Moonraker!

I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent. 

The 1955 James Bond entry Moonraker pits Bond against a hidden colony of Nazis who have infiltrated British society and are plotting to blow up the heart of London in the name of their new world order. The finale of this one is a bit hard to fathom in places and Bond surviving is pretty far-fetched actually. It's got a dandy villain in Sir Hugo Drax, a baddie worthy of the serial movies of old.

Hearkening back to Casino Royale we are treated to a multi-chapter card game between Bond and Drax. It seems M has become aware that the mysterious industrialist Hugo Drax might be cheating at cards. And if a gentleman would do that, then what might that desperado do with the rocket he's built called Moonraker. Bond is called in to see if Drax is just lucky at cards and finds out he does cheat. Then we are treated to a contest between playing Bridge in which Bond sets Drax up for a major fall. Drax declares revenge. 

And then it's the next day. Bond is sent to Drax's factory when a security man is murdered in a strange fashion in a pub. The government fears something will happen to the Moonraker project. He finds that in this setting he can even admire Drax, the leader of men. His men consist of fifty Germans who all sport very short hair and prominent mustaches. There is an attack on the life of Bond and Gala Brand, a policewoman who has been inside the Drax operation for months. She discovers the real target of the test flight of Moonraker is London and that Drax and his German scientists are agents of a foreign power. It's up to Bond to save her and London when she is discovered as a spy by Drax. 

A few times when Bond is described in the novels, he is compared to Hoagy Carmichael, but with a somber streak of cruelty. This is not the Bond many of us see in our mind's eye after so many films. Timothy Dalton is probably the closest match in my estimation.  

The movie Moonraker changes the plot up quite a bit. Sir Hugo Drax this time is an uber-rich baddie who plots to winnow the planet Earth of misfits and those who don't fit his profile of ideal human being. (Where have heard this one before?) Drax shuttles for the United States and has been making a few extras to reach a space station he also has kept under wraps. Then he's going to drop a deadly toxin on the planet to kill only people but all of them save those he's preselected for rescue. (They are all pretty much runway models and the like.)

The movie is arguably the silliest Bond movie ever made. The franchise was taking on water and looked to the new trend in science fiction, which was sweeping the cinemas, to raise attendance. This is Roger Moore's fourth outing as Ian Fleming's spy, right in the middle of his run. And it has to be said that he like Connery before him is starting to show his years at over fifty. But with a deft director that can be glossed over. 

The single biggest demerit towards taking this movie even remotely seriously, even within the expansive confines of a Bond movie is the presence of Jaws, a returning villain from the last movie. The part played by Richard Kiel is just too broad a character for the Bond universe. He's nigh indestructible. We do get a particularly savage killing when Drax puts his dogs on an employee he suspects of being too friendly with Bond. And we get perhaps the biggest groaner Bond-Girl name of all time in "Holly Goodhead" played by Lois Chiles. (They will never top "Pussy Galore".)

The movie has an ending which might appeal to video game fans of the time, but is not all that tense. There are echoes of Thunderball in the climactic space battle. In the final analysis this is a silly, silly movie with a dumb plot. But it's still got a bangin' title. 

James Bond Returns in Diamonds are Forever. 

Rip Off