BEFORE: It's raining again today, we've had an appalling amount of rain in New York City the last few weeks. Even though I was away last weekend, it was raining when I left town and raining when I came back, so as far as I know it rained the whole time I was gone. It's hard to remember a time when the forecast DIDN'T call for scattered showers. Similarly, it's hard to remember a time when I wasn't watching Bond films...
Roger Moore carries over from "For Your Eyes Only", and I realize I did choose the best order to watch the films in, simply because I maximized the actor linking, which makes me happy.
THE PLOT: A fake Fabergé egg and a fellow agent's death leads James Bond to uncovering an international jewel smuggling operation, headed by the mysterious Octopussy.
AFTER: Again, this kind of feels like Bond gets sidetracked - he gets sent on one mission, and ends up taking on another. Oh, it's good that he does, because any time you get to stop a nuclear attack, you've got to take it - but the film itself points out that smuggling is not a concern for the British Secret Service, so how did we end up there? Ah, Bond is investigating the death of another secret agent - right, keep telling yourself that.
I know it's the title of an Ian Fleming short story, but it's still a horrible, horrible title. It calls up images that are lurid at best, and then just kind of spiral downhill. Unless we're actually discussing octopus reproduction, which would be a weird way to go. The poster for the film showed the title character standing behind Bond with 8 arms, sort of evoking one of those Indian goddesses, but she's still also got two legs - that makes a total of 10. But the character doesn't actually have 8 arms, so how is she an octopus, or an Octopussy? Unless she's got...no, that's ridiculous.
From what I understand, the Ian Fleming short story "Octopussy" appears here only as that character's back-story - Bond killed her father in the line of duty. Most of the other story elements are ones that were rejected from other Bond films - the elephant hunt sequence was cut from "The Man With the Golden Gun", the backgammon sequence was cut from "The Spy Who Loved Me", and the knife-throwing twins were originally part of "Moonraker". Is it any wonder this film feels like it was thrown together out of bits and pieces?
LOCATIONS: East Berlin, India, West Germany
VILLAINS: Kamal Kahn, Gobinda, Mischka + Grischka
BABES: Octopussy, Magda
ALLIES: M (a new one), Q, Moneypenny, Vijay
PASTIMES: Backgammon, circus acts
CARS: Alfa Romeo GTV 6 Quadrifoglio, various Mercedes (all borrowed, I think?)
GADGETS: Mini-plane with folding wings, wristwatch with a TV monitor
THEME: "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge (because apparently nothing rhymes with "Octopussy")
Also starring Desmond Llewellyn, Lois Maxwell, Walter Gotell (all three carrying over from "For Your Eyes Only"), Maud Adams (last seen in "The Man With the Golden Gun"), Louis Jourdan (last seen in "Gigi"), Robert Brown, Kristina Wayborn, Steven Berkoff.
RATING: 3 out of 10 Soviet generals
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