James Bond MK III

Roger Moore was 45 years old when he took over the role of James Bond in 1973 - he had been linked to the character several times previously with Sean Connery even predicting that he would make an ideal replacement as Bond when he threw in the towel after You Only Live Twice.

Course things didn't go as planned and with Moore contracted for the TV series, The Saint, George Lazenby took over the Bond role when Connery left. However Connery returned for Diamonds are Forever and then once again said, never again. And so Roger Moore's name popped up again but the actor was this time contracted to The Persuaders TV series. However when the show failed to score ratings in the US where it was pitched against Mission Impossible and so Moore was let out of a five year contract. Now the way was clear for him to take over the role he had coveted for so long, that of James Bond.

Moore played the role up until 1985's A View to a Kill, taking the character through some of his most successful films. And yet Moore's tenure as 007 is often derided by both fans and critics who unfairly compare Moore's smooth Bond to Connery's more earthy interpretation.

Personally Moore is my favourite Bond - I'd even rate him above Connery in the role. Now that last statement will probably be dismissed by most of you as it seems the general consensus is that Connery was the best. But Connery was the first, well that's if you discount the CBS TV production of Casino Royale starring Barry Nelson as Jimmy Bond, so he set the benchmark on which the character would forever be judged.

People say Moore was unlike Fleming's Bond - well that's true but even although I am a huge Fleming fan and know all of the original canon intimately, I realised early on that the movie series were distinct from the books. Each operate in their own little world.

Connery too was unlike Fleming's bond, as was George Lazenby and Pierce Bronsnan played, brilliantly mind, a mixture of Moore and Connery's Bond. Daniel Craig doesn't come anywhere close to Fleming's super hero - in fact to my mind the most Fleming Bond was Timothy Dalton but as I've said the movies and books are separate entities.

Moore's second Bond, The Man with the Golden Gun was something if a disappointment following the excellence of Live and Let Die. That's not to say it's a bad film, though but it does lack spectacle and seems far too small a canvas for a Bond movie. But Moore's performance was spot on and one scene, where he turns a gun on a gunsmith, he even manages to display some of the dangerous edge that Connery was so good at.

The Spy who loved me followed - Moore's favourite amongst his pictures. It certainly made up for the spectacle that TMWTGG lacked and the writers were finally getting used to the strengths in Roger's performance - namely the was he could handle light comedy. There are several major set pieces in this film and the underground lair of Stromberg was perhaps the best set since the underground volcano in Connery's You Only Live Twice. The battle scene in which Bond goes into action with the navy is superb.

Moonraker - Ok I'll give the Moore bashers a point here as the film really is a step too far and the comedy is too up front. Taking James Bond into space was a mistake - thought not a financial one as Moonraker was then the highest grossing Bond film of them all. But the film was a disjointed mess and the producers realised that they had gone too far with the character because they brought Bond back down to earth for the next movie - For You Eyes Only, arguably Moore's most realistic performance as the super spy and the best of his films.

For your Eyes Only is indeed a fine film and the situations Moore's Bond finds himself in are, for once, not out of the realms of possibility. This Bond is a hard-boiled Bond. Moore has made it clear that he was not at all comfortable with this new tougher Bond but the film is excellent. And the fact that the actor was by now in his fifties gave him a rugged look that suited the weary aspects of the character in the movie.


Octopussy followed and this really should have been Moore's last film - he is showing his age in this movie but he still manages to effectively carry off the more strenuous scenes. The comedy is brought back big time but when there is action it comes with a bang. It's a good film but Moore should have really walked into the sunset, as he had been threatening to do since Moonraker, after this one.


Moore ended with A View to a Kill - a lame remake of Goldfinger only this time with Silicon Valley rather than Fort Knox. The major problem is Moore's age and the stunt doubling is atrocious and Moore visibly becomes twenty years younger in the action scenes. The film is also over-long and quite frankly commits the sin of being boring.