The James Bond Bedside Companion (28 page)

The Bond-girl

T
he most obvious fantasy element of the Bond novels is the heroine. Kingsley Amis sums up her physical attributes in
The James
Bond
Dossier:

Physically, the Bond-girl varies little from book to book. Her hair oscillates between blonde (clear favorite) and black or dark brown with no intermediate shades. It is never coiffured. Her eyes are an almost invariable blue (only two exceptions). She is often suntanned. She has a wide mouth, a small nose, and high cheekbones. Her hands are strong and practical, with nails unpainted and filed short. Her physique is generally good, with some hints of assistance from tennis or swimming. She is tall, five foot seven or above, and not thin. Her most frequently mentioned feature is her fine, faultless, splendid, etc., breasts.

(Kingsley Amis,
The James Bond Dossier
, Chapter 5)

Amis goes on to say that the Bond-girl is not 100 percent perfect. For example, Honeychile Rider has a broken nose, and Domino Vitali limps because one leg is slightly shorter than the other.

The Bond-girl is quite independent. She usually has no family ties, and any relatives quickly disappear (such as Domino's brother or Judy Havelock's parents). Tracy di Vicenzo has a father (who also becomes a Bond ally), and Kissy Suzuki lives with her parents; but these women go their own way and make their own decisions. The Bond-girl, contrary to popular belief, is not merely a sex object. She is a free spirit, and is certainly more liberated than most women ever dreamed of being in the late fifties and early sixties.

The Bond-girl is an athletic, outdoors-type of woman: she is usually proficient with guns if she needs to be; she can run and swim as well as any man; and at several points in the series, she actually saves Bond's life. She shows a resourcefulness, in most cases, equal to Bond's. The Bond-girl was ahead of her time; in fact, she resembles a woman of the eighties more than one of twenty years ago.

Fleming improved his female characters in successive novels. Vesper Lynd, the heroine of CASINO ROYALE, is a bit two-dimensional; but this is rectified in the second novel, LIVE AND LET DIE, by Solitaire and her involvement with the supernatural. Tatiana Romanova has political ideals for which she is fighting. Honeychile Rider is a nature-girl by choice. Tracy di Vicenzo is a woman running from her life, as the daughter of a rich gangster. And Vivienne Michel, the narrator of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, is determined to make it on her own in America. Vivienne is perhaps Fleming's most successful female creation. In this experimental book, the reader is placed inside the heroine's head for a change. Thus, one is able to examine James Bond objectively from a female point of view.

It should also be noted here that James Bond does not always get the girl at the end of each adventure. In MOONRAKER, heroine Gala Brand is actually engaged to another man, and she walks off into the distance with
him
rather than Bond. In "The Hildebrand Rarity," one of the five short stories from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, Bond helps Liz Krest with no intention of becoming involved with her. And Tilly Masterson, with whom Bond joins forces in GOLDFINGER, is a Lesbian and will have nothing to do with Bond physically.

But most important, the Bond-girl is essential to the plot. She is never an accessory to the action (as she is sometimes in the films), but always an integral part of the story. The Bond-girl is second only to the villain in the full realization of a James Bond novel.

The Bond-villain

B
ond's enemies are usually physically grotesque and exhibit a particularly nasty penchant for sadism. Yet they are often quite intelligent and some border on genius. The Bond-villain is superhuman in terms of Evil as Bond is superhuman in terms of Good. Only thrice does the Bond villain fall short of this standard: Scaramanga in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, the Spang brothers in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, and the two hoods in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. The major villains (Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Doctor No, Auric Goldfinger, Mr. Big, Hugo Drax, etc.) are intent on causing a global incident (blackmailing Western powers with stolen atomic bombs; wrecking the U.S. missile program; robbing Fort Knox; financing the Communist spy network in America). These men want to be
great
criminals. Mr. Big tells Bond that he will be "the first great Negro criminal." Blofeld tells Bond, "I have one of the greatest brains in the world." It is this megalomania that unites the Bond villains into a common group. Amis makes the point that each villain Bond scene is like a father/bad boy scene, in which the father calmly chastises the bad boy for some wrong doing—and then proceeds to apply the belt.

Physically, the villain is almost always over six feet or under five-foot-five. He's usually overweight. The villain's eyes are blue or black. Two major adversaries,
Le Chiffre and Blofeld, have pupils which
are entirely surrounded by the whites of their eyes. Some villains depend on specific props: Dr. No's mechanical pincers, Rosa Klebb's poisoned knitting needles, Le Chiffre's benzedrine inhaler, and Blofeld's suit of armor (in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE). And finally, as Amis again notes, there is sometimes a "glint of red" in the villain's eyes.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld is Bond's archenemy. Appearing in three of the novels, he perpetrates evil of such magnitude (even murdering Bond's wife in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) that he seems a devil incarnate. Blofeld changes his appearance and methods in each of the three books; therefore, it is difficult to know him as a complete character. Both Hugo Drax (MOONRAKER) and Auric Goldfinger (GOLDFINGER) are certainly more completely drawn. With these two adversaries, Fleming typified the essential Bond-villain.

M

A
side from Bond, the character who appears most frequently in the series is, of course, James Bond's chief, Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, known only as "M." (M's real name is not revealed until THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. Furthermore, Fleming was never consistent about punctuating the initial "M"—sometimes a period followed the initial, and sometimes not.)

M is most likely based on Ian Fleming's real commanding officer in Naval Intelligence during World War II, Rear Admiral John H. Godfrey. But, as John Pearson speculates, it is also possible that, since as a boy Fleming would call his mother M, much of Eve Fleming may be behind the demanding old autocrat.

M is a crusty codger getting on in years. Several times Fleming refers to the admiral's "damnably clear grey eyes" inside a "weather-beaten face." As the head of the Secret Service, M earns five thousand pounds a year, plus the use of an old Rolls-Royce and driver. In addition, M receives perhaps fifteen hundred pounds Naval pay (as a vice-admiral on the retired list). This meager salary leaves M with just enough money to afford a beautiful, small Regency manor house on the edge of Windsor Forest, affectionately called Quarterdeck. The front door holds the clapper of the brass ship's bell of "some former H.M.S.
Repulse,
the last of whose line, a battle cruiser, had been M's final seagoing assignment." Quarterdeck was looked after by M's former Chief Petty Officer, Hammond, and his wife, until their tragic deaths in COLONEL SUN.

The only clue to M's personal life is that his "stock bachelor hobby" is painting in water colors. Flowers are the only subjects that he paints.

The Admiral's familiar office is guarded by the faith-flit Miss Moneypenny. Entrance to the office is gained by waiting until the green light above the door pops on (Fleming was also inconsistent with the color of this light—sometimes it's blue or red).

M can be difficult to work for. As Kingsley Amis notes in
The James
Bond
Dossier:

His demeanor or voice is described as abrupt, angry (3 times), brutal, cold (7 times), curt, dry (5), frosty (2), gruff
(7),
hard (3), impatient (7), irritable
(2),
moody, severe, sharp (2), short (4), sour (2), stem and testy (5), which divides out as an irascibility index of just under 4.6 per book.

(Kinglsey Amis,
The James Bond Dossier,
Chapter 7)

M also has many idiosyncrasies as far as the Service goes:

M had certain bees in his bonnet. They were famous in the Service, and M knew they were. But that did not mean that he would allow them to stop buzzing. There were queen bees, like the misuse of the Service, and the search for true as distinct from wishful intelligence, and there were worker bees. These included such idiosyncrasies as not employing men with beards, or those who were completely bilingual, instantly dismissing men who tried to bring pressure to bear on him through family relationships with members of the Cabinet, mistrusting men or women who were too "dressy," and those who called him "sir" off-duty; and having an exaggerated faith in Scotsmen. But M was ironically conscious of his obsessions, as, thought Bond, a Churchill or a Montgomery was about his. He never minded his bluff, as it partly was, being called on any of them.

("Risico," FOR YOUR EYES ONLY)

He especially does not like the Service getting involved with drugs—he feels that's the territory of the Special Branch of Scotland Yard. In the short story, "Risico," M testily sends Bond on an assignment involving drug traffic into England. He curtly hands Bond the file on the case, and with almost no briefing, sends Bond on his way. (He usually at least gives Bond a few minutes of his time to
explain
the case.)

At one point in THUNDERBALL, M admits to Bond that he thinks the agent is "reliable" but almost never shows any more approval of Bond's work for the Service. He allows Bond to conduct the Service's business in almost any way the agent chooses, but doesn't always approve of Bond's methods. When Bond reveals his plan to play golf with Goldfinger in order to spy on him, M's response is:

"Fine way for one of my top men to spend his time." The
sarcasm in M's voice was weary, resigned. "All right. Go ahead. But if what you say is right, you'd better see that you beat him."

(GOLDFINGER, Chapter 7)

M doesn't approve of Bond's womanizing, either. In FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, before M reveals that a Russian girl named Tatiana Romanova is in love with Bond, he asks the agent about his relationship with Tiffany Case. Bond replies that Tiffany has gone back to the states and will probably marry a Marine Corps major she met.

M gave one of the brief smiles that lit up his eyes more than his mouth. "I'm sorry if it went wrong, James," he said. There was no sympathy in his voice. He disapproved of Bond's "womanizing," as he called it to himself, while recognizing that his prejudice was the relic of a Victorian upbringing. But, as Bond's chief, the last thing he wanted was for Bond to be permanently tied to one woman's skirts. "Perhaps it's for the best. Doesn't do to get mixed up with neurotic women in this business. They hang on your gun-arm, if you know what I mean. Forgive me for asking about it."

(FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Chapter 12)

The reader will always know something suspicious is up when M addresses Bond as "James" rather than "007." It usually means there is business coming up that is non-Service oriented. In MOONRAKER, M asks Bond to do a personal favor for him: accompany M to Blades Club and determine if Hugo Drax is really a cheat at cards. Bond is only too happy to do so. In the short story, "For Your Eyes Only," M more or less persuades Bond to volunteer to avenge the deaths of a pair of M's personal friends. Fleming reveals a different side of M in this story. The problem of the Hayelocks' murder troubles M a great deal, and he feels guilty about involving the Service in the business. He
mysteriously asks Bond, "James, has it ever occurred to you that every man in the fleet knows what to do except the commanding admiral?" Bond replies that he supposes "it's the same as saying that supreme command is the loneliest post there is."

M jerked his pipe sideways. "Same sort of idea. Someone's got to be tough. Someone's got to decide in the end. If you send a wavering signal to the Admiralty you deserve to be put on the beach. Some people are religious—pass the decision on to God." M's eyes were defensive. "I used to try that sometimes in the Service, but He always passed the buck back again—told me to get on and make up my own
mind. Good for one, I suppose, but tough. Trouble is,
very few people keep tough after about forty. They've been knocked about by life—had troubles, tragedies, illnesses. These things soften you up."

("For Your Eyes Only," FOR YOUR EYES ONLY)

When Bond attempts to relieve M's worries by saying that he accepts unpleasant assignments because he assumes the cause is just, M tells him:

"Dammit." M's eyes glittered impatiently. "That's just what I mean! You rely on me. You won't take any damned responsibility yourself." He thrust the stem of his pipe toward his chest. "I'm the one who has to do that. I'm the one who has to decide if a thing is right or not." The anger died out of his eyes. The grim mouth bent sourly. He said gloomily, "Oh, well, I suppose it's what I'm paid for. Somebody's got to drive the bloody train." M put his pipe back in his mouth and drew on it deeply to relieve his feelings
.