Heavy Bondage: Live and Let Die

The elegance (for Mr. Moore always looks a proper English gent) acquires a touch of irony; it will do.
- Dilys Powell in the Sunday Times (July 1973)

Live And Let Die
Film: 1973
Book: 1954 (2nd in chronology)

Irreverent Synopsis: Three British agents have died in a matter of hours, and Bond is sent to investigate. The trail either leads to the leader of the flyspeck nation of San Monique, one Kananga, or to the crime boss of Harlem (and apparently every predominantly black neighborhood in America), Mr. Big. Pick whichever you like, because they're actually the same guy. He's growing lots of poppies on San Monique and he's going to flood the American markets with heroin, gratis. The first taste is free, as they say. Several voodoo rituals and one long speedboat chase later, Mr. Big's schemes are proven to be somewhat inflated, and Bond gets ... Jane Seymour, which is not much of a reward.

Major Observations: Welcome to the Roger Moore era. Unlike OHMSS, where the producers went to some trouble to convince us that this really was a legitimate Bond, for this film we hit the ground running, don't bother to go through the usual trappings (no M's-office sequence, no Q scene), and don't stop for an explanation. Which is good, because if you slow down to look closely, this film doesn't hold up so well. Oh, it's still the best Moore Bond with the possible exception of The Spy Who Loved Me, but it's dated now and many sequences just don't compel the way they did on first viewing.

It's worth noting, early and often, that Kananga is an invention of the film (in fact, he was named for one of the film's stuntmen, who owns the 'gator farm used in the film). In the book, there is only Mr. Big, and while he basically owns Harlem, he has no interests outside of American gangsterhood, save a pirate treasure off Jamaica which British intelligence suspects him of smugging into the country and selling off to finance dubious activities. That's right, pirate treasure. The drug plot used in the film is a far more plausible one - in fact, Kananga's scheme to give away free dope is, as Bond says, fairly brilliant; the connection between an island prime minister and a Harlem gangster, however, defies belief.

It's also worth noting that this book is very early in the continuity, before Bond's second trip to the same Jamaican haunts in Dr No.. Two characters Bond meets here, in the book, later get killed in the book of Dr. No; having killed them already in the film continuity, the film must invent new characters. The "Baines" who gets killed at the beginning of this film is actually supposed to be Strangways, the British station operative in Jamaica. "Quarrel Jr" is supposed to be Quarrel himself.

Also, Leiter loses at least one limb here (the books are imprecise) after being dropped into a shark tank by Mr. Big's men; he goes through the rest of the books that way. In the films, the shark-tank sequence is transported intact (complete with the "he disagreed with something that ate him" joke) to License To Kill (and Leiter is never used after that in the films, until the 2006 "reboot" of Casino Royale.). The keelhauling sequence at the end of the book ended up being used, slightly modified, in the film For Your Eyes Only.

In general the book, despite the pirate angle, is better than the film, especially in the handling of Solitaire. Despite what you may have heard, she is not a black woman in the book, so no grousing about that aspect of the casting; but it's very clear that she is, effectively, Mr. Big's captive. He believes she is a human lie detector, and too valuable to set free. She doesn't want to be in his custody, and the book makes this clear from the beginning; this makes her defection to Bond, and her willingness to lie for him, much more believable.

Also, it's not clear whether she can actually has any supernatural abilities, nor does anyone but Mr. Big really care. This whole business of keeping the power until she loses her virginity is an odious invention of the film, more so because it makes Bond really look like a right bastard, when in fact in the book his conduct toward her is consistently honorable.

The henchmen are better done in the film than the book, with the characters of Tee Hee and Whisper clearly defined (in the book they can hardly be said to be defined at all). Baron Samedi as a separate entity is an invention of the film; in the book, Mr. Big deliberately promotes the belief that he is Baron Samedi in order to coerce some of his followers. Some people really cannot abide the theatricality of Geoffrey Holder, and I admit it's an acquired taste, but I find that his campiness is a welcome touch in the film.

« "Ah-ha-ha-ha!"

In general, people seem to deride the Moore era for playing for laughs too often, but nobody can agree on what "too often" is. I find the scenes involving Sheriff J.W. Pepper pretty funny in this film (but he has no business being in the next one). Others would gladly strike him from the record. Just remember, if you have a Bond wholly without humor then you end up with Timothy Dalton, and nobody wants that, right?

As for Bond himself, well, Moore has class, but this definitely marks the beginning of the ascent of the Gentleman Spy. People expecting a fight like the elevator scene in Diamonds Are Forever will be solely disappointed; Bond seldom even gets his hands dirty in this one, and when he does get brutal, it's with ... Rosie. (On the other hand, you could argue that she deserves it.)

Minor Observations: Originally screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz wrote the obnoxious Rosie Carver as "a beautiful, dazed white girl" and they were going to cast a black actress as Solitaire (book notwithstanding). United Artists insisted on a white leading lady, probably because of fear of showing a mixed-race liaison. Apparently it's okay for a white man to bed a black woman so long as he doesn't end the film with her. (It wasn't okay in South Africa - no surprise - when the film showed there, all Moore's love scenes with Gloria Hendry were censored.)

David Hedison plays the second-best Felix Leiter in the series (after Jack Lord). Hedison was an old friend of Moore and is the only Felix (so far) to play the part more than once.

"And how IS Mrs. Bell?" »

Film buffs will be interested to note that the other highlight of Hedison's film career was playing the mutating hero in the original 1958 version of The Fly. You will also find him in ffolkes, Roger Moore's deliberately-not-Bond flick from 1980.

It's hard to believe now that Bond's digital watch in the first scene was so revolutionary, but it was specially procured by the ever-useful Charles Russhon (see Goldfinger, Thunderball, etc), who also helped finagle the transport of necessary firearms into Jamaica. Everybody should have someone this handy.

Moore is actually driving the double-decker bus for a large portion of that chase sequence - he got some quick training before the film from a London city bus trainer, Maurice Patchett, who manned the bus for the actual impact with the bridge. Patchett said Moore took to the bus instruction quite readily.

Reportedly, it wasn't clear for a while that Bernard Lee was going to be available for the film; his wife had died tragically in a fire shortly before filming. This may partially explain why the M sequence, shot fairly late, is such an oddity among the Bond films. However, the producers also wanted to put some distance between Moore and Connery, which is probably why there is no Q scene.

One reason I tend to stop rewatching the film at the point when Bond and Solitaire enter Kananga's underground hideout is that the two gimmicks which the next scenes depend upon - the saw in the watch and the compressed-gas shark bullet - have not been adequately set up. The shark gun gets by (an additional scene in the script, where Quarrel demonstrates it earlier, was cut before filming), but the buzzsaw watch is unforgivable.

I happen to think that the pre-credits sequence in this film is the best until the Brosnan era, and one of the highlights of the whole canon in general. The segue to the theme is perfect too. As for the theme itself, that's another example where tastes seem to vary widely. I like it. Others hate it.

Louisiana has alligators, not crocodiles. I suppose it's conceivable that Tee Hee could be deliberately raising crocodiles in the midst of all those alligators (and more to the point, it's plausible Ross Kananga had both at his farm), but most of them look like 'gators to me.

Have you noticed the 007 repeating design on the back of Solitaire's Tarot cards?

« "A man comes ..."

Doesn't it make you wonder where Bond got enough of them on short notice to stack the deck? Or am I thinking about this too hard?

Finally, a meta-note, if you will - one more case of how tastes on this film seem to vary so strongly: It amuses me that one of my Bond books (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) singles out Mr. Big's "Names is for tombstones, baby" as a line worthy of note; another book (The Bond Files) lists it as a "Line To Fast-Foward Past." You be the judge.

Next page: The Man With the Golden Gun