James Bond : OCTOPUSSY (1983)

For Your Eyes Only had turned out to be an extremely successful film. Cubby Broccoli felt that the next Bond had to be at least as sophisticated as FYEO, where a number of themes created by Fleming in his short stories had been combined into one coherent screenplay. Michael Wilson, George MacDonald Fraser and Bond Screenwriting Veteran Richard Maibaum took a number of story themes again to combine them into one slick, sophisticated storyline.
Agent 009 shows up at the British Embassy in Berlin, carrying a fake Fabergé Egg but he dies before he can give them any information. MI6 suspects the Russians may be involved in the assassination and instruct 007 to investigate. Bond finds out a real Fabergé Egg is being sold at a London auction. He manages to exchange it for a fake while outbidding an Afghan Prince, Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan). In doing so he forces this Khan to pay a considerable sum for a fake egg.
Following Khan to India, Bond angers the Afghan Prince by winning a backgammon game by using Khan’s own fixed dice, narrowly evades several attempts on his life but is subsequently seduced by the lovely Magda (Kristina Wayborn), an associate of Khan’s who is also part of the Octopus cult and steals the real Fabergé Egg back for Khan again.
Khan’s henchman Gobinda (Kabir Bedi) captures Bond, takes him to Khan’s palace, but Bond escapes and finds out Khan is working with a renegade Soviet General named Orlov (Steven Berkoff) who wants to expand the Soviet borders at European expense. Bond manages to meet the leader of the Octopus cult, a wealthy woman who uses the name Octopussy (Maud Adams). She owns a circus troupe thru which Khan intends to smuggle valuables to Europe, when the circus goes on Tour to Germany, where Orlov is to meet with Khan.
Returning to Europe, Bond infiltrates the circus, discovers Orlov has had the valuables switched by a nuclear bomb, deals with Khan’s associates and Orlov is shot while trying to escape. Bond convinces Octopussy to help disarming the nuclear device and then accompanies her to India in order to take out Khan at his home base. Khan and Gobinda flee from their palace by plane, which Bond climbs on to, disposes of Gobinda, disables an engine and jumps off while Khan’s plane crashes into the mountain. In the finale, Bond is seen recuperating with Octopussy on her boat. (Roger Moore style, of course. Very tongue in cheek. His tongue in her cheek.)
After For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore had intended to move on and not do any Bond movies anymore. His contract for 3 Bond films had been fulfilled with The Spy Who Loved Me so for Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only, his contracts were set up per film. Cubby Broccoli and Michael Wilson had already been looking for a new Bond (they had checked out Pierce Brosnan already when Brosnan’s wife performed in For Your Eyes Only) and were closing in on Timothy Dalton and James Brolin. Brolin had done 3 screen tests (that have been released on the Ultimate Edition DVD of OCTOPUSSY) but there were concerns he might make Bond sound too American. When Broccoli and Wilson were informed they would have to compete with Kevin McClory’s production of NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, they felt Roger Moore would stand a better chance of competing against Sean Connery in the role that made him a star. Roger Moore does fit the role like a glove therefor but it shows that he is starting to get too old for these shenanigans. Other than that, his presence does give the film a spectacular, sophisticated look, even though the rating was probably for General Audiences. This film was the first appearance of Robert Brown as M, since the passing of Bernard Lee. Maud Adams had previously appeared in The Man With The Golden Gun (and was killed off in that film) but she was better suited for the part of Octopussy than any other actress the casting agency could come up. Steven Berkoff would return a few years later again as a Russian villain in Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO First Blood Part II. Kabir Bedi, who played Gobinda, had previously been a big star in India when he had played Sandokan in the mid-1970s.
Octopussy may have a pretty serious storyline but it also has a lot of humour, which gives the film a bit of a spoofy tone. One scene certainly adds to that: the scene where Vijay, Bond’s contact in India, plays the James Bond theme to indicate he is affiliated to MI6. Other scenes that tend to push the limit are Bond dressing up as a Clown, the Tarzan yell in the India chase scenes and Bond’s inane jokes with Q’s equipment. Another scene that comes to mind is the tiger that goes all pussy when Bond says “SIT!”. Nevertheless, John Glenn’s direction is extremely slick and makes this film very enjoyable. John Barry’s presence with his music is also a highlight of the film.
In the end, Roger Moore did compete with Sean Connery reappearing as Bond in an unofficial Thunderball remake titled NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Whereas NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was not a bad film, it did suffer from poor production values and a terrible musical score. OCTOPUSSY enjoyed the usual sumptuous EON production values and a terrific John Barry score, which may have helped OCTOPUSSY win out over NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN at the box office. Nevertheless, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was also a very interesting THUNDERBALL remake. But ultimately, OCTOPUSSY won out, because it led to one more Roger Moore 007 adventure, A VIEW TO A KILL.