1973 - LIVE AND LET DIE, Roger Moore's first shot at James Bond

After dragging Sean Connery back to the James Bond series for Diamonds Are Forever.  The producers, Broccoli and Saltzman tried to get him back for Live and Let Die.  Connery declined,  the very light weight leading man Roger Moore was cast as Bond and the Roger Moore years commenced for the Bond series.  

Live and Let Die had the novelty of using black actors as the bad guys.  The film is sort of a blaxploitation film that has been completely scrubbed and sanitized by a bunch of white filmmakers.

Since this was a film shot in the mid 70's and all mid 70's films had to have a car chase, there are a lot of chases with vehicles in this film.  If the Bond producers couldn't think of original action situations for their film, they were going to top other car chase films with an elaborate speed boat chase which is still kind of impressive.  After that sequence the rest of the film is a letdown as the director Guy Hamilton races as fast as possible to tie up the very loose plot line and wrap up the film.

Overall this is one of the poorest of the Bond series but better than the horrible Quantum of Solace,  probably the worst in the series.  Roger Moore was known for getting along with almost everyone on set.  He made seven Bond films and got better in the role although he essentially played the Bond character like his Saint character Simon Templar.

121 minutes, written by Tom Mankiewicz.