Written by SILHOUETTE MAN

Many of Ian Fleming’s Bond villains and one of his heroines have a shared circus background or were in some way described in circus terms. Four of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels contain passages linking either the villain or the heroine to the circus.

The earliest novel to connect the villain to the circus in some way is Moonraker (1955). In the novel Bond accompanies M to the Blades club to observe the actions of Sir Hugo Drax, who has been suspected on cheating at bridge. Before the famous bridge scene in the novel, Bond observes Drax from the fireplace in Blades and in this extract he is summing up Drax’s bizarre appearance due to injuries sustained in the Second World War:

“The general effect of the face - the riot of red-brown hair, the powerful nose and jaw, the florid skin - was flamboyant. It put Bond in mind of a ring-master at a circus. The contrasting sharpness and coldness of the left eye supported the likeness.” (Excerpt from Moonraker, Ian Fleming, Pan Books Ltd., London, 1963, p. 32)

Ian Fleming

The background of one of Bond’s most deadly opponents, Donovan ‘Red’ Grant is detailed in Fleming’s From Russia, With Love (1957) and it comprises the second intrinsic circus connection of the Bond villains:

“Donovan Grant was the result of a midnight union between a German professional weight-lifter and a Southern Irish waitress. The union lasted for a quarter of an hour on the damp grass behind a circus tent outside Belfast. Afterwards the father gave the mother half a crown and the mother walked happily home to her bed in the kitchen of a café near the railway station when the baby was expected, she went to live with an aunt in the small village of Aughmacloy that straddles the border, and there, six months later, she died of puerperal fever shortly after giving birth to a twelve-pound boy. Before she died, she said that the boy was to be called Donovan (the weight-lifter had styled himself ‘The Mighty O’Donovan’) and Grant, which was her own name.” (Excerpt from From Russia, With Love, Ian Fleming, Pan Books Ltd., London, 1964, p. 16)

The next Bond novel to feature a character with a circus background is to be found in Goldfinger (1959) where this time the heroine of the novel, Pussy Galore provides the connection:

“‘Who is this Pussy Galore from Harlem?’

Pussy Galore provided the circus connection for Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger

‘She is the only woman who runs a gang in America. It is a gang of women. I shall need some women for this operation. She is entirely reliable. She was a trapeze artist. She had a team. It was called “Pussy Galore and her Acrobats”.’ Goldfinger did not smile. ‘The team was unsuccessful, so she trained them as burglars, at burglars. It grew into a gang of outstanding ruthlessness. It is a Lesbian organization which now calls itself ‘The Cement Mixers’. Even the big American gangs respect them. She is a remarkable woman.’” (Excerpt from Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, Pan Books Ltd., London, 1965, p. 166)

Perhaps the most significant circus connection of a Fleming character came in his last Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), where the villain, Francisco ‘Pistols’ Scaramanga was raised on a circus and it was here that his life of crime actually began. To understand why Scaramanga became a ruthless assassin it is indeed ironic that the unlikely backdrop of a circus is vital to aid the reader’s understanding. When M is at Blades he reads the file on Scaramanga, who will be Bond’s new target to expiate himself from his attempted assassination of M while brainwashed earlier in the novel. This section of the novel is reminiscent of the file for the destruction of Le Chiffre in Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale (1953). Scaramanga’s file contains interesting details on his circus background:

‘ORIGINS: A relative of the Catalan family of circus managers of the same name with whom he spent his youth.’

‘MOTIVATION:(Comment by C.C.) ‘…I think I may have found the origin of this partiality for killing his fellow men in cold blood, men against whom he has no personal animosity but merely the reflected animosity of his employers, in the following bizarre anecdote from his youth. In the travelling circus of his father, Enrico Scaramanga, the boy had several roles. He was the most spectacular trick shot, he was a stand-in strong man in the acrobatic troupe often taking the place of the usual artiste as bottom man in the “human pyramid” act, and he was the mahout, in gorgeous turban, Indian robes, etc., who rode the leading elephant in a group of three. This elephant by the name of Max, was a male and it is a peculiarity of the male elephant, which I have learned with much interest and verified with eminent zoologists, that, at intervals during the year, they go “on heat” sexually. During these periods, a mucous deposit forms behind the animals’ ears and this needs to be scraped off since otherwise it causes the elephant intense irritation. Max developed this symptom during a visit of the circus to Trieste, but, through an oversight, the condition was not noticed and given the necessary treatment. The “Big Top” of the circus had been erected on the outskirts of the town adjacent to the coastal railway line and, on the night which was, in my opinion, to determine the future life of the young Scaramanga, Max went berserk, threw the youth and, screaming horrifically, trampled his way through the auditorium, causing many casualties, and charged off across the fairground and on to the railway line down which (a frightening spectacle under the full moon which, as newspaper cuttings record, was shining on that night) he galloped at full speed. The local carabiniere were alerted and set off in pursuit by car along the main road that flanks the railway line. In due course they caught up with the unfortunate monster, which, its frenzy expired, stood peacefully facing back the way it had come. Not realising that the elephant, if approached by its handler, could now be led peacefully back to its stall, the police opened rapid fire and bullets from their carbines and revolvers wounded the animal superficially in many places. Infuriated afresh, the miserable beast, now pursued by the police car from which the hail of fire continued, charged off again along the railway line. On arrival at the fairground, the elephant seemed to recognise its “home”, the “Big Top”, and, turning off the railway line, lumbered back through the fleeing spectators to the centre of the deserted arena and there, weakened by loss of blood, pathetically continued with its interrupted act. Trumpeting dreadfully in its agony, the mortally wounded Max endeavoured again and again to raise itself and stand upon one leg. Meanwhile the young Scaramanga, now armed with his pistols, tried to throw a lariat over the animal’s head while calling out the “elephant talk” with which he usually controlled him. Max seems to have recognised the youth and - it must have been a truly pitiful sight - lowered its trunk to allow the youth to be hoisted to his usual seat behind the elephant’s head. But at this moment the police burst into the sawdust ring and their captain, approaching very close, emptied his revolver into the elephant’s right eye at a range of a few feet, upon which Max fell dying to the ground. Upon this, the young Scaramanga who, according to the Press, had a deep devotion for his charger, drew one of his pistols and shot the policeman through the heart and fled off into the crowd of bystanders pursued by the other policemen who could not fire because of the throng of people. He made good his escape, found his way to Naples and thence, as noted above, stowed away to America.

‘Now I see in this dreadful experience a possible reason for the transformation of Scaramanga into the most vicious gunman of recent years. In him was, I believe, born on that day a cold-blooded desire to avenge himself on all humanity. That the elephant had run amok and trampled many innocent people, that the man truly responsible was his handler and that the police were only doing their duty, would be, psychopathologically, either forgotten or deliberately suppressed by a youth of hot-blooded stock whose subconscious had been deeply lacerated. At all events, Scaramanga’s subsequent career requires some explanation, and I trust I am not being fanciful in putting forward my own prognosis from the known facts.’ (Excerpts from The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, Pan Books Ltd., London, 1967, pp. 33-9)

Fleming’s references to the circus do not end with his published Bond work, however. In Fleming’s 128-page notebook where he jotted down details of prospective Bond plots there are two interesting entries concerning scenes at the circus itself:

“A masquerade ball in which the benign clown is the Russian killer and the crowd thinks that a real fight is part of the buffoonery.”

“Fight in a fun fair with a man on the rollercoaster being shot at by another on the Big Wheel.”

Francisco Scaramanga mentioned of his circus background in The Man With The Golden Gun (litho by Jeff Marshall)

Ian Fleming’s clear fascination with the circus as a backdrop to villainy was also carried on into some of the film version of his novels and short stories. The Film From Russia With Love (1963) made no mention of Donald Grant’s background similar in scope to the depth of detail Fleming went into. Goldfinger (1964) did feature Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus however. The two most notable films to make reference to the circus were both in the Roger Moore era. One was based on details from a Fleming novel, while the other was an original story featuring the circus.

In the film version of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Francisco Scaramanga is presented as the best-characterised Bond villain up to that date. His biography is recounted and it is revealed that he was born in a circus where his possibly Cuban father was the ringmaster, and we get the additional non-Fleming detail that his mother was an English snake charmer. We are told that Scaramanga was a trick-shot artist at ten and a renowned Rio gunman at fifteen. Scaramanga recounts to Bond when they first meet at the kickboxing match his traumatic childhood incident where his elephant friend went berserk was killed by the handler that had mistreated it, as in the Fleming novel. Scaramanga tells Bond how the handler had fired his gun into the elephant’s eye, and he in turn had fired his gun into the handler’s eye. Bond quips, ‘An eye for an eye.’ Scaramanga chillingly sums up the effect that this traumatic experience with, ‘I always thought I liked animals, then I discovered I liked killing people even more.’ Scaramanga as played by Christopher Lee is a much more fascinating character than the undeveloped gun man he was in the novel.

The circus features in the climax of Octopussy (litho by Jeff Marshall)

The film version of Octopussy (1983) features a circus and Bond dressed as a clown in a gripping climax where he has to stop a nuclear bomb from exploding on an American arms base in the US zone of occupation in West Germany. It may be noted how similar this part of the film story is to the undeveloped note Fleming had jotted down in his notebook as a possible Bond plot outline. Octopussy, who was Major Dexter Smythe’s pet octopus in the original short story is now the name given to the Bond girl in the film version. Octopussy reveals to Bond that since becoming a jewel-smuggler she’s diversified into ‘shipping, hotels, carnivals and circuses.’ Octopussy’s circus is the cover for the transport of stolen Soviet jewellery to auction in the West. It is in the Octopussy circus that the ‘nuclear bomb count down’ climax is played out almost as a black farce with Bond dressed as a clown and an unbelieving American General unwilling to help Bond, believing it is all part of the buffoonery. It is a scene that works extremely well and is handled perfectly by the director, John Glen.

One of the tracks on the original score for the film of Diamonds Are Forever (1971) is entitled ‘Circus, Circus,’ which provides another small link with the source novels. This covers some of the Las Vegas scenes where Tiffany Case is uncovering the location of the smuggled diamonds in the pipeline.

‘Young Bond’ author Charlie Higson was the most recent Bond author to include a reference to the circus, although this time it was a knowing reference to Red Grant’s father in From Russia With Love. As he explained in an interview with CBBC his first ‘Young Bond’ novel, SilverFin (2005) continued the circus connection Fleming had stated so many years before:

Charlie Higson’s SilverFin includes a reference to Red Grant’s father, ‘The Mighty Donovan’

‘Red Grant is a villain in From Russia with Love. Ian Fleming tells us that his father is a strong man in a circus. In SilverFin James sees The Mighty Donovan lifting weights with his teeth at the circus. Little does he know that years later he will get into a tangle with Donovan’s son.’ (Hotseat: Charlie Higson interview with CCBC Newsround, 2 June 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk)

It is difficult to say after some research where Ian Fleming’s fascination with the circus emanated from, but he clearly thought that the circus was an appropriate breeding ground for an array of interesting characters.

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CBn wishes to thank SILHOUETTE MAN for this article.