After Sean Connery permanently left EON upon completing Diamonds Are Forever, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli decided to replace him this time with a known actor as opposed to a complete unknown like George Lazenby. So they got Roger Moore, who had just completed his only season of "The Persuaders", as the new James Bond. His version of 007 is assigned to find out who's behind the killing of his fellow agents in New York, New Orleans, and an island in the Caribbean. So in Harlem, he encounters Dr Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) with his henchman Tee Hee (Julius Harris) and virginal tarot card fortune teller Solitaire (Jane Seymour). I'll just now say that Moore is quite charming and funny in his first Bond film. Director Guy Hamilton, with this his third Bond film, stages many exciting chase scenes with cars and boats that adds to the funny tone of much of the narrative. Ms. Seymour, in her early '20s here, was quite a looker here and today still has it, that's for sure! I'm sure anyone watching this now, and even maybe then, might have been a little uncomfortable with some stereotypes concerning the Black race of the time as well as that of a Southern redneck police sheriff called J. W. Pepper played here by Clifton James though he still gets some laughs from me. I did like one cultural sequence unique to New Orleans in my home state of Louisiana: the funeral procession which starts with a slow-jam version of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" before segueing to the more upbeat "New Second Line" (a.k.a "Joe Avery's Piece") which was composed by Milton Batiste, a relative of Jon Batiste who just left "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" recently. By the way, the knife-wielding assassin in that sequence was played by trumpeter Alvin Alcom of the Olympia Brass Band that also performed in this particular scene. Oh, and this marked the first time Bond kissed a woman of color in the series, a woman named Rosie Carver played by Gloria Hendry. Two more things worth noting: this was the only time in the series before the reboot in Casino Royale that Q was not depicted. In fact, Desmond Llewelyn was either not available or Saltzman and Broccoli wanted to lessen the dependence on gadgets so decided to not call him (though there are still some of that here). And the Felix Leiter here was played by David Hedison who would be the only one before CR to reprise the role in Licence to Kill 16 years later. In summary, Mom and I enjoyed rewatching this JB flick again so many years later! P. S. Loved both Paul McCartney and Wings version of the title song and as well as that of B. J. Arnau in the nightclub sequence. Also, Geoffrey Holder was awesome as Baron Samedi!
Review of Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die
(1973)
Roger Moore made a fine debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die
2 September 2022