Live and let die (3 Stars)

This is the eighth James Bond film, made in 1973, two years after "Diamonds are forever". It's the first film to star Roger Moore as the main character. Unlike George Lazenby, who did his best to imitate Sean Connery, Roger Moore gives the Bond character his own style. He plays the role with a light, seemingly careless air.

The film's big villain is Yaphet Kotto as President Kananga, the ruler of a small Caribbean island. He's the smallest of the big villains so far. Rather than wanting to rule the world or get rich fast, he has long term business plans. He's producing heroin in large quantities on his island. He wants to give away two tons of heroin free of charge in America. This will put all other drug dealers out of business, but it will also double the number of addicts. After this he'll sell heroin for a high price in America, unopposed because he'll have a monopoly. Would that work? It's difficult to believe that the other drug dealers would disappear so easily. After the free gift has been exhausted, they'd have supplies ready to be sold. Or does heroin have an expiration date?

The film's Good Bond Girl is Gloria Hendry as the rookie CIA agent Rosie Carver. Or is she really good? It's hinted that she's a double agent working for Kanaga, but this isn't followed up.

She doesn't have much meat on her bones, but James seems to like her.

When James Bond turns on the charm, she collapses into his arms. As you can see, the big afro in the previous pictures was just a wig that she takes off in intimate settings. She wanted to look more like a Blaxploitation star.

The Bad Bond Girl is Solitaire, played by Jane Seymour. She's inherited psychic powers from her mother and her mother before her. Kanaga uses her powers to warn him of any danger. There's only one problem. The powers only remain as long as she's a virgin.

How long can she remain a virgin when James Bond has his eye on her? That depends on how fast she can take her clothes off. Like most of the Bad Bond Girls, after one sexual encounter with him she changes sides and works against her former boss.

Madeline Smith also appears in the opening scenes. She doesn't have enough screen time to be classed as a Bond Girl. It depends on your definition. She plays an Italian secret agent called Miss Caruso, but in the credits she's listed as "Beautiful Girl". That's appropriate. She was one of the most beautiful actresses of the 1970's.

There were several publicity photos for the film with Madeline Smith, but her fans must have been disappointed when they at in the cinema and realised that she was only in the film for a few minutes. She deserved a bigger role.

Roger Moore asked for Madeline to have a part in the film after working with her on a television programme. She must have left a lasting impression on him.

So James Bond slept with three women in the film. The only woman he didn't drag into bed was Miss Moneypenny. Come on, James, give her a chance!

Despite the assortment of pretty women, I consider this to be the weakest James Bond film. I mentioned Blaxploitation above. The film features black communities in New Orleans, Harlem and the Caribbean. What I don't like about the film is that almost every black person in the film is evil. This gives the film a racist flavour that I find unpleasant.

On the positive side, the film features spectacular chases scenes. The over-the-top car chases are what characterised the Roger Moore Bond films. In one scene he's chased while driving a bus, in another he's chased in a motor boat that sometimes jumps out of water and skids across the ground. It's ridiculous and infeasible, but highly enjoyable.

Success Rate:  + 21.1

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Take Me High (4½ Stars)

Finally, after all these years, "Take Me High" has been remastered and released on Blu-ray. It wasn't even available on DVD until now, apart from a free DVD given away with the Daily Mail in 2012. It's a film I have a sentimental attachment to. I went to see it in the cinema with my girlfriend Jennifer – I've forgotten her last name – who was the most special of the many girlfriends that I had as a teenager. It was a summer love. I was in my second year of university, she was in her last year of school, and we were together every day in the summer holidays. Looking back, it's obvious to me now that she was messed up. But then again, I've always been drawn to messed up women.

I'm also sentimentally attached to the film because it shows Birmingham the way it looked when I went to university. It was filmed in 1973, but it probably looks familiar to younger people, because it remained this way until the 1990's.

In the photo above, Cliff Richard is walking along Gas Street. The Brasshouse is easily recognisable behind him. It's one of the few old buildings on Broad Street that's still standing.

This screenshot on the corner of Gas Street confuses me. Was there a church next door to the Brasshouse? It must have stood on top of the bridge.

This screenshot shows the top of the church.

This is the same street corner in March 2019, courtesy of Google Maps. The car dealership has been replaced by the O Bar. It's interesting to see that the restaurant Bar-Jee still has the same windows as in 1973.

The bridge under Broad Street in 1973.

The bridge under Broad Street in June 2018. It hasn't changed much. Just a few new buldings on the right.

I don't recognise this street. Can anyone help me? Where's Carl Chinn when I need him?

How many of you remember when cars drove past the Council House?

And past the Town Hall?

And along New Street?

That's Corporation Street, before the tram lines were laid.

Cliff Richard waves to his fans on the corner of New Street and Corporation Street, accompanied by the delightful Deborah Watling.

This picture confuses me. It looks like Corporation Street, but I thought Windsor Arcade connected the North Western Arcade with Bull Street. It's not easy to place some locations, because in the parade scene the images keep jumping from New Street to Corporation Street and back again.

I hope my Birmingham friends will leave comments on this post.

The Vampire Lovers (5 Stars)

This wasn't Ingrid Pitt's first film, but it was the film that made her famous. I read her autobiography a few years ago, and I became fascinated by her as a person. Her life story would make an incredible film, as long as the budget is big enough. To put it briefly:

She was born as Ingoushka Petrov in Poland in 1937, and she spent her early years in a Concentration Camp. After the war she became an (unsuccessful) theatre actress in East Berlin. She fled to West Berlin by swimming across the River Spree, and she married the American soldier who pulled her out of the water. That sounds too slushy to be true! She moved to America, but the marriage didn't last. She moved to Spain and began work as a film actress, but she didn't have much success until she moved to England. She travelled to Argentina to make a film, but remained for years because the civil war made it too dangerous to attempt to leave. She became personal friends with the Perons. Finally she returned to England, where she settled down as an actress and authoress. In her later years she spent a lot of time in America, but England remained her home.

I was well acquainted with Ingrid Pitt's name, but I didn't pay much attention to her until a few years ago. The reason is, when I first saw this film on television I had a crush on Madeline Smith, who plays the woman that Ingrid loves. In the early 1970's she was everywhere, in films, in television episodes, in television commercials, in newspapers. "The Vampire Lovers" was just another opportunity for me to feast my eyes on her.

In the film, Ingrid Pitt plays Mircalla Karnstein, a vampiress who lives in Austria in the 18th Century. She's been alive for 200 years. She seduces young women and feeds on their blood for weeks until they die. Emma Morton, played by Madeline Smith, is different. Mircalla begins to fall in love with her, so she promises to make her a vampire before it's too late.

That's understandable. I wouldn't want Madeline Smith to die either.

Emma tells Mircalla that she dreams of marrying a handsome man, but Mircalla tells her she doesn't need a man. Emma is confused, but she can't resist Mircalla's charms.

I don't know whether Emma is ensnared by Mircalla's vampire mesmerism or her natural charm. It seems to be a mixture of the two.

This was the first Hammer Horror film to portray lesbian sex. It's all very tame by today's standards, but it was shocking in 1970. The nudity was also more than was usual in mainstream films. This was a deliberate step by Hammer. Cinema audiences were shrinking because of the advent of colour television, so something special had to be done to draw audiences into the cinema. Madeline Smith's bare breasts would have made me pay for a cinema ticket, but I was too young at the time.

This film poster would entice anyone into the cinema, but I'm afraid to say it's false advertising. It shows more nudity than the film actually contains.

In the previous Hammer Horror films, the vampire was a man, Count Dracula. It's a novelty that the vampire in this film is a woman. There is, however, an unnamed vampire who watches everything that happens, but never interferes. Is it Count Dracula or another member of the Karnstein family? The film doesn't answer that question.

Peter Cushing appears as General Spielsdorf. He's a magnificent actor in every role that he plays.

Jon Finch appears as Carl Ebhardt, the lover of Mircalla's first victim and a friend of Emma's father. I consider him to be one of the world's most underrated actors. He turned down the role of James Bond when Sean Connery quit. I'm certain he would have been a better Bond than Roger Moore.

He said in later years that he didn't want to become famous. He wanted to be able to walk in the street without being mobbed by fans. In the 1960's he was a recurring character in the TV soap opera "Crossroads". That probably made him too public, so he wanted to reduce his popularity after he left the soap.

Nowadays almost all cinemas show several films at once. They're called multiplexes. In the 1970's films only showed one film at a time. As a result, films usually displayed cinema cards, i.e. still photos taken from the film. They were shown in glass cases, sometimes in the cinema foyer, sometimes on the outer wall. They weren't given to the cinema, they were only loaned out with the film. They had to be returned to the film studio or distributor together with the film rolls. The cinema card photos of just about any film are collectors items. These photos fascinated me. Here are the cinema cards for "The Vampire Lovers":

They're beautiful, aren't they? I wish I had the original photos.

Ingrid Pitt goes through a large range of emotions in the film, but I like her most when she's crazed with bloodlust.

There's something sexy about a woman with sharp teeth.

What a perfectly framed scene!

This is a promotional photo released for the film.

And another promotional photo. Madeline Smith has such big eyes. They make her look innocent.

I'll end this post with a small gallery of photos of Madeline Smith. I emphasise the word small. I just made over 30 screenshots of Madeline Smith in the film, but that's way too many to include here. I'll just publish the best.

I don't remember how long my obsession with Madeline Smith lasted. There were a few other women I obsessed over as I grew older, but I only had one celebrity crush at a time. I was strictly monocrushamous.

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