Trailer
Plot summary
MI6 loses three of its agents in a single day, in New York City, New Orleans and on the Caribbean island of San Monique, where they had been keeping watch on the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga. James Bond is sent to New York to investigate. A murdered driver and a license plate lead him to Harlem and to Mr. Big, a mob boss with restaurants across the United States, who orders his men to kill him. Bond gets away and meets Solitaire, the tarot reader whose readings Mr. Big relies on. Kananga himself is in New York for a United Nations visit. Bond and the CIA cannot work out why a gangster that powerful in New York would deal with the leader of a small island.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Live and Let Die (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While searching for locations in Jamaica the crew passed a sign warning that "trespassers will be eaten" and discovered a crocodile farm in Falmouth owned by Ross Kananga. The farm was put into the script and also inspired Mankiewicz to name the film's villain after Kananga.
- The stunt of Bond jumping across live crocodiles was suggested by Ross Kananga, who was then enlisted by the producers to perform it himself. The scene took five attempts to complete, and in one of them the last crocodile caught Kananga's heel and tore his trousers.
- Broccoli and Saltzman tried to convince Sean Connery to return as James Bond, but he declined, and United Artists considered Steve McQueen and Paul Newman for the role. According to Burt Reynolds, Broccoli then approached him, but Reynolds felt Bond should be played by a British actor and turned the offer down.
- While Jane Seymour was tied to a stake for the voodoo ceremony scene, a dancer was to approach her with a snake. The snake bit him and he dropped it, and it then headed for Seymour, who was saved by the film's snake handler grabbing it inches from her feet.
- Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz had thought of turning Solitaire into a Black woman, with Diana Ross as his first choice, but Broccoli and Saltzman decided to stick to Fleming's description of a white woman and, after considering Catherine Deneuve, cast Jane Seymour.
- "Live and Let Die", written by Paul McCartney with his wife Linda and performed by their group Wings, was the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film. It reached number two in the United States and was nominated for an Academy Award, losing to "The Way We Were".
- The speedboat jump over the bayou, filmed with the help of a specially constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with 110 ft cleared, and the waves created by the impact caused the boat following it to flip over.
- Saltzman and Broccoli hired B. J. Arnau to record and perform the title song without realizing that Paul McCartney intended to perform it himself. Arnau's version was used inside the film, sung in a night club that Bond visits.
