BOND BEGINS

‘COMMANDER JAMAICA’ SOUNDS, maybe, like a problematic fish-out-of-water sitcom from the 1970s. It certainly would have been an inauspicious title for the first James Bond film, but was, in fact, the proposed name of a TV series that Ian Fleming had planned in the mid-1950s, focusing on a sexy secret agent named James Gunn. It was inspired by a memorable holiday the author had taken in the Bahamas, where he’d wandered through dense mangrove swamps, sparse salt flats and encountered fat Land Rovers that roared through the night (a sight that inspired Dr. No’s legendary ‘dragon’ tank). However, the project collapsed, and Fleming popped it in a drawer to recycle elsewhere at another time. Ultimately, the story — about a spy in the West Indies exploring a secret, dangerous, forbidden island ruled by a mysterious villain — became the basis for the sixth James Bond novel Dr. No and, later, the character’s explosive movie debut.

Until 1962, the world of movie espionage was starched, cold and still hungover from World War II. There were black-and-white shadows, whispered codes and pulled-down trilby hats. Then, though, James Bond arrived on screens, fully formed, and where once was darkness, there was now