"Risico"
There were rumors that the next Daniel Craig 007 flick might be titled RISICO but you never know until the film is actually in theatres.
From 1959, this is one of the five short stories which appeared in the collection, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. It's pretty good, but not a complete success. Only thirty pages long, it has the structure of a regular Bond novel (complete with first chapter taking place partway through he story, with the next chapter going back to explain how things got that way) but there isn't room to develop all the little asides and unexpected complications that give the books their distinct style.
"Risico" had its origins in a proposed James Bond TV series which Fleming was working on for CBS. When the project fell through, the author took three of the six* scripts he had been working on and reworked them into short stories. Adding two more stories that had already seen print in magazines, Fleming had a new Bond book ready without having to actually grind one out that year. Elements of this story (as well as from "For Your Eyes Only") were worked into the plot of the Roger Moore flick FOR YOUR EYES ONLY in modified form. So someone who had seen that movie first might find these stories a bit disorienting.
This is an unusual case for Bond, not within his normal area of operations, and neither he nor M are thrilled with it. Essentially, our boy is sent to Italy to break up a dope ring by buying information from an informant. To give a little overtone of Cold War espionage, it turns out that Russia is behind the heroin trade, trying to corrupt the moral fibre of England with this vile habit. If you say so. 007 is dispatched to Rome for a meeting with a smuggler who will point him at the man who must be eliminated to stop the drug traffic. But in crime, as in espionage, things and people are usually not what they seem....
Here is where "Risico" could benefit from being expanded to full length. A few chapters showing Bond investigating the rival gangs, perhaps playing one off the other, would have made him seem more incisive and competent. As it is, he`'s never really on top of the situation and ends up as just another gun in a firefight.
Bond himself seems subdued and almost disinterested in this mission. It`s not his specialty, and he just wants to get it over with and head back to England. But that doesn't excuse how easily he's suckered into playing a fool, nor how readily he switches sides at a minute's notice. For a top secret agent, Bond is not particularly observant of what goes on around him (I'm thinking of the moment when the chair at his table is switched right in front of him and he never wonders if there might be something going on there. He doesn't even notice. There was no reason why he should, observes Fleming, but a spy should be suspicious of everything around him, especially when meeting a known smuggler to open negotiations.
The most memorable moment is when Bond is being chased on foot along the Lido peninsula in Venice by three thugs. Two of them seperate to pursue him along an area which has warning signs of land mines still active and well, things happen. There's a gunfight between two groups of modern day pirates and Bond takes the side of the band that doesn't smuggle heroin... only cigarettes and aspirin, you know, harmless smuggling.
There are some points worth noting here. Several times, Bond is described as an Englishman and he not only doesn`t correct the identification, he goes so far as to say, "Yes, I'm English. My name's Bond -- James Bond." It wasn`t until after Fleming met Sean Connery that Bond was described as being a Scot, although our hero was always described as having something vaguely "alien and un-English" about him.
The two smugglers are presented as the emotional, larger than life peasant types which Fleming seemed to admire. When one kisses the English agent on both cheeks, Bond cries out in horror, "For God's sakes!" Then there's the vowel challenged Lisl Baum, a classic call girl who barely has a bit part in this and who, at the end, is literally handed over to Bond as a reward (you almost expect him to sign a receipt). Lisl never comes to life, and she makes me realize how interesting and likeable the women in these books usually (if also a bit quirky most of the time).
It's also true to Fleming`s characterization that Bond is not a simple, heartless killing machine. Although he likes to see himself as a cold tough bastard, Fleming`s Bond is a very human person with guilt and doubt just under the surface. This is what makes him still so interesting, as compared to the monotone Executioner type characters. After the big shootout, Bonds feels dirty and let down. "When he took out his gun and threw it on the bunk he caught a whiff of cordite from the barrel. It brought back the fear and violence and death of the gray dawn."
So, the story has a lively if rushed plot, some pleasant travelogue material about Rome and Venice, a little action and a little suspense. Its shortcomings show that Fleming was writing for a half hour TV program. Just imagine if he had worked up a few scripts for possible feature films (leaving THUNDERBALL out of this for the moment) and they had been polished a bit into a few new full length books.
____________
*Anyone know what happened to the three scripts he didn't include in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY? If they're still gathering dust in a filing cabinet somewhere, I think more than a few of us would love to buy transcripts of them.
From 1959, this is one of the five short stories which appeared in the collection, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. It's pretty good, but not a complete success. Only thirty pages long, it has the structure of a regular Bond novel (complete with first chapter taking place partway through he story, with the next chapter going back to explain how things got that way) but there isn't room to develop all the little asides and unexpected complications that give the books their distinct style.
"Risico" had its origins in a proposed James Bond TV series which Fleming was working on for CBS. When the project fell through, the author took three of the six* scripts he had been working on and reworked them into short stories. Adding two more stories that had already seen print in magazines, Fleming had a new Bond book ready without having to actually grind one out that year. Elements of this story (as well as from "For Your Eyes Only") were worked into the plot of the Roger Moore flick FOR YOUR EYES ONLY in modified form. So someone who had seen that movie first might find these stories a bit disorienting.
This is an unusual case for Bond, not within his normal area of operations, and neither he nor M are thrilled with it. Essentially, our boy is sent to Italy to break up a dope ring by buying information from an informant. To give a little overtone of Cold War espionage, it turns out that Russia is behind the heroin trade, trying to corrupt the moral fibre of England with this vile habit. If you say so. 007 is dispatched to Rome for a meeting with a smuggler who will point him at the man who must be eliminated to stop the drug traffic. But in crime, as in espionage, things and people are usually not what they seem....
Here is where "Risico" could benefit from being expanded to full length. A few chapters showing Bond investigating the rival gangs, perhaps playing one off the other, would have made him seem more incisive and competent. As it is, he`'s never really on top of the situation and ends up as just another gun in a firefight.
Bond himself seems subdued and almost disinterested in this mission. It`s not his specialty, and he just wants to get it over with and head back to England. But that doesn't excuse how easily he's suckered into playing a fool, nor how readily he switches sides at a minute's notice. For a top secret agent, Bond is not particularly observant of what goes on around him (I'm thinking of the moment when the chair at his table is switched right in front of him and he never wonders if there might be something going on there. He doesn't even notice. There was no reason why he should, observes Fleming, but a spy should be suspicious of everything around him, especially when meeting a known smuggler to open negotiations.
The most memorable moment is when Bond is being chased on foot along the Lido peninsula in Venice by three thugs. Two of them seperate to pursue him along an area which has warning signs of land mines still active and well, things happen. There's a gunfight between two groups of modern day pirates and Bond takes the side of the band that doesn't smuggle heroin... only cigarettes and aspirin, you know, harmless smuggling.
There are some points worth noting here. Several times, Bond is described as an Englishman and he not only doesn`t correct the identification, he goes so far as to say, "Yes, I'm English. My name's Bond -- James Bond." It wasn`t until after Fleming met Sean Connery that Bond was described as being a Scot, although our hero was always described as having something vaguely "alien and un-English" about him.
The two smugglers are presented as the emotional, larger than life peasant types which Fleming seemed to admire. When one kisses the English agent on both cheeks, Bond cries out in horror, "For God's sakes!" Then there's the vowel challenged Lisl Baum, a classic call girl who barely has a bit part in this and who, at the end, is literally handed over to Bond as a reward (you almost expect him to sign a receipt). Lisl never comes to life, and she makes me realize how interesting and likeable the women in these books usually (if also a bit quirky most of the time).
It's also true to Fleming`s characterization that Bond is not a simple, heartless killing machine. Although he likes to see himself as a cold tough bastard, Fleming`s Bond is a very human person with guilt and doubt just under the surface. This is what makes him still so interesting, as compared to the monotone Executioner type characters. After the big shootout, Bonds feels dirty and let down. "When he took out his gun and threw it on the bunk he caught a whiff of cordite from the barrel. It brought back the fear and violence and death of the gray dawn."
So, the story has a lively if rushed plot, some pleasant travelogue material about Rome and Venice, a little action and a little suspense. Its shortcomings show that Fleming was writing for a half hour TV program. Just imagine if he had worked up a few scripts for possible feature films (leaving THUNDERBALL out of this for the moment) and they had been polished a bit into a few new full length books.
____________
*Anyone know what happened to the three scripts he didn't include in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY? If they're still gathering dust in a filing cabinet somewhere, I think more than a few of us would love to buy transcripts of them.