It was fifty years ago today that James Bond first hit the silver screen. I wonder if anyone can name them all in sequential order and who played Bond, the coolest agent of all time.

Wasn't the first Casino Royale with David Niven as Bond?

No, that wasn't made until 1967.

The film franchise began with Dr No, and I could probably name the next four or five in sequence from memory, but there have been so many now and getting less memorable as they went on ...

The Bond actors are easier:

Sean Connery
George Lazenby
Sean Connery
Roger Moore
Timothy Dalton
Pierce Brosnan
Daniel Craig

Well the information I have is that Sean Connery kicked it all off with ‘Dr No’ in 1962 which gives us the 50th anniversary, but your quite right that David Niven did star in the spoof bond film ‘Casino Royale’ in 1967. It doesn’t seem like fifty years…

there have been so many now and getting less memorable as they went on ...

I quite agree...

I remember the parents taking us to see Dr No at the drive-in theatre when I was small. The drive-in was a favourite for parents because the kids could go as well and we would be all dressed in our pjs. By the time the first film was over and the feature film began us kids were usually knackered from the excitement (and a special ice-cream in a cone treat) and sound asleep on the back seat of the car. Parents then got to watch the film they really wanted to see in peace, and needless to say, I didn't see any of Dr No! Not that I would have understood it anyway, I was very young.

Blimey, 50 years...

How old does that make Sean Connery then, he's certainly aging well!

normanhurst wrote:

there have been so many now and getting less memorable as they went on ...

I quite agree...

I thought the Daniel Craig " Casino Royale" was very good ["Quantum of Solace" not quite so good]

Not sure I've ever watched any of them all the way through - I'd read the books, and, for me, that ruins the film which is based on it.

The only one I've seen, as far as I remember, was - well, I don't even remember which one it was (Goldfinger perhaps) and all I remember from it was a tarantula landing on Bond's hand (pretty sure it was Sean Connery) and him staying stockstill till it left. I'm not particularly arachnaphobic so I don't really know why that scene stayed in my mind. (Having said that, I don't actually enjoy large spiders on my hands and get a bit squealy.)

Islanddawn wrote:

Wasn't the first Casino Royale with David Niven as Bond?

The first screen adaptation was Casino Royale but it wasn't on the big screen it was the small screen. CBS in the US produced a television movie in 1954 starring American actor Barry Nelson as Bond.

ID your description of the drive in, so reminded me of when we were in Aussie and we took the kids along in PJs just as you said and when we took them home sound asleep we could just tuck them in, it was a good evenings entertainment with no worries about baby sitters.

I can't remember ever being baby sat Gran, it was virtually un-heard of when I was young and all kids went everywhere with the adults. These days children are becoming more and more segregated from the wider community, but this is straying way way off topic! Apologies Norman.

no worries ID... your childhood memories are far more interesting than any of the bond films i've seen...

I have to admit I've always found the Bond films a bit silly, although Connery was good - and I do like Daniel Craig. I much prefer the Le Carre spy stuff - like Richard Burton in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the original BBC "Tinker, Tailor".

Talking of Daniel Craig, he was a spy in another film quite recently. I bet no one knows who he played (real life spy).

I have seen most of the Bond films, Connery was hard to beat, I was not keen on Roger More I thought he was too stiff and old for the job.The movies seem to have all blended into one now, the only stand out for me was where Connery was swimming through a flooded cave and his hairpiece came loose and kind of floated above his head.

Temperance wrote:

I have to admit I've always found the Bond films a bit silly, although Connery was good

Agreed.

The early Bond films were novel and atmospheric but 15 years later by the late 1970s the Bond brand had already past its sell-by date. Moonraker springs to mind. It's amazing to think that more than 30 years on again even from that time the franchise is still going strong.

P.S. Who was the real spy played by Daniel Craig then?

I think it is only a certain age group that watch Bond, and it is each new generation that keeps the Bond franchise going.

Most people seem to have their 'Bond' actor that they prefer, usually because that is the one that played Bond at the time they were interested in the movies. I was a bit too young for Sean Connery but I saw all the Roger Moore ones during my teens and then a couple of the Timothy Dalton ones, whereby I lost interest and haven't seen one since. But for me Roger Moore IS Bond.

Now I'm an old grump and not a daft teenager, I find the films repetitive and boring.

The terrible cruelties he was subjected to shocked even the London crowd. Now who is he?

He played John Ballard in "Elizabeth" with Cate Blanchett as the virgin and John Gielgud as an ice-cream seller with a funny hat. Well, he played a guy called John Ballard who for some reason best known to the scriptwriters found himself caught up in The Ridolfi Plot, which happened a full 14 years before the Babington Plot, but yet was executed in the film along with the Babington Plot members, of which the real Ballard was one and was indeed executed amongst their number, but which membership in the film involved at least two of the Ridolfi Plot members who were already dead 14 years, but then Craig was about twenty years too junior to play Ballard anyway, so maybe that made sense, but then maybe not.

Oh, who gives a toss. Elizabeth got to snog Dudley and Kathy Burke got to be a queen. That's the main thing.

And don't forget that Walsingham got to snog Mary of Guise - and then stabbed her with the cheese knife. Nice bit of excitement for an old Puritan.

I'm beginning to think that the C16th never really happened - or rather only ever happened in the minds of scriptwriters and historical novelists. They possibly invented the whole era.

Perhaps I should write "A Skeptic's Guide to the Sixteenth Century".

Norfolk also went 15 years over his expiry date just to compete with Walsingham in the film for the Archest Bastard title, unless of course he was a Great Pretender and was really Suffolk, Essfolk or Wessfolk in de Guise. I feel a sequel coming on -

- oh wait, they already made one didn't they? "Elizabeth 2" with Helen Mirren (or was it Judi Dench?).

Islanddawn wrote:

I was a bit too young for Sean Connery but I saw all the Roger Moore ones during my teens and then a couple of the Timothy Dalton ones, whereby I lost interest and haven't seen one since.

Interestingly there was a 6-year hiatus between the last Timothy Dalton film Licence to Kill in 1989 and the first Pierce Brosnan film Goldeneye in 1995. It did seem for a while in the early 1990s that James Bond had finally hung up his Walther PPK.

Interestingly there was a 6-year hiatus between the last Timothy Dalton film Licence to Kill in 1989 and the first Pierce Brosnan film Goldeneye in 1995. It did seem for a while in the early 1990s that James Bond had finally hung up his Walther PPK.

I wonder if that had anything to do with the Berlin Wall coming down and making the old style MI6 look out of date.

All of the Bonds upto "Quantum" in order;


and the trailer for "Skyfall"

I'll put this article in here as I don't think it warrants a seperate thread. Some real life technical espionage;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9602103/HMS-Conqueror-biggest-secret-raid-on-Russia.html

I first saw "Dr. No" in a cinema in Stuttgart with Connery speaking German. I just thought it was another load of German cr-p, as they did make some awful films.

I watched Skyfall at the weekend and have to say it was an extremely entertaining film.


"Welcome to Scotland" lol