The Big Picture

• Roger Moore's James Bond films are some of the campiest in the franchise, except for The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Stanley Kubrick's practical lighting assistance saved The Spy Who Loved Me from budget issues.
• Kubrick's daughter Katharina also helped to design the dental prosthetics for the iconic Bond villain, Jaws.

While each actor who has portrayed James Bond has their share of defenders, Roger Moore’s tenure as the character tends to get the least amount of credibility among serious fans of the franchise. The films starring Sean Connery and Daniel Craig tended to reflect the more serious tone of Ian Fleming’s original source material, but Moore’s films were rather campy and silly; some of Moore’s later installments verged into downright comedic territory. The one exception to this trend is Moore’s role in the 1977 classic The Spy Who Loved Me, a film that merged action, romance, and espionage into one of the coolest spy movies ever made. While director Lewis Gilbert was a veteran of the franchise, The Spy Who Loved Me received some unexpected assistance from Stanley Kubrick.

Kubrick was at the height of his powers in the late 1970s. A Clockwork Orange had engendered serious controversy when it debuted in 1971, but nonetheless served as evidence that Kubrick could tackle divisive source material and connect it to modern issues. Similarly, the practical filmmaking techniques he utilized in the production of the historical epic Barry Lyndon scored him serious praise and several Academy Award nominations. While his cinematic interests seemed divorced from something as commercial as the Bond franchise, Kubrick's secret assistance on The Spy Who Loved Me helped cement it as one of the saga’s best entries.

Stanley Kubrick Helped Design 'The Spy Who Loved Me'

Based on Fleming’s 1962 novel of the same name, The Spy Who Loved Me follows Bond as he teams up with the Russian spy XXX (Barbara Bach) in order to prevent the ruthless billionaire Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens) from launching devastating weapons that could eradicate the world’s infrastructure. Stromberg plans to build a new civilization in its place, and hides his powerful missiles in an underwater facility where he conducts his evil experiments. Although the Bond franchise has gone aquatic with Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me experienced difficulties shooting the scenes in Stromberg’s lair. The aging cinematographer Claude Renoir had difficulty seeing, making it challenging for Gilbert to shoot the film’s climactic action sequences.

Production designer Ken Adam recognized that The Spy Who Loved Me needed serious assistance from an industry veteran if the film was to be saved. As the rest of the crew panicked, Adam decided to reach out to Kubrick for assistance. The two had previously vowed to never work with each other again after their tumultuous filming of Barry Lyndon. While Adam was apprehensive about bringing someone as argumentative as Kubrick on the set of a Bond film, he recognized that the practical lighting used in Barry Lyndon indicated Kubrick could find a way to save The Spy Who Loved Me. Kubrick attended the set of The Spy Who Loved Me for three to four hours to provide insights on how to light the final set piece. While his involvement was kept a secret, it arguably saved The Spy Who Loved Me from going significantly over budget and missing its intended release date.

'The Spy Who Loved Me' Is the Most Mature Roger Moore Bond Movie

Moore’s first Bond film Live and Let Die was a stylistic detour from the rest of the series, but didn’t necessarily prove him to be a perfect fit for the character. His subsequent film The Man With the Golden Gun was a significant disappointment in which Moore was overshadowed by Christopher Lee’s performance as the villain Scaramanga. However, The Spy Who Loved Me proved that Moore was capable of being in a more serious Bond film. While Moore still gets to fire off some iconic one-liners, the film reckons with the brutal nature of the espionage world as Bond and XXX reflect on their conflicting loyalties. A moment when Bond admits to killing a Soviet agent that XXX had fallen in love with includes some of his best acting in the entire franchise.

In addition to the more nuanced writing, The Spy Who Loved Me had the epic scope and scale of a Kubrick movie. The Bond films had always featured impressive gadgets and vehicles, but The Spy Who Loved Me featured a climactic face off between Bond and Stromberg’s forces that marked a significant step up in the franchise’s ambition. Despite the increased spectacle, The Spy Who Loved Me was still a very personal and grounded adventure that didn’t treat Bond’s heroism as superficial. Subsequent Moore films like the space bound adventure Moonraker and the bizarre finale A View to a Kill simply turned Bond into a caricature.

Stanley Kubrick’s Daughter Helped Create an Iconic Bond Villain

Kubrick may have helped save an iconic sequence in The Spy Who Loved Me, but it wasn’t the only contribution that his family made to the franchise. Kubrick’s daughter Katharina helped to design the dental prosthetics for the villain Jaws, played by Richard Kiel. While Stromberg was a brilliant and ambitious villain, he didn’t necessarily present a physical threat to Bond; however, Kiel’s imposing physicality and gnashing teeth proved to be one of the most terrifying henchmen in the Bond franchise’s history. Bond’s fights with Jaws are the rare moments when he actually feels vulnerable; Kiel added intensity to the film that helped balance the tone.

There was rarely any serious connective tissue between the Bond films in Moore’s run, but Jaws became such a popular character that Kiel reprised his role in Moonraker. While Moonraker is a far less serious Bond movie than the novel it was based on, Kiel was able to salvage his scenes in the film by turning Jaws into an unexpected ally to Bond. His signature metal teeth remain one of the most iconic villainous designs in the entire franchise.

The Spy Who Loved Me is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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