Despite the huge commercial success of Diamonds Are Forever Sean Connery reaffirms that it will abandon the role of James Bond. The United Artists try to convince the Scottish actor with economic proposals more attractive, and a script that, for the intentions of the author (Tom Mankiewicz), 007 back to the missions of the early years, with more attention to the plot and failed to special effects. However, Connery is adamant, declaring unavailable. Broccoli and Saltzman decided then to seek a new interpretation of the saga. At first Saltzman proposes the name of Burt Reynolds, but Broccoli is opposed, arguing (rightly) that Bond must be English and Reynolds is too American for the part. After toying with the idea of \u200b\u200binvolving Paul Newman and Robert Redord, discarded for the same reasons, Reynolds, Cubby opts again for Roger Moore. The British actor is free of commitments this time because his television series The Persuaders ( The Persuaders! ) was canceled due to the lack of success in the United States. Moore is so happy to accept the proposal and signs a contract for three films, the first of which is Live and Let Die, the second novel written by Fleming after Casino Royale.
Three British secret service agents were killed respectively at the United Nations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Sainte-Monique, a small island in the Caribbean. 007 is awakened in the middle of the night by his superior M. inform him of what happened and sends a mission to New York, with the task of checking whether there is behind the three crimes the hand of Kananga, a diplomat of the tropical island.
In New York Bond escapes an assassination attempt. His friend CIA, Felix Leiter, informs him that the car that tried to kill him turns out to be the name of a collaborator of Kananga. Bond goes to Harlem where he is immediately taken prisoner by a Mr. Big, a drug trafficker who has color in his side Tee-Hee, a sinister figure with a mechanical arm that ends with pliers, and the charming guy Solitaire. The 007 takes a brief meeting of the cards and the girl is the symbol of lovers. After managing to escape in Sainte Monique Bond flies to try to understand what a bond exists between Kananga and Mr. Big.
Here you find the hotel waiting for Rosie, un'impacciata CIA agent who would help him in the company. Soon Bond realizes that it works in the pay of Kananga. Rosie refuses to cooperate and, in an attempt to escape, is killed by hit men's boss. 007 decides to go see Solitaire, who lives atop a hill guarded by Kananga's henchmen. After landing with a glider in the garden of Bond is the guy worried about the omen had their first meeting. He has good reason because the girl gave in a flash to the charm of our own. The girl is believed to have lost his powers: Legend has it that the loss of virginity is lost even the gift of foresight. Bond takes with itself Solitaire decides explore the island. He discovers that the cemetery where his colleague was killed during a voodoo ritual lies a huge field of cultivation of heroin. 
Bond and Solitaire are attacked by the men of Kananga, but manage to escape but in Louisiana where they are captured. 007 meet again Mr Big wants to know if that Solitaire has lost her virginity. Noblesse oblige and the English gentleman does not reveal the secret of Mr. Big but manages to find out. They then revealed that he and Kananga is the same person. His criminal plan is planning to launch a huge game in the U.S. market free of heroin. Thus in one stroke wipe out the competition and win the monopoly of a drug on the streets. Kananga leaves the light in the clutches of Tee-Hee. This leads Bond on a farm where crocodiles are bred. In reality it is the umpteenth cover, this time to cover the refinery drugs. Bond is left on a platform at the mercy of alligators but manages to escape and, after a spectacular chase boat, to safety. We came to the final showdown. Sainte Monique Bond back to at night, Free Solitaire, just as he is about to be sacrificed in a voodoo rite horrible by Baron Samedi and detonates drug plantations. The last meeting with Kananga involves a fight between the two in a pool infested with sharks in which Bond eliminates his opponent making him swallow a bullet compressed air, for just the sharks.
train in the final scene, Bond and Solitaire are enjoying their well-deserved vacation when they are attacked by Tee-Hee. There is still time for a final battle that saw the points to win the British ...
The last shot is given to the redoubtable Baron Samedi laughs that sitting on the front of the train.
In 1973, Roger Moore replaced Sean Connery and therefore it faces its first lead 007. Moore had been the first choice of Broccoli and Fleming of the same from the beginning but the British actor had to decline the offer because they engaged in television in the role of the Holy . So Sean Connery had become the first James Bond film. Later, the British actor had been approached to Her Majesty's Secret Service but also on that occasion could not agree to contractual commitments. The choice of Moore leads to a change of tone in the register of the adventures of the secret agent. They are the irony and lightness of Moore to impose it, other physical and sarcastic dall'approccio Connery. However, this posting will be in a less rapid than usually believed.
Live and Let Die, in fact, is still very close to the atmosphere of the early Bond earnest. In particular, there are many points of contact with license to kill, the first feature film series, from Jamaican location, bad living on an uncharted island in the Caribbean, the supporting actors who help Bond in the company. However, we are in full blaxploitatio (combining the two words black-black-exploitation and exploitation) and the film version is from the book by Fleming is distorted by the writer Tom Mankievitcz, which contains only the setting for "black", eliminating the entire plot from vaguely racist novel. Live and Let Die is therefore a revised version of the detective Shaft , the famous title of 1971 with the black police officer Richard Roundtree.
The film contains many points of contact with the blaxploitation that have been modified to fit the white protagonist. In the blaxploitation actors blacks often had relationships with white women. Bond, however, has a history, albeit brief, with Rosie, the CIA agent in the service of Kananga. Much of the action of Live and Let Die also takes place in typical locations such as Harlem and New Orleans. Finally, a curious affinity between Mr. Big and Super Fly's Priest, black anti-hero of a film in 1972. However, while this figure in pusher Super Fly was glorified in "Live and Let Die is portrayed as a malevolent figure. 007 This time should not face the Spectre but the voodoo rites, and a gang of criminals led by blacks in office Mr. Kananga villain (played by Yaphet Kotto with sweet ferocity), chief of the islet of Sante Monique in the Caribbean, but also known as Mr. Big in the U.S. , drug trafficker who aspire to world control the sale of heroine. The Bond girl of the moment is the beautiful Solitaire (played by Jane Seymour, then nineteen), a fortune teller who predicts the result of Kananga with her tarot cards. The first memorable encounter with Bond when the fishing from the deck of cards the symbol of lovers. Solitaire is destined to see his powers fade as soon lose his virginity and Mr. Kananga understandably keeps under lock and key to prevent that this happens. Needless to say, James Bond shall terminate the esoteric tradition of the girl.
Fascinating, too bad the other two actors: Tee-Hee, the man with the metal arm (the real one was eaten by an alligator), and Baron Samedi, the man dubbed by the laughter of gold because of its lugubrious sneers.
Allied Bond in this adventure is Felix Leiter of the CIA, brilliantly played by David Hedison that no accident will resume the role sixteen years later in Kill .
Tom Mankiewitcz The script is built with a wise use of exotic locations, at such securities Thunderball and You Only Live Twice , and some breathtaking chase. On the latter's veteran director Guy Hamilton, the director of what he called in Goldfinger incontrovertibly the Bond-movie formula. In particular, we point out the 13-minute chase on boats that occupy the third part of the film, with the participation dell'irresistibile Sergeant Pepper (Clifton James) who assists stunned the incredible acrobatics of the stunt. However, except for the above brackets, the general tone of the film is serious, even horror in many sequences, see for example the funeral of voodoo final scene. The soundtrack by George Martin, former Beatles producer, is up to of those legendary John Barry and the title track of Paul McCartney and Wings can certainly be counted as the best in the series. There is no shortage of touches of humor to Moore: see for example the irresistible chase sequence aboard a plane piloted by a pleasure craft or tender old jokes deadpan which keeps 007 head of an increasingly angry Mr Kananga.
Production, burned by the failure of Her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby, decide not to invest too much on the film to avoid fiascos, to gauge public appreciation of the new Bond. Moore's debut is to be welcomed with receipts amounting to 126 million dollars, a figure which has considerable time, especially considering the production cost of $ 7 million. Live and Let Die is one of the best films of Moore, and one of the most compelling of the series, in my humble opinion, underrated. It 'probably the most negative reviews are due to the fact that this film marks the final closure of the cycle that the actual quality of the Connery films.
BAD
Kananga - Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto), Yaphet Kotto plays two
villain in one: in the shoes of Kananga is the head of state of a Caribbean island dedicated to the cultivation heroin and voodoo rituals, while those of Mr. Big has control of the sale of the drug on the streets of Harlem.
Tee-Hee (Julius Harris)
Assistant Kananga is a sinister figure with two feet instead of the right hand eaten by a crocodile, two sharp pincers.
Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown)
A fat man who speaks in a whisper, hence its nickname (Whisper in English means whistle).
Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) Baron
The left is dedicated to the arts of voodoo magic and an unbridled passion for snakes. His laughter is powerful and frightening at the same time.
THE BOND GIRLS
Solitaire (Jane Seymour) The charming guy
of Kananga has a special power: she is a virgin until you can read the future. Bond ends his part to the special character of the girl.
Rosie Carter (Gloria Hendry)
The awkward Rosie is the first Bond girl of color to fall into the arms of 007. Unfortunately for her the relationship is short lived ...
Miss Caruso (Madeleine Smith)
Italian agent, hidden in a closet of his apartment by Bond, who does not want to show it to his superior M, does not lose its humor when back alone with her lover.
FRIENDS
Felix Leiter: CIA agent is a staunch ally of Bond on American soil.
Quarrel Jr : Like father, like son. Sr. Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) was the sailor who accompanied the island of Dr. No. Sean Connery's son (Roy Syewart) is no exception and leads the new Bond on the island of Kananga.
Tools of the Trade (OR THE GADGET )
Rolex Watches: with a powerful magnet is also able to break through the hardened steel blade un'affilatissima hidden in the ring.
Brush radio : also able to detect bugs and improper means of listening.
Hang : inimitable Bond, even after a flight over the Caribbean Sea lands in smoking in the garden of the villa of Solitaire.
gun sharks: with a deadly projectile by compressed air can blow out of proportion to the victim and then explode into a thousand pieces.
CURIOSITY '
- Roger Moore as Bond agreed to the series because in the meantime Persuaders The Persuaders! ), which originally was to continue for five seasons, America was canceled at the end the first series.
- In 45 years Roger Moore became the oldest actor to play Bond called. The youngest was George Lazenby who at the time of Her Majesty's Secret Service was 29 years.
- Roger Moore had already dressed the role of James Bond in the summer of 1964 in an episode of the television series Mainly Millicent.
- Filming began October 13, 1972 and ended March 15, 1973.
- The Royal World Premiere of "Live and Let Die occurred July 5, 1973, the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square in London in the presence of Princess Anne.
- This is the second film in which we see the apartment Bond. The first is license to kill.
- In this episode of the saga does not appear to Q (Desmond Lewellin).
- This is the first game in which the soundtrack is by John Barry, but George Martin, the historical record producer of the Beatles.
- Live and Let Die is the second book of the adventures of 007 written by Ian Fleming.
- The exterior of the film were shot in New York, Louisiana and Jamaica.
- To differentiate itself from Sean Connery, Roger Moore never wears a hat, drinking bourbon instead of vodka martinis and smoke cigars instead of cigarettes.
- The love scene between Bond and Rosie Carter (played by Color Gloria Hendry) was censored in the apartheid South Africa because it was considered scandalous. After
- From Russia with Love this is the second film in which the opening scene does not appear 007.
- Geoffrey Holder, who plays the Baron Samedi in the film, he hated snakes. While shooting the final sequence, when Bond is hit by falling into a coffin full of snakes, Holder won his only fear was present that day because the Princess Alexandra, arrived at Pinewood Studios to watch a day's shooting. During production
- Roger Moore was hit by a renal colic. Later, during the shooting in Jamaica, is that Moore Jane Seymour were suffering from dysentery.
- Ross Kananga was the name of the owner of the holding of crocodiles in Jamaica which was filmed the famous scene in which 007 runs away, running over the heads of some alligators. In fact, the scene was shot personally by Kananga who also risked falling into the water as you can see behind the scenes on the DVD of the film. The surname of Kananga was later used by Mankievitz for his bad.
- The title track, sung by Paul McCartney and Wings, came seventh in the American charts and was nominated for an Oscar.
- Quarrel Jr's character is a direct reference to aide Sean Connery in Licence to kill . Quarrel sr., infatti, era il proprietario del battello che accompagnava Bond sull’isola del Dr. No.
Time Running 121"
Produced by
Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
Directed by
Guy Hamilton
Screenplay
Tom Mankiewicz (from Ian Fleming book)
Original Music by
George Martin
The song composed by
Paul and Linda McCartney
Performed by
Paul McCartney and Wings
Main Title designed by
Maurice Binder
Cinematography by
Ted Moore
Film Editing by
Bert Bates,Raymond Poulton, John Shirley
Casting by
Weston Drury Jr.
Art Direction by
Syd Cain (supervising art director)
Robert W. Laing (co-art director)
Peter Lamont (co-art director)
Costume Design by
Julie Harris
Choreographer
Geoffrey Holder
Makeup Department
Colin Jamison hairdresser
Paul Rabiger chief makeup artist
Production Management
Claude Hudson, Steven P. Skloot
Second Unit Director
Derek Cracknell
Art Department
Stephen Hendrickson
Sound Department
Ken Barker, John W. Mitchell
Special Effects by
Derek Meddings
Optical Effects
Charles Staffell
Camera Operator
Bob Kindred
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Laurel Staffell
Shark Scene
William Grefe
CAST
James Bond: Roger Moore
Kananga/Mr. Big: Yaphet Kotto
Solitaire: Jane Seymour
Sceriffo Pepper: Clifton James
Tee Hee: Julius Harris
Barone Samedi: Geoffrey Holder
Felix Leiter: David Hedison
Rosie Carter: Gloria Hendry
M: Bernard Lee
Miss Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell
Adam: Tommy Lane
Whisper: Earl Jolly Brown
Quarrel Jr: Roy Stewart
Agente CIA Harold Strutter: Lon Satton
taxi driver: Arnold Williams
Mrs. Bell: Ruth Kempf
Charlie: Joie Chitwood
Miss Caruso: Madeline Smith
Dambala: Michael Ebbin
Woman in shop: Kubi
Chaz Performer: Brenda Arnau
Hungarian delegation to 'UN: Gabor Vernon
card on Imdb
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