WHAT: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, DCP)
WHEN: May 14, 2025 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Introduction by James Bond author Raymond Benson at 7 PM.
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here and select date and time (7 PM).
It’s Bond… and Beyond!
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) is the James Bond movie that breathed new life into the Roger Moore era of spy adventures. It was easily the best Bond film since the 1960s and is considered to be one of Moore’s best outings, if not the best. Moore himself has said that he liked this one the most. This time, the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series is bypassing the film’s 50th anniversary (in two years) and we’re showing it now on the Mega-screen. Joining us on May 14, 2025, will be James Bond author Raymond Benson, who will be our special guest in the lobby and will introduce the film at 7 PM.
Production on the tenth James Bond film was originally set to begin in the spring of 1975 with Guy Hamilton signed to direct. However, a series of behind-the-scenes setbacks caused the film to be delayed. The most problematic was the financial mess that producer Harry Saltzman had found himself in with the Swiss bank. As detailed in the documentary, Inside The Spy Who Loved Me, Saltzman did not have the best business acumen. He went into bankruptcy and had to divest his shares in the Eon company which produced the Bond films. The company went into hiatus with Saltzman’s partner, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, becoming the sole representative of the Bond franchise.
Adding to the complications was a clause in James Bond author Ian Fleming’s agreement that no portion of his novel, The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), be adapted into a movie. The story, which was told from a female perspective, was simply not cinematic or long enough to be built into a feature film. The filmmakers would have to write an original screenplay. All these problems eventually took their toll on Guy Hamilton, who stepped away from the project. Instead, Hamilton was offered the opportunity of directing Superman: The Movie (1978), although this eventually went to Richard Donner. He was replaced with another Bond veteran, director Lewis Gilbert, who had made You Only Live Twice (1967). One of the things Gilbert immediately recognized was that the producers had been trying to turn Moore into Sean Connery with scenes that seemed out of touch with the Moore persona. Instead, the film would emphasis a lighter approach– but not the total cartoon the series would become just a couple years later. In addition to Gilbert, production designer Ken Adam returned for what would prove to be one of his most challenging assignments.
Roger Moore and Barbara Bach
The screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum. Tom Mankiewicz worked on the final rewrite uncredited. The story, set in such exotic locales as Egypt, involved Bond working with a Russian agent in order to determine who is behind the disappearance of British and Russian nuclear submarines. A megalomaniac industrialist, Karl Stromberg, is determined to reshape the world by creating an underwater civilization patterned after his “Atlantis.” With East and West subs set to attack each other and initiate World War III, Stromberg’s plan is to accelerate the process of man’s destruction.
Kevin McClory, who had produced Thunderball and battled Ian Fleming in court, took issue with the story and claimed that the filmmakers had plagiarized his own script for The Spy Who Loved Me. However, his court injunction was denied. There were, however, elements to the story that were familiar to Bond fans. The concept of a supertanker swallowing up the submarines parallels the rocket that captures the astronauts at the outset of You Only Live Twice. And the climax in the tanker is a callback to the battle in the volcano from that earlier Bond film.
Portraying Bond’s adversary, Stromberg, was German-Austrian stage actor Curt Jurgens. He was an international star and was well-admired on the set of The Spy Who Loved Me. He had been recommended by Lewis Gilbert, who had worked with him previously on Ferry to Hong Kong (1959). Cast as his henchman, Jaws, was 7’2″ Richard Kiel. With his gigantic frame and chrome teeth, Jaws instantly became one of the series’ most memorable villains and was brought back for the next film in the series, 1979’s Moonraker. Although no character of “Jaws” exists in the Ian Fleming novel, the filmmakers did find inspiration in Fleming’s character from the book called “Horror” Horowitz.
Barbara Bach, who had been a fashion model, was a last-minute casting decision. In fact, she was hired four days before the production was set to begin. She immediately impressed everyone during her screen test and instantly became the leading lady. Her character is one of the stronger female roles in the series with Anya Amasova every bit Bond’s equal throughout most of the film. (According to Tom Mankiewicz, Catherine Deneuve wanted to play this role, but her price was too high for Cubby Broccoli.) The beautiful British actress Caroline Munro was cast as Naomi, who is in Stromberg’s employ and plays the helicopter assassin in the chase with the Lotus Esprit. Also in the cast: Walter Gotell (General Gogol), Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny), Desmond Llewelyn (Q), and Bernard Lee as M. Valerie Leon, who has a small role as the hotel receptionist, would later appear in the non-Eon Bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983).
With a budget of $13.5 million, filming officially began on August 31, 1976. The film would be shot at Pinewood Studios in London as well as in Sardinia, Egypt, and Northern Canada. The latter served as the location for the pre-title sequence, which was filmed just prior to principal photography. In this opening, Bond skis across a mountaintop only to plummet down toward the base of a canyon– with his parachute finally opening up into a Union Jack. It became one of the most iconic images in the entire series– and one of the more challenging and dangerous stunts ever attempted. Rick Sylvester, a professional ski jumper, played Bond in this scene, which was shot on Mount Asgard in the Arctic Circle. There were several delays until weather conditions were just right. When it came time to film his jump off the edge, there were four or five cameras trained on him. Some of the cameras missed him, but one was able to capture his descent in one unbroken take.
The filmmakers originally intended to shoot the climax inside a real oil tanker. However, they were not able to afford the insurance, which would’ve cost 50,000 pounds a day. In addition, it would’ve been too dangerous with gas residue inside the tanker and risk of a possible explosion. For the exterior shots, a 65 foot model tanker was built. For the interiors, Ken Adam was tasked with building a set at Pinewood studios. At that time, there was no standing set that could believably house three submarines side-by-side. So at a cost of $1.8 million, the filmmakers built what became the “007 stage.” The entire set essentially became the hold of the tanker. The stage was officially launched on December 5, 1976.
Claude Renoir, the grandson of the famed painter, was the cinematographer for The Spy Who Loved Me. However, he was challenged not only by the size of the new set but by his own diminishing eyesight. Seeking a second opinion as to how to light this sequence, Ken Adam, by his own account, sought advice from his friend, director Stanley Kubrick, who spent 3-4 hours on the set. Floodlights used by actors in the scene partially solved this problem. For more about this stage and the making of The Spy Who Loved Me, Click Here for an article from American Cinematographer.
Ken Adam gave the tanker an interesting look, but for this production, he changed his design style and went with more curvature instead of straight, austere lines. This is most evident in the interiors used for the building of Atlantis– Stromberg’s underwater headquarters. The exterior, which is shown rising from the sea (and shot in the Bahamas), was actually a model. For more about the models and miniatures used in the making of The Spy Who Loved Me, Click Here .
The model Atlantis…
Another of the film’s most memorable elements is the Lotus Esprit car that turns into a submarine. After one of the series’ best chase sequences– in which the car takes a plunge into the water in an attempt to escape a helicopter– the Lotus transforms into a submersible thanks to “Q” branch. In order to accomplish the effects, a different dummy model was used for each shot of the car’s transformation. Seven models were used in total. For its final stage, the car did not operate as a real sub; there was no air inside and the car was controlled by divers.
The stunts in the film were choreographed by longtime James Bond stuntman, Bob Simmons. In fact, in the sequence onboard the train in which Roger Moore’s Bond fights Richard Kiel’s Jaws, it was Bob Simmons who convincingly doubled Jaws and dove headfirst through a real plate glass window. The Spy Who Loved Me features many over-the-top stunts, most of which involve the Jaws character.
Filming the Lotus chase sequence…
The production was not always smooth sailing. During the shoot in Egypt, many technicians became upset at the poor food they were being served. Producer Cubby Broccoli, as revealed in the Inside The Spy Who Loved Me documentary, truly cared for his crew and personally cooked dinner for them by flying in ingredients for homemade spaghetti. It was a gesture that further endeared him to the James Bond crew.
Finally, filling in for the great composer John Barry was Marvin Hamlisch. But it would be the title song, “Nobody Does It Better”– written by Hamlisch and performed by Carly Simon– that would become an instant classic and one of the best title songs in the entire series.
The Spy Who Loved Me opened on July 7, 1977. It gained worldwide success and grossed $185.4 million at the box office. At least for a time, the James Bond series appeared to be back on track. The film is a fan favorite, though For Your Eyes Only (1981) also receives votes from fans as a less-gadgety alternative. But for those who like bold and sometimes outlandish entertainment that is well-executed, The Spy Who Loves Me delivers on every level and has all the classic elements Bond fans have come to expect over the years.
Guest Raymond Benson will be signing/selling books at the event, including some rare UK Bond paperback titles– plus more!
~MCH
1977 vs. 2025 at the Pickwick Theatre
