- "In my day spying was an alternative to war. The spy was a member of a select and immaculate priesthood, vocationally d-devoted, sublimely disinterested. Hardly a description of that sexual acrobat who leaves a t-trail of beautiful d-dead women like blown roses behind him."
- ― Sir James Bond
Sir James Bond was a fictional legendary British secret agent and later Head of "MI5", who was forced out of retirement to fight the criminal organisation Smersh. Portrayed by British actor David Niven, the character appeared in the unofficial 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale.
Biography[]
Sir James Bond 007, a legendary British spy who had retired from the secret service a few years previously, is visited by the head of British Secret Service, M, CIA representative Ransome, KGB representative Smernov, and Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand. All implore Bond to come out of retirement to deal with Smersh who have been eliminating agents: Bond spurns all their pleas. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack at the orders of M, who is, however, killed in the explosion. Bond travels to Scotland to return M's remains to the grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry. However, the real Lady Fiona has been replaced by Smersh's Agent Mimi. The rest of the household have been likewise replaced, with Smersh’s aim to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image". Attempts by a bevy of beauties to seduce Bond fail, but Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him. On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life by a radio-controlled vehicle loaded with explosives.
With McTarry dead, Bond is promoted to the head of the British Secret Service (and inexplicably loses his earlier speech stammer). He learns that many British agents around the world have been eliminated by enemy spies because of their inability to resist sex. Bond is also told that the 'sex maniac' who was given the name of 'James Bond' when the original Bond retired has gone to work in television (possibly a satirical reference to EON Productions's Bond). He then orders that all remaining agents will be named "James Bond 007", to confuse Smersh. He also creates a rigorous programme to train male agents to ignore the charms of women. Moneypenny recruits "Coop", a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women: he also meets an exotic agent known as the Detainer.
Bond then hires Vesper Lynd, a retired agent turned millionaire, to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble, whom he intends to use to beat Smersh operative Le Chiffre. Having embezzled Smersh's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed. Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Bond persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond to travel to East Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, a school for spies that is a Smersh cover operation. There, Mata foils Le Chiffre's plan to raise funds by selling compromising photographs of the world's military leaders in an "art auction". Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat. After losing to Tremble, Smersh agents raid Le Chiffre's base and kill him for his failure.
In London, Mata Bond is kidnapped by Smersh in a giant flying saucer, and Sir James and Moneypenny travel to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground headquarters run by the evil Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James's nephew Jimmy Bond. Jimmy secretly leaves the British Secret Service to defect to Smersh to take a new role of killing spies. Jimmy reveals that he plans to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4' 6" (1.37m) tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. Jimmy has already captured The Detainer, and he tries to convince her to be his partner; she agrees, but only to dupe him into swallowing one of his "atomic time pills", turning him into a "walking atomic bomb". Sir James, Moneypenny, Mata and Coop manage to escape from their cell and fight their way back to the Casino Director's office where Sir James establishes Lynd is a double agent. The casino is then overrun by secret agents and a battle ensues. American and French support arrive, but just add to the chaos. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale with everyone inside. Sir James and all of his agents then appear in heaven, and Jimmy Bond is shown descending to hell.
Behind the Scenes[]
David Niven was Ian Fleming's choice for the role of James Bond in Dr. No, which saw Sean Connery cast instead. In 1965, producer Charles Feldman signed Niven to play Sir James Bond in Casino Royale, a film not made by Eon Productions, and a role which Connery and Peter Sellers had both turned down. Niven was 56 when he played Bond and his characterisation was that of an elderly man who had won the Victoria Cross at the Siege of Mafeking, had a daughter by his lover, the spy Mata Hari, played Claude Debussy on the piano, ate royal jelly and cultivated black roses. The concept of Bond is that once Niven's Bond retired, his name and 007 designation was passed to another agent to keep the legend alive; James Chapman notes that the implication was that the "other Bond" was that played by Connery. (The codename theory persists in some quarters - it is not supported by the Fleming books or Eon films.)
Chapman considered the concept of an elderly Bond interesting, with Bond referring to Connery's Bond as a "sexual acrobat who leaves a trail of beautiful dead women behind like blown roses". In line with the literary Bond, Niven's character drives a vintage Bentley, rather than the Aston Martin favoured by Connery. Bond scholar Steven Jay Rubin thought Niven perfectly cast as the retired Bond, and saw him as "a throw-back to the hell-for-leather adventure heroes" of the character, which paralleled Niven's own life and career. Barnes and Hearn describe this as a "perfectly fair interpretation", given the way Niven approached the role, while Raymond Benson thinks casting Niven was "intelligent". Jeremy Black questioned the use of Niven in the role, observing that he did not seem to be a killer, and did not have the "disconcerting edge" that Connery had.