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Live and Let Die is the second James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, first published in 1954. It is also the eighth official film in the EON Productions Bond franchise and the first to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. The film was released in 1973 and was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

The novel

Live and Let Die is considered one of Fleming's most controversial novels due to its depiction of black people. In 2002 for the first time in the United States since the book was published, the original title of chapter five ("Nigger Heaven") was used.

Besides the 1973 film of the same name, major plot elements from this novel appeared in two other Bond films: For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Licence to Kill (1989).

Plot summary

James Bond 007 is sent to New York City to investigate "Mr. Big", an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected by M of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan. Although Bond was reluctant to take on the mission when he was briefed, Bond's attitude quickly changes upon learning that Mr. Big is an agent of SMERSH and that this mission offers him a chance of retaliation for previously being tortured by SMERSH operative Le Chiffre and branded on his hand by Le Chiffre's SMERSH assassin in Casino Royale.

In Harlem, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter, and the two are captured by Mr. Big where Bond is subsequently quizzed by Big's fortune telling-girlfriend, Solitaire. After escaping with Solitaire, they all go to St. Petersburg, Florida where they confirm in a warehouse that Mr. Big is indeed smuggling 17th century coins underneath sand in fish tanks. While at the warehouse, Solitaire is recaptured by Big's minions and Leiter loses an arm and a leg after being fed to a shark.

Bond continues his mission in Jamaica where he meets Quarrel and John Strangways, the head of station in Jamaica. Later Bond swims through shark and barracuda infested waters to Mr. Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his boat before being captured once again by Mr. Big. In the grand finale, Big ties both Solitaire and Bond up to his boat and attempts to drag them over the shallow coral reef, however, they are saved once Bond's limpet mine explodes.

Trivia

  • Live and Let Die was originally titled The Undertaker's Wind. The title was used for the seventeenth chapter.
  • A sizeable portion of the novel is devoted to voodoo, a subject of much interest to Ian Fleming. In one scene, Bond reads The Traveller's Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a friend of Fleming's.
  • Bond's underwater swim through the coral reefs to Mr. Big's island was inspired by Fleming's first scuba diving experience with Jacques Cousteau in 1953. Fleming describes his experience in length in a similar description to Bond's own experience in 3 articles for The Sunday Times in which Fleming covered a salvage operation of a Graeco-Roman galley from around 250 BC.

Comic strip adaptation

Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from December 15, 1958 to March 28, 1959. The story was truncated, omitting much of the detail and background information to compress the story into 15 weeks of strips, making Live and Let Die much shorter and less faithful than the previous strip Casino Royale.

The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. The strip was reformatted from the original cells of the strip and reprinted in full in the 1967 James Bond Annual, the only 007 strip to be reprinted in this way. Titan Books reprinted the strip in the early 1990s and again by Titan in 2005 as part of the Casino Royale collection that includes Casino Royale and Moonraker.

The film

Sean Connery's return as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever was only ever seen as a temporary one, so after the film was released, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman got to work trying to find the next actor to portray James Bond. At one point, the producers decided they would not hire another actor and instead hire someone from the Armed Services. Acting upon this EON Productions advertised in various army magazines with the line: "Are you 007?" This idea was later thrown out after Equity objected and demanded they stop. By 1972, Broccoli and Saltzman had auditioned or considered a number of actors for the role, most notably Julian Glover (later the villain in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only), Jeremy Brett, and frontrunner Michael Billington, who ultimately lost the role to Roger Moore. Thereafter Billington was always a constant frontrunner to replace Moore if Moore did not return to the role, notably for Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and Octopussy; he also starred in the 1977 film, The Spy Who Loved Me as a villain who is killed in the pre-title sequence.

Moore, for sure, had previously been considered for the role of Bond after You Only Live Twice, but was quickly dismissed due to his popularity as Simon Templar in the television series The Saint. There are also some reports that Moore was considered in 1962 for Dr. No, however, these are seen by some fans and researchers as apocryphal given that most of the evidence used to support these reports are false or misleading (see: the search for James Bond).

The film, Live and Let Die, was released during the height of the 1970s blaxploitation era, and the influence of those films is quite evident. For instance, the film departs from conventional Bond plots (which entailed villainous plots to disrupt world power structures) and instead places its emphasis on drug trafficking, a common hallmark of the blaxploitation genre. The film further deviates from most Bond films, in that it takes place in the African American cultural centres of Harlem, New Orleans, and the Caribbean Islands. Furthermore, the film contains several blaxploitation archetypes, most notably afro hairstyles, derogatory racial epithets (i.e "honky"), black gangsters, and "pimpmobiles". In addition, the white police officers, especially Sheriff J.W. Pepper, are poorly displayed with several negative stereotypes.

Live and Let Die marked several milestones for Bond films. It was the first time a fictional country would be used as a setting (this would happen again in Licence to Kill), and it was also the only occasion in which 007 commits what amounts to a political assassination, since Kananga is the leader of a nation. Live and Let Die is also the first James Bond film from which Q was absent. Furthermore, Live and Let Die marked the appearance of the first romantically-involved African American Bond girl, Rosie Carver (played by Gloria Hendry, an actress who starred in several blaxploitation films, including Black Caesar and its sequel Hell Up in Harlem). When the film was first released in South Africa, the love scenes between Gloria Hendry and Roger Moore were removed because interracial affairs were prohibited by the apartheid government.

Plot summary

Several British agents monitoring the operations of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small Caribbean island called San Monique, are murdered in mysterious circumstances. James Bond is sent to New York City, where the last agent was killed and where Kananga is currently visiting the UN, to investigate. As soon as Bond arrives in New York City, his driver is killed while taking him to meet Felix Leiter of the CIA.

The driver's killer leads Bond to Mr. Big, a gangster who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States. It is during his confrontation with Mr. Big that Bond first meets Solitaire, a beautiful tarot expert who has the uncanny ability to see the future. Bond follows Kananga back to San Monique where he seduces Solitaire. Their love had been foretold in the cards, but was actually set up by Bond, having created a deck of only "The Lovers" cards, which, by "compelling to earthly love," takes away her power.

It transpires that Kananga is producing two metric tonnes of heroin and is protecting the poppy fields through fear of voodoo and the occult. Through his alter ego Mr. Big (Kananga in disguise), he would distribute the heroin from his chain of Fillet Of Soul restaurants for free until the number of drug addicts doubles, and his rival drug lords around the world are put out of business, leaving Kananga with a monopoly. In the closing scene of the film, the central voodoo character, Baron Samedi, is seen perched on the front of the speeding train in which Bond and Solitaire are travelling, in his voodoo outfit and laughing mysteriously, despite having been supposedly killed by Bond during the film's climax.

Cast & characters

Crew

Soundtrack

Taking a temporary hiatus from scoring Bond films, John Barry subsequently passed the baton over George Martin. This was the first James Bond film that Barry was, in at least some aspect, not a part of.

For the theme song, Martin teamed with former-Beatle Paul McCartney, who had previously been considered for Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. This was the first time the pair worked together since Abbey Road in 1969. The theme was written by Paul and his wife Linda McCartney and performed by Paul and his group, Wings. The tune, the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, was a major success in the U.S. (#9) and the UK (#2), Paul's best showings in over a year. For many years "Live and Let Die" was a highlight of his live shows, complete with fireworks and lasers and in 2005 was performed live by McCartney during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX. In 1991 the song was covered by the rock band Guns N' Roses.

Track listing
  1. "Live and Let Die (Main Title)" — Paul McCartney & Wings
  2. "Just a Closer Walk With Thee / New Second Line"
  3. "Bond Meets Solitaire"
  4. "Whisper Who Dares"
  5. "Snakes Alive"
  6. "Baron Samedi's Dance Of Death"
  7. "San Monique"
  8. "Fillet Of Soul-New Orleans / Live and Let Die"
  9. "Bond Drops In"
  10. "If He Finds It, Kill Him"
  11. "Trespassers Will Be Eaten"
  12. "Solitaire Gets Her Cards"
  13. "Sacrifice"
  14. "James Bond Theme"
  15. "Gunbarrel / Snakebit"
  16. "Bond To New York"
  17. "San Monique (Alternate)"
  18. "Bond And Rosie"
  19. "The Lovers"
  20. "New Orleans"
  21. "Boat Chase"
  22. "Underground Lair"

Vehicles & gadgets

  • Magnetic watch — Given to Bond by M. When turned on, it could snag any light weight metallic item. In theory, Bond claims it can even deflect a bullet. It also has a saw built into it.
  • Bug sweeper — Bond uses a handheld device that can sweep a room for electronic microphones.
  • Although not an official gadget, Bond improvises a small flamethrower using a can of after-shave lotion and a lit cigar.
  • Bond has an espresso machine at his home. In 1973, such devices were uncommon for home use (much as Bond in From Russia with Love had a pager and car-based telephone years before cell phones were invented).
  • Similarly, early on in the film, Bond is seen using a Pulsar digital watch, which only entered distribution as recently as 1972. Bond's has an LED display which was activated by pushing a button on the side.

Locations

Film locations

Shooting locations

Awards

Year Result Award Recipients
1974 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Song Paul & Linda McCartney
1974 Nominated Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture Paul & Linda McCartney
1975 Won Evening Standard Best Picture Guy Hamilton

Trivia

  • The producers made a conscious effort to distance the new James Bond from the character made famous by Sean Connery, perhaps an effort to avoid comparisons to George Lazenby. For example: Roger Moore's Bond never orders a vodka martini (neither shaken, nor stirred), he drinks bourbon whiskey; the mission briefing occurs in Bond's flat (not seen since Dr. No in '62); Roger Moore's James Bond does not wear a hat; he smokes cigars, not cigarettes. In time, as Moore grew in to the role, many old Bond-isms returned, and some new elements were dropped.
  • Live and Let Die is the first of two films featuring Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper portrayed by Clifton James, who later reprised the role in The Man with the Golden Gun. It is also the first of two films featuring David Hedison as Felix Leiter, who later reprised the role in Licence to Kill; no other actor has played Leiter more than once.
  • The Jamaican agent, Quarrel Jr., is the son of Quarrel from Dr. No. In the novel series, Live and Let Die was the first appearance of Quarrel, followed by his death in Dr. No.
  • This is the first James Bond film to use extensive adult language. The old woman whose flying lesson is hijacked by Bond utters the word "shit" (US network-television viewers never hear this), Sheriff Pepper begins uttering the F-word when he first sees Bond's powerboat but doesn't get beyond "fu-", and the partial expletive "mother" is also heard numerous times. Even in 1973, that was not enough to have the film rated past PG; viewers would have to wait until 1989, for Licence to Kill (coincidentally also partly based on the novel Live and Let Die) until such language was heard again.
  • This was the first and, to date, only James Bond film to acknowledge the supernatural. Although there are indications that Baron Samedi is simply a magician and showman, and that his "resurrection" after falling into a coffin of snakes could be explained as a trick, Solitaire's psychic abilities are more difficult to rationalise.
  • In a zoom-in shot of what is (supposedly) the CIA headquarters in New York the then-under construction World Trade Center can be seen briefly in the background.
  • Coachbuilder Les Dunham provided a Chevrolet Corvette conversion (the Corvorado) which uses components from a 1971 or 1972 Cadillac Eldorado; this car was briefly seen in the blaxploitation film Superfly. He kept the vehicle for several years as a show car. One of the vehicles 007 is pursuing in the film (as a passenger in a taxicab) is a Cadillac Fleetwood Pimpmobile, along with an Eldorado coupe.
  • Solitaire's Tarot cards have '007' printed on the backs of them. The High Priestess card was deliberately designed to resemble Jane Seymour. The deck was released as the "James Bond 007 Tarot Deck" and, along with an instruction book and layout mat as the "James Bond 007 Tarot Game." This deck is is still available, with a different back pattern, as the "Tarot of the Witches Deck". The deck faces were designed by Fergus Hall.
  • Director Guy Hamilton liked the running over alligators stunt so much he named the villain after the stuntman who performed it, Ross Kananga, the owner of the alligator farm where the scene was filmed. The filmmakers discovered the farm while scouting for locations when they saw a sign warning that "TRESPASSERS WILL BE EATEN." This sign is also seen in the film. The sequence of Bond running over the alligators was a real stunt performed by Kananga. In one take of the stunt, the last gator snapped at Kananga's heel, tearing his trousers. This is detailed on the Special Edition DVD, complete with slow-motion replay.
  • Bond's boat in the speedboat jump scene over the bayou unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time, and a villain's boat that made the jump later unintentionally destroyed Sherriff Pepper's patrol car. Due to Clifton James's spontaneous character acting in that scene, it was kept.
  • Bond evades several police officers when commandeering a double-decker bus — two Chevrolet Novas were seen as police vehicles. Although the Chevrolet vehicles were on loan from GM, this was a few years before the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department experimented with a similar Nova for police duty to which law enforcement agencies ordered them in bulk.
  • Madeline Smith, who played the beautiful young Italian agent Miss Caruso who is in bed with Bond in the film's opening, was recommended for the part by Roger Moore after working with her on TV. Smith said Moore was very polite to work with but she felt very uncomfortable being clad in only her panties since Moore's over protective wife was on the set overseeing the scene.
  • Roger Moore toned down his famous mannerisms, cultivated in the role of Simon Templar, The Saint, in particular, the cocking eyebrow.

External links

1973 films | 1954 novels | James Bond films | James Bond books | British novels | Drug-related films | Leben und sterben lassen | Vive y deja morir | Vivre et laisser mourir | חיה ותן למות | Agente 007 - Vivi e lascia morire | 007 死ぬのは奴らだ | Live and Let Die | Live and Let Die | Живи и дай умереть (фильм) | Leva och låta dö

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Live and Let Die".

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