First Bond I saw was Live and Let Die. I was 9, I didn't know then that it wasn't the best.
Me too. Saw it in the theatre and was immediately hooked. Then I saw Goldfinger on CBS movie of the week (remember when there were only three channels on TV and you had to watch on a schedule?). I kept thinking 'who the heck is this Connery guy playing James Bond? Then I saw Thunderball, again on CBS, Friday night and realized he was Bond and Roger Moore was only The Saint playing Bond.
My favorite of the Connery films is a toss up between Dr No and From Russia With Love for pure film, Thunderball for action. I don't think I even watched an entire Brosnan or Dalton film to the end. I completely missed the intro of Dame Judi as M as well as Cleese as Q but don't feel like I missed anything. In retrospect, Moore was a joke too, Stephanie Seymor, Yaphet Kotto and Jeffrey Hunter made Let and Let Die bearable.
Shirley Bassey is my favorite title singer, but Tom Jones' Thunderball is pretty high up there. In Japan, Thunderball was Mr Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in Japan and there's a title song as well. I believe it was Nancy Sinatra who sang it or was the You Only Live Twice?
Ursala is still the hottest Bond girl IMO, but a muddy Stella Stevens with Matt Helm was pretty wild for the time.
All that said, if I am really pressed to pick the best of the entire series, it would have to be 'Casino Royale' with Craig. It was the perfect blend of dark and over the top camp, action and plot. I give them big props for the torture scene. I read the book about 20 years ago and remember thinking that's why it was never made into a film (David Niven aside), they can't do it. Well they did. Eva Green was stunning as well.
