THE SPY WHO LOVED ME captured all the things I loved about James Bond films from watching them on television except this was on the big screen. Maybe it was my imagination but everything seemed better in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME: the beautiful Bond women, the main villain, his henchmen, exotic locations, large action sequences and a hit theme song. Special effects were becoming a bigger part of movies in the mid to late 1970s. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was no exception. I do love the early Roger Moore films like LIVE AND LET DIE and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974) but they were smaller, character driven Bond films. The world wasn't in global jeopardy. Bond was up against a drug kingpin and an assassin in those two films. The nefarious organization SPECTRE was no where to be found or a silent partner. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME would bring back the megalomaniac who wants to destroy the planet and start a new world order...underwater.
An English submarine and a Russian submarine, both carrying nuclear warheads, go missing as THE SPY WHO LOVED ME begins. KGB chief General Anatol Gogol (Walter Gotell) calls in their best spy Major Anya Amasova aka Agent XXX (Barbara Bach) to investigate while British spy chief M (Bernard Lee) recalls James Bond (Roger Moore) from a mission in Austria. Chased by Russian killers on skis, Bond kills Sergei Barsov (Michael Billington) who happens to be Anya's lover. Both spies return home to pick up their assignment. They learn someone in Cairo, Egypt is trying to sell microfilm with plans for a submarine tracking system to the highest bidder. Bond and Anya head to Cairo separately to investigate.
The hijacker of both the submarines and nuclear warheads is Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), a shipping magnate with a fondness for the ocean (he even has webbed hands). Stromberg sends his two henchmen, the human bowling ball Sandor (Milton Reid) and the indestructible, gargantuan Jaws (Richard Kiel) to Cairo to retrieve the microfilm. After tracking a lead at the Pyramids of Giza, Bond and Anya both pursue nightclub owner Max Kalba (Vernon Dobtcheff) to bid on the microfilm. But Jaws manages to snare the microfilm and kill Max. Bond and Anya jump into Jaws's van as he makes his getaway. Jaws takes them to an archaeological site out in the desert. The two agents battle Jaws and get the microfilm back. Then, Anya drugs Bond and steals the microfilm from him. When Bond reports to M at the Abu Simbel Temple, he discovers M and Gogol have teamed in Anglo/Russian cooperation to find the hijacker. Anya and Bond will team up as well.
The microfilm reveals very little except the dimensions of a tanker ship and the insignia of Stromberg's shipping company. Bond and Anya head to Sardinia to interview Stromberg. Posing as a marine biologist (which never fools the villain), Bond and Anya are picked up by Stromberg's assistant Naomi (Caroline Munro) and taken to his octopus like submersible lair the Aquapolis out in the Mediterranean. The meeting is uneventful except for Bond noticing the unusual bow on one of Stromberg's tanker models. Stromberg orders Naomi to kill Bond and Anya when they return to the mainland. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) provides Bond with an underwater car which comes in handy as they escape Stromberg's team of hit men and women.
Bond learns Stromberg's tanker Liparus has not come into port in 9 months. Bond and Anya are dropped onto an American submarine the USS Wayne to help Commander Carter (Shane Rimmer)track the Liparus but the tanker finds them and swallows up the U.S. submarine, joining the other two missing subs in its enormous hull. Stromberg plans to use the British and Russian submarines to fire nuclear warheads at New York and Moscow, igniting Armageddon. In its wake, Stromberg's underwater city will begin, a new Atlantis. Bond with the assistance of the captured submarine crews break out and fight back. Bond reprograms the warheads to target the other submarine instead. Then, Bond races to battle Jaws one last time and rescue Anya from Stromberg's webby clutches. But will Anya forgive Bond for killing her lover?
All the familiar elements we've come to expect in a James Bond film are prevalent in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. But in previous Bond films, the villain was better than the Bond girl or the locations were better than the theme song. Except for GOLDFINGER, all the pieces weren't always perfect. With THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, the stars aligned and every category of SPY is excellent. Barbara Bach's natural beauty (and cleavage) captures our attention immediately as the Bond Girl. She's just as wily and tough as Bond. The locations in SPY are almost movie stars themselves. The temples and pyramids of Egypt and the breathtaking scenery of Sardinia are vividly captured by Director of Photography Claude Renoir. Bond films always had a clever introductory set piece. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME outdoes them all with a jaw dropping ski jump by Bond (actually ski jumper Rick Sylvester) off a snowy sheer cliff into a seemingly bottomless abyss until Bond's Union Jack parachute opens up while the first piano keys to Carly Simon's fantastic theme song Nobody Does It Better play over the image. Composer Marvin Hamlisch's score is eclectic. Sometimes orchestral, other times electronic, Hamlisch even borrows the theme from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA with Bond in the desert.
The Bond films always provide 007 a physical adversary besides the evil, urbane megalomaniac. Past Bond adversaries include Red Grant (Robert Shaw) and the lethal shoes of Rosa Klebb (Lotta Lenya) from 1963's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE or the juggernaut Oddjob (Harold Sakata) and his deadly bowler hat from 1964's GOLDFINGER. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME tops them all with Richard Kiel as the towering Jaws. Perhaps a playful nod to Steven Spielberg's 1975 film JAWS, this Jaws has a bite courtesy of his metal fangs. Jaws is nearly indestructible. Jaws has buildings fall on him, Jaws is thrown from a train, and Jaws goes off a cliff in a car. Jaws wrestles with a man-eating shark. Each time, Jaws survives, smoothing out his suit, straightening his tie, and like a Great White Shark, continuing the hunt for Bond and Anya.
Every assassin has to have a boss. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME brings back the tradition of the well dressed, older supervillain in Karl Stromberg played by German actor Curt Jurgens. We had seen these type of sophisticated bad guys with previous Bond baddies Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, and Ernst Stavros Blofeld. But the Bond filmmakers had switched it up with younger villains in the previous two Bond films with Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) in LIVE AND LET DIE and Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. Stromberg is a return to the good old Bond days. With his webbed hands and German accent, Stromberg might be a Nazi scientist who escaped Germany after the war to start his shipping empire. Stromberg wants to demolish what he considers the current, decadent world and start a new one under the ocean. Stromberg loves sea life more than human life. When Bond does shoot Stromberg, the white haired villain dies like a fish out water, gasping for air in his death throes.
One interesting facet abut THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is it might be the only film where Bond has an equal partner throughout the entire film, in this case, rival Russian spy Major Anya Amasova. Bond always teamed up with a Bond girl in all his films but many of the ladies appear later in the film or sporadically. CIA Agent Felix Leiter shows up in many Bond films as a Bond ally but only for a few scenes. Barbara Bach as Anya has almost as much screen time as Roger Moore. Their chemistry and rivalry as spies draws us to them. The fact Bond unknowingly killed Anya's lover is an added twist to the relationship. The Bond filmmakers have always recycled ideas throughout the series but they never did pair Bond with a full time partner like Anya again. Spy novelist Robert Ludlum had a great novel The Matarese Circle in 1979 that teamed an American assassin with a Russian assassin but both were men. Surprisingly, the Bond filmmakers never tried that idea. Thankfully, they gave us Bond and Anya.
The action scenes in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME are epic and hearken back to the finale of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) with gun play, beautiful explosions, and somersaulting stuntmen. It makes sense as Lewis Gilbert directed both films. Production designer and frequent Bond collaborator Ken Adam's enormous submarine set is beautifully used for the big finale as Bond and the submarine crews take on Stromberg's army. Adam recently revealed that famed director Stanley Kubrick helped him figure out how to light the gigantic set when Kubrick visited the set after hours. Adam worked with Kubrick on DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). THE SPY WHO LOVED ME uses a lot of miniatures and models for numerous shots of the tanker, the submarines, and Stromberg's Octopus like headquarters. Between STAR WARS and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, 1977 may have been the dawn of special effects.
Roger Moore says that THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was his favorite Bond film he made. Moore gives a great deal of credit to director Lewis Gilbert. Gilbert's resume is a mixture of romantic comedies like ALFIE (1966) and EDUCATING RITA (1983) and historical action films such as SINK THE BISMARCK ! (1960) and DAMN THE DEFIANT! (1962). THE SPY WHO LOVED ME would be one of three Bond films Gilbert would direct and probably his best contribution to the Bond series. Perhaps because of his work with actors like Michael Caine and William Holden, Gilbert brings some human dimension to the picture. Bond doesn't seem quite so cold hearted. Anya reveals there's some warmth inside her Siberian exterior. Even Stromberg and Jaws have their human moments. But Gilbert throws in large doses of humor to break up the drama and action as well.
Whatever magic Gilbert used for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, it disappeared with the next installment MOONRAKER (1979). Originally, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was supposed to be the next Bond film (per the end credits of SPY). It appears the Bond filmmakers wanted to capitalize on the growing interest in space films thanks to STAR WARS. MOONRAKER is basically the same plot as THE SPY WHO LOVED ME except in space. Only this time, a giant space rocket gobbles up orbiting American and Russian astronauts instead of the ocean tanker swallowing submarines in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Richard Kiel as Jaws also returns but his shtick had run its course and he's not nearly as much fun as he was in SPY.
Bond films always have some interesting connections and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is no different. Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel would work together the following year in FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE (1978) directed by Bond veteran Guy Hamilton (GOLDFINGER, LIVE AND LET DIE). Bad guy Curt Jurgens who plays Stromberg worked with SPY director Lewis Gilbert back in 1959 as the anti-hero in FERRY TO HONG KONG (1959) co-starring Orson Welles. Shane Rimmer who plays American submarine Captain Carter (Rimmer was born in Canada and lived in England) had a small part in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971). Walter Gotell who plays KGB Chief Gogol played a different character in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE but would play Gogol in six other Bond films including THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987).
A word about Roger Moore as James Bond. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was Moore's third time as the famed British secret agent. It feels like he had found his footing in SPY. He moves from fight scene to love scene, from Egypt to Sardinia, effortlessly. One liners and sexual innuendos are uttered in Moore's smooth British accent. After THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, I would enjoy only one more Roger Moore Bond film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. After that, Moore and the Bond series would go through a painful period where both seemed old and outdated, reaching their nadir with 1985's A VIEW TO A KILL, probably the worst film in the whole Bond canon. Moore would make seven Bond films altogether. Four out of his first five Bond films are entertaining and proved he was a worthy successor to Sean Connery.
If I had one regret when I watched THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in the movie theater, it would be that I wish I had seen it with a packed audience. As I recall, I saw it on a summer afternoon and the cavernous Tanasbourne Theater was mostly empty. It was almost like sitting in the submarine bay of Stromberg's colossal tanker only without Major Anya Amasova next to me. But it was the beginning of my cinematic journey to see the latest James Bond release in a movie theater rather than my living room. I would have memorable viewings like GOLDENEYE (1995) and SKYFALL (2012) and some dismal ones like A VIEW TO A KILL and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999). But producer Albert Broccoli's first solo production (after co-producing with Harry Saltzman previously) THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is one movie memory I will always cherish.
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