From Publishers Weekly This delightful critical appreciation celebrates the longest-running of all film franchises as much for its absurd excesses as for its stylish thrills. Journalist McKay considers the films' family-run production company to be the Bond saga's true auteur and devotes a chapter to each of the movies up through the groundbreaking Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. McKay's 360-degree treatments take in everything from the script and actors' performances to the set design, score, and titles sequences, with droll digressions thrown in on such Bond motifs as Persian cats, monorails, impossible leaps of villainous logic, and substandard action set pieces (That's another thing that Bond producers never really learn: boat chases are intrinsically dull). McKay writes in a breezy, chatty style, as if perpetually in between mouthfuls of popcorn; he remains raptly focused on aesthetics and eyeball impact while still teasing out underlying sexual and geopolitical themes. He's a charming hybrid of critic and fan, calling out Thunderball's failings—How is it possible for a drama involving nuclear blackmail to drag on so?—while managing to find the good even in George Lazenby. The result is a scintillating read that's often more entertaining than the movies themselves. Photos. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more From Booklist *Starred Review* Not a “making-of” film book, like so many others, but rather an exploration of the themes and impact of the James Bond movies, this lively volume is sure to appeal to fans of 007. The author, clearly a huge Bond fan himself, writes with a wry tone, but he’s brimming with knowledge and insight. He tracks the movies from their origin, as cold-war spy adventures, through their transition to fantastic adventures in supervillainy, to—horror of horrors!—quaint artifacts of a bygone era, and then, inevitably, back around to relevance again. He compares and contrasts the movies to their source material, Ian Fleming’s novels and short stories, and he fills the book with delightful Bond arcana. Fans know, for example, that Bond’s first screen appearance was in 1954, on American television, where he was a CIA agent called Jimmy, but do they also know that in 1956 a British actor, Bob Holness, played Bond in a South African radio dramatization? Or that, in the early 1980s, the films’ producers seriously considered replacing Roger Moore with James Brolin? McKay explores the key ingredients of a Bond movie—Maurice Binder’s titles, Ken Adam’s mammoth sets, the “Bond girls,” a star who looks like he could kill (and who looks good in fine clothes)—and he examines the wide-ranging impact the movies have had on pop culture. Without Bond, he asks, would we have had Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, or Austin Powers? A splendid book, packed with information and combining astute analysis with the enthusiasm of a hard-core fan. --David Pitt Read more Review ¦[R]eading McKay¦s retrospective, it seems like Bond is just getting started.¦ --New York Post ¦[O]ne of the very best attempts to take stock of the Bond filmsèsmart and unexpected.¦ -- The New Republic ¦Thoroughly researched, drolly written and critically sophisticated.¦ -- The Daily Mail ¦Armed with encyclopedic knowledge and wit as dry as a shaken martini, Sinclair McKay casts a critical eye at the cinematic phenomenon launched in 1962¦s Dr. No with Sean Connery uttering that famous introduction: îBond. James Bond.¦ McKay astutely addresses the plots of each film and places them in the political and popular cultures of their eras (Bond has but one love interest in 1987¦s The Living Daylights because producers feared encouraging promiscuity in an age of AIDS). He¦s also an insightful critic, championing the initially maligned On Her Majesty¦s Secret Service (1969) as one of the best in the series. And he¦s often funny, discussing Roger Moore¦s îmany centuries¦ in show business, and describing sillier moments in the films as înaff,¦ which the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines as îunfashionable, lacking in taste or style¦ -- something McKay¦s book most definitely is not.¦ -- Newark Star-Ledger¦A marvelously entertaining tome...an arch but jolly 'galumph.'¦ -- Metrolife¦Thoroughly researched and documented yet fetching in tone and style, McKay¦s fun, smart, and informative book gracefully treads the criticism/entertainment border¦ -- Library Journal¦Delightful critical appreciationèMcKay writes in a breezy, chatty style, as if perpetually in between mouthfuls of popcornèHe¦s a charming hybrid of a critic and fanè[The Man with the Golden Touch is] a scintillating read that¦s often more entertaining than the movies themselves.¦ -- Publishers Weekly ¦Zeltserman deftly drags the reader through the story, keeping you wondering about the truthè The Caretaker of Lorne Field is camp, and therein lies its appeal.¦ -- Dallas Morning News Read more About the Author Sinclair McKay is a features writer for The Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. He is also the acclaimed author of the bestselling The Secret Life of Bletchley Park. Read more
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