Thanks for posting this, I wasn’t aware of it, looks like a good one to grab.
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Bang! And Bond is back – in the best and biggest way possible! After TMWTGG, a duffer if ever there were one, The Spy Who Loves Me has it all – a well-used big budget, humour (Moore is at his best, playing the superspy with a raised eyebrow without ever degenerating into archness) action, jaw-dropping sets (thanks Ken Adam), gorgeous girls (Barbara Bach, Caroline Munro, Olga Bisera), lovely locations, a splendidly deranged supervillain (played with relish by Curd Jurgens), one of the best henchman in Richard Kiel’s metal-mouthed Jaws, outrageous gadgets, a cracking script, a great score and an even better theme (composed by Marvin Hamlisch and beautifully sung by Carly Simon)…
Everyone always remembers the ski chase/Union Jack parachute scene, Bond fighting Jaws, Stromberg’s sub-swallowing supertanker and the Lotus Esprit-cum submarine, but this also also one of the best-looking (perhaps the best-looking) Bonds, with sumptuous cinematography by Claude Renoir (nephew of the great director Jean). Although he was starting to go blind, Renoir made the most of the locations – Bahamas, Sardinia, Egypt – and the massive new 007 Stage at Pinewood and the result is one helluva handsome picture.
Easily the best of the Moore films, and one of the very best of the entire series. Thumbs up from me.
Finally, a bit of trivia. The late Michael Billington (most famous for his portrayal of Colonel Foster in Gerry Anderson’s UFO) has a small role in the movie as Sergei Barsov, a Soviet agent who’s also Barbara Bach’s character’s lover. Billington was screen-tested for the role of Bond more than any other actor. In fact, he was Cubby Broccoli’s first choice for For Your Eyes Only had Roger Moore not been available (RM was originally contracted to do only three Bonds, and was uncertain as to whether he wanted to do any more). He also screen-tested for OHMSS, L&LD, Moonraker and Octopussy. I think he might have made quite a good Bond.
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Now you’re talking Kev!
And let’s not forget that TSWLM also showcased the new Ford Cortina Mark IV (my Mum had just bought one, a 2.0GL no less…).
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I had a Mk IV Cortina, too. First decent car I ever owned. Bit of a Bond theme in this, I think, because didn’t Daniel Craig’s Bond showcase the new Ford Mondeo in Casino Royale?
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Caroline Munro - the subject of the heartbreaking gorgeous song by Colin Blunstone - Caroline Goodbye.
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Ah yes, Caroline Munro; Not to forget that for many years she was the face (body?) of Lamb’s Navy Rum. Also she was one of the stars of Starcrash, opposite David Hasselhoff and Christopher Plummer (no less!);
Could this be a film worth re-visiting…?
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No, it’s rubbish! Even for a connoisseur of trash like me!
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I had to put on the subtitles watching this Sky premiere, as the 1950s Brooklyn lingo comes thick and fast.
Tall tale of sniffing out corruption. Chock full of stereotypes and tropes, yet feels lovingly assembled, with some great shots.
Perhaps one to watch with the guys and a few beers.
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@Richard.Dane - if you want vintage Munro, try At The Earth’s Core, one of those endearingly low-budget Amicus Productions movies from the mid-1970s. As well as Ms Munro and the usual cast of rubbish rubber monsters, it’s got Peter Cushing, Keith Barron and the undisputed king of lo-fi sci-fi, the late great Doug MacLure, in it.
Hell, after seeing that trailer it took me back 45 years and seeing it in the local fleapit during the school holidays – I might have to track it down, either on disc or one of the streaming services!
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Well you might want to catch up on some re-runs of 3-2-1…With her mates Ted and Dusty!
Note the ‘booby prize’ gag. Phnarr…Phnarr!
Cool Hand Luke
Many years since I watched it. This is a film which covers complex issues, but in a time before the pervasive use of drugs. It still doesn’t remove the power of the film. The central character is a war hero who is arrested for some mindless vandalism and ends up …well, I’ll let you find that out.
Still worth your time.
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You mean trampas!
M
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Yeah, Cool Hand Luke, one of the greatest films of all time, yet manages only to get 1 like here. Sums modern life up.
Absolutely classic wonderful film.
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How on earth was I persuaded to waste more than two hours of my life watching this meretricious garbage? Lord knows, but I was – what a great steaming pile of crap, especially as the first two films in this franchise were excellent entertainment.
I won’t bother outlining the story to you, because there isn’t one – unless you’re the sort of wanker for whom “muscly bloke meets muscly bloke, fights, has another fight with another beefcake, has a break, then has some more fights” constitutes a narrative arc. Then there’s the sound - this movie suffers from the 21st century Hollywood disease - perfectly rendered explosions, hideous bombastic and overly loud “music” (probably by Hans Zimmer) and completely inaudible dialogue (not, I suspect, that the dialogue’s worth hearing anyway).
Adding to the story’s incomprehensibilty, you have the fact that you can’t see what’s going on, because the director and DoP have decided to shoot the thing in the dark, because they have pretentiously decided that “darkness” equals gravitas.
Then we have the worst thing about this godawful farrago, Christian Bale, the world’s foremost exponent of the “I’ve suffered for my art, now you’re gonna suffer too” school of “acting” who is completely insufferable. As he always is.
A terrible reminder of just how enfeebled Hollywood has become over the past couple of decades.
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If the Terminator flick above represents present(ish) day Hollywood at its worst, The Thin Man, a Dashiell Hammett-scripted comedy thriller from 1934 represents Tinseltown at its glorious best. Directed in just 16 days by WS “One Take Woody” Van Dyke, this B movie was so successful it spawned five sequels.
Key to its success was not just the script, but its two stars. Myrna Loy and William Powell were two of the greats of the Golden Age. The pair were in 14 pictures together and there was a unique, magical chemistry between them. Powell and Loy were very much like each other, witty, stylish, elegant, always ready with a quip or a putdown, which is what probably made their onscreen partnerships work so well.
Here they play Nick and Nora Charles, a pair of wisecracking Manhattanites, bickering good-naturedly while knocking back cocktails. She’s an heiress, he’s a former private detective. In between drinking and exchanging repartee, they solve murder mysteries.
They really don’t make 'em like this any more, which is a terrible pity. And if every marriage was as much fun as Nick and Nora’s, nobody would ever get divorced.
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classy & classic - wonderful acting combination as you rightly say…
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Dic(k) Clement and Ian La Frenais give Bill Nighy his big film as the band get back together with the great Bruce Robinson making a rare appearance.
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Great visuals, sound, art direction, playing, onstage effects etc – the sort of thing Chuckles does better than just about anyone else.
Couple of things I don’t like – the packaging’s a bit flimsy; and the audience shots – lots of good-looking millenials in raptures, singing along – feel staged and slightly riduculous. I mean, where are the spotty teenage boys, gnarled old baldies, squaddies and stiffs who make up a goodly part of the average RW audience? Nevertheless, it’s a visual and sonic spectacular with (an occasionally over-emphasised) message.
Last night we watched Mine 9 on DVD, courtesy of Cinema Paradiso. Set in a coal mine in West Virginia it gave a real close-up view of what it must be like day after day to descend into a mine, never quite knowing whether you’ll make it out at the end of the shift. I found it gripping, if extremely claustrophobic. Well worth watching though…
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