The Making of LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)

Introduction

The early 1970s were a tumultuous time for the James Bond franchise. George Lazenby abruptly left the role of 007 after making only one movie. This was followed by Sean Connery agreeing to return as Bond only one more time. As a result, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli were in a bit of a bind.

The producers and studio (United Artists) needed a long-term solution for the role of James Bond. In many ways, this next installment was “do or die ” for the franchise with the studio and 007 producers butting heads on who should portray 007. This was because a miscalculation in casting the lead role could put the series’ future in jeopardy.

Development

While filming Diamonds Are Forever (1971), it was decided that Live and Let Die (1973) would be the next 007 adventure to be adapted for the screen. Tom Mankiewicz, who was a screenwriter on Diamonds Are Forever, was the person who pitched the idea of the next movie to Saltzman and Broccoli. This was because Saltzman felt it would be timely and exciting to use black villains in a Bond movie. Subsequently, he was hired to script the picture.

The director of Diamonds Are Forever, Guy Hamilton, was also brought back for this new installment. Mankiewicz wanted to add New Orleans as a locale in the film version because it would be a new location for the franchise. It would also be associated with African American culture, specifically jazz music, of which Hamilton was a fan.

Although Haiti was the first choice for a Voodoo-related location, the decision was made to film in Jamaica instead. This was done due to safety concerns about Haiti as there was considerable political unrest in the country at the time.

During location scouting in Jamaica, the crew stumbled upon the Jamaica Swamp Safari. This was a crocodile farm with a sign warning that “trespassers will be eaten.” Intrigued they spoke with the owner of the property, Ross Kananga, who agreed to let them film there. The location was added to the script. Mankiewicz liked Kananga so much he decided to name the movie’s villain Dr. Kananga.

While writing the screenplay, Mankiewicz developed an interest in tarot cards. He attended a party, brought the cards with him, and offered to do tarot card readings for other guests. Two of these guests were model Shakira Baksh and her boyfriend Michael Caine. Mankiewicz told the couple they would be married during the reading. The couple were married on January 8, 1973, with the bride believing the screenwriter had special clairvoyant powers.

Casting 007

After Sean Connery turned down $5.5 million dollars to return as 007, United Artists and the producers began to throw names around to fill the role. The former wanted “big name” Hollywood stars such as Steve McQueen or Paul Newman. Burt Reynolds’s name also entered the conversation and he was approached by Broccoli to play 007. However, he declined stating that Bond should be played by a British actor.

Broccoli followed this advice and began to test actors including Michael Billington, Julian Glover, John Gavin, Jeremy Brett, Simon Oates, John Ronane, and Michael McStay. Billington was the top choice of these actors. However, another actor was also considered, Roger Moore.

Moore had been on the radar of the franchise’s producers for years. However, he was always contractually obligated to television shows up until that point. With Moore’s latest series The Persuaders! now canceled, the time was right to pursue him.

Moore was cast as James Bond in August of 1972. For the role, he was told to lose weight and cut his hair, which he did. With Moore on board, Mankiewicz changed the script to better fit Moore’s personality and distance him from previous incarnations. Some of the notable changes included Bond drinking whiskey instead of his trademark martini. Mankiewicz also had James Bond smoking cigars, instead of his usual cigarettes.

Additional Casting

The role of Solitaire was originally intended by Mankiewicz to be filled by a black actress, with Diana Ross in mind for the role. However, it was illegal at the time in some countries (including South Africa), to have interracial relationships shown in movies. As a result, Saltzman and Broccoli quickly killed that idea.

With a white actress now destined for the role, the producers sought out a fresh face with some experience working in front of the camera. They selected Jane Seymour for the role after seeing her in the series The Onedin Line (1971). Seymour beat out French actress Catherine Deneuve as well as Goldie Hawn and Helen Mirren for the role.

“I never auditioned for James Bond, they just saw me in the first two episodes and called my agents and said, ‘We want her to play the lead in Live and Let Die.”

– Jane Seymour

Because the role of Solitaire, which was intended for a black actress, was filled with a white one, the role of Rosie Carver, which was intended for a white woman was cast with a black one. This role went to Gloria Hendry. Henry’s co-star in Across 110th Street (1972), Yaphet Kotto, was cast as Kananga. Kotto, who was thirty-three years old at the time, is the youngest actor cast as the lead villain in a Bond movie.

“There were so many problems with that script. I was too afraid of coming off like Mantan Moreland. I had to dig deep in my soul and brain and come up with a level of reality that would off-set the sea of stereotype crap that Tom Mankiewicz wrote that had nothing to do with the black experience or culture.”

– Yaphet Kotto 

Ballet dancer, choreographer, and actor Geoffrey Holder was brought in to play Baron Samedi. Holder was perfect for the role due to his ability to choreograph the voodoo dance performed by his character. His brother Boscoe Holder had done a similar dance routine on the cult ITC series Danger Man. He subsequently helped Geoffrey fine-tune the choreography that was used in Live and Let Die.

“(Holder) was a choreographer, and he was rehearsing all the dances for the voodoo sequences. So whenever I wasn’t on one set, I ran over to the other (stage) and joined in the dance. I always felt much more comfortable dancing than I did acting, so it was a perfect combination for me. I’d sort of run off. They’d say, ‘Where’s Jane?’ And someone would say, ‘Oh, she’s off rehearsing with the voodoo guys.'”

– Jane Seymour

Filming began in Louisana on October 13, 1972. Location shooting occurred in both New Orleans as well as in the Irish Bayou adjacent to the city. During the boat chase in the latter location, seventeen of the twenty-six boats built for the movie were destroyed during rehearsals. The production also resulted in the destruction of eight airplanes, including a DC3, during the airplane sequence filmed at the airport in New Orleans.

The aforementioned boat chase contains a speedboat jump over a paved highway. This stunt was performed by Joie Chitwood, who also played Bond’s driver Charlie in the movie. The stunt required a specialty ramp that inadvertently set a Guinness World Record of 110 feet on the cleared jump.

Moore was actually injured during the filming of this sequence when the boat he was driving had its engine stall. The actor was thrown from the boat into a nearby boathouse, which resulted in him chipping his front teeth and injuring his knee. While walking he needed a cane for the better part of a week after the incident. 

Since this was her first major cinematic role, Moore looked out for Seymour and took her under his wing during the location filming. 

“Roger was fantastic to me. When I was in New Orleans or in Jamaica, he made sure every night that I was OK and safe, checked to see whom I was with, he’d include me in any social thing that happened.”

– Jane Seymour

However, one incident occurred between the pair that Moore regretted. While on set Seymour would join Moore and some of the crew for lunch and she became known for an annoying habit of asking for ketchup, salt, and then pepper in a very methodical and repetitive manner. One day they decided to leave the table as soon as she sat down, which caused Seymour to burst into tears. Moore regretted the prank so much he spoke of it in his autobiography, My Word is My Bond decades later.

“I was the only woman on the planet that was not trying to be a Bond girl…I was going to go and do Shakespeare and Ibsen and all the classics…I took the whole thing terribly seriously, like it was a major acting role — and they were probably more concerned about how I looked and how my figure was.”

– Jane Seymour

When production moved to Jamaica a stunt even more daunting and dangerous than the boat chase need to be performed, 007 running on the backs of three crocodiles. Kanaga being an expert in crocodiles as the owner of the farm in which the scene was filed took it upon himself to perform the stunt. He was paid $60,000 to perform the stunt.

“Something like that is almost impossible to do. So, I had to do it six times before I got it right. I fell five times. The film company kept sending me to London for more clothes. The crocs were chewing off everything when I hit the water, including shoes. I received one hundred ninety-three stitches on my leg and face.”

– Ross Kanaga

“We were filming Live and Let Die with Roger Moore and (me)…So here I am at the door, (Bond burns Rosie’s gun hand) with the cigar, and he flips this body over–that’s not me! They didn’t have a woman of color to play my role, to do that stunt. It was a white man, dressed in a white outfit, sleeveless, and you could see they had colored his skin black. Also when I was killed in Jamaica, with the scarecrow, they didn’t have anybody of my hue to play that. so I’m lying on the grass with all those ants eating me up.”

– Gloria Hendry

During filming in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, the production was encouraged to pay for “protection” from local criminal elements, which they did. However, when cash began to run out they were encouraged to leave, which they also did. The remaining shots needed were filmed on the Upper East Side instead.

Back in England, the production of Live and Let Die moved to Pinewood Studios. Two of the standout scenes filmed at this locale were James Bond’s introduction at his apartment as well as the Voodoo ceremony that took place near the end of the picture.

For the scene at Bond’s apartment, the original plan was to have both Lois Maxwell’s Miss Moneypenny as well as Desmond Llewellyn’s Q appear. However, there were complications with both actors and this idea was nixed.

Firstly, Llewellyn was appearing on the television show Follyfoot at the time which caused complications in scheduling his appearance in the movie. Because of this as well as his popularity with audiences (which they didn’t want to overshadow Moore’s debut), it was decided to not include the character in the movie at all. However, a “Q Branch” gadget did appear, the magnetic wristwatch. This particular gadget was Moore’s favorite during his tenure as 007.

Maxwell however did appear. During the production of Diamonds Are Forever the actress negotiated a daily pay raise, which carried over to Live and Let Die. Although she was only intended to shoot for one day, when production fell behind she was needed for a second day, effectively doubling her pay. She celebrated this fact by purchasing a fur coat with the second day’s proceeds.

The Voodoo ceremony scene shot at Pinewood was a challenge for three of the actors, Moore Seymour and Holder, who all hated and feared snakes. Holder had the worst of it as he was required to fall into a coffin filled with the creatures. The actor considered trying to get off shooting the scene by using a stuntman but dropped the idea when he realized that Princess Alexandra of Kent would be present for the filming and would feel embarrassed if he didn’t do it himself in front of her.

Yaphet Kotto’s Experience

Yaphet Kotto was fairly unhappy with the role and the movie during production and afterward. In addition to not liking the script, the actor hated his character’s death. Moore would go on to say that he was difficult to work with, which Kotto disputed.

“…the way Kananga dies was a joke. The entire experience was not as rewarding as I wanted it to be.”

-Yaphet Kotto

Kotto would go on to claim that he wasn’t invited to the premiere, nor was he allowed to do press for the movie. He would speculate this was because he was a black actor playing a villain in the movie, which producers tried to hide from audiences.

Music

Because John Barry, the usual Bond movie composer, was not available, Broccoli and Saltzman approached Paul McCartney to write the theme song and Beatles producer George Martin to compose the score.

McCartney’s no legendary title track would eventually go on to be a worldwide hit. It would also be nominated for an Academy Award, losing the Best Original Song Oscar to Barbara Streisand’s “The Way We Were.”

Release and Reception

The world premiere for Live and Let Die was held at Odeon Leicester Square in London on July 6, 1973, with general release in the United Kingdom on the same day. Interestingly the movie opened in the United States over a week earlier on June 27, 1973.

Overall critics were not especially kind to the movie. The main criticisms are a weak plot and Moore not being a suitable replacement for Sean Connery. Nevertheless, the movie was a critic-proof smash earning $161 million dollars on a budget of just $7 million dollars.

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