Live and Let Die is important in the Bond series if for no other reason than marking the end of one era and the transition to another. It's one of the most distinctive Bond films and, in a series that numbers twenty or more films (depending on how you count them), distinctiveness is nice to encounter. It is the only Bond film featuring a predominately black cast, the first starring Roger Moore, the first scored by someone other then John Barry, one of the few without an appearance by Desmond Llewelyn as Q, one of the most atmospheric, but also the most dated film in the series. It was the third 007 film directed by Guy Hamilton, so that, at least, was an element of continuity.

Historical Background: English director Guy Hamilton was born in Paris, France in 1922, but to parents who were British citizens. Hamilton directed a total of four Bond films, starting with the preeminent one, Goldfinger (1964). He was brought back after the Lazenby fiasco, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), to get the series back on track with Diamonds Are Forever (1971), which took the series a sizable step further in the direction of camp humor and silly action sequences. Then, when Roger Moore came aboard as Bond's new incarnation, Hamilton directed the first two films of the new era: Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Hamilton directed the first two Moore films with an understanding for the strengths and weakness that Moore brought to the role. Moore simply could not match Connery's masculinity or hard edge, but possessed an ability to look suave in a tuxedo and to deliver a bon mot with a raised eyebrow. Individual viewers may or may not like the direction that the series went when Roger Moore took over, but it was really the only choice Hamilton had, with Moore as lead man.

The Story: The pre-credit sequence is distinctive in that Bond doesn't appear in it at all, but it sets the stage for the rest of the story. At the United Nations building in New York City, an unseen assassin murders the British Ambassador Dawes by sending a powerful audio signal through the man's earphone. At about the same time in New Orleans, British agent Hamilton (Robert Dix) is keeping an eye on the "Fillet of Soul" nightclub from a street corner stakeout. A funeral procession comes round the corner, led by the Olympia brass band. When Hamilton asks the man standing next to him whose funeral it is, the man responds, "Yours," and stabs Hamilton in his flank. Hamilton's corpse is neatly scooped up in the coffin through a mechanized false bottom. Elsewhere, on the Caribbean island of San Monique, another British agent, Baines (Dennis Edwards), is murdered in a voodoo ceremony, tied to a stake and bitten by a venomous snake held by a tribal dancer.

The credits now run against silhouetted black female dancers, amid red flames, dancing hands, and colorful fiber optics. Paul McCartney and Wings belt out the strains of a better than average title song, "Live and Let Die." As the movie proper begins, Bond – the then new Bond played by Roger Moore – awakens beside the lovely Miss Caruso (Madeline Smith). It about five in the morning and the doorbell is ringing. Bond is surprised to find M (Bernard Lee) at the door. He's got an urgent assignment for Bond, which he explains while Bond fiddles with his espresso machine. "By the way," says M, in his closest equivalent to small talk, "the Italians were quite pleased with how you handled that Rome affair." Then he adds, "One of their agents is missing, a Miss Caruso. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" Fortunately, the arrival of Miss Moneypenny provides a distraction and Miss Caruso sneaks into a closet while M is looking elsewhere. Bond is to fly off to New York to determine if the three recent assassinations are connected and who's behind it. James has just enough time to show off his wristwatch, newly repaired by Q, which can generate a hyper-intensified magnetic field. M is nonplused when the thing yanks the spoon out of his saucer from six feet away. After M and Moneypenny leave, Bond tries the thing out on Miss Caruso's dress zipper.

As Bonds flies into N.Y.C., a tarot card reader, Solitaire (Jane Seymour), is monitoring his progress, informing her employer, "A man comes, he will oppose, he brings violence and destruction." That's our James all right! At the airport in New York, a CIA chauffeur, Charlie (Joie Chitwood), is waiting to give Bond a lift. Meanwhile, at CIA headquarters, Bond's old pal Felix Leiter (David Hedison) and his colleagues are monitoring the movement of San Monique dictator, Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), as he returns to his country's embassy building. Kananga is traveling with his usual retinue, which includes Solitaire and a number of henchmen, notably Tee Hee (Julius Harris), who has a vice grip device for a right hand, and the beefy Adam (Tommy Lane). These men are all big black men but Solitaire is a rather fragile white woman. Meanwhile, a white Lincoln Continental "pimp-mobile," driven by Kananga henchman Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown), pulls up alongside Bond's car and kills the driver with a poison dart shot from the side mirror. Somebody else has toys too! It's all Bond can do to keep the car from crashing into others on the highway and to bring it to a stop via a controlled crash. Leiter has to cover for Bond with the city police.

Leiter informs Bond that the car with the assassin is registered to a shop on East Street called the "Oh Cult Voodoo." Bond pays the shop a visit and soon sneaks into a back room where he finds a private garage connected by a secret elevator to the San Monique embassy. Bond sees several of Kananga's thugs emerge and drive off in a black luxury car. He tails them in a taxi. They head down to Harlem, where Bond stands out like a cue ball in a rack of eight balls. It doesn't help that his cab driver (Arnold Williams), a black man with a big toothy grin, is working for the other side. Bond follows the men into the "Fillet of Soul" bar. Seeing no immediate sign of the men he's tailing, Bond orders a drink and is shown to a booth. Suddenly, the booth and adjacent wall rotate 180 degrees, relocating Bond in a back room, where he is immediately confronted by several of Kananga's thugs. Solitaire is there as well, reading the Tarot cards. Mr. Big, a notorious black crime boss appears and orders his men to take the honky out and waste him. Bond pulls a Tarot card as he's leaving – "The Lovers." Bond uses a fire escape ladder to knock his would-be assassins off kilter. He encounters Harold Strutter, a black CIA agent who is a good deal less conspicuous in Harlem than is Bond. In Strutter's car, Felix contacts Bond via a receiver hidden in the car's cigarette lighter, causing Bond to muse, "A genuine Felix lighter." Get it?

Felix informs Bond that Kananga is flying out to San Monique in the next hour, so Bond is quickly booked on a flight as well. There, Bond is paired with CIA female assistant Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry). She's gloriously incompetent though Bond is able to find something useful to do with her. Bond scans his room for electronic bugs, but in San Monique they do most things an old-fashioned way. A snake is let loose in his room, which Bond has to fry using an ignited aerosol spray. Whisper sneaks into Bond's room, disguised as a waiter with a bottle of chilled Bollinger, and steals Bond's gun. In the morning, Bond locates a boat and a pilot, Quarrel Jr. (Roy Stewart) (presumably son of the late Quarrel from Dr. No). Rosie shows Bond where Baines was killed (in the pre-credit sequence) and Bond takes note of the hilltop estate atop the island. That night, Bond hand glides onto the island and has soon situated himself in Solitaire's bedroom. There, he uses a stacked deck of Tarot cards to convince Solitaire that they are destined to be lovers. That night, Solitaire surrenders her virginity to Bond, which is more than the usual big deal, since a High Priestess retains her special gift for peering into the future with the Tarot cards only as long as she remains a virgin. Solitaire understands, however, that a High Priestess can only lose her virginity once and, having done so, she might as well keep going.

After thus enlisting Solitaire's help, Bond sets out with her to explore the island. What he discovers is camouflaged poppy fields. When Kananga learns of Bond's presence and that Solitaire is with him, he orders his men to kill Bond at any cost, but not to harm the girl. Bond and Solitaire manage to reach a roadway, where Bond steals a double-decker bus. Police driving three motorcycles and two squad cars are soon in pursuit. Bond drives the tall bus under a low bridge, sheering the upper deck clean off. The last pursuing squad car rams into the upper deck and thence into a pond. Bond and Solitaire manage to make it to Quarrel's waiting boat and escape to New Orleans. The ever pragmatic but unsentimental Bond decides to use Solitaire as bait.

Leaving the Royal Orleans Hotel in the morning in a taxi, Bond discovers that his cab driver is the same toothy-grinning man from Harlem. Bond and Solitaire are escorted to a small private airport where Kananga's men are waiting. Bond manages to break free of his would-be assassins and climbs into a small piper plane where a middle-aged flight student, Mrs. Bell (Ruth Kempf), is awaiting a lesson. Bond drives the plane around the yard and through the hanger, with cars and men in pursuit, causing much chaos and wreckage. All Mrs. Kempf can say is, "You're over-revving!" Later, when he drives the plane at top speed through a partially closed hanger door, sheering off half the length of each wing, Mrs. Kempf adds, "Holy shit!" "Same time tomorrow, Mrs. Bell?" Bond asks, as he runs off.

Outside the "Fillet de Soul" in downtown New Orleans, agent Strutter is on stakeout and meets the same fate as his predecessor, Hamilton. The funeral procession he'd been watching wistfully turns out to be his own. Leiter and Bond show up and, finding no sign of Strutter, take a table inside the bar. Bond knows enough to avoid booth number one this time, but when Leiter goes to take a phone call, Bond's table, next to the stage, sinks into the floor. Once again, Mr. Big and the henchman Tee Hee are there to greet him. Solitaire is there as well and what's foremost on Mr. Big's mind is whether Bond has violated Solitaire. Bond declares that he'll only discuss such matters with Kananga, hoping to buy time. That ploy proves dramatically ineffective, however. Mr. Big rips off his plastic facemask to reveal that he's actually Kananga. Now Bond has to fall back on the excuse that gentlemen don't kiss and tell. Kananga decides he'll test Solitaire's clairvoyance as an indication. When she fails, Kananga orders Whisper to take Bond "to the farm" and he ships Solitaire back to San Monique, where she'll be served up as a voodoo ritual sacrifice.

The "farm," in this instance, is a crocodile and alligator farm, which also doubles as a heroin processing plant. Bond is deposited on a tiny island amid the reptiles at feeding time. He manages to escape ingeniously and sets the processing facility on fire. During the ensuing chaos, Bond escapes in a speedboat, through the marshes and down to Irish Bayou. Several boats are soon in pursuit and Adam speeds after Bond in a car. Adam gets pulled over for speeding by a redneck Louisiana sheriff, J.W. Pepper (Clifton James). As Pepper is reading Adam the riot act, Bond's speedboat roars by across the narrow isthmus and one of the pursuing boats demolishes Pepper's squad car. Adam gets away. Now, Sheriff Pepper's priority is to catch the reckless speedboater responsible for wrecking his car. Pepper calls his brother-in-law Billy Bob, who has the fastest boat on the bayous. "If one side of the family don't get 'em, the other side will," says J.W. Adam overhears the call on his scanner and makes his way to Billy Bob's residence where he steals his boat. Sheriff Pepper's deputies are mighty surprised when Billy Bob's boat goes by, asking, "Are you sure that was your brother-in-law, sheriff?" A madcap chase scene follows, with boats ending up in swimming pools and under wedding canapés. Sheriff Pepper is very disappointed when he finally meets up with Bond not to be able to slap the handcuffs on him. "Secret agent?" he cries, inconsolably. "On whose side?"

Now Bond has to save Solitaire, so it's back to San Monique where poor Solitaire is tied to a stake and due to be bitten at midnight by a venomous snake, in the manner of the unfortunate Baines. It's a full-fledged voodoo ritual, featuring a mechanized grave and the specter of death, Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder), who sports a demonic laugh. Bond interrupts the ritual and he and Solitaire find their way into Kananga's underground lair, for a final showdown. Bond helps give Kananga a physical form to match his inflated ego.

Later, with the crisis behind them, Solitaire and Bond book passage for a sixteen-hour train ride, feeling confident that they'll be able to amuse themselves for that length of time, playing cards and indulging in other amusements. Bond has finally meet his match as a card player when she beats him at gin. As they prepare to settle into their sleeping compartment for some serious snuggling, Bond suddenly encounters one last Tee Hee. The henchman with pliers for a right hand shows up, determined to provide the film with a gripping conclusion. It's a blatant rip-off from From Russia with Love, but at least the fight winds up in a rather disarming manner.

Production Values: The screenplay was written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on Ian Fleming's second novel, generally considered among the best of his early works. Most of the central characters and the Harlem and Caribbean locales were drawn from the book. The strength of the script is plenty of atmospheric black culture, including hip Harlem jive, New Orleans Creole, and Caribbean voodoo. It's badly needed to offset the script's weakness, which is a convoluted and rather inconsequential plot. The film feels too much like a series of disconnected set pieces. The Harlem segments had their origin in the trendy Blaxploitation genre of the early seventies, such as Shaft. The bayou segment featuring Sheriff J. W. Pepper was more of a trendsetter, giving rise to the sub-genre of Southern chase films that would ultimately include Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields in Smokey and the Bandit. The price this film pays for all of its atmospheric quality, from style of clothing to hairdos, is that it has become the most dated of the Bond films, with a clearly evident vintage. Films that ride a fad, are bound to be out-of-date sooner rather than later. Still, the voodoo element in particular adds a welcome aura of supernatural mystery to the proceedings.

It's hard to know what to think of the racial stereotyping and racist language. If films never featured black villains and henchmen, it would certainly limit opportunities for black character actors. Here's a film where most of the bad guys (and gals) are black and most of the good ones white, and a lot of racist terminology gets dispensed in both directions. Bond is a "cue-ball" while Harlem is full of "spades." I commented elsewhere that I believe that borderline instances of racist (or sexist or classist) movie material can really only be evaluated by patterns and trends across many films, rather than in individual films. Looking across the full set of Bond films, villains and henchmen have seldom been played by black actors. In fact, the ethnic groups subjected to the most negative stereotyping in Bond films are Russians and Germans. My inclination is to say that the makers of Live and Let Die deserve kudos for featuring black themes and characters for a change, but I'd be prepared to reconsider that view if someone provides cogent arguments as to why one or more specific elements of this film reinforces negative stereotypes.

The continuity of the story is not much helped by the jumping about between New York City, New Orleans, and the Caribbean, but it provided plenty of opportunity for cinematographer Ted Moore to please us with a variety of images. The squalor of Harlem is nicely contrasted with the bayous of Louisiana and coral seas near "San Monique". The film is crisply editing, maintaining a taut pace without seeming hurried. The action scenes are above average, especially the double-decker bus pursuit and the speedboat chase through the bayous. I thought the comic elements in the bayou segment very effective. The scene with Mrs. Bell at the private airport is not especially effective as action, but it's good for laughs. Although there's no major toy unveiled in this film, there are a plethora of little gadgets. A nicely ironic touch is that this time Bond is on the short end of the battle of gadgets. It is Kananga who has the best secret passageways, trick caskets and graves, and revolving booths. Perhaps that's because this is the only classic Bond film in which Q does not appear, other than Dr. No.

I loved the segment immediately following the credits when M shows up at Bond's home. I don't recall any other Bond film in which we see Bond in his own abode or going about the normal business of living. It was a nice effort at making his character more human as well as deepening the relationship between Bond and M.

The soundtrack, provided by Beatles producer George Martin, is excellent in spots and no worse than mediocre elsewhere. The title song, written by Paul and Linda McCartney, is reprised in various forms throughout the film, either straight out, as when Brenda Arnau belts it out in the Fillet of Soul, or in fragments. The funeral music that gives way to a peppy dance number, twice in New Orleans, is a nice touch.

Roger Moore is not one of my two favorite Bond actors but I don't resent him either. I think he's best in his third through fifth films. In the first two, he was at least more assured than Lazenby, but had not yet mastered the part, even within his own style. Later, in his last two films, he lost interest in the role and the Bond mystique and became something of a self-satire with the look of a lounge lizard. His youthful appearance in the present film is a plus.

Yaphet Kotto is a better than average Bond villain, though not among the top half-dozen. I think he does a nice job avoiding black stereotypes, playing instead more on "villain" stereotypes, including a vastly inflated ego. He's sharp and intelligent, in a vicious sort of way. Kotto's other film work included parts in Nothing but a Man (1964), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Across 110th Street (1972), Blue Collar (1978), Alien (1979), and Midnight Run (1988). Julius Harris is an impressive henchman, with a mechanical "enhancement" that may have inspired the idea for Jaws. His other film work included parts in Nothing but a Man (1964) and Superfly (1972). Geoffrey Holder, as Baron Samedi, is the actor who most created the film's ambiance, with his golden laugh. He also appeared in Doctor Doolittle (1967). Arnold Williams, with the big, toothy grin, also appeared in The King of Marvin Gardens (1972). It's nice to see these black character actors get a change to strut their stuff.

Jane Seymour would ultimately become an accomplished actress, more in television mini-series than on the big screen, but she wasn't at the time she appeared in this film. She's lovely and has a natural quality of innocence and naivety that fits the role, but provides no depth of personality to the character. Madeline Smith did a fine job in the small part as Italian agent Miss Caruso, sharing James's bed as the film opens. I thought Gloria Hendry very weak as Rosie Carver. I also thought her part the most glaring example in the film of negative stereotyping.

Perhaps the most controversial character in the film is Sheriff J.W. Pepper, played by Clifton James. I don't believe that his presence in the film promotes racism in the slightest, any more than Archie Bunker did. Racist dialog that is so blatant that it reveals the ignorance of the speaker is an effective tool for discouraging such language. Most speakers don't want to sound like an idiot. I loved his presence in this film, but his later return in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) was less welcome. The freshness of the character was gone and he became just an ugly American when outside his natural habitat. Clifton James also appeared in David and Lisa (1962), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Last Detail (1973), Juggernaut (1974), Rancho Deluxe (1975), Superman II (1980), and Lone Star (1996). I loved his frustration when he says, "Secret agent? On whose side?"

Bottom-Line: The DVD version of this film offers a behind-the-scenes documentary and a commercial that was based on the film. Live and Let Die is better than at least two of the other Roger Moore films and worse than at least two, so overall I'd say it’s a middlin' kind of Bond film, with both pluses and minuses. Here is my Overall Certified Gold Bond Rating for this film, using my system that facilitates comparisons across the series:

Bond: Roger Moore, young but not yet comfortable with the role Rating: 3/5

Villain: Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) Rating: 4/5

Henchmen Tee Hee (Julius Harris) 4/5; Baron Samedi 5/5; Adam (Tommy Lane) 3/5; Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown (3/5); Cab driver with toothy smile (Arnold Williams) 4/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Henchwomen: Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) Rating: 1/5

Bond (good) Girls: Solitaire (Jane Seymour) 4/5; Miss Caruso (Madeline Smith) 3/5; Mrs. Bell (Ruth Kempf) 5/5 (kidding!) Overall Rating: 4/5

Colleagues: M (Bernard Lee) 5/5; Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) 5/5; Felix Leiter (David Hedison) 3/5; Quarrel Jr. (Roy Stewart) 2/5; Harold Strutter (Lon Satton) 3/5; Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) 4/5; Hamilton (Robert Dix) 3/5; Baines (Dennis Edwards) 3/5; Charlie (Joie Chitwood) 3/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Storyline: Heroin smuggling operation with Caribbean voodoo, Harlem, and New Orleans links Rating: 2/5

Action: Pre-credit triple assassinations 3/5; double-decker bus chase 4/5; piper lesson 3/5; escape from alligator farm and Louisiana bayou chase 5/5; fight with Tee Hee on train (reprised from From Russia with Love) 3/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

Toys: coffin with false bottom 5/5; wristwatch with power cutting edge and hyper-intensified magnetic field 4/5; dart-shooting scarecrows 3/5; revolving booth and sinking table 5/5; flute walky-talky 3/5; stacked deck of Tarot cards 3/5; Kananga's secret exit from his embassy 4/5; Adam's dart-shooting outside mirror on pimp-mobile 4/5; hand-glider 3/5; fake grave for "raising dead" 5/5 Overall Rating: 5/5

Character Development: Flippant Bond 2/5; two-dimensional villain and henchmen 2/5; Solitaire poorly developed except for her occult beliefs 3/5 Overall Rating: 2/5

Music: Very good title song written by Paul and Linda McCartney, sung by Paul McCartney and Wings; mostly average soundtrack by George Martin nicely incorporating title song Rating: 4/5

Locales/atmosphere: Harlem, New Orleans, "San Monique" Rating: 5/5

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Overall Certified Gold Bond Rating: 42/60
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You may also enjoy my other reviews for 007 films:

Casino Royale (1954), non-series, television
Dr. No (1962)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Casino Royale (1967), non-series
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
Never Say Never Again (1983), non-series
A View to a Kill (1985)
The Living Daylights (1987)
Licence to Kill (1989)
GoldenEye (1995)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Die Another Day (2002)

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older