The Spy Who Loved Me: Review By slysnide

Tragedy strikes us all, even if we are the primary instrument in our own downfall. The same could be said of Bond franchise producer Harry Saltzman. Always the showman, Harry believed that the Bond franchise was only the beginning of something bigger. He didn't recognize what he and producing partner Albert Romolo Broccoli had. If he did, then his attention span was short and wandering too far off from reality. But when you're richer than God, than anyone can suppose that it's easy to lose track of things. For he was the flamboyant showman to Cubby's formal & informal practicality. A guy who let you know what he thought of you, a guy who had his hands in six projects at a time, a guy who hosted flamboyant soirees with British Celebrities at this Woodland Park country home to woo them into singing contracts. Ultimately, this personality lead to many failed investments in film ventures, and that along with his wife's terminal cancer forced him to sell off his half of the film rights to the Bond novels and his half of the Bond franchise to Cubby at a staggeringly low price of twenty-million pounds. That may be a great short term price, but that's highway robbery had he stayed with the franchise. His wife of three decades succ*mbed to her illness during production of the tenth Bond film, which lead him to clinical depression, and rearranged his values so as it was more impactful by a long mile than his crumbled partnership and failed investments. It also marked the first and beginning of many Bond films without Harry Saltzman's involvement. His prospects fared worse throughout the years, and his last two films he produced were "Nijinsky" (1979) and "Time of the Gypsies" (1988). Neither film was met with critical acclaim, nor decent revenues. But the latter garnered a Palm d'Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. The former was a long dream for Saltzman to make, though he wasn't the showrunning producer. A more famous producing credit was for "Battle of Britain" (1969) which Bond director Guy Hamilton directed. Saltzman was invited to the premiere of "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) by Cubby at the insistence of Chaim Topol where it was as if Harry & Cubby's business fallout never occurred, as if they were just old friends reminiscing about all their good times. Tragic as it was, Harry Saltzman died of a fatal heart attack on the twenty-eighth of September 1994. Though despite only being involved in the first nine Bond adventures, his affect can easily be felt on screen. He will always be missed by fans if they continue to reflect on the early Bond adventures. Rest In Peace Harry Saltzman. May all your wild & crazy schemes & dreams be coming true in that big production studio in the sky.

Now armed with total ownership of the film rights to the James Bond franchise with the exception of "Casino Royale" (1953), Cubby set out to find a new director, which proved more difficult than he could've guessed. Cubby's first choice was actually the rookie director Steven Spielberg, but he declined due to wanting to wait and see "how the fish picture turns out." Guy Hamilton meanwhile declined with the hopes to direct "Superman" (1978), but he was passed up for Richard Donner. He'd never be approached to direct another Bond film again having done four already. So ultimately, former Bond director Lewis Gilbert agreed to return having directed "You Only Live Twice" (1967) which received mixed reviews. This was partly because this film would have an equally large production & sets as that film had, and Gilbert hadn't encountered difficulties in directing with such a large production.

The story chosen was not in any way based off Ian Fleming's ninth Bond novel, which when received poorly from fans and critics for being both too sexually explicit and a total departure from the accepted format, he tried to pass it off as a novel co-authored by the narrator, Vivienne Michel whom technically is the titular character; in other words, a totally fictional person Fleming himself invented for the novel. Bond himself doesn't show up in the story until chapter ten, and is gone by the end of chapter fourteen, making this first person narration the most bizarre Bond novel ever written. However, it was heavily implied in the story that it was SPECTRE related as it took place after the events of "Thunderball" and thus falls into the "Blofeld Trilogy" (Thunderball {1961}, On Her Majesty's Secret Service {1963}, You Only Live Twice {1964}). It was first published in 1962.

Thankfully however, the ghost of scripts past returned to haunt Cubby in the form of Blofeld co-creator Kevin McClory's injunction filed against EON Productions which prevented them from using Blofeld, SPECTRE, or any such characters or references which he and his cohorts had invented for Fleming's faux novel "Thunderball." This ruling was in response to a long series of lawsuits and filings in an attempt to accomplish the same thing earlier; 1971 earlier to be exact when EON last used SPECTRE and its cold, dark leader. Given that SPECTRE had already been done to death in the Connery Era and belonged more to Connery, it was a good injunction. Despite Blofeld being thrown out as the main villain, the plot remained very much the same to maintain Bond veteran Richard Maibaum's script which incorporated several other ideas from such authors as Anthony Burgess [A Clockwork Orange] whom were asked to submit scripts. Gilbert had author Christopher Wood polish off Maibaum's script. The villain's name was changed from Blofeld to Stromberg, and any other SPECTRE references were eliminated from the script, which at this point very much resembled what would ultimately amount to a vastly more expensive rehash of "You Only Live Twice" (1967); $4,500,000 more expensive to be exact, and with these films' low budgets, that's roughly a 1/3 increase.

Also thrown out was the first person narration, and the whole thing was written in the typical Bond style, as nothing but the title was leased to the producers by Ian Fleming as even he was dissatisfied to the point where he didn't want a direct adaptation to be made. Of course that was part of the original deal Fleming made with Broccoli & Saltzman when he originally sold the film rights to Harry Saltzman, who'd since sold his half of it all to Cubby, who'd acquired Saltzman's other half when they first began their partnership. The characters of Vivienne Michel, Horror, and Sluggsy were however adapted into the script from the original novel. And while the notion of attacking a heavily fortified SPECTRE base was thrown out, the same scenario was maintained for the film's gargantuan climax which echoed the climax of "You Only Live Twice."

In his tenth adventure, James Bond (Roger Moore) must investigate the mysterious disappearances of British & Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarines which will take him to Austria, Egypt, and Sardinia. Along the way he'll meet a fellow secret agent Major Anya Amasova: codenamed Triple X (Barbara Bach) who's on the same mission, and the nefarious towering steel-toothed killer Jaws (Richard Kiel--Maibaum's version of Horror which Cubby & Gilbert loved too much to leave out). But what aim could one have to steal such submarines? Were they even stolen? Were they armed? Only together will the unique duo solve the mystery! That is, if they can keep on track, for recall the title implies a bit of sexual distraction.

Cast as the anarchist, scientist, shipping tycoon, and ocean loving ego-maniac Karl Stromberg was Curd Jurgens. He gave a very stoic performance which was ultimately forgettable, and that's probably why he doesn't get much screentime, as this is a 'follow the white rabbit' type story. Fortunately, that made a lot more screentime for Jaws who comes off more as the main villain given the amount of screams and screentime he got. Richard Kiel standing at 7' 1.5" was a worthy adversary for Bond, and looked damn intimidating on screen. His pursuit of a target in Egypt looked brilliant, if not slightly surreal. The staged fights between he and Bond made for a great pairing, though his frame makes him seem more suitable for the likes of Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig over the aged Roger Moore. Also joining the cast for a few recurring appearances was KGB General Gogol (Walter Gotell: who'd previously played a thug on SPECTRE Isle in "From Russia With Love" {1963}) whom was far less intimidating than you'd expect a KGB affiliate to be in a film franchise centered around Cold War Politics & Foreign Policy. Actually, he was somewhat amusing.

And of course, the new gadgets. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) debuts a miniature gun which is strapped to the wrist and fired with a squeeze of the wrist. Clever, but not as clever as the two other gadgets worth mentioning in the film. The first is the modified Lotus S1 Esprit which is capable of converting into a submarine thanks to special effects wizardry. And the barrel role into the water made for a nifty stunt too! Only it was performed with a mock shell of the car fired off the dock by a compressed air cannon. The second vehicle however would be the second supervillain super vehicle of doom: The Liparus Supertanker. Capable of swallowing other maritime vehicles, the miniature by Derek Meddings shot in the Bahamas was great, but the stage to make the interiors a full scale reality was even greater, with a far more effective legacy to boot.

Production began in August 1976 in Sardinia, but as there was no stage large enough to accommodate the interior of the Liparus, construction began five months prior on the official 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios, thanks to production designer Ken Adam's ingenuity, making it among his most cherished gifts to the series. EON would also build a water tank to be accommodated inside the stage measuring 297' L by 73' W by 8' 10" H capable of holding 1,200,000 gallons of water. The stage itself was so huge at 334' L by 136' W by 40' 6" H that Stanley Kubrick secretly visited it to show how to best light the thing. It would be a permanent structure that could be rented out to other productions during interims of Bond films. Shell offered up a mothballed Oil Tanker for EON to use, but insurance hikes and safety risks prompted EON to use miniatures for the exteriors. This film would also feature the most countries for film locations, going to Sardinia, Egypt, Okinawa, Malta, Scotland, England, Switzerland, and Nunavut (then part of the Canadian Northwest Territories).

For filming the daring cliff jump on skis in the pre-credit sequence, stuntman Rick Sylvester was paid $30,000 to perform the daring feat of a 2,600' jump off Mount Asgard in Nunavut in July '76 with a British Flag design for his parachute. The stunt cost a total of $500,000, the most expensive single film stunt ever at the time. Unlike many other climbing aficionados, Sylvester was choppered to the summit of the twin peaks. When delays caused the cost to rise, the ever friendly Cubby feared it was because Sylvester was too frightened to both do it and chicken out, so he phoned him and said no film stunt was worth his life and that they'd perform it elsewhere, to which Sylvester replied that he was merely waiting for the wind to be just right.

While filming in Sardinia, Cubby had to requisition the Lotus S1 Esprit from Lotus Cars' founder Colin Chapman as only two of them existed, and they were both prototypes. Talk about product placement. In Egypt, Cubby cooked spaghetti for the entire crew as they discovered that local food was more likely to get them sick; just the same thing was realized by the crews of "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977) & "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) when filming in neighboring Tunisia in 1976 & 1980. In September, lighting issues at the Giza Pyramids forced them to be replaced with miniatures, hence the surreal feeling. In October, the second unit travelled to Nassau to film the Lotus S1 Esprit as a submarine using seven models for each stage of its transformation. One of the models was an engine equipped working mini-sub. Production then travelled to the Faslane submarine base in the U.K. before departing to Spain, Portugal, and the Bay of Biscay where other supertanker exteriors will filmed. After principal photography wrapped that November, the 007 stage was finally & formally opened on 5 December 1976 by Prime Minister Harold Wilson for all future Bond fans to enjoy, courtesy of the brilliant mind of production designer Ken Adam, the vision of producer Cubby Broccoli, and the money of EON Productions of course.

Roger Moore didn't develop his character much here, and the twenty-nine year old Barbara Bach wasn't really paired well with the forty-nine year old leading super spy. So for that, the chemistry was off as this was a far different relationship between Bond girl & Bond. Richard Kiel was impressive and really stole the show as far as performance goes, for apart from his strength & height, his menacing performance really sells the character overall. Bach however was the most modern Bond girl as she would without question make a worthy opponent of Bond, so that upgrade was nice. The film itself however featured spectacular action sequences and a tremendous showdown over a shark tank in Stromberg's Atlantis; with the shark tank being filmed with doubles in the Bahamas. While I regard this as a good film, I at first didn't appreciate it as much, but have come to regard it as a good 'B' grade Bond film despite its 'A' grade production. And because the chemistry was off between Moore & Bach, and Jurgens was too wooden that knocked down the overall acting rating a bit. But believe it or not, I thought Kiel gave the best performance as Jaws given what was required of the role. Those are my main compliments & complaints. My ultimate compliment is to Ken Adam for giving the Bond franchise a stage which won't falter in the future having survived two catastrophic fires already. So thank you Ken, you changed the scope & scale of the Bond Franchise forever.

When released, this was considered a make it or break it film, being Cubby's first solo shot at producing and the mega stage & mega budget required. The former was such a risky long term investment that this film's reception was the deciding factor in whether or not EON would be using or renting that stage. As if nothing else could make awaiting the film's reception more white knuckling, Princess Anne, only daughter of Elizabeth II & Prince Philip was in attendance at the premiere in London. Thankfully, despite opening on 7 July 1977 in the middle of the summer of "Star Wars," the film easily broke even and went on to profit $171,400,000; placing it as the highest grossing film in the franchise's history at that time. Perhaps even more popular was the title song "Nobody Does It Better" written by Carole Bayer Singer, composed by the film's composer Marvin Hamlisch (who's score was very grandiose), and sung by Carly Simon. It remained as the #2 song on the U.S. charts for three weeks and was named the 67th Greatest Song by AFI in 2004 as part of its series "100 Years..." Over the years, Roger Moore and Bond fans have come to regard this film as the best film in the Moore Era. While I disagree, it was still a great adventure.