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OHMSS
trevan007
Switzerland
I'll admit I haven't read the Fleming Bond books in a long time and only this year have started to reread them. I always thought On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the best. But on a recent read I couldn't believe how many exclamation points there were. Probably ten a page, but who's counting? Tracy is presented as blonde-haired and blue eyes, and all the girls at Piz Gloria are British. The film did so many better and I, for one, think Lazenby was more than adequate. The time motif in the movie is missing from the book, Bond rescues Tracy in the book at Casino Royale, and they are married in Munich. I'm now reading You Only Live Twice and while I remember the beginning, memory of the rest is vague. Rereading From Russia with Love is clear, as is Goldfinger, and my first Bond novel, Thunderball, as are Doctor No, Casino Royale, Moonraker, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, and Octopussy. The Man with the Golden Gun is extremely vague. The Spy Who Loved Me I remember reading and remember thinking, "What is this?" I have never read Thrilling Cities or The Diamond Smugglers as I recall. I really enjoyed Colonel Sun and wished Kingsley Amis had written more. I read the first four Gardner books, then lost interest, same with Benson. I think the authors that have done only one or two books have been the most successful. I've read all the Horowitz except On His Majesty's Secret Service. I've read none of the Young Bond. There's such a plethora, like Star Trek and Star Wars continuation novels, that one could get bogged down. I am a huge fan of John LeCarre. I read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I'm also a writer. But I am going to reread all of the Bond books, one a month, starting with Casino Royale and continuing with all the rest. I have them all, now I just need to read.
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Comments
Now that I think of it, Domino was also described differently in the book to what we got on screen. Though I think Kim Basinger is closer to the literary Domino in terms of looks than Claundine Auger was.
Yes, that's also my same qualms with the book, too many exclamation points, but then so the foreign languages, while I know that Fleming did well in these things regarding his background, but for a casual reader like us who doesn't have the same level of experience and expertise that Fleming had, it makes things a bit confusing.
Yes, Tracy is blonde with a blue eyes and was a Corsican, although she didn't have the maturity that Diana Rigg showed in the film, I think she's just in her mid to late 20s in the book in contrast to Bond which was nearing his 50s (I've connected this in Moonraker that Bond was three years shy years away from retirement, and if the retirement was 40 at that time, then that would make him 37 by the time in MR), means in OHMSS, he was maybe in his late 40s, the age gap was quite uncomfortable to me everytime I'm realizing that fact while reading the book, someone could correct me on this if I'm wrong thank you ๐.
And yes, Tracy in the book was an underwritten character, her romance with Bond was rushed, I personally felt her reactions and decisions are a bit exaggeratedly written, she's absent for most of the book's pages, again, the film is a big improvement on this.
And Blofeld's plot in general in this book was a letdown, especially if you've read Thunderball, Blofeld went on from threatening the world with nuclear missile hijackings to suddenly threatening United Kingdom for a title, like I know he had went mad, but the plot was still nonsensical, Fleming had done better mad villains like Dr. No and Goldfinger in the past, but Blofeld was just plain silly in that he was brainwashing these ten British (and yes, Irish) women to ruin livestocks only for a title? And only women ๐ , just to fit with Bond's ideals, just doesn't makes sense, but in the film, his plot makes more sense and plausible in that he was threatening United Nations to give him amnesty for his past crimes before unleashing the virus worldwide to ruin the livestock (still quite in consistent with his plot from Thunderball of threatening the world with warhead hijacking), although, it was still silly to keep the ten brainwashed girls, but at least his motivations made much more sense than the book.
To be fair, there are many changes with regards to the book characters to screen: Tatiana Romanova was a brown haired in the book, she was blonde haired in the film, Tiffany Case was a blonde in the book, she was a brunette (auburn) in the film, Pussy Galore was a black haired lesbian in the book, in the film, she was blonde and her sexuality was played down through a subtle hint, Judy Havelock in the short story of For Your Eyes Only was blonde, Melina Havelock in the film was black haired.
Mary Goodnight started out as a black haired in OHMSS, then suddenly turned blonde in TMWTGG, which is an oddity.
Most of the villains in the books are red headed with an exception of Blofeld and maybe Largo, in the films, their looks changed a lot (Le Chiffre in the film was black haired, in the book, he was red haired, Dr. No was bald in the book, he had hair in the film, Goldfinger was red head in the book, he was blonde in the film, Scaramanga in the book was a red headed, in the film, he was black haired, I don't know if Fleming had any prejudices against red heads though ๐ ).
But for some reason, I think the majority of the people cast in these characters worked well, and some improved upon their literary counterparts: Diana Rigg as Tracy for example, along with Christopher Lee as Scaramanga, and Gert Frobe as Goldfinger.