Octopussy And The Living Daylights!

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. 

Octopussy and The Living Daylights close out the saga with a quartet of adventures. "Octopussy" is the story of a WWII British vet who has a golden and deadly secret from WWII and who is found out by Bond. The end is garish to say the least. "The Property of a Lady" is a neat little spy tale about Fabrege jewelry and double agents. 

"The Living Daylights" reveals that Bond's cold-blooded nature is challenged when the target is a beautiful woman, one he has fantasized about to boot. It's a delightful story set in what was to become Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. 

Finally, there's the offbeat very short story titled "007 in New York" which is exactly what it says as we get a small tour of the city as Bond has come to break up a love affair since one of the parties is a foreign agent. It originally appeared in Fleming's travelogue book Thrilling Cities. 

The 1983 Roger Moore offering Octopussy adapted elements of both "Octopussy" and "Property of a Lady". You'd think with Louis Jourdan as the top villain this Bond effort would be better. But it's not that good. Maud Adams returns as the titular Octopussy, after having revived after being killed in The Man with the Golden Gun. The states are pretty high as our baddie seeks to cover up stealing a bodacious amount of very famous jewels by agreeing to start World War III for a corrupt Soviet officer.

 

The elements are here, but somehow the silliness factor is high enough to squash any sense of danger. I thought the equipment being tested in the Q sequence was especially stupid and rather offensive this time out. But you cannot fault the film for failing to provide lots of lovely dames to gawk at, as Octopussy herself commands a bevy of ladies, many with unusual and dangerous skill sets. 

The Living Daylights featured Timothy Dalton in his debut as Bond from 1987. I'm a big fan of Dalton's Bond, though alas it seems the larger public was less enthusiastic. He only made one more Bond film in 1989 titled License Renewed. They took this opportunity to recast Moneypenny as well. All of this was necessary to maintain the illusion that Bond was indeed an effective agent. 

This is a wild plot with Bond refusing to shoot a sniper who turns out to be Maryam d' Abo, a pretty actress who I saw for the first in Conan the Destroyer. Her acting has improved somewhat and she's an adequate love interest for Bond. We get two main villains, a deceitful Soviet officer and a mercenary arms dealer. There's lots of mayhem in this one as it sprawls across the globe and even into Afghanistan which at the time was invaded by the Soviets and we were on the side of the Muslim Mujahadin. There are lots of things I like about The Living Daylights, but I cannot say it has aged especially well. But in an attempt to cleave closer to the headlines of the day, it has not aged as well as other Bond outings which exist in a more fantastical arena. 

And that wraps up my month-long look at Bond...James Bond. Not all the movies were reviewed because not all of them are derived from Fleming's original source material. Goldeneye for instance gets its name from Fleming's Jamaican estate, but that's it. A few more bits of silly spy business tomorrow then in October something completely different. 

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