‘Mr Bond, I’ve been expecting you’ The Cinematic Inaugurations of a New James Bond STEPHANIE JONES James Bond films are a cinematic phenomenon unlike any other. The so-called official series made by Eon productions has been in existence for more than fifty years. Its cultural stayin po!er alone makes the cinematic Bond phenomenon an extremely fertile soil for examinations of continuity and chan e. "hile Bond scholarship should not be limited to diachronic analysis, the persistent popular- ity and cultural salience of the Bond phenomenon means that James Bond $tud- ies, as a field of in%uiry# !ill make a series of important inter&entions into broader scholarship. As (hristoph )indner notes, %uotin Octopussy * John +len# ,-./0# Bond has a 1nasty habit of sur&i&in 2 *344/# .0. Examinations of this sur- &i&al ha&e been# and !ill continue to be, of great si nificance to cultural scholar- ship. 5ne of the many means by !hich the Bond series has sur&i&ed o&er time is by recastin of the central actor. This article !ill analyse the inauguration of each ne! cinematic Bond in turn. Lea&in aside the gun barrel sequence 6 !hich is also a key part of the Bond formula and !orthy of an analysis all of its o!n 6 a ne! Bond7s first ap- pearance sets out a fresh landscape to be explored., These introductions to Bond balance the old and ne!. They address criticisms and concerns that ha&e, to dra! , 'ficionados of Bond trivia !ill kno! that Bob $immons is the first actor to play Bond on film# as he appears in the gun barrel se%uence to Dr. No. before $ean (onnery. Stephanie Jones is a Teaching Fellow in Film and Televi- sion at the University of Aberystwyth, where she teaches British Cinema, Hollywood Cinema, and Television, Media, and Theatre Studies. Vol. I, Issue 1 · Spring 2017 ISSN 2514-2178 DOI: 10.24877/jbs.6 Distributed under CC BY 4.0 UK on Bennett7s *,-.30 use 8ierre Macherey7s term, become 1incrustations2 on Bond *%uoted in 9ercer and :adford ,-;;# ;0. <ra!in on press responses to &arious Bond films, this article !ill identify the central concerns of the reception context that surrounds each of the central actor7s inaugural Bond film at the time of their release. =ollo!ing on from that# I !ill dra! together a close reading of the scenes in !hich !e first see Bond in each film !ith the broader contexts that inform and shape these scenes. DR. NO (TERENCE YOUNG, 1962) It is important that the first of =lemin 7s Bond no&els to be adapted for the bi screen !as Dr. No. This no&el# in particular# had been le&elled !ith char es of 1sex, snobbery and sadism2 by the literary critic 8aul Johnson !ritin the New Statesman *,->.# ?/,0. (ontemporary press re&ie!s of Dr. No !ere deeply con- cerned !ith the sadism in =lemin 7s no&els and the !ays in !hich this !as trans- lated to the bi screen *+ibbs ,-@3# Ainxman ,-@3# 8o!ell ,-@3B :obinson ,-@30. Johnson7s re&ie! of the no&el oes on to add that 1There are three basic ingredi- ents in Dr. No Csex, snobbery# sadismD# all unhealthy# all thoroughly English2 *?/,0. (onnery7s star persona, in particular the !ay it is presented at the beginnin of the film, is crucial in mediatin concerns about elements that might be un- healthy, English, snobbish, or sadistic. BOND’S FIRST APPEARANCE IN DR. NO <r. Eo utilises the cinematic de&ice of sho!in peripheral characters talkin about a central character *i.e. James Bond0 for some time before !e actually see him. 'ccordingly# the first fi&e minutes of Dr. No are taken up !ith a ploy to em- phasise the se&erity of e&ents takin place in Jamaica, underlinin the insidious and per&asi&e threat of the unseen &illain. The audience bears !itness to a series of con&ersations !here the matter is passed up the hierarchy of o&ernment command. Each peripheral ci&il ser&ant character addresses the next person in the chain of command as 1Sir2 in an upper class En lish accent# !hich implies some sense of a class-bound chain of command leadin to!ard Bond. Though Bond is not the most senior rankin character# in narrati&e terms he is the most important for dealin !ith the problem at hand. E&entually# an 9I@ man tracks do!n Bond to a casino !here he is ambling. "e see the accessories that charac- terise Bond before !e see his face: the dinner Gacket# the sil&er li hter# and cigar- ette case. The framin picks out the immaculately fitted black tie outfit and the character7s hands manipulatin a ci arette holder. The hands are !ell groomed. 2 International Journal of James Bond Studies · Vol. I, Issue 1 · Spring 2017 They do not look !eathered or calloused. Eext comes a mid-shot of Bond *em- bodied by Sean (onnery0 sittin at a gamin table. Bond is introduced slo!ly and deliberately. Dr. No7s director# Terence Houn # intended this particular choice of shots to be an homáge to the classical Aolly!ood film Juarez *"illiam <i- eterle, ,-/-0# in !hich the audience7s anticipation of seein the lead character7s face is dra!n out for comic effect *Houn # 344@0. The re&eal of (onnery7s face is delayed 6 first in terms of the narrati&e e&ents that must be explained and then in terms of the cinematic apparatus of scannin from an establishin shot to a close-up. The temporary metonymic substitution of Bond for his dinner Gacket or ci- garette presupposes a high le&el of familiarity !ith the character on the part of the audience. In the first instance, these costumes and props are more famous than (onnery the actor and ser&e to buttress (onnery7s introduction as Bond. Bond !as, of course, already a highly familiar cultural fi ure at the point of Dr. No7s release. As Bennett and "oolacott illustrate, the character had first attained popularity though =lemin 7s no&els, but more crucially throu h the serialisation and comic strip adaptations of =lemin 7s !ritin in the Daily Express *,-.;# 3?0. These serial adaptations, coupled !ith 8an paperback releases of Bond no&els and their famous co&er illustrations, built a siKeable popular base for the charac- ter prior to Dr. No. 9onty Eorman7s 1James Bond Theme2 6 played o&er the openin un-bar- rel sequence, as !ell 6 further accompanies (onnery7s introductory scene. Bond deli&ers the line 1Bond...James Bond2 in an accent that is markedly diJerent to the other intelli ence figures heard in the film so far. The musical theme binds together the casino settin # Bond7s clothin and accessories, and (onnery7s per- formance *in particular his accent0# as the cinematic incarnation of the character incorporates chan in social concerns of the early ,-@4s as !ell as concerns sur- roundin the heroic nature of the Bond character and his Gump in popularity in the late ,->4s. 's :obert Shail notes, the ,-@4s sa! Bond transform the from British imperialist spy hero of =lemin 7s books *marked by !hite colonialism, patriotism, and a British society stratified by class0 into a cinematic figure that toned do!n these elements and emphasised instead consumerism, affluence and social mobility *344.# ,>/-40. (onnery !as crucial in modifyin the resonances of the Bond character from a marker of social superiority to a 1modern# and po- tentially classless, sophistication2 *,>?0. =ollo!ing the casino scene, Houn 7s film !orks to establish the !ork ethos of the cinematic Bond character. "e see that Bond oes strai ht to the office !hen S. Jones · The Cinematic Inaugurations of a New James Bond 3 summoned by his superiors. It is notable that# !hile he does engage in the cus- tomary and Mirtatious repartee !ith 9iss 9oneypenny# Bond only does so in the brief interim bet!een his arri&al and 97s summons for him to enter. The dia- logue exchan ed bet!een Bond and 9oneypenny demonstrates that they are markedly diJerent from the other intelli ence !orkers and ci&il ser&ants that !e ha&e seen so farF they talk playfully and use informal names for one another. "hen he arri&es home after the meetin # Bond finds $yl&ia Trench *a !oman !ith !hom he Mirted at the casino0 in his bedroom. The dialogue that follo!s bet!een the t!o further stresses the fact that !ork structures Bond7s priorities; again, the film makes it clear that Bond only sleeps !ith Trench in the !indo! of time a&ailable until his departin Might to Jamaica. This de&otion to !ork is not especially characteristic of BondB 9 and 9oneypenny are in the office at /am too, but it is si nificant that the Bond character brid es a gap bet!een !ork and play in these inau ural scenes. "hile (onnery7s accent !as no doubt confusin to cinematic audiences in ,-@3 *the Fleet Street Press su ested that it could be Irish# Eorthern Irish or Irish American0# !hat is e&ident is that it !as decidedly not an English accent.3 As $picer notes, many of (onnery7s pre-Bond roles sa! him play an Irishman *344,# 3,-0. "hile (onnery7s accent mi ht not be a recognisably Edinburgh ac- cent or e&en a Scottish one for that matter *(onnery himself is Scottish0# some critics ha&e obser&ed that the actor7s &ocal performance mitigates the char e of sadism le&elled against the film *:obinson ,-@3# ,40# a point !hich implicitly connects Englishness to the discourses of sex, snobbery# and sadism of the time.
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