 Ep. 95: James Bond Films – 1 to 10

July 24, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode is on the fictional British secret agent James Bond which was created by Ian Fleming and better known as 007. The James Bond movies has built a film franchise which is one of the longest running and most successful in cinematic history.

Now I have found over many years, after many discussions that nearly everyone’s favourite James Bond relates back to their generation which aligns me with Roger Moore. But it’s hard to go past the original Sean Connery who brought a handsome, physicality to the role with a suave demeaner, maybe Pierce Brosnan with his debonair persona possessing style and confidence in everything he did or maybe Daniel Craig the more gritty, and intense character grappling with a forever growing emotional toll.

But still for me I just can’t go past Roger Moore whose humour, charm and charisma would just bubble over with each appearance.

And when we are talking about favourite James Bond villains’ well, I just can’t go past Jaws played by Richard Kiel who appeared in two James Bond films “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Moonraker”. After relentlessly pursuing Bond he becomes the anti-hero, saves the day and falls in Love with Dolly.

Today’s mnemonic is on James Bond Films 1 to 10 in order.

So, with no further ado, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snap_from_Wax_Museum_at_Innovative_Film_city_Bangalore_144323.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Eon Productions, which now holds the adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels, made all but two films in the film series.[1][2]

In 1961, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased the filming rights to Fleming's novels.[3] They founded Eon Productions and, with financial backing by United Artists, produced Dr. No, directed by Terence Young and featuring Connery as Bond.[4] Following its release in 1962, Broccoli and Saltzman created the holding company Danjaq to ensure future productions in the James Bond film series.[5] The Eon series currently has twenty-five films, with the most recent, No Time to Die, released in September 2021. With a combined gross of $7.8 billion to date, it is the fifth-highest-grossing film series in nominal terms.[6] Adjusting for inflation, the series has earned over $19.2 billion in 2022 dollars from box-office receipts alone,[a] with non-Eon entries pushing this inflation-adjusted figure to a grand total in excess of $20 billion.

The films have won six Academy Awards: for Sound Effects (now Sound Editing) in Goldfinger (at the 37th Awards), to John Stears for Visual Effects in Thunderball (at the 38th Awards), to Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Sound Editing, to Adele and Paul Epworth for Original Song in Skyfall (at the 85th Awards), to Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes for Original Song in Spectre (at the 88th Awards), and to Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell for Original Song in No Time to Die (at the 94th Awards). Several other songs produced for the films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Original Song, including Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", and Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only". In 1982, Albert R. Broccoli received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.[7]

When Broccoli and Saltzman bought the rights to existing and future Fleming titles, the deal did not include Casino Royale, which had been sold to producer Gregory Ratoff for a television adaptation in 1954. After Ratoff's death, the rights passed to Charles K. Feldman,[8] who subsequently produced the Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967.[9] A legal case ensured that the film rights to the novel Thunderball were held by Kevin McClory, as he, Fleming and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham had written a film script on which the novel was based.[1] Although Eon Productions and McClory joined forces to produce Thunderball, McClory still retained the rights to the story and adapted Thunderball into 1983's non-Eon entry, Never Say Never Again.[10] Distribution rights to both of those films are currently held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, which distributes Eon's regular series.[11][12]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_films]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aston_Martin_DB5,_James_Bond_08.jpg

Mnemonic

James Bond Films – 1 to 10 (in order) Mnemonic – Dr No from Russia with Love had a Goldfinger which was forged by a Thunderball of lightning which he lived through Twice.

He worked for Her Majesty’s Secret Service guarding her Diamonds with a Live and Let Die attitude with his Golden Gun which he Loved.

(Picture Dr. No for the first five films and Her Majesty’s Secret Service for the next five films)

1. Dr. No

2. From Russia with Love

3. Goldfinger

4. Thunderball

5. You Only Live Twice

6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

7. Diamonds Are Forever

8. Live and Let Die

9. The Man with the Golden Gun

10. The Spy Who Loved Me

Five Fun Facts

1. The origin of James Bond actually came from wedding jitters from the eternal bachelor Ian Flemming. Looking to take his mind off the wedding he started writing a book inspired, in part by his experience in naval intelligence during World War II. Casino Royale was the result, published in 1953.

2. Ornithology has a hand in the naming of the character James Bond. Flemming was searching for a name that was masculine but not too flashy and came across it on one of his bird watching books called “Birds of the West Indies” by James Bond.

3. Sean Connery set a Guinness World Record for the highest payment to a single actor in history at the time for “Diamonds are forever.” This happened after the disappointing returns of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and producers were desperate to get him back.

4. Widely considered to be one of the best James Bond Films, “Gold Finger” was responsible for the urban legend that the Actor Shirley Eaton was actually killed via skin suffocation when her character Jill Masterston was completely painted with gold paint. I’m happy to say Shirley Eaton is still alive and currently lives in England.

5. George Lazenby an Australian model took his chance to be the next bond when he dressed as Bond with all the accessories and snuck into the Saltzman and Broccoli’s offices in London and simply stated “I heard you were looking for James Bond”. This got him a screen test and he eventually won the part.

Bonus Fact: Following Ian Flemming’s death in 1964 the Bond novels would be carried on by many, some of which included Kingsley Amis, Jeffrey Deaver and Anthony Horowitz. One James Bond novel also came through which was a mystery because it was written anonymously.

I have a story about someone who came across James Bond one day and it goes something like this. They saw James Bond walk into a bar. Anyway, he looked around, and then took a seat next to a stunning and very attractive lady. He gives her a quick glance, then causally looked at his watch.
The women notices this and asks, "Is your date running late?"
James Bond replies, "No, it’s just that Q has just given me this state-of-the-art watch and I was just testing it."
The woman was intrigued and said "A state-of-the-art watch? What’s so special about it?"
Bond explained "Well, it actually uses alpha waves to talk to me telepathically".
The lady says "So what’s it telling you now?"
James Bond replied "Well, it says you are not wearing any panties."
The women giggles and replies, "Well, it must be broken because I am wearing panties"
Anyway, Bond looks a little perplexed, taps his watch a couple of times and says,
"Bloody thing's an hour fast!"

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goldfinger_girl_James_Bond.JPG

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Which actor has portrayed James Bond in the most movies?

Q.2. Who is the only singer to perform three James Bond themes?

Q.3. How many kills does it take to be promoted to 00 status?

Bonus Q. Who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Skyfall”?

Bonus Q. Which actor played Honey Ryder in Dr No? Options are Britt Ekland, Eva Green or Ursula Andress

Mnemonic Recap