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 | Heroin | Tarot Card | 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 J.W. Pepper
Julius Harris	...	Tee Hee (as Julius W. Harris)
Geoffrey Holder	...	Baron Samedi
David Hedison	...	Felix Leiter
Gloria Hendry	...	Rosie Carver
Bernard Lee	...	M
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Tommy Lane	...	Adam
Earl Jolly Brown	...	Whisper
Roy Stewart	...	Quarrel Jr.
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

Colour:

Colour

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:

Geoffrey Holder hated working snakes. As he was playing Baron Samedi, he was called upon to handle lots of them. He was particularly against having to play the scene where his character falls into a coffin full of them. However, he was obligated to perform the scene without raising too much of a complaint because Princess Alexandra was visiting the set the day the scene was being filmed, and he didn't want to lose face in front of royalty.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Bond and Solitaire go underground via the grave, the guards they avoid can be heard to be running on a manufactured floor (perhaps tiled or vinyl). There is no floor in the cave at that point, just rough rock.

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 "The Brady Bunch Hour: (#1.5)" (1977)

Soundtrack:

LIVE AND LET DIE

Lean, mean, but lacklustre

Roger Moore's debut as 007 was a bit wan but, in retrospect, probably his best outing. He looked pretty lean and mean for a 45 year-old. For a British audience, Moore (The Saint, The Persuaders) was the natural successor to Sean Connery.

Director Guy Hamilton makes this an expertly staged but somehow lacklustre affair. While the background voodoo theme is suitably bizarre, the main McGuffin about drugs smuggling is rather under-whelming for a Bond movie. Yaphet Kotto is a potentially strong baddie but has too little to do amid the familiar carnage and boat chases. And the introduction of the series' first out-rightly comic character in Sheriff JW Pepper presaged the self-defeating lapse into self-spoofing the films would increasingly take.

Nor does a heavy-handed score by Beatles producer George Martin help. Unlike regular Bond composer John Barry's music, Martin's is ponderous, overlaid onto the action rather than organic to it.

Still, Paul McCartney's blistering title-song really jolts Bond into the 70s. And Live and Let Die does have one of the best jokes in the entire series, in the opening sequence when a CIA agent, watching a New Orleans jazz funeral, innocently asks a nondescript fellow bystander: "Who's funeral is it…?"