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Octopussy
In memory of Roger Moore
Plot (Spoiler Alert)A fake Faberge egg and a agent’s murder lead 007 to a mysterious woman who goes by the name Octopussy. 
Blaine: Around the time “Octopussy” was in production another Bond film, “Never Say Never” staring Sean Connery, was in works. So it had some competition. The people behind the Bond movies always like to have the character explore new places and the reason “Octopussy” was chosen to be the next Bond film after “For Your Eyes Only” was because they wanted to shoot in India. While scouting India they found a Lake Palace that could be Octopussy’s palace and they found other great areas as well. Roger Moore’s contract had expired after he did “For Your Eyes Only" and there was talk that it could be his last Bond film. Other actors were being tested to play James Bond while “Octopussy” was in pre-production. At the last minute Roger Moore decided to return as James Bond for a sixth time. The lead actress to play Octopussy would be reintroducing a familiar face…..Maud Adams. At first she was hired to do screen tests with the actors auditioning to play Bond, but they liked her so much that they decided to have her play Octopussy. Maud Adams had already experienced being apart of a Bond film nine years earlier in “The Man with the Golden Gun” as the Bond girl who dies. She is the only person to have been a Bond girl twice. Maud Adams brought a different personality into Octopussy compared to Andrea Anders in “The Man with the Golden Gun”. Andrea Anders was working for the bad guy, was more serious and ends up dead. Octopussy is different because she is a person in charge and is more of a fighter. Octopussy also shows she has romantic feelings for Bond that are twenty times more than Andrea had. Roger Moore and Maud Adams look like they make a great team after seeing them in two Bond films. Roger himself was looking forward to working with Maud again. He loved working with her and thought she was one of his best leading ladies. Producer Albert Broccoli had been friends with Louis Jourdan and asked if he would play the villain Kamal Khan in the film. Albert Broccoli loved hearing Louis saying Octopussy. They needed an athletic person to play Magda, the henchwoman of Khan and Octopussy and they saw this poster of a woman named Kristina Wayborn wearing a Safari outfit sitting on a tiger and she looked like she was fit to play a Bond girl. Kristina was a athletic person they needed. She even did her own stunt when her character escapes from Bond’s hotel room by doing a back flip while her sari is tied to the balcony and spinning around as it comes off down to the bottom. The landing of that scene was shot in India and balcony was shot in London. She was really happy to have done that stunt. Magda is a little hard to read like at the circus when she tells Octopussy that Bond will ruin the entire operation it leaves you the question of “was she aware of the bomb?” In the end you know she’s on the right side because she is helping Octopussy go after Kamal. The first person who was cast in “Octopussy” was Vijay Amritraj a tennis player from India as the secret service man in India who assists Bond. Kabir Bedi was hired to play Gobinda, the bodyguard of Khan. Kabul described his character as the Jaws of “Octopussy” only he doesn’t have the metal teeth, but he’s big and physical. It was the casting director who found Steven Berkoff to play Lieutenant General Orlov after seeing a play of his called “Greek”. Roger Moore described Steven as a flamboyant actor and a wonderful Russian villain. There was talk if “Octopussy” would be an exceptional title for the movie. It is based off of Ian Fleming’s 1966 short story. Maud Adams had no idea that the name of the movie was the same name as her character. Kristina Wayborn would be asked by fans what the name of the new Bond film was going to be and she had no idea what it was because she thought Octopussy was only the name of Maud Adam's character. A lady interviewing Roger Moore thought it was a joke when he told her the title was going to be “Octopussy”. As time went on the everyone got use to the name “Octopussy”. After World War II Germany and Berlin were divided in four sections which were run by the Americans, the British, the French and the Russians. Production for “Octopussy” began in Berlin and East German guards would be watching while they filmed over the wall. There was no question that they couldn’t film in East Germany. They possibly recreated it in Pinewood Studios. 
A second unit would direct the plane sequence where Bond goes to save Octopussy from Kamal. In order to be hanging off the plane they put handles on it and painted them white, the same color as the plane. They built special wheels so that the Mercedes could drive on the train tracks for the train sequence. They had an air canon to blow the car off the bridge when it gets hit by the train on the other side going the opposite direction. India was a bit more of a relaxing place for them to shoot, but there was so many people in India and they were curious to watch the filming. They asked for extras and they got twice as many people as they needed and it’s hard to control that many people. Roger Moore would get sweaty wearing a suit in India. The second unit would be in England directing the rest of the train sequence and Roger Moore’s stuntman had a serious accident while filming that scene. They had to do a stunt that they couldn’t rehearse. He was going along this section and there was a concrete blog sticking out of the side of the track that he hit. He cracked his hip and broke his leg, rib and arm. He survived, but had spent several weeks in the hospital. It took a while for him to recover, but I think he was able to work as a stuntman again. The German town square, parts of Kamal’s fortress and the circus tent were shot at the backlot of Pinewood studios. They would fill up the circus tent with crowds of people including children and they would entertain the children with clowns and acrobats. It was festive to have a crowd of people and having performers going on at all times according to Maud Adams. Roger Moore and director John Glen had a serious talk about the clown makeup that Bond uses as a disguise to get past the guards. I don’t know if Roger wasn’t too big on wearing the makeup, but once it was on he had fun walking around in it and John thought it was a great disguise. It was intense seeing Bond try to make it to the circus before the bomb goes off. Police and guards are after him for stealing a car and breaking into the circus area and they almost get in the way from him deactivating the bomb. I don’t think there has been a scene as intense in other Bond films than the one in “Octopussy” because Bond is in a hurry and time is running out. The scene where Octopussy and her army of female circus performers break into Kamal’s fortress was shot a lot in India, the rest was recreated at Pinewood. It was hot in India, but when they shot the rest at Pinewood in November the weather there was very cold. The women would be wearing these revealing type of clothes and had to pretend it was warm when really it was cold, but that didn’t stop them from having fun swinging around on ropes and fighting. The stuntmen had to teach these women how to fight. There was no need for wires for these girls swinging around, doing flips and balancing because they were professionals. Showing these female circus performers in action is cool. Kristina Wayborn actually hit one of the stuntmen while shooting a fight scene. The scenes of Octopussy’s palace were shot in December and one of the sequences is with this assassin who uses this yoyo type of saw. There was different types of that saw that they invented. One of them was attached to a polearm that could be operated like a weed waker and could really cut. Maud Adams would get scared of that saw as they were shooting. The actor who played the assassin with the yoyo got his arm broken during that scene because he fell off the balcony. They were considering re-casting, but they already had takes of him. He came back with a cast on his arm and informed John Glen that he could finish the rest. So they would shoot some scenes with him at a different angle so that his broken arm didn’t show. Production wrapped shortly after that, “Octopussy” was released in 1983 and became a record breaking hit. Director John Glen was very proud of “Octopussy” and thought they put all the right ingredients in it. Maud Adams loved playing Octopussy. Kabir Bedi was proud to have been apart of Bond film because he feels that every actor has left there mark in cinema and being in a Bond film is one of them. My dad, Blaine Harrington III, had met Maud Adams once. It was around 1977 and he was working as a photo assistant to a Jamaican photographer in New York. Maud Adams was already a Bond girl for “The Man with the Golden Gun”, but she was working more as a photo model. My dad had worked as both a staff and freelance photo assistant for a number of fashion and advertisement photographers in New York for several years. While assisting, he met a number of famous models (such as Iman, who later married David Bowie) on set. My dad was particularly taken with Maud Adams and asked the photographer he was working for to take a photo of both him and Maud together. My dad had a big smile on his face while holding Maud Adams around the waist tightly and she had sort of had an awkward look on her face. My dad had a big print of that photo, but as he moved around so much (back and forth to Europe and New York and Denver) the print was lost, so he doesn’t have it anymore. My rating on “Octopussy” is five out of five stars. Song: All Time High Artist: Rita Coolidge 
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