The Spy who Loved Me
Der Spion der mich liebte

UK 1977
produced by
Albert R.Broccoli for EON Productions, Danjaq/United Artists
directed by Lewis Gilbert
starring Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens, Richard Kiel, Caroline Munro, Walter Gotell, Geoffrey Keen, Bernard Lee, George Baker, Michael Billington, Olga Bisera, Desmond Llewelyn, Edward de Souza, Vernon Dobtcheff, Valerie Leon, Lois Maxwell, Sydney Tafler, Nadim Sawalha, Sue Vanner, Eva Reuber-Staier, Robert Brown, Marilyn Galsworthy, Milton Reid, Cyril Shaps, Milo Sperber, Albert Moses, Rafiq Anwar, Felicity York, Dawn Rodrigues, Anika Pavel, Jill Goodall, Shane Rimmer, Bryan Marshall, George Roubicek, Lenny Rabin
screenplay by Christopher Wood, Richard Maibaum, based on the novel by Ian Fleming, music by Marvin Hamlish, theme by John Barry, theme song sung by Carly Simon, special effects by John Evans, visual effects by Derek Meddings, production design by Ken Adams, ski sequences supervised by Willy Bogner

James Bond, James Bond (Roger Moore), EON's James Bond, Jaws (Richard Kiel)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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British Secret Service man James Bond (Roger Moore) and Russian KGB-agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) are both sent to Cairo to get their hands on a microfilm containing the plans for a submarine tracking device, and even though they know they work on oppo0site sides, they feel immediately attracted to each other, even save each others lives when they are pursued by killer Jaws (Richard Kiel). They use every trick in the book though to trick the other out of the microfilm, and ultimately, Bond loses it thanks to the woman's charms. Once in his Egyptian headquarters though, Bond learns he has to work together with Anya, to save the world from a major threat to both the Western and the Eastern hemisphere, Stromberg (Curd Jürgens), a marine biologist who has become megalomaniac and now wants to erradicate the surface world to start humankind anew on the bottom of the Ocean.

Bond and Anja make it to Stromberg's homebase undercover, posing as a couple of fellow marine biologists, but he has long found out their identity and sends a bunch of killers after them - which Bond is only able to shake thanks to his amphibian car.

Later Bond and Anya board a submarine that will act as bait for Stromberg - and sure enough it's picked up by Stromberg's tracking device and virtually swallowed up by his tanker. After deliberating himself about his evil plans - to bomb both New York and Moscow and that way start World War III - Stromberg takes Anya with him to his underwater city while putting Bond with his other prisoners on the tanker - in other words, leaving it upon Bond to save the world. Of course, Bond succeeds in doing that with ease, simply using both the submarines which were supposed to bomb New York and Moscow to instead bomb each other to Kingdom Come. Then though, he can't resist saving Anya as well, even though Anya has in the meantime promised to kill him after the mission is over because he has killed the spy who loved her on a previous mission.

However, despite pressing time (the underwater city will be blown up in a mere hour), Bond manages to kill Stromberg, save Anya, make it into a n escape pod with her, and utlimately they (of course) end up making love, not war ...

Caroline Munro plays Stromberg's right-hand woman, who is able to divert Bond's attention from Anya by wearing a revealing bikini, but is eventually killed by him in an exciting helicopter vs car-chase.

Certainly one of the best films of Roger Moore's run as James Bond. Sure, it pales in comparison to Dr. No or in fact most of Connery's Bonds, but it works as a slightly simplistic escapist espionage adventure set in mostly exotic locale, features some great miniature effects and some impressive production design by Ken Adams, plenty of well-conceived action, beautiful girls, a good villain, and Richard Kiel as a fun secondary baddie (who actually made it in the next film of the series, Moonraker). Also, Roger Moore gives one of his more decent performances, even if the subtleties of the subplot (him being in love with the fiancée of a man whom he killed and who now wants to kill him) are somewhat lost on him, but even though this subplot gave the film its title, it's next to immaterial to the main narrative.

Not great maybe, but great, escapist fun.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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