Just want to see if fans are out there.

What was your favorite Bond book? Movie? What most bothered you about the movies? I didn't like the way they depicted Felix Leiter.

T-Star

My favorite was Dr. No

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Forum consigliere

I like James Bond. Dr. No was good; I also like Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, Goldfinger, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I prefer the films over the books. Sean Connery is my favorite bond, I liked Roger Moore too. I did NOT care for Timothy Dalton AT ALL, and I don't much like the man in the newer films either.

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Soli Deo Gloria

I'm a big fan of all the Connery films except for Diamonds are Forever. You Only Live Twice came close to flunking out but the Japanese scenery and the beautiful Japanese actresses saved it.

Edit: YOLT also was one John Barry's best efforts for Bond sound tracks. The Barry version of traditional Japanese music was wonderful in the wedding scene.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

Live and let die was my favorte book out of the series, but my memory of them is fading abit.

I started reading Bond while in HS. From Russia With Love was the first movie I saw and I think it was the best. I think I saw it 17 times at the theaters. The movies usually opened around Christmas and for several years I drove to Champaign over the holidays to see the new Bond movie. Dr. No was also a good movie, but I first saw it later.

I read all of the books that Fleming wrote and enjoyed them all. Of course, I now have a couple of Walthers.

I've seen every James Bond movies from Dr. No onward, IMHO the best one is From Russia with love, Thunder Ball and Gold Finger are close second.

Read some of Ian Flemming book as well. Trivia question, what gun did Mr. Bond carry before M make him change to a PPK? I know, its too easy.

A Beretta .25 automatic that had its stocks removed and was sterile (ie: no serial numbers or identifying marks).

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The Last Standing Knight

yes Im a big bond fan .sean was the best but I do like the new one daniel craig.

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God save the SOUTH

You bet. How could you not be a Bond fan?

I use to think Roger Moore was the best Bond, but eventually realized Sean Connery was the best James Bond. I mean, come on, he got to fool around with Ms. Galore! (You know her first name!)

Beretta 418 to be specific and I thought by skeletion grips he ment the kind that were on the ASP 9mm that were used in the gardner books
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ASPPICTURE.jpg

Gardner did a good job keeping the book series alive but the Fleming books were hard to follow.

Do we count David Niven as a Bond? Didn't think so.
Lazenby was worst
Dalton close to taking worst away

Connery is Bond
Brosnan has a little Connery, a little Moore, and a lot of just plain good at the part.
Craig is not bad, I am considering moving him up to second. He is the best on the action stuff.
Moore was ok.

Movies, From Russia with love. Followed close by The World is Not Enough.

Honorable mention to Die another Day.

Absolute worst A View to a Kill.

Isn't about time for a new movie? QOS was released in 2008.

I just bought a 418 - just because...

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Dave

ALL the Sean Connery films were excellent to me, including Never Say Never Again. Goldfinger was a great movie, but Dr. No and From Russia with Love were the best, simply because the character didn't exhibit any of the cheeky humor wrote into later films. Connery played Bond as Ian Fleming wrote of him in the novels in those two films: two-fisted and using his wits to get out of scrapes, instead of gadgets. Daniel Craig follows a close second, because of his seriousness in interpreting the character as well. It's welcome return to the first two films I mentioned earlier. As far as the books go, Casino Royale, Dr. No, and The Man with the Golden Gun are among my favorites. John Gardner did ok with bringing him into the Eighties, but come on, Bond in a SAAB 900 TURBO??? Great cars, but give me a break!

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MARK

Sean Connery was the best Bond, and did my top two favorites: Goldfinger, and Diamonds are Forever. And Shirley Bassey did a great job with both theme songs. As I type this, in my head I hear her belting out the lyrics of those songs....

Roger Moore was next best, and did my next 2 favorites: Live and Let Die, and Man with the Golden Gun.

After all these years and countless viewings, I still watch them when they are aired every now and again on TV.

Sorry, I couldn't get into Roger Moore as Bond. Too elegant. Connery's Bond had that wonderful vulgar quality.

I did enjoy Roger Moore in The Saint TV series back in the day.

Sometimes the books are, sometimes they arent. It's the short story compilation books that are hard to follow along with "The Man With The Golden Gun" that sometimes felt very unbond like

Man thats a beauty, it looks like its brand new, how's it shoot? I was thinking of getting one for the same reason
(just to have one and their dirt cheap too)



and jframe I share your pain with Licence Renewed (when he gave him the FN 1903 in 9x20 long instead of the PPK because someone knocked the ppk that the bodyguard of princess Ann was using out of battery)

I was like *** he traded in his custom Bentley Type R convertibile (a $400,000 car nowadays) that he spent most of his earnings on to customize for a Saab 900 turbo?

no no no no NO

an Audi Ur Quattro or even a Sport Quattro maybe but a Saab 900? no no no...NOOOOO

if he had said the Bentley was in storage then that would have been a different matter all together.




Anyways with the Bonds Connery simply beats them all for his perfomance in From "Russia With Love"

Craig is second but he feels too much like a hitman than a british Naval commander and he doesn't seem to feel like a soldier either, just a pure hitman and I just cant latch on to that (kudos for going back to the PPK though)


Dalton while he lacked humor and seemed too dark (but not quite as dark and hitman like as Craig is) is third although he seemed like he was playing it like they kept in tone with the books after tracy's death when he just stopped giving a damn about his job

IMO he was practically talor made for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he would have been PERFECT in that film.


Lazenby is an honorabile 4th, he did the best he could following Connery (A really tough task) and he just didn't have time to develop his bond and IT needed work

Moore is 5th simply for not knowing how to hold the damn PPK properly and it shows that he hated guns in all of his films, still "For Your Eyes Only" was good but kinda a clone of "From Russia" in some ways with that machine driving the plot, "Live And Let Die" was okay along with "Octopussy" to an extent but the rest of his films are too overly camp and are begging for the MST3K guys of rifftrax to give them a good bashing:
YouTube - ‪RiffTrax w Mike Nelson - Casino Royale‬‏

needs all three though, that clip was missing Bill Corbett, Crow T Robot:
YouTube - ‪MST3K - 1013 - Diabolik (Best Of)‬‏

Pierce is dead last, I felt no empathy towards him in the least, he was literally a cardboard cutout, a Bond clone with no emotions, believable yet he seemed to be sleep walking through all of his films like Connery did with "You Only Live Twice"

More trivia: What was the caliber of the PPK?
Hint: According to M, it has a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window.

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

No. I am not a fan anymore since the last creep playes Bond.

I agree wholeheartedly up to this point. However, I would put the bottom 3 as Brosnan, Moore, Lazenby (in that order).

I see nobody mentioned the book Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis.

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Where's my dad's America?

I'll have to let you know, I just got it Sunday night. I haven't had the chance to clean it yet. It was cheap, I waited until I could find one in good condition. Most of these are really worn, being 60+ year old pocket pistols.

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Dave

The PPK was in 7.65mm (.32acp) and M didn't say that. It was Maj. Boothroyd, the Armourer.

This character was based on the real Geoffrey Boothroyd, a Scots gun authority and TV writer. A Bond fan, he made some suggestions about 007's guns, some of which Fleming took, others not. The men became friends and appeared on a talk TV show together. Boothroyd wrote about their acquaintance about 1962, in (of all magazines!) Sports Illustrated.

The .25 Beretta did not have "skeleton" grips. It had taped grips, maybe to hold in the grip safety as well as to make it thinner. Frankly, I think Fleming forgot the grip safety. During his Intelligence service, he carried a .25 Browning Baby, which does not have a grip safety.

Boothroyd wrote probably the best basic handgun book of all time, The Handgun. You can sometimes find it in libraries and maybe on Amazon.com, etc. It discusses sidearms from the outset into the late 1960's. It was published by Crown.

In it, Boothroyd noted the S&W Model 60 being stainless steel and called it the ideal James Bond gun. (Fleming died in 1964 or '65, and did not comment.)

I still have a letter from Boothroyd, written on Dr. No stationery. He tried to get Fleming to issue Bond a S&W Centennial, and the author did buy one on a trip to New York. It appeared in, Doctor No. Bond was issued both a PPK and the S&W .38. (The book.) He lost the Centennial to Dr. No's minions and never replaced it. But Fleming preferred small autos for Bond. Concealment was critical, and I think he knew that.

Boothroyd wanted Bond to carry the S&W M-42 and replace the "long-barrelled .45 Colt" that went under the dash of his Bentley with a S&W M-27 with a 6.5-inch barrel. I'm going by memory on the barrel length, but he def. wanted the .357, which could use the .38 ammo in a pinch or when a lighter load would suffice. Fleming may have gotten the idea for the gun under the car dash from Phillip Marlowe movies.

The "long-barrelled .45 Colt" was a New Service with 5.5-inch barrel. Fleming held his in a feature about him that ran in, Life. He also owned a MK. I Ruger .22, a Colt Official Police .38 (given to him by the head of the OSS) and the Centennial. He may have owned other guns. I'm pretty sure that the Ruger .22 was what he had in mind when he mentioned a long-barrelled .22 target pistol in a short story.

Fleming dropped the ball when describing the Colt Detective Special as having a "sawn" barrel. He may not have realized the the short barrel was the normal length for that model, or just wanted to make the gun seem more dramatic. Authors often dramatize.

T-Star

I think Sean Connery was the best Bond. Goldfinger was my favorite.

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OHH NOOO!!!

Another Bond fan checking in.

I'm a big James Bond fan! Sean Connery is and will always be James Bond to me. I have set to see an acceptable successor!
Steve

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Steve

Scenery and the soundtrack are exactly why I love this film. it was also the first bond film I saw, so it has a special place for me.

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Soli Deo Gloria

late 1969 early 1970 - spent many happy liberty hours in Hong Kong at the movies - Bond Marathons - those Chinese LOVED Bond - think it was a dollar - watch films back to back to back - cheap entertainment - oh I was a BIG Bond fan

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Fair winds and following sea

Connery will always be Bond for me...but I have to say, Lazenby did a good job....the rest you can keep....Moore seemed like a gay guy trying to prove he was straight by kissing girls....

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Overall, I like Connery the best. Thunderball was my favorite.

I don't like the Daniel Craig movies as much. I agree that he is more of an assassin, and the character has lost the sneaking around and playing detective aspect.

I also rank Living Daylights (Timothy Dalton) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (George Latzenby) near the top. I like the early Roger Moore Bonds better than his later ones.

To each his own, but to me Roger Moore was a buffoon as Bond. Connery WAS James Bond, if for no other reason he cemented his place as the character in the original films. Daniel Craig probably comes closest after Connery in capturing the essence of the character that I got from the books - he makes a more "realistic" Bond that the others (sans Connery) strove to turn into Superman. Pierce Brosnan had a good run as the "super" Bond doing the impossible physical feats. The rest . . . . meh

These things are always personal and subjective so no one can say I'm wrong . . . they just may not like what I liked

.32 ACP ("Delivery like a brick through a plate glass window? I doubt it...and this is from a fan of the .32...albeit the S&W and S&W Long type)

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The Last Standing Knight

First Bond movie seen was Gold Finger back in the early '60's, been hooked ever since. It also started my fasination with Walther firearms.

And sex with Jill St. John.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

I have to admit I just wanted to give Lazenby a break, while he didn't look the part of Bond, in his latter films he did seem like a decent actor who just needed another go at it to get it right and make the role his own.

Moore had his occasional moments of badassery once in a blue moon like in "For Your Eyes Only" (you left this with....) and I liked him in "The Saint"

With Brosnan there's just something about his portrayal of Bond that doesn't seem right, I did like him in "Remington Steel" and his bit part in "The Long Good Friday" (where honesly he seemed much more Bond like than he did in his films for some reason) but he just didnt seem to fit in my opinion, the others did to some extent.

With Colonel son I've heard of it but never read it, I think there was a copy at the local library though.



and Johhny its .32 acp/7.65 mm and with Semi waddcutters or hollowpoints it would probably do just that. plus from what I've seen theres no recoil with .32's so it would be like shooting a .22 except its not inadequate in the stopping department.

after all its got 7 and if your facing more than 3 guys Bond should pick up a Rifle, Shotgun or an SMG not a .45 pistol although it makes sense that his Blower Bentley's .45 might have been a Colt New Service and maybe it was also destroyed along with it in Moonraker.

It WOULD explain its disappearance from the books.

and it wasnt Q per say but another armorer who gave him the PPK after M demanded he hand over his beretta which was actually what appeared to be an M1934 in .380 or maybe the .32 version of that gun the M1935, FYI Q's first proper appearance was in "From Russia With Love"

I read all of Ian Fleming's books and then Gardner's books when they first came out a few of the others (there's another author just recently).

Of course, I've seen all the movies.

Connery is still the original and the best. I really liked Pierce Brosnan's Bond and I appreciated that he relished playing the role.

I grew up with Roger Moore and I think people forget the really tough guy image he did portray.

Remember in Live and Let Die (I'm paraphrasing because I don't know the lines verbatim), but when he was with Rosie Carver in the field, he pulled his Walther PPK on her. She said, "You wouldn't shoot me after what we just did!"

Moore's Bond replies, "Well, I certainly wouldn't shoot you before."

That's awesome!

When Moore's Bond tosses the dove pin into Loch's Mercedes and then kicks it over the cliff in For Your Eyes Only, that was terrific too!

I really enjoyed Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me, written from the perspective of a woman meeting Bond.

the spy who loved me, the short story?
I remember that one, not a fan of it nor quantum of solace.

yes bond really envy's some couple having marrage troubles

could have been a cutdown colt officers model, I actually came across one that was cut down to about 4 inches from 6 and it was definitely a diy job

they guy said it belonged to a railway guard who did the DIY job to it.

The only problem is that that gun is a 318, the direct successor to the 1919. You can tell from the grip safety shape. This is a 418 (notice the grip safety).



In reality it could have been any of 1919/318/418/420/421. The book says ".25 caliber Beretta". The 418 is most often mentioned because it was in production at the time frame of Casino Royale.

The truest fiction in the book was that "M" made Bond give up his Beretta for the PPK because it jammed. My experience with the little Berettas is that they don't jam, unlike many PP/PPK's I have known.

Buck

Shaken, not stirred.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was a fine film, if only Lazenby had been able to do more. With this in mind, Roger Moore was great in his early films, and Dalton was great in both of his. I don't much care for the others, although Craig seems decent enough and Connery does deserve credit for being the quintessential Bond actor. That leaves Brosnan.....

I can't believe it took 32 posts before someone mentioned my favorite, at least of the movies, Thunderball. That one was the best IMO, and the theme song was great.
Connery will forever be the real James Bond. Moore was OK, but he didn't have the class Connery did. I have seen all of the original movies, and just recently saw one of the newer ones and was surprised I liked it. Maybe I'll give them a try.
Oh, and one of my favorite characters was Blofelds white cat. We had one exactly like him, Got him when I was 3, put him to sleep when I was 21. He wasn't my cat, he was my brother. Still miss Harry.
Jim

Yes I like James Bond. I don't care if Fleming thought people who were interested in firearms were nuts. He's dead and his creation lives on.

I was 15 in '62 when Dr. No hit the theaters. It was the first Bond movie and nobody had heard of it. Coincidentally there was a series of Brit comedy movies out called like "Nurse No", "Honey No" or some cornball thing. They were in the Benny Hill genre only tamer to meet the censers. I took my little honey to Dr. No thinking it was a bawdy deal and might warm her to my advances. Once the movie started I was mesmerized and didn't even think about putting and arm around my date. Karen kept looking at me like "when is the usual attack going to start". I walked her home after the movie and got the silent routine.

Yet another Bond fan....Sean Connery of course. Read most of the books while I was in HS. I think Casino Royale was my favorite. always bugged me they wasted it in the movies as a spoof...at least until Daniel Craig.

My favorites were the first first four movies. With "Thunderball" my personal favorite.

Used to see each new movie with my Dad as I was still in elementary school for the first two, then HS for the others. Recall vividly in Goldfinger how embarrassed I was when Goldfingers Chief Pilot stated her name....Pussy Galore.

My Dad laughed...I sat there and almost died.

I often wonder how manyy Walther PPK's have sold due simply to the 007 connection? I have one...seldomshoot it, but would never part withh it.

In the mid 80's I got to meet Sean Connery here in MT as they shot a small part of "The Untouchables" at Hardy Creek. The gun battle on the bridge, the Agents on horseback, the small Cabin, etc. All done one Fall between Helena and Great Falls on the Missouri river.

The location was in my Patrol area and as the local Trooper I immediately started stopping in to check on the road closures, etc. Finally a few weeks into it I was able to speak to Connery and it was a memorable occasion. We talked about everything from Scotland, trout fishing and Montana real estate prices to 007.

He was in his Malone outfit, the big grey wool coat, etc when he stopped , looked at me and said... "Bond....James Bond". Immediately he was in a dinner jacket sitting at a baccaratt table in Monte Carlo! It was amazing.

We chatted and visited several times. He was the real deal big time Hollywood Celeb for sure. When they were done with shooting the entire Cast did promo shots with fans, and the support people near the Bridge or the Cabin set. I still treasure my photo's of me and the "Untouchables".

FN in MT

I wasn't much older, but was an avid reader of the books, and had been waiting for the movie. I like it better than the recent ones.

Connery was the best Bond, with Timothy Dalton acceptable. The others didn't take their role seriously enough and played it as a sort of camp thing. Moore was awful in that regard. I can't see the new guy (Daniel Craig) as Bond at all. Simply doesn't even look like Bond from the books.

Your girl Karen was probably ticked off that you watched Ursula Andress as Honeychile Ryder. But I've known girls who liked the Bond films.

My favorite Bond girls were probably Maud Adams and Britt Ekland. They sound British but both are Swedes. I've read Britt's autobiography, "True Britt." She told about being married to Peter Sellers and to Rod Stewart as well as about the Bond fiilms. Good read, if you can find it.

Oh: I don't think Bond's Beretta actually jammed, per se. I think the silencer on it got caught in his holster or waistband. That let Col. Rosa Klebb stab him with the hidden blade in her shoe. The blade was coated in poison from the Japanese blowfish, fugu poison. Bond nearly died.

Fleming got some pretty weird letters from gun freaks. That may be why he had a Secret Service shrink comment negatively about those with an exceptional interest in firearms. (See, "The Man With the Golden Gun.") Boothroyd wrote to me that some fans wanted to arm Bond with far-out items like cap and ball Remingtons! Keep in mind that Boothroyd was a gun enthusiast, and Fleming liked him, so he knew that we aren't all nuts.

I probably didn't help matters much. I wrote to him with a ballpoint pen on ruled school paper, suggesting a three-inch barelled S&W M-36 for Bond. My excuse (now) is that I was about 16-17 and my mother should have told me to type the letter. But she hated guns and Bond, anyway.

Later, I did learn to type, and Jack O'Connor told me that he really appreciated my typed letter, coming from a college P.O. Box. Said that some wrote to him with a pencil on a yellow legal pad. I could spell, too, even as a kid.

Anyway, Fleming's secretary wrote me a very polite letter, saying that he was out of the country, but that he would be given my letter when he returned. He never replied, which may say something about what he thought of my handwriting on ruled school tablet paper. He didn't realize that I was a teen. I still think my M-36 3-inch and a Gaylord FBI type holster was probably one of the more sensible suggestions that he got. But the Walther .32 and the .25 Beretta were easier to conceal. I think he placed a high premium on that.

Some of you may know that he messed up with having the PPK in a Berns-Martin holster. Boothroyd suggested that, but for a snub S&W .38 !

T-Star

you lucky dog, I really envy you right now thats all I gotta say.

Oh and has anyone ever shot that fn 1903/1907 that's basically a sized up 1903?

yeah modified to hold a semi auto lol, I remember reading that.

FYI one of these days I swear Im going to buy another PPK in 32 acp just for the hell of it and put the classic bond grips on it (the brown plastic ones it had in the early films.)

just a pitty that ipsc or whatever wont allow you to run with anything below a 9mm luger, I'd love to school those guys with there souped up 1911's with bonds ppk just for the sheer hell of it.

Sorry I'm just in sort of a blathering mood right now.

I would rather watch Sean Connery do James Bond in a wheel chair, than some of these new guys. No offense intened to these other fine actors, but REALLY, there is only one James Bond.