It may be official—

John Terry is criminally underrated.

“Wait, what?”

Many Bondophiles and Felix fans know Mr. Terry from his one performance as dear Uncle Felix in EON Productions’ The Living Daylights opposite Timothy Dalton as Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

And more than a few fans agree that, frankly, we weren’t impressed.

More than 14 years since the character’s last celluloid appearance in Live And Let Die, the brief and rather trivial role of Felix in Daylights was more than a little underwhelming. And the chemistry between Dalton and Terry left something to be desired, to say the least. The typical viewer might have thought they were eavesdropping on an Entmoot with all the wooden performances in the room.

“The name’s Beard…Treebeard.”

However, Daylight’s John Terry has really hit his stride this past decade.

Some may recall Terry’s appearance during Season 2 of Fox’s 24, which revealed a truly skilled artist playing the part of an ex-CIA agent whose daughter has been brainwashed into terrorism. His career-defining role, however, came a few years later in 2004 when he was cast in the part of another father figure, Christian Shephard, the father of leading-man Jack Shephard (Emmy-nominee Matthew Fox) on ABC’s LOST. Like 24, LOST broke new ground in the field of storytelling. While the former became famous for its trademark “real time” narrative (and merciless Bauer-torture), the latter has been revered for skillfully weaving web upon web of logic-defying connections and mysteries among survivors of a plane crash through juxtaposition of their present survival and flashbacks that revealed how each person came to be on the fateful airliner and, eventually, “The Island.” Without revealing any significant spoilers (for those who have not yet seen the Emmy-winning series from J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, and Damon Lindelof), Terry’s role as Christian is a pivotal part of what formed the series’ main character and brought him to the island. Make no mistake, every LOST fan knows and understands the impact Terry had on the series as a whole.

The Emmy-winning worldwide phenomenon is now set to arrive in stores on August 24^th (now available for pre-order). Available will be not only the final season of LOST, but also the complete series collector’s box set (picture above). For fans of Bond, Felix, and Mr. Terry, the chance is here to see some really impressive work that, in the opinion of this writer, warrants some serious respect for the one-time Felix actor. It is enough to make one question whether Leiter’s lackluster appearance had more to do with the writing than the acting. Come to think of it, of all Leiter’s cinematic appearances, it is Daylights into which the character seems the most shoehorned. This writer now firmly believes that John Terry was capable of much more chemistry with Dalton’s Bond, given some more screen time and material to play, and is elated to say that he was dead wrong in his assumptions about this former Felix.

Pictured: Justice.

Catch Terry and the award-winning ensemble cast of LOST on August 24^th!

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From the mouth of the man himself, Producer Michael G. Wilson has stated that he’s loved having Jeffrey Wright in the role of Felix Leiter and hopes to have him back for ‘Bond 23.’ He made the remark in a recent interview that he gave for CHUD.com.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH INTERVIEW

In the last article posted on FelixLeiter.com relating to Jeffrey Wright, he said that he would love to return if there was a spot for Felix, so it sounds like it’s a win-win situation for fans of Wright’s Felix at this point. Wilson said that they would begin developing the story this upcoming year, so we might see ‘Bond 23′ as early as late 2010 or possibly 2011.

Stay tuned to FelixLeiter.com for the latest updates!

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In a new interview with BlackFilm.com, Jeffrey Wright answers questions about playing Leiter again in Quantum of Solace, what it’s been like to work again with Daniel Craig, his opinions of Marc Forster, and his enthusiasm with the possibility of continuing on as our beloved Felix in future Bond films. Here’s one excerpt to whet your appetite:

“What changes should we expect from Felix in the sequel?”

“Well, Quantum of Solace goes on to develop the relationship between Leiter and Bond. There is a kinship between the two of them that we continue to discover because they are similar in many ways. They are guys who are very much alone in their world. It’s a murky environment in which they operate and there are few people that they trust. They found a trust in one another and we try to explore that further. Outside of MI6, Leiter is Bond’s only consistent ally. He’s played a critical throughout the history of the Bond films.”

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW

EON Productions’ Quantum of Solace opens nationwide in the USA on November 14th, 2008.

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The social “adventures” of today’s Hollywood celebrities is a subject that millions of people are privy to every single day. Rarely do the actors and models get to experience a real private life outside the exploits of the paparazzi and the droves of entertainment reporters that surround nearly all of their public activities.

However, back in the waning days of Hollywood’s “Golden Era,” there were no such things as cable channels dedicated strictly to entertainment news or paparazzi jumping out of bushes with extended lenses to capture an A-list star stepping out on the patio for a cigarette. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, there were all sorts of stories among big players in Hollywood that remained largely untold.

One such starlet by the name of Barbara Leigh (Vampirella, Junior Bonner) had an especially unique adventure during her years in Hollywood; one such that few, if any, actresses can match. In 2002, the world-class model and actress finally put her memoirs in print in an autobiography entitled The King, McQueen and the Love Machine. In her autobiography, Ms. Leigh tells the fascinating details of her simultaneous relationships with three of the entertainment industry’s biggest players: Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen, and MGM President James Aubrey.

The 2008 audiobook adaptation, directed by Paul Kyriazi, features the beautiful Ms. Leigh both narrating and playing herself and also features a talented supporting cast, featuring veteran actor David Hedison (The Fly, Live and Let Die) as Aubrey, Tim Thomerson (Trancers, Uncommon Valor) as Steve McQueen, and top Elvis tribute artist Paul Casey as the King himself. This ensemble tells an amazing, sincere story about life and love in the fast lane during a nostalgic time in Hollywood history.

Ms. Leigh’s sultry but honest voice gracefully guides the listener through these intimate experiences with three of the most powerful men in entertainment, and lets us in on surprising details about them that only the closest personal friend or lover could ever know. Far from being an exploitive tale about what it was like under the sheets, Ms. Leigh’s story is surprisingly deep and powerful, and she instantly draws the listener into feeling the weight of the inevitable tribulations that she faced while at the same time uplifting the listener with her indomitable spirit. Make no mistake, this is an unforgettable work that will leave the listener with a deeper appreciation for the life of one of Hollywood’s most beautiful starlets, and will forever change the listener’s comprehension of the lives and personalities of the famous men who loved her.

Ms. Leigh’s audiobook is available at her website, BarbaraLeigh.com, and at Amazon.com. FelixLeiter.com would like to graciously thank Mr. Paul Kyriazi for providing us with an autographed copy of Ms. Leigh’s autobiography for this review.

Stay tuned, as FelixLeiter.com will be conducting a telephone interview with actor David Hedison and posting the transcript on our main page. Mr. Hedison will be answering questions about his experience on the audiobook, as well as a few questions related to his portrayal of Felix Leiter in EON Productions’ James Bond 007 films!

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If James Bond were to have any personal friends, one would think they would be either his fellow Double O agents or Bill Tanner, M’s Chief of Staff (Bond’s best friend in the Service according to Ian Fleming). However, Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 had one unlikely friend-a man that was not only an American, but also a bona fide Texan. This man shared more adventures with Bond than any other character in the Fleming canon and grew to be the closest personal friend Bond would come to have during his career in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This man’s name is Leiter. Felix Leiter.

Felix Leiter appeared in six of the fourteen novels and short story collections written by Ian Fleming (In chronological order, these were Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and The Man with the Golden Gun). In Fleming’s original novel, Casino Royale, Fleming tells us that Leiter had served in the United States Marine Corps before being recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with whom he was employed when he met James Bond. Throughout their adventures, Felix aided Bond both as a CIA agent and, for a time, as a detective for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Much to their mutual lament, Bond never got the opportunity to visit Felix’s home in Texas (or see his “oil well”) and Felix never visited Bond’s Chelsea flat in London. However, the two men shared a camaraderie that transcended their common occupation and their distant homes. Long before Felix’s final appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun, the two men had already achieved a level of friendship that could certainly be viewed as brotherhood, and that dynamic continued throughout their careers together all the way through the end of the Fleming canon (It should be noted that Leiter also appeared in various continuation novels after Fleming’s death but this article is exclusively concerned with Fleming’s work).

Over the course of the James Bond films produced by Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Felix Leiter has taken on many physical forms-Tall, short, brown hair, black hair, grey hair-he has even gone from being Caucasian to African American. Many James Bond fans have grown to have an affinity for the cinematic Felix, and even favor certain actors and physical types that have been seen throughout the series. Only two of these actors have played Felix more than once, and the rest of the time Felix never had the same face twice. This writer assumes the reason for this was so that the viewer would be as surprised to see Leiter as Bond was, by not knowing what he would look like beforehand. This was not the producers’ original intent; however, it is possible that it simply became the standard mode of operation for them. Ian Fleming’s Felix Leiter was quite different from his celluloid counterparts in the popular film franchise. None of the actors who have portrayed him on film have truly played him as he was originally written (although some of the actors have given stellar performances). The main detail abandoned in the films is that the literary Bond and Leiter shared a much more brotherly and sentimental relationship than was often portrayed onscreen.

In contrast to the various shapes and sizes in which Felix was eventually seen onscreen, Ian Fleming gave Felix Leiter a very distinct, unequivocal physical description in Casino Royale:

“Felix Leiter was about thirty-five. He was tall with a thin bony frame and his lightweight, tan-coloured suit hung loosely from his shoulders like the clothes of Frank Sinatra. His movements and speech were slow, but one had the feeling that there was plenty of speed and strength in him, and that he would be a tough and cruel fighter. As he sat hunched over the table, he seemed to have some of the jackknife quality of a falcon. There was this impression also in his face, in the sharpness of his chin and cheekbones and the wide wry mouth. His grey eyes had a feline slant which was increased by his habit of screwing them up against the smoke of the Chesterfields which he tapped out of the pack in a chain. The permanent wrinkles which this habit had etched at the corners gave the impression that he smiled more with his eyes than with his mouth. A mop of straw-coloured hair lent his face a boyish look which closer examination contradicted.”

         Casino Royale, Chapter Seven

In this story, Felix Leiter made his debut as Bond’s CIA contact in Royale-les-Eaux, France, on loan from his regular posting in Fontainebleau. Bond first met Leiter when he noticed across the baccarat table that an American had been paying particular attention to Bond’s winning streak and had been giving him subtle visual hints that he wanted to have a conversation. Upon meeting, the two spies instantly took to each other, and Bond bought Leiter a drink. After they discussed business, Leiter joined René Mathis and Vesper Lynd as Bond’s official back-up for the mission.

During Bond’s baccarat game with Le Chiffre, he was cleaned out with no hope of buying back in until he received an envelope full of money, containing a note, which read:

“Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the U.S.A.”

Leiter backed Bond’s re-entry into the game, enabling Bond to eventually beat Le Chiffre and win all of the money. Afterward, Leiter felt responsible for Bond’s welfare and insisted upon walking with him to his hotel room, fearing Le Chiffre might attempt to assassinate Bond. They then parted ways.

In Fleming’s second novel, Live and Let Die, Leiter teamed up with Bond once more as they sought to track down and destroy the gold smuggling operation financed by SMERSH and led by black Russian agent “Mister Big.” It is in this novel that we begin to see Leiter’s friendship with Bond blossom. Bond and Leiter reunited in New York City and went about visiting bars and restaurants in Harlem while working their way to Mister Big’s own establishment. After being watched and finally caught by Mister Big and his thugs, Bond was interrogated by the big man himself. Meanwhile, Leiter was taunted and bruised up by some of the thugs until he managed to spark up a conversation about jazz music with one of the men and was later secretly allowed to go free. Leiter was dumped at Bellvue Hospital and met up with Bond again in St. Petersburg, Florida.

While in St. Petersburg, Bond and Leiter set out to visit the Ourobouros Worm & Bait warehouse, Mister Big’s front company and his main port in the United States. After a tense encounter with the warehouse’s proprietor (an operative of Mr. Big’s called “The Robber”), they learned that Solitaire had been kidnapped right out of Bond’s hotel room. An angry, scared Bond drowned his sorrows in spirits and passed out while Leiter went back to the warehouse during the wee hours.

When Bond finally woke, he was disturbed by a phone call apparently from the local hospital, saying that Leiter had been left there with a “Dr. Roberts” and was in critical condition. Bond raced to the hospital, only to find that there was no such physician, and that no man by the name of Felix Leiter had been admitted there.

Bond realized he’d been had and raced back to the hotel. To his horror, a nearly-dead body was lying in wet rags and cloths on his bed, with a note sticking out of the place where the mouth should have been, saying:

“He disagreed with something that ate him.

                                    (P.S. We have plenty more jokes as funny as this.)”

Hearing that it had to have been a shark that maimed Felix, Bond returned to the warehouse that night and engaged the Robber in a gun battle and fist fight. Eventually the Robber fell through a secret trap door, grabbing the edge just in time. Bond looked beneath him and saw the black ocean waters, along with what was sure to be the large shark. Bond saw in his mind what must have happened-The Robber would have tricked Felix into standing over the same trap door and would have flipped the switch. Bond lashed out in a fit of rage and kicked the Robber in the face, twice, and he fell to a justly horrific death.

The last thing Bond had heard about Felix is that he was still unconscious, and that his right arm and left leg were gone. Fortunately, Bond successfully avenged Felix and killed Mister Big, thus destroying his gold smuggling operation.

After a departure from Fleming’s Moonraker, Felix made his return in Diamonds Are Forever. While investigating a diamond smuggling ring in the United States, Bond was surprised on the street by his old friend in New York City who had been tailing him. Not having seen each other since Felix’s near-death in Florida, the two were elated to see each other again. It is in this story that we get the sense that these two men have become like brothers, always taunting and teasing each other. In this novel, Fleming updated the reading audience on Felix’s new appearance:

“Sure,” said Leiter. He slipped his steel hook into the right-hand pocket of his coat and took Bond’s arm with his left hand. They moved out onto the street, and Bond noticed that Leiter walked with a decided limp…His limp was more noticeable as he held onto the [stair]banisters…The right arm had gone, and the left leg, and there were imperceptible scars below the hairline above the right eye that suggested a good deal of grafting, but otherwise Leiter looked in reasonable shape. The steady eyes were undefeated, the shock of straw-coloured hair had no hint of grey in it and there was none of the bitterness of a cripple around the mouth. But in their short walk there had been a hint of reticence in Leiter’s manner, and Bond felt this had something to do with him, Bond, and perhaps with Leiter’s present activities. Certainly not, he thought as he walked across the room to join his friend, with Leiter’s injuries.

  Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Eight

By this time, Felix had also left the employ of the CIA and was now employed by Pinkerton’s Detective Agency:

“With my gun hand gone they could only offer me desk work. Very nice about it, and paid me off handsomely when I said I wanted an open-air job. Then Pinkertons made me a good offer. You know, ‘The Eye That Never Sleeps’ people. So now I’m just a ‘door-basher’-private detective, ‘put-on-some-clothes-and-open-up’ routine. But it’s fun. They’re a nice crowd to work for, and someday I’ll be able to retire with a pension and a presentation gold watch that goes green in the summer. As a matter of fact I’m in charge of their Race Gang squad-doping, crooked running, nightguards at the stables, that sort of thing. Good job, and it takes you all over the country.”

        Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Eight

Leiter and Bond chose not to team as closely on this outing, as their respective agencies were not collaborating on the case. However, Felix was able to get Bond a reliable Pinkerton’s contact in Las Vegas, and personally helped when he could. He drove Bond to Saratoga in his pride and joy-his “Studillac”-a Studebaker with a Cadillac engine. Leiter frequently liked to make playful jabs at the British, whether by simply calling Bond a “limey” or by engaging Bond’s competitive nature by threatening that his Studillac could outperform Bond’s prized Bentley. Felix always felt the need to defend the American motoring reputation to Europeans like Bond.

After rescuing Bond from the clutches of the Spangled Mob outside Las Vegas, Leiter bid Bond a fond farewell near the end of Diamonds Are Forever. As Bond felt a lump in his throat seeing Felix limping back to his car and driving off, Tiffany Case remarked to him-

“You’ve got yourself a good friend there.”

(To which Bond replied)

“Yes–Felix is all of that.”

         Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Twenty-One

Leiter only made a brief appearance near the end of Goldfinger, where he was delivered a note that Bond had written as a last ditch attempt to thwart Auric Goldfinger’s plan to rob Fort Knox. When Goldfinger and his men had seemingly incapacitated the military guard around Fort Knox and Bond thought it was all finally over, a maroon signal went off and the soldiers sprung to life. Bond heard a familiar voice cry “Santiago!” (St. James-the battle cry of Cortez) and turned to see Leiter in his Marine Captain uniform carrying a bazooka and leading a unit of men in the ambush. With the Marines, Leiter and Bond crushed Goldfinger’s great robbery plan and spent a short amount of time relaxing and speeding in the Studillac along the highway on Bond’s way to Washington, D.C. There, they parted ways once again.

Felix returned again in full form in Thunderball. While Bond waited on his assigned CIA contact in Nassau, Felix caught Bond completely by surprise and explained that he had been “drafted” back into the CIA to work with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to find the two missing NATO nuclear bombs stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Working with Bond much more closely again, Felix accompanied Bond onto a yacht owned by Emilio Largo-a suspicious man whom they believed to be involved in the theft of the bombs. Felix brought with him a now-famous gadget: a camera with a Geiger counter hidden inside, which is connected to a wristwatch whose sweep hand shows the radiation count.

Finding nothing but still suspecting Largo, Leiter and Bond searched all over the sea surrounding Nassau for the aircraft from which the bombs were stolen. With little time to spare before S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s ransom was due, they found the aircraft sitting on the bottom of a grotto and brought the U.S. Navy on board in the form of a submarine and underwater commandos. Leiter aided the Navy in chasing down Largo’s yacht while Bond fought Largo and his men underwater. With S.P.E.C.T.R.E. crushed, the bombs were finally retrieved.

Felix made his final appearance in Fleming’s final novel, The Man With The Golden Gun. While still working for Pinkerton’s, Felix was once again drafted into the CIA specifically to work with his old friend James in Jamaica to eliminate Cuban hitman Francisco “Pistols” Scaramanga. Scaramanga was organizing a deadly union of the American mob, the Sicilian Mafia, and the KGB. While Bond posed undercover as Scaramanga’s bodyguard under the name of Mark Hazard, Leiter posed under the name of “Mr. Travis” as a temporary accountant at the hotel run by Scaramanga. His objective was to collect and record evidence of Scaramanga’s connection to the KGB. Leiter was assisted by another CIA agent named Nick Nicholson, an electronics and wiretapping expert.

Eventually, Bond discovered that Scaramanga and his KGB handler, Mr. Hendriks, knew that he was a spy. Fortunately, Leiter had maintained his cover and aided his friend in making sure that he would be forewarned and, thus, forearmed. Scaramanga planned to kill Bond in full view of the group of criminals by exposing Bond and killing him during an excursion to hunt game. While on his train, Scaramanga used a dummy tied to the tracks (by Leiter earlier, under Scaramanga’s pressure) to trick Bond into thinking it was his girlfriend, and forced Bond’s hand. A gunfight ensued in which Bond killed Hendriks and severely wounded Scaramanga, but he was still outnumbered and outgunned. Just as he was nearly done for, Felix popped up behind Scaramanga (having ridden aboard the train in secret) and ambushed the other thugs, telling Bond to jump. Bond and Leiter jumped, as did Scaramanga, and the train went up in a fireball thanks to explosives that Leiter had planted ahead on a bridge.

Bond and Leiter were badly wounded, Bond even more so after his final confrontation with Scaramanga in the mangrove swamps. The two spies were hospitalized, though Leiter visited Bond often and was with him as he recovered from his near-fatal gunshot wound. Both were honored by the Jamaican police, after which they parted ways as Leiter prepared to go back to America. Bond and Leiter curiously never shook hands, but still knew each other well and knew that, while they had difficulty expressing their brotherly affection, they were two sides of the same coin and would always be so.

While the relationship between James Bond and Felix Leiter has never been fully fleshed out in the film series, fans of Fleming know that there is much more to Felix than Bond’s American sidekick who simply makes Bond look great by comparison. Fleming’s Felix is a beloved character that has endured with the novels themselves; a charming, professional, deadly American spy and detective who has suffered, prevailed and lived to be considered James Bond’s closest friend and ally for many years and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Discuss Fleming’s Felix: The CIA Man as Originally Envisioned in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

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UPDATE (8/14/08): ACCORDING TO HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE, WRIGHT WAS REPORTEDLY MACED AND STUN-GUNNED AND CHARGED WITH INTERFERING WITH THE POLICE, A MISDEMEANOR.

According to the Associated Press, Jeffrey Wright, along with fellow actor Josh Brolin and five others, were placed in custody by the police shortly after 2 AM. They were involved in a bar fight early Saturday morning at the Stray Cat bar in Shreveport, Louisiana.  Wright and Brolin are currently filming Oliver Stone latest film, W., a President George W. Bush biopic. Wright is playing General Colin Powell and Brolin is playing President Bush.

Bond fans who are paying attention to the buzz on the next film, Quantum of Solace (Opening October 31 in the UK and November 7 in the US), may note that Felix Leiter (played by Wright) has one prominent scene in which he meets 007 in a bar in South America, which erupts into an action sequence shortly afterward.

Talk about life imitating art!

Discuss this Jeffrey Wright news in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

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As a veteran fan of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, I was enthralled to hear that Sebastian Faulks would be attempting to bring not only the literary Bond, but Fleming’s Bond back to life in Devil May Care, which was written and released to mark the centennial anniversary of Fleming’s birth. Fans had been promised the return of several memorable characters, including the SIS staff, René Mathis, and this site’s favorite, Felix Leiter. We’d also been promised a classic villain in the Fleming style, a luscious leading lady as only Fleming could conceive, and a lush travelogue full of suspense and excitement. The story would be taking place shortly after Fleming’s The Man with the Golden Gun in 1967. All was as it should be.

So, how was it?

While it is a good book overall, I’m afraid it isn’t the messianic continuation novel that many fans had built it up in their minds to be. Faulks (who has been given many well-deserved accolades for his work thus far) managed to reproduce Fleming’s writing style and tone quite well; however, the story feels like little more than a pastiche of former Fleming adventures. The plot centers on Dr. Julius (No?) Gorner and his plans to wreak havoc on Britain’s citizens by addicting as many as possible to heroin, thus discrediting England in the world community and plunging their culture into ruin. I liked the idea of the villain taking revenge on Britain for wronging him; I liked it better, though, when Hugo Drax did it in Moonraker. I also liked the tension-wracked tennis match in which Bond took on a cheating Gorner; I liked it better when it was the bridge match with Drax or the golf game with Goldfinger. Also, the ally in Tehran, Darius, was a rather obvious homage to Darko Kerim in almost every single way.

And the girl-she was an interesting character, with a name that played on the flower from which opium is derived (the Poppy); Again, a choice made with a good intention of giving tribute, but which came off as a lack of originality. What was original, though, was the full revelation of her role in the story. Well done.

One flaw that many Fleming fans have noted is that Faulks seemed to feel the need to hit all items on the “Fleming checklist”; that is, he had Bond in nearly every familiar situation previously introduced in the earlier novels (like placing hairs across doorways and taking hot/ice cold showers, or recalling situations in specific former adventures) as if to scream “It’s the same Bond! Honest!” Frankly, I believe he needed not been so heavy handed in his approach. Fleming fans will detect even more situations, characters, and places that obviously echo the original counterparts in the Fleming adventures.

Now, the question all Felix Leiter fans have been wondering…How was Felix handled?

While the characterization was done respectfully and brought back warm memories of Fleming’s lanky Texan, the details regarding Leiter’s maiming in Live and Let Die were completely wrong (I assume Faulks felt the need to recall these details for the benefit of readers who had never read Fleming). First, he said it was a hammerhead that maimed him. Fleming never alluded to the possibility of it having been a hammerhead, and even suggested that it might be a much more deadly species (EON Productions’ Licence To Kill conjectures a Great White shark). Second, Faulks says that it was the right arm and leg. With all due respect to Mr. Faulks, this is simply bad research. Fleming clearly stated in Diamonds Are Forever that it was the right arm and left leg. Third, Faulks gives the location as having been Miami. This isn’t even close. It had been in St. Petersburg, which is nowhere near Miami by any estimation. I was shocked to see such obvious discrepancies here, especially because this was intended to be the definitive continuation novel, set specifically in Fleming’s universe and told through his own voice.

While I was disappointed with this misstep, I was satisfied overall with Felix’s role in the story and his relationship with Bond. Much like the end of The Man with the Golden Gun, the reader gets the sense that these men are like brothers. I am thankful that Faulks chose to include him in the story.

All in all, Devil May Care left me feeling mostly satisfied. While I do wish he had chosen not to pay as much homage to Fleming’s characters and plots, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found it to be the most satisfying continuation Bond novel I’ve read yet. Most readers will not have as many gripes about the lack of original details as the hardcore Fleming readers, and even the veteran literary fans will get swept up in the action whether they have reservations about the details or not. I would recommend to all fans to go ahead and purchase this one. And my advice to you readers out there-like Fleming’s stories, Devil May Care is best to read while either traveling or in the comfort of one’s own bed.

00Twelve’s Rating: ***1/2

Righty007′s Rating: ****

When we Leiter fans think of Jack Wade from EON Productions’ GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, we see middle-aged, portly character actor Joe Don Baker donning a Hawaiian shirt and playing a CIA agent (and amateur gardener) with an amusing but ultimately exasperating penchant for referring to 007 as “Jimbo,” “Jimmy,” or simply “another stiff-assed Brit”. Wade is surely more lackadaisical, more campy and more of a stereotypical southern American than the familiar Felix Leiter of the film series; in all, a seemingly random choice to replace the long-running CIA counterpart to Bond. 

However, there may have been method to the madness of Kevin Wade, the uncredited writer who wrote many of Jack Wade’s scenes and was the character’s namesake. While fans that are familiar mainly with the cinematic Felix Leiter may look upon Wade as an inferior replacement to the beloved character, Wade ironically embodied more of the personality traits of Fleming’s literary Leiter than did the cinematic version. Fleming’s Felix was a southern American with a slow Texan drawl, lots of southern charm and a penchant for jokingly jabbing at his friend, James. Take this excerpt from Leiter’s speech about finding Bond and Tiffany Case in the Nevada desert in Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever:

…and when I get into town I call my friend Ernie Cureo. His wife is having hysterics and Ernie’s in the hospital. So I go right over and he tells me the score and I figure that James may need reinforcements. So I jump on my coal-black charger and gallop through the night and when I get near to Spectreville I see the light in the sky. Mr. Spang’s having himself a barbecue, I figure. The gate in the fence is open so I decide to join the feast. Well, believe me or believe me not, there’s not a soul in the place except a guy with a busted leg and multiple contusions who’s crawling down the road trying to get away. And he looks to me mighty like a young hood called Frasso from Detroit. Ernie Cureo tells me he was one of the guys who carted James away. The greaser’s in no state to deny this and I more or less get the picture and figure that Rhyolite’s my next stop. So I tell the kid he’ll soon be having plenty of company from the Fire Department and I take him to the gate and leave him there and after a while there’s a girl standing in the middle of the desert looking as if she’s been fired from a cannon and here we all are. Now you tell.

                                                                                      Chapter Twenty One, Diamonds Are Forever

This is not a speech that many would agree sounds terribly natural coming from the mouth of the cinematic Felix Leiter, not even David Hedison’s portrayal. Hedison, more than any of the other Leiter actors thus far, captured the sentimental tone of the literary Leiter and the sense of affection for Bond that Leiter was known to have. In addition, it was probably either Jack Lord or Rik Van Nutter who most closely resembled the literary Leiter’s tall, lean physique. However, the overall spirit of Fleming’s Texan CIA agent was still arguably adapted the closest in Jack Wade.

Leiter’s eagerness to bend or outright break official protocol to aid his friend James, as well as his close ties to the Marines, was evident in Wade through his offering Bond Marine support in Cuba (a nation that the United States government is well known for considering “off-limits”) during the last act of GoldenEye, especially when Wade personally shows up with them in the end. Leiter’s aversion to protocol is also seen in Wade’s later willingness to use official U.S. Naval personnel and equipment to insert Bond into the South China Sea (another area considered “off-limits” by the United States government) to investigate the sunken H.M.S. Devonshire in Tomorrow Never Dies. Though their relationship had gotten off to a rocky start, Wade and Bond’s mutual disdain for abiding by the rules quickly set them on the road to becoming friends.

In addition, some of Wade’s more low-key exchanges with Bond are very strongly reminiscent of the exact type of banter that would ensue between Leiter and Bond in the pages of Fleming:

Wade: Now you’re sure you wanna do this? Last guy who went in uninvited went home air freight…in very small boxes.
Bond: Make sure they send me home first class.

                                                                                                                                       GoldenEye

In the end, Jack Wade became known as a minimally respected character among many Bond fans and a downright likeable one among others. For this writer, a substantial part of Wade’s appeal comes from the echoes of Fleming’s Felix that strongly shine through him and for providing the necessary foil with his tongue-in-cheek antics and eccentricities, which have often been cited as the less endearing attributes of the character. 

A number of Brosnan’s fans have lamented that in his four films, he was never allowed the opportunity to be seen onscreen with “dear old Uncle Felix”. This may be due to the producers’ desire not to bring a disabled Felix back into the series (even though Felix had been disabled very early in the literary series and had appeared as a disabled man in the rest of his appearances). It would be very interesting to be able to speak with Kevin Wade to ask if emulating the literary Felix Leiter was a specific and deliberate goal; until that is possible, this writer continues to believe that there is a good possibility that Fleming’s Felix was the primary template for the creation of Jack Wade in EON Productions’ GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.

Rik Van Nutter’s story about getting the role as Felix Leiter in 1965′s Thunderball is one of the most interesting casting stories of the James Bond franchise that I’ve ever heard. At the time, he was married to actress Anita Ekberg and as Bond fans may know, Anita’s film Call Me Bwana, in which she co-starred alongside Bob Hope, was advertised in 1962′s From Russia with Love during the scene in which Kerim Bey shoots Krilencu as he attempts to climb out of the secret escape hatch of his hideout through Anita’s smiling mouth on the giant poster adorning the side of the building. Anita never asked producer Cubby Broccoli for payment in exchange for the use of her image. In return, during dinner with Anita and Rik one evening, Cubby turned to Rik and declared, “You, Rik! You’re Felix Leiter in Thunderball!”

The rest is history.

See the original story located here along with a link to writer John F. Murray’s website and personal tribute to Rik Van Nutter.

In a terrible stroke of tragic irony Teresa, known as Tracy by her beloved James, was murdered later that very afternoon by Blofeld, who had escaped from Piz Gloria unscathed. James had never been fortunate in love, and Tracy had seemed to him to be the one girl for whom he would finally be able to leave the life of spying and killing and settle down. The loss was utterly devastating, driving Bond into a man hell-bent on revenge. Though he would find the elusive Blofeld again two years later attempting to ransom the world governments with a diamond-powered laser, it would be years before he would finally have the satisfaction of killing Blofeld once and for all by dropping him out of a helicopter into a towering smokestack after narrowly avoiding Blofeld’s assassination attempt. By that time, it was somewhat of a hollow victory.

Bond’s faithful American ally and friend Felix Leiter had always been there for him over the years, and while having unfortunately missed Bond’s wedding, Felix had heard and been saddened by the news of Tracy’s death. Years later, Felix would find a love of his own in a beautiful young woman by the name of Della Churchill. Felix and Della had chosen to settle down and live in the Florida Keys, and had their wedding there with hundreds in attendance and James as Felix’ best man. Just before the ceremony, now-DEA agent Felix had been informed that a wanted drug lord named Franz Sanchez was in nearby Cray Key and was within the DEA’s jurisdiction, so Felix reluctantly took James “strictly as an observer” and captured Sanchez (with James’ necessary help).

On the very evening of the wedding day, James was the last guest to leave his beloved friends to the beginning of their honeymoon, and Della tossed him her garter on his way out. When James reacted with serious hesitance and a noticeable lack of amusement at the traditional gesture, a concerned Della looked to Felix for an explanation, and Felix replied that, “He was married once, but it was a long time ago.”

As they entered their bedroom they discovered Sanchez’ men waiting with guns, and after knocking Felix unconscious, they brutally raped and murdered Della there on the couple’s bed. Taking Felix to a fishery warehouse, the men handed him over to the escaped Sanchez, who had Felix fed to a great white shark as repayment for capturing him. His purpose was not to kill Felix, but to merely leave him crippled and forever knowing the price for attempting to trifle with the drug lord. Hearing of Sanchez’s escape the following morning at the airport, Bond immediately rushed back to Della and Felix’ house to warn his friend. There he found Della’s body and a barely alive Felix. He immediately called the authorities there to save Felix before he lost too much blood. The shark had taken Felix’ left leg below the knee and nearly his arm as well.

James and Felix had bonded over their many adventures over the years, and while James would be forever tormented by the memory of his beautiful wife of only a few short hours, he knew the kind of happiness that Felix had felt on that wedding day in Florida and hoped that at least his good friend would get to have the life he could not; a life away from death and darkness, away from the spy game, away from bachelorhood. But it would not be that way. There would be no fairy tale ending for Felix’ life and career, and no vicarious pleasure for James. The two brothers-The British Secret Service agent from London and the ex-CIA man from Texas, who had been through many harrowing adventures and had come out unscathed, who often lightheartedly and incessantly teased each other’s nationalities, who had been there for each other in good times and bad, now shared one more bond, a horrifically tragic bond…

James and Felix became widowers on their wedding days.

Of all the experiences that two good friends could ever share, of all the feelings to which each could relate with each other, could there ever be a crueler common fate to befall two such men as these? Perhaps it was a natural risk and consequence of their professions; perhaps it was a fateful retribution for all the men and women whose deaths they had been responsible for over the years; perhaps they knew in the deepest places that they could never have the peaceful mundane existence for which they had been destined not to have so long ago; perhaps there can be no life worth attaining without the possibility of pain; perhaps accidents merely happen.

How would men in their position cope with such a traumatic bond?

Doubtlessly feeling echoes of his own tragic loss and never having been satisfied with the demise of Tracy’s murderer, James once again became hell-bent on revenge. He would stop at nothing to see Felix and his wife avenged. There would be no searching for years upon years, nor would there be any waiting on approval from the Service to proceed because no man or woman anywhere would be able to stand in the way of his retribution. When inevitably confronted by the Service, James resigned and forfeited his license to kill. He then meticulously wove his way into Sanchez’ network and destroyed the man’s empire from within. He got as close as anyone could ever get to Sanchez and he finally killed him, incinerating him with the lighter he’d been given as a wedding present by Della and Felix as poetic justice.

James could only hope that the vengeful act would give both he and Felix a small quantum of solace regarding Della’s death. However, there would doubtlessly be years of emotional pain that Felix would never be able to escape: unlike James, Felix would be reminded of his loss every time he took a step. Even still, there was a spirit in the eyes of the man that remained undefeated. Like James, Felix would learn to live with himself and would ultimately survive the journey he had taken from bachelor to widower.