The James Bond Film Festival. Part 8: Live and Let Die

Cafe Society
1

The James Bond Film Festival. Part 1: Dr. No
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 2: From Russia with Love
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 3: Goldfinger
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 4: Thunderball
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 5: You Only Live Twice
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 6: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 7: Diamonds are Forever

James Bond is out to save the world from International Communism! He’s battling SPECTRE! Oh, wait a minute… Neither of those are in Live and Let Die. No grand plan of world domination or international blackmail here; just a guy who wants to get rich by cornering the market on heroin. Why is Her Majesty’s Secret Service involved at all? Well, they have to find out what happened to three of its agents. But again, why were they there in the first place?

Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) is the ruler of the Caribbean island of San Monique. He also has huge fields of poppies. The idea is that he will give away heroin to junkies in the U.S. Certain “families” (as in the Mob) will go out of the drug business. Kananga will then charge hefty prices for his wares and become unbelievably wealthy. He is aided by a tarot card reader named Solitaire (Jane Seymour). And that’s about it. Spy thriller? More like an action-packed crime drama.

Let me get the nitpicks out of the way. First, Bond’s famous Rolex Submariner is back. This time it’s magnetic. Supposedly it will deflect bullets if they are fired at long range. (Nice trick on lead.) And its magnetic attraction only affects the things that Bond wants – nothing else. During a the first chase scene, Bond’s driver is killed as they drive along in New York. The driver’s foot slips off of the brake and mashes down on the accellerator, sending the car out of control. Um… if his foot was on the brake, how were they motoring along? In another scene Quarrel Jr. (Roy Stewart) mentions that Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) might have killed him if she had turned off the safety on her gun. I guess nobody mentioned that revolvers usually don’t have safteys. And Tee Hee (Julius Harris) gave a very unconvincing performance with his prosthetic arm. It looked like he just had his hand up his sleeve and was holding the “hook” with it. (Which, of course, he was.) Too many bends in that arm! But back to the Rolex. Kananga “tests” Solitaire by reading the serial number off of the back of Bond’s watch, and then asking her if he was reading the correct number. Rolexes don’t have serial numbers on the back! They’re under the bracelet. (Of course, he could have seen the blank backplate and lied about the number; but that sounds like rationalizing to me. I think there would have been a line like, “Solitaire, there is no number on the back.” So I think it’s a goof.) I’m sure there are other things to nitpick, but these stood out.

One thing that is missing from Live and Let Die is a really cool set. I thought the volcano set in You Only Live Twice was silly, but damn it was impressive anyway! And that understated interrogation room in Dr. No was a masterpiece of minimalism. The sets in Live and Let Die look like they were borrowed from a movie of the week.

Bond is different too. Sean Connery’s suave, sophistocated agent is replaced by a more relaxed Roger Moore. No tuxedo, no “vodka martini; shaken, not stirred”, and Bond actually appears in public wearing a “wife beater” (“A”-shirt) under a denim jacket! Shocking. Moore isn’t as goofy as he will become in later films, but he’s no Sean Connery!

The villains are blaxploitation caracatures. Indeed, the only good guy who was black was agent Harold Strutter (Lon Satton). Felix Leiter (David Hedison) actually refers to a tricked-out Cadillac as a “pimpmobile”. And the stereotypes didn’t stop there. Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) was the epitome of the tobacco-spitting, slack-jawed, ignorant, racist Southern sheriff. It was painful to watch him. The line he gave of “black Russians” racing down the river made me think of a bunch of little alcohol-filled glasses floating along.

Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder – who would later go on to star in 7-Up adverts “Kola nut… Un-cola nut!”) was an interesting character, but they didn’t really do much with him. They inserted a shot of him delivering his trademark laugh at one point, and I just thought it was out of place.

As an early-1970s film, Live and Let Die isn’t that bad. As a Bond film though, it’s lacking. Sure there was a really cool boat chase. David Hedison made a good Felix Leiter, and Jane Seymoure was very good as Solitaire. New Orleans is always good to see on-screen, and voodoo rituals are fun too. The “New Orleans Funeral” scene at the beginning, which was repeated later for the benefit of poor Harold Strutter, was well done and nice to watch. But in the end, the film was just a little too “funky” for my tastes. It was more of an action comedy than a real spy film.

2

The blaxploitation seems out of place now, but probably wasn’t unusual for 1973. Same with that waka-chika chase music they were using.

And how could you forget Paul McCartney’s theme song? That’s the best part of the movie! Well, second maybe to Jane Seymour, who’s absolutely stunning once they get her out of those garish fortune teller costumes. Unfortunately, she doesn’t fare well at Kananga’s hands. When talking about the serial number on the watch, he tells her, “you had a 50-50 chance. You weren’t even close!” Wow, just how wrong was she?

Good line, from Sheriff Pepper about Bond: “Secret Agent? On whose side?!”

Finally, actor trivia: David Hedison would reprise the Felix Leiter role in 1989’s Licence to Kill. (Was he the only actor to play the role twice?) In that movie, he gets attacked by sharks, probably referencing the events in the book version of LALD. Hardly anything happens to him in this movie.

3

Some of the criticism is justified. But it does have a great theme song and I liked Yaphet Kotto as the villian. Watch him in the criminal-mastermind-explaining-his-plan-to-the-good-guy scene. He makes that scene work. He’s excited, like he loves his own plan so much, and it’s so clever, that he just can’t wait to tell someone about it.

4

Despite its problems, I still got to say I really liked this Bond movie. Many people I know disagree with me, but I like how once and awhile Bond does something which doesn’t involve blowing up the world or something (I also like For Your Eyes Only, and License to Kill for that reason as well as others).

5

Live and Let Die is my favorite James Bond movie, but I htink that has more to do with it being the first one I watched. Jane Seymour is my least favorite Bond Girl. Paul McCartney’s theme song was another good thing.

In my opinion, Roger Moore is the best James Bond. I don’t know why, he just is. Sean Connery is my least favorite James Bond, he is just annoying.

6

I was twelve when it came out. Here in Sweden it was rated ‘R’, for violence. That means 15 years to enter the cinema. But I snuck in and it was the first grown up movie I ever saw. It gets a special place in my heart because of this, but it really is a crappy Bond outing. I never really liked Moore as Bond and this movie marked the beginning of a downward spiral that would nearly kill the franchise (Let’s talk about that when we get to ‘A view to a kill’).
But yes, the theme song is great, there are some nifty gadgets and I guess the story about drugs was very topical when it camer out. It’s not as bad as other Bond movies starring Roger Moore, but it isn’t his best (Which I think is ‘For your eyes only’).

7

During a Bond exibition at the Museum of Science in London, they determined Bond’s greatest gadget was the watch from this film. I must agree. For a while, I figured it was Little Nellie, but once I saw this in action, I saw it is a lot more helpful than an autogyro. It’s magnetic, and can cut through things! Who wouldn’t want that!

8

You have to love “Mr. Big’s” response to the familar: My name is Bond, James Bond…Names is for tombstones, baby. …

9

I remember tolerating the general silliness of the plot when I first saw the film, but on re-view have gotta say this is among my least favorite of the series. After Sir Paul’s great theme song (guess that “like listening to the beatles without earmuffs” line from an earlier film was forgiven, eh?), it goes downhill fast. The idea of James Bond wandering into a Blaxploitation flick like ‘The Mack’ may have had potential, but it was mostly squandered in a dreadful screenplay, and IMO the series’ most singularly annoying character, ‘Sheriff J. W. Pepper’, was a pure ripoff of Jackie Gleason’s equally annoying character in the Smokey and the Bandit flicks.

Good stuff: two great chases (the double-decker bus on San Monique and the bayou boat chase); Jane Seymour, who almost but not quite overcomes her poorly-scripted character; Tee-Hee, despite, as mentioned previously, the fact that his fake arm looks really fake indeed. As for Moore, I will not take the revisionist line in this case; I think he actually does reasonably well in this and the next two or three of the series, at least until he became clearly too old for the part.

Bad stuff: almost too much to name; from the ridiculous makeup worn by “Mr. Big” to the wildly over-the-top mugging of Clifton James’ ‘Sheriff Pepper’, the utterly ludicrous means by which Bond escapes from the alligator farm (and crocs? In Louisiana?), and the general geek-show atmosphere surrounding the voodoo elements of the plot.

Ah well, may not have been very good, but at least it wasn’t as much of a snoozefest as Man with the Golden Gun.

10

Actually, Live and Let Die was released in 1973. Smokey and the Bandit was released in 1977.

I picked up on the “crocs in Louisiana” thing too. They even pointed out a difference between crocks and aligators. (I don’t know how accurate that was.) Yeah, Bon’d escape was ludicrous; but I think it worked. I liked that the “crocs” (“crocks”? :wink: ) snapped as he ran across.

Whis is the next film! I’ll post Part 9 next week, unless I watch it sooner. Oh, goody. We get to see Sheriff Pepper again! :smiley:

11

The sheriff character sure does seem like a ripoff of Smokey and the Bandit, doesn’t it?
…the only catch being that Live and Let Die came out in '73, and Smokey and the Bandit came out in '77. :wink:

12

Live and Let Die is probably my least favorite Bond movie with the exception of Moonraker. How do I coulnt the ways?..

I hated the way Bond got Solitaire into bed, mucking with her cards like that. I expect Bond to seduce women, but this seemed closer to rape, from my POV, and I was disgusted.

Unlike most of you, I greatly dislike the theme song. Maybe Paul McCartney is a musical genius, but I don’t see it in that. And the lyrics were practically nonsense.

The mix of drugs, voodoo, and Harlem was so inconguous, it felt as if the screenwriters just sat down and played word free-association with “black”. In addition (and I suppose this is merely quibbling) “Kananga” sounds more like an African name than like a Carribean one…another “word association” miscue. Bond in Harlem didn’t look cool to me, he looked like an idiot.

And on top of that, it’s disappointing to see the New York location used to such ill effect. Bond goes to Switzerland…we see the Alps. Bond goes to Las Vegas…we see the Strip. Bond goes to New York, we see…Harlem? The UN? Traffic on the FDR drive?

A henchman named “Tee Hee”? Sheesh, “Nick Nack” and “May Day” in subsequent films are pretty bad too, but IMHO, this one takes the booby prize.

Other than Kananga’s rather unique demise, I can’t think of anything good that Live and Let Die adds to the Bond canon. It’s notable for being Roger Moore’s first and for Jane Seymour, who’s had the the best career of any former Bond girl, but that’s about it.

Can’t wait for the next thread, though…

13

I couldn’t wait either. :o

14

To quote Roger Ebert (out of context) “I hated, hated, hated this movie!”

It was only the second Bond film I saw when t was newly minted, but it was a sore diappointment. Moore was no Conery, and his Bond was no substitute. The villains were downright unbelievable, the “disguise” wasn’t convincing, and the “blaxploitation” angle was as embarassing, I think, when it came out as it is now. I couldn’t believe they were getting away with a movie in which lmost all of the Bad Guys were black and almost all of the Good Guys were white.

I’m a credit reader, and when I saw the “shark scees by…” credit at the beginning, I was figuring on some climactic shark scene, maybe like the one from Thunderball. What did we get? scenes of sharks that could’ve been shot through the glass at the local aquarium! What a letdown! Add to that Yaphet Kotto’s unbelievable end as a Big Black Balloon.
And “In this Ever-Changin’ World in Which We’re Livin’ ?” Must be McCartney’s revenge for the aforementioned line from Goldfinger about drinking Dom Perignon at room temperature being “like listening to the Beates without earmuffs.”

The One Good Thing (every Bond Movie, no matter how awful, has at least One Good Thing): The chase scene in the doubledecker bus.

15

Yeah, that was pretty bad. But at least it was funny.

16

Whoops, faulty memory there. Shoulda checked facts at the IMDB first. J. W. Pepper does predate the Smokey and the Bandit films. Coulda sworn they were contemporaneous. My bad.

BTW, great series of threads, Johnny L. A.

17

IIRC, The name “Tee Hee” came straight from the book version of the movie, because of his giggly laugh. That character died a lot sooner in the book than he did in the movie.

I thought it was

but I’m too lazy to Google it. :wink:

18

Two sites I googled say the same thing. I’m surprised – two books on Bad Songs – Dave Barry’s and Guterman and O’Donnell’s – seem to have heard the same lyrics I thought I heard (as did Dave Barry respondents).

19

Roger Moore and Tom Mankiewicz team up for the first time and ruin another Bond movie. Kotto is surprisingly bland as the villian(s) and the boat chase in the bayous goes on far too long. The second worst in the series.

20

“Before you go, do we have time for lesson number three?”

“Absolutely. There’s no sense going off half-cocked.”

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but there’s a great dig at Ford in this movie. Chevy had outbid them for the use of the cars, and when Bond’s driver gets shot, he’s trying to drive the out-of-control Impala along the freeway, (which is littered with nothing but Impalas, quite humorous), and then he crashes into the only Ford in the movie, an old Econoline van.

Everything else has already been said, but I must add that Jane Seymour is number two on my list of all-time Bond babes, second only to Tatiana in From Russia With Love.