow, Nightwing, The Irredeemable Ant-Man).

Thanks for your continued interest & support, guys!

Wednesday Cover: Thunderball

The Lost Bond Theme

Over at Tim Lucas' Video Watchblog site, he has a fascinating post about the original, unused theme song for the independently-produced 1983 James Bond film, Never Say Never Again, which featured Sean Connery reprising his immortal role of Agent 007.

Personally, I've always liked NSNA – it's superior to most of the "official" Bond films of the era (even if it is a remake of Thunderball), and has a top notch cast, including Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Bernie Casey. Granted, the pacing is a little too leisurely at times, but it's the uninspired (and uninspiring) musical score by Michel Legrande that really wounds it.

The song, which is vastly superior to the tune used, was composed by Stephen Forsyth and Jim Ryan and performed by Phyllis Hyman, and you can hear it here.

Lucas' blog (always a fascinating read) explains why it was replaced in the finished film by an inferior song by NSNA composer Legrande and singer Lani Hall.

James Bond Jr.

As it came up a couple of times in the comments section of one of last month's Bond posts, I thought I'd share the opening titles of the early 90's James Bond Jr. cartoon, complete with catchy theme song... and Hip Hop Oddjob. Enjoy.

ADDENDUM FOR CHARLES: The cartoon was very loosely inspired by the 1967 children's novel 003 1/2: The Adventures of James Bond Junior by "R.D. Mascott." Here's the Wikipedia entry on that rare book.

More Spy-Fi

Okay, so I'm clearly in one of my spy-fi moods. I just purchased Into The Volcano, by Forrest DeVoe, Jr. (a pen name of Hard Case Crime co-founder Max Phillips), a Sixties spy adventure patterned after the escapist espionage flicks of the era. The book's been out for a couple of years, but I hadn't gotten around to picking it up until I saw it offered by an Amazon marketplace dealer for one cent (plus postage). I've only just started reading it, but so far, it's pretty good.

I also recently picked up 20th century fox's Ultimate Flint Collection, which re-packages the two Derek Flint movies – Our Man Flint and In Like Flint – which had been previously released as bare-bones discs, with a third disc loaded with new bonus features, including the 1975 TV movie, Our Man Flint: Dead on Target, with Ray Danton.

Oh, it's just awful.

Still, the completist in me is glad to have it, and the two features now have new commentary tracks by the editors of Cinema Retro, so the set's a pretty decent deal and worth the double-dip.

Finally, I only just got a look at the cover for the forthcoming U.S. edition of the new Young Bond novel by Charlie Higson, Double or Die. It's friggin' gorgeous. I can't wait to read the book.

Yep it's going to be a big year for Bond books, between this, the Sebastian Faulks novel, and the domestic release – finally – of the first volume of The Moneypenny Diaries... never mind all the stuff that will be released to tie-in the Fleming Centenary and with Quantum of Solace in the fall...

Hell, it's looking to be the biggest Bond year since Octopussy and Never Say Never Again both hit theaters in '83.

Bond, James Bond

I've been a huge fan of the James Bond character since I was in Junior High. It was then that I met David Deneen, a young man a year or so older than myself, who's brother had just married one of my favorite cousins. Well, one evening we were both visiting the aforementioned cousin's apartment in Newport, Maine, and he informed me that we would be watching Goldfinger, as it was scheduled to be run that night on HBO.

I'd never seen it – hell, I'd never seen HBO! – but David was already a dedicated Bond fan. Before the movie started he gave me a fairly detailed description of the character and the films, and after watching enraptured as Sean Connery outwitted Gert Frobe and saved the U.S. gold reserve from irradiation, I was well and truly hooked. I sought out and watched every Bond film I could, which wasn't easy, pre-home video (remember when they used to air exclusively on ABC?), hunted down all the Signet Ian Fleming paperbacks, and, starting with Moonraker in 1979, made a point of seeing each new James Bond film in the theater – usually on opening day.

In '81, John Gardner started writing original James Bond novels, and after a decade or so, the Ian Fleming estate signed author Raymond Benson to pen a few more. I never really warmed to Gardner's series. Some individual books were good reads, but his Bond didn't really seem very "Bondian." I enjoyed Benson's novels more. They occasionally came across a bit like fan fiction, but at least it was clear he was a fan, and thus, really trying his best to be faithful to Fleming's creation.

Well, it's been a few years since Benson had his literary license to kill revoked, and this Summer there will be a new Bond novel out, written by Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care. I'm not familiar with Faulks, but I gather he's a respected literary type in England. I'm looking forward to his novel, which is reportedly set in the Fifties, but I am annoyed that his byline on the book is "Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming." I mean, c'mon. Fleming was a real guy, not a pseudonymous creation like "Franklin W. Dixon," "Kenneth Robeson," "Maxwell Grant" or "Robert Markham." It's kind of insulting, isn't it?

Anyway, that's the U.S. dustjacket design up above. For once, it looks the the American market finally got a better Bond jacket design than the Brits (at right). Very retro and very cool.

By the way Charlie Higson's "Young Bond" novels are actually worth reading, too. Very faithful to the spirit of Fleming, and very well-written. So far, I've only read Silverfin and Blood Fever, but I'm hoping the others will be released in the States soon.

Tease

The "teaser" poster for Quantum of Solace has been unveiled, and it certainly suggests – as several reports have stated – that this new Bond film picks up just minutes after the conclusion of Casino Royale. As for the poster? Not a great design, but it gets the job done.

Quantum of Solace

Well, it's official – the next James Bond movie is Quantum of Solace.

It's a Fleming title, from a short story in the Bond collection For Your Eyes Only, but it's also probably the least cinematic title in the Bond canon. The story isn't even really a James Bond adventure – all Bond does in it is listen to a man at a cocktail party tell a story about a couple's screwed-up relationship and then go back to his hotel. It's an interesting, atypical Fleming story that I've actually always liked, but it certainly doesn't seem to be movie material.

Still, it's an actual Fleming title, and it indicates that the producers are sticking with the back-to-basics approach of Casino Royale. Tanner, over at the awesome Double O Section blog, has a very thoughtful post about this title, the original Fleming short story, and what it may bode for the new film. He also has pix of the new Bond Girls™, if that interests you.

Quantum of Solace is filming now and is scheduled for a Christmas release.

"Britain's Last Line of Defense"

I'm a bit late in acknowledging the passing of Lois Maxwell, the Canadian actress best known for her charming portrayal of Miss Moneypenny, secretary to "M," James Bond's superior and head of the British Secret Service in the long-running 007 series, but I wanted to make note of it here, as she was such an integral part of the success of my favorite film franchise.

She played the role in 14 movies, from 1962's Dr. No to 1985's A View To A Kill, shamelessly flirting with 007 – in the shape of Sean Connery, George Lazenby or Roger Moore – as the intrepid agent passed through her office to and from briefings with the boss.

Maxwell passed away on September 29th, in Australia. She was 80 years old.

The attractive actress was a familiar guest star on British television, with appearances on The Saint, The Persuaders (both with Roger Moore), and UFO, among many others. She also had memorable roles in both Robert Wise's classic, The Haunting, and Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.

Reportedly, she risked Sean Connery's wrath by appearing in the Italian spy spoof Operation Kid Brother, playing a thinly-disguised Moneypenny to Sean's brother Neil Connery... but then, a paycheck is a paycheck, right?

Rest in Peace, Miss Moneypenny.

Barry Nelson, R.I.P.

Well, I certainly couldn't let the passing of the very first actor to portray James Bond on screen go without comment.

Back around '83, I got a hold of Steven Jay Rubin's The James Bond Films, the first of many books I would buy on the subject over the next few decades. The first chapter detailed the earliest, pre-Dr. No attempts to get Ian Fleming's character onto the silver screen. That chapter also examined the CBS television production of Casino Royale on the anthology series Climax! in 1954, starring American actor Barry Nelson as U.S. secret agent "Card-Sense Jimmy" Bond.

Being the Bond fan I was (and still am), seeing that version of Royale became something of a major life goal for me (sad, huh?).

It was another ten years or so until I stumbled onto a cheap EP VHS tape of the kinescope of that live production in a bargain bin, but by then – now that I knew to look for him – I had seen Nelson in a number of TV shows, including The Twilight Zone, Battlestar Galactica and even Magnum P.I.

Nelson was a a fairly prolific second-leading man/guest star type who appeared in close to a hundred movies and television shows. He's probably best known now as the ghostly bartender in the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining and – among diehard Bondophiles and trivia buffs – as the first actor to play James Bond.

Considering the shoestring budget and the limitations of live TV in the fifties, the Climax! version of Casino Royale isn't that bad. The adaptation is pretty fair, actually. Having to truncate the novel to fit it into an hour timeslot actually makes it move along at a nice clip (unlike the new version, which is at least 20 minutes too long), and Nelson's "American" Bond isn't the travesty it could have been. Sure, Nelson's a little shaky in the beginning, but he rises to the challenge and delivers a fairly decent, if seemingly under-rehearsed, performance. Of course, he's lucky to have Peter Lorre as his LeChiffre. Lorre's clearly slumming in the show, but he brings his usual reptilian menace to the role, and it works. It's not Nelson's finest performance, but it's not anything to be ashamed of, either.

Barry Nelson passed away on April 7th.

Rest in peace, "Card-Sense Jimmy."