Shaken but not Stirred:
Or
The Blended Bond
How the James Bond
films
fit into the WNU
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From
June-August 1955
Although Dr.
No was the first James Bond film, since we are putting the films in a
chronological order in context with James Bond’s career the first film
which directly deals with the career of James Bond, 007 was From Russia,With Love.
THE
NOVEL AND THE FILM An analytic synopsis of the novel and the film
THE BLENDED BOND: A Recreation Of The True Events
An analytic synopsis of the novel and
the film
Since this film
version is generally faithful to the novel, the major differences that exist in
the film version will be shown in <film version>
The novel starts out telling the story of Donovan
“Red” Grant, the Chief Executioner for the Soviet counter-espionage
agency known as SMERSH. Donovan Grant was result of a casual encounter between
a German weightlifter known as the Mighty Donovan and an Irish shopgirl who had
attended the circus where Grant was performing as a weightlifter. The Mighty Donovan
knew nothing of the child and Grant’s mother died of a fever six months
after he was born. Grant was raised by a maiden aunt. Even as a child people
sensed there was something different about Grant. He grew up strong and thickly
muscled but also with a propensity for violence. After his sixteenth year he
was compelled to kill at the full moon, starting out with small animals but
eventually killing people.[1] Grant was successful at
hiding his psychotic urges and worked as a enforcer for the Sinn Fein and a
local group of smugglers. He also became a boxing champion of some note but was
drafted into the service towards the end of World War II. He became a driver
for the Royal Signal Corps and was stationed in Berlin. While working a
dispatch courier, he took the day’s mail to the Russian sector and
defected to the Soviets telling them of his desire to become an assassin.
For ten years he worked for SMERSH, becoming their chief
executioner.
< James Bond running is running through
what appears to be a park or a large garden under a full moon. As Bond
stealthily makes his way through the park, he is being stalked by a large,
muscular blond haired man dressed in a black turtleneck shirt and black pants.
Bond fires at his stalker but misses. Bond turns a corner and his garroted by
the blond man. Floodlights reveal that the park is a large garden area attached
to a large villa or dacha. The villa is surrounded by men weilding shotguns. A
thin balding man carrying a stopwatch walks up to the blond man and congratulates
him on his speed. A mask is pulled off of the dead man revealing that it was
not James Bond who had been killed after all.>[2]
At a meeting of the top intelligence and espionage
agencies of the Soviet Union, it was decided to accomplish a terrorist act against
the British Secret Service. It was then decided that the target of the act
would be James Bond for his part in causing the deaths Le Chiffre, Mr. Big and
Hugo Drax and the failure of their particular missions. A death warrant was
issued for Bond, he was to be killed in ignomy.
The order was then passed over to SMERSH to plan and
execute.
The Head of Planning for SMERSH was Kronsteen the
reigning Chess Champion of Moscow. Kronsteen was summoned to SMERSH
headquarters during his final match for the current championship, receiving a
note for him to come immediately with only three minutes left to go. Kronsteen
refused to leave immediately and finished the match, stating that he would have
otherwise blown his cover.
In addition to Kronsteen, Colonel Rosa Klebb of SMERSH
was also involved in the planning of the operation and would be instrumental in
its execution.
< At a the International Chessmasters
tournament held in Vienna, Kronsteen of Czechoslovakia is playing in the final
game for the championship .He recieves a note with a glass of water. The note
tells him that he is needed at once. It is signed with the octopus symbol of
SPECTRE. Instead of immediately leaving Kronsteen continues his match and then
departs. He is immediately taken to a car. He is then seen aboard a yacht with
a rather homely middle aged woman. They stand before the desk of an unseen man
who strokes a white cat.[3] The unseen man asks them
for a plan to get them a LEKTOR[4] decoding plan from Russia,
using the Russians and British Secret Services as dupes.
The woman, Rosa Klebb, had recently defected
from Russia to join SPECTRE. The Russian Secret Service was keeping her
defection secret. Klebb would use this to her advantage to recruit Russians to
carry out a secret mission for the KGB. James Bond is a special target for
SPECTRE for having eliminated their operative Dr. No>.[5]
The plan needed a
beautiful woman and so they drafted one from the staff of the State Security
service, an officer worker named Tatiana Romanova,
who was said to resemble Greta Garbo.[6] Tatiana Romanova was told that she would be required to act as
though she were in love with an English secret agent and would accompany him
back to England. SMERSH believed that she would eventually be sent to Canada,
which is where the English sent a certain category of foreign prisoners.
Tatiana would be rescued from Canada and returned to the Soviet Union. The
purpose of the mission was to give the English false information and also to
gather as much information as Tatiana could from the British.
< Tatiana Romanova was already working at the Russian Consulate in
Istanbul. Rosa Klebb summoned her to an office in a
seedy part of town, telling her that she had been chosen for a special job. She
was not to tell anyone at the Russian Consulate she was working for SMERSH.>[7]
Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen summoned
Grant to their office. For his part in their plan it was necessary that he be
trained to talk and act like an English gentleman, the better to pass himself
off as a member of the British Secret Service.
< Grant works for
SPECTRE rather than SMERSH. Rosa Klebb visits the
training facility where Grant resides and tells him about the mission. The
training facility is called Spectre Island>[8]
In London
James Bond has been suffering through months of standard bureaucratic work.
Adding to his discontent was the abrupt end of his relationship with Tiffany
Case. He had met and fell in love with Tiffany Case during the Spang Diamond smuggling operation.
M summoned
Bond to his office to discuss some odd business. The head of station T, Darko Kerim, had received a note
to meet on a ferryboat. A young Russian woman told him that she had fallen in
love with an English Intelligence agent named James Bond from his photograph
and wanted to defect to the west to be with him. And to prove her dedication
she would bring a SPEKTOR decoding machine with her. This would enable the
British to decode all of the top level Russian messages. However the only way that she would leave
Russia and bring the machine with her was if Bond would personally travel to
Turkey and accompany her to England.
< In the meeting
between Bond and M there is no mention of Tiffany Case. Bond had been having a
luncheon date with Sylvia Trench who he had met in the first film, Dr No, when
he received the summons to M’s office. > [9]
Once in Instanbul Bond checks into a rather nondescript hotel named
the Kristal Palas. He
visits with Darko Kerim,
the head of Station T. Kerim had been attacked in his
office the day before, a limpet mine had been placed against the wall near his
desk. However he had been having a tryst with a Rumanian girl and so escaped
any harm. Kerim was puzzled as to why the Russians
were making a movement against him. Usually they spied on one another without
incident.
<Upon
arriving at the airport Bond is met by one of Kerim’s
agents. Bond notices that they are being followed. The driver is nonchalant
about it, telling Bond that is how they play the game with the Russians in
Istanbul. Grant is seen following Bond. At Kerim’s
office, Bond and Kerim discuss whether or not this
was a trap or not. Kerim believes that the girl may
be sincere but that it still might be a trap. Leaving Kerim’s
office Bond checks into his hotel, which is not a seedy hotel in the film
version. His room however his filled with bugs of the electronic variety.
Asking for another room he is set up in the Bridal Suite.>
When Bond
asked about the girl Kerim could not say if she was
on the level or not. Who knew what went on in the mind of a woman? Kerim wondered. Kerim accompanied
Bond back to his hotel. The concierge gave Bond the best room in the hotel
after he learned Bond knew Darko Kerim.
After freshening up Bond met Kerim for lunch. He
learned more about Istanbul’s top spy. Kerim
was half British and Turkish, his mother had been one of his father’s
wives. Kerim had been educated by his mother Kerim had an early career as a fisherman and he had also
trained to be a strong man. During the war his father decided that Kerim would work for British. Major Dansey,
who had been Kerim’s predecessor of Station T,
hired Kerim as a guide.
After
their lunch Kerim took Bond to a place where they
could spy on the Russians. They traveled through the sewers to a place
underneath the Russian Embassy. Kerim had put a
submarine periscope in the tunnel, it peered through a mouse hole in the wall
of the Russian’s conference room. Unfortunately there was not any sound
to accompany the sights. Bond did however see Tania Romanov
enter the room and from viewing her was able to form an opinion that she might
be genuine in her proclaimed feelings towards him. Next to the periscope was a
bomb that would destroy the embassy if anything were to happen to Kerim Bey.
<Grant killed one of the Bulgars following Bond and Kerim Bey. The Russians in turn placed a limpet mine against the
wall near Kerim Bey’s
office. Kerim Bey was in
the middle of tryst with his mistress when the bomb went off. Kerim Bey did not understand why
the Russians would suddenly turn the cold war hot. He took Bond down a
passageway leading into the tunnels beneath the city. He rowed Bond to spot
beneath the Russian Consulate. Kerim Bey had put a submarine periscope beneath the passage way.
Bond was able to get a glimpse of Romanova. Kerim spotted Krilencu one of the
Russians killers. Since the bomb had nearly killed Kerim
Bey he did not think it safe for Bond to return to
his hotel. He took Bond to visit his friends the gypsies who also provided him
with information on the Russians and Bulgars>
That
evening Darko Kerim took
Bond to a café run by some friends of his. They were gypsies and also some of
his best informants. When they arrived however they were told that the
restaurant was closed however they were free to share the family meal. Kerim warned Bond however that something would happen to
which he could not interfere. Two women were in love with one man. They had
threatened to kill each other and also to kill the man if he chose the other
one. To resolve this conflict the two women were going to fight to the death.
If anyone interfered they to would be put to death. Bond agreed to stay out of
the fight. As the two women fought however the café was attacked. A hole was
blown into the wall and several armed men poured inside the breach, attacking
the gypsies with guns and knives. Bond
and Kerim joined the fight shooting at the attackers
and drove them off but only after ten or so of the gypsies had been killed. Kerim did learn tha the man who
had placed the mine in his office was Krilencu, the
leader of the Faceless Ones, a contingent of men charged by the Russians to
follow Kerim around.
<The visit to the
gypsy camp is nearly identical to the events depicted in the novel. However during
the free for all fight between the Gypsies and Bulgars
Bond had his life saved by a providential gunshot. Red Grant was observing the
fight and ensuring Bond’s safety. Also at the end of the fight Bond was
rewarded for having saved the chief’s by being allowed to decide between
the two Gypsy girls. They spent the night with him and through the next
evening.>[10]
Kerim decided to take out Krilencu
that night and asked Bond to assist him. It was well known where Krilencu’s headquarters was located and so it was
relatively easy for Kerim’s men to stake it out
and for Kerim to set up an ambush for him. Assisted
by Bond, Kerim shot Krilencu
with a sniper’s rifle as he was flushed from his hiding place.
< It was not until
the evening after the fight at the gypsy camp that Bond and Kerim
went hunting for Krilencu. The action was an almost
exact replay of events depicted in the novel with the exception that the
billboard wherein Krilencu had his bolt hole was an
advertisement for Call Me Bwana and
the bolt hole was in Anita Ekberg’s mouth rather than
When Bond
returned to his hotel that evening, Tania Romanov was
in his bed wearing nothing but a black ribbon around her throat and black
stockings. After some flirtatious bantering, he asked her about the Spektor device. She reacted as though he had struck her,
desiring the machine over her. Tania told him that she would get it that
morning and they would leave that evening. She insisted on going by the Orient
Express and was unshakable in this regard. Unable to change her mind Bond
relented. Tania stole the machine and met Bond at the train station.
<After their
romantic tryst, Tania had to prove her willingness to help Bond and also
provide bonafides as to her veracity. First she was
asked to provide a floor plan of the Russian Consulate and to drop it off at
the Ayasofya Mosque. Tania was followed by one of the Bulgars who intercepted
her dropped note before Bond could get to it. However Red Grant killed the
Bulgar, leaving the note in his hand. Bond then discovered the corpse. Kerim
Bey was mystified as to who killed the Bulgar since it was not one of his
people. The floor plans checked out when matched against the plans that Kerim Bey already had. Tania
then had to describe in detail the LEKTOR decoder. She met Bond on the ferry
traveling across the Bospherus. He filmed and taped her interview and sent it
to M who had it authenticated. Bond was then wired to go ahead with the
exchange. Bond visited the Russian Consulate and at three sharp a bomb went off
in the rear of the building and the building began filling with smoke and tear
gas and was evacuated. Donning a gas mask Bond found Tania and took the LEKTOR
decoder, they exited through a hole in the wall leading down into the tunnels
underneath the streets. After a short boat ride, Tania and Bond went up a stair
way and exited on a street near the train station. They boarded the Orient
Express just before it departed. However Tania was spotted by Benz, a Russian
Security officer charged with watching the train.>
Once on
the Orient Express however, Kerim told him that three
of the Faceless Ones were on the train. Afraid that the SPEKTOR machine might
be a fake, he examined it over her protestations. By stealing their tickets Kerim managed to get two of the three men thrown off of the
train. Both he and Bond believed that killing the three men would bring too
much attention to their journey.
< Kerim spots Benz. Bond and Kerim
visit Benz’ berth and disarm him. They tie him up and Kerim
keeps him company. Bond and Tania enjoy the train ride.>
Although Kerim urged that Bond take the girl and the machine and get
off of the train, Bond insisted on seeing the journey out. When the train
reached Idomeni a Greek town near the Yugolavian border, Bond was told by the conductor that
there had been an accident with his friend. In the room where Kerim was staying were two dead men, one was Kerim with a knife stuck into his neck, the other was the
Russian agent that they had not been able to remove from the train. There was a
knife in his back. The Russian agent had crept upon on Kerim
as he slept and stabbed him and had in turn been stabbed.
< The
conductor knocked on Bond’s berth and told him that there had been an
accident with Kerim Bey. It
appeared as though Kerim Bey
and Benz had killed one another. Bond was supposed to get off the train but
stayed was forced to stay on it because of Kerim’s
death. Bond blames Tania for Kerim’s death but
comes to believe that she knew nothing of it.>
In
Belgrade Bond had the unpleasant task of informing Kerim’s
man, who was one of his many sons that Kerim was
dead. Bond also had a phone conversation about M whether or not M should send
someone to back him up. He told Bond he would think it over .
< Bond is contacted by Kerim’s
son at the
In
<In Red Grant makes contact with Bond posing as the man M has
sent. Grant has killed the actual Norman Nash. Bond takes Grant to his berth
and introduces him to Tania, using their false names of James and Caroline
Somerset. Bond suggests that they had dinner to discuss their plans on how to
get through customs.>
Although
Tania did not like Nash she put up with his company for Bond’s sake. At a
dinner that the three of the shared Nash knocked over Tania’s glass of
wine. He insisted on pouring her another. Tania soon became ill and had to be
helped to their stateroom. Once there Nash volunteered to take the first watch.
He had brought a copy of War and Peace with him. However he did not have a gun
so asked for Bond’s. After Bond gave Nash the gun the lights went out.
Bond came awake with Nash sitting in front of him. When Bond lifted his arm to
look at his watch, a click came from Nash’s direction and his watch was
shattered to pieces.
Smoke
drifted out of a hole in the book.
Nash
explained that the book was a gun containing 25 dum dum bullets. He told Bond many things that this was a
SMERSH operation, created by Kronsteen the chessplayer and Rosa Klebb. Nash
was SMERSH chief executioner. That the girl believed she was going to
Bragging
about his accuracy with the book gun Nash told him that Bond would be found
with two bullets in his heart. Gambling on Nash’s marksmanship, Bond
slipped his cigarette case into a book and placed the book in his coat over his
heart, while Nash watched his other hand. When Nash shot him, Bond acted as
though dead, slowly slipping a knife out of his attaché case. When Nash stepped
over Bond’s body, Bond slashed him across the groin, aiming for the
femoral artery. As Bond and Nash grappled, Bond got the book gun away from Nash
and shot him several times.
<Bond tells Nash that wants to wash up before dinner so he sends
them ahead. He quickly goes through Nash’s briefcase and finds it filled
with the standard equipment from Q branch. He joins Nash and Tania in the
dining car. Bond takes note when Nash has a red Chianti with his fish. Nash
accidentally knocks over Tania’s glass and refills it dropping in a pill
as he does. Tania collapses. Nash and Bond carry her back to the berth. Nash
says it was probably nervous exhaustion. After they put Tania to bed and go
into the adjoining Berth, Bond asks Nash what he put into her drink. Nash
replies coolly that it was chloral hydrate. His escape plan was for one. Was
Bond interested in the LEKTOR or the girl? Nash starts to show Bond his escape
route and when Bond bends over to look at the map, Nash knocks him out. When
Bond regains consciousness, Nash is holding a gun on him. He has Bond get on
his knees and put his hands in his pockets.
Annoyed at Nash’s constant use of the term old man, Bond asks
if that is what the people in SMERSH call one another. Nash seems puzzled by
the term SMERSH and Bond realizes that this is a SPECTRE operation. He gets
Nash to talk. Nash reveals that the plan was concocted by Kronsteen
and Rosa Klebb. He reveals that Klebb
had defected to SPECTRE. He tells Bond that he is to make it look like Bond
killed Tania and then committed suicide and tells Bond that their night in the
Bridal suite had been filmed. The film was in her purse. Bond realizes that
Grant had killed the Russian and the Bulgar to set
the Russians and British against one another.
Bond asks for one last cigarette. Nash refuses but Bond tells him
that he would pay for it with fifty gold sovereigns. Bond retrieves the
sovereigns from his case. He tells Nash the other case has more in it. Nash
insists on opening this one himself. He opens the case and gets a face full of
tear gas. Bond wrestles with him for the gun. They have a vicious fight in the
small berth. Bond is nearly garroted but pulls a hidden knife from the trick
briefcase and stabs Grant’s arm. He is then able to loop the garrote
about Grant’s neck and choke him.
When the train stops for a truck that was stuck on the tracks, Bond
and Tania get off of the train. Tania is still suffering from the effects of
her drugging. Bond sneaks up on the driver of the truck who was Grant’s
contact person and knocks him out putting him in the passenger seat. Bond puts
Tania in the back of the truck which is filled with flowers and drives away.
After he has been driving for a while a helicopter flies over him, telling him
to pull over. When Bond refuses the co pilot of the helicopter begins lobbing
grenades at the truck. Bond stops the truck and tells Tania to get under it.
Grabbing his briefcase he runs up a hillside drawing the helicopter after him.
Avoiding thrown grenades, Bond behind some boulders and assembles a sniper
rifle. He shoots the copilot just as he was about to throw another grenade. The
grenade lands in the helicopter and explodes.
Bond returns to the truck and drives to where a seashore where a
boat is tied up. The boat is loaded with fuel. Once they have set off towards
Aboard the head of SPECTRE’s yacht Kronsteen and Klebb are taken to
task for the failure of the plan. Kronsteen protests
that his plan was perfect that Klebb had botched it.
Blofeld declares that there is no place for failure in SPECTRE. Morzeny, the bald
headed man who was the head of the SPECTRE island training facility, kicks Kronsteen
with boot from which a stiletto juts from the toe. The blade is poisoned and Kronsteen dies immediately. Klebb
is warned to retrieve the LEKTOR and kill Bond.
Bond and Tania are soon pursued by several speedboats who seek to
disable the boat by shooting it up with machine guns or turning it over by
carefully shot rocket propelled grenades. Seeing that the barrels of extra fuel
have been pierced Bond cuts them loose and uses a flare gun to set the fuel on
fire. The fire engulfs the pursuing boats as Tania and Bond make their escape.
The attack force had been led by Morzeny.>
Upon
arriving in
Klebb was disguised as an
elderly French grande damme,
named the Comtesse Metterstein.
She sat at a small desk with an old fashioned telephone and a bag of knitting
at her feet. Bond noted that the knitting needles were discolored. After he
announced he knew she was Rosa Klebb, she tried
shooting him, the telephone was actually a gun. She then tried to stab him with
the knitting needles. Using a chair he pinned her to the wall. He released her
into the custody of the Deuxième
However
as she was being taken out she managed to lash out at Bond with a stiletto
sticking out of the toe of her boot. The stiletto was coated with a poison.
Bond fell unconscious.
<In Venice
Rosa Klebb enters Bond and Tania’s hotel room
by posing as a maid. Tania recognizes her but Klebb
motions for her to be silent. Klebb tries to take the
LEKTOR but Bond tells her to leave it. Klebb then
pulls a gun and aims at Bond. Tania lunges at Klebb
knocking the gun from her hands. Klebb then attacks
Bond by kicking at him with the stiletto toe shoes. Bond grabs a chair and
holds her against the wall. Tania picks up the gun and shoots her.
Tania and
Bond enjoy a romantic ride on a gondola in the canals of
THE BLENDED
BOND: A Recreation Of The True Events
Unknown to their superiors
several high ranking officials at the KGB, GRU, SMERSH and various other government
agencies of the Soviet Union have been cultivated and co-opted by the criminal
enterprise known as SPECTRE. The Special Executive of Counter-Intelligence,
Terror, Revenge and Extortion was a criminal syndicate that blended organized
crime, terrorism and espionage specifically for profit. Apolitical they worked
for any government that could meet their price; they would also target any
nation, group or person if profit can be made. The Soviet agents had been
promised great wealth and ultimately sanctuary in the West when they have
successfully executed everything that SPECTRE required of them. Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen, two of the
top officials of the Russian Counter Intelligence agency known as SMERSH became
members of SPECTRE in 1953. In early 1954 while on a “diplomatic”
mission to
Kronsteen and Klebb used their
influence to convince the top intelligence and espionage agencies of the
The order was then passed over to SMERSH to plan and execute. The Head of
Planning for SMERSH was Kronsteen the reigning Chess Champion of Moscow.
Kronsteen was summoned to SMERSH headquarters during his final match for the
current championship, receiving a note for him to come immediately with only
three minutes left to go in the game. Kronsteen refused to leave immediately
and finished the match, stating that he would have otherwise blown his cover.[11]
In addition to Kronsteen, Colonel Rosa Klebb of SMERSH was also involved in
the planning of the operation and would be instrumental in its execution.
Kronsteen and Klebb devised a plan that would allow them SPECTRE to obtain
a LEKTOR and would also carryout the dictates of SMERSH.
The plan needed a
beautiful woman and so they drafted one from the staff of the State Security
service, an officer worker named Tatiana Romanova.
Romanova was chosen for her beauty, her naiveté and
her facility with languages. Tatiana Romanova was
told that she would be required to act as though she were in love with an
English secret agent and would accompany him back to
Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen summoned
Grant to their office. For his part in their plan it was necessary that he be
trained to talk and act like an English gentleman, the better to pass himself
off as a member of the British Secret Service. Grant was remanded to the
custody of Klebb for the duration of the mission.
Although Grant was quite useful to SMERSH his homicidal compulsions were
unseemly in post Stalinist Russia and posed a substantial risk to post Beria espionage operations. Grant was sent to SPECTRE
island where he was trained to pose an English gentleman. He was told it was a
SMERSH training facility. SPECTRE island was run by a Russian defector named Morzeny Gogol. To Grant he posed
as his brother Alexis Gogol, a high ranking officer
of the KGB. Once Grant was sent to
In London
James Bond has been suffering through months of standard bureaucratic work.
Adding to his discontent was the abrupt end of his relationship with Tiffany
Case.[12]
He had met and fell in love with Tiffany Case during the Spang
Diamond smuggling operation.[13]
M summoned
Bond to his office to discuss some odd business. The head of station T, Darko Kerim, had received a note
to meet on a ferryboat. A young Russian woman told him that she had fallen in
love with an English Intelligence agent named James Bond from his photograph
and wanted to defect to the west to be with him. And to prove her dedication
she would bring a LEKTOR decoding machine with her. This would enable the
British to decode all of the top-level Russian messages. However the only way that she would leave
Once in
Istanbul Bond checks into a rather nondescript hotel named the Kristal Palas. This hotel was
filled with bugs of the six-legged variety. After a night’s sleep and
breakfast Bond was picked up by one of Kerim’s
agents to visit the head of Station T.
Bond
noticed that they were being followed. The driver was nonchalant about it,
telling Bond that is how the game was played with the Russians in
After lunch
Kerim took Bond to a place where they could spy on the
Russians. They traveled through the sewers to a place underneath the Russian
Embassy. Kerim had put a submarine periscope in the
tunnel, it peered through a mouse hole in the wall of the Russian’s
conference room. Unfortunately there was not any sound to accompany the view.
Bond however saw Tania Romanov enter the room and
from viewing her Bond was able to form an opinion that she might be genuine in
her proclaimed feelings towards him. Next to the periscope was a bomb Kerim Bey said would destroy the
embassy if anything were to happen to him.
Red Grant killed
one of the Bulgars following Bond and Kerim Bey. The Russians in turn
placed a limpet mine against the wall near Kerim Bey’s office. Kerim Bey was in the middle of tryst with his mistress in a room off
to the side of his office when the bomb went off and so escaped injury. However
since the bomb had been set to kill Kerim Bey he did not think it safe for Bond to return to his
hotel and convinced him to change hotels. Kerim
accompanied Bond back to the new hotel. The concierge gave Bond the best room
in the hotel after he learned Bond knew Darko Kerim. Bond
discovered that this hotel was also filled with bugs, this time of the
electronic variety. Asking for another room he was set up in the Bridal Suite.
That
evening Darko Kerim took
Bond to a café run by some friends of his. They were gypsies and also some of
his best informants providing him with
information on the Russians and Bulgars When they
arrived however they were told that the restaurant was closed however they were
free to share the family meal. Kerim learned that the
man who had placed the mine in his office was Krilencu,
the leader of the Faceless Ones, a contingent of men charged by the Russians to
follow Kerim around.
During
their meal Kerim warned Bond that something would
happen to which he could not interfere. Two women were in love with one man.
They had threatened to kill each other and also to kill the man if he chose the
other one. To resolve this conflict the two women were going to fight to the
death. If anyone interfered they to would be put to death. Bond agreed to stay
out of the fight. As the two women fought however the café was attacked. A hole
was blown into the wall and several armed men poured inside the breach, attacking
the gypsies with guns and knives. Bond
and Kerim joined the fight shooting at the attackers
and drove them off but only after ten or so of the gypsies had been killed.
During the free for all fight between the Gypsies and
Bulgars Bond had his life saved by a providential
gunshot. Red Grant observed the fight and ensured Bond’s safety.
Kerim decided to take out Krilencu
that night and asked Bond to assist him. It was well known where Krilencu’s headquarters was located and so it was relatively
easy for Kerim’s men to stake it out and for Kerim to set up an ambush for him. Assisted by Bond, Kerim shot Krilencu with a
sniper’s rifle when he was flushed from his hiding place. He tried to
escape from a bolt hole set in a billboard, climbing out a door set in the
mouth of Marilyn Monroe.
When Bond
returned to his hotel that evening, Tania Romanov was
in his bed wearing nothing but a black ribbon around her throat and black
stockings. After some flirtatious bantering, he asked her about the Lektor device. She reacted as though he had struck her,
desiring the machine over her. Bond mollified her and they had a romantic
tryst.
After their
romantic tryst, Tania had to prove her willingness to help Bond and also
provide bonafides as to her veracity. First she was
asked to provide a floor plan of the Russian Consulate and to drop it off at
the Ayasofya Mosque. Tania was followed by one of the Bulgars who intercepted
her dropped note before Bond could get to it. However Red Grant killed the
Bulgar, leaving the note in his hand. Bond discovered the corpse. Kerim Bey was
mystified as to who killed the Bulgar since it was not one of his people. The
floor plans checked out when matched against
the plans that Kerim Bey already had. Tania then had to describe in
detail the LEKTOR decoder. She met Bond on the ferry traveling across the
Bospherus. He filmed and taped her interview and sent it to M who had it
authenticated. Bond was then wired to go ahead with the exchange. Bond visited
the Russian Consulate and at three sharp a limpet bomb went off in the rear of
the building and the building began filling with smoke and tear gas and was
evacuated. Donning a gas mask Bond found Tania and took the LEKTOR decoder,
they exited through a hole in the wall leading down into the tunnels underneath
the streets. After a short boat ride threw the sewers Tania and Bond went up a
stair way and exited on a street near the train station. They boarded the
Orient Express just before it departed. However Tania was spotted by Benz, a
Russian Security officer charged with watching the train.[14]
He and two of his men boarded the train as it it departed.
Once on the Orient Express however, Kerim told him that three of the Faceless Ones were on the train.
Afraid that the LEKTOR machine might be a fake, he examined it over her
protestations. By stealing their tickets Kerim
managed to get two of the three men thrown off of the train. Both he and Bond
believed that killing the three men would bring too much attention to their
journey. Bond and Kerim visited Benz’ berth and
disarm him. They tied him up and Kerim kept him
company while Bond and Tania enjoyed the train ride.
Although Kerim urged that Bond take the girl and the machine and get
off of the train, Bond insisted on seeing the journey out. When the train
reached Idomeni a Greek town near the Yugoslavian
border, the conductor told Bond that there had been an accident with his
friend. In the room where Kerim was staying were two
dead men, one was Kerim with a knife stuck into his
neck, the other was the Russian agent that they had not been able to remove
from the train. There was a knife in his back. The Russian agent had gotten
loose, crept upon on Kerim as he slept and stabbed
him and had in turn been stabbed. At first Bond blamed Tania for Kerim’s death but soon believed that she knew nothing
of it.
In
Belgrade Bond had the unpleasant task of informing Kerim’s
man, who was one of his many sons that Kerim was
dead. Bond was contacted by Kerim’s son at the
Belgrade station. Bond told him that his father was dead. He also told Kerim’s son to ask to M provide him with back up at
Zagreb, so that they could get the LEKTOR device through customs.[15]
In
Zagreb[16],
Bond learned through the newspaper that that Russian consulate in Istanbul had
suffered a catastrophic explosion, probably from a gas leak. Bond knew that one
of Kerim’s sons had set off his bomb. A man
made contact with Bond using the latest recognition code words. Although Bond
found Norman Nash to be a sort of an odd duck with an awkward way of speaking
and almost studied mannerisms, he did not doubt his story of M having sent him
to back Bond up. Despite these odd characteristics Bond saw in Nash’s
well-muscled body and cold eyes a valuable member of the Secret Service. He
dismissed Tania’s observation that in Russian Nash means ours.
Although
Tania did not like Nash she put up with his company for Bond’s sake. Bond
suggested that they have dinner to discuss their plans on how to get through
customs. Bond wanted to wash up before dinner wants to wash up so he sent Nash
and Tania ahead. Bond quickly went through Nash’s briefcase and found it
filled with the standard equipment from Q branch along with a copy of War
and Peace. However it was not equipped with the trick locking mechanism and
a tear gas canister that his case had. After joining Nash and Tania in the
dining car, Bond took note when Nash had a red Chianti with his fish. Nash
accidentally knocked over Tania’s glass and refilled it dropping in a
pill as he does. Tania collapsed shortly after finishing her drink. Nash and
Bond carried her back to the berth. Nash said Tania probably had nervous
exhaustion. After they put Tania to bed and went into the adjoining Berth, Bond
suspiciously asked Nash what he had put into her drink. Nash replied coolly
that it was chloral hydrate. His escape plan was for one. He queried if was
Bond interested in the LEKTOR or the girl? Nash volunteered to take the first
watch but insisted on showing Bond his escape plan first, taking out his book
and the map. When Bond bent over to look at Grant’s map, Grant hit him
over the head with his copy of War and Peace
When
Bond regained consciousness Nash was sitting in front of him. When Bond lifted
his arm to look at his watch, a click came from Nash’s direction and the
paneling by Bond’s head splintered. Smoke drifted out of a hole in the
book’s spine.
He
has Bond get on his knees and put his hands in his pockets Nash explained that
the book was a gun containing 25 dum dum bullets. Bragging about his accuracy with the book gun
Nash told him that Bond would be found with two bullets in his heart.
Annoyed
at Nash’s constant use of the term old man, Bond asks if that is what the
people in SMERSH call one another. It was Nash’s turn to become annoyed,
he his hatred at the English caused him to uncharacteristically vocal. He told Bond many things; that this was a SMERSH
operation, created by Kronsteen the chessplayer and Rosa Klebb. Nash
was SMERSH’s chief executioner. That the girl
believed she was going to
Bond
asked for one last cigarette. Nash refused at first but Bond told him that he
would pay for it with fifty gold sovereigns. Bond retrieved the sovereigns from
his case. He told Nash the other case has more in it. Nash insisted on opening
this one himself. Nash opened the case and received a face full of tear gas.
Bond wrestled with him for the gun. They had a vicious fight in the small
berth. Bond was nearly garroted but pulled a hidden knife from the trick
briefcase and stabbed Grant’s arm. Bond was then able to loop the garrote
about Grant’s neck and choke him. For
good measure Bond retrieved the book gun and
shot Nash several times.[18]
When
the train stopped for a truck that was stuck on the tracks, just outside of
They
were driven to a small dock where a boat was tied up. The boat was loaded with
barrels of fuel. Once they have set off towards
Bond
and Tania were soon pursued by several speedboats who sought to sink the boat
by raking it with machine guns or turning it over by carefully shot rocket
propelled grenades. Seeing that the barrels of extra fuel had been pierced Bond
cut them loose and used a flare gun to set the fuel on fire. The fire engulfed
the pursuing boats as Tania and Bond made their escape. The attack force had
been led by Morzeny, the head of the SPECTRE island training facility.
Aboard Blofeld’s yacht Kronsteen
and Klebb were taken to task for the failure of the
plan. Kronsteen protested that his plan was perfect,
that Klebb had botched it. Blofeld declared that
there was no place for failure in SPECTRE. Blofeld’s foot lashed out from under his desk
and a stiletto knife jutting from his shoe’s toe stabbed Kronsteen’s foot. The poisoned blade immediately killed
Kronsteen. Klebb was warned
to retrieve the LEKTOR and kill Bond.[20]
Enroute to
Upon
arriving in
Inside the room was an
elderly French grande damme,
named the Comtesse Metterstein.
She sat at a small desk with an old fashioned telephone and a bag of knitting
at her feet. Bond immediately observed that the knitting needles were
discolored and knew that he was in the right room. After he announced he knew
she was Rosa Klebb, she tried shooting him with the
telephone which was actually a gun. She then tried to stab him with the
knitting needles. Using a chair he pinned her to the wall. He released her into
the custody of the Deuxième.
In the
novel it appeared that Bond had gone to the meeting that Grant had arranged
with Rosa Klebb with the express purpose of capturing
Rosa Klebb, the one of the heads of SMERSH single
handedly. He captured her but was severely wounded in doing so.
According
to the novel Grant was to meet Klebb in
As depicted
in the novel Rosa Klebb was meeting with Grant using
the elaborate disguise of the Countess Metterstein.
Why was this? Bond was not aware of the existence of Rosa Klebb
or her connection to SMERSH until Grant had told Bond. This would seem to imply
that Rosa Klebb was a nonentity so far as the Western
intelligence agencies were concerned. In this light there was little reason for
such an elaborate disguise. In addition to being disguised, Rosa Klebb also carried with her a formidable arsenal, a gun
disguised as a telephone, poisoned knitting needles and a poisoned stiletto
knife in her boot toe. One wonders why she needed these, if she were incognito
and was indeed meeting Grant. As stated earlier no one knew who she was so it
is unlikely that she would have been accosted by secret agents from any other
nation and even if she been, the boot stiletto would have been a weapon enough.
Once Grant was accompanying her she would not have needed such an array of
weaponry since he would have been a most formidable bodyguard so there really
would not have been a need for these on her trip to
From all
appearances she planned to kill the person she was meeting. If this was so, why
would she kill Grant? Grant’s loyalty, which had been tested thoroughly
several times was unquestioned, his successful mission in killing
When we
eliminate Grant as
Also as
depicted in the novel Bond has to introduce himself and tell the old lady that
Grant did not make it before he gets a reaction. Rosa Klebb
would have recognized Bond immediately, since he was the target of their plot
and she would have also recognized Grant. If she had wanted Bond dead, her
first response would have been to shoot him with the telephone gun on sight.
If however,
we use information gleaned from the film, specifically that Rosa Klebb was also working with SPECTRE, these incongruities
begin to make sense.
If Rosa Klebb was planning on taking the LEKTOR and delivering it
to SPECTRE, as depicted in the film, then the need for a disguise becomes
understandable, as does the need to eliminate Grant.
Although it
was never directly stated in the film, Grant was probably meant to meet with
Rosa Klebb in
When this
failed, Klebb traveled to
Klebb sent a telegram to Bond telling him that
she had Romanova and if he wanted to see her alive he
had to bring the LEKTOR to a certain suite at the Ritz Hotel, and he had to
come alone.
Bond was
not about to give the LEKTOR back even at the cost of Tania’s life,
however he thought that there was a good chance that he could not only rescue
Tania but also capture one of the top figures of SMERSH. It would be a great
cap to an already successful mission. Bond went alone but did arrange for back
up to arrive should things go south.
Rosa Klebb dressed in her disguise as the Countess Metterstein because she intended to take the LEKTOR to
Blofeld immediately after dispatching Bond and Tania Romanova.
The disguise had the added effect of momentarily confusing Bond who was not
expecting a Parisian grand damme to greet him. His
fleeting thought of being in the wrong room was enough for
After a
short battle with Bond, she soon found herself captured. After the Deuxième arrived, Bond searched the suite for Tania and
found tied up on a bed. As Bond was helping Tania regain her lost circulation,
Rosa Klebb used the distraction to lash out at Bond
with a swift kick, stabbing his leg with a stiletto blade coated with fugu.[22]
Tania Romanova screamed as James Bond fell to the ground, Rosa Klebb laughed. However her laughter would prove to be short
lived.
Bond
survived the fugu poisoning. Rosa Klebb
failed to kill and discredit Bond for SMERSH, she failed to get the LEKTOR
decoder for SPECTRE. She was not the suicidal type but according to Pearson she
died of cyanide poisoning enroute to Deuxième headquarters. It is a toss up whether it was
SMERSH or SPECTRE that did the deed.
POST
It took
Bond several to recover from the fugu poisoning
during this time Tania Romanova was thoroughly
interrogated by MI6 and then, according to Pearson, was sent to
G, the head
of Russian Intelligence had decided to end the vendetta against Bond and so
disavowed Rosa Klebb, Kronsteen
and their failed plan to discredit and kill Bond and the loyal Tania Romanova as a rogue operation. After debriefing Tania was
promoted to the rank of Captain as promised. She was given further training
specifically in martial arts, weapons training and other skills to make her an
effective field agent. Her loyalty to the
When Tania Romanova had finished her training, she was assigned to the
Tania’s
cover was to be a White Russian aristocrat, a distant relative of the former
Russian royal family living in exile. She had a body servant/bodyguard named
“Boris.”[24]
Her betrayal by Bond and by Rosa Klebb who had
planned to use her as a disposable pawn had eroded much of the youthful
idealism that Tania had possessed. She became hardened. She chose for her code
name Black Widow, as a cynical reference to her “marriage” to
western spy James Bond.
After she
had established an identity as a recent European émigré, Tania slowly but
surely began to make contacts among the social elite of
Tania
tracked down Vanko’s residence and visited him
to see why he had defected and to convince him to return to the
Although
Tania Romanova had fled from the Hughes plant before
her cover had been blown she did not realize that Hughes’ extreme paranoia
had been triggered and he now suspected her of being an enemy agent. On their
next date he showed her a compact hand held device that projected a powerful
antigravity ray. Tania attempted to get Hughes to demonstrate the device
outside the laboratory where she could contrive to steal it. Weighing the worth
of the device over her cover, she made a rash decision. Gassing Hughes with a
tricked out cigarette case, she took the anti-gravity device and fled the
Hughes Tool. Facility. She soon discovered that the anti-gravity device was a
sham. Hughes had rigged a remote control device to make several objects in his
laboratory appear to become weightless. This device had been a ploy to see how
she would react, although even Hughes was surprised that she gassed him.[28]
Tania realized that her decision had blown her
cover and fled to a safe house where she kept tabs on Hughes through various
microphones she had planted in his home and factories. She realized that unless
she found a way to redeem herself any voluntary return to Mother Russia was out
of the question, she would be disgraced and cashiered from the KGB. After this
she would then be fated to a career of hard labor, or possibly imprisoned and
sentenced to hard labor. There was the remote possibility that she might even
be condemned as a traitor.
In her
surveillance of Hughes she had noticed someone stalking Hughes. It was one of
the costumed vigilantes that seemed to pop up every now and then in
She decided
to keep closer watch on the archer, thinking that a grievance against Hughes
could be used to her advantage. Fate dealt her an opportunity in a melodramatic
twist. Tania saw the young archer stop a jewelry robbery. He shot a blunted
arrow at a gunman outside of a jewelry story. The police arrived on the scene
almost immediately. The young archer was accused of being an accomplice of the
robber. The archer had mistakenly shot the jewelry store owner who had been
holding a gun on a burglar while waiting for the police to arrive. Shooting an
arrow that released a cloud of black smoke, the archer fled the scene. Tania
drove up next to him and told him to get into her car.
Tania took
the young archer to her safe house. On the way she engaged him in conversation
hinting that they might have a mutual enemy, telling him she had observed him
watching Hughes. A combination of genuine interest and flirtation made the
archer tell her his story. He was named Roy Harper and had once been the CEO of
Queen Industries. However a combine of rich men, one of whom had been Hughes,
had bilked him out of his company and his fortune. He had been reduced to eking
out a living working as an archer at a carnival sideshow, using the stage name
of Hawkeye, borrowed from the great frontiersman, Natty Bumppo.
Hughes had visited the carnival and used his wealth and privilege to have
several rides shut down so that he could have a private ride. This had cut into
the money that Hawkeye would have earned that night. That Hughes continued to
interfere with his livelihood infuriated Hawkeye. Forsaking his carnie
frontiersman outfit he had come up with a costume so outlandish that people
could not help but notice it.
He made
certain he was seen so that Hughes would be aware of his existence. However the
archer’s plans beyond that point were rather vague. He was either going
to threaten Hughes into giving him cash by demonstrating that the bowman could
find and get to Hughes no matter where he went or he was going to goad Hughes
into sending out his bodyguard Iron Man. Once Hawkeye defeated Iron Man, he
would either threaten Hughes into giving him the position of bodyguard or
threaten him with harm unless he paid him some cash.[29]
Tania tried to convince Harper that a better
plan would be to sabotage Hughes manufacturing facility and steal the Iron Man
technology selling it to various interested parties. Harper was however a
stubborn young man and it took a great deal of persuasion via seduction to sway
him away from his suicidal attack. She allowed him access to “Boris”
laboratory where he could make improvements on his trick arrows. He accepted
her explanation that she rented the house from a retired eccentric scientist
and so that is why such an elaborate set up was in her home.
However she
did not divulge to him her espionage activities for the
As Tania
recovered from her injuries and Harper from his wounded pride, they made a pact
to go after Hughes and the Iron Man suit once more. According to Tales of
Suspense 60 (December 1964) Multimillionaire Tony Stark disappeared and
Iron Man was suspected in his disappearance. The real story according to the
comic book version was that Stark could not remove his Iron Man suit for fear
that the chest plate that kept his heart pumping would cease functioning. As
with most comic book heroes, Tony Stark sacrificed his personal life for the
sake of his secret identity. While Iron Man was out of the picture Hawkeye and
the Black Widow planned to once more raid Stark Industries for the suit and its
schematics.
The truth
is a bit more mundane. Howard Hughes had pulled one of his infamous
disappearing stunts. Because of his connection to the Iron Man project and
other secret projects, Iron Man, that is the two remaining wearers of the Iron
Man armor were dispatched to find him. Harper broke into the Hughes Tool
factory but found that with Hughes’ disappearance that the Iron Man project
had been moved a more secure, undisclosed location. Tighter security had also
been placed at all of the Hughes facilities. Harper found himself trapped and
had to take one of the secretaries as a hostage. Iron Man arrived to take
Harper into custody. Once again Harper used his trick arrows to escape from
When Harper
returned to the house he shared with Tania he found her gone. As in Tales of
Suspense 60 relates as Tania left to meet Harper at their rendezvous point,
she was taken into custody by members of the KGB who escorted her back to the
Tania
underwent the experimental treatment, which was based on Project Rebirth the
super soldier program from the
Once her
training was complete she was once again returned to the United States with the
express mission of obtaining the Iron Man suit technology, sabotaging the
American’s ability to make Iron Man technology and if possible to capture
the creator of the Iron Man technology Howard Hughes.[34] She once again looked up Harper and seduced
him into helping her. She fed him a story about not feeling worthy of his
abilities and so had created a suit to become his partner. This time Harper and
Tania stopped Hughes’ car as it drove through
In Avengers 16 (May
1965) Hawkeye decides to join the Avengers. He breaks into the
Most of the above paragraph does not reflect
reality. As with most comic book
depictions of organization of costumed vigilantes The Avengers did not exist as
an organization except as part of the CIALD costumed vigilante division. Like
the Justice League of America, the Avengers counterparts in DC Comics, the
comic book adventures were most often fabrications, although sometimes wild
exaggerations of real events. It defies belief that after attempting several
thefts, after several incidents of assault, sabotage, espionage, extortion and
at least one kidnapping that someone like Hawkeye would be allowed to remain free
on bail, let alone join a highly visible team of heroes merely on a verbal vow
to reform. The same thing could be said for the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver,
even if they had not been incarcerated in the
The truth of what happened after Harper and the
wounded Tania fled from the kidnapping scene is not as pretty a tale. Harper
drove Tania back to her safehouse but was unable to
revive her. She remained in a coma. Believing that she was dead, Harper left her
on the bed and fled. Believing that he would be sought not only by the
“William King” spent a two year period
1965-1967 working part time as a photographer and hanging out in
chemically induced delirium with the other members of the I-5. After a while,
everyone went their own way, to do their own thing. William King drifted deeper
into drug addiction. He became hooked on crank and Speedy became his nickname
again for a different reason. To cool out from the crank he began skin popping
heroin, then became a full mainlining junkie. It would take a few years for Harper to finally kick the habit and once
more become a functioning, member of society.
Had Tania not been
a recipient of the super solider serum, it is quite likely that she would have
died from the shock arrow that had been designed to short out the Iron Man
suit’s electrical supply. She was found by a Soviet controller who
ascertained that she was still alive although in a comatose state. Smuggled
back to the
Tania awoke from
her comatose state when she went into labor. She was able to hold her beautiful
blond haired infant daughter for scant moments before the infant was taken from
her arms. The child was placed with foster parents and Tania was never allowed
to see her child again.[37]
Almost immediately after giving birth Tania was sentenced to four years of hard
labor in
Although it was a
state secret, although a poorly kept one, Tania would learn that her younger
sister, Natalia, when confronted about the shame that
Tania had brought to the family, had volunteered to undergo the super soldier
treatment. Sent to the
SECRET HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS
© 2002 Dennis Power