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The Greatest Bond Girls

Part 1
(1962 - 1965)

Introduction: A requisite key feature of all of the James Bond films has been the inclusion of one or more Bond girls, serving as sex objects and often as major characters opposite agent 007. The larger-than-life females usually became Bond's love interest (often reluctantly but then enthusiastically), although there were some exceptions. In some cases, they were given sexually-suggestive names, such as "Plenty O'Toole," "Pussy Galore," "Miss Mary Goodnight," and "Dr. Holly Goodhead." A few of the Bond girls were actually "bad."

Total Film Magazine (April 2008 issue) also produced their own list of the top 20 Greatest Bond Girls, described as "toxic vixens and pouty princesses. Filthy names and dirty tricks. 007's best mates..."

Greatest Bond Girls in James Bond Films
(chronological, part 1)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See also Greatest Film Series Franchises: James Bond Films (illustrated)
Title

Bond Girl

Description

Example
First 14 Bond Films Miss Moneypenny
(Canadian actress Lois Maxwell) She appeared opposite two Bonds (Sean Connery and Roger Moore), only receiving restrained cheek-to-cheek embraces.

From Russia With Love (1964)
Dr. No (1962)
d. Terence Young Honeychile Ryder
(Ursula Andress) In the film's most unforgettable sequence, Bond (Connery) awakened to the sound of a girl's voice singing "Underneath the Mango Tree." On the Crab Key beach rising Venus-like from the water with giant seashells that she was poaching, Bond had his first view of Honey Ryder, an innocent, voluptuous native island girl/diver wearing a sexy, white bikini and hunting knife. Honey asked: "What are you doing here? Looking for shells?" Bond (glibly) replied: "No, I'm just looking." [Note: In the original Ian Fleming 1958 novel, Honeychile emerged from the water naked.] She explained how she didn't go to school, but resourcefully learned everything as a child by reading a set of encyclopedias ("I started at A when I was eight, now I've reached T. I bet I know a lot more things than you do!"). When she was taken captive with Bond by Dr. No, they both had to take decontamination showers. By film's end, Bond rescued her from drowning and they escaped Crab Key in one of Dr. No's boats - conveniently running out of gas.

From Russia With Love (1963)
d. Terence Young Corporal Tatiana ("Tania") Romanova (Daniella Bianchi)
A low-level Soviet (Istanbul) embassy cypher clerk/employee with a Russian name, Tatiana, was hired by evil terrorist organization SPECTRE member/officer Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), under orders from Ernst Blofeld (Anthony Dawson), to seduce and destroy Bond (Connery) in order to avenge the killing of Dr. No. She was to entice him (through her companionship and the promise of defection) to acquire a Lektor code machine from the Russians, an encryption or crytopgraphic device, so that SPECTRE could kill him. She revealed that she had fallen in love with him through a personnel photo. She first encountered Bond by awaiting him in bed (wearing only a sexy black velvet choker) in his Istanbul hotel suite, unaware that they were being filmed through a one-way mirror during their subsequent love-making. At one point, she asked Bond: "Will you make love to me all the time in England?" - part of a personal deal in which he would take her back to England (on the Orient Express) with the decoder. When she confessed: "I think my mouth is too big," Bond replied: "It's just the right size - for me that is." The film ended with the romantic pair sailing away in a Venice gondola after Tatiana shot Klebb (who was disguised as a maid, with a dagger-tipped shoe with poison venom) with her own pistol.

From Russia With Love (1963)
d. Terence Young

Zora
(Martine Beswick)
Martine Beswick starred as cat-fighting fiery gypsy wench Zora. She engaged in the famous "catfight" scene with her gypsy rival Vida (played by former Miss Israel Aliza Gur), fighting to the death for the affections of the same man. When the fight was cut short, Bond (Connery) was allowed to spend the night with the girl of his choice.

Goldfinger (1964)
d. Guy Hamilton Pussy Galore
(Honor Blackman) With the most memorable (and improbable) Bond girl name in the film series' history. She introduced herself to a tranquilized Bond (Connery) who awakened on Goldfinger's jet - she purred above him: "My name is Pussy Galore." Bond replied: "I must be dreaming." He also told her: "You're a woman of many parts, Pussy!" She was the personal pilot for villain Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) intent on spraying deadly Delta-9 nerve gas over Fort Knox to ultimately destabilize the western economy - she was one of a team of all-female pilots, Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, possibly lesbian-leaning. She often took a stance with her hands on hips, and as she held a gun on Bond, said: "Do you want to play it easy, or the hard way?" She wrestled with Bond in the hay in a horse stable, something that convinced her of the appeal of heterosexuality as he lowered himself down on her and kissed her. By film's end after helping Bond (by switching the gas canisters), she was kissing him under a parachute after the demise of Goldfinger.

Thunderball (1965)
d. Terence Young Dominique ("Domino") Derval
(Claudine Auger) Domino was the love-starved, imprisoned mistress of "guardian" SPECTRE Number 2 villain Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), who was intent on stealing nuclear warheads and blackmailing NATO. She was also the sister of Major Francois Derval (Paul Stassino), unwittingly used in SPECTRE's scheme. She first met Bond (Connery) during a diving trip at Nassau in the Bahamas, when she was caught on some coral and Bond extricated her. She had a birthmark on her left thigh. She began to trust him after he convinced her that Largo had killed her brother, a NATO bomber pilot. When they met, Bond knew her nickname and she inquired how: "How do you know my friends call me Domino?" Bond: "It's on the bracelet on your ankle." Domino: "So... what sharp little eyes you've got." Bond: "Wait 'til you get to my teeth." In the end, she was the one who killed Largo (Domino: "I'm glad I killed him" Bond (relieved): "You're glad?") with a harpoon, and was left with Bond in a life raft by the film's closing awaiting rescue. [Trivia note: In one of her earlier roles, Kim Basinger also played Domino in the unofficial remake Never Say Never Again (1983).]

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The Greatest Bond Girls Part 1 (1962 - 1965)

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