Live and Let Die

Action, Adventure, Thriller

Roger Moore	James Bond
Yaphet Kotto	Kananga/Mr. Big
Jane Seymour	Solitaire
Clifton James	Sheriff J.W. Pepper
Julius Harris	Tee Hee (as Julius W. Harris)
Geoffrey Holder	Baron Samedi
David Hedison	Felix Leiter
Gloria Hendry	Rosie Carver
Bernard Lee	M
Lois Maxwell	Miss Moneypenny
Madeline Smith	Beautiful Girl
Lon Satton	Strutter
Joie Chitwood	Charlie

Director	Guy Hamilton
Producer	Harry Saltzman
Writer	Ian Fleming; Tom Mankiewicz

Roger Moore was introduced as James Bond in this 1973 action movie featuring secret agent 007. More self-consciously suave and formal than predecessor Sean Connery, he immediately re-established Bond as an uncomplicated and wooden fellow for the '70s. This film also marks a deviation from the more character-driven stories of the Connery years, a deliberate shift to plastic action (multiple chases, bravura stunts) that made the franchise more of a comic book or machine. If that's not depressing enough, there's even a good British director on board, Guy Hamilton (Force 10 from Navarone). The story finds Bond taking on an international drug dealer (Yaphet Kotto), and while that may be superficially relevant, it isn't exactly the same as fighting super-villains on the order of Goldfinger. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

On the DVD: Anyone old enough to remember the old milk marketing board commercials will relish the sight of James Bond exhorting everyone to "drink a pinta milka day" in one of the TV spots included here. Elsewhere in the special features, the characteristically in-depth "making of" featurette has a mixture of both contemporary and new interviews plus behind-the-scenes footage (the alligator-jumping sequence is positively hair-raising). The first of two audio commentaries is hosted by John Quark of the Ian Fleming Foundation and features a variety of cast and crew members, notably director Guy Hamilton; the second has writer Tom Mankiewicz on his own, who in between pauses has the occasional interesting thing to say. Overall another good package of features to accompany another excellent anamorphic print. --Mark Walker