The Ian Fleming Foundation – Doug Redenius Interview

Podcast Episode

The Ian Fleming Foundation – Doug Redenius Interview

We talk to Doug Redenius, one of the founders of The Ian Fleming Foundation. They procure James Bond memorabilia, especially the vehicles.

The Ian Fleming Foundation procures James Bond memorabilia, especially the vehicles from the movies. If you’ve been to Bond in Motion or many James Bond exhibits, you’ve seen their work.

Here we talk to Doug Redenius, one of the founders of the Ian Fleming Foundation. They are dedicated to the study and preservation of the history of Ian Fleming’s literary works, the James Bond phenomenon, and their impact on popular culture.

So, if you like the Hiller UH-12 helicopter used in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, Goldfinger’s Lockheed US VC-140B Jet Star, the Auto-Rickshaw Tuk-Tuk from OCTOPUSSY, the plane that Sanchez flies in LICENSE TO KILL and many more, take a listen. Doug tells us about these and many other items that the Ian Fleming Foundation has secured. In addition, find out what Doug’s favorite find has been. The hunt for these items is fascinating.

Doug tells us what vehicles they have, how they find and procure the vehicles, and how they get the vehicles restored if necessary.

Be a listener, and send us your thoughts on this episode at info@spymovienavigator.com.

Here is The Ian Fleming Foundation’s website.

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Examining Ian Fleming’s Original James Bond Manuscripts – Part 2

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Examining Ian Fleming’s Original James Bond Manuscripts – Part 2

Join Dan and Tom for Part Two of their journey to The Lilly Library at Indiana University in the USA, as they examine, in-person, all of these wonderful James Bond masterpieces, gaining some insight into the novels and into Ian Fleming’s way of writing!

Dan and Tom of SpyMovieNavigator.com had the privilege of examining 11 of Ian Fleming’s James Bond manuscripts – his actual typed pages, with hand-written edits in the margins, crossed-out sections, add-ins and more!  You can see where he changes a name that we all know, and then – there it is in the final published version of the novel!
Come with us to The Lilly Library at Indiana University in the USA, as we examine, in-person, all of these wonderful James Bond masterpieces, gaining some insight into the novels and into Ian Fleming’s way of writing!
This is Part Two, covering Dr. No to Live and Let Die of a 2-part series!  Be sure to listen to Part 1 as well!”

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Ian Fleming and the Lily Library 

The Ian Fleming Manuscripts!  Bond from the Page to the Screen! 

Join us as we continue our discussion where we examine the Ian Fleming James Bond manuscripts at The Lilly Library at Indiana University in the state of Indiana in the United States.

We pick it up with the novel Dr. No:

Dr. No – published  1958 

  • Honey Ryder in the manuscript is not wearing a bikini – but just the wide leather belt and a hunting knife in a sheath!  Anyone can read this in the published book, of course, but looking at the manuscript and how Ian Fleming describes her is quite nice:   first he types that she emerges naked, but then in a handwritten note, in ink, he writes: “She was not quite naked.  She was wearing a broad leather belt around her waist, with a hunting knife in a leather sheath at the right hip.”   Fleming used a lot of detailed descriptions to make things spicy and hot.   The last line in his hand-written correction is, “The belt made her nakedness extraordinarily erotic.”  How cool is that!  Of course, in the movie, she was wearing a bikini and the knife was on her left hip.    
  • On pg 1, the Queens Club was originally called “The St. James Club”.  It was first changed to Kings Club and finally Queens club.  The manuscript goes on to say “which for fifty years, has boasted  ‘No Jews. No Negroes. No Dogs‘.  This was changed to “which, for fifty years has boasted the power and frequency of its black-balls.  This isn’t the last time in the Ian Fleming books where race and religion are written in, let’s call it “an ideology fortunately changed” 
  • The last line of the manuscript was handwritten by Fleming to be “Do what I tell you.   This was changed to “Do as you’re told” in the final version of the book. 

For Your Eyes Only – published 1960 

From A View to a Kill – nothing to do with the movie! 

  • A rosebush splits and opens to a shaft.   
    Takes place in Paris? 
  • “You’re just like a lot of children playing at Red Indians,” says Mary Ann.  Very close to in Goldeneye when Natalya Simonova says to Blond, “You are just like boys with toys.”  

Death Leaves an Echo 

  • Starts in Jamaica 
  • Mrs. Wilson is scratched to become Mrs. Havelock 

Quantum of Solace 

  • Not really a Bond story, but he is in it.   More of a story within a story, that someone narrates to Bond.   Weird. 
  • Nassau – Bond didn’t like Nassau.   Everyone was too rich. 
  • Bond leaving for Miami the next day.  Castro rebels etc. 
  • Last line:  about Bond: “For some reason, his life suddenly seemed hollow and lonely” 

 

Risico – 32 pages  

Hildebrand Rarity  32 pages 

  • On the island of Mahe – the largest island in the Seychelles group. 
  • Mr. Krest – who appears in the movie License to Kill, actually appears in the Hildebrand Rarity and he collects marine specimens – something to do with his Foundation.   There is supposedly a fish that is only found around Chagrin island 
  • Sharks and barracuda  
  • Bond sent to Seychelles because the British fleet is having trouble with their fleet based in the Maldives – communists sabotaging.  Bond found nothing and thought all was good. 
  • Krest is driven by money and he can get anything he wants – even species protected by law – with enough money.  Page 13  
  • Page 14: Krest: “Twenty-four hours on the island and I’ve already knocked off three-quarters of my list.”   
  • The Hildebrand Rarity – is a fish “caught by Professor Hildebrand of Johannesburg University in a net off Chagrin Island in the Seychelles group. April 1925”  A unique member of the SquirrelFish family 

 

Goldfinger – published 1959 

  • Title page: GOLDFINGER typed out. Then crossed out and above is handwritten: “The Richest Man in the World”, then that is scribbled out with pen, and beneath it is written in pen, “GOLDFINGER”   Fascinating to know what Ian Fleming was thinking when he did this, but the name could have been changed!     We could have been referring to Ian Fleming’s seventh novel (3rd movie from EON Productions) as “The Richest Man in the World.”   Doesn’t have the zing of Goldfinger, does it?   Maybe why Fleming changed it back! 
  • Jill Masterton was originally called Tilly Masterton.  Tilly was scratched out and renamed Jill.    Remember in the movie, the sisters have the last name of MasterSon, note the S, not Masterton with a T as the book has it 
  • His car was an Aston Martin DB III in the book.  In the manuscript, it was a DB7 until it was crossed out and became the DB III.  We all know the DB5 from this movie. 

 

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – published 1963 

 

  • Page 29: Fleming scratches out  “M. Stomboni” and hand-writes in pen, “Draco”!    Another name change that to us Bond fans, Draco is so well known!  Not Stomboni!”   And Fleming describes his face as a very delightful face, “so lit with humour and mischief and magnetism . . .”  Gabriele Ferzetti was perfectly cast to place Marc-Ange Draco!   One of my favorite Bond characters ever. 
  • On page 33:  Draco is talking about his marriage and the result of his marriage is his daughter, “Terrizina.”   But wait!  Fleming scratches out Terrzina and pens in “Teresa”! 
  • On page 34, we discover that Tracy’s first husband, an Italian that Draco did not like, deserted her.  BUT…..Fleming scratches out “Draco” which was going to be her husband’s last name, and puts in instead Count “Julio Vincenzo.”   Wow!  So Fleming reversed the surnames of her Italian husband and her father because earlier on page 29 he changed Stomboni to Draco for Teresa’s father!!  All on Page 34 
  • Page 29: When Bond meets Draco for the first time, he does indeed throw the knife at a calendar, saying “September the 16th” and throws the knife sticking it in the calendar.   “Draco says, “actually the 15th but quite respectable.”   Very close to the movie. 
  • Blofeld info on Page 50 
  • Page 67 is the description in Chapter Nine: Ten Gorgeous Girls (Piz Gloria in the movie) 
  • Page 125: Piz Gloria mentioned.  Back up to …. 
  • Page 129: Blofeldhandwritten 
  • Page `62 the Walther PPK is mentioned 
  • Page 1`66: Fleming scratches out Harpers and writes in “Jack Daniels’ bourbon”  Bond pours himself a drink on the rocks and added water 
  • Married at the British Council (page 192) on New Year’s Day at 10:30 am.  The head of Station M was the best man.   After the ceremony at the Counsel’s home, Bond walks down the steps to the waiting Lancia, with white ribbons tied from the corners of the windscreen to the grill of the radiator.  This is not in Portugal however, but on the Autobahn near Strasburg and Kufstein. 
  • Tracy is driving in the written manuscript and Bond asks her to pull over because “I’ve got two things to do.”   1) He took her into his arms and kissed her.  In pen, Fleming writes about the typewritten lines, “That’s the first thing and I just want to say that” (back to typewritten  “I’ll look after you, Tracy.   Will you mind being looked after?”    Tracy replies with a smile, and concludes “Let’s just look after each other.” 
  • Then Bond wants to get out of the car and take down the ribbons, saying, “ I can’t stand looking like a coronation. D’you mind?”  So this part is very close to the movie.   Then they took the roof down on the car.  “Let’s,” says Tracy.  “We can only see half the world with it up (handwritten)… 
  • As they drive, Bond notices a speck of red – a car miles behind them.    And Tracy notices it is coming up fast and asks, “Do you want me to lose him?”  “No,” said Bond.  “Let him go.  We’ve got all the time in the world.”  And Bond waves them past.  He hears a shattering roar and the windscreen disappeared.  Bond catches sight of a gun being withdrawn into the red car, and Bond and Tracy’s Lancia crashed on the side of the road, and Bond’s head hits the windscreen and he was out. When he came to, an Autobahn patrolman was shaking him.  When Bond awoke, he saw Tracy with her face buried in the steering wheel.  That’s when Bond sayto the patrolman, just like in the movie, “It’s all right.  It’s quite alright.  She’s having a rest.  We’ll be going on soon.  There’s no hurry.  You see,” and Bond whispers into Tracy’s hair, “You see, we’ve got all the time in the world.”  This is the iconic line in the entire movie, and the Louis Armstrong song of the same title is haunting when heard from this point forward.   

Diamonds are Forever 

  • The manuscript starts out untitled – Handwritten Chapter 1 at the start 
  • Fleming had some major rework with inserts and cross-outs with his discussion with Vallance. 
  • Fleming is trying to describe the fake diamond that Bond was looking at.  He originally typed glass, then hand wrote crystal, crossed it out and changed it to quartz.  He had to change “glass” to quartz later on the page as well.  
  • Chapter 13 in the book:  Page 85 in the manuscript.  Insert describing Bond’s feelings about Negroes.  Probably good Fleming scratched it out. “Bond liked the Negro races but something in him objected to the idea of close physical contact with them and he knew that anthropologists were agreed that the revulsion was mutual.”
  • Wint and Kidd were originally Wint and Gore, no Mr. in front of their names, just the last names. 

 

The Spy Who Loved Me 

Ian Fleming with Vivienne Michel 

  • Spine & Title credits this to Ian Fleming and Vivienne Michel.  Vivienne Michel is the character name of the person who tells the story from her perspective 
  • On pg 9, “My name is Vivienne Michel and at the time I …”   Vivienne is originally spelled Vivian, crossed out and spelled Vivienne” 
  • Most of the edits were minor grammar, spelling, wordsmithing in this manuscript. 
  • Look at the last page as he changed the last line. I love looking at the last line changes.  It can really shape your closing thoughts of the book  It originally said: 
  • I knew exactly who he was and what he was. … This was a man.  
  • (the ellipses were words overtyped so we can’t read them.) 
  • Now says: 
  • “I knew exactly who he was and what he was and everything, every smallest detail would be written on my heart forever.”

 

You Only Live Twice 

  • Credit for the poem at beginning changed from “Japanese itinerant poet” to “Japanese poet” 
  • “To R.M. Hughes & Torao Sito” changed to “To Richard Hughes & Roao Saito 
  • Chapter 7 inserts for page 49 list the poison categories apparently replacing what was originally on pgs. 50 and 51 which are not in the manuscript 

 

  • Not many corrections in this version.  However, there are numerous pages with different typefaces and paper sizes.   I presume that this means pages were replaced in this edition of the manuscript so we can’t see the original 

 

Moonraker 

  • This must have been an early draft – a lot of inserts are in this manuscript 
  • 3T2A0178.jpg –  Title page with lots of renamed chapters including:
    “The Man with Ogre’s Teeth”   Was changed to  The “Shiner” 
  • My favorite Insert in all of the manuscripts was in chapter 2 of Moonraker.   There is a long hand-written insert that was pasted on top of the original manuscript page so we couldn’t see what it replaced.  What makes this so classic is that the paper Ian Fleming used for this had a letterhead of CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON DC.  This letterhead isn’t in the book.  It just happened to be the paper Fleming used to write his changes. 
  • The ending again changes with a hand-written addition:  

She laughed. ‘I’m sorry I can’t oblige.  But there are plenty of others waiting to be picked.’ 

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said Bond.  ‘Well, goodbye, Gala.’  He held out his hand. 

‘Goodbye, James.’ 

He touched her for the last time and then they turned away from each other and walked off into their different lives. 

 So, 11 manuscripts later, we feel like we know Bond, and Ian Fleming much better.  We’ve gotten a peek into Fleming’s mind as he developed these stories. This was a fabulous outing to see the original manuscripts of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels  – what a unique experience and opportunity!   We really loved seeing the handwritten entries Fleming made.  That was really cool.  We would love to go back and study the manuscripts even more!   Just as a reminder, you need to make a reservation to use the reading room so don’t just show up.    

One final thought:  Indiana University is at a very large university in the US.   If you are into college sports of any type, you can try to schedule a visit around a game.  I scheduled our trip so that we could see the Indiana University basketball team play.  Dan is a big Marquette basketball fan.  I sort of forced him to go see Indiana play.  Unfortunately, the Indiana Hoosier basketball team got blown out.  That was the only disappointment with this trip.  The campus was great, the Lilly Library was fantastic, and Mother Bear’s pizza still is fantastic. 

This wraps up our trip to The Lilly Library at Indiana University!  

Subscribe to our podcasts on spy movies, as we look at connections between these films and other spy movie films, and their connections to the real world!  This podcast was focused on Bond and the Ian Fleming manuscripts.  We have podcasts focused on Mission: Impossibleclassic spy moviesconnections between Bond and Sherlock Holmes, classic spy movies like The 39 Steps, Filming Location trips we’ve taken and more. 

Thanks for listening!   This is Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato from SpyMovienavigator.com – the Worldwide Community of Spy Move Fans – spy movie podcasts, videos, discussions and more!  If you like our podcasts, please give us a 5-star rating on iTunes and in Google Play – that helps us a lot!  Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram too.  And when you have feedback, an idea for a podcast, something you want to say – just click the red button on our website that says “Send us a Voicemail”, or send us a message and we may include it on our show! 


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Examining Ian Fleming’s Original James Bond Manuscripts – Part 1

Podcast Episode

Examining Ian Fleming’s Original James Bond Manuscripts – Part 1

Join Dan and Tom for Part One of their journey to The Lilly Library at Indiana University in the USA, as they examine, in-person, all of these wonderful James Bond masterpieces, gaining some insight into the novels and into Ian Fleming’s way of writing!

Dan and Tom of SpyMovieNavigator.com had the privilege of examining 11 of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond manuscripts – his actual typed pages, with hand-written edits in the margins, crossed-out sections, add-ins and more!  You can see where he changes a name that we all know, and then – there it is in the final published version of the novel!
Come with us to The Lilly Library at Indiana University in the USA, as we examine, in-person, all of these wonderful James Bond masterpieces, gaining some insight into the novels and into Ian Fleming’s way of writing!
This is Part one, covering Casino Royale to From Russia With Love, of a 2-part series!  Look for Part 2 as well!”

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Ian Fleming and the Lily Library 

The Ian Fleming Manuscripts!  Bond from the Page to the Screen! 

How would you like to touch and examine the actual pages that Ian Fleming typed when writing his James Bond novels?  Well, we did and here’s our story! 

Hi, this is Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato from SpyMovienavigator.com – the Worldwide Community of Spy Move Fans – spy movie podcasts, videos, discussions and more!  If you like our podcasts, please give us a 5star rating on iTunes and in Google Play – that helps us a lot!  Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram too.  And when you have feedback, an idea for a podcast, something you want to say – just click the red button on our website that says “Send us a Voicemail”, or send us a message and we may include it on our show! 

We like traveling, hunting down spy movie filming locations and other significant places that played a part in spy movies.   Like, when we were in London not too long ago, we stood on the steps, and at the door of Les Ambassadeurs in London.   Of course, we know that is the casino that Bond is playing baccarat in at the beginning of Dr. No – where we first meet Bond on film, and with his now-famous, “Bond. James Bond” introduction to Sylvia Trench and all of us!  It’s also when Ian Fleming met with some of the EON folks early on to solidify a deal to turn the books into films.  

Well, how about visiting a place that owns 11 of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels?  Type-written pages that he typed at Goldeneye in Jamaica!  With Ian Fleming’s hand-written notes, deletions and additions, edits in blue ink?  Well, Indiana University in the State of Indiana in the United States has a special library called, The Lilly Library – and they have the manuscripts!   

The maddening thing is that this is where I got my undergraduate degree.  I knew the library existed and that is was a rare book library.  I knew it had part of the Gutenberg Bible.  They have the letter with George Washington accepting the first presidency of the United States.  I just knew it as a rare book library and never went in there in my four years of study.  Now I find out it had 11 James Bond manuscripts typed and hand-written by Ian Fleming?   What better reason to go visit my alma mater, read the manuscripts and get a chance to see if Mother Bear’s pizza is still as good as I remember (it is). 

Only a fourhour ride for us, we drove down and spent a day and a half pouring over all 11 of the manuscripts.   We photographed every page of Casino Royale, the first novel.   We are trying to get permission to post some of these pictures.   We were able to turn the pages of each manuscript with ungloved hands – touching the very pages that Fleming typed in his typewriter in Jamaica.  And examining every edit he made in all 11 manuscripts.  

This was a thrill beyond belief!  If you are a spy movie fan, and especially as a James Bond fan, we would highly recommend this.   When we drove down there, parked the car in the nearby Student Union parking lot, and were walking to the door of the library, our hearts were racing!  We walked in, signed in, and went into the special room where they brought the manuscripts – from the vault!  SpyMovieNavigator was about to examine in person, the original manuscripts! 

One quick note:  you need to make a reservation for the reading room which you can do online at https://libraries.indiana.edu/lilly-library . You request what you want to read.   We allocated a day and a half and really could have used 3 – 4 days in order to go page-by-page with the manuscript and the published book.  

They brought each manuscript out, 2 at a time – one for Dan and one for Tom.  They set then on foam rubber stands that allowed the book to sit there, opened, on an angle so you can read, and easily turn the pages.   We were not allowed to pick up the books, and of course, not to make ANY marks on these valuable pages.    

Here are the manuscripts that they have.   Now, keep in mind, there may be other editions of these drafts – because there were some things in other drafts that made it into the books, and so on.   The only novel they don’t have is his last one, The Man With The Golden Gun. They don’t have Thunderball either, but that was based on a screenplay that was credited to Kevin McClory, Jack Wittingham, and Ian Fleming.  But that’s a different story we won’t go into this podcast, maybe a later one. 

Here are the 11 they have and we examined: 

  • Casino Royale published 1953  (21st  Movie: 2006) 
  • Live and Let Die – published 1954 (8th Movie: 1973) 
  • Moonraker – published 1955 (11th Movie: 1979) 
  • Diamonds are Forever – published 1956 ( 7th Movie:1971 ) 
  • From Russia With Love  published 1957 (Second Movie: 1963) 
  • Dr. No – published  1958 (First Movie: 1962) 
  • Goldfinger – published 1959 (3rd Movie – 1964) 
  • For Your Eyes Only – published 1960 (From A View to a Kill).  (12th Movie – 1981) 
  • Also part of this short story set: Death Leaves an Echo, Quantum of Solace, Risico 
  • The Spy Who Loved Me – published 1962 (10th Movie: 1977)  
  • On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – published 1963 (6th Movie – 1969) 
  • You Only Live Twice – published 1964 (5th Movie: 1967) 

Fleming used a lot of inserts to make changes.  Sometimes these would be written on the back of the previous page.  Other times they were typed and either inserted or pasted on the page. 

 We’re just going to go through a few of the highlights of paging through these manuscripts, book by book.   We can talk for a couple of hours about this great outing! 

Casino Royale published 1953  (Movie – 1962) 

  • The first page of the book and the manuscript have some slight differences so this isn’t the last manuscript. Many edits in all of the books handwritten by Ian Fleming.  
  • Fleming liked to name people in his books with names similar to real-life people.  Therefore, in the manuscripts, there are some name changes.  The first change is actually a company name change.  Messrs. Lascelles de Mercado was changed to Messrs. Caffrey.  It is interesting to see these as he had to go through other references to those names and change them too.  This was before cut/paste, Word, WordPerfect, Word processors, or even Wite-Out.  
  • What do you think, Petty?  Petty is scratched out.  Hand-written by Fleming is the word: “Penny.”   A couple of sentences later, Miss Pettavel is scratched out, and hand-written in its place is Miss Moneypenny!   OMG!  This is where it happened – right on this page!  Significant name change! 
  • The person who he modeled Pettavel after was based on Kathleen Pettigrew who was the personal assistant to the real-life MI6 director. 
  • CHECK FOR A VERSION RELEASED IN 2013 where Fleming had Bond as the real name, but James Secretan as his real name.  From an article by Susanna Lazarus, April 15th, 2013.  On page 59 in the version we have examined, he says his name is Bond! This isn’t until chapter 7. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309144/The-names-Secretan–James-Secretan-Early-Ian-Fleming-draft-reveals-nearly-chose-different-007.html  
  • Bentley details: changed it to an almost new 1933. 
  • The Bitch is dead – it’s in there! 
  • Vesper Martini – ingredients described 
  • In describing a member of SMERSH, the name “Maxim Gorki” is changed to “Trotsky” and gives an assassination date of August 22, 1940.  There was a real-life Russian Revolutionary named Leon Trotsky who was killed in Mexico.  Actually, the attack came on Aug 20th and Trotsky died on the 21st.  There was a Russian writer named Maxim Gorky who died in 1936.   

 

Live and Let Die – published 1954 

  • Title page IN RED INK: “The Undertaker’s Wind”, which is scratched out in blue ink, and above it printed in blue ink: “Live and Let Die”.   “Live and Let Die was also written in on the left side of the title page and scratched out.    
  • 134 manuscript pages Bond in America – because he did well with the CIA in the Casino job (Bond handling the Jamaican end for the British) 
  • All the gold coins minted before 1620.  Over 1000 have shown up in the US in the last few months 
  • Mr. Big stands for Buonaparte Ignace Gallia.  Plus he is huge height and bulk.  This was added to the story as an insert at x on page 11`.  Chapter 3 
  • There is a hand-written insert for Page 18,  “and don’t go stirring up a lot of trouble for us.  This case isn’t ripe yet.  Until it is, our policy with Mr. Big is “live and let live.”  Bond looked quizzically at Dexter.  “In my job,” he said, “when I come up against a man like this one, I have another motto.  It’s ‘live and let die.”   This is cool because this is an edit to the story and now a big part of it! 
  • Description of Solitaire page 36 
  • Solitaire: Her real name was added as a written in the edit by Fleming at the top of page 53: to Bond: “I will just tell you my real name.   It is Simone Latrelle, but you can call me what you like.” 

 

From Russia With Love  published 1957 

  • Puts chapter titles 
  • Donovan Grant – the result of a midnight union between a German professional (The Mighty O’Donavanweight lifter and a Southern Irish waitress (Grant).  Behind a circus test just outside of Belfast.  Page 11 in the original manuscript 
  • Lots of background details on Grant and his life.  Kills Dr. Baumbartner as a test.   Then put into training for Russians.  He was an advanced manic depressive.  He carried out many executions for the soviets 
  • Head of SMERSH was General Brubozabou – schikovknow as G. 
  • Soviets agree that an act of terrorism against the British Secret Service would be their next move – looking for a target of someone who is admired and whose destruction would cause dismay.   They decide on Bond who had twice frustrated the operations of SMERSH – at the Casino with LeChiffre and Mr. Big.  And another adds Drax (Moonraker) WHO WAS FOILED BY Bond.  The most recent info was Bond having something to do with a diamond affair, from Africa to America,  Pages 38 – 42.  Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker had already been published – so some acknowledgment of previous missions and books.   
  • Bond’s scar: “three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of his right cheek”  Page 43.  Page 44: Expert pistol shot, boxer, knife-thrower, does not use disguises; languages French and German; smokes heavily; vices; drinks but not to excess and women.  Knows the basic holds of Judo 
  • Kronsteen and Klebb get the orders to kill Bond.   Page 52 
  • Biela Klebb changed to Rosa Page 54 and  Fleming must scratch out Biela and insert Rosa from now on! 
  • Romanov gets recruited by Klebb page 58 and the dialogue is very very close to the movie.  It is a remarkable job in the movie to capture this moment.   
  • Klebb picks Grant page 75 
  • Bond in a funk page 84 because Tiffany Case, his love of several months, had left him.  They had gotten on very well, because M asked him to explain, and there “was some idea we might get married”  Page 89.  But she then met some American on the Military Attaché staff and they both went to America.   Fleming writes in the next top margin (page 90) that M was secretly pleased and the last thing he would want is “for Bond to be permanently tied to one woman’s skirt” and that is in the final print version of the book! 
  • Bond prefers to fly on the 13th of the month because no one wants to and he has fewer passengers to deal with and gets better service.  “I always choose the thirteenth whenever I can”  Page 97 
  • During a very rough part of the flight to Istanbul, Bond gets concerned, and Fleming writes in the bottom margin with an arrow to where it should be placed: “Bond “smelled the smell of danger.   It was a real smell, something like the mixture of sweat and electricity you get in an amusement arcade.”    Fleming describes Bond as going into his hurricane room – the kind of strong room they have in the middle of their homes in the tropics to protect themselves – he only did this when things were “beyond his control and no other possible action could be taken”   Page 100. 
  • Kerim: “Common blood is the best security” talking about his sons and uncles working with him. 
  • In the manuscript, the chapter titles The Tunnel of Rats – has pages 121 – 177 lined out in pencil.  Yet a lot of it is in the book.   Then again with CHAPTER TWENTY THREE from 178-187, and again for Chapter twenty-four FROM 188-195 and CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE from 196-20-5, and CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX from 206-213 and CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN from 214-220 
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT is NOT lined out from 221–  228  

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James Bond is to Spies What Sherlock Holmes is to Detectives

Podcast Episode

James Bond is to Spies What Sherlock Holmes is to Detectives

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming created some of the best known literary characters this world has ever known. Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond made the leap from the pages of novels and short stories to the big screen – and nothing has been the same ever since. Join Dan and Tom as they take a look at how these two literary characters have changed the world of fiction writing. James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detectives! Let’s journey into this dark London world together and see what clues we can find!

Today, Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato are going to do some sleuthing around London – well, metaphorically that is! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming created some of the best-known literary characters this world has ever known. Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond made the leap from the pages of novels and short stories to the big screen – and nothing has been the same ever since.

James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detectives! Let’s journey into this dark London world together and see what clues we can find!

 

Related Content

James Bond is to Spies What Sherlock Holmes is to Detectives

This transcript is a subset of what is in the podcast.  We recommend you listen to the podcast.

Sherlock Bond? James Holmes? James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detectives! Let’s journey into this dark London world together and see what clues we can find!
Hi, this is Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato at SpyMovieNavigator.com – the Worldwide Community of Spy Movie Fans – Spy Movie podcasts, videos, discussion and more!

Today, we’re are going to do some sleuthing around London – well, metaphorically that is! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming created some of the best known literary characters this world has ever known. Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond made the leap from the pages of novels and short stories to the big screen.  Nothing has been the same ever since.

I have always been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and have read the 4 novels and 56 short stories. When Bond came to the screen in Dr. No in 1962, followed quickly by From Russia with Love and then Goldfinger – I was hooked on Bond as well. As you know by now, I like to collect autographs, and on this subject, I am a proud owner of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s autograph. Amazing! I still need to get Ian Fleming’s!

Sherlock Holmes has been in print since “A Study In Scarlet” was published in 1887.  So, Holmes has been sleuthing for roughly 130 years, non-stop, while James Bond has been spying now for roughly 65 years, and is as popular today as ever.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle learned a lot about what Holmes would become from his professor, Joseph Bell, at Doyle’s medical school. Joseph Bell would use his deductive powers to diagnose problems with patients and was usually right.  He was called upon by Scotland Yard for help. Ian Fleming learned a lot from his Naval Intelligence experience, and his boss, Rear Admiral John Godfrey. His real-life experience contributed immensely to his creation of James Bond and the detailed stories that surrounded Bond. He would create espionage plans.   He created the 30 Assault Unit of commandos which was made up of specialized intelligence troops. So, both authors drew heavily from their real-world experience.

And for Doyle, he was a trained doctor.  So the creation of Dr. Watson and his subsequent medical knowledge was natural for Doyle to write about. So, Holmes was like Professor Joseph Bell, and Watson was like Doyle. James Bond has no close sidekick on an ongoing basis, though the CIA’s Felix Leiter comes close. But the character of Bond was, for the most part, a compilation of real-world espionage personnel Fleming grew to know in his time in Naval Intelligence.  This included the Serbian double agent, Dusko Popov (Codename: TRICYCLE to the British; SCOOT to the Germans). Fleming knew Popov, and it is said that Popov was a skilled baccarat player.  Popov and won at the casino in Estoril, Portugal.  This was witnessed by Fleming, which is one of the reasons Bond is skilled and in casinos in the first novel!

AS AN ASIDE: Tom and I were in that very casino in Estoril, Portugal.  We were also in the bar at the Palacio Hotel next to the casino.  This bar is where Fleming met Popov on occasion.  We actually sat in the same spot they sat. When we were there, we were looking for the second exit in the bar. We knew there were supposed to be 2 doors. We came in the front door to the bar. There is a door on the side that goes into the restaurant area. We noticed the floor wasn’t the same between the bar and the restaurant. We asked them and they told us they added the restaurant seating a few years ago.

Fleming also attributed many things he liked in his life – from fast cars to sea island cotton shirts and elegance – into James Bond. So, both authors infused their main characters with dimensions of themselves, and both authors were, of course, very well educated.

Another similarity between Doyle and Fleming is this: Doyle was originally going to name Sherlock, Sherrinford Holmes, and Watson was going to be Ormand Sacker. Well, it turned out to be Sherlock and Dr. John H. Watson.  A 1952 draft of Casino Royale by Fleming, reveals James Bond’s alternate, albeit cover name: James Secretan. This was not in the draft we examined at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in the United States, in February 2019. They own 11 original Fleming Bond manuscripts and we examined them all page by page! We have all wondered, why James Bond almost always uses his real name.  Everyone knows who he is! Everyone of us has asked this same question reading any Bond novel or watching any Bond film. Well, here is the answer….. drum roll please!

In an article by Susanna Lazarus on April 15 2013, she quotes Fleming’s niece, Kate Grimond, as saying: “Ian must have realized it would cause confusion if he had Bond known as Bond to his friends and the security services in London, but as Secretan for his cover name to strangers or people he didn’t want to know he was a spy.”

So, when you are wondering about this the next time, then remember this! Though, we don’t think this makes a whole lot of sense.  Look at  Bond’s friend Mathis in the movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.  It comes out that Mathis was his “cover” name! See the death scene in Quantum of Solace for this tidbit! But now we know!

In total, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories over 40 years, while Ian Fleming wrote 14 works, 2 of which were collections of short stories, in about 14 years. After the deaths of each, their characters lived on through authorized novels and stories by various authors, approved by their relative estates, and some not approved. The Conan Doyle Estate approved a novel in 2011 to be written about Sherlock Holmes – the first approved since 1915 the last canonical novel (by Doyle himself) was published.

In a January 8 2014 ruling, a judge in Chicago ruled that Holmes was out of copyright protection – meaning anyone can write stories about Sherlock Holmes now. Wow. Unless this ruling is overturned, this will stand. We have not heard of it being overturned, but if you are thinking or writing a Sherlock Holmes story, you better check it out yourself. Copyright laws have continually been extended in the US, and I think the last I heard it was 70 years after the author’s death, or something like that!

Regardless, both Sherlock Homes and James Bond have survived their respective authors’ deaths through many additional books, short stories, movies, plays, radio adaptations and more – and by many different actors. The first Sherlock Holmes radio show was in 1937 starring Louie Hector, Clive Brook played the first speaking Holmes in film.  Basil Rathbone did 14 Sherlock Holmes movies. But one interesting actor played Holmes in a 1976 made-for-television movie called “Sherlock Holmes in New York”: Roger Moore – this was in between The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)! Many different actors played Sherlock Holmes, and so far, through EON Productions official James Bond 007 movies, only 6 different men have played James Bond. But the similarities are there – the characters live on!

ASIDE: Watch the entire “Sherlock Holmes in New York” here:  https://youtu.be/7K3Nwdg9x3w

Of course, both characters are fictional, but Conan Doyle used to get letters from people asking for Sherlock Holmes’s autograph.  They would also ask if Holmes could help them with a case. Now, we don’t think many or any people out there think James Bond is a real live person . . . but who knows?!

For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he never dreamt he would be writing so many stories about Sherlock Holmes. After “A Study in Scarlet,” his first novel (1887), he thought he was finished. Doyle really wanted to write historical novels – medieval stuff – but Holmes was in demand, and he wrote for the money, like Fleming said he did! In 1891, just 4 years after his first Holmes publication, Doyle wrote to his mother, saying he was thinking of killing off Holmes – basically because Holmes was ruling his life! His mother said No! But in 1893, Doyle wrote, “The Final Problem” in this story, both Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarity, plunge off a cliff into Reichenbach Falls – to their deaths.

In a similar vein, Ian Fleming, at the conclusion of his fifth James Bond novel, “From Russia With Love,” (April 1957), Bond is left poisoned at the end of the novel, and his fate is unknown. Perhaps, Fleming was going to kill him off too. And even in Fleming’s book, “You Only Live Twice,” Bond is a Japanese fisherman, with amnesia. Another way to get out of Bond? Who knows!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle received such an outcry from Holmes fans demanding Holmes return! They would not accept his death! And Doyle, feeling trapped to keep Holmes alive, indeed resurrects Sherlock Holmes in 1903, after 10 years, and writes Holmes stories until the last one published in 1927.

Holmes and Bond
• It has been written that all modern detective stories begin with Sherlock Holmes. And we at SpyMovieNavigator.com contend that every spy movie since Bond must tip its hat to EON Productions.

• Holmes was a “social genius” meaning he knew how to move through society to solve his cases – through the Baker Street Irregulars, disguises, science. Bond was a spy genius – he knew what to do in most instances. Now – there is a huge difference – Holmes did not fail often – even in the sub-plots. He was beaten by The Woman, Irene Adler, but not in many other episodes. Bond never really fails the ultimate goal – but in the sub-plots, a lot of people he touches dies – in Goldfinger alone, for example, both Jill Masterson and her sister Tilly Masterson both die after Bond got involved with them. Holmes doesn’t lose too many comrades along the way, if any.

• Holmes had some fighting skills, as he was very good with boxing.  He has strong hands (“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”), where he says he unbent the fireplace poker.  He’s a swift runner. He has some martial arts skills as he makes reference in “The Empty House” that he has some knowledge of bartitsu.  This is some type of Japanese martial arts. It’s actually a combination of many modified by a man, Edward Willian Barton-Wright.  The name is kind of a combination of his name Bart and jujitsu.   I believe Conon Doyle calls it ‘baritsu’ in the story. He is also good with a sword and stick fighting. In short, he can take care of himself if necessary. Though he rarely carried a weapon, he is a skilled shot as is evidenced in “The Musgrave Ritual” when he shoots the Victoria Regina insignia in the wall. Bond is trained well in martial arts, and always carries a weapon. However, in terms of intellect, Holmes has the edge, which is why he most often did not have to fight.  His powers of deduction were baffling to all.  His mind is superior to any other literary mind, except maybe for Mycroft’s (his brother’s). So, both are men who take care of themselves in a fight – whether with guns or hand to hand.

• In a chaotic London in the late 1800s, with Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes was a beacon of sanity, and hope. Every Bond story paints a chaotic world scene as well, and we develop our opinion of James Bond also as a beacon of hope for our times.

• Both Bond and Holmes lived in London. Holmes got out of London too – to exotic places for the time, like France and Switzerland. He traveled the world extensively for three years when the world thought he was dead. Bond, of course, mostly gets out of London, and has been all over the world. The movies continue to focus on exotic locales, like Bond 25 returning to Jamaica.

• Holmes of course worked for himself, and for whatever client he accepted. Bond of course is a public servant, working for MI6.  He was a “blunt instrument of the government” as Fleming described him once. Holmes answers to no one but himself. Bond must always answer to M.

• Holmes had a great influence on real police work.  He studied forensics before there was forensics, ballistics, chemical analysis, handwriting analysis, autopsies, microscopic examination, blood analysis, going undercover with disguises – he did all these things before police forces did them! There are many shows about the real Sherlock Holmes that go into how he impacted criminal investigations forever forward. Bond, on the other hand, had special skills that were pertinent to his line of work as a spy.  He was MI6’s best gambler, he knew cars, he was the best shot, he was a quick thinker, he could outguess opponents and so on. For Holmes, science was omnipotent, and reason could solve any problems. For Bond, it was finesse, strength, winning people over, killing skills. Did Bond influence anything in the real spy world? It was more the opposite. Remember the rebreather he uses in Thunderball where he could stay submerged underwater and breathe for a set number of minutes?  That got the attention, I believe, of the real British military, as the production crew got a call. The military asked about the rebreather, and asked exactly how long you can stay submerged using it? The answer, through the prop man who built it, was: “As long as you can hold your breath!”

• Sherlock Holmes had very few outside interests, and really had no friends other than dear ole Watson. He was devoted to his detective work.  He had no genuine interest in art, great food, politics and so on.  And he used cocaine. Yes, he played the violin, and occasionally he and Watson went to the theater or a concert. But most of his time was dedicated to advancing his knowledge of detection – doing experiments, writing monographs (papers, theses) on various topics, like tobacco, etc. And we know that Holmes, after he retires, takes up bee keeping in the countryside. We know Holmes only through Watson remember.  That friendship between Watson and Holmes is the greatest in literature. Bond, in his world, was very similar. At one point when asked if that is a friend, he quips, “I have no friends.” His only true interest was in cars, and he loved his Bentley in the books, and other faster cars like the Aston Martin DB5 in the movies. So, both were very similar – as Bond was also dedicated to his job. Both, we think, were a little out of touch with the day to day world around them.

• ARCHENEMIES: Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond had archenemies. For Holmes, it was Professor Moriarity, the (“Napoleon of Crime”).  For Bond, it was Blofeld, SPECTRE, and SMERSH. Professor Moriarity was the intellectual equal of Holmes, but on the criminal side. Many of Bonds villains, including Blofeld, are equally clever as Bond. Though, they never just shoot him to kill him. But the Professor didn’t just kill Sherlock Holmes either, though he tried at times to do so. In the actual Doyle stories, Moriarity was only featured twice, but was given a greater role in subsequent stories, television and radio adaptations, and movies.

• Though half a century apart, we don’t think Holmes and Bond lived too close to each other geographically.  Holmes lived on Baker Street and Bond in Chelsea. They were probably about 12 miles or so apart (or 19.3 kilometers).

• What does Holmes look like? Sydney Paget’s illustrations in ‘The Strand’ magazine set the image of Holmes forever – tall, thin, pronounced nose, long lanky fingers, etc. Basil Rathbone was a perfect fit for the Sherlock Holmes films. Bond is described by Fleming as looking like Hoagy Carmichael. Generally, he is considered to be about 6 feet tall, a slim build, a scar on his right cheek; blue-grey eyes; a “cruel” mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which rests on his forehead. Some similarities, though Holmes is much taller. Both have stern looks.

• Holmes often said, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Holmes always subscribed to the premise that data drives theory.  In other words, the theory should fit the data. And we think Bond acts on that premise as well, as he collects data through observations and acts on it. The premise follows the thread of data to the theory, and ultimately the solution.

• Holmes in “The Sign of Four,” and Bond in The World Is Not Enough had chase scenes on the Thames in London!

• And lastly, was Holmes a spy? There are various theories about this.  In part, because he did work for his brother Mycroft, who was a very high up person in the British Government.  But it is never made clear exactly what Mycroft does. But at one point, Sherlock claims that Mycroft “remains the most indispensable man in the country”. In “The Adventures Of The Bruce-Partington Plans”, plans were stolen for a secret submarine, and so Holmes was doing spy work! Bond is ALWAYS doing spy work, but Holmes is mostly doing his consulting detective work, and generally not involved in international intrigue, but sometimes he is!

Of course, James Bond lives on through additional authorized James Bond novels, with the approval of Ian Fleming Publications, and through the EON Productions 24 James Bond 007 movies to date – with Bond 25 in the works as we speak. Bond is spying in his 66th year already!

Sherlock Holmes has been the subject of something like 120 novels since the death of Doyle, 100s of films and information segments about Holmes, radio adaptations, and live plays. Holmes is in his 132nd year now sleuthing! If you like Sherlock Holmes, check out a nice website, EverythingSherlock.com

All of this makes us believe more than ever, that James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detective! That’s how BIG Bond is!

We hoped you enjoyed sleuthing and spying with us today! Please keep coming back to our website at SpyMovieNavigator.com, download our podcasts and spy with us! Thanks for listening! This is Dan Silvestri and Tom Pizzato at SpyMovieNavigator.com – the Worldwide Community of Spy Movie Fans – Spy Movie podcasts, videos, discussion and more!


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James Bond is to Spies What Sherlock Holmes is to Detectives

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James Bond is to Spies What Sherlock Holmes is to Detectives!

Sherlock Bond?   James Holmes?  James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detectives!  Let’s journey into this dark London world together and see what clues we can find!  Download our podcast!

At SpyMovieNavigator.com – the Worldwide Community of Spy Movie Fans –we’re going to take a look at the relationship between James Bond and Sherlock Holmes, as we look  at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming as well!

Today, we’re are going to do some sleuthing around London – well, metaphorically that is!  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming created some of the best known literary characters this world has ever known.   Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond made the leap from the pages of novels and short stories to the big screen – and nothing has been the same ever since.

I have always been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and have read the 4 novels and 56 short stories.   When Bond came to the screen in Dr. No in 1962, followed quickly by From Russia with Love and then Goldfinger – I was hooked on Bond as well.  As you know by now, I like to collect autographs, and on this subject, I am a proud owner of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s autograph.   Amazing!   I still need to get Ian Fleming’s!

Sherlock Holmes has been in print since “A Study In Scarlet” was published in 1887 – so Holmes has been sleuthing for roughly 130 years, non-stop, while James Bond has been spying now for roughly 65 years, and is as popular today as ever.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle learned a lot of what Holmes would become from his professor, Joseph Bell, at Doyle’s medical school.   Joseph Bell would use his deductive powers to diagnose problems with patients, and was usually right, and he was called upon by Scotland Yard for help.   Ian Fleming learned a lot from his Naval Intelligence experience, and his boss, Rear Admiral John Godfrey.  His real-life experience contributed immensely to his creation of James Bond and the detailed stories that surrounded Bond.   He would create espionage plans and created the 30 Assault Unit of commandos which was made up of specialized intelligence troops.    So both authors drew heavily from their real-world experience.

And for Doyle, he was a trained doctor, so the creation of Dr. Watson, and his subsequent medical knowledge, was a natural for Doyle to write about.   So Holmes was like Professor Joseph Bell, and Watson was like Doyle.  James Bond has no close sidekick on an ongoing basis, though the CIA’s Felix Leiter comes close.  But the character of Bond was, for the most part, a compilation of real-world espionage personnel Fleming grew to know in his time in Naval Intelligence, including the Serbian double agent, Dusko Popov (Codename: TRICYCLE to the British; SCOOT to the Germans).   Fleming knew Popov, and it is said that Popov was a skilled baccarat player, and won at the casino in Estoril, Portugal, witnessed by Fleming, which is one of the reasons Bond is skilled and in casinos in the first novel!.

AS AN ASIDE:  Tom and I were in that very casino in Estoril, Portugal, and in the bar at the Palacio Hotel next to the casino, where Fleming met Popov on occasion, and actually sat in the same spot they sat.

Fleming also attributed many things he liked in his life – from fast cars, to sea island cotton shirts and elegance – into James Bond.  So both authors infused their main characters with dimensions of themselves, and both authors were, of course, very well educated.

Another similarity between Doyle and Fleming is this:  Doyle was originally going to name Sherlock,  Sherrinford Holmes, and Watson was going to be Ormand Sacker.  Well, it turned out to be Sherlock and Dr. John H. Watson.

A 1952 draft of Casino Royale by Fleming, reveals James Bond’s alternate, albeit cover name: James Secretan.  This was not in the draft we examined at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in the United States, in February 2019.  They own 11 original Fleming Bond manuscripts and we examined them all page by page!  We have all wondered, why does James Bond almost always use his real name – everyone knows who he is!  Everyone of us has asked this same question reading any Bond novel or watching any Bond film.   Well, here is the answer….. drum roll please!

In an article by Susanna Lazarus on April 15 2013, she quotes Fleming’s niece, Kate Grimond, as saying: “Ian must have realized it would cause confusion if he had Bond known as Bond to his friends and the security services in London, but as Secretan for his cover name to strangers or people he didn’t want to know he was a spy.”

So when you are wondering about this the next time, then remember this!  Though, we don’t think this makes a whole lot of sense – since even Bond’s friend Mathis in the movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace – it comes out that Mathis was his “cover” name!  See the death scene in Quantum of Solace for this tidbit!   But now we know!

In total, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories over 40 years, while Ian Fleming wrote 14 works, 2 of which were collections of short stories, in about 14 years.  After the deaths of each, their characters lived on through authorized novels and stories by various authors, approved by their relative estates, and some not approved.     The Conan Doyle Estate approved a novel in 2011 to be written about Sherlock Holmes – the first approved since 1915 the last canonical novel (by Doyle himself) was published.

In a January 8 2014 ruling, a judge in Chicago ruled that Holmes was out of copyright protection – meaning anyone can write stories about Sherlock Holmes now.   Wow. Unless this ruling is overturned, this will stand.   We have not heard of it being overturned, but if you are thinking or writing a Sherlock Holmes story, you better check it out yourself.  Copyright laws have continually been extended in the US, and I think the last I heard it was 70 years after the author’s death, or something like that!

Regardless, both Sherlock Homes and James Bond have survived their respective authors’ deaths through many additional books, short stories, movies, plays, radio adaptations and more – and by many different actors.   The first Sherlock Holmes radio show was in 1937 starring Louie Hector, Clive Brook played the first speaking Holmes in film, and Basil Rathbone did 14 Sherlock Holmes movies.  But one interesting actor who played Holmes in a 1976 made-for-television movie called Sherlock Holmes in New York: Roger Moore – this was in between The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)!  Many different actors played Sherlock Holmes, and so far, through EON Productions official James Bond 007 movies, only 6 different men have played James Bond.  But the similarities are there – the characters live on!

ASIDE: Watch the entire Sherlock Holmes in New York right here!

https://youtu.be/7K3Nwdg9x3w

Of course, both characters are fictional, but Conan Doyle used to get letters from people asking for Sherlock Holmes’s autograph and if Holmes could help them with a case.  Now, we don’t think many or any people out there think James Bond is a real live person . . . but who knows?!

For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he never dreamt he would be writing so many stories about Sherlock Holmes.   After “A Study in Scarlet,” his first novel (1887), he thought he was finished.  Doyle really wanted to write historical novels – medieval stuff – but Holmes was in demand, and he wrote for the money, like Fleming said he did!  In 1891, just 4 years after his first Holmes publication, Doyle wrote to his mother, saying he was thinking of killing off Holmes – basically because Holmes was ruling his life!  His mother said No!   But in 1893, Doyle wrote, “The Final Problem” in this story, both Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarity, plunge off a cliff into Reichenbach Falls – to their deaths.

In a similar vein, Ian Fleming, at the conclusion of his fifth James Bond novel, “From Russia With Love,” (April 1957), Bond is left poisoned at the end of the novel, and his fate is unknown.   Perhaps, Fleming was going to kill him off too.   And even in Fleming’s book, “You Only Live Twice,” Bond is a Japanese fisherman, with amnesia.  Another way to get out of Bond?  Who knows!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle received such an outcry from Holmes fans demanding Holmes return!  They would not accept his death!  And Doyle, feeling trapped to keep Holmes alive, indeed resurrects Sherlock Holmes in 1903, after 10 years, and writes Holmes stories until the last one published in 1927.

 

Holmes and Bond

  • It has been written that all modern detective stories begin with Sherlock Holmes. And we at SpyMovieNavigator.com contend that every spy movie since Bond must tip its hat to EON Productions.
  • Holmes was a “social genius” meaning he knew how to move through society to solve his cases – through the Baker Street Irregulars, disguises, science. Bond was a spy genius – he knew what to do in most instances.   Now – there is a huge difference – Holmes did not fail often – even in the sub-plots.   He was beaten by The Woman, Irene Adler, but not in many other episodes.   Bond never really fails the ultimate goal – but in the sub-plots, a lot of people he touches dies – in Goldfinger alone, for example, both Jill Masterson and her sister Tilly Masterson both die after Bond got involved with them.   Holmes doesn’t lose too many comrades along the way, if any.
  • Holmes had some fighting skills, as he was very good with boxing, has strong hands (“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”), where he says he unbent the fireplace poker) a swift runner, has some martial arts skills as he makes reference in “The Empty House” that he has some knowledge of bartitsu – some type of Japanese martial arts (actually a combination of many modified by a man, Edward Willian Barton-Wright – which is kind of a combination of his name BART and jujitsu;, though I believe Conon Doyle calls it ‘baritsu’ in the story; he is also good with a sword and stick fighting. In short, he can take care of himself if necessary.   Though he rarely carried a weapon, he is a skilled shot as is evidenced in “The Musgrave Ritual” when he shoots the Victoria Regina insignia in the wall.  Bond is trained well in martial arts, and always carries a weapon. However, in terms of intellect, Holmes has the edge, which is why he most often did not have to fight – his powers of deduction were baffling to all – his mind is superior to any other literary mind, except maybe for Mycroft’s (his brother’s).   So both are men who take care of themselves in a fight – whether with guns or hand to hand.
  • In a chaotic London in the late 1800s, with Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes was a beacon of sanity, and hope. Every Bond story paints a chaotic world scene as well, and we develop our opinion of James Bond also as a beacon of hope for our times.
  • Both Bond and Holmes lived in London. Holmes got out of London too – to exotic places for the time, like France and Switzerland.  He traveled the world extensively for three years when the world thought he was dead.  Bond, of course, mostly gets out of London, and has been all over the world.  The movies continue to focus on exotic locales, like Bond 25 returning to Jamaica.
  • Holmes of course worked for himself, and for whatever client he accepted. Bond of course is a public servant, working for MI6, a “blunt instrument of the government” as Fleming described him once.  Holmes answers to no one but himself.  Bond must always answer to M.
  • Holmes had a great influence on real police work, as he studied forensics before there was forensics, ballistics, chemical analysis, handwriting analysis, autopsies, microscopic examination, blood analysis, going undercover with disguises – he did all these things before police forces did them! They are many shows about “The Real Sherlock Holmes: that go into how he impacted criminal investigations forever forward.  Bond, on the other hand,  had special skills that were pertinent to his line of work as a spy – he was MI6’s best gambler, he knew cars, he was the best shot, he was a quick thinker, he could outguess opponents and so on.   For Holmes, science was omnipotent and reason could solve any problems.  For Bond, it was finesse, strength, winning people over, killing skills.  Did Bond influence anything in the real spy world?  It was more the opposite.   Though, the rebreather he uses in Thunderball where he could stay submerged underwater and breath for a set number of minutes got the attention, I believe, of the real British military, as the production crew got a call.  They asked about the rebreather, and asked exactly how long you can stay submerged using it?   The answer, through the prop man who built it, was: “As long as you can hold your breath!”
  • Sherlock Holmes had very few outside interests, and really had no friends other than dear ole Watson. He was devoted to his detective work  – he had no genuine interest in art, great food, politics and so on – and he used cocaine.  Yes, he played the violin, and occasionally he and Watson went to the theater  or a concert.  But most of his time was dedicated to advancing his knowledge of detection – doing experiments, writing monographs (papers, theses) on various topics, like tobacco, etc.   And we know that Holmes, after he retires, takes up bee keeping in the countryside. We know Holmes only through Watson remember – and that friendship between Watson and Holmes is the greatest in literature.  Bond, in his world, was very similar.   At one point when asked if that is a friend, he quips, “I have no friends.”   His only true interest was in cars, and he loved his Bentley in the books, and other faster cars like the Aston Martin DB5 in the movies.   So both were very similar – as Bond was also dedicated to his job.  Both, we think, were a little out of touch with the day to day world around them.
  • ARCH-ENEMIES: Both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond had arch-enemies For Holmes, it was Professor Moriarty, the (“Napoleon of crime”) and for Bond it was Blofeld, SPECTRE, SMERSH.  Professor Moriarty was the intellectual equal of Holmes, but on the criminal side.   Many of Bonds villains, including Blofeld, are equally clever as Bond.   Though, they never just shoot him to kill him.  But the Professor didn’t just kill Sherlock Holmes either, though he tried at times to do so.  In the actual Doyle stories, Moriarty was only featured twice, but was given a greater role in subsequent stories, television and radio adaptations, and movies.
  • Though half a century apart, we don’t think Holmes and Bond lived too close to each other geographically – Holmes on Baker Street and Bond in Chelsea were probably more like 12 miles or so apart (or 19.3 kilometers).
  • What does Holmes look like? Sydney Paget’s illustrations in ‘The Strand’ magazine set the image of Holmes forever – tall, thin, pronounced nose, long lanky fingers etc.   Basil Rathbone was a perfect fit for the Sherlock Holmes films.

Bond is described by Fleming as looking like Hoagy Carmichael.   Generally, he is considered to be about 6 foot tall,  a slim build, a scar on his right cheek; blue-grey eyes; a “cruel” mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which rests on his forehead.  Some similarities, though Holmes is much taller.   Both have stern looks.

  • Holmes often said, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, n matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Holmes always subscribed to the premise that data drives theory – in other words, theory should fit the data.   And we think Bond acts on that premise as well, as he collects data through observations and acts on it.   The premise follows the thread of data to the theory, and ultimately the solution.
  • Holmes in “The Sign of Four,” and Bond in The World Is Not Enough had chase scenes on the Thames in London!
  • And lastly, was Holmes a spy? There are various theories about this, because he did work for his brother Mycroft, who was a very high up person in the British Government but it is never made clear exactly what he does.   But at one point, Sherlock claims that Mycroft  “ remains the most indispensable man in the country,  “The Adventures Of The Bruce-Partington Plans?”  In that story, plans were stolen for a secret submarine, and so Holmes was doing spy work!  Bond is ALWAYS doing spy work, but Holmes is mostly doing his consulting detective work, and generally not involved in international intrigue, but sometimes he is!

Of course, James Bond lives on through additional authorized James Bond novels, with the approval of Ian Fleming Publications, and through the EON Productions 24 James Bond 007 movies to date – with Bond 25 in the works as we speak.  Bond is spying in his 66th year already!

Sherlock Holmes has been the subject of something like 120 novels since the death of Doyle, 100s of films and information segments about Holmes, radio adaptations, and live plays.   Holmes is in his 132nd year now sleuthing!  If you like Sherlock Holmes, check out a nice website, EverythingSherlock.com

All of this makes us believe more than ever, that James Bond is to spies what Sherlock Holmes is to detective!   That’s how BIG Bond is!

We hoped you enjoyed sleuthing and spying with us today!  Please keep coming back to our website at SpyMovieNavigator.com, download out podcasts and spy with us!  Thanks for spending time with us and for being part of our the Worldwide Community of Spy Movie Fans!

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