Live and Let Die (1973)

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writer:

Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 June 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Roger Moo7re is James Bond

Plot:

007 is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organization and a reliable psychic tarot card reader.

Plot Keywords:

British | New York | Heroin | James Bond | Card

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Roger Moore	...	James Bond
Yaphet Kotto	...	Kananga / Mr. Big
Jane Seymour	...	Solitaire
Clifton James	...	Sheriff Pepper
Julius Harris	...	Tee Hee (as Julius W. Harris)
Geoffrey Holder	...	Baron Samedi
David Hedison	...	Leiter
Gloria Hendry	...	Rosie
Bernard Lee	...	'M'
Lois Maxwell	...	Moneypenny
Tommy Lane	...	Adam
Earl Jolly Brown	...	Whisper
Roy Stewart	...	Quarrel
Lon Satton	...	Strutter
Arnold Williams	...	Cab Driver 1

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Iceland:12 | Ireland:PG | South Korea:15 | Brazil:Livre | New Zealand:PG | Canada:14A (video rating) | Portugal:M/12 | UK:PG (tv rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (TV rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1973) | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | UK:A (original rating) | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

117th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Eon Productions

Trivia:

The first of two film appearances in the Bond series for David Hedison, playing Felix Leiter. Hedison reprised the role in Licence to Kill (1989). He and Jeffrey Wright are the only two people to play the character of Felix Leiter more than once.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Whisper shoots Bond's driver with the side-view mirror dart, Bond takes the wheel from the back seat. We see and hear the rear-view mirror on Bond's car get broken off. In the next shot of the car head-on, after Bond swerves by the Blue Cadillac, the rear-view mirror is intact.

Quotes:

[first lines]
UN Translator: [translating for Hungarian delegate] ... was so ably pointed out by the Secretary General in his opening remarks. But - and I must emphasize this point - no formula can or will ever cover each case. For instance...
[audio feed is unplugged]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Premiere Bond: Opening Nights (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

LIVE AND LET DIE

Positively surreal Blaxploitation Bond

And none the worse for it, since every Bond film needs a fresh spin on the same old formula. Roger Moore's first outing as JB is, in equal measures, comical and action-packed. You'll never get bored. But it's definitely the weirdest Bond ever with loads of utterly bizarre moments.

It begins with M turning up at JB's house in the early hours while he's pumping some Italian agent for information (don't you just love his initialled dressing gown). Before sending him to America to investigate a Harlem pimp known as Mister Big he delivers some gadgets from Q-Branch, including a very useful watch. Q himself, or Major Boothroyd if you want to call him by his proper name, doesn't make any appearance in this one.

Standing out like a Muslim in an airport, almost every single black person JB encounters in Harlem is on Mister Big's payroll. And they've got a seemingly endless bag of tricks to play on him. The funny thing about Moore is that he's very proper and British and doesn't think anything of walking into a tough Harlem bar while dressed up like the Duke of Edinburgh. His stunned reactions when they mess with his head are seriously funny.

The action then moves to Lousiana and a savage Caribbean island as JB uncovers a massive heroin plot. There's a particularly long speedboat chase across a bayou where JB encounters Sheriff J.W. Pepper, the most stereotypical southern redneck ever. Think of Texas Businessman from The Simpsons and you get the idea. JB also gets to dodge a hundred hungry Gators and do, many times over, Solitaire, Mister Big's Tarot card reader.

I'm not sure what kind of formidable villain uses a Tarot card reader to help him do business but when you also surround yourself with a hook-handed maniac called Tee-Hee, a quiet fat guy called Whisper and a seemingly unkillable voodoo high priest called Baron Samedi then you really do become a serious baddie. Right? He even goes on a big speech about how his master plan works before attempting to kill JB slowly. Obviously this makes much more sense than just shooting him right away. When will they learn?

Despite being the oldest actor to debut as Bond (at 46), Moore does look younger than Connery. And while Sean was gruff and Scottish, Moore is perpetually calm and refined, even in the face of danger (fingers being chopped-off, snake in the bath, being eaten by gators/sharks). Everything that the British once thought they were. He has a certain sarcastic edge that the other Bond actors lacked. While some of his films may have been the sillier of the franchise, Moore has always been my favorite. And the massive revolver and holster he uses at the end is so much more masculine than the usual, wimpy as hell, Walther PPK.

And, as much as I am no fan of Paul McCartney, you gotta love that theme song! Exciting and iconic at the same time. And also yet another juxtaposition in the weirdest Bond movie ever.

MI6, Harlem, Pimps, Paul McCartney, Gators, Heroin, Voodoo, Snakes, Sharks, Clairvoyance, Rednecks, Afros, Fake Afros, Fillet of Soul, Human Scarifice, Scarecrows and a small-headed man in a Top-Hat who lost a fight with chickens. Is this a Bond film or did the whole world just go insane?