Len Deighton – James Bond Connections

1 JANUARY 2024

JBC rating: *****

James Bond Connections (6):

Producer Harry Saltzman (Bond Producer, 1962 – 1975).
Featuring actor Guy Doleman (Count Lippe in Thunderball) as Colonel Ross.
Production designer Ken Adam (Bond production designer, various, 1962 – 1979).
Composer John Barry (Bond composer, various, 1962 – 1987).
Editor Peter Hunt (Bond Editor / Director, 1962 – 1969).
Sound design Norman Wanstall (Sound designer, Goldfinger).

In October 1962, the same month Dr No was released in cinemas, English artist-turned author Len Deighton saw the publication of his debut thriller The IPCRESS File, an instant bestseller leading to a series following the adventures of a working-class English spy. Ironically, given Deighton’s creation provided a gritty tonic to the increasingly fantastical James Bond series, this and two further Deighton’s novels were brought to the screen from 1965 onwards by Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman (with IPCRESS losing its capitalisation along the way). Indeed, one of the reasons The Ipcress File remains such a terrific spy thriller is the presence of so many EON regulars involved in the production, including John Barry who provides one of his greatest-ever soundtracks. Additional interest for any James Bond fan is that despite being ostensibly an anti-Bond film with a focus on spy procedure, The Ipcress File includes themes found in Bond and other spy fantasy films of the 1960s such as brainwashing and mind control.

4 JUNE 2023

JBC rating: ***

James Bond Connections (2):

Featuring actor David Bauer (Morton Slumber in Diamonds Are Forever) as US official Bennett.
Theme song composed by Lionel Bart (composer of the song From Russia with Love).

The British B-movie Danger Route is by far the grittiest of three late 1960s spy films starring Shakespearean actor Richard Johnson, the darkly handsome English leading man who famously turned down the chance to star as the first James Bond in Dr No (1962). Johnson’s brutal turn as a jaded, cold-blooded government assassin adds an edge of danger largely absent from his portrayals of Bulldog Drummond in the campy and fantastical Deadlier than the Male (1967) and Some Girls Do (1969). Indeed, Danger Route suggests his portrayal of 007 could have been both exciting and faithful to Ian Fleming’s conception of his hero as a “blunt instrument of the state” and the film is well worth watching for any James Bond fan.

Tag: Len Deighton

The Ipcress File (1965): hypnotic working-class Bond

Danger Route (1967): nearly-Bond Richard Johnson as a blunt instrument of the state