Live And Let Die
50th Anniversary
(1973–2023)

Prior to Moore’s casting, director Guy Hamilton, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz (who delivered his first draft screenplay on May 5, 1972) and production designer Syd Cain had been scouting locations in New Orleans and Jamaica (which stood in for the fictional island of San Monique) where they discovered Ross Kananga’s crocodile farm with its humourous sign announcing that “Trespassers will be eaten”. The sign, farm and owner’s surname all made it into the final film – with Kananga now appropriated as the name for the alter-ego of main villain Mr. Big (played by Yaphet Kotto). British actress Jane Seymour was cast as Solitaire after the producers had seen her in the popular BBC-TV series The Onedin Line, which also featured Michael Billington, who had first tested for the role of James Bond in 1968. Billington would later play KGB agent Sergei Barzov, who is killed by Roger Moore’s 007 in the famous pre-title ski chase in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Tom Mankiewicz delivered his final shooting script in October 1972, which now included a finale set in Mr. Big’s underground grotto on a set designed by Syd Cain and built at Pinewood Studios – instead of the original ending from Ian Fleming’s novel where Bond and Solitaire are keelhauled behind Mr. Big’s yacht The Secatur, before he is killed by barracuda and sharks. The keelhauling sequence would later be included in For Your Eyes Only (1981) by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) screenwriter Richard Maibaum. Live And Let Die (1973) was the second film in the series to have its script solely authored by one man (although there were numerous other non-credited contributions to both films). Mankiewicz had rewritten Maibaum’s Diamonds Are Forever script and can therefore be seen (along with director Guy Hamilton) as being responsible for the development of the more humourous tone of the James Bond films, which then carried on throughout Roger Moore’s tenure in the role.

Live And Let Die began its location filming in Louisiana on October 9, 1972 with rehearsals for the spectacular boat chase. Principal photography began on October 13th with Roger Moore doing a lot of the driving of the speedboats himself, adding to the realism of the scenes filmed without the aid of any rear-projection, unlike earlier action sequences in the series. Two days later stuntman Jerry Comeaux performed the impressive boat jump over two cars and back into the bayou in two takes, watched by a large crowd, including veteran American character actor Clifton James, who had been signed to play redneck Sheriff J.W. Pepper – a role he would reprise in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). The speedboat jump made the Guinness Book of World Records for its distance of 110 feet, a record that stood for three years. At the end of October, production moved to New Orleans to film the first of two jazz funerals seen in Live And Let Die – followed by a week on location at Lakefront Airport from November 1st, filming the car and airplane chase. It was director Guy Hamilton’s idea to have a chase at an airport where nobody ever took off!

Location filming then moved to Jamaica where Roger Moore took time out to have publicity photographs taken at Ian Fleming’s home ‘Goldeneye’. It had been a decade since the crew first visited the island to shoot Dr. No (1962), and several locations appear in both films. The sequence where CIA double agent Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) is killed was filmed in the garden of the Ruins Restaurant at Ocho Rios. The Sans Souci Hotel, which stood in as the exterior of Miss Taro’s bungalow on the fictitious Magenta Drive in the first James Bond film, would also be used as the backdrop for Baron Samedi’s (Geoffrey Holder) nightclub floorshow performance in Live And Let Die. Bond’s escape from the crocodile farm was filmed at Ross Kananga’s (1945-1978) Swamp Safari, his 350-acres of mangrove swamp on Jamaica's North coast, where he kept over 1,000 crocodiles and alligators. Kananga himself suggested that Bond escape from the small island after being stranded there by Tee Hee (played by Julius W. Harris) by jumping across the backs of crocodiles. Kananga was then enlisted by the producers to perform the stunt that required five takes to complete, including one in which the last crocodile snapped at Kananga's heel, tearing his trousers, and causing him a number of injuries – one of which required 193 stitches. Kananga was paid $60,000 for his contribution, and at Roger Moore’s suggestion performed the jump wearing crocodile shoes!

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