Live and Let Die (1973) | Music

When it came time to score Live and Let Die, John Barry was apparently working on a musical and not available. His replacement came on board in kind of a backwards way. Saltzman and Broccoli had hired Paul McCartney to write the theme song and McCartney brought in Beatles producer George Martin to record it. Saltzman and Broccoli were so impressed with Martin's arrangement of the song that they asked him to score the film, too.

"Live and Let Die" is one of the most popular Bond theme songs and it's easy to see why. Bond themes are usually soulful ballads, so it and the few other rock themes stand out. And if your tastes run towards classic rock, it's your only option. Even for those of us who aren't classic rock fans, it's a great song.

This might get me into trouble, but I have a lot of problems with most of McCartney's Wings-era stuff. I'm not familiar with that many of his songs, but that's because the few I've heard have turned me off enough that I don't want more. I find the melodies repetitive and dull, and though they often change up in the middle of the song (an idea I like), the new melody usually isn't any more interesting than the one it's replacing.

Having said all that, "Live and Let Die" is easily my favorite of his. It might be because of the Bond connection - it probably is - but I genuinely like it. I like how the break in the middle is reggae-influenced, tying into the movie's Caribbean setting. And I like how the lyrics accurately express the sentiment - expressed by Bond in the novel - that gives Live and Let Die its name. Whether or not I love the song aesthetically, I admire the crap out of its construction.

For the title sequence, Maurice Binder supports the movie with a lot of voodoo imagery: flames and skulls and body paint. That makes it cool and kind of scary, but there's this one bit about a minute-and-a-half in where it gets silly. A silhouetted woman is just waving her hands around - looking like she's frantically trying to clean an invisible house with invisible rags - against some kind of weird, swaying, fiberoptic lighting or something? I don't know what that's about.

Martin uses the Bond Theme a few times - much as Barry did in Diamonds Are Forever - to highlight important moments in Bond's mission. It appears when Bond is tailing Whisper in New York, which is the point where he actively begins his investigation. It plays again when he encounters Solitaire and Tee Hee, his introduction to Kananga's inner circle. A third time is a snippet we hear after he hang-glides to Kananga's estate and is getting ready to infiltrate it. And finally, it plays again as he and Solitaire "follow the scarecrows" to discover Kananga's poppy fields.

Top Ten Theme Songs

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. Diamonds Are Forever
3. You Only Live Twice
4. From Russia With Love (John Barry instrumental version)
5. Live and Let Die
6. Dr No
7. Thunderball
8. Goldfinger
9. From Russia With Love (Matt Monro vocal version)
10. TBD

Top Ten Title Sequences

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. Dr No
3. Thunderball
4. Goldfinger
5. From Russia With Love
6. Diamonds Are Forever
7. Live and Let Die
8. You Only Live Twice
9. TBD
10. TBD

Live and Let Die (1973) | Villains

In the novel, Mr. Big is a brilliant, ruthless villain. He may work for SMERSH, but he's created his own criminal empire that's arguably more powerful in its hemisphere as SMERSH is in Europe. The movie version has similar dreams, but he's much less smart. Dr Kananga is prime minister of his island nation and has used his influence to build the foundations for a criminal empire, but he's not quite there yet. And the US and British governments are both on to him before the movie even starts.

I keep going back to Fiona's advice to Largo in Thunderball about how killing Bond will only let the authorities know they're on the right track. That's so smart, but we've seen Blofeld fail at it in You Only Live Twice and Kananga does the same thing in Live and Let Die. The whole way that Bond gets put on the case is that Kananga simultaneously kills three British agents who have been investigating him. Dumb. He's failed before Bond even shows up.

That's all in the writing though. Like with Solitaire, Live and Let Die casts an excellent, charismatic actor over this flimsy role. Yaphet Kotto can be as charming as he is menacing and we see both sides in Kananga. He seems much smarter than he's written and I love every second he's on screen. As foolish as he is, he's one of my favorite Bond villains.



The movie makes pretty good use of Big's array of henchmen from the novel, but with some changes. Fleming's giggling Tee Hee becomes a merely grinning character with a claw for a hand (perhaps an homage to the hook that Felix Leiter gets after what happens to him in the book). Julius Harris (Super Fly, Shaft's Big Score) is great in the part, but I wish the claw effect worked better. Later in the movie we see that the prosthesis replaces most of his arm, but the prop only covered Harris hand and he keeps bending his wrist when he uses it.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Live and Let Die is almost like a reboot of the series. I'm not sure what I meant by that, but I do see a lot of reminders of the first couple of Connery films. The Caribbean setting and Quarrel Jr call back to Dr. No and Bond's final fight with Tee Hee in the train is clearly supposed to evoke From Russia with Love (though it's a severely watered down version).



Whisper is another character from the book, but he's been promoted from communications officer to assassin and generally handy dude to have around. He kills Bond's chauffeur, checks in on Bond at the San Monique hotel, and he's hanging out with Kananga in the villain's HQ at the end. He's not great in a fight, but his size and his quietness make him an interesting, memorable henchman.



The best villain in the movie is Baron Samedi, played by dancer/7-Up spokesman Geoffrey Holder. In the novel, Mr Big keeps his organization in line through fear of voodoo and the belief that Big himself is Samedi, the loa of the Dead. In the film, Big's dual identity is that he's actually just a disguise for Kananga, but the movie still keeps the voodoo influence and the character of Baron Samedi. Freed from Mr Big, though, Samedi is free to be as supernatural as he wants and the movie uses that really well.

Like everything else about the script, Samedi's not really fleshed out, but it works to his advantage this time. It keeps him mysterious. We get a sense of his role in Kananga's organization, but not for how Kananga keeps control over him or if, in fact, Samedi is actually pulling Kananga's strings somehow. Some of Samedi's abilities are revealed to be tricks, but not all of them can be explained, including his final appearance in the movie. I've always wanted to see Samedi come back for another Bond film, but as the full-blown villain. He has the potential to be a better nemesis even than Blofeld.

Top Ten Villains

1. Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)
2. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (From Russia With Love and Thunderball)
3. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
4. Dr. Kananga (Live and Let Die)
5. Doctor No (Dr. No)
6. Emilio Largo (Thunderball)
7. Rosa Klebb (From Russia With Love)
8. Kronsteen (From Russia With Love)
9. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (You Only Live Twice)
10. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Diamonds Are Forever)

Top Ten Henchmen

1. Baron Samedi (Live and Let Die)
2. Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
3. Grant (From Russia With Love)
4. Oddjob (Goldfinger)
5. Irma Bunt (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
6. Miss Taro (Dr. No)
7. Tee Hee (Live and Let Die)
8. Professor Dent (Dr. No)
9. Whisper (Live and Let Die)
10. Morzeny (From Russia With Love)

Live and Let Die (1973) | Women

The missing Italian agent from Bond's first scene is a nothing character. We're told her name is Caruso, but the credits list her as "Beautiful Girl," so that's how much she matters to the movie. Madeline Smith is funny in the role though.



Rosie Carver is infuriating. She's a horrible agent and it's even more unbelievable that she's a double. I can only think of two possible reasons that Felix has assigned her to Bond. The first doesn't say very nice things about Felix, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he just never read her file and doesn't realize how incompetent she is. Bond is a creep though, so I don't mind saying bad things about him. He actually says at one point that Rosie is "a lousy agent, but the compensations speak for themselves."

I have no idea why Kananga uses her though. When she leads Bond towards a trap, Kananga muses that she's "been more efficient than I anticipated." So he doesn't respect her either and honestly, what's to respect? She's ridiculous. I don't know which bothers me more: her ineptitude or that Bond's so dehumanizing with her.



And then there's Solitaire. It's tough not to like Jane Seymour and she does add layers to the character. But despite that there's no denying that Solitaire is written as flimsily as the other two women in the movie. Fleming's Solitaire had big problems too, especially in the last half of the book, but she's an infinitely stronger character than this version. Book Solitaire actively seeks out Bond as an escape from Mr. Big while Movie Solitaire has almost no will of her own. She seems content to stay with the villain until Bond tricks her into sex, making her no longer valuable to Kananga. Once that's done, she's distraught and it looks like there may actually be consequences to Bond's lie, if only that he's hurt her. But no, her misgivings only last about five minutes before she decides that she's totally into Bond and sex. I have no problem with her deciding she likes sex; I just don't like how it lets Bond off the hook for what he did.

None of these women crack the Top Ten.

My Favorite Bond Women

1. Tracy Bond (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
2. Paula Caplan (Thunderball)
3. Tatiana Romanova (From Russia With Love)
4. Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
5. Domino Derval (Thunderball)
6. Honey Rider (Dr. No)
7. Sylvia Trench (Dr. No and From Russia With Love)
8. Aki (You Only Live Twice)
9. Pussy Galore (Goldfinger)
10. Tilly Masterson (Goldfinger)

Live and Let Die (1973) | Bond

Actors and Allies



Surprisingly, Live and Let Die makes no fuss over the introduction of Roger Moore as Bond. On Her Majesty's Secret Service teased out George Lazenby's first appearance and Diamonds Are Forever delayed the reveal of Sean Connery's face, but you'd never know that Live and Let Die is Moore's first Bond movie.

I didn't talk about Moore's hiring yesterday, but it's a weird, remarkable story. Even though Connery clearly didn't want to play Bond anymore and had done a horrible job of it the last two times, Saltzman and Broccoli tried to get him back. Sleep-acting or not, audiences wanted him. Diamonds Are Forever was it for him though. "Never again."

To replace him, United Artists really wanted an American. They considered John Gavin again and names like Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford were also tossed around. But Saltzman and Broccoli insisted on a British actor. They seriously considered Michael Billington from the TV show UFO, but ultimately went back to Roger Moore, one of the people they'd looked at for Dr. No (Moore is actually three years older than Connery). In the ten years since Dr. No, Moore had been busy on TV, most notably playing Simon Templar on The Saint.

Moore's TV characters were dashing heroes who relied on charm and wit more than their fists. Because of that, Live and Let Die screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz adjusted Bond to play to Moore's strengths. Moore looks entirely comfortable in the role. He's as irreverent about his job as Connery's version was, but it works even better for him. He's less rugged and macho; more cultured. He feels like a man who's led a privileged life and has never really had to take anything seriously. I think that makes Connery's the more interesting version, but there's no denying that Moore is cool and suave. At least for the most part.

There are times in Live and Let Die when Bond is decidedly not cool. He's very serious and square when compared to '70s Black culture, for instance. That's not a complaint. The movie wins points with me for letting Bond not be the coolest guy in the room.

Another uncool thing about Moore's Bond though is an issue and that's how he treats women. Bond's never been a feminist, but his attitude towards CIA agent Rosie Caver and then Solitaire is shameful. He creepily hits on Carver while she's freaked out about a snake and later, when she's been revealed as a double agent, he threatens to kill her and then mocks her for letting him screw her first. As for Solitaire, he famously tricks her into sleeping with him, negating her value to Kananga and essentially forcing her to become an ally.

With Moore as a less violent Bond, Live and Let Die drops the brutal fights that Connery's Bond was known for and turns instead to stunts. A friend pointed out to me on Google+ that we got the first car stunt in Diamonds Are Forever when Bond puts a car on two wheels to get it down a narrow alley. Live and Let Die continues that trend with four vehicle set pieces. Right after arriving in New York, Bond has to drive from the backseat when his chauffeur is killed, then there are extended chases featuring a double-decker bus, an airplane that never leaves the ground, and of course the famous speedboats. And outside of the vehicles, Bond escapes a tiny island surrounded by alligators by running across their backs to dry land. That alligator stunt is my favorite part of the whole movie. The scene builds the tension well and Bond tries using a gadget to escape before resorting to the more complicated route. I'm not happy with a lot of things about Moore's Bond, but adding a lot of stunts to the series is an undeniable benefit of his run.

As for Bond's allies, M is still grumpy with him as he has been in the last few movies. Q doesn't even appear in Live and Let Die (though he is mentioned) and I wonder if that's because he and M are essentially sharing a personality at this point. As much as I like Q, it's refreshing not to have him and M double-team Bond in their disdain for his flippant attitude.

After Moneypenny's painful mooning in Diamonds Are Forever, she's refreshingly good-natured in Live and Let Die about Bond's having a female agent in his apartment. She even helps hide the fact from M. I know I've said this a lot, but I love it when she and Bond are mutually flirty friends instead of his being her unrequited crush.

Felix Leiter shows up again, but he doesn't have much more to do here than he did in Goldfinger or Diamonds Are Forever. He's just the face of the American government. But David Hedison is a charismatic actor, so his Felix is fun to watch anyway. I can see why they brought him back to play the same role in Licence to Kill, and it's cool that he gets to do more with it in that movie.

A fun surprise is Lon Satton as CIA agent Harold Strutter. As he tails Bond into Harlem, the movie lets you think that he's another of Mr. Big's men until he reveals his true allegiance. He doesn't have a lot to do, but he comes across as a smart, competent agent and I'm sorry not to get more of him.

Finally, there's Quarrel Jr. In the novels, Live and Let Die comes before Dr. No, so Quarrel is introduced in one and killed in the other. With the order of the movies being switched, the Quarrel of Live and Let Die has to be the son of the man who was killed in Dr. No. It's a nice bit of continuity that ties Moore's Bond into Connery's and Roy Stewart is a worthy heir to the role.

Best Quip



"No sense in going off half-cocked," in response to Solitaire's request that they delay their mission for more sex.

Worst Quip



"Butterhook," when Tee Hee has trouble removing Bond's watch.

Gadgets



The gadgets are understated in Live and Let Die. The fanciest is Bond's magnetic watch and I like that he uses it more than once during the adventure. The saw-blade function comes out of nowhere though and feels like cheating.

Other than that, Bond has a fancy shaving kit with what look like multiple gadgets. The only one he uses though is a brush with some kind of Morse code signaler built in. And then there's the gun that shoots compressed gas pellets. That's another out-of-left-field gadget that saves Bond's bacon at the end. He gives some kind of lame explanation for having it, but it and the saw are some deus ex gadgeta I could do without.

Top Ten Gadgets

1. Aston Martin DB V (Goldfinger and Thunderball)
2. Jet pack (Thunderball)
3. Little Nellie (You Only Live Twice)
4. Rocket cigarettes (You Only Live Twice)
5. Magnetic buzzsaw watch (Live and Let Die)
6. Attaché case (From Russia With Love)
7. Propeller SCUBA tank with built-in spearguns (Thunderball)
8. Rebreather (Thunderball)
9. Camera-tape recorder; mostly because it reminds me of a camera my dad used to use (From Russia With Love)
10. Seagull SCUBA hat (Goldfinger)

Bond's Best Outfit



Black turtleneck with a shoulder holster. Classic spywear; the iconic secret agent look.

Bond's Worst Outfit



For the '70s, Bond doesn't do too badly in Live and Let Die, but I'm not sure he pulls off the skimpy, white tank top under a powder blue leisure jacket.

Live and Let Die (1973) | Story

Plot Summary

Bond investigates Dr. Kananga, the prime minister of the Caribbean island of San Monique who's killed every other British agent that's gotten close to him.

Influences

Diamonds Are Forever may not have been an artistic success, but it was a financial one. That reinforced the producers' and studio's ideas that audiences wanted a) Sean Connery and b) American locations. Connery wasn't an option for the next movie, but there was still another Fleming novel that took place in the Western hemisphere.

The filmmakers had long considered Live and Let Die to be one of Fleming's stronger novels, but didn't feel that the middle of the Civil Rights movement was the right time to make a movie about a vast criminal network made up entirely of Black people. But by 1973, we had two Mr. Tibbs sequels, Shaft, Super Fly, Blacula, and a host of other blaxploitation films that completely changed the notion of what mass audiences would accept.

US screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz was brought back to do the script. He'd worked on Diamonds Are Forever, helping usual Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum to give it an American feel, but this time he went solo. His script also included inspiration from the good-ol'-boy southsploitation films that had sprung up in the '60s and early '70s. Except for Deliverance (1971), though, it predates the most popular examples of that genre. Walking Tall came out the same year as Live and Let Die and Smokey and the Bandit wouldn't be for another four years after.

How Is the Book Different?

Fleming's novel has Bond tracking and closing down an operation run by Mr. Big that funds SMERSH out of a pirate's treasure horde. In keeping with the urban crime of blaxploitation films though, Live and Let Die changes that to drug trafficking and Mr. Big becomes an alias for Kananga.

Like the novel, the movie opens in New York and ends on a Caribbean island (the fictional San Monique instead of Jamaica), but adds a huge section in New Orleans and rural Louisiana. Bond actually solves his case on San Monique an hour into the film, but keeps going to investigate New Orleans and wrap up loose ends.

Moment That's Most Like Fleming



There are a few moments right out of the book - or inspired by it - like the trick table in Big's restaurant or the scene where Tee Hee is going to break Bond's finger if Solitaire says the wrong thing. Both of those are heavily tweaked for the movie though.

The thing that the movie has most in common with Fleming is its focus on racism, especially in the Louisiana section. For example, the disgusted look that two state troopers give each other when they mistake a Black man for Sheriff Pepper's brother-in-law. It's arguable that the movie holds these attitudes up for ridicule, so I'm not going to judge it as harshly as I do Fleming.

Moment That's Least Like Fleming



Bond and the other good guys aren't the racists. Instead, new characters like Sheriff JW Pepper were created. I don't think I'm going to talk about Pepper in the Allies section tomorrow, because he's not really an ally, but I'll come back to him (and how his racism is portrayed) in The Man with the Golden Gun when he actually teams up with Bond.

Cold Open



I don't know if they were trying to be mysterious about the new Bond or what, but it's always bothered me that Bond doesn't even appear in the cold open for Live and Let Die. It's just three murders that we'll find out later are the catalyst for Bond's investigation of Kananga. They're weird and interesting assassinations, but not exciting. My least favorite cold open of the entire series.

Top 10 Cold Opens

1. Thunderball
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Goldfinger
4. From Russia With Love
5. Diamonds Are Forever
6. You Only Live Twice
7. Live and Let Die
8. TBD
9. TBD
10. TBD

Movie Series Continuity



There's very little continuity from previous films except for Quarrel Jr, whom we'll talk about tomorrow. It's almost like they're rebooting, but we'll talk more about that tomorrow, too.

A couple of meta things though: First, M comes to Bond's house (with Moneypenny!) to debrief him. Presumably because it's so early in the morning? I don't get it. It does continue a tradition of relocating the debriefing scene from M's office though. Maybe they felt it was more exciting to have that occur elsewhere, but it doesn't make logical sense and I miss the office setting.

The second thing is that Solitaire's tarot cards have 007 printed on the back of them. If we take that as more than just a cute Easter egg for sharp-eyed fans, it appears that Kananga knows that Bond will be assigned to the case (he does have people waiting to tail Bond from the airport) and had special cards made for Solitaire to use while tracking him. Maybe that gives her more power over Bond. If that's true, then it's another example of Bond's identity and code number being common knowledge among criminals. I think that's the first time we've seen that outside of SPECTRE, so it's a pretty significant revelation.

"Live and Let Die": The Comic Strip

Writer Anthony Hern had toned down parts of Casino Royale for the Daily Express' comic strip adaptation, but he kept all the story beats and the general tone of Fleming's novel. He was replaced on the strip in December 1958 though starting with the adaptation of Live and Let Die. His successor was Henry Gammidge, who made a couple of immediate changes to distance the strip from Fleming even more.

Most startling is the use of first person narration by Bond. I don't know if it was inspired by writers like Raymond Chandler, but if so, it's a sad imitation. Gammidge's captions read like a children's book and there's no effort to explain why Bond's telling this story or to whom.

Another major difference between Hern's adaptation and Gammidge's is the length. The "Live and Let Die" strip is a little over 60% the length of "Casino Royale" and it feels rushed in comparison. Without "Casino Royale" to hold it up against though, I'm not sure I would've noticed. Gammidge is certainly more economical than Hern was, but he still hits all the major plot points of Fleming's book without cutting scenes. He even manages to acknowledge Bond's nervousness during his rough flight to Jamaica.



John McLusky's art maintains the strengths and weaknesses it had in "Casino Royale." He's still not awesome at facial expressions, but his Solitaire is slightly more emotive than Vesper was. His action scenes are still dynamic though, his compositions are eye-catching, and he continues to pull me into the story with detailed representations of the fashions, architecture, and vehicles of the '50s.

With its exciting art and fast-paced story, I imagine that "Live and Let Die" was able to appeal to newspaper readers who'd never read the book. To me, it feels less like reading Fleming than "Casino Royale" did, but I'm not so sure that's a drawback. As much as I dislike Bond's narration, it forces me to consider the strip on its own terms instead of just comparing it to Fleming. It was created after the adventure strip boom of the '30s and '40s, but it's as much heir to those comics as it is an adaptation of Fleming's work. I certainly wouldn't hold it up next to Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff in terms of quality, but as an amalgamation of those guys and Fleming, I think it's at least interesting. As I continue reading it, I'm going to try to keep that in mind and judge it as it's own thing rather than how closely it follows Fleming.

Dr No by Ian Fleming

When I wrote about From Russia with Love, I repeated the common myth that Ian Fleming was growing tired of the Bond series by then and wanted to kill off his main character. Turns out, that's not entirely accurate. Fleming was certainly experimenting when he wrote From Russia with Love, but not out of desperate boredom. He was simply interested in improving the series and was willing to take risks to do so.

Part of the myth of Bond's death is that Raymond Chandler is the one who talked Fleming out of making it permanent. But according to one Bond FAQ, Chandler's advice to Fleming was simply to criticize Diamonds Are Forever (I agree that it's a weak book) and suggest that Fleming could do better. Fleming took that to heart and From Russia with Love was the result. But there's other evidence - also dating back to Diamonds Are Forever - that implies Fleming always intended for Bond to live beyond From Russia with Love.

Shortly after Diamonds Are Forever was published, Fleming received a now-famous letter from a fan named Geoffrey Boothroyd who was also a gun expert. Boothroyd criticized Bond's use of the .25 Beretta as inappropriate and recommended the Walther PPK as a superior choice. Fleming also took this advice to heart, but was already too far into writing From Russia with Love to make the change for that book, so he replied to Boothroyd that he'd include that idea in the next one, which turned out to be Dr No. Apparently, the intention was never to leave Bond dead after From Russia with Love, but simply to end on a cliffhanger and get readers buzzing for the next installment. The myth could be the result of people getting Fleming confused with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who did grow tired of Sherlock Holmes and killed him off before later changing his mind.

As Dr No opens, Bond is still recuperating from Rosa Klebb's poison and M is nervous about sending 007 back into action. He discusses the agent's shelf life with the neurologist who's been watching over Bond's recovery and we get some insight to M's thoughts on pain in general and how much he expects his agents to be able to take. He doesn't want to coddle Bond and risk softening him up, but M is also aware that Bond's been through a rough time and doesn't need to be thrown up against another threat like SMERSH right away. Instead, M has a gravy assignment in mind for Bond; what M calls a "holiday in the sun."

From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

Major SPOILERS BELOW for the novel From Russia With Love.

I’m confused about how much time has passed between Moonraker and From Russia With Love. That’s a weird problem to have, I know, because it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme, but Fleming is so specific about it and his dates don’t match up. At the end of Moonraker, M says he’s sending Bond away for a month until the heat blows over, and Bond decides he’s going to France. Then, as Diamonds Are Forever opens, Bond says that he’s only been back from France for two weeks. But in From Russia With Love, the Soviets discuss Bond’s recent career and date Diamonds as “last year” and Moonraker as three years ago.

The obvious answer is that Fleming simply forgot that he’d placed Diamonds so close to Moonraker. He said at the beginning of Moonraker that typically Bond has only one or two big, dangerous cases a year – and of course the novels were being published once a year – so that’s probably what Fleming was thinking as he wrote Russia. That’s not very satisfying, so my own No-Prize theory is that the France trip mentioned in Diamonds isn’t actually the same as the one at the end of Moonraker. Fleming obviously intended them to be, but if we say they aren’t, then those adventures can be a year apart and we’re back on track again.

The timeline isn’t the only problem the Soviets cause in From Russia With Love. The biggest one sadly isn’t their plans for Bond, but how much of the novel they take over. Stephen King is famous for dedicating pages and pages of background to minor characters, but Fleming did it first. Every contributor to the Soviets’ plan gets at least a paragraph of personal history and most of them a page or two. Red Grant the assassin gets multiple chapters. If I was reading the series a book per year as they were released, this wouldn’t be that big a problem. I might still have been a little put out, but I could perhaps admire the risk Fleming took more than I do now. Marathoning a book a week, I want to keep moving and I had a hard time slogging through the first half of Russia before Bond shows up.

Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming, Chapters 11 - 23

I covered the first half of Live and Let Die a couple of weeks ago. Since this post wraps up the novel, I'll be spoiling some things about the ending.

As Bond and Solitaire make their way by train to Florida to see where Mr. Big is bringing his pirate treasure into the country, the couple begins to flirt, but agree not to have sex yet. For one thing, Bond's hand is still bothering him where Tee Hee broke his little finger and the spy doesn't feel like he can work his moves properly one-handed. Beside that, they suspect that Big has people on the train wanting to kill them, so they're not too keen on getting naked and making themselves vulnerable. They also have to get up early, because Bond wants to sneak off the train in Jacksonville instead of riding it all the way to St. Petersburg/Tampa as planned. Lots of excuses.

The couple is obviously into each other though and pretty much promise to do it as soon as they get the chance. Bond is attracted to Solitaire - she's an aggressive kisser and seems to be a strong, confident woman - and she believes he's the strong man she's been waiting for. Sadly, that's not just about helping her escape Big, but I'll have more to say about that in a minute.

Bond stays very friendly with Solitaire, but it's worth pointing out that he still doesn't seem to entirely trust her. He asks her lots of questions about Big's organization, but he never offers her any information or confides in her about his mission. Like I mentioned in the first half of the novel, Bond's relationship with Solitaire is absolutely not a repeat of what he went through with Vesper. He's having a fun time getting to know Solitaire and seems at ease around her, but he's not letting her in. That's important to the long-term arc of Bond's character throughout the series. He got burned badly in Casino Royale and though Fleming isn't explicit about saying it, Bond's not letting that happen again in Live and Let Die.

Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming, Chapters 1 - 10

As I mentioned in my intro to this project, I'm a slow reader. I'd like to have a Bond post up each week though, so I'm going to write about however much of the books I've read in the last seven days. Hopefully, that'll also help control the length of some of these posts, because I do tend to ramble.

Before Casino Royale was even published, Ian Fleming had completed his second Bond novel. Inspired in part by the train ride that Fleming and his wife took from New York to Florida before heading to Jamaica where he wrote the book, Live and Let Die has Bond making the same trip as he investigates a criminal named Mr. Big.

Like Casino Royale, Live and Let Die begins with a cold open as Bond arrives in New York City to collaborate with the CIA and FBI, then flashes back to the briefings that sent him there. Bond has mostly recovered from the events of Casino Royale, but still carries emotional scars. How much damage he took from Vesper's betrayal remains to be seen, but at the very least he's passionately bent on taking down SMERSH, the Soviet organization behind most of the troubles in Casino Royale. M knows this, so when a possible SMERSH agent is identified in the United States, M gives Bond the job of verifying the intelligence and - if necessary - eliminating the threat.

The connection between Mr. Big and SMERSH is circumstantial. The British have reason to believe that SMERSH is financed partially by a horde of pirate loot that once belonged to Captain Morgan, and Big has been caught handling some of that treasure. On paper, part of Bond's job is making sure that Big is actually involved with the Soviets, but that fact is mostly taken for granted. Bond is after Big from the get-go.