Now do pay attention 007. When a new face takes the role of James Bond on the big screen, there is always a scramble by film journalists and other media to obtain the first interviews on location or in the studio with the new 007.
This will undoubtedly be the case when a new actor is eventually appointed for Bond film 26 in the EON franchise, and was certainly the case back in 1973, when ‘new boy’ Roger Moore began shooting his first adventure as James Bond, Live and Let Die. What sort of assessments did Roger face in the early days of production on his first 007 film? As we await news, however brief, about the next Bond movie, the JBIFC takes the opportunity to look back on some of the coverage by British film magazines of Mr. Moore’s debut as MI6’s top agent.
Early references in British film magazines to Moore inheriting the Bond crown almost always mentioned his previous role as The Saint, which had been a hugely popular TV series during the 1960s, and there was plenty of speculation about how Roger’s Bond would differ from Connery’s version – would he be merely the ‘Saint’ reborn or something more distinctive? How would he convert hero Simon Templar’s famous ‘Halo’ into James Bond’s double-0 licence to kill?
Principal photography on Live and Let Die commenced on 13th October, 1972, but it took a while before any serious articles appeared on Moore and his new role as 007 (remember, this was years before the internet and social media!).
One of the first detailed location reports to appear in print in British movie magazines came in February, 1973, in the popular monthly Photoplay magazine, with an article by Bert Reisfeld entitled ‘Goodbye Halo – Hello Bond’. Written on location in New Orleans, the article opened with: ‘Ever been to a Jazz Funeral? Well, I have! A brass band wearing white tails with colourful sashes, marches ahead and plays the blues, the traditional mourning music of America’s South’. Reisfeld noted that, from the sidelines, a slim CIA man leaning against a lamp post watches the cortege. A man approaches and stands next to him. ‘Whose funeral is this?’ asks the CIA man. ‘Yours’ says the man as he stabs him. The CIA man falls into the gutter and immediately six pall bearers put the coffin over him and remove the body. A trumpet blares and suddenly the blues rhythm changes into wild dancing. ‘Cut’ yells director Guy Hamilton but the jazz dancing continues and ‘it takes 4-5 minutes to calm them down and do the scene again’.
Reisfeld told his readers that this was a scene from the eighth James Bond movie, and Roger Moore had just driven up in a taxi to watch the crowd in the following scene: ‘I managed to talk to him during a break’. Reisfeld noted that Roger’s manners off-stage were kind, friendly and cooperative’. The new 007 explained at one point: ‘I am not trying to imitate Sean and in this case it should be easy to create a new ‘Bond’ since the film is the star not the character. The success is explained by the sheer extravagant escapism. In fantasy and action there is no other picture like it. Much money, care and trouble is spent on it’. Interestingly, Reisfeld’s location report revealed that Moore had already been briefed about the next film in the series. Roger commented: ‘The next ‘Bond’ that is planned is The Man With the Golden Gun and the intention is to shoot it entirely outside of studios, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok’.
Reisfeld also told Photoplay‘s readers that one of the highlights of Live and Let Die was a devastating motorboat chase in which 13 high-powered aquajets scream to their destruction with 150 h.p. through the Bayou country of Louisiana. Next to one of the exclusive stills of Roger in a speedboat that accompanied the report, the caption told readers that ‘Fast cars, fast women and fast boats’ were all part of the Bond scene for Roger Moore. For Bond fans and the general public alike, the Photoplay location report would inevitably have more than wetted the appetite of audiences keen to see the new Bond in action.
In June, 1973, another detailed article on Roger Moore as the new 007 appeared for UK readers, this time in the more highbrow Films Illustrated monthly magazine. Entitled ‘Bond Breaks Loose’, the article, written by Bruno Broffenbrenner, consisted of a detailed exploration of Moore’s past career and an interview with the new Bond himself.
In Broffenbrenner’s estimation, Roger had had a less than auspicious career as a matinee idol in the declining days of Hollywood’s star system, and the star was more than willing to accept this: ‘Yes, I suppose I was just window-dressing at MGM’. Turning to his role as the new James Bond, Broffenbrenner pointed out that Moore would now have a guaranteed world audience of millions. Invited to offer his assessment of James Bond as a character, Moore responded: ‘Bond is basically a very square gentleman who, underneath I think, is having a great deal of fun. He has an almost unlimited expense account, goes to the best places and gets tortured by all the best villains. And he gets the best girls. All three are very nice’.
The Films Illustrated interview noted that Roger Moore relished being in a series where the producers just kept piling on more and more jam. Moreover, unlike Sean Connery, Moore said he did not see the Bond series as a springboard to him doing less commercial films. The article was also illustrated with a photo of Bond’s speedboat taking to the air over the head of a startled Louisiana policeman (Sherrif J.W. Pepper).
As with Photoplay, Films Illustrated clearly felt cinemagoers would discover that Roger Moore’s version of Bond would be firmly located in a movie featuring some amazing action sequences. In hindsight, we now know how true this was.
There were, of course, a number of other early magazine articles published in the UK in 1973 on Roger Moore’s early days as 007, with some focusing on Roger’s personal life and his role as a family man. But, as far as EON and United Artists were concerned, initial reactions to Moore’s impending debut on screen as the new James Bond indicated that Roger would make a great job in navigating the transition from the Connery days to a new era in the franchise. They were spot-on. And, as Moore himself noted some years later, with typical modesty: ‘The film, which was budgeted at $7 million, took $126 million at the worldwide box office. Not a bad return is it? I think everyone was pleased’.
Bond is Back! An early publicity still for LALD.