THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

UK, 1977, 125 minutes, Colour.
Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curt Jurgens, Richard Kiel, Carolyn Munro, Walter Gottel, Geoffrey Keen, Bernard Lee, George Baker, Michael Billington, Desmond Llewellyn, Vernon Dobcheff, Valerie Leon, Shane Rimmer.
Directed by Lewis Gilbert.

The Spy Who Loved Me is generally considered the best of the Roger Moore James Bond films. It is not based on an Ian Fleming novel. The copyright for the film-makers extended only to the title. This film has combinations of Thunderball as well as elements from the other James Bond stories. Curt Jurgens' villain, Karl Stromberg, is a Germanic variation of Blofeld.

The film was topical in the 1970s - a rivalry in the cold war between Russia and the United Kingdom. However, it anticipated the detente that was to come within the next ten years, and a thawing of relationships between East and West.

The film focuses on the theft of nuclear submarines and the threat to world peace, especially by the mad wealthy German who favoured cities under the sea and valued marine life more than ordinary life. James Bond is assigned by the usual staff to discover what happened to the submarines as well as to get back the microfilm of the plan to track submarines. Barbara Bach is Major Anya Amasova, the Russian equivalent of Bond. Needless to say they work against each other, then are asked to work with each other, then fall in love. This film also introduced Richard Kiel as Jaws (he is seen swimming to safety at the end and reappears in Moonraker). The rest of the usual cast of British stalwarts are present.

The film is long but tightly written and acted. It has excellent locations in Egypt and Sardinia. It has a theme song by Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager, sung by Carly Simon, 'Nobody Does It Better'.

Roger Moore is at his best in this film - although he was fifty at the age of filming. He is suave, spends most of the first hour in a tuxedo and bow tie, delivers his innuendo lines with aplomb. The film is directed by Lewis Gilbert who had directed Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice.

1.The best of Roger Moore's James Bond films? Characters, plot, action, humour?

2.The range of settings, Austria in the opening, the long passages in Egypt, the Valley of the Kings, the pyramids ...? The resorts of Sardinia? Action at sea? A satisfying combination?

3.The musical score, the James Bond theme, Marvin Hamlisch's music, the theme song, 'Nobody Does It Better'? The use of parody with Doctor Zhivago and Laurence of Arabia themes?

4.The plot, 1970s, the stealing of nuclear submarines, mad power-hungry wealthy men? The collaboration between the UK and Russia? The tracking devices for submarines? The collaboration of spies? The action?

5.Roger Moore as James Bond, his age, dapper, clothes, manner, speech, innuendo, romantic lead? The opening and the pursuit in Austria? His killing Anya's lover? His being assigned to the mission? In the desert, Hussein, Laurence of Arabia? Egypt, the contact, the sound and light at the pyramids? His following his contact, his death, the confrontation with Jaws? Meeting Anya? At the club, the death of the owner? The bidding for the microfilm? Anya and James outbidding each other? Her vanquishing him? Going to the combined headquarters? Their mission together, visiting Stromberg? The plan, the submarines? Their being captured? Her being held hostage? Bond and the action sequences, the detonator removal, the confrontation with Stromberg and his death? The capsule and the happy ending?

6.Anya, Russian, triple agent? Her skills? Her wiles? Antagonism towards Bond, in love with him? The ending?

7.Stromberg as the Ian Fleming villain, his city under the sea, his ruthlessness with his wife, with the scientists, taking the submarines, the nuclear weapons, his love for underwater marine life? The shark and the trapdoor? The meeting with Bond? The final plan, the bombing of New York and Moscow? His henchmen? His confrontation with Bond, his death?

8.Jaws, Richard Kiel and his height, the metal teeth, his killing people, the use of the magnets to destroy him? His survival?

9.The British Intelligence, Sir Frederick Grey, M, Captain Benson, Miss Moneypenny? The usual British stiff upper lip? Collaboration with General Gogol and the Russians? Q and his various devices, his offhand way of describing them?

10.The range of women, the tradition of the Bond Girls? The hotel receptionist, Stromberg's assistant, in the helicopter ...?

11.The tone of James Bond? As role model? As hero? Debonair - with the touch of elitism and sleaze?