‘DANCE INTO THE FIRE’ 007 A VIEW TO A KILL AT 40
As Roger Moore’s final 007 offering celebrates its 40th year, Roger Crow looks back on the rollercoaster ride of a production that was James Bond 14; Tony Greenway breaks down the original story, and there’s a tribute to a screen legend…
THUD!
Ina rare display of off-camera rage, a beloved movie star has just thrown a chair against a wall. He’s fuming at the incessant music coming from his co-star’s dressing room; despite repeated requests for her to turn it down, she seems to have turned a deaf ear. It’s the mid-1980s, and A View To a Kill is the most expensive Bond epic ever made. Two rock stars have turned down the lead villain role; another musician/ actor is testing the leading man’s patience, and some wonder if the third thesp to play Ian Fleming’s master spy on cinema screens still has what it takes to pull in the punters. Welcome to the end of an era - Roger Moore’s final James Bond movie.
Bottom row left-right: Roger Moore, Tanya Roberts; Christopher Walken and Grace Jones; Roger Moore, Patrick Macnee, Desmond Llewelyn, Robert Brown and Lois Maxwell in A View to a Kill (1985)
A BOND TOO FAR?
Roger felt a little “long in the tooth” at 57 to play Bond. However, as he was still fit and able to remember lines, and “a rather nice deal” had been agreed, he decided to pop on that classic tux one last time.
The 007 saga is like the Dead Sea; there’s so many elements that keep the concept afloat, whether it’s the stunt team, a killer opening track, John Barry’s score, or Moore himself, that the film bobbed along on the waves of mid-eighties cinema. Key buoyant elements included director John Glen, who had two previous 007 movies under his belt; Peter Lamont (production designer); Alan Hume (director of photography), and other Bond veterans. Of course there were plenty of newcomers to the 007 party…
Though her dad, manufacturing executive Oscar Blum, was a native New Yorker, Tanya Roberts’ mum, Dorothy Leigh Smith, was a Mancunian from Oldham. Tanya earned a crust in hit-and-miss TV movies like Zuma Beach (1978) and Pleasure Cove (1979) before landing the part of Julie Rogers in Charlie’s Angels. After the show ended in 1981, cult offerings The Beastmaster, and Sheena kept the wolves from the door before 007’s bosses thought she’d be perfect for sexy geologist Stacey Sutton.