Movies

And he was rather definitive as James Bond.

Actually, the first several Bond films were much closer to Ian Fleming's novels than later films. In my opinion, the franchise went off track in the fifth film, "You Only Live Twice." By then, the gadgets and stupid one-liners had overtaken the films and they only got sillier once Roger Moore took on the role. It wasn't until Daniel Craig's first outing in "Casino Royale" that the original intent of the character came through again.

Interestingly, "Casino Royale" is a fairly close adaptation of the original novel, albeit with many additional features and characters. It was interesting casting to make Felix Leiter an African American.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is one of the best of Fleming's novels but it's one of the worst of the films. I heard a story that upon seeing the completed film, one of the producer's friends commented that they should have kept Diana Rigg's character alive and killed off George Lazenby!

Thanks for the news about Craig, Aristus. I like him a lot, too.