Octopussy 1983

Keeping to the one from every two years cycle Roger Moore’s sixth outing as James Bond was Octopussy in 1983 a film which cost less than that two years previously and which also showed a further drop in takings to $187.4 m.

Octopussy as might suspected is the female lady of a band of adventurous, trained and skilled women based in India and with a world wide concoction of activities in including a circus. Yet another rogue Russian general is after causing World War III disaffected with the growing entente between east and West. He is replacing Russian jewellery and other treasures with fakes selling the originals on the open market in this instance a Faberge golden egg.

The film in fact begins with death of a British agent in East Berlin clutching a fake of the egg now on sale in London. The problem is that having lost the fake egg the villains need to buy back the original and return to where he it kept before discovery. This sets an interesting challenge for Bond who has been given a purchasing limit by the Brit Government. Bond cleverly swaps the eggs around and forces an Afghan prince (Louis Jordan) to pay half a million pounds for the fake egg ten times its actual market value. One of the princes females associates seduces Bond to get back the real egg and while she is successful he notices that she has the Tattoo of an Octopus. He then discovers the connection between the Prince and the renegade Russian general. Walter Gotell as head of the KGB, Geoffrey Keen as the Minister and the rest of gang are all busy in the background.

Bond also locates Octopussy as the head of the female cult, learns about the trade in real Russian priceless objects D’art via the circus which Octopussy owns and that its next performance is in East Germany prior to a visit to a USSAF base in West Germany. While Octopussy is aware of the trade, she does not know that on this visit the treasures have been replaced with a nuclear warhead to explode at the base. Bond has various adventures before getting to the Base dressed as a clown and persuading Octopussy she has been betrayed and getting her to help him dismantle the bomb.

Together with her forces they launch an attack on the Prince to regain the Russian treasures and after more adventures they are successful returning to the Island home of Octopussy for you know what while the Russians negotiate the return of their treasures and restore the stability between East and West. The film is unimaginative and revealed that the writers were struggling to invest good stories and the Creatives failing to find new visual tricks and delights.