The Spy Who Loved Me

[Adam H. Kerman]

I've got the Bond DVD box set, and I was in the mood for The Spy Who
Loved Me. This was the movie that got theater goers back seats after
some disappointment of Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun.
The latter in particular should have been better. Who makes a better
villain than Christoper Lee? Also, Bond should have murdered Tatoo at
the end.

Harry Saltzman is no longer producing. He's in financial difficulty and
apparently pissed at Albert Broccoli, for he sells his half of the
partnership to United Artists. How can that possibly go wrong?

This one is just fun when you're in the right mood. Moore finally gets
to play Bond as the character Moore was hired to play. He's the smooth
English gentleman with the sense of humour. The only time we see him as
a thug is the fight with Sandor, in which he gets information out of him
while Sandor holds his tie but won't prevent him from falling off the
building to his death.

This movie introduces a number of continuing actors and characters for
the next 10 years. Richard Kiel (Jaws) would return in Moonraker. Robert
Brown, playing a top naval officer, would take over the M character
following the death of Bernard Lee in four movies. Walter Gotell first
appears as General Gogol, and in the next half dozen films. Previously,
he'd been an instructor on SPECTRE Island in From Russia With Love.

It's one of the few movies in which Desmond Llewelyn is addressed as
Major Boothroyd rather than as just Q.

We see another of M's field headquarters, which I always got a kick out
of as the set's interior carries on the theme of the building's
exterior.

They get away with a lot of over-the-top silliness in this movie, but
the gags usually work, like the turn signal on the amphibious Lotus
while it's underwater.

The double entendres are still funny, including "Well, tell him to pull
out. Immediately," and "Keeping the British end up, sir."

The opening ski jump is still breathtaking, one of the best stunts ever
done in a movie.

I like Curt Jurgens a lot as Stromberg, a rather menacing Bond villain.

You know, I do like Barbara Bach's performance and, for once, just
didn't let the dubbing bother me. It's unfortunately we didn't get her
speaking voice. I did buy that she and Moore had chemistry.

Alas, Bond doesn't bed Caroline Munro, but they will have a blast in the
end.

The Egyptian stuff works well, although Bond's friend in the elaborate
dessert tent who hears everything talks about oil wealth, which Egypt
lacks. Whoops.

The entire scene at the Pyramids (we never see the Sphinx) is terrific.

Ah, the script had problems. Broccoli wanted another Blofeld/SPECTRE
movie, but Kevin McClory sued to prevent that. Meanwhile, Broccoli had
to sue McClory to prevent him from producing his own Bond film starring
Sean Connery with an original script by Len Deighton.

Has anyone ever read that script?

After going through a number of writers, Christopher Wood is brought in
and we get huge elements from prior movies, especially You Only Live
Twice (also the basis for Moonraker and sort of GoldenEye). But Jaws is
merely a more indestructible Oddjob/Red Grant. We even get a reprise of
the passenger train fight. We also get the helicopter sequence reprised,
both from From Russia with Love, which Hitchcock said was copied of the
cropduster sequence in North by Northwest.

There's just no Ian Fleming in the script. Fleming never sold adaptation
rights to the novel but its title was used. It's a rape/revenge story
with Bond showing up late in the novel. Fleming ended up disliking the
novel.

Capture of the several submarines is repeated from You Only Live Twice's
capture of the space capsules, as is the attempt to start WWIII.

I just realized: Unlike in You Only Live Twice, we see the British and
American submarine crews, but we never see the Soviet submarine crew!
Did Stromberg simply poison them as he threatened to do to the British
and American crews?

Marvin Hamlisch got nominated for the score, but the guitar WHA WHA WHA
re-orchestration of The James Bond Theme is just a failure. What was he
thinking? Other parts of the score are fine, as are a couple of the
musical gags. I like the title song "Nobody Does It Better" and Carly
Simon singing it.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com> wrote:

>. . .

It was the middle of the night. I made some mistakes.

>The entire scene at the Pyramids (we never see the Sphinx) is terrific.

The Sphinx is seen in the establishment shot.

>Ah, the script had problems. Broccoli wanted another Blofeld/SPECTRE
>movie, but Kevin McClory sued to prevent that. Meanwhile, Broccoli had
>to sue McClory to prevent him from producing his own Bond film starring
>Sean Connery with an original script by Len Deighton.

>Has anyone ever read that script?

>After going through a number of writers, Christopher Wood is brought in
>and we get huge elements from prior movies, especially You Only Live

>Twice (also the basis for Moonraker and sort of GoldenEye). . . .

I managed to conflate screenwriter Wood with director Lewis Gilbert.
Wood had nothing to do with YOLT. When Broccoli decided to remake YOLT,
he brought back its director Gilbert.