In the summer of 1973 (four years before Star Wars), a new James Bond emerged onto the silver screen. This time played by that guy who use to be a saint. The film was an instant success, the theaters were filled to standing room only while Britain's most famous spy thrawted the evil underworld of Mr. Big. LALD gave that summer audience the rollercoaster ride of the year. People would talk about the fantastic chases and stunts while others spoke highly about the main title song. All and all, the 70s looked promising for the franchise.

The film is set in three parts of the world. New York, New Orleans and San Monique (a fictional island in the Carribean). In the pre-credit scene, three British agents are murdered in unique fashions. One has his ear blown out by a sonic emitting device. The second is stabbed during a funeral procession and the third is bitten by a snake during a voodoo ceremony. This leads us into a fast moving credit sequence with dancing women parading around skulls and fire all while Paul McCartney and Wings perform a first rate title song.

Roger Moore makes his appearence as OO7 in bed with a beautiful Italian agent. Moments later he is interrupted in person by M, his superior, and Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary. The scene is played like a comedy of errors with the Italian agent hiding in Bond's foyer closet. M is unaware of Bond's overnight guest but the always faithful Moneypenny throws off any suspicions. Missing from this scene and the film is Q, Bond's frustrated gadget supplier (Desmond Llewelyn was unable to act in LALD because of a TV series he was committed to at the time.) Moneypenny provides the necessary gadget which is a magnetized watch capable of deflecting the path of a bullet, providing the bullet is not made of lead.

Bus, airplane and speedboat chases dominate the majority of the film. Which is necessary since the villain's plans to flood the streets of America with "free" herion does not seem life threatening as did Goldfinger's nuclear bomb. But trying to make sense of LALD defeats the entertaining value it offers. One of the characters in this film literally upstages James Bond. Sheriff J. W. Pepper played to the hilt by Clifton James provides the series with the best comic relief character. For the duration of the spectacular boat chase one could easily forget that this is a Bond film. Sheriff Pepper unsuccessfully tries to stop the destructive speedboat chase through the bayous of Louisiana.

When Bond finally eludes Kananga's henchmen, J.W. arrives to arrest Bond. Another patrolman intervenes by saying, "J.W., this fella is from London, England and is here to help our boys, sort of secret agent." J.W. explodes by saying, "Secret agent? On who's side?" Once the final chase is concluded, we follow Bond to Kananga's island. Here Bond must rescue the girl from a snake enhanced voodoo ceremony and confront Kananga for the last time in his nefarious hideout.

Does LALD hold up today? Well, yes and no. The clothing and automobiles are certainly outdated as well as the "slang" used by Mr. Big - "Is this the honky that tailed you?" But the stunt work and the pacing of the film is just as fast as most contemporary action thrillers. For years after this film debuted, other action films such as Burt Reynold's "Gator" would imitate this film's ubiquitous speedboat chase. LALD was the 8th James Bond film and could have been the series' last. Fortunately, due to the late Mr. Broccoli's constant reinventing of Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond continues to be popular to this day.

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