One sequence does manage to deliver some impact Bond is sitting in a New Orleans nightclub when his table drops through the floor and into the room below (this scene is similar to the one in the novel at Table Z). Tee-Hee, who in the film has a mechanical pincer in place of one arm, is ordered to snap off Bond's little finger if Solitaire cannot correctly name the serial number on the back of Bond's watch. (Kananga suspects that Solitaire has lost her telepathic powers as a result of losing her virginity to Bond.) There is a tense moment as Solitaire makes a wild guess, and Bond is released. He is taken away, and it is then revealed that Solitaire was wrong about the number. As Kananga chastises her, Baron Samedi sits in the corner of the room, laughing and overturning tarot cards. Hamilton has provided this scene with a bit of tension.
The most annoying aspect of the film is its leaning toward juvenile humor. The introduction of Sheriff J. W. Pepper is the first in what would grow to be a very damaging element of the series. Basically a variation on the redneck Las Vegas sheriff in Diamonds Are Forever, Louisiana Sheriff Pepper joins the speedboat chase in order to catch Bond; he is unaware that Bond is a British secret agent. Though the boat stunts are spectacular, this section of the film regresses to Three Stooges–style violence and absurdity. What could have been a truly exciting boat chase is undercut by this so-called humor.
Finally, the film stays on one level throughout. The climax is flat and predictable, and the death of Kananga is particularly silly. Bond shoves a gas pellet from a shark gun into Kananga's mouth. Kananga inflates like a balloon, floats to the ceiling, and bursts. Bond purists the world over surely hid their heads in embarrassment during this sequence.
ACTORS AND CHARACTERS
Roger Moore has always approached the role of James Bond with a light and humorous attitude, emphasizing the sophistication and intelligence of the character, relying on his smooth voice, agile charm, and good looks to carry him through. The actor's James Bond Diary, written during the filming of Live and Let Die, reveals how Moore perceives his role. He constantly refers to the character as "Jimmy" Bond, and enjoys telling the story of how he attempted looking mean for several days.
In a press conference held when For Your Eyes Only was released, Moore admitted what little preparation he does for the character:
Q: How much Fleming do you need to read to keep in touch with the character?
Moore: It's very difficult to get in touch with the character by reading Fleming, because there's very little about Bond—about the person that he is, only what he's doing.
Q. But, even when you started back in '73 . . .
Moore: Ah, yes, I sort of did a quick sifting through all the books to try and find out what he was like. I only found one thing and that was that he had a scar on his cheek and looked like Hoagy Carmichael. And the only other key to the character was that he had come back from Mexico where he had eliminated somebody. He didn't particularly like killing, but he took pride in doing his job well. That was the only thing I could find out about Bond.
Q: So you based your characterization on those two facts.
Moore: Yes. I don't like killing, but I'm pleased that I do it well.
(From "The For Your Eyes Only Press Conference,"
by Richard Schenkman; Bondage, Number 11)
Apparently, the producers' direction and Roger Moore's approach toward his role blended smoothly to create what could be called the "James Bond Comedies."
Actually, Roger Moore's performance in Live and Let Die is in an experimental stage. There are moments when Moore attempts a bit of cynicism. He's very convincing in the scene with Rosie Carver in the jungle of San Monique. Stopping for a picnic, they spread a blanket, rest from their search for Kananga's hideout, and make love. Afterwards, Bond pries her for information. (He had received a warning that Rosie is a traitor.) Rosie, shocked when Bond threatens her, asks, "You mean you'd kill me after . . .?" To which Bond (with Moore being as nasty as possible) replies, "You don't think I'd kill you before, do you?"
In the final analysis, Roger Moore's main problem with playing Bond is a lack of dynamics. A tough side essential to the character is missing.
Yaphet Kotto portrays Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big. Why Mankiewicz chose to confuse the issue by having the villain masquerade as another one is unclear. Kotto's makeup is unconvincing and looks rather silly, but he is a fine actor. He approaches the role seriously and exudes power in his speeches. It's too bad the material he has to work with creates a totally unbelievable character.
Jane Seymour, as Solitaire, is lovely to look at and is an extremely talented actress who has gone on to an illustrious career since her debut in Live and Let Die. But her character, too, suffers from a poor script. In the novel, Solitaire is mysterious, frightened and vulnerable, but also proud. There is an attempt on Miss Seymour's part to communicate these traits, but the script provides her nothing with which to work. As a result, Solitaire comes off as an unintelligent little girl.
Felix Leiter is given a fair characterization, for once, by David Hedison, an American actor familiar to television audiences via Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He's miscast, and the character is totally wrong, but he's the best Leiter next to Rik Van Nutter. If more humor had been injected into his character rather than Bond's, we might have had something. Another disappointment.
Gloria Hendry gives an impressive performance as Rosie Carver, a double agent working for the CIA. The sections involving her character do not advance the plot much; they simply provide another Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb. She has been ordered by Kananga to kill Bond; she falls for him instead, and fails her task. She is then shot by a voodoo scarecrow in the jungle while fleeing from the angry Bond. Her character is unbelievable—why would the CIA send Bond a girl who seems so obviously inexperienced?
Since the Quarrel character was killed by the dragon in Dr. No, the filmmakers created an improbably adult Quarrel Jr. for Live and Let Die. Played by Roy Stewart, Quarrel Jr. has little dialogue, and is included only for plot mechanics. He pitches in by setting the explosives at Kananga's poppy field.
Kananga's gang of black crooks include Baron Samedi, a weirdo who uses costume and makeup to become the evil Prince of Darkness. Played by Geoffrey Holder (who also choreographed the dance sequences), Samedi is one of the most successful characters in the film. Holder gives an electric performance, and practically steals the show. Mostly, Samedi is seen in various locations, hovering over the action. Holder's volcanic laugh is terrific, and his extremely tall frame is godlike.
Julius Harris as Tee-Hee makes a good super-henchman. Of course, Tee-Flee is a reincarnation of Oddjob, but with a strong mechanical pincer for an arm. Harris manages to play the character with enough variation to maintain interest. His grin is contagious, and it's particularly effective in the alligator farm sequence. Earl Jolly Brown plays a grossly fat henchman who constantly whispers. This character is too humorous to be menacing. His name is, appropriately, Whisper.
Then there is J. W. Pepper, played by an extremely funny actor, Clifton James. The trouble is that this type of character has no business being in a James Bond film. Sheriff Pepper is simply a caricature of a Southern lawman—a redneck, short on brains. The character produces laughs, but he seems an arbitrary and pointless addition to the cast. The character returns for an even less successful encore in the next film, The Man with the Golden Gun. The idea of laughs at the expense of a dumb lawman is trite.
Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell perform with their usual alacrity. (Q is missing from this film.) Lee is given a particularly good line. Bond is explaining that his new wristwatch contains a magnet powerful enough to deflect a bullet M says, "I'm tempted to test that theory right now."
OTHER ASPECTS
Syd Cain is production designer for his third Bond film. There aren't many interiors in the picture. It is primarily an outdoor film, like Dr. No. Kananga's laboratory at the end of the movie is Ken Adam influenced, and Bond's flat has a certain excessiveness akin to Adam's work. But
the outdoor locations are marvelous and extremely colorful. That's one thing about the Bond films that will always be attractive—well-photographed views of a foreign land. In this case, the film captures the flavor of the South and Ted Moore's usual fine work shines in the bayou sequences.
Editors Bert Bates, Raymond Poulton, and John Shirley put together a tight film and their work on the boat chase sequences is amazing. Costumes, by Julie Harris, are exceptionally colorful, and help create the thematic unity of tarot cards and mysticism. Solitaire's clothes have the ceremonial quality of a high priestess' garments.
Derek Meddings joins Eon Productions as special effects man with Live and Let Die. Meddings is a fine craftsman, and his work in the series is superb. His contribution to Live and Let Die is minimal, however. He built ramps and whatnot for the boat stunts, and created a miniature (his specialty) of the poppy field to blow up. His best work for the Bonds will be seen later.
The stuntwork in the film is one of the few highlights. Coordinated by Bob Simmons, Eddie Smith, Bill Bennot, Ross Kananga, Joey Chitwood, Jerry Comeaux, and Maurice Patchett, the stunts are originals performed by their creators. The most outrageous stunt and a classic in the series occurs when Bond steps over the backs of alligators to escape from a small island surrounded by the reptiles. There's a fascinating story behind this scene. Originally, Mankiewicz had Bond being taken by Tee-Hee to a coffee granulator. While Mankiewicz and Hamilton were scouting locations, they came upon the actual sign which appears in the film reading TRESPASSERS WILL BE EATEN. It was an alligator farm, owned by a man named (believe it or not) Ross Kananga. Kananga was enthusiastic about the prospect of a Bond film being shot on his farm and gladly participated in the stuntwork. In fact, it was Kananga who suggested that Bond use the alligators' backs as stepping stones to escape from the island. The filmmakers were dubious about getting someone to do the stunt. Kananga said he would, if the animals' legs were tied down first. That's what they did, and it's a wonderful moment.
Maurice Patchett, a London bus driver, performed the double-decker bus stunt, in which the entire upper deck is knocked off by a low bridge. Actually, the upper deck was previously sawn off and placed on rollers, but still. . . . The action on the airfield smashing up airplanes is amusing but becomes tiresome after a while. There is also one of those out-of-place characters present: a middle-aged woman waiting for her flying lesson who is unwittingly kidnapped by a fleeing Bond.
The film's main highlight is the boat chase, orchestrated by Jerry Comeaux and Joey Chitwood. Boats fly onto land, over roads, into cars, through weddings, and almost anywhere but the water. The sequence is fun but is rife with misplaced humor. Still, the boats themselves, and their captains, are first rate.
Bond's gadget in this film is a fancy wristwatch that contains a powerful magnet strong enough to grab something from across the room. Pretty outlandish. It also has a feature we aren't told about, which, as John Brosnan accuses, "breaks the Bondian rules." It isn't fair that the watch becomes a buzz saw at the end of the film when Bond is tied with Solitaire in a hoist above the shark pool. We didn't know it could do that.
John Barry is absent this time, and the Beatles' producer, George Martin, is in charge of the score for Live and Let Die. But his work is entirely overshadowed by Paul and Linda McCartney's main title song. Performed by Wings, "Live and Let Die" is a bizarre song, especially for a Bond film. But it works beautifully, and remains one of the best main titles of the series. (It was nominated for an Academy Award.) It's energetic, loud, and powerful. Martin's score is admirable, with a couple of catchy tunes such as "San Monique." His version of "The James Bond Theme" is overproduced, but on the whole, the score moves with the film.
Live and Let Die, successful as it was financially, is a mediocre film. There is no real excitement because it's very predictable. It marks a period of unrest at Eon Productions. The James Bond films were in a state of confusion, and it would take three more attempts before Eon Productions would decide to return to the original style of the sixties' pictures.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)
PRODUCTION
The ninth James Bond film marks the end of Harry Saltzman's association with Eon Productions. Relations between Saltzman and Broccoli had become strained, and the producers took turns producing Live and Let Die and the new film, The Man With the Golden Gun.
It was Saltzman who had always wanted to go on location in Hong Kong and Thailand, and these locations are the highlights of Golden Gun. Otherwise, the ninth James Bond entry is weak, even lower in quality than Live and Let Die. The main problem is that the film stays on one dynamic level throughout and is played entirely too lightly. Guy Hamilton must take the blame for the failure of Golden Gun, although its script, by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz, is none too thrilling. The set-piece formula is again apparent, creating the effect that the plot was built around the film's locations. There are a few good moments in the picture, but as a whole, it lacks unity.
Golden Gun was shot in Hong Kong; in and around Bangkok, Thailand; and near the resort island of Phuket Production designer Peter Murton found an unusual set of islands near Phuket, and one of these, Kao Ping-Kan, was used as the headquarters of Francisco Scaramanga. The site is otherworldly and exotic.
SCREENPLAY
Tom Mankiewicz wrote the initial draft of The Man With the Golden Gun before resigning from the project due to reported disagreements with Guy Hamilton. As usual, the Fleming original was completely thrown out Granted, Fleming's novel is probably his weakest, but it contains enough good elements to serve as a departure point for a screenplay. Instead, Mankiewicz created a new story involving not a second-rate Cuban assassin like Fleming's Scaramanga, but a super-villain of the stature of Bond himself. Scaramanga is equipped with his own island headquarters which resembles Crab Key in Dr. No. Mankiewicz's original idea for the story was to involve a duel between the two best shots in the world—Bond and Scaramanga. Supposedly, Mankiewicz wanted the film to be more serious, opposing Hamilton's wishes.
Richard Maibaum was hired to rewrite the script. Maibaum added a "MacGuffin" (Hitchcock's term for an item that is basically meaningless but serves as the villains' objective in order to motivate the action, such as the Lektor coding machine in From Russia With Love). Maibaum's MacGuffin is a solex agitator, a device which will convert radiation from the sun into pure energy. In the film, Scaramanga and the British Secret Service are both searching for the agitator, which is in the possession of a traitorous British agent in Hong Kong. Scaramanga is employed by the Red Chinese through a rich merchant named Hai Fat, who resides in Bangkok. A subplot is inaugurated when Scaramanga sends a golden bullet (his trademark) to Universal Export with the number 007 engraved on it M presumes this means that someone has paid Scaramanga his one million dollar fee to assassinate Bond. Therefore, Bond must somehow find Scaramanga before the killer finds Bond.
Roger Moore with co-star Britt Ekiand (as Mary Goodnight) in The Man With the Golden Gun. (UPI Photo)
On paper, the script probably looked pretty good, but on the screen the story is flat. There are too many sections that lack credibility, and Hamilton's direction evokes no excitement. Juvenile humor, such as a scene involving J. W. Pepper (the Louisiana Sheriff from Live and Let Die), adds nothing to the plot.
There is one scene in which the James Bond character is presented in a harsher light. When Bond visits Scaramanga's girlfriend, Andrea Anders, in her hotel room, he treats her roughly. He attempts to find out where Scaramanga is, and slaps Andrea in the process. This is the third time Bond has slapped a woman onscreen. I don't endorse the mistreatment of women, but this is the best scene in the film. There is authentic dramatic conflict here.
The script also makes use of Scaramanga's congenital oddity, a third nipple. Fleming mentions the birthmark in the novel, but nothing is ever made of it. In the film, Bond impersonates Scaramanga at one point, and thanks to Q Branch, a third nipple is added to Bond's chest This is a clever i
dea that might have been used even more effectively.
The duel at the end of the film is quite unsatisfying. Apparently, some footage was cut between the beach duel and the cat and mouse game in Scaramanga's "fun house." The fun house is Scaramanga's playpen for stalking practice victims. There is no build-up to Scaramanga's death scene, and it basically repeats the limp pre-credits scene, in which Scaramanga stalks a gangster through the fun house as a form of target practice. Once again, James Bond does not appear in the pre-credits sequence except in the form of a wax dummy that Scaramanga has placed in his fun house.
The concept of the fun house doesn't work at all; it seems childish for a man of Scaramanga's stature to be playing around with such carnival trappings.
DIRECTION
Guy Hamilton, in his fourth Bond effort, creates a film that could be subtitled "James Bond Visits the Jungle Ride at Disneyland." Like its predecessor, The Man With the Golden Gun is played much too lightly. It's all fun and games, and most of it isn't particularly fun. The film is a predictable amusement park ride.
There is no threat in the film. Christopher Lee, who portrays Scaramanga, has said that Guy Hamilton kept telling him to play the character lightly. During the final scenes on Scaramanga's island, Hamilton ordered Moore and Lee to "enjoy it more—to have fun." As John Brosnan notes, the actors had too much fun, and as a result, there is no tension in the encounter. The characters are simply too polite to each other.
Hamilton's storytelling is often obscure as well. The plot is confusing, and there are several times when things aren't clear. For example, the details concerning the solex agitator are inadequately explained until far too late. The merging of the two plots (the search for the agitator and the duel between Scaramanga and Bond) is not smooth.
The James Bond Bedside Companion Page 44
