Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Special EditionDistributed by
MGM
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 16192 DVD
- Running time: 117 minutes
- Year: 1973
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 32 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Featurette: Inside Live And Let Die, Theatrical Trailer,Theatrical Teaser, TV Spots, Radio Spots, UK Milk Board Commercial,On Set with Roger Moore, The Live And Let Die Gallery, 2 Audio Commentaries
Director:
- Guy Hamilton
(Battle of Britain, The Colditz Story, Diamonds Are Forever, Force 10 From Navarone, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Mirror Crack’d)
Producers:
- Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman
Screenplay:
- Tom Mankiewicz
Music:
- John Barry
Cast:
- James Bond: Roger Moore
Kananga/Mr Big: Yaphet Kotto
Solitaire: Jane Seymour
Sheriff J.W. Pepper: Clifton James
Tee Hee: Julius Harris
Baron Samedi: Geoffrey Holder
Felix Leiter: David Hedison
Rosie Carver: Gloria Hendry
M: Bernard Lee
Live And Let Diewas the first Bond film I ever saw and as they say, the first actor you seein the role is the one you associate as the definitive Bond. Good news forRoger Moore then, since he had a lot to live up to in his debut007 outing.
It was apparently the most controversial of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels, giventhat the film was made around the time of the rise of the Black Panthers,a black revolution was coming and yet all the main baddies were black.I guess, as a result, they didn’t want to give Bernard Manning a bit partjust in case anyone got a bit upset.
To make his mark, Moore has to go to New Orleans to investigate the deaths ofthree fellow agents and put a stop to the plans of heroin magnate Kananga -aka Mr Big – (Homicide: Life on the Street‘s Yaphet Kotto) andthe Bond girl was tarot-card twisting Solitaire (Jane Seymour).Clifton James also put in a second appearance as Sheriff J.W. Pepper.There’s a fourth Felix Leiter in the form of David Hedison, thecharacter no doubt recovering after a nasty incident inGoldfinger.
Our man gets to go on a boat chase through a wedding, drive a bus that losesits roof, fly a plane that loses its wings and have fun with a wristwatchequipped with a hyper-intensified magnetic field, powerful enough to deflectthe path of a bullet at long range.
However, when Bond’s car in an early scene goes awry, why did he just take thekeys out of the ignition?
The picture breaks with tradition and goes back to a 1.85:1 screen ratioand is anamorphic but does have a level of grain that you’d expect withits age along with the usual print flecks and dropouts.The average bitrate is a so-so 5.48Mb/s, briefly peaking over 8Mb/s.
And we’re back to plain mono. Dialogue and sound effects are fairly clear,but a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix as was done forThunderballwould have been a nice treat. Why didn’t they do this for all the earlyBond films? On booting up the disc, I thought I wasin for something special as the opening ‘MGM lion roar’ *was*in Dolby Digital 5.1.
The theme tune comes courtesy of Paul McCartney and Wings and waswritten by Macca and his veggie-food-selling late wife Linda.
Extras : Chapters :The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVDcompanies could take a lesson from this one. Languages & Subtitles :English is the only language on the disc – in Dolby Surround – and there are subtitlesfor English (and hard of hearing). And there’s more… :MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with thefirst Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.
- Featurette: Inside Live and Let Die (29 mins): Anotherdocumentary narrated by Patrick MacNee, with chat from manystars and crew members such as screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, directorGuy Hamilton and its star Roger Moore.
- Theatrical Trailer (3 mins): In anamorphic widescreenand of rather iffy quality, but worth a look nonetheless.
- Theatrical Teaser (2 mins): In 4:3 with some clips in 14:9
- 2 TV Spots (90 seconds): One 30-second and one 60-secondtrailer, both in 4:3.
- Radio spots (90 seconds): 2 brief radio adverts, one lasting30 seconds and the remainder of the time is taken up by a longer one whichdetails what Bond’s up against.
- UK Milk Board Commercial (60 seconds): Even 30 years ago theywere telling us that milk wasn’t something to put on your cornflakes, as thecast and crew stop filming halfway through a 60-second advert to take a gulpbefore continuing with the action and the announcer urges us to “pick up apinta – stay on top”.
- On Set with Roger Moore (5½ minutes): Two parts to this.Firstly, Roger, via a very old piece of footage tells us that his mother wasRichard Dix’s No.1 fan and the man who is murdered in a street funeral isRichard’s son, Bob.
Behind-the-scenes info is then provided on Moore’s hang-gliding sequence.
- The Live And Let Die Gallery: Over 150 production stills andphotos from several points in the film.
- 2 Audio Commentaries: one from director Guy Hamilton,Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, plus many more and a second by screenwriterTom Mankiewicz.
Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, isn’t exactly first-ratein terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic qualityand all the interviews are clear enough. Menu :Animated and scored as we’ve come to expect from these Bond releases,with a red background and overtones of tarot and black magic.The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film, select a scene,choose a language or watch the extras.
When you were young and your heart was an open book, did you also feel, likeme, that the voodoo elements spooked you out a little? I could never understandthe guy who had part of his head blown off, yet still appeared to be alive:)
Overall though, Roger Moore’s first voyage into the special agent’s shoes is asuccessful one and this disc is definitely well-stacked with extras. There’sno cuts either so no reason not to buy this superb disc.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.