***

This BOND film succeeds despite itself. I fully admit it: I had a good time watching this one back in July of 1977. I enjoyed this film so much that my friends and I sat through it twice. Despite some smarmy sexual innuendo and a weak villain and a overly derivative plot, this BOND is still very fun to watch. The film's direction by Lewis Gilbert is finely tuned and Richard Maibaum's script contributions are what makes it work, along with the fine performances by most of the cast. Roger Moore finally gets it right and seems to feel at home in his role as Agent 007. Barbara Bach's character is not convincing enough, but this problem lies more with the script than in her limited performance. I suspect that the blame for this falls upon co-writer Christopher Wood. How this British porno pulp writer found his way into the BOND franchise is detailed in John Brosnan's book JAMES BOND IN THE CINEMA. It is essentially Lewis Gilbert's fault that Wood is even involved here. With Wood giving Barbara Bach's character the code name "Triple X," all credibility with her role goes right out the window immediately. Even though Barbara Bach is treated as just a sexual object, she still projects a quiet sweetness about her that is really quite endearing. In several scenes, her character actually succeeds in providing a good counterbalance to Roger Moore's interpretation of James Bond.

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is essentially a celebration of the BOND series formula, for it contains so many similar elements from the previous films. Since Albert R. Broccoli was on his own with this film, ( his longtime partner, Harry Saltzman, had departed after the production of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN ) he wasn't about to take any chances, so he borrowed heavily from his earlier BOND productions. In this particular film, we have a Russian female agent who falls for Bond (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE), a gadget-ridden car (GOLDFINGER), an underwater battle (THUNDERBALL), a ski chase (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE), and special vehicles capturing and hijacking other special vehicles (YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE). Generally speaking, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is a remake of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and it is no small coincidence that both films have none other than Lewis Gilbert as their director. The villain Karl Stromberg is really nothing more than a poor man's Blofeld, for he is attempting to start World War III by stealing nuclear submarines from the Americans and the Russians. Yes, Mr. Gilbert is directing within familiar territory here. However, just like his previous BOND film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Lewis Gilbert's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is a very silly James Bond adventure, but it is also a lot of fun to watch.

One of the prime ingredients that makes this film enjoyable is found in the performance of Roger Moore. Moore finally seems comfortable in the role of British Secret Service agent, James Bond 007. Moore's Bond is an interesting mixture here: he's charming and suave and he tosses off the various Bond witticisms with aplomb -- but he also gets to be rather cruel and cold-blooded, too. As with Sean Connery in Dr. No, the filmmakers here have Moore's Bond dispatch a couple of baddies in a very ruthless manner: witness the killing of Sandor and Stromberg -- it isn't pretty. Roger Moore's Bond also liquidates Naomi, Stromberg's sexy female pilot, in a offhanded way that is completely gratuitous -- but that's the beauty of it! Another prime ingredient that makes this BOND film a complete success is the outstanding production design, including the excellent special effects work, produced by wunderkind Ken Adam and the always reliable Derek Meddings, respectively. Ken Adams' set design for the interior of Stromberg's super tanker, the Liparus, is as marvelous as his incredible volcano set from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. The model work and many of the optical effects are excellent overall as well. Stromberg's submersible Atlantis HQ and the Liparus tanker are superb large scale models and represent the best of the BOND film series.

However, Barbara Bach's Bond Girl is definitely not the very best of the 007 film series. Her performance is merely adequate, unfortunately. Still, Barbara Bach's Major Anya Amasova is very sexy and comes across as a rather sweet lady and this does compensate. But overall, it is Christopher Wood's smarmy and idiotic script contributions that sabotage the character of Anya. Major Amasova should have been presented as the female equivalent to Agent 007 in the pre-credit sequence, with Anya finishing a secret mission in parallel scenes juxtaposed to Bond's separate mission. If I had written this script, I would have patterned Anya Amasova after Emma Peel of THE AVENGERS television series. Instead of this, what we get in this particular BOND film is schoolboy-like antics: Major Amasova is almost immediately introduced as "Agent Triple X" after answering a summons from the KGB via a special music box communicator, which plays Lara's Theme from the film DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965). Nudge, nudge -- wink, wink! Ahhh .... right .... whatever. Wood's sophomoric revenge subplot should've been immediately jettisoned as well, because it simply doesn't work and it would never work in a Roger Moore BOND film. Once again, there is no credible attempt to build a truly convincing female agent counterpart to 007.

Speaking of not being entirely convincing, Curt Jurgens' Karl Stromberg fails on almost every level as a BOND supervillain. However, Jurgens was ill during most of the production and was constantly complaining that his character was just a button pusher. Despite the fact that Stromberg comes across as a bore, his henchman called Jaws is just the opposite. Jaws is presented both as a deadly menace and as a comic foil -- somehow this is balanced nicely and actually works here ( in my very humble opinion, that is ). Jaws is as indestructible as 007, it would seem. The comic highlight involving Jaws comes when he is confronted with Stromberg's pet shark: like most of his other obstacles, Jaws simply bites into the shark and kills it -- man eating shark indeed! But does this type of comedy really belong in a James Bond film? The answer is a definite no. This film is a Roger Moore BOND movie, remember. However, I still think this would have worked no matter who was portraying 007. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME could have been vastly improved if certain script elements were abandoned: the juvenile sexual humor, the revenge subplot, the old and weak villain, and the silliness involved by lifting music cues from other films. But overall, I accept this particular BOND production on its own terms, and thus, it shall remain comfortably in my BOND Top Ten List.