United Artists’ return to profitability did not seem to help Transamerica Corporation’s stock price.1 The large insurance behemoth needed more cross-company oversight, which negatively impacted upon the soaring film division.2 United Artists started to amass a film library, obtaining the rights to the MGM catalogue from Kirk Kerkorian.3 The studio was now producing a string of Oscar-winning successes including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and the early Woody Allen films. It had also inaugurated Rocky and revived The Pink Panther film series. Moreover, now they were not just distributors, but partners with Albert R. Broccoli. Broccoli in the James Bond franchise.
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was published in the UK on 16 April 1962. It was an experiment to try to capture a female readership for Bond. The book is structured in three parts, ‘Me’, ‘Them’ and ‘Him’; it is the nightmare biography of the fictional Vivienne Michel, whose voice Fleming writes in the first person. ‘Me’ deals with how Michel, an adventurous Canadian, has arrived at her job minding the Dreamy Pines Motor Court in the Adirondack Mountains. She relates her life in England, her lost virginity leading to a string of doomed love affairs and why she has now returned to her native Canada. ‘Them’ is set in the present day and introduces Sluggsy Morant and Sol ‘Horror’ Horowitz, two thugs sent to terrorise Michel. She is brutalised and fights back but eventually is overpowered and about to be killed when James Bond suddenly enters the scene. ‘Him’ is a more conventional tale where Bond betters the thugs and discovers they have been hired to destroy the motel and frame Michel as part of an insurance scam by Dreamy Pines owner Mr. Sanguinetti. Bond tells Michel a bedtime story about his recent job in Toronto to stop a SPECTRE hit squad killing a Russian defector. Bond vanquishes the villains and then leaves. For Vivienne, James Bond is ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. The experiment was deemed not to have been a success and Fleming initially barred all reprints and paperback editions. Fleming also prevented any film from being made of the book.
Cubby Broccoli said at the time, ‘The title always interested me – THE SPY WHO LOVED ME – it’s a very good Fleming title.’4 However, Danjaq had to agree not to use the novel in any form.5 With Saltzman gone, Broccoli now brought step-son Michael G. Wilson into the fold as special assistant to the producer. Wilson’s first task, remembered Broccoli, was to conduct protracted negotiations ‘with the Fleming estate before we obtained final clearance to go ahead and use the title.’6
In November 1974 a trade advert announced, ‘Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli. Broccoli present The Spy Who Loved Me directed by Guy Hamilton.’ Hamilton recalled that photographs of nuclear submarines had inspired the initial concept, ‘[What if] the Russians did know where all the British submarines were?’7 Hamilton remained director – turning down other films – through a parade of writers until in November 1975, Alexander Salkind announced that Guy Hamilton was to direct his $20 million production – Superman.8 Hamilton remembered, ‘They were offering money – serious money.9
Broccoli was also influenced by Project Azorian – a top secret CIA operation to recover a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean in 1974, fronted by his friend Howard Hughes. ‘It was the kind of thing that belongs in a Bond movie.’10
Thunderbirds creator, Gerry Anderson, claimed Saltzman made him a very clear proposal. ‘“The next Bond film is going to be called Moonraker. I want you to write and produce it.”’11 Excited, Anderson wrote an original seventy-page treatment with regular collaborator Anthony Barwick. Anderson eventually declined the £20,000 for the outline,‘The whole reason for writing the treatment for Moonraker was that I desperately wanted to produce this Bond picture myself.’12 Details of Anderson’s and Barwick’s storyline are vague – ‘we had an oil tanker which up-ended and fired atomic missiles’13 – but it seemed similarities remained in the final film. Anderson claimed and settled out of court for £3,000. He explained, ‘Part of the deal was that I had to hand over the treatment and make sure any copies were destroyed. I accepted.’14
It is unclear whether this treatment was the same as that attributed to Barwick, involving a villain named Zodiak, who, with albino henchmen brothers – Tic, Tac and Toe, threatens to destroy a fleet of nuclear submarines if the Western powers fail to surrender their art treasures.15
New York comic book writer Cary Bates also developed a submarine-themed story in which Bond teams up with former lover Tatiana Romanova to thwart SPECTRE plans to hijack a nuclear submarine. The script also featured Hugo Drax, from the Fleming novel MOONRAKER, who was to have planned world dominiation from a base under Loch Ness, Scotland.16 Novelist Ronald Hardy then added a submarine-tracking device in his pass.17 Derek Marlowe and Academy Award-winner Sterling Silliphant also contributed ideas.18
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE author, Anthony Burgess, then entered the fray. Using a typewriter given to him by Hamilton and Broccoli in New York,19 Burgess remembered the stipulation for ‘a totally original story’,20 but nevertheless resurrected characters from his 1966 novel, TREMOR OF INTENT. The bizarre pre-title sequence finds 007 in Singapore, fighting a Chinese musical Tong society – drowning one gang member in a tub of shark-fin soup – before he is shot. Recovering, 007 faces a Chinese surgeon who is about to remove the bullet, using a form of acupuncture as an anaesthetic. Bond later witnesses a terrorist attack at Singapore airport and discovers that those responsible are CHAOS: the Consortium for the Hastening of the Annihilation of the Organized Society. Chairman of CHAOS is an ‘Orson Welles monster, crippled and confined to a wheelchair.’21 In a Swiss private clinic, devices are secretly inserted into the bodies of wealthy patients transforming them into human bombs. CHAOS plans to detonate one of these devices at the Sydney Opera House while the British Queen is in the audience. Bond uses his newly acquired acupuncture skills to perform an emergency operation and defuse the bomb.22 Andrew Biswell, director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, described the script as, ‘An outrageous medley of sadism, hypnotism, acupuncture and international terrorism.’23
United Artists’ executive Mike Medavoy brought in emerging talent John Landis. After meeting Broccoli at his home in Beverly Hills, Landis was sent to London.24 He recalled, ‘I was given a beautiful apartment, a 16mm projector and all the James Bond films up until that point.’25 Landis shared an office with Anthony Burgess, ‘I wrote a lot of stuff, [but] never wrote a screenplay. We never worked out the whole story. Our villain was Blofeld – Rosa Klebb’s son. We had an underwater base and underwater vehicles,26 as well as a supertanker that captured submarines and could sink to the bottom of the ocean at anytime.’27
Landis sketched one opening, ‘James Bond comes into a room and this machine, this robot, which is unbelievably efficient, tries to kill him. Finally at the end you think Bond has been killed and it’s revealed it was a training exercise. Cubby liked [it] very much.’28 Cubby liked another less well:
We fade up and you are in a central square in some Latin American country. Violently staggering into the shot is James Bond, which is supposed to be Roger. I wanted him to have a deep cut in his forehead with blood running down his face. He’s clearly in trouble. He looks and sees the cathedral and dashes up the stairs, opens the big door and goes inside. The troops go up and down every pew searching. They give up. On the altar, is an enormous crucifix and on the back of it, hiding, is James Bond. Cubby went ‘NO!’ He was really against it. The thing that got Cubby was I wanted to pull people out of the confessional, guns in their face.29
With material like this and Burgess writing a treatment about, according to Landis, ‘a kidnapping of the Pope’,30 it was no wonder that Broccoli lost faith in his writers.31 Landis recalled, ‘Guy was floating above everything, he was just amused.’32 Guy was amused, taking credit for Landis’ crucifix gag, the once Sunday school boy admitted he was ‘was slightly anti-Catholic’.33
Hamilton remembered, ‘I went to Hollywood for about a week to work with Dick Maibaum. Maibaum didn’t want to work with me and I didn’t want to work with Maibaum.’34
The veteran Bond scribe began the story with an alliance of the world’s deadliest terrorists breaking into SPECTRE’s lair. ‘They level the place, kick Blofeld out and take over. They are a bunch of young idealists.’35 The loose affiliation of the Red Brigade, the Baader-Mainhof Gang, the Black September Organization and the Japanese Red Army intends to capture a nuclear submarine and wipe out the world’s oil fields.36 Maibaum undertook a reconnaissance trip to Budapest but ‘Cubby thought it was too political. So many young people in the world support those people that we would have scrambled sympathies in the picture.’37 Dana Broccoli, a writer herself, sat with her husband to try and combine the best of all the story material to date.38
Throughout this period, the producers were at odds. Landis observed, ‘First of all their offices were separate. Sometimes I would pitch it to Harry first and sometimes I would pitch it to Cubby first. They had the same response, “What did the other one say?” And basically if the other one liked it you were fucked. They were at war.’39 United Artists’ executive Danton Rissner also recollected, ‘Going back and forth between Harry and Cubby’s offices, which were across the street. If Cubby wanted Lewis Gilbert to direct, Harry would say, “No”. If Cubby suggested Tom Mankiewicz to write, Harry said, “No”. Finally I got tired of going back and forth and suggested, “Why don’t I just holler out the window and get a “No” from Harry. Pat de Cicco, Cubby’s cousin, was there also and suggested he go over to Harry’s but it was turned down as the chances were that Pat might throw Harry out the window.’40
On 18 December 1975, just days before the Broccoli-Saltzman divorce was finalised in Switzerland, it was announced that Lewis Gilbert would direct his second Bond film.41 Gilbert’s recent Operation Daybreak had been screened by Broccoli to an impressed United Artists.42 According to Gilbert’s long-time associate producer, William P. Cartlidge, Gilbert ‘needed something big again in his career.’43 Gilbert thought the current script lacked humour44 and his next hire – after Cartlidge – was bawdy comedy novelist Christopher Wood. They had just worked together on the film, Seven Nights in Japan, and Wood was asked to fly there to meet the crew on a location hunt at the Expo ’75 Exhibit in Okinawa.
Back in London, Wood was ensconced in the same Park Lane pied-à-terre that John Landis had stayed in a year earlier. ‘Good old Eon, they certainly knew how to make you feel important and desirous of giving your best.’45 Wood recalled reading the most recent Maibaum draft, ‘It all took place in Norway then and the villains were hippies. It seemed very weird to me.’46 He felt it ‘bore little resemblance to the traditional Bond movies I had always enjoyed. With director Lewis Gilbert it was back to basics.’47 When he took the job on, Wood was unaware that he was following in the footsteps of many writers, ‘I would have had a heart attack, I could have counted my minutes in Cubby Broccoli’s office if I had known that.’48 Wood worked with Gilbert on a daily basis, ‘We would discuss the script in Cubby’s office if he wasn’t there or sometimes if he was. Ken Adam and Michael Wilson would join us from time to time.’49 The writer was impressed by Eon’s headquarters, which he noted was filled with gadgets and gizmos, which visitors were forbidden to touch, ‘This was his nursery and these were his toys.’50
Wood developed Maibaum’s script incorporating ideas from the previous writers and drafts from the basic story put together by Broccoli. The supertanker element was an idea Maibaum had originally developed for Diamonds Are Forever and the amphibious car was taken from the treatment written by Cary Bates. ‘We discussed things with Cubby and Michael Wilson. I then wrote on my own, went back and discussed things with Lewis, and so on. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.’51
Screenwriter Vernon Harris, who had a long association with Lewis Gilbert, also contributed uncredited revisions. Harris, according to Wood, had to ‘bulk out the screen descriptions to a length that corresponded exactly to the time it took to play the scene on the screen.’52
In December 1975 Kevin McClory’s ten-year moratorium on producing a film from the THUNDERBALL material he owned had expired. It transpired that he had been developing a new Bond film in partnership with none other than Sean Connery. When he was alerted to copyright infringing elements of The Spy Who Loved Me screenplay, he issued urgent legal proceedings. Connery, as his partner, was required to submit evidence in support of McClory. The Eon script contained many similarities to their own – they too had visited Expo ’75 and featured a marine facility. However, after injunctive court proceedings in June 1976, what chiefly emerged was that McClory owned the film rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE. The action shocked the Eon team but they were forced to remove all mention of Bond’s arch-nemesis and his villainous organisation.53
In the pre-title sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me a British nuclear submarine is endangered. At the same time, so is a similar Soviet vessel. The Soviet’s top agent, Triple X, is set on the trail. When the emergency message gets sent Triple X is revealed to be the beautiful Anya Amasova, who is in a relationship with spy Sergei Barzov. Bond is similarly urgently recalled from Austria but not before a Russian hit squad, led by Sergei Barzov, attempts to kill him. 007 dispatches Barzov in a high-speed ski chase but is then seemingly trapped as he is headed off by a precipice. Undeterred Bond skies on towards the void and into it. Bond falls and falls further until a parachute unfurls, sporting the Union Jack.
The main plot centres around wealthy shipping magnate Karl Stromberg, who has funded the development of a submarine-tracking device, conceived by Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann. Stromberg’s secretary leaks the plans of the device on to the open market highlighting the vulnerability of their Polaris nuclear fleet to the Royal Navy. One of their ships is missing and unbeknownst to them, so too is a Soviet submarine. Bond is sent to Cairo to track down the vendor of the device. Via his contacts Fekkesh and Max Kalba, he eventually meets up with Major Agent Amasova, code-named Triple X, of the KGB, who also is investigating a missing submarine. Narrowly escaping an encounter in Egyptian ruins with the mute giant Jaws, Bond and Amasova are tasked by their superiors – General Alexis Gogol, Head of the Soviet Secret Service, and M – to partner in a mission of détente. Following clues gleaned from the microfilm, the duo travel by train to Sardinia but while on board are attacked by Jaws. In Sardinia they are escorted by Stromberg’s aide, Naomi, to her boss’s marine-research facility, Atlantis – a massive structure capable of rising and sinking below the sea. While touring Atlantis they notice two things: a model of an underwater city and an oddly shaped bow on a model of the supertanker Liparus. A chance observation by Anya reveals that it was Bond who killed her lover Barzov. She turns cold, vowing revenge but only when the mission is over. Frostily they both board the US submarine Ranger only to be caught by the Liparus whose bow opens up to reveal it is capable of capturing vessels within its bulk. In the belly of the supertanker lie the missing British and Soviet submarines. Stromberg is revealed, in SPECTRE-like fashion, to be playing East against West to create nuclear Armageddon. He then plans to repopulate the oceans with cities, the model of which they saw on Atlantis. Anya is taken captive back to Atlantis, but Bond escapes the guards’ clutches and frees the submarine crews – Soviet, British and American – who, fighting together, overcome their captors in a huge battle. Upon escaping the Liparus, Bond rides to Atlantis on a wetbike, fights Jaws and Stromberg, killing the latter, and rescues Anya. Adrift in an escape pod at sea, Anya points a gun at Bond threatening revenge but then relents and falls for Bond’s charms. Bond and Anya are caught in bed by their superiors; when asked what he’s doing, Bond responds, ‘Keeping the British end up!’
Roger Moore got on very well with Lewis Gilbert, ‘If there was something to trip over, Lewis would trip over it. If there was a queue in an airport for a plane, Lewis would miraculously find himself at the front. Nobody noticed him.’54 He compared Gilbert with his predecessor, ‘Guy was more serious about Bond, whereas Lewis would [say], “Come on dear, it’s a bit of fun.”’55 That fun was enhanced by a last-minute script polish by Tom Mankiewicz who recalled, ‘I rewrote The Spy Who Loved Me at Cubby’s house for no credit because they had already given out the credits. I had a typewriter and I was at the cottage down by the pool. Cubby paid me cash under the table to rewrite the picture.’56 Mankiewicz claimed, ‘A lot of the dialogue is mine.’57 As the rewrites went off to England, Mankiewicz recalled Moore reportedly asked Broccoli, ‘“When did Mankiewicz get on this picture?” Cubby said, “He’s not on the picture, Roger.” He said, “Of course he is. He’s on every fucking page. Tell him he’s doing a good job.”’58 Mankiewicz also had fun with his own name, christening the doctor killed by Stromberg at the beginning of the film, Professor Markovitz.59
In the search for a new type of leading lady for Bond, Broccoli initially approached several well-known actresses, including Catherine Deneuve, Marthe Keller and Dominique Sanda.60 However, the producer felt, ‘Their agents made things impossible. Everyone scents big money in a Bond film – and starts talking about percentages. If only because there isn’t [an actress] who would make the slightest difference to the success of the series.’61 One of the initial casting ideas for Anya, actress Lois Chiles,62 was not pursued because, Gilbert recalled, ‘we were told by her agent that she had retired’.63 Broccoli felt any ‘high-priced ladies [would] contribute no more than Barbara Bach will.’64 Previously Bach had only appeared in Italian and French films, The Spy Who Loved Me was her first English-language role,65 but Broccoli had liked a test she had done for Tony Richardson and the actress then tested for Gilbert.66 Cast late in pre-production, Bach had in fact secured the role through her then boyfriend, Danton Rissner, who lobbied67 for her and Gilbert ‘began to think she could play the female lead’.68 Gilbert saw a challenge, ‘She did not always like it when I had her do many takes – but I remember I would tell her, believe me, you’ll thank me when you see the film at the première. And she did.’69 Editor John Glen was a friend of Rissner, ‘Danny felt that if she didn’t work he would probably get fired. I ran the first sequence where Barbara was acting with Roger – a decent scene – for him. Danny was so apprehensive he was huddled down in his seat. As the scene evolved, he rose in the seat. He was so pleased.’70
Gilbert’s suggestion for the villain – having directed him in Ferry to Hong Kong – was Curd Jürgens (usually billed as Curt Jurgens) who felt Stromberg was, ‘A good part. A real villain always gives you something to play and I’ve done lots of them. Producers suffer from a lack of imagination; they always like to cast Germans as villains.’71 Stromberg had webbed hands and Jürgens recalled the cast and crew christened him ‘Fish Fingers’.72 Jürgens ‘loved doing Bond. They make you feel young. They are fun and nobody takes them too seriously.’73
In the sole sliver of inspiration from the novel – Sol Horror’s metal-filled mouth – Wood credited the creation of Jaws to Richard Maibaum.74 Now, it was a matter of finding the right actor for what would become a Bond archetype. Native-American actor Will Sampson, fresh from United Artists’ Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was considered,75 but the director’s secretary then spotted Richard Kiel in the US television series The Barbary Coast.76 Kiel went to The Polo Lounge, Beverly Hills to meet Broccoli, who had also interviewed David Prowse (soon to inhabit Darth Vader’s cloak). The producer described the part to Kiel, ‘“We are not quite sure how we want to do this, but they are either going to be like tools, pliers, the teeth will be made out of metal and he kills people with them.” My first reaction was “Yuck, this is not what I was hoping for.” That was my gut reaction.’77 Kiel recalled Gilbert’s explanation of why ‘we added the bit where Jaws drops the giant rock on his foot. That’s clearly when we told the audience: there’s an element of fun to the character. The menace was there but there was something almost endearing about him.’78
Caroline Monro recalled getting the part of Naomi, Stromberg’s personal aide and deadly helicopter pilot, ‘I had been involved in a poster campaign with Lamb’s Navy Rum. I wore a wetsuit with tousled hair with a knife; it was a very strong image. Cubby had seen one of these along with some of the stuff I’d done.’79 Monro paid tribute to the Casting Director Maude Spector, ‘She did every big film at that time. When she liked you, she really liked you. With a Bond film they do it not like a mass casting, they do it very individually which is rather a nice way of doing it.’80
Michael Billington, a putative Bond since 1969, appeared as KGB agent Sergei Barzov, who is murdered in the pre-title sequence. It is his death that sets up an interesting sub-plot when his lover is revealed to be agent Triple X, Anya Amasova, ‘I knew that if I did it, it might prevent me from doing Bond in the long run; but I thought, “Why not?” A couple of weeks in St. Moritz skiing and Bond was only a picture or two from demise anyway, or so I thought, what did I care?’81 Gilbert cast Sean Bury – his teenage lead in Friends (1971) and the sequel Paul and Michelle (1974) – as one of the crewmen when the British submarine is first captured. Sydney Tafler, Gilbert’s brother-in-law and Warwick alumni, played the captain of the Liparus.
Gilbert approached French cinematographer Claude Renoir, grandson of the great painter, to photograph The Spy Who Loved Me. They had worked together successfully on The Adventurers and Paul and Michelle. Renoir had had a very distinguished career in France and Brigitte Bardot allegedly wouldn’t make a film without him.82 ‘He was a wonderful photographer of people which wasn’t always the forte of British cameramen,’83 said Cartlidge who had extreme difficulty with the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) when it was announced that Eon had hired a French director of photography. ‘They said “You have to have a British cameraman.” We had just joined the Common Market at that point and I pointed out, “Actually with the free movement of labour you can’t stop him coming in.”’84 Ultimately donations were made to the right causes. ‘That’s how we got him in, usual story, a bit of bribery.’85 Gilbert had campaigned for Renoir because of his efficiency. ‘Every single crewmember was amazed at the speed with which Renoir lit these enormous sets. And in Egypt, we were shooting the pyramids and the Sphinx at night and he just used a few lights to do it.’86
Of Ken Adam, Broccoli commented, ‘I don’t say he’s indispensable but he’s preferable. In my opinion he’s one of the big contributors to the film.’87 Adam, whose previous designs had been linear, was keen to give Spy a new look.88 ‘I let myself really go wild,’89 Adam later recalled. ‘I started by experimenting with new shapes and new form; with Atlantis and the interior of the supertanker.’90
The interior of Stromberg’s supertanker came complete with gantries, walkways, monorail and a submarine bay to house three 300ft nuclear submarines. Broccoli had investigated using a real tanker, but it was impractical and expensive; the insurance premium was unaffordable.91 Previous to Spy the largest set required for a Bond film had been the volcano in You Only Live Twice. ‘I had no desire to repeat what had happened on You Only Live Twice where I ended up with a workable but ultimately wasteful free-standing set. So I designed the tanker interior in terms of what could remain for use after the film was finished.’92
It was decided that a brand new stage would have to be built. Broccoli had hoped that the Rank Organization, who then owned Pinewood Studios, would also come in on the deal. Instead, ‘they decided we could build the stage on the studio lot and we would control it; so we went for it. We did it because of the specific needs of this picture.’93 Eric Pleskow put United Artists into the real estate business, ‘We needed a large studio – I negotiated for that with the Rank people at Pinewood. I built this studio on the property of Pinewood and we financed the building of this studio.’94 Broccoli outlined the deal, ‘United Artists and Eon will rent the 007 Stage through the guidance of Rank. The purpose is to keep it up and make a profit out of it, because I think a stage of this size is important in a studio that is alive like Pinewood.’95
Christened the 007 Stage, it was officially opened by former Prime Minister Sir Harold Wilson on 5 December 1976. Broccoli’s wife Dana broke open the champagne on the conning tower of the American submarine.96 After both the Royal Navy and US Navy refused to assist the production with the open water shots of the submarines, Adam’s models, which he had constructed from marine ply, were extracted from the supertanker set, floated and taken out on to the open sea.97
Danton Rissner remembered Michael Wilson ‘came up with the idea of using the ski jump.’98 Michael Wilson had happened upon a Playboy magazine advertisement for Canadian Club Whiskey featuring a daredevil skier leaping off Mount Asgard. Broccoli loved the shot and thought it perfect for a Bond film, ‘[Michael Wilson] found the boy who did it – Rick Sylvester, a Beverly Hills boy. We talked to him and we brought him over to London, and we asked him if he wanted to do it.’99
Sylvester had first performed the stunt for his own amusement off El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 1972. He had devised this idea that he christened a ‘skiBASE jump. It was my creation. I didn’t see it as a stunt; it was an outdoor mountain adventure. My intention was only to do it once.’100 However he repeated it a second time to capture some video footage as a keepsake. The third jump was a half-aborted attempt for Canada Club, as seen by Michael Wilson.
Sylvester had grown up in Hollywood. His classroom register had been a who’s who of the film-making community, but he did not come from a film industry background. When he got the Bond call, Rick was unemployed following the end of his second season as a ski instructor. ‘I had just gone on what you guys called the dole and suddenly my phone rings, “This is London calling. I’m Cubby Broccoli the producer of the Bond films.” I had never even heard of Eon Productions. I never considered myself in a true sense a stuntman. I considered myself a climber, a skier. I have a good imagination but I never dreamed of the stunt being in a Bond movie.’101
John Glen, who eight years earlier had shot the bobsleigh sequence for OHMSS, was asked to repeat his work on The Spy Who Loved Me as well as edit the film. Glen was in Paris with Lewis Gilbert editing Seven Nights in Japan when he got the call:
Cubby and Lewis met for lunch at the Ritz. Lewis came back and said ‘Cubby wants you to do something on this film.’ I’m sure if Guy had directed the film I wouldn’t have done it. I certainly wouldn’t have edited it and maybe the ski parachute would never have been filmed? His [Hamilton’s] second unit directors were mainly cameramen who were sent off to film scenes. I have the feeling that Guy would have wanted to control every little bit himself.102
Sylvester met with the film-makers in London to discuss the stunt.103 Glen recalled they ‘talked about a vertical face in the Lauterbrunnen Valley – a 200ft-drop we used in OHMSS, but that wasn’t enough.’104 Broccoli recalled that Sylvester suggested they return to the locale of the Canada Club attempt, ‘He found the special place where we would do it, which was up in Baffin Island in Canada.’105 Glen recalled, ‘It was not easy to get there. Mount Asgard was 5,800ft of vertical cliff face.’106
Glen and Sylvester travelled to Canada to shoot test footage and undertake a feasibility study. Costing $250,000 it was, in 1976, an expensive sequence for a mere few seconds of screen time. ‘I presented the budget to Cubby. When he read the bottom line he didn’t blink. He took my report and went inside the viewing theatre to join Lewis Gilbert and Danton Rissner. They ran our footage and I nervously waited outside. When Cubby emerged fifteen minutes later he looked me in the eye and simply said “Do it.”’107
Sylvester had certain anxieties about the jump, ‘Unlike El Capitan, I wasn’t familiar with the location. Asgard was more of an unknown quantity. And despite what was depicted in and thus implied by the Canadian Club ad, due to certain interesting circumstances, [I] had not previously skied off.’108 Recalled Glen, ‘[Rick] didn’t tell us at this stage that he hadn’t actually performed the stunt but afterwards Rick confided in me! It was a bit of a gamble really.’109 Superstitious about this fourth attempt, Sylvester admitted, ‘I was really daring the devil. I was thinking: now I’m not just doing it for adventure but I’m doing it for filthy lucre – to be paid. I was actually getting quite worried.’110
The crew was based in Pangnirtung, the second largest Inuit settlement on Baffin Island.111 They spent two weeks waiting for the correct conditions. The first week was devoted to ascertaining camera locations and testing conditions. Sylvester remembered everyone was anxious about the dangers involved. ‘One didn’t want to risk being blown back into the cliff face. René Dupont [production co-ordinator] said something to me which to this day I’ve regarded as a really gracious thing, “Rick, if you don’t feel good about the thing, if you don’t think you can safely do it, then you shouldn’t. Forget about the expense of all this. Your life is more important. Just let me know and I’ll call it off.” I really appreciated that.’112
But then bad weather set in, hampering the chances of capturing the jump. Each morning the crew would take a helicopter from their base up to Asgard to inspect the conditions. Sylvester recalled how the rain continued ‘persisting day after day. Each chopper reconnaissance flight returned with a report of “no go”. Phone calls started coming in from the Bond production headquarters [in London], “Has he done it yet?”’113 Glen was getting apprehensive, ‘I knew I was running out of time. We tried everything. If we didn’t get the shot, and the odds were stacked against us, we would have to think of something else to open the movie. If I didn’t get it they may have kept me on as the editor, but I don’t think I would have been doing any action directing and my career would have been curtailed there and then.’114
With each day that passed Sylvester’s anxiety increased. ‘I was becoming a drama queen awakening each morning hoping for rain with thoughts that I get to live for another day, that I’d been granted another stay of execution. I felt guilty that my fears were subversive to the entire operation. After all, I’d consented to do it. And now I didn’t want to. I was secretly and privately rooting against it.’115 Broccoli recalled, ‘One day when everyone was getting very discouraged, this twenty minute break came and they said, “OK, Rick are you ready?”’116 Sylvester remembered the moment they had the green light to do it, as the word came back from the top of Asgard that conditions were good. ‘There were shouts and excitement. “We can do it! We have to hurry! Let’s go!” I was stunned. This has been the worst weather since we’ve been here. What about all of René’s concerns for my safety and wellbeing? Where did that go? Boy, he sure changed. The pressure from those phone calls.’117
Cameras and cameramen got in position including the helicopter, all of which had been meticulously planned and rehearsed. ‘I got myself together and got my chute on. I was asked if I was ready. With mixed feelings and unable to come up with any reason not to I answered “yes”. Next it was communicated to me that the cameras were rolling. Film’s expensive. That was it. I went.”118 John Glen gave Sylvester one instruction, ‘I said, “Don’t forget Rick you are James Bond.” And shoved the red flag in the snow to indicate to go.’119
Sylvester admitted he:
‘…sort of messed up. I had some delay in getting stable; the position one wants to be in, horizontal, stomach to earth. This may have been due to the suit and heavy-ish ski boots, as opposed to the baggy jumpsuits most common among parachutists. As a result I fell farther than planned, further than everyone expected me to, before deploying the chute. As a result I fell out of range of the camera on the chopper before I got the chute open. The chopper camera was supposed to be the master shot, resulting in the most essential footage.120
Of all the camera angles, just one captured the shot perfectly tracking Sylvester all the way down the mountain.
When Sylvester safely landed, Broccoli recalled, ‘All of sudden the weather turned and snow and sleet came in. They got the crew out by helicopter but most of the equipment was left up there. They got cameras out, but tripods and all the heavy less important equipment was still up there a year later.’121 The footage was rushed off to the labs in Montreal. Would another jump be necessary? Sylvester remembered the unit taking the call from the lab. The footage from the camera on the cliff’s edge was good enough. It would suffice. ‘It rained another week before the sun returned. The Bond crew never would have stayed another week. It’s incredible the jump happened.’122
Back at Pinewood, Broccoli and Lewis Gilbert were elated with the material. John Glen remembered the word got around about this amazing footage and before long it became ‘the most run sequence ever, before it even got cut into the film. It got the picture off to a fantastic start because we knew we had an epic beginning. ’123 Visitors to the set were treated to a sneak peak including Prince Charles. ‘He saw it three times,’124 recalled Glen. ‘Maurice Binder wanted it and immediately of course he wanted to play around with it.’125 Assistant Editor John Grover remembered their worst nightmare very nearly became a reality, ‘Binder took the original negative and accidently put a scratch on it. Technicolor saved the shot by repairing the negative. But it could have been a disaster. I think he ate a lot of humble pie.’126
Christopher Wood admitted he got carried away with the pre-title sequence. ‘At one stage I became so obsessed. He skis over, the parachute goes pop, he comes down, now what can he do next? What’s going to happen when he lands?’127 Stunt Arranger Bob Simmons recalled Bond was to land on a lake behind a speedboat ‘where he fires a grappling iron which hooks on to the boat and turns himself into an instant water skier.’128 Wood later admitted, ‘It would have been too much. It would have become … ridiculous, stupid, you wouldn’t have believed it.’129
Principal photography began at Pinewood Studios a month later on 31 August 1976.130 Amongst the first scenes to be filmed were those featuring Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell, whose appearance as Miss Moneypenny, was particularly short and forgettable. This time M’s secretary can be found hidden away in MI6’s temporary headquarters deep inside an Egyptian tomb. Maxwell felt Lewis Gilbert ‘never had this feeling between Moneypenny and Bond. We tried to put it in and Lewis would say, “Oh no, cut that, forget about that one.” I don’t think Lewis ever really liked Moneypenny. I think he just thought of her as a secretary.’131 Maxwell did read the Fleming novel and described it as ‘positively pornographic.’132
Q is first seen at the Faslane Naval Base in Scotland to brief Bond on the tracking device that has been used to kidnap the British submarine. Upon reading the script, Llewelyn was delighted at the prospect of visiting Faslane, ‘I thought marvellous I’m going to get an extra day’s [work]. Ken [Adam] said, “No, no you are going to do it in the studio.” I said, “Why? You’ve got the whole thing up [in Scotland].” He said, “You can’t possibly use that, it looks like a broken down boat shed. Then, of course, you see his most wonderful set.”’133 Llewelyn would get an even better location visit though, when Q would be required to deliver Bond his brand new Lotus Esprit in Sardinia.
The Spy Who Loved Me also introduced two new recurring characters. The first was Freddie Gray, the Minister of Defence played by Geoffrey Keen and the second was General Alexis Gogol, head of the KGB. In his first of six appearances, Gogol joins forces with M, to solve the mystery of their missing nuclear submarines. The character was an attempt at creating a sympathetic Russian character in Western cinema, as actor Walter Gotell explained:
It must have been the early seventies. A film was being made with Elizabeth Taylor, by George Cukor in Russia. Cukor invited Cubby to visit the location. Cubby came armed to Russia with a copy of a Bond picture and showed it to them. The Russians rolled about with laughter. They said ‘This, is absolutely great. We would love to take your films the only reason why we can’t is because you’ve made it anti-Russian. Why don’t you make the films with not a pro-Russian but with something where we are equal villains?’ So Cubby turned around and said, ‘Let’s make a character who is KGB, not a villain, not a hero but who will be acceptable in terms of Russian distribution.’ That was the origin of Gogol.134
Interestingly, when the 007 Stage was opened at Pinewood, in an attempt to cultivate an ethos of détente, members of the Russian embassy were invited to the opening ceremony to which Barbara Bach was dressed in Anya Amasova’s full Russian military regalia. A photo was also staged of Bach in this very costume greeting Sir Harold Wilson.135
The first action sequence to be completed was Bond battling Jaws aboard the train. Kiel spent many hours rehearsing the fight with Bob Simmons. It was Kiel’s idea to grab Roger Moore by the face, ‘Bob Simmons just loved that because my hands are so big.’136 Kiel later admitted when he saw the completed film and Anya Amasova opens her wardrobe to find Jaws staring back at her, that he forgot Jaws was hiding in there. ‘The camera zooms in to a shot of my steel teeth and the train whistle goes, it scared me! I jumped out of my seat.’137
In mid-September 1976138 the chase featuring the Lotus was filmed. By air, Bond was pursued by helicopter, piloted by Naomi. Caroline Monro remembered, filming began on the island of Sardinia on the car chase as Bond and Anya outrun Stromberg’s pilot Naomi, in 007’s white Lotus Esprit. The scene involved Bond racing around the hairpin bends of the Sardinian countryside. The scene was directed by Ernie Day and the helicopter pilot was Marc Wolff, a Vietnam veteran who would later fly on many other Bonds. Monro recalled that as a pilot, Wolff ‘told me a little bit of what would happen. Because it was a Bond film you had to look as if you knew what you were doing. He did [instruct me on the] joystick.’139
Naomi did not have much screen time but Monro thought her, ‘Evil but fun to match Roger’s tongue-in-cheek-ness. We didn’t over discuss it.’140 One character touch did get through, ‘I suggested on Naomi’s brown boots because it was meant to do with the sea, they had two little gold dolphins on the side.’141
The exciting scene is capped when Bond’s vehicle, a sleek white Lotus Esprit careens off a jetty and into the sea, only to miraculously transform into a submarine. Ken Adam recalled the film-makers had decided it was time to update Bond’s choice of wheels and give him ‘the latest British sports car.’142 Adam had previously owned a Lotus and thought that apart from it being a fabulous piece of engineering, its shape could make a believable looking submarine.143 Lotus Marketing Manager Don McLaughlan recounted how, when he was tipped off a new Bond film was in preparation, he asked his chairman, Colin Chapman, whether he could take the car down to the studio to try to catch the production team’s interest. It was left strategically parked so anyone who worked at Pinewood would notice it. The car was carefully moved around the lot so interest could be maintained. It was – the Bond crew called Lotus soon after enquiring about the vehicle.144
Art Director Peter Lamont visited Lotus to discuss the venture, only to discover they were not prepared to shower the production with free cars. Not because they did not want to, but simply the cars did not exist. There was only one. ‘[Lotus] said, “We’re prepared to sell you our car at factory price, we’re certainly not giving you one.” I went back a second time and I met a fellow called Don McLaughlin. I said, “We need another car.” He said, “Peter! We’ve only got the one. We only make so many a week!” I said, “Well, how about the Chairman’s? He’s got an identical one.”’145 Before long Chapman’s Esprit was on location in Sardinia. Roger Moore recalled the Esprit was problematic. ‘During filming, their engines overheated and batteries ran down quickly. Their low driving position made elegant exits from the car an issue, and all this made the action location in Sardinia a little fraught.’146 As the cars required such high maintenance, Colin Chapman sent mechanics out from London to look after the two cars.147
The model unit headed by Derek Meddings shot the car entering the water and transforming into the submersible in the Bahamas. Lotus gave the production the first three body shells off the production line (all had faults) to modify for the various effects needed for the submarine sequences. Meddings was given six fibreglass models by Lotus needed for the conversion from road car into submersible. ‘Everything that had to happen – like when the wheels fold up and the wheel arches cover, and then the fins come out – well, we had to have six cars to do all that, because you couldn’t get it all into one car.’148 Michael Wilson, who supervised the underwater unit, revealed that when underwater the shells were manned by divers in wetsuits. The fins were operated with broom handles, the smoke screen was created with 50 gallons of black emulsion and scale bubbles were created by placing an Alka-Seltzer tablet in a model Lotus.149 One shell was modified by Perry Submarines in Miami so it could be driven underwater, with divers operating it from the inside.150 The sequence was photographed by Eon’s regular underwater cinematographer, Lamar Boren.151
On 5 October Gilbert shot the scene of Bond’s Lotus emerging from the sea onto the beach at Capriccioli.152 Richard Kiel, whose son RJ can be seen on the beach in the scene,153 recalled Cubby sitting in with a journalist on an early cut and apologising for Roger Moore’s gag, in which he casually drops a fish out of the window as the Lotus drives up the beach promising it would not be in the final picture.154 It would become a signature Moore-Bond moment. Writer Christopher Wood despised this on-set improvisation. ‘We are just sending the whole thing up. But you see Lewis Gilbert does have a sentimental humoristic attitude towards Bond and the movies … that I don’t.’155 Gilbert was confident on his approach. Guy Hamilton had gone to great lengths to reinvent the Bond character with Roger Moore, but Gilbert felt Moore had not quite found his stride, ‘I said to Cubby “He’ll only score on his humour.”’156
The Lotus Esprit was not the only vehicle that would be an onscreen first. After Stromberg has escaped the sinking supertanker at the end of the film, Bond hunts him down to Atlantis, and uses a wetbike to make his way to the oceanographic laboratory where Stromberg is holding Anya captive. Designed by Nelson Tyler, the very first wetbike ever built, the prototype, was the one used for the filming of The Spy Who Loved Me.157 Moore was given time to practice on the beach at Cala di Volpe in his bathing trunks, but as the actor amusingly recounted, the scene required him to arrive at Stromberg’s lair in full naval uniform immaculate without a hair out of place.158 Tyler recalled, ‘When he rode it for the scene he didn’t fall once.’159 Caroline Monro was required to ride on the back of the bike with Roger for publicity photos and recalled it drew great attention because ‘that was the first time it had ever been seen.’160
On 11 October 1976 production continued in Egypt.161 Filming took place in Cairo, Luxor, and at the Pyramids. Conditions were so tough, Cartlidge remembered, the crew said, ‘“Listen Bill, can we cut the day off and get out of here as soon as possible?”’162 When a morale-boosting food shipment from London failed, Roger Moore remembered, ‘Cubby rolled his sleeves up and got into the kitchen to start cooking. He loved to make a spaghettata for the crew. He was really caring and worrying about people.’163 Gilbert remembered this generosity fondly, Cubby ‘in the food tent, in a chef’s hat personally cooking spaghetti for a hundred people. We all lined up and Cubby with a big ladle served everyone. I told him it was his finest hour.’164
One memorable sequence was Bond walking across the desert with Anya after making their escape from the Karnak Temple ruins in full evening dress. Roger Moore joked in an interview, ‘I unfastened my zipper. As we walked off into the sunset my trousers slowly slid down until they were around my ankles. You can imagine the effect it had on the film crew!’165 John Glen recalled Bach was straightfaced and considered Moore’s humour ‘…schoolboy … they weren’t the best of buddies I don’t think.’166
The Pyramids were later replicated in model form and Charles Gray made his third but un-credited contribution to the Bond series as one part of the son et lumière voiceover.
‘Lewis says “How we going to do this, with this idiot sitting next to us by the camera?” I said, “Don’t worry tell him to mime it and we’ll put it in afterwards.” Which is what we did!’167 Roger Moore heard later it got ‘the biggest laugh in Cairo.’168
Thankful to have completed such an agonising location, the crew moved back to the comfort of Pinewood Studios. On 2 November the main unit began shooting the Atlantis interiors. Shots of Stromberg’s amphibious structure, found off the coast of Sardinia, rising in and out of the ocean, were overseen earlier by Derek Meddings unit in the Bahamas using a gigantic 8ft tall model.169 Adam had created this spiderlike design after discarding any reference to the structure they had looked at in Japan. ‘It was one of the few times that I really was in a fit of depression. I had more problems designing that than any other set I’ve ever done. I locked myself into my office at Pinewood and I started designing. And do you think I could come up with something? No. I worked nearly a week before I came up with this tarantula. Once I had the basic idea everything else followed. It was really quite incredible. I was really very excited.’170
While shooting the Atlantis interiors, Roger Moore was injured by an explosion during the final confrontation between Bond and Stromberg. ‘I was supposed to leap out of the way of a chair which they were blowing up behind me. But they blew it up before I’d moved out which was rather uncomfortable because it peppered my backside with two shilling-sized burns.’171
Throughout the scorching summer of 1976, contractors Delta Doric wereunder pressure with just seven months to build the new stage on the Pinewood lot. While in Egypt construction had fallen behind and Broccoli had written sternly to Pinewood’s MD Cyril Howard requesting Rank ensure extra labour was employed to meet their start date. Broccoli stressed in one memo, ‘Bond films keep you guys alive and I expect you to look after my picture while I am away.’172 Director of Photography Claude Renoir set out the challenges, ‘That set is completely closed on top and we show the ceiling in most of the shots, so the problem is the same as it is in some real-life locations – no place to put lights, without showing them in the picture. There is no room for big lamps, so I am using a lot of very small lamps. Where you cannot put light, it is much better not to put light than to put too much.’173 Ken Adam wanted to convey drama:
On this big set we have a major light change. When the submarine enters the set it is in relative darkness, and then the lights go on and expose the whole set. To my way of thinking, when Claude kept the set dark it looked more dramatic than when all the lights went on. Hopefully, I give cameramen the elements to compose on and to create dramatic lighting. I think that’s much more important than seeing every little detail. In my earlier days as a designer, I tried to make it possible to see every detail of the set, and the first person who really said I was wrong was Stanley Kubrick. He knows a lot about photography and I had to agree with him.174
After Kubrick’s death, Adam revealed he had asked the director to advise on lighting the set, ‘Stanley [Kubrick] thought I had gone mad. I said, “Stanley I will organise that you and I are the only people there on a Sunday. All we do is walk through the stage and if you have any ideas I’ll be very grateful.”’175 Kubrick had not wanted to be seen undermining the cinematographer but suggested building in floodlights as part of the set.
Kubrick’s daughter worked on the film and it was she who designed Jaws’ teeth. Broccoli rejected the initial design by Hollywood make-up and prosthetic artist John Chambers.176 Broccoli recalled Kiel could only keep his dental fittings in ‘for a certain length of time.’177
Gilbert admitted, when you walk onto a Ken Adam set, you are ‘confronted by problems very few directors have to confront. When I said at the opening of the new stage that I loved Ken Adam’s set but I hoped I could find the actors, I wasn’t joking. That’s a major problem on all his sets, because you have to show faces as well as sets – after all, it’s faces which sell pictures, not sets.’178 Gilbert also pointed out another headache for a director on such a colossal set is time. ‘Not time in shooting, but time in film. You see if you have someone walking across the set … it takes ten seconds. So the cutting has to be nipped faster.’179
Moore was not the only one to sustain injury during studio filming. While shooting on the 007 Stage in Stromberg’s control room, the giant globe showcasing Stromberg’s dastardly plans caught fire. Made of plastic the giant sphere was lit from inside and Cartlidge recalled it went up in flames and damaged part of the set. Extras were injured when red-hot melted plastic started dripping. ‘Some people got light burns [and] seven or eight people ended up in hospital to get … treated.’180
The exterior of the Liparus was filmed in model form by Derek Meddings in the Bahamas. If was an impressive scale replica, at a cost of £100,000, it weighed 20 tons and was 63ft in length.181
Filming was completed in January by Willy Bognor’s second unit in St. Moritz, Switzerland filming the ski chase, the precursor to Rick Sylvester’s ski-base jump shot six months earlier. Other units completed work in Scotland and in the Solent off the coast of Southampton.
John Barry was briefly in the frame to score the film but was unable to due to tax problems.182 Multi-Oscar winning, 38-year-old American composer Marvin Hamlisch was aware of the precedent set, ‘A lot of stuff I’m going to write will be reflective of what will have been done already. The only thing that will be different will be the actual theme song which will be more tongue in cheek. It’s not about the criminal, like “Goldfinger”, or a title song like “Live and Let Die” which were pompous, big songs. This is just the opposite. This song is about Bond himself and it is very sexy and soft and all about how fantastic the hero is.’183
Hamlisch recalled, ‘I was very anxious to write a song that I thought was completely different to any of the songs that had been written for the Bond films and I also didn’t want it to be quite about the villain. I wanted a song written about Bond.’184 Hamlisch wrote the chorus first and then consulted his then-wife and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager. Hamlisch asked, ‘“What do you think that could be said about James Bond after all these years?” and she came up with the title, “Nobody Does It Better.”’185 Hamlisch had more time than normal to write the song and returned to the verse about five weeks later. Sager wrote lyrics to reflect Bond’s virtues which Hamlisch felt were ‘very vain; we decided it was that vain we should have Carly Simon sing it.’186 Simon had had a recent hit called, ‘You’re So Vain’. Carol Bayer Sager felt what she ‘was writing was a love song to James Bond.’187 The song which contains the title of the film within the verse, went on to become a huge international hit and recording standard.
Marvin Hamlisch was certainly not hampered by tradition. In the first two reels alone he gives the Bond theme a disco makeover, turns to Bach and Mozart for inspiration and amusingly borrows from Maurice Jarre’s classic Lawrence of Arabia. ‘He was different. Marvin was much more modern, much more at the fore in that period,’188 reflected Gilbert. Hamlisch felt his score was of the times, ‘It started off with very hot licks and kind of copped the feel of a Bee Gees record’189 referencing his update of the Monty Norman theme as the disco version, Bond ’77.
Maurice Binder originally explored the idea of giving the titles an Egyptian theme. He visited the unit in Luxor and was inspired by images of ‘beautiful girls with long fingernails, and beautiful headdresses.’190 Binder was then hit by the realisation that the first location following the title sequence was a gloomy Royal Navy base in Scotland, ‘I said to myself, “I’ll have this exotic, beautiful Egyptian title”, but Egypt doesn’t come in until about two reels later. It would mitigate and take away from the later excitement. So, I decided against it.’191
The film premièred at the Odeon Leicester Square on 7 July 1977 – 7/7/77 – in the presence of Princess Anne, her husband Mark Philips and Earl Mountbatten. Gilbert joked, ‘I’m sure this is the biggest one. In fact I hope they can get it into this Odeon it’s so big!’192 Broccoli had nothing to worry about. By the time 007 had pulled the cord of his Union Jack parachute, the audiences were cheering. James Bond was back. The Bond team could not have been happier; ‘We all loved Cubby and we wanted the film to succeed, we wanted it to make a big impression,’193 said John Glen. Roger Moore admitted years later The Spy Who Loved Me was his favourite of Bond film, ‘I think it was the one where all the elements worked. It had the right balance of locations and humour. I also enjoyed working with Lewis Gilbert tremendously.’194
The box office results were staggering. In a year in which Great Britain celebrated the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, patriotism made its way into the cinemas, where a million tickets were sold in the first five weeks in the UK alone.195
The Spy Who Loved Me took an incredible worldwide gross of $185m. The film wasn’t just showered with financial success, the following spring it was nominated for three Academy Awards. Marvin Hamlisch received nominations for his score and title song. Ken Adam and his art directors Peter Lamont and Hugh Scaife were recognised for production design. Lamont remembered with amusement arriving at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the fiftieth Academy Awards with Ken Adam, Derek Meddings and Broccoli’s two daughters, Tina and Barbara. Walking down the red carpet the crowds excitedly cheered ‘…and Ken said to Tina “Is that for us?” “No,” she said, “John Travolta is following us!”’196 Unfortunately, The Spy Who Loved Me lost out in all three categories. Ken Adam later reflected that although the Bond films were successful, ‘…to some extent the Motion Picture Academy thought [the Bond films] were rather contrived.’197
When interviewed at the première, Broccoli revealed that the following week, on 15 July, he was due to have his first meeting about the next Bond picture, For Your Eyes Only. ‘We start working on the ideas. We don’t know where we go we haven’t a clue at the moment. Lewis Gilbert again will be directing.’198
1 Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, p. 322–23
2 Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, p. 320–21
3 Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, p. 325
4 Open University Episode 1: Producing BBC Television, 1977
5 John Cork and Bruce Scivally, James Bond: The Legacy, Boxtree, 2002, p165
6 When the Snow Melts p245
7 Guy Hamilton: Authors’ interview,: 03.08.2013
8 Daily Variety, 7.11.1975
9 Guy Hamilton: Authors’ interview– 02.11.2014
10 Tom Soter, Bond and Beyond: 007 and Other Special Agents, Image Publishing, 1993, p128
11 Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls: Gerry Anderson: The Biography, Legend, 1996, 149
12 Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls: Gerry Anderson: The Biography, Legend, 1996, 150
13 Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls: Gerry Anderson: The Biography, Legend, 1996, 150
14 Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls: Gerry Anderson: The Biography, Legend, 1996, 150
15 Steven Jay Rubin, The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopaedia by, Newly Revised Edition, Contemporary Books, 2003, p391
16 Steven Jay Rubin, The James Bond Films, 2nd Edition, Arlington House Inc, 1983, p74 p138
17 Steven Jay Rubin, The James Bond Films, 2nd Edition, Arlington House Inc, 1983, p74 p138
18 Steven Jay Rubin, The James Bond Films, 2nd Edition, Arlington House Inc, 1983, p74 p138
19 Anthony Burgess, You’ve Had Your Time: The Second Part of my Confessions, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, p313
20 Anthony Burgess, You’ve Had Your Time: The Second Part of my Confessions, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, p313
21 Anthony Burgess, You’ve Had Your Time: The Second Part of my Confessions, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990, p314
22 Anthony Burgess 007 Obsession. By Andrew Biswell, New Statesman 9.04.2013
23 Anthony Burgess 007 Obsession’ by Andrew Biswell, New Statesman, 09.04.2013
24 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
25 John Landis: Authors’ interview, 28.10.2014
26 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
27 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
28 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
29 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
30 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
31 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
32 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
33 Guy Hamilton: Authors’ interview02.11.2014
34 Guy Hamilton: Authors’ interview– 02.08.2013
35 Richard Maibaum: 007’s puppetmaster. Starlog 68, Vol. 6, March 1983
36 Richard Maibaum: 007’s puppetmaster. Starlog 68, Vol. 6, March 1983
37 Richard Maibaum: 007’s puppetmaster. Starlog 68, Vol. 6, March 1983
38 Albert R. Broccoli. Broccoli with Donald Zec, When the Snow Melts, Boxtree, 1998, p244
39 John Landis: Authors’ interview – 28.10.2014
40 Danton Rissner: Authors’ interview, 04.06.2015
41 ‘In London’ by Fabienne Lewis, Daily Variety, 18.12.1975
42 Lewis Gilbert: Authors’ interview
43 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, – 24.10.2014
44 Lewis Gilbert with Peter Rankin, All My Flashbacks, Reynolds and Hearn, 2010 p317
45 Christopher Wood: The Spy I Loved, Twenty First CenturyPublishers, 2006, p30
46 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
47 ‘How to write the perfect Bond movie,’ by Christopher Wood, SFX, November 2012
48 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
49 Christopher Wood: The Spy I Loved. Twenty First CenturyPublishers, 2006, p32
50 Christopher Wood: The Spy I Loved. Twenty First CenturyPublishers, 2006, p33
51 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
52 Christopher Wood: The Spy I Loved. Twenty First CenturyPublishers, 2006, p60
53 Peter Carter Ruck, Memoirs of a Libel Lawyer, Weidenfield and Nicholson Ltd, 1990, p. 215–6
54 Roger Moore: Authors’ interview, 26.04.215
55 Roger Moore: Authors’ interview, 26.04.215
56 Tom Mankiewicz: Interview with Dharmesh Chauhan 20.10.2006
57 Tom Mankiewicz: Interview with Dharmesh Chauhan 20.10.2006
58 Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane, My Life as a Mankiewicz, The University Press of Kentucky, 2012, p163
59 Tom Mankiewicz: Interview with Dharmesh Chauhan 20.10.2006
60 ‘Brobdingnagian Bond Film Amid The Pyramids’ by Roderick Mann, Los Angeles Times, 05.12.1976
61 ‘Brobdingnagian Bond Film Amid The Pyramids’ by Roderick Mann, Los Angeles Times, 05.12.1976
62 ‘Why 007 must keep his new film a secret,’ by Roderick Mann, The Sunday Express, 15.10.1978
63 ‘Why 007 must keep his new film a secret,’ by Roderick Mann, The Sunday Express, 15.10.1978
64 Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero, by Tony Bennett and Janet Woolacott, Methuen Inc, New York, 1987, p196
65 Open University Episode 3: Casting BBC Television, 1977
66 Open University Episode 3: Casting BBC Television, 1977
67 Open University Episode 3: Casting BBC Television, 1977
68 Lewis Gilbert with Peter Rankin: All My Flashbacks, Reynolds and Hearn, 2010 p318
69 Lewis Gilbert: Authors’ interview
70 John Glen: Authors’ interview, 06.05.2014
71 ‘The marrying kindness of Curt Jurgens’ by Jane Ennis, TV Times, 27.03.1982
72 ‘The marrying kindness of Curt Jurgens’ by Jane Ennis, TV Times, 27.03.1982
73 ‘The marrying kindness of Curt Jurgens’ by Jane Ennis, TV Times, 27.03.1982
74 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
75 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
76 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
77 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
78 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview,
79 Caroline Monro: Authors’ interview, 29.05.2015
80 Caroline Monro: Authors’ interview, 29.05.2015
81 www.michaelbillington.org.uk
82 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, 10.01.2015
83 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, 10.01.2015
84 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, 10.01.2015
85 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, 10.01.2015
86 ‘The man who’s ensured 007 has kept up with The Times,’ by Sue Summers, Screen International, 26.02.1977
87 Open University Episode 2: Designing BBC Television, 1977
88 The Spy Who Loved Me premiere CCTV interviews, Peter Murray, Odeon Leicester Square 07/07/1977
89 Ken Adam: Authors’ interview – 26.01.2015
90 Lee Pfeiffer and Philip Lisa, The Incredible World of 007, Boxtree, Updated edition,1995, p197
91 Christopher Frayling: Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design, Faber and Faber, 2005, p181
92 Peter Haining, James Bond: A Celebration, Planet, 1987, p133
93 Behind the Scenes of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ by David Samuelson, American Cinematographer, May 1977
94 Eric Pleskow: Authors’ interview, 28.05.2015
95 Behind the Scenes of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ by David Samuelson, American Cinematographer, May 1977
96 Gareth Owen with Brian Burford, The Pinewood Story: The Authorised History of the World’s Most Famous Film Studio, Reynolds and Hearn Ltd, 2001, p119
97 Ken Adam in conversation with Graham Rye, The James Bond 007 International Fan Club 6th Annual Christmas Lunch, 21.11.1998
98 Danton Rissner: Authors’ interview, 04.06.2015
99 Albert and Dana Broccoli interviewed by Paul Ryan, Los Angeles cable TV, 1979
100 Rick Sylvester: Authors’ interview 09.03.2015
101 Rick Sylvester: Authors’ interview 09.03.2015
102 John Glen: Authors’ interview– 11.04.2001
103 John Glen: Authors’ interview 11.04.2001
104 John Glen: Authors’ interview 11.04.2001
105 Albert and Dana Broccoli interviewed by Paul Ryan, Los Angeles cable TV, 1979
106 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
107 John Glen with Marcus Hearn: For My Eyes Only, B.T Batsford, 2001
108 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
109 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
110 Rick Sylvester: Authors’ interview 09.03.2015
111 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
112 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
113 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
114 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
115 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
116 Albert and Dana Broccoli interviewed by Paul Ryan, Los Angeles cable TV, 1979
117 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
118 Rick Sylvester: Authors’ interview 09.03.2015
119 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
120 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
121 Albert and Dana Broccoli interviewed by Paul Ryan, Los Angeles cable TV, 1979
122 Rick Sylvester via e–mail 08.03.2015
123 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
124 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
125 John Glen: Authors’ interview11.04.2001
126 John Grover: Authors’ interview– 12.02.2014
127 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
128 Bob Simmons, Nobody Does It Better, Javelin, 1987, p118
129 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
130 The Spy Who Loved Me production notes, United Artists, 1977
131 ‘The Lois Maxwell Interview’ by Mark Greenberg, Bondage: The publication of The James Bond 007 Fan Club, issue 12, 1983
132 ‘Britain’s Last Line of Defense by Graham Rye, 007 Magazine: The publication on The James Bond British Fan Club, issue 14, January 1984
133 Desmond Llewelyn in conversation with Graham Rye, The James Bond 007 International Fan Club, 6th Annual Christmas Lunch, 21.11.1998
134 Walter Gotell in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
135 Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero, by Tony Bennett and Janet Woolacott, Methuen Inc, New York, 1987, p192
136 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
137 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
138 The Spy Who Loved Me production notes, United Artists, 1977
139 Caroline Monro: Authors’ interview, 29.05.2015
140 Caroline Monro: Authors’ interview, 29.05.2015
141 Caroline Monro: Authors’ interview, 29.05.2015
142 James Bond’s Cars: 5th Gear Special, Channel 5, TX 18.11.2002
143 Christopher Frayling: Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design, Faber and Faber, 2005, p183
144 Don McCaughlin, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Westemoreland Hotel, London, April 1981
145 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview – 06.10.2000
146 Roger Moore with Gareth Owen, Bond on Bond, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2012, p98
147 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview – 06.10.2000
148 The Derek Meddings Interview, by Richard Schenkman, Bondage, The publication of The James Bond Fan Club, issue 9, 1980
149 Michael G Wilson speaking at: Bond and Beyond: The Movie Magic of Derek Meddings, The Pictureville Cinema, Bradford,
150 Steven Jay Rubin, The James Bond Films, 2nd Edition, Arlington House Inc, 1983, p74 p142
151 Steven Jay Rubin, The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopaedia by, Newly Revised Edition, Contemporary Books, 2003, p46
152 The Pure Essence of James Bond’ edited by Paul Duncan, The James Bond Archives, Taschen, 2012 p269
153 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview – 10.06.2001
154 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview – 10.06.2001
155 Christopher Wood in conversation with Ross Hendry, The James Bond British Fan Club Convention, Wembley Conference Centre, 25.04.1982
156 Lewis Gilbert: Authors’ interview– 22.05.2010
157 ‘Tyler Spy Wetbike donated to IFF’ by John Cork, Goldeneye, issue 1, vol 1, Fall 1992
158 Roger Moore with Gareth Owen, Bond on Bond, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2012, p98
159 ‘Tyler Spy wetbike donated to IFF’ by John Cork, Goldeneye, issue 1, vol 1, Fall 1992
160 Tim Greeves, The Bond Women: 007 Style, 1 Shot Publications, 2002, p50
161 The Spy Who Loved Me production notes, United Artists, 1977
162 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview, 10.01.2015
163 Roger Moore: Authors’ interview, 26.04.215
164 Lewis Gilbert speaking at ‘A Celebration of the life and work of Cubby Broccoli’ Odeon Leicester Square – 17.11.1996
165 ‘The Moore Bonds the Merrier’ by Lisa Dewson, ‘007’, Argus Specialist Publications Ltd, 1983
166 John Glen: Authors’ interview 06.05.2014
167 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview 29.12.2014
168 Bill Desowitz, James Bond Unmasked, Charles Helfenstein, 2012, p166
169 Martin Shubrook, Special Effects Superman: The Art and effects of Derek Meddings, Shubrook Bros Publications, 2008, p53
170 Ken Adam: Authors’ interview – 26.01.2015
171 ‘This is the noisiest Bond ever’ by Roy Pickard, Photoplay, April 1977
172 Telex from Albert R. Broccoli. Broccoli and Danton Rissner to Cyril Howard, Managing Director of Pinewood Studios, 12.10.1976
173 Behind the Scenes of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ by David Samuelson, American Cinematographer, May 1977
174 Behind the Scenes of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ by David Samuelson, American Cinematographer, May 1977
175 Ken Adam: Authors’ interview – 26.01.2015
176 Richard Kiel: Authors’ interview 10.06.2001
177 Albert and Dana Broccoli interviewed by Paul Ryan, Los Angeles cable TV, 1979
178 ‘The man who’s ensured 007 has kept up with The Times,’ by Sue Summers, Screen International, 26.02.1977
179 Peter Haining, James Bond A Celebration, Planet, 1987, p122
180 William P. Cartlidge: Authors’ interview 29.12.2014
181 Bond and Beyond: The Movie Magic of Derek Meddings, by Chris Bentley, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in association with Fanderson and The James Bond Collectors Club, 27–28th May 2000
182 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, Oxford University Press, 2012, p123
183 ‘James Bond’s New Music Man’ by Glenys Roberts, The Times, 28.03.1977
184 Editing and Composing, The Making Of The Spy Who Loved Me, BBC Open University, 09.10.1977
185 Editing and Composing, The Making Of The Spy Who Loved Me, BBC Open University, 09.10.1977
186 Editing and Composing, The Making Of The Spy Who Loved Me, BBC Open University, 09.10.1977
187 Lewis Gilbert: Authors’ interview – 22.05.2010
188 Lewis Gilbert: Authors’ interview – 22.05.2010
189 James Bond’s Greatest Hits, Channel 4, 18.11.2006
190 Maurice Binder Interview Part 2, by Don McGregor, Starlog, October 1983
191 Maurice Binder Interview Part 2, by Don McGregor, Starlog, October 1983
192 The Spy Who Loved Me premiere CCTV interviews, Peter Murray, Odeon Leicester Square 07/07/1977
193 John Glen: Authors’ interview – 11.04.2001
194 Lee Pfeiffer and Philip Lisa, The Incredible World of 007, Boxtree, Updated edition,1995, p211
195 John Cork and Bruce Scivally, James Bond: The Legacy, Boxtree, 2002, p174
196 Peter Lamont: Authors’ interview – 03.01.2014
197 Sir Ken Adam in conversation with Sir Christopher Frayling at the Museum of Design Museum, London, 06.10.2004
198 The Spy Who Loved Me premiere CCTV interviews, Peter Murray, Odeon Leicester Square 07/07/1977