James Bond producers Cubby Broccoli & Harry Saltzman pulled Roger Moore, still boyishly dewy at 45, out of tv doldrums as their Replacement Bond after one-shot discovery George Lazenby dropped out and Sean Connery pitched relief for (almost) the last time. Too bad no one figured out how to properly use him until his third outing in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME/’77. Instead, business as usual*, but with a cut-rate/generic feel to it as Guy Hamilton, the most faceless of early Bond directors*, leads us thru Tom Mankiewicz’s uninspired drug trafficking caper. (Regular Bond scripter Richard Maibaum would soon return.) One nice touch, in a story set mainly in New Orleans & some fictitious Carribean country, calls up far more Black actors in prominent roles than was common in big budget films of the day. On the other hand . . . stereotypes & voodoo. We do get Yaphet Kotto as the main villain. (Hurrah!) Bond going interracial with a bedmate. (Yippee!) Though, lordy! what a bad actress. (Yikes!) And you do have to wait far too long for the back-loaded action set pieces. Best is a Bayou chase sequence for police cars, trucks and motor boats with Moore running from Black bad guys and a Good Ol’ Boy Southern Sheriff. That’s Clifton James, pretty much stealing the film with his politically incorrect act, chewing tobacco, spittin’ and calling all the Black characters ‘Boy.’ Of course, he calls just abut everyone ‘Boy.’ (Brought back for an encore in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN/’74 which tells all you need to know about that nadir in the series.) As Bond pics go, this one's nothing special.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Early Bond films tag-teamed not quite interchangeable directors Terence Young, Hamilton & Lewis Gilbert.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Well, almost business as usual. Where’s ‘Q?’ Also, Beatles music producer George Martin steps in for regular 007 composer John Barry. Securing Paul McCartney’s title song and paying back by using the melody all thru the pic?
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