As I am working on the first draft of "The Illustrated 007" I am also rereading all the Fleming Bond novels and re-watching every single Bond screen appearance. A process that I would have thought would be standard for anyone working on a Bond project.
But I guess it isn't.
A few weeks ago I read "The Man Who Saved Britain" by Simon Winder and soon spotted various assumptions in the text that made me realized he was working from memory rather than checking the original novel or movie source.
I've spent the last couple of days studying "James Bond: The Man And His World," by Henry Chancellor. Chancellor was the first author to be given full access to the Fleming archives and, according to the book's press releases and various online interviews, spent a year writing the book.
It seemed that year didn't include an hour to watch the CBS TV version of Casino Royale broadcast in 1954.
This afternoon I read the following passage by Chancellor on the TV Casino Royale:
In it special agent 'Jimmy' Bond is Americanized..., and Vesper Lynd, the double agent Bond girl, does not commit suicide..
OK sounds fair enough, EXCEPT that while the main character is indeed an American version of Bond - his name is given as James Bond (he calls himself "James" and is shown as James in the credits). The only person who refers to him as "Jimmy" is the Anglicized version of Leiter (given as Clarence Letter in the end credits). The female lead is not Vesper Lynd (as in the novel) - the character is called Valerie Mathis, and she is an agent, but not a double one.
Small mistakes - but essential ones that are easily researched and checked. Spotting this on Page 224 makes me question just how "definitive" the previous couple of hundred pages were.
It just reinforces my personal mantra of "go back to the source material where ever possible."
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And let's not mention that Chancellor gives the near 30 year history of Bond comic strip adaptations in the Daily Express only a one sentence passing mention in which they are dismissed as cartoons - aaarrggghhh!
OK, I guess I did mention it.
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