Crime Lords Trivia Quiz

"Casino Royale"

Le Chiffre, also known as "The Number" or "The Cipher", is introduced as the paymaster for a SMERSH controlled union known as the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace". He borrows money from the organization which he invests into a string of brothels but the plan falls to pieces when laws are passed that ban the practice of prostitution.

Staring down the barrel of bankruptcy and, most likely, the muzzle of a SMERSH assassin's gun, he sets up a card game at the casino Royale-les-Eaux with the aim of getting the money he needs to repay his debt. This is uncovered by MI6 who immediately dispatch James Bond to foil the plan, which Bond duly does, in a series of games of Chemin de Fer. Le Chiffre doesn't take this lying down, setting a trap for Bond by kidnapping his assistant, Vesper Lynd, capturing and then torturing him to release the money to himself. Ultimately he fails and is shot by a SMERSH agent.

"Live and Let Die"

Mr. Big's real name is Buonapart Ignace Gallia. Yes, his initials are part of the reason for his nickname but, you can add to that the fact that he stands at six feet and seven inches and weighs in at 220 pounds...he is every inch of a big man. He suffers from a heart disease which has made his skin grey and has led many to believe that he is a zombie that is being controlled by the voodoo god of death and darkness, Baron Samedi.

Big is a SMERSH agent who has discovered the massive treasure of the Welsh buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan, in Jamaica and is smuggling the coins into Florida and selling them to unsuspecting customers. What he's really doing is laundering the money and then using the funds to supplement the SMERSH operations in the United States. In the eyes of MI6, he is the head of the "Black Widow Voodoo Cult" and is considered to be one of the most powerful criminals in the world. Bond is sent to kill Big. He places a mine on the villain's boat, blowing it up, but that doesn't kill the man. Instead, he is devoured by sharks soon after.

"Moonraker"

To the English people Hugo Drax was a number of things; a World War II hero, a millionaire philanthropist, and a strong supporter of the "Moonraker" missile project, which was designed to protect Great Britain from its Cold War enemies. What the English people didn't know about Hugo Drax was that he was a Nazi. Born in Germany as Graf Hugo von der Drache, he received an education in England (his mother was English) before joining the Nazi Party and then enlisting in the Wehrmacht. Behind enemy lines in the Low Countries, he dressed as a British soldier with the idea of sneaking under the enemy's guard and blowing up their headquarters based at a local farm. Unfortunately for him, another German division attacked the farm while he was in it. Injured in the battle he was found by the English and he declared himself to be Hugo Drax, a missing soldier.

His plot with the Moonraker missile was to install an atomic bomb in it and then alternate the co-ordinates so that the target was not somewhere in the North Sea but the city of London. With the help of Gala Brand, a Special Branch agent, Bond overpowers Drax's minions and redirects the bomb to the North Sea where Drax is onboard a submarine awaiting the devastation of London.

"Diamonds Are Forever"

Jack Spang and his brother Serrafimo run an intricate diamond smuggling operation that begins in the mines of Sierra Leone, travels through London and then New York. Jack is the head of a group known as the Spangled Mob which, apart from the smuggling ring, owns a diamond import/export franchise in London, a hotel complex in Las Vegas and a ghost town known as Spectreville.

James Bond infiltrates the ring and starts working his way up the line. Along the way he kills Serrafimo which ignites Jack to set his enforcers, a homosexual duo known as Wint and Kidd, to kill Bond. In the interim he begins to ruthlessly shut down his operation by killing his own operatives. Like most bad guys he is killed in the end, on this occasion, by way of Bond shooting down his helicopter.

Of all of Flemings villains, Spang is probably the least inspiring of them. There is nothing extravagant about him, there are no signs of megalomania...essentially, he is nothing more than a cheap hoodlum. So much so, that you half expect him to utter the cliché, "you dirty rat... you killed my brother". That said, the campiness of Wint and Kidd, relishing each other as much as they relish the work they do, make them a sheer delight. It's only a shame that they're not the main villains in this tale.

"From Russia with Love"

Klebb is a colonel in the Russian counter-intelligence unit SMERSH. Her mission in this story is to both kill and embarrass James Bond as revenge for the killing of three valuable SMERSH agents - Le Chiffre, Mr. Big and Hugo Drax. The trap is set with the bait being a beautiful Russian cipher clerk, who has, supposedly fallen in love with Bond, and the ability for MI6 to get their hands on Spektor, a Soviet decoding machine. Once Bond is captured in a compromising position, a Soviet assassin, named Red Grant, was to assassinate Bond.

Bond foils the plan and tracks down Klebb. She tries to kill him with a hidden gun but, when she is foiled, she manages to stab Bond with a poison-laden blade hidden in her shoe. Bond collapses at the end of the book and, for all intent, dies. Fleming, at this point, had grown weary of Bond and sought to kill him off. In the next novel, "Dr. No" (1958), it is revealed that he was saved by his friend Rene Mathis, of the Deuxieme Bureau, who'd previously arrived to assist with the capture of Klebb.

Interestingly, probably sadly, this was the only "major" female villain that Fleming created in the James Bond series. Even here, he gives Klebb manly qualities and provides strong indications that she has lesbian tendencies. Fleming created Bond as a blunt instrument and attractive women have been shown to reveal flaws in his character...it would have been interesting to see how Fleming would have dealt with an attractive female as the main villain.

Footnote: the likes of Pussy Galore and Mei-Lei ("Goldfinger"-1959), Fiona Volpe ("Thunderball"-1961), Irma Bunt ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service"-1963) et. al. were never the main antagonists in Fleming's stories; they were henchwomen.

"Goldfinger"

What a perfect name for a villain with a lust for gold. Auric Goldfinger is, without doubt, Ian Fleming's most vivid bad guy. The man is greedy beyond greed...he cheats at cards and he cheats at golf so that he doesn't lose money. Except for a small patch at the base of their spines, he has his lovers painted head to toe with gold paint so that he has the feeling that he's making love to gold. He is the richest man in England, but he doesn't pay any taxes because none of his money resides in the country. Goldfinger is also the treasurer for the Soviet's SMERSH organization.

The man (Goldfinger) conducts an elaborate smuggling ring that operates as follows; the bodywork of his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is made of solid white gold. He passes the extra weight off as protective armour that has been added to the vehicle for his safety. This is driven to his factory in Switzerland where the panels are melted down and then turned into seating for an Air India airplane. The plane is flown to India where the seats are melted down, turned into gold bars and then sold for a 200% profit.

However, the main thrust of the story is "Operation Grand Slam" where Goldfinger seeks to attack the gold depository at Fort Knox. First, killing the soldiers at the base by poisoning their water supply, then detonating a "clean" atom bomb that he'd purchased to break into the vault and, finally, using trucks and trains to empty the vaults of $15 billion in gold bullion, load it aboard a cargo ship and sail off to the Soviet Union. In foiling the plan, Bond loses his cool and winds up strangling Goldfinger in a fit of rage.

Footnote: there were several discrepancies revealed about Goldfinger's plan after the book's publication. One, there was no guarantee that all the soldiers at the base would be killed or unable to raise the alarm; two, the "clean" bomb would have obliterated Fort Knox and the gold inside and, finally, even if it didn't, it would have taken Goldfinger's team more than a week to shift that much gold...enough time for the army to step in and take him out. Hence, in the movie (1964) version, the plan changes to irradiate the gold, thus making Goldfinger's own stockpile rise significantly in value.

"Risico", a short story in the collection "For Your Eyes Only"

Bond is sent on a mission to Italy to break down a heroin smuggling ring. The contact he is given is a man named Kristatos. Kristatos informs him that the main culprit is a man called Enrico Colombo. Colombo does indeed prove to be a smuggler, but not in narcotics. When Bond enters Colombo's yacht, he is captured and provided proof that Kristatos is both a double agent and the kingpin of the drug smuggling ring. Colombo leads Bond to Kristatos' warehouse, a shootout entails and Bond kills Kristatos.

In the story we are not provided with a Christian name for Kristatos but in the film, "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), which was based loosely on this short story, he is given the name Aristotle or "Arie" for short.

"Thunderball"

In "Thunderball", Emilio Largo is listed as the "Number 1" of the terrorist organization known as SPECTRE. However, in truth, he ranks as the second in line for command...the top spot being occupied by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Here, Blofeld makes his first appearance in a "Bond" novel but his role is only minor one, and he's not the main antagonist.

Largo has hatched a plan that involves hijacking a Villiers Vindicator and stealing two nuclear bombs from that jet. The plan is to aim the two bombs at both England and the United States and demand a ransom of £100 million. Unfortunately for Largo, he has a few character flaws. One is that he hates even the slightest failure, which resulted in one of his henchmen being fed to the sharks, and he doesn't care who he hurts...he had no compunction in hurting his girlfriend, Domino. Consequently, it is another henchman who turns on him and aids Bond and then, when Largo has Bond at his mercy, he is shot in the back with a spear gun by Domino.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

If any of the villains in this quiz could be listed as James Bond's "arch enemy", it would have to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Blofeld is an evil genius whose goal in life is world domination. He makes three appearances in the James Bond series of novels; the first is a minor role in "Thunderball" (1961) but he is the main villain in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1963) and "You Only Live Twice" (1964).

In "Thunderball" we are informed that he was born to a Polish father and a Greek mother on May 28, 1908, which, coincidentally (or on purpose), is also Ian Fleming's birthday. He made his fortune in stocks and shares while working for the Polish Telegraph. There he intercepted and forwarded sensitive information to the Nazis prior to the invasion of Poland and destroyed all trace of his existence before disappearing to Turkey. In a dossier compiled by MI6, and revealed in the front of the book, he is described as a massive man who didn't drink or smoke, had never slept with either a man or a woman, and did not eat a great deal.

In "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" we discover that he's made radical changes to his appearance. He's still tall but now very thin, has no earlobes and wears green contact lenses. He lives on a mountain in Switzerland where he has devised a plan to destroy Britain's economy by wiping out its agricultural base. Bond foils the plans but Blofeld has the last laugh when he shoots Bond's newlywed wife, Tracy.

Bond comes face to face with Blofeld once again in "You Only Live Twice" (1964), who is living in Japan under the guise of Dr. Guntram Shatterhand. He is still thin but is now well-muscled, has a full head of hair and sports a moustache. As Shatterhand, Blofeld has built a "Garden of Death" in an ancient castle in Kyushu, which is causing great embarrassment to the Japanese government. The Japanese Secret Service is prepared to allow Bond access to their decoding machine on the proviso that he kills the doctor. Bond succeeds in that mission.

Blofeld is mentioned again in "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1965) but has no role in the story.

Footnote: Blofeld has appeared at least six times in the "James Bond" film series.

"The Man with the Golden Gun"

There is a profile of Scaramanga printed in the book which indicates that he is tall (6'3") and 35 years of age. This makes him one of four Fleming villains who stand taller than Bond, who is credited as being six feet tall. The others being Blofeld, Dr. No and Mr. Big. Scaramanga is also the only villain in Fleming's series that is younger than James.

Scaramanga, as a young lad, was a trick shot working in his father's circus and, it is claimed, that his only friend was an elephant that he looked after. When the creature went on a rampage, it was shot down by a local policeman. Scaramanga shot the officer with a single shot through the eye and fled to the United States. Here he worked for the Spangled Mob (who are also mentioned in "Diamonds are Forever" (1956) and "Goldfinger" (1959)) as an enforcer. After killing a rival gunman, he emigrates to Cuba where he commences working for Fidel Castro's Secret Police. He is known as the "Man with the Golden Gun" for his penchant to use a gun made of gold.

In the background to "The Man with the Golden Gun", Bond developed amnesia after his last confrontation with Blofeld ("You Only Live Twice"-1964), winds up in Russia where he is brainwashed and then tries to kill M. Now de-programmed, he is sent off on what is seen as an impossible mission, to kill Scaramanga. For MI6, this is a win-win scenario. If Bond fails, they feel that they have lost an agent that they're not sure they can entirely trust. However, if he succeeds, then they have rid the world of a dangerous criminal and managed to secure a level of trust in Bond.

Bond poses as a freelance security officer in Jamaica where he impresses Scaramanga and is hired. However, his cover is blown by a KGB operative and a shootout entails between Bond and Scaramanga. Scaramanga is wounded by Bond but then hits Bond with a poison bullet from a second weapon he carries. Before collapsing Bond manages to fire off another shot, killing Scaramanga.