Joyce Glasser reviews From Roger Moore with Love (December 13, 2024) Cert 12A. 80 mins. (In cinemas)
Note: The film will screen exclusively across Everyman and Picturehouse cinemas on 15th and 18th December, with a pre-recorded director Q&A
Hard to believe that the film that launched Roger Moore into the super star stratosphere, Live and Let Die, was not a sure thing. When Sean Connery handed in his notice, the world awaited the announcement of who would replace him. Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli were talking to Michael Billington and Anthony Hopkins, while United Artists bosses wanted an American name like Paul Newman or Steve McQueen.
But although returning to television was a blow to Moore after a taste of feature films in the 1950s, the long running spy series, The Saint and then The Persuaders had made him a household name and a suave action hero. When The Persuaders was cancelled, Moore, who played an aristocratic, debonair gentleman spy in the series, became available and Saltzman and Broccoli fought for him.
Was he Bond material, though? For one thing, he was not dark and brooding like Connery and would rather make love than beat up bad buys. Moore had a sense of humour and the script was adapted to his ability to deliver one-liners. We learn that the breakthrough came when he stopped trying to turn Roger Moore into James Bond and started turning Bond into Roger Moore. With his great looks, wise cracks in the face of peril and that expressive left eyebrow, Moore made the role his own.
Early in principal photography, however, Moore, who had never driven a speed boat, was hospitalised after a serious motorboat crash, filming the chase scene in Bayou Des Allemands near New Orleans.
Moore held his breath when the film was released, uncertain he’d be asked back. The budget was $7 million. The box office was $160 million. He was asked back six more times, making him the longest serving Bond.
As the world awaits the announcement of a new 007 after Daniel Craig, director Jack Cocker, backed by Moore’s family, dishes out an enjoyable and captivating bio documentary about the charming Hollywood star who led a charmed existence.
That Moore was ever considered as James Bond seems miraculous. Far from the Lord he played opposite Tony Curtis in The Persuaders, Moore was born in 1927, in Stockwell, London, the son of a policeman from Bow Street. He inherited his looks from his mother, and by 17 was handsome, shy and gangly but with no prospects.
His father was tasked with investigating a burglary at the home of film director Brian Desmond Hurst. When Moore was introduced to Hurst, he might have had ulterior motives for casting him as an extra in the 1945 film, Caesar and Cleopatra. But the strapping youth in a toga attracted female fans and Hurst – who became the mentor Moore needed – offered to pay his fees at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, (RADA). At RADA, Moore adopted his trademark laid back manner and Mid-Atlantic accent.
If women were attracted to Moore, the attraction was mutual. He was a ladies’ man, and by 18 he was married to wife number one, fellow RADA student, and ice skater Dorn Van Steyn (born Lucy Woodard). Moore was, by all accounts, gentle, kind and fun loving, but the pressure of living with Dorn’s parents, her disparaging remarks and lack of confidence in his talent, meant the marriage was over by 1953.
If Dorn was six years Moore’s senior, wife number two, the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires, was twelve years older and an established celebrity with contacts on both sides of the pond. Moore concedes that Squires encouraged him to be himself and was an invaluable mentor, introducing him to people who helped facilitate his career.
The fairytale years from 1954 to 1960 were spent in the USA, where MGM offered Moore a 7-year contract and he was kissing Lana Turner – on screen. Moore met Elvis – a fan of Squires and the couple hung out with Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, David Niven and even Frank Sinatra. But tensions arose in the marriage over the age difference, Moore’s relationship with starlet Dorothy Provine and over Squires’ desperation for the child she was unable to conceive.
A dark spell followed. Moore’s contract with MGM was cancelled, and the couple returned to the UK. Squires became physically abusive and legally vexatious when Moore fell for the beautiful Italian actress Luisa Mattioli who he met on the set of The Rape of the Sabine Women – another film where he got to show off his physique rather than his acting ability. Moore’s relationship with Mattioli was not his last, but it endured 30 years – through all the Bond films – and she is the mother of his children Deborah and Geoffrey, whom we meet in the film, and Christian.
If there’s dirt to dish, it’s not here, although the film is frank about the pain Moore caused leaving Squires, who wouldn’t grant him a divorce for nine years, and Mattioli, who felt she had been dumped. Most of the impressive group of talking heads Cocker has assembled – from Bond girls Jane Seymour, Gloria Hendry and Maud Adams to Dame Joan Collins – sing his praises, mentioning his generosity in acting, in hospitality and in friendship. Christopher Walken – who played villain Max Zorin in Moore’s final Bond film, A View to a Kill – assures us he stays away from tribute documentaries but makes an exception for Moore.
Steve Coogan steps into Moore’s voice if not his shoes, narrating in Moore’s voice and jovial, gentlemanly and self-deprecating manner. The script uses Moore’s diaries and memoirs, including his autobiography, My Word is My Bond, although not verbatim and some family home videos are thrown in. When we get to the chapter when Moore moves his family to Switzerland – for ‘a more normal life’ – we learn that, despite the famous opening scene of The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond, or, Moore, had never learned to ski.
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