When it comes to literary characters with pop culture cache Ian Fleming’s James Bond is up there with the likes of Dracula, Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, but Bond’s journey to the big screen wasn’t an easy one and was almost derailed by a televised version of Casino Royale featuring an American spy named Jimmy Bond,…
Tag: spy movie
Casino Royale (1954) – Review
If you are out for a pub trivia night and the question arises “Who was the first person to play James Bond?” do not be so quick to yell out Sean Connery because back in 1954 CBS televised a live broadcast of an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale which starred American actor Barry…
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – Review
After the two rather “low stakes” spy adventures found in Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun it was finally time for Roger Moore to step things up a tad and have a balls-to-the-wall action spectacular, a movie that would not only pit James Bond against an honest to goodness supervillain,…
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) – Review
With the moderate success of Roger Moore’s first outing as James Bond, in the southern fried Live and Let Die, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to have Bond return to the Far East in a thriller that would pit the world’s most famous secret agent against an evil alter ego, a notorious…
Live and Let Die (1973) – Review
With Bond entering the 70s he was struggling to feel relevant in what was a changing cinematic landscape, Connery’s Diamonds are Forever seemingly particularly out of touch, and with the blaxploitation era in full-swing, it wasn’t too surprising that producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli would try to capitalize on this growing genre. Of…