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Monday, May 19, 2008The Man With The Golden Gun Year: 1974Directed by Guy Hamilton Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Hervé Villechaise, Demond Llewelyn, Bernard Lee Music by John Barry Title song performed by Lulu Based loosely on the novel by Ian Fleming The Man With The Golden Gun is the most psychedelic of the Bond series or at least tries to be. The villains lair, which is revealed in the opening sequence, and features in the finale is a carnival of flashing coloured lights, revolving mirrors, robotic toys and wall high video screens. But despite all the toys it isn’t that trippy. As such, it provides the setting for one of the Bond series weakest endings. The story for two thirds of it’s running time is okay, but it is always leading to the showdown between Bond and The Man With The Golden Gun, Francisco Scaramanga. And that showdown is a bit disappointing. James Bond (Roger Moore) is summoned to M’s office. M (Bernard Lee) presents Bond with a package that has been sent to M.I.6 headquarters in London. Inside the package is a golden bullet and etched on the side are the numbers 0-0-7. It looks like somebody wants James Bond dead, and that someone happens to be Franscisco Scaramanga. Scaramanga is the world’s most expensive and dangerous assassin. He is known as the ‘man with the golden gun’ because he always uses a gold bullet to kill his targets. On top of that, he charges one million dollars for every target – it’s not bad work if you can get it! M relieves Bond from duty. M.I.6 cannot jeopardise a mission by having an agent shot while on active duty. Bond suggests that if he found Scaramanga first, then the tables would be turned. M agrees and begins tracking down the mysterious ‘man with the golden gun’. Bond’s first port of call is a nightclub in Istanbul. A Double-O agent had been killed there many years previously by Scaramanga. The agent had been with an exotic dancer named Saida when he was killed, and now she uses the remnants of the bullet as a lucky charm, wedged in her navel. After some gentle coercion, Bond obtains the bullet and takes it to Q-Branch. Q (Desmond Llewellyn) examines the bullet and the mineral content of the gold that it was made from. Q ascertains that the gold could have only come from one part of the world, the Far East, and only one man in that part of the world is equipped to make some specialised bullets. His name is Lazaar and he works out of Macao. Bond pays a vist to Lazaar and threatens to kill him unless he leads him to Scaramanga. In fear for his life, Lazaar offers to help, but he is only a small link in the chain. He takes the golden bullets to a casino where they are collected by a lady. As it happens, Lazaar has another shipment of bullets ready to be delivered. As he takes them to the casino for collection, Bond follows and watches. At the casino, the bullets are collected by Andrea Anders (Maud Adams). She leaves and catches a hydrofoil to Hong Kong and then checks into a hotel, all the time with Bond discreetly on her trail. Later, Bond convinces one of the hotel staff to open the door to Andrea’s hotel suite. Inside she is taking a shower and does not hear Bond enetre the room. After she has exited the shower, Bond asks her where he can find Scaramanga. She refuses to say. In one of Roger Moore’s more brutal scenes as Bond, he gives her a backhand across the jaw and then literally twists her arm. She tells Bond that Scaramanga has an appointment that evening at a Hong Kong night club called the ‘Bottom’s Up’. As this Bond film is set in Asia, and at this time Kung-Fu films were exceedingly popular, it is not surprising that The Man With The Golden Gun jumped onto the martial arts bandwagon. The scenes aren’t too successful because Roger Moore is not too convincing as a martial artist, and most of the scenes fall to Lieutenant Hip (Soon-Tek Oh), who plays Bond’s contact in Hong Kong. The Man With The Golden gun of the title is played by Christopher Lee, and he is pretty good in the role, but he is at his most charming and menacing when he is simply conversing with Bond. Whenever Scaramanga has to engage in any type of action it comes off as silly (this probably has more to do with the script, than Lee’s acting ability). On such scene is where he has to slide down, on the soles of his feet, an embankment of flattened steps (don’t ask!), and then roll into a somersault, grab his gun and fire at the target. Equally silly, is when he has to pilot a flying car. Lee is at his best as an urbane gentleman – not as a two bit action hero. Hervé Villechaise is Scaramanga’s diminutive manservant Nick Nack who at the height of 3' 11" is not a particularly threatening henchman. In fact, he is one of the few villains in the Bond series who is not killed. There are two main Bond girls in The Man With The Golden Gun. The first is Maud Adams. Adams plays Andrea Anders, the woman who sets the whole chains of events in motion by sending James Bond one of Scaramanga’s golden bullets. The bullet usually signifies the recipient is to be the next target for assassination by The Man With The Golden Gun, but in this instance it is simply a ploy to drag James Bond into Miss Anders game. And she is quite prepared to use her body to sweeten the deal, if it will get her what she wants. The next Bond girl is Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight. Goodnight is the good girl in this movie, but she is also lumbered with some awkward comic relief moments. After George Martin had taken over the musical reigns for Live And Let Die, it was back to the maestro, John Barry for the score to The Man With The Golden Gun. It was Barry’s seventh score for a Bond movie, and it is lighter than previous scores, to suit Roger Moore’s lighter interpretation of Bond. But as always, it is good to have John Barry back in control, and in the chase sequences where he, once again, comes into his own with pounding rhythms and driving horns to underscore the action. The Man With The Golden Gun is one of the weaker Bond films. This is mainly due to the ending. The duel between Bond and Scaramanga works on paper, but not particularly well cinematically. And when the gunfight moves into Scaramanga’s funhouse, the ending becomes repetitive – because we have seen it in the pre-title sequence. It is also predictable – again the pre-title sequence enables you to guess what happens next.  Labels: Character: James Bond, Stars: Christopher Lee, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 11:26 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Tuesday, May 13, 2008A View To A Kill Year: 1985Directed by John Glen Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Patrick MacNee, Robert Brown, Lois Maxwell Music by John Barry Title song performed by Duran Duran A View To A Kill was the fourteenth official James Bond movie, and the seventh (and last) film to feature Roger Moore as agent 007. Quite frankly, Moore was too old for the role by this time. He knew it and the producers knew it, but there was no logical successor at the time. The producers had considered casting American actor James Brolin in the role before filming began on Octopussy (the preceding movie in the series) but decided against it. Footage of Brolin’s screen tests can be seen on the recent MGM/UA 2 disk DVD of Octopussy. Octopussy ended up being one of Moore’s better films, which is probably why the producers stuck with Moore again. But for A View To A Kill, the team went to the well one time too many. Let’s look at why A View To A Kill doesn’t work: The casting, with the exception of Patrick Macnee, is uniformly weak. I have already mentioned Moore’s age. He is really showing it here. Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), after 23 years of service, she appeared in Dr. No in 1962, is looking slightly out of place too. But you can almost forgive the aging Bond family regulars because they are faces you have grown to love. The major casting blunders are the female leads. Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton is so vacuous she barely registers as a human being. She spends most of the film shrieking and squealing. Often in Bond criticism, the Bond girls are given short shrift by the media. Most of the time, I think this is unfounded. Most of the female characters are intelligent and capable women who happen to be rather attractive. Not just mere window dressing. Many are equals to Bond. But Robert’s character comes off as a dumb blonde. He acting is so stilted, she destroys any dramatic scene in which she appears. Just don’t let her speak. She is the reason for any negative Bond girl criticism. Similarly Grace Jones is rather wooden as Mayday. Her delivery of lines is very forced, but thankfully she doesn’t have many to deliver. She is very eye catching though, and certainly has a presence on the screen. Next we come to Christopher Walken. Walken is an actor I really appreciate. I can sit through most of his B-grade movies and smile due to his performances. But here, he is simply miscast. Not that he gives a bad performance here; far from it. He does ‘psychopath’ very well. But his character is supposed to be an Anglo-French multi-millionaire industrialist, who was born in Germany. So the character is very European. Yet Walken is so New York. He doesn’t belong in a French chateau, or at Ascot in a top hat and tails. As I briefly mentioned earlier, the one successful bit of casting is Patrick Macnee. The fact that Moore and Macnee were friends from their early television days, and appeared together in the movie The Sea Wolves, may count for the chemistry between them. But despite this (or maybe because), Macnee has an understated grace that makes it seem like he belongs in these opulent surroundings. And acting wise, his is the only character to have any emotional impact in the film. The next weak element of the film is the script. Admittedly the writers have tried something new. Rather than a megalomaniac for a villain, they have a Max Zorin (Walken’s character) played as a psychopath. Interesting idea on paper, but on screen it doesn’t work. For example, when Zorin kills all his henchmen in a gleeful psychotic display, it leaves him isolated and alone (well practically) against Bond in the final showdown. And let’s remember that Bond has taken on armies in volcanoes, on oil rigs, and on space stations. No matter how creative the backdrop (atop the Golden Gate Bridge, no less), Bond is essentially going up against one man – it’s not impossible odds. And really with the way the plot has unfolded, Bond, with a little help from Mayday, has already saved the day The only reason to go after Zorin is to rescue Stacey Sutton, and you already know my opinion of that character. Do you think I care? The way the whole denouement unfolds is clumsily written. The story is a fairly simple one. Wealthy industrialist, Max Zorin own’s a company that makes microchips. Unfortunately for Zorin, most of the world’s microchips are made in Silicon Valley in the USA. Zorin (I have already mentioned that he is psychotic), plans to cause an Earthquake, unlocking the San Andreas and Haywood faults. That will cause the destuction of Silicon Valley, which will simply disappear into the sea. His company will then have a worldwide monopoly. Naturally James Bond has to stop him. To the music now: When the film came out in 1985, Duran Duran’s theme song was a massive hit, even though it sounds a little dated today. The theme ties in nicely with John Barry’s score, which is one of the more evocative one he has composed for the series. I am particularly fond of the music when Bond carries Sutton down a fire truck ladder to safety, while the San Francisco City Hall burns behind them. The music is rousing and heroic, combing the ‘dance into the fire’ motif from the title song with the ‘Bond sound’. The score is universally good except for one minor quibble. During the pre-title sequence, Bond uses a ski from a snow mobile as a snowboard. As he glides down an embankment of snow and across a small pond, instead of the John Barry score, which has been working a treat through the previous action, we are slapped in the face with an annoying cover version of The Beach Boys ‘California Girls’. It is simply not necessary, and it is certainly not funny! While I do not believe A View To A Kill is quite as bad as Die Another Day, it is one of the weaker entries in the series. It is an unworthy swan song for Roger Moore, who despite a recent dip in popularity is truly one of the great Bond actors. He brought a great deal of enjoyment to many people, and most of all he filled the shoes of Sean Connery. Labels: Character: James Bond, Espionage, Stars: Christopher Walken, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 10:25 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Monday, May 12, 2008Octopussy Directed by John GlenRoger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jordan, Kabir Bedi, Kristina Wayborn, Steven Berkoff, Vijay Amritraj, Robert Brown as M, Desmond Llewelyn as Q, and Lois Maxwell as Monneypenny Music by John Barry ‘All Time High’ performed by Rita Coolidge Based on a short story by Ian Fleming Christmas 1983 was a tense time for Bond fans. Octopussy was released starring Roger Moore as Agent 007, and soon to be released was Never Say Never Again, an independent film starring Sean Connery as Bond. Now with James Bond, there is no fence sitting. You are either a ‘Moore’ man, or a ‘Connery’ man. Fans had to decide. In the end, they voted for Moore. Octopussy was a huge success. But it wasn’t just Moore’s charm that won over the crowds. Octopussy, in every way was a superior film to the clunky, and trouble plagued Never Say Never Again. The pre-title sequence takes place in South America. Agent 007, James Bond is sent to destroy a military installation. During the mission he is caught. He is bundled into a jeep with two armed guards and driven off to be interrogated and tortured (Actually they don’t tell us where they are taking Bond. I just guess it’s to be interrogated and tortured – after all, they are the ‘bad guys’.) Bond’s leggy assistant, in this un-named South American country is Bianca (Tina Hudson). She is following the vehicle transporting Bond to his doom. She is driving an open four-wheel-drive towing a horse float. As she pulls her 4WD alongside, she hitches up her dress exposing a generous amount of flesh. Bond’s guard’s attention diverts to the beautiful brunette, and Bond takes the opportunity to escape from custody. He leaps into the 4WD, snatching a machine gun on the way. As they drive past, Bond disables the jeep. It appears that Bond and Bianca are in the clear, but not so. A fleet of military vehicles give chase. At this point, Bond and Bianca pull over to the side of the road. Bond unclips the horse float, lightening the load so Bianca can speed of to safety. But Bond stays put. With reason. The float isn’t quite what it appears. Rather than a horse, it actually houses a Acrostar jet - a really tiny, one man jet, with wings that fold up. Bond speeds off in the jet and it looks like he can easily fly across the border to safety. But that would have been too easy. The bad guys fire a heat seeking missile at Bond’s jet and a wild chase takes place in the sky overhead. Bond leads the heat seeking missile back the military installation he was sent to destroy and flies his miniature jet into a hanger. Naturally the missile follows. Bond flies out of the other end. But the missile detonates, sending the complex up in a ball of orange flame. Like so many Bond, pre-title sequences, this one has nothing to do with the main story. It is simply a mini-movie before the main story takes place. As is Bond tradition, we are then treated to the main title sequence. The visuals are once again provided by Maurice Binder, and John Barry is back on soundtrack duties, after Bill Conti had scored the last movie. The title song, ‘All Time High’ is sung by Rita Coolidge. It is not one of my favourite Bond tunes, but I have a few friends who rate the song very highly. I seem to be the exception, so, I guess it is another successful opening to a Bond picture. When we return, we get into the movie proper. We are in East Germany, and a clown is being chased through a forest by a set of twins, who happened to be expert knife throwers. The clown happens to be agent 009. Eventually the twins catch up to 009 as he tries to cross a river. One of the twins, accurately throws a blade and 009 falls into the river and drifts off dead. Or so we think. Most Double ‘O’s are pretty resilient, and 009 is no exception. Down river, he pulls himself from the water and makes his way to the British Ambassador’s residence, where he gate crashes a party and drops dead on the floor. From his lifeless hand, rolls a Fabergé egg. For those not familiar with ‘what’ a Fabergé egg is; a Fabergé egg is any one of fifty Easter eggs (or fifty-two if you count the two that weren’t finished) made by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Czars. The eggs were made between 1885 and 1917 and each is decorated with enamel and gem stones. In short they are decorative, jewelled eggs. As you can imagine, Fabergé eggs are very valuable and not easy to come by. The movie moves back to London and to M’s office. This time M is played by Robert Brown, who had taken over from Bernard Lee who had died a few years previous. It is never mentioned whether Brown’s character is the same one as played by Lee, or if he is the ‘new’ head of MI6. Coincidentally, Brown played Admiral Hargraves in The Spy Who Loved Me, and a part of me likes to think that he is the same character. After all, Lee’s M, Sir Miles Messervy was a nautical man (or the prints on the wall of M’s office, indicate he has an affinity with the sea). And James Bond himself was/is a Commander in the British Navy. So it makes sense that the ‘new’ M would come from the same stock. A Navy man! But I digress. M is briefing Bond on his new mission. It appears that a Fabergé egg identical to the one recovered by 009 is being auctioned at Southerby’s in the afternoon. Obviously one is a fake and something is not above board. Bond is to attend the auction in an attempt to spot the seller. This is where the mission starts and this is where I leave the synopsis. Bond’s mission takes him to India, and then to East Germany and the dubious jewellery items are only the tip of the tentacle. But who and what is Octopussy? Ian Fleming’s short story, Octopussy, concerned Major Dexter Smythe, a military man who had absconded with a shipment of Gold and set up a nice little life for himself in Jamaica. Bond’s mission is to kill him. The film has nothing to do with that short story. But the character Octopussy (Maude Adams), is the daughter of Dexter Smythe. In the film she lives on her own island in India, completely surrounded by women. She has built her fortune as a smuggler, and has also set up a circus, the ‘Octopussy Circus’ which travels from country to country. The circus acts as a cover for her smuggling activities. Maude Adams is quite good as the title character, but for fans of the series, who value continuity, Adams had appeared previously in The Man With The Golden Gun as Andrea Anders. It may have been good to see a fresh face in the role. As always, Bond has a group of friends who help him through the mission. His allies include tennis player Vijay Amitraj, who plays a character called (funnily enough) Vijay. Vijay has a memorable scene, where I fights off some attackers with a tennis racquet. Also from Station I in India, is Sadruddin (Albert Moses). Debatable because her loyalties change, but Magda (Kristina Wayborn) is also one of Bond’s allies. At the climax of the film, she leads the performers of Octopussy’s Circus in a deadly assault upon Kamal Khan’s Monsoon Palace. And even old ‘Q’, Desmond Llewelyn gets into the action in this film, piloting a balloon at the climax of the film. Along the way, Bond encounters the usual amount of villains and thugs. This time he goes up against an exiled Afghan Prince, Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan), a power crazy Russian, General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), and an impossibly strong henchman, Gobinda (Kabir Bedi). Bond also has to contend with the knife wielding twins (David and Anthony Meyers). But as always, Bond comes out on top. Louis Jordan as Kamal Khan is the last of the great sophisticated Bond villains. These days, the Bond villains tend to be physical equals of Bond, or psychopaths. But the early villains, like Dr. No or Goldfinger were cultured refined gentlemen. These days Bond is pitted against younger men who have power but no class – such as Alec Trevallyn or Gustav Graves. But Jordan is old school, and he is great. Particularly memorable is the scene where Bond and Khan are dining in the villain’s palace, and Khan outlines how he is going to extract information from Bond (Sodium Pentothal and Curare). No discussion about a Bond film can be complete without a look at the gadgets (love em, or hate em) on display. In my synopsis I have mentioned the Acrostar miniature jet, but there are a few other gadgets on display throughout the film. During the mission, Bond uses a pen with acid cartridge inside. Confined to quarters, he uses this to cut through the metals bars protecting the window. Silliest gadget of them all, is a submersible Alligator, which Bond uses to escape from Octopussy’s private island. Not all of the gadgets belong to Bond, though. A henchman wields quite a lethal Yo-Yo Saw, which functions as a normal yo-yo does, the difference being that the sides are circular saw blades. Quite dangerous, and quite imaginative. On the new Ultimate Edition DVD, there is some interesting test footage of American actor James Brolin preparing to take over the role of James Bond from Roger Moore. While I am hardly in a position to speculate about this (if you’re interested watch the DVD), I am glad common sense prevailed and the role of Bond didn’t go to an American. Bond is quintessentially British. And Roger Moore, even though he is possibly too old for the role, gives one of his better performances in one of the better Bond movies. Number 13 is an unlucky number for many people, but not so the Bond franchise. Octopussy the 13th film in the series was a resounding success. Not only was it a good film, it did well at the box office, and even had the strength to stand toe to toe with Connery and win. For trivia fans, Ingrid Pitt is the voice of the Galley Mistress - “In – Out – In – Out!”  Labels: Character: James Bond, Espionage, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 8:15 PM | 1 Comments | Links to this post Friday, May 9, 2008Moonraker Year: 1979Directed by Lewis Gilbert Roger Moore, Richard Kiel, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corrine Clery, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell, Bernard Lee as M, Desmond Llewellyn as Q, and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny Music by John Barry Title song performed by Shirley Bassey Very loosely based on the novel by Ian Fleming Moonraker gets a lot of crap heaped upon it for being the worst Bond film. But in all honesty, for much of it’s running time it is quite good. It only drifts off course towards the end with a rather silly, Star Wars inspired space story. Another weakness is the plot itself – actually it’s not weak, simply it is the same story as the previous (and rather successful) film, The Spy Who Loved Me. The difference being that the Ocean and Ships, have been changed to Outer Space and Space Shuttles. It must also be noted, that The Spy Who Loved Me was in fact, very similar to You Only Live Twice. So the plot wasn’t weak; it was simply a matter of the film-makers going to the well one too many times. The movie opens with a space shuttle being piggy-backed on a 747 jet liner. The shuttle engines fire up unexpectedly and the shuttle takes off. The blast from the shuttles rockets incinerate the jet which plummets to the ground. The shuttle disappears. On another, smaller plane James Bond (Roger Moore) is being held at gunpoint. The two pilots are going to shoot Bond, bail out, leaving Bond’s remains to crash with the plane. After a struggle, Bond forces the two pilots out of the planes hatch, without being pierced with a bullet. He thinks he is in the clear and may be able to land the plane. But as he stands at the hatch, he is pushed out sans parachute by a set of large hands. These hands belong to Jaws (Richard Kiel), the seven foot tall evil minion who survived at the end of the last movie. Bond is freefalling without a parachute, when he spies one of the pilots he forced out of the plane earlier. Using the air currents, he glides from above towards his quarry, then wrestles the parachute off the pilots back. Back safely on the ground, and back at M.I.6 headquarters, ‘M’ (Bernard Lee in his last appearance in the series) and the Minister Of Defence, Frederick Grey (Geoffrey Keen), brief Bond on his new mission. He is to investigate the disappearance of the Moonraker space shuttle. He is sent to California and to the estate of Sir Hugo Drax, the multimillionaire who’s company manufactures the space shuttles for NASA. Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) is a Frenchman, who now lives a very opulent life in America. And he is also obsessed with space. So much so, that he wants to kill practically everybody on the planet, and repopulate it with his own hand-picked, perfect human specimens which will live on an orbiting space station that revolves around the earth. Yeah, I told you the story was kinda silly! The main Bond girl in this film is Doctor Holly Goodhead, played by Lois Chiles. Goodhead is a strange character, because she isn’t really sure who she is. On on hand, she is Bond’s equal, working for the C.I.A. and is a qualified Shuttle pilot. She can handle herself in a fist fight too. So we have one of the first truly equal Bond girls. She doesn’t scream all the time, and barely has to be rescued by Bond. But this equality and independence create a void where ‘romance’ should have been. The relationship between Bond and Goodhead is one of the coldest in the Bond series (for a leading lady, that is). That’s not to put down Lois Chiles’ acting performance – I think the written character wasn’t fully developed. As always, Bond has a few gadgets to rescue him from dangerous situations. The first is a dart gun, that gets strapped to 007’s wrist. In comes in handy when Bond is trapped inside a G-Force simulator that is spinning wildly out of control. The second, and silliest of the Bond gadgets is a Gondola (or ‘Bondola’ if you will), which Bond uses on the canals of Venice. The Gondola can turn into a hovercraft. Err, yeah! The best is the speedboat, which Bond cruises down the Amazon river in. It features torpedoes, mines and a hang-glider which separates from the roof of the boat. The music is by the maestro, John Barry, which by his high standards is rather ineffectual. The musical highlights are revisions of The Space March Theme from You Only Live Twice, and the 007 Theme from From Russia With Love. Even the title song, Moonraker, performed by Shirley Bassey is rather subdued. That’s not to say the music is bad. Generally it works, but doesn’t have the drive or isn’t as ‘brassy’ as previous musical scores for the Bond series. As I said at the outset, Moonraker cops a caning for being the worst Bond film. I personally believe that Die Another Day is an inferior film. There’s a lot to like in Moonraker. There’s a classic scene at a pheasant shoot, which involves some poor marksmanship from 007; and plenty of boats chases, as mentioned above in the paragraph about gadgets; and even a cable car chase. All this adds up to a fairly entertaining Bond adventure, if somewhat marred by the film-makers desire to compete with the Star Wars franchise. And as a final word, it must be pointed out, whether you believe Moonraker is a good or bad film, that until the arrival of Pierce Brosnan (the Billion Dollar Bond), in unadjusted dollars this film was the most successful (profitable) Bond film, so someone must have liked it? Labels: Character: James Bond, Espionage, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 12:02 AM | 1 Comments | Links to this post Thursday, May 8, 2008The Spy Who Loved Me Year: 1977Directed by Lewis Gilbert Roger Moore, Curt Jurgens, Barabara Bach, Richard Kiel, Caroline Munro, Bernard Lee, Walter Gotell, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen Music by Marvin Hamlisch Title Song, “Nobody Does It Better”, performed by Carly Simon The Spy Who Loved Me is the first James Bond film I saw at the movies. In the town where I grew up we didn’t have a cinema, it was an old fashioned drive-in, and I organised with my friends to go with their families on different nights. This was my Star Wars. This is the film I went and watched again and again. The Spy Who Loved Me is undoubtedly Roger Moore’s best appearance as James Bond. He seems less wooden than his first two appearances, and while some of his latter appearances were quite good, towards the end he was clearly too old for the role. The movie itself is fast, action packed and ferociously funny. If it has a weakness, it is that it was too successful. Many of the ideas and stunts used in the film have been recycled so many times (even by the Bond series), that a newcomer to this 30+ year old film may find themselves with a case of deja-vu. But remember, The Spy Who Loved Me did it all first with a great deal of flair and polish. The story concerns James Bond’s efforts to thwart a madman with webbed fingers, Carl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens) from starting World War III. Stromberg hijacks two nuclear submarines, one American, the other belonging to the U.S.S.R., and replaces the crews with his own men who have orders to fire nuclear missiles at opposing cities in America and Russia. He hopes the reprisals from the Superpowers will destroy civilisation, leaving him to rule the world from his city beneath the sea. World Domination! Yeah, sure it’s corny, but it is good fun. Apart from planning to start World War III, Stromberg also feeds a female assistant to the sharks.  The girls in The Spy Who Loved Me are stunning. Barbara Bach plays Major Amassova – Agent XXX. She was so impressive, that she was snapped up by Ringo Starr. I guess that’s what being a Beatle can help you do – the one thing that all guys would like to do – and that is marry a Bond girl. Lucky guy. Another eye catcher in the film is Caroline Munro as Naomi. She doesn’t get to say much, but with a wink, she says a thousand words.  Richard Kiel plays Jaws, the menacing physical heavy of the piece, who is seven feet tall, has steel teeth and is virtually indestructible. Jaws was so popular, his character returned in the next James Bond movie, Moonraker. Kiel, in his book Richard Kiel – Making It Big In The Movies – Reynolds & Hearn Ltd 2002, had this to say:“He (Cubby Broccoli) also told me that they had already considered David Prowse, and, seeing that this didn’t register with me, he explained that David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in the Star Wars film, then being produced in England. My excitement at the possibility of being in a Bond movie began to dim slightly; it didn’t take much of an actor to be in a head-to-toe suit, especially when James Earl Jones was saying all the words.” “I had no idea of whether I would live or die, or how the audience would take to the ‘Jaws’ character.” The film features quite a few little gadgets, but the one that steals the show is the Lotus Espirit. Bond is involved in another car chase and simply drives his vehicle off the end of a pier and it turns into a submarine. The car was such a sensation that it toured the world. I remember nagging my parents to take me to the Melbourne Car Show so I could see the car. My parents gave in and we went to the car show – which was only a four hour drive from where I lived. After seeing the car on the BIG screen it seemed so small. But I was a happy boy. John Barry wasn’t available to do the score to The Spy Who Loved Me, so the duty fell to Marvin Hamlisch, who’s Bee Gees inspired score is quite good in a seventies disco-funk kind of way. The incidental music in the Mojave Club and at the Pyramids is quite effective too, with a contemporary sound fused with more traditional middle eastern sounds. The theme song, Nobody Does It Better, sung by Carly Simon is one of the more successful songs in the series and was a massive hit. As you would have noticed, The Spy Who Loved Me occupies a special place in my heart. You can say what you like about Moore versus Connery, or the decline of the Bond films in the seventies. You can even take me to task over the cheesy musical references to Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia – to me it doesn’t matter, The Spy Who Loved Me is one of my favourite films of all time.  Labels: Character: James Bond, Espionage, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 12:17 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Wednesday, May 7, 2008Live And Let Die Year: 1973Directed by Guy Hamilton Roger Moore, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, Gloria Hendry, Yaphet Kotto, Clifton James, Julius W. Harris, Geoffrey Holder, Earl Jolly Brown, Madeline Smith, Bernard Lee as M, and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny Music by George Martin Title song by Paul McCartney and Wings Based loosely on the novel by Ian Fleming After the failure of George Lazenby to win over the public in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the producers went running back to Sean Connery to put bums on seats. The ploy worked and Diamonds Are Forever was a success. But Connery agreed to one film only. So that left the producers with the dilemma of finding a new James Bond. Enter Roger Moore. Moore already had a strong fan base from the television shows The Saint and The Persuaders. But like all actors who take on the role of 007, he had to overcome the long shadow of Connery. And even for Moore this wasn’t as easy as he had hoped. While making Live And Let Die, Roger Moore wrote a diary which was published as Roger Moore as James Bond (Pan Books 1973). Here he talks about his son’s response to his casting as James Bond. The children arrive tomorrow and I wonder if Geoffrey will realize I am Bond when he sees me in action. Just before we left England he asked: “Can you beat anybody, including a robber?” “Oh yes,’ I replied confidently. “Supposing James Bond came in,’ he persisted. “Daddy is going to play James Bond,’ I explained. “I know that,’ he sighed impatiently. ‘I mean the real James Bond, Sean Connery.” I suppose if your son has trouble accepting you in the role, you’re in for a rough old time. But in all fairness, Roger Moore acquits himself rather well. His popularity in the 70’s and 80’s is testament to that. That’s enough background information. Let’s move onto the story. The pre-tile sequence: The film opens at the United Nations building in New York. An M.I.6 agent is watching the assembly and in particular Doctor Kananga, the President of the Caribbean island of San Monique. The agent’s translation headset is cranked up to full volume. He falls to the floor dead. Next we cut to New Orleans. Another M.I.6 agent, on loan to the Americans is staking out the ‘Fillet Of Soul’ restaurant as a funeral procession ambles past. As the coffin passes the agent’s location, he is stabbed and picked up off the road through a false bottom in the coffin. And lastly the film cuts to San Monique, where a voodoo ritual is being carried out. A man (naturally enough, an M.I.6 agent) is tied between two poles. As he struggles helplessly an orgy of black dancers writhe and sway in front of him, while primitive drums are pounded, getting quicker as the tension rises. The lead dancer produces a venomous snake and presses it against the jugular vein of the agent. The snake bites, and the agent slumps forward, dead. Maurice Binder’s stylised title graphics roll accompanied by Paul McCartney and Wings belting out the theme song. It may not be in the classic Bond style, but the theme song is a good one. In fact the music by George Martin is of a high standard, generally. It has a hint of seventies funk to it, but since the film is clearly influenced by the blaxploitation films the were popular at the time (Shaft, Foxy Brown, etc...), the musical cues seem appropriate. And I am pleased to say it hasn’t dated too badly, like some of the other Bond soundtracks. After the musical interlude we meet James Bond (Roger Moore) at his apartment. Even though it is early morning, Bond is not asleep. Ever the professional, he is, er...debriefing an attractive Italian agent, Miss Caruso (Madeline Smith). Bond’s work is interrupted by the arrival of M (Bernard Lee) and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) who brief Bond on his next assignment. This is an unusual scene, in that it is one of the few times we get to see Bond’s apartment, and secondly, because Bond is briefed away from the office. This ‘in the field briefing’ is an element that would become more prevalent in the Bond series. I’d guess this is to do with the pacing of the movies. Setting up Bond’s mission in ‘M’s office and then sending him off takes time. But briefing Bond in the field propels the story on more quickly. Anyway, Bond is sent to New York City, where the first agent was killed and also where Dr. Kananga (Yaphett Kotto), the President of San Monique (where the third agent was killed) is currently speaking at the UN. As Bond arrives in New York an attempt is made on his life. With a bit of help from his old pal, CIA agent, Felix Leiter (this time played by David Heddison), Bond tracks down the the man who tried to kill him. The man’s name is Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown), and he is a minion of a Mr. Big, a big time gangster who runs a chain of ‘Fillet Of Soul’ restaurants. Ah, you may recall that the second agent in the pre-title sequence was killed watching a ‘Fillet Of Soul’ restaurant. All the pieces are slowly fitting into place. As it is an Bond film, of course it features a bevy of beauties to tease and torment our hero. I have already mentioned Miss Caruso, played by Madeline Smith. The Caruso character is almost a throwaway at the start. I guess she is there simply to say that we may have a ‘new’ Bond, but he is still a womaniser. The main female lead is Jane Seymour, who plays Solitaire. Solitaire is a voodoo priestess who can divine the future from a deck of tarot cards. The only problem for Solitaire is that for her ‘powers’ to work, she has to remain a virgin, and with Bond on the scene, well...she isn’t going to stay that way for long. I think that Seymour is one of the better Bond girls. Even though the way Bond and Solitaire fall in love is incredibly unbelievable, she ‘sells’ the character’s innocence. You can actually believe that she has fallen for Bond. It’s not surprising that she is one of the few Bond girls who’s career has actually grown from Bond, rather than gradually diminish. The next Bond girl is Rosie Carver, played by Playboy Bunny Gloria Hendry. Carver is a CIA agent who helps Bond once he arrives on the Island of San Monique. Hendry is quite okay in the lighter more humorous scenes with Moore, but in the dramatic scenes he lack of acting experience shows. There is an element of the fish out of water story in Live And Let Die. In most Bond films there is; as Bond is a rather stiff, refined English gentleman. The series has often delighted at dropping Bond into different cultures to explore the glaring differences. But in Live And Let Die, this idea is pushed to the limit. Bond is dropped into Harlem – seventies style. The clothes are candy coloured; the flares are wide; and the hats are extremely wide brimmed. This has gone past sixties counter culture. These clothes are not urban hippy wear. These clothes are ‘style’. And Bond is about style too. But while each partly is well dressed and immaculately groomed, sartorially they are a million miles away. One of the elements in Live And Let Die that always seemed slightly awkward to me is the ending, starting with the descent into Kananga’s underground lair. Syd Cain’s set is impressive, although not quite as imaginative as some of Ken Adams sets, but as far as underground lairs go, this is pretty good. But it is deserted. Kananga appears to have about four guys working for him. There is all this space, and a mini railway of sorts, but there’s no sense of power or control which comes from a mass of humanity being lead by one unmistakeable leader. There’s no army of minions or underlings for Bond to deal with on his way to the final confrontation with Kananga. Sure there’s Whisper, but he’s hardly threatening. Compared to the ending of previous Bond films, there’s a mood of casual insignificance, rather than imminent catastrophe. Similarly, another element that seems strangely missing is the ‘branding’ of Kananga. This is not intended as a comment on consumerism or global marketing (although I am sure that a few valid points could be made about that), but Kananga does not have a ‘logo’. An evil organsation must have a logo. It says that you are a structured entity with an identity. It is the device that links the lower echelon minions with Kanaga and Mr. Big. No racism intended, but in Live And Let Die, the colour of the villains skin is used to represent those who work on the side of evil. Bond does not battle an evil organisation; he battles an entire race. I believe that this failure to define the villain’s empire, and particularly the people who work for him, is sloppy. Labouring the point; do the dancers on San Monique work for Kanaga – or do they follow Baron Samedi as their Voodoo Priest? Do the stool pigeons who report on Bond’s movement through Harlem work for Mr. Big – or are they street punks who know they can earn a quick buck by dropping a dime. How powerful is Kananga? Of course, I can say this thirty-five years later as a distant observer. Maybe in 1973, having a black villain was a big statement. Large enough to unsettle the population, without kitting out an entire army of black soldiers in a distinctive and unified fashion. The idea of an organised, highly efficient black corporation may have been very shocking indeed to certain sections of the community. You just have to look at the impact that The Black Panthers had to see my point. Stretching it to Bondian proportions may have been a bit too unsettling for 1973. Live And Let Die is a flawed film. It will never be considered high art by any stretch of the imagination. But it is extremely entertaining and was a solid enough vehicle for Roger Moore as James Bond to keep the series moving. The film also features some great Bondian set pieces which I haven’t talked about here – just quickly, there is a very impressive boat chase, and a fun sequence at an alligator farm. While this film isn’t high amongst my favourite Bond films, it’s one that I always enjoy when I do take the time to watch it. Labels: Character: James Bond, Espionage, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 12:11 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Wednesday, April 30, 2008Crossplot (1969) Directed by Alvin RakoffRoger Moore, Claudie Lange, Martha Hyer, Alexis Kanner, Derek Francis, Dudley Sutton, Bernard Lee Music by Stanley Black Song, ‘I’ll Find My Love’, performed by John Rowles Song, ‘Westminster Bridge’, performed by Lois Lane Don’t be fooled by the poster on the left. Crossplot is not a Saint film despite the logo above Roger Moore’s name. This is simply to cash in on Moore’s popularity in that role, for a foreign market. But Crossplot was put together by the same team behind The Saint television series, and as such is often accused of being ‘too small screen’, rather than a BIG screen movie adventure. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. I see a sixties movie with a decidedly ‘mod’ feel – it has garish colours, an outrageous fashion sense, and a generous supply of girls in mini-skirts. Maybe the film does have a bit too much rear projection, but give me rear projection over crap CGI any day. The film is set in London, where all good sixties swinging takes place. It is early morning, and a couple are strolling across a deserted Westminster Bridge, with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in the background. A black car pulls up behind them. Two men get out. The car then drives forward, ahead of the couple. It stops and more men get out. The girl is oblivious to the danger, but the man begins to panic realising that he has been boxed in. At that moment a Mini Moke packed with party revellers drives by. The man stops the vehicle and pushes the girl on board. But before he can get on board, the car takes off. Running alongside, he quickly hands over his newspaper to the girl, and the car takes off. Stranded and alone now, the men on either side close in on him. The solitary man ends up being heaved over the side of the bridge where he lands on a barge, dead. Roger Moore , post The Saint/ pre-Bond, is Gary Fenn, an advertising executive. He arrives at work late, which seems to be a common occurrence due to late night clubbing and womanising. He sneaks into his office using a window washing trolley. The company is in a spin, because they have to make a pitch to a new client, and Fenn is the cornerstone in landing the account. In the boardroom as Fenn lays out his ideas, Frank Warren (Dudley Sutton), another company employee, sneaks in and changes the 8 x 10 photo of the model that has been selected for the campaign. Fenn makes his pitch and the client likes it. But Fenn has presented the wrong model to his client. Now he is stuck with her, and has the unenviable task of tracking this mystery woman down. The girl is Marla Kougash (Claudie Lange), a Hungarian model who has over stayed her visa, and is now in hiding. Through the photos style, lighting, shadows etc, Fenn tracks down the photographer, and then acquires an address for Marla. She lives on a houseboat. Fenn finds the boat, and finds Marla but doesn’t receive much of a reception. She pushes him into the muddy river. Finally he convinces her that he is not from the immigration department and that he wants to offer her a job as a model. And he can fix up her visa problems too. She agrees to the deal. Fenn leaves the houseboat only to be blackjacked by some friends of Marla’s. When Fenn wakes up, he is behind the wheel of his sports car. Embarrassingly though, the car happens to have been driven through the front window and display of a prominent department store. Added to this a joint sits smouldering in the cars ashtray. As the police arrive, Fenn’s story is not too convincing, and he is arrested. Once released on bail, Fenn finally gets marla into the photo studio, and in front of a camera. Warren, the guy who substituted the photo in the first instance, works as a scenic artist and props guy. During a break in the photo session, Warren takes Marla up to the roof for a coffee. It’s here that he tries to push her over the edge. He is thwarted at the last second by Fenn. Warren runs. Fenn chases. On the street now, the foot chase continues. A car moves alongside them, and the black leather gloved passenger produces a pistol. But rather than shoot Fenn, he shoots Warren in the back, and then tosses the gun out of the car window to Fenn, who foolishly catches it. Now his finger prints are on the weapon. The car speeds off and Fenn is left holding the evidence for all the world to see. The setup is pure Hitchcock, and the scene reminds me of the bit in North By Northwest in the United Nation building, where Cary Grant is found holding a knife over a dead body. Crossplot shares a few other similarities with the Hitchcock classic, but I won't spoil it for you. I found Crossplot to be very enjoyable. As I mentioned earlier the film utilises a large amount of rear projection and features a lot of studio bound shots. The film probably was done a bit on the cheap side, and looks artificial, but on a television screen I don’t think it’s too distracting. Crossplot does seem to be neglected compared to some of Moore’s other work, but if you are a Moore fan, the film is well worth seeking out. I found it on late night television and expected very little, but got quite a thrilling, fast paced 96 minutes of entertainment. Recommended. Labels: Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 11:33 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Friday, April 18, 2008Vendetta For The Saint (1969) Directed by Jim O'ConnollyRoger Moore, Ian Hendry, Rosemary Dexter, Finlay Currie, Fulton Mackay, Aimi MacDonald Music by Edwin Astley As we make our way through various incarnations of The Saint, we come to possibly the most successful of all actors who have portrayed the character of Simon Templar: Roger Moore. Moore played the title role in The Saint television series from 1962 till 1969. The show's production company, ITC had a habit of taking a two part episode from one of their successful television series and releasing them in foreign markets as theatrical features. The Saint was no exception. This movie starts off in the usual Saintly fashion, with postcard shots of Naples. Then we cut to a swanky restaurant. As Simon Templar - AKA The Saint (Roger Moore) is walking in, a gangster, Alexander Destamio (Ian Hendry) and three goons are about to leave. As the mobsters walk towards the exit, Jim Euston (Fulton Mackay), who is sitting at the bar recognises Destamio. Euston calls out to the Distamio, who he believes is an old friend. He addresses him as 'Dino Cartelli'. Destamio tells the Euston that he must be mistaken. Euston insists that he is an old friend, but the goons intervene. As they are about to get rough, the Saint steps in (Hey, a great title for a book!) Distamio and his men leave the restaurant. Soon after, Euston decides to leave the restaurant. But outside in an alley, Distamio has left behind a couple of his men to take care of the meddlesome gentleman. The next day, Templar reads about Euston's death in the local paper. Naturally enough, he thinks that it seems very suspicious. Templar then makes a few subtle enquiries to find out who the mobster is, but doesn't get too far, because the mafia 'code of silence' holds strong. Eventually Templar finds out that the gangster is Alexander Destamio. And equally Destamio has done his research and knows who The Saint is as well. When Templar returns to his hotel room, he finds that it has been trashed. Soon after, Templar recieves an invitation to meet with Destamio and is whisked away by helicopter to the island of Capri. At the airport, he is met by Lilly (Aimi MacDonald). She drives a red sports car, and sports a pink bikini. Templar is taken to Destamio who tries to bribe The Saint. The bribe doesn't work and templar sets about baiting Destamio. He deliberately calls him 'Dino' and threatens to pull down his whole world. Naturally mafia heads, don't take kindly to be threatened in their own home. When a television series is turned into a movie, I expect a little more than an expanded television episode. Even though Vendetta For The Saint was originally a two part entry in the series, I still expect it to be the best two episodes. The Fiction Makers the other two parter that was released as a movie, was fairly pedestrian. There wasn’t anything in it that I couldn’t see regularly in the television show. But Vendetta For The Saint rectifies this. It is tougher than a regular episode, and having The Saint go up against the mafia makes this story more perilous and involving. Also utilising some actual ‘on location’ photography (Malta standing in for Italy), rather than using rear projection, adds greatly to the richness of this production. Obviously everyone has their own personal favourites, but for me (and my ‘Saint’ viewing is far from complete), this is the best Saint film I have seen – Highly recommended.  Labels: Character: The Saint, Stars: Roger Moore posted by David at 9:34 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post |
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