The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
There was a 3-year gap between
'The Man with the Golden Gun' and
'The Spy Who Loved Me' in part due to Bond co-producer
Harry Saltzman getting into financial difficulties, selling his share and leaving
Cubby Broccoli to Produce the franchise alone.
Kevin McClory had also started legal proceedings over his ownership of the Blofeld/Spectre rights, so the villain had to be rewritten and renamed to 'Karl Stromberg' (It'd be 38-years before Spectre would appear in an official Bond film again). After the rushed turn-around of the last movie, I think the pause to regroup worked well.
It's a long time since I last saw 'The Spy Who Loved Me', so I'd forgotten how great it is. For the 10th film in the series and his first in sole control, Broccoli wanted to pull out all the stops. He doubled the budget and reaped almost double the box-office. I wouldn't have ranked it in my top Bond films before today's viewing but it's gone way up in my estimation. They've (mostly) got
Roger Moore's wardrobe right for once, he looks dashing in a black and gold Naval uniform. Bond is written just right, not too silly, not to serious. The one liners are heaped on but he's ruthless when he needs to be. The cold blooded way Bond drops a henchman of a roof and the merciless way he plugs round after round into Stromberg is much harder than Moore's usual tone.
The endearing General Gogol (M's Russian counterpart) makes his first appearance, played to perfection by
Walter Gotell (A role he would reprise 5 more times). Having the British and Soviets team up, 007 and
Barbara Bach's "Agent Triple X" is so much fun as they try to outshine each other. The new Lotus rivals the old Aston Martin from
'Goldfinger' in the gadgets department, including it's incredible transformation into a submarine. Production designer
Ken Adam returns, constructing many characteristically huge and impressive sets, even bringing an uncredited
Stanley Kubrick with him to consult on lighting.
Marvin Hamlisch's score features several great new themes and introduces some Disco Synthesizer into the mix.
There are minor flaws. Barbara Bach looks jaw-dropping and has winning chemistry with Moore (their relationship has some real fire and ice) but she wasn't exactly going to win any Oscars. Her Major Amasova character starts strong and formidable but gets relegated to a damsel-in-distress function by the end. The brief cheesy male chorus-line rendition of
'Nobody Does It Better' which plays as the credits role is awful, I'd remove that in a second. The closing titlecard reading
"James Bond will return in 'For Your Eyes Only'" is interesting because the unexpected mega-success of
'Star Wars' (released 6-weeks before) caused EON to switch to the space-based
'Moonraker' for the next Bond film instead.
jrWHAG42 said:
I love Man With the Golden Gun, it's the only Roger Moore Bond film I've seen, and it makes me want to watch more.
There are much better Moore films, so you should have some good times ahead.