James Bond #8 - Live And Let Die / 1973
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This series has been put out in honor of my favorite action hero - James Bond, Secret Agent 007.
Live and Let Die (1973) is the eighth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, it was the third of four Bond films to be directed by Guy Hamilton. Although the producers had wanted Sean Connery to return after his role in the previous Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, he declined, sparking a search for a new actor to play James Bond. Moore was signed for the lead role.
The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. In the film, a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tons of heroin free to put rival drug barons out of business. Mr. Big, however, is revealed to be the disguised alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, the fictional island where the heroin poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the death of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, where he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme.
Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including afro hairstyles, derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and "pimpmobiles". It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, depicted primarily in blaxploitation films. It is set in African American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African American Bond girl to be romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success and was nominated for an Academy Award.
PLOT
Three British (MI6) agents, including one "on loan" to the American government, are killed within 24 hours, under mysterious circumstances, while monitoring the operations of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small Caribbean island, San Monique. James Bond (Roger Moore) – agent 007, sometimes referred to as simply '007' – is sent to New York to investigate the first murder. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. Just after Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by a passing motorist, while taking Bond to meet Felix Leiter of the CIA. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash.
A trace on the killer's licence plate eventually leads Bond to Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto), a ruthless and cunning gangster who runs a chain of Fillet of Soul restaurants throughout the United States. It is here that Bond first meets Solitaire, a beautiful virgin tarot expert who has the uncanny ability to see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big, who is actually Kananga in disguise, demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes unscathed. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a CIA double agent. They meet up with a friend of Bond's, Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat to Solitaire's home. Bond suspects Rosie of working for Kananga. She is shot dead, remotely, by Kananga, to stop her confessing the truth to Bond. Inside Solitaire's house, Bond uses a stacked tarot deck of cards, that show only "The Lovers", to trick her into thinking that seduction is in her future, and then seduces her. Solitaire loses her ability to foretell the future when she loses her virginity to Bond and is forced into cooperating with Bond to bring down Kananga.
Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by 'Mr. Big', who reveals himself to be Kananga. It transpires that Kananga is producing two tons of heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting locals' fear of voodoo and the occult. Through his alter ego, Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his Fillet of Soul restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. Kananga also believes that other drug dealers, namely the Mafia, cannot compete with his giveaway, to which Kananga can later charge high prices for the heroin, after he has simultaneously cultivated huge drug dependency and bankrupted his competitors.
Kananga asks Bond if he has slept with Solitaire. When he finds out that he has, Kananga turns Solitaire over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed, as her ability to read tarot cards is gone. Meanwhile, Kananga's one-armed henchman, Tee Hee Johnson, leaves Bond to be eaten by crocodiles at a farm in the Louisiana backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety. He sets the farm on fire and steals a speedboat. He is then pursued by Kananga's men, as well as local Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) and the Louisiana State Police.
Back in San Monique, Bond rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice with a .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver and throws Samedi into a coffin of snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. Bond escapes and forces a shark gun pellet into Kananga's mouth, causing him to blow up like a balloon, float to the top of the cave, and explode.
After the job is done, Felix puts Bond and Solitaire onto a train and out of the country. Tee Hee Johnson follows Bond and Solitaire onto the train and tries to kill Bond, but loses his prosthetic arm in a fight with him and is flung out of the window. As the film ends, Bond comforts Solitaire, and a laughing Samedi is revealed perched on the front of the speeding train.
CAST
Roger Moore as James Bond: A British agent who is sent on a mission to investigate the murder of three fellow agents.
Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga and Mr. Big: Main antagonist. A corrupt Caribbean Prime Minister who doubles as a drug lord.
Jane Seymour as Solitaire: Kananga's psychic and the love interest of Bond.
Julius Harris as Tee Hee Johnson: Kananga's primary henchman who has a pincer for a hand.
David Hedison as Felix Leiter: Bond's CIA colleague. Leiter is also investigating Mr. Big.
Gloria Hendry as Rosie Carver: A CIA agent in San Monique.
Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper: A local, uncouth Louisiana sheriff.
Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi: Kananga's henchman who has ties to the Voodoo occult.
Bernard Lee as M: The Head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Roy Stewart as Quarrel Jr.: Bond's ally in San Monique and son of Quarrel from Dr. No.
Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper: Kananga's henchman who only whispers.
Tommy Lane as Adam: One of Dr. Kananga's henchmen who pursues 007 through the Louisiana Bayou.
Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary.
Madeline Smith as Miss Caruso: An Italian agent whom Bond romances and strips off her clothing by way of his magnetic watch.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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