Fri 15 Jun, 2:30pm Sun 17 Jun, 6:50pm

Live and Let Die (1973)

directed by Guy Hamilton starring Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour in English

Roger Moore makes his first appearance as “Bond… James Bond” in 1973’s Live and Let Die. Bond is dispatched to the States to stem the activities of Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto), who plans to take over the Western Hemisphere by converting everyone into heroin addicts.

The woman in the case is Solitaire (Jane Seymour in her movie debut), an enigmatic interpreter of tarot cards. The obligatory destructive chase sequence occurs at the film’s midpoint, with Bond being chased in a motorboat by Mr. Big’s henchmen, slashing his way through the marshlands and smashing up a wedding party.

Clifton James makes the first of several Bond appearances as redneck sheriff Pepper, while Geoffrey Holder is an enthusiastic secondary villain.

The title song, written by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, provides the frosting on this 007 confection.

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Fri 15 Jun, 5:00pm Sat 16 Jun, 5:30pm Sun 17 Jun, 1:45pm

Dr No (1962)

directed by Terence Young starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee in English, French

Terence Young directed this first of a long line of screen adventures with Ian Fleming’s unflappable British Secret Service Agent 007 in a fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek style that set the tone for the rest of the popular series. Sean Connery sets the standard by which all future takers must measure themselves as the insouciant and devil-may-care James Bond.

Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the murders of a British agent and his secretary. During his investigation, he comes into contact with the evil and unscrupulous Chinese scientist Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) who, living on an island called Crab Key, is hard at work in a nuclear laboratory. Dr. No’s scheme is to divert rockets being fired from Cape Canaveral off their charted course and to blackmail the United States to get their rocket launches restored to normal.

Helping Bond is Ursula Andress (dressed in a bikini for most of the film), as well as bad gals like Zena Marshall, who almost leads Bond to his death in her bedroom, and Eunice Gayson, a Bond pickup in a London gambling house who proves herself a greater adversary than even James Bond can handle.

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Sun 17 Jun, 4:15pm

From Russia with Love (1963)

directed by Terence Young starring Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya in English, Russian, Turkish

From Russia With Love, the second in the series of James Bond films, solidified all the Bond film elements into a formula — the action sequences are intensified and lend greater tension to the proceedings; John Barry’s inimitable score makes its first appearance; and Sean Connery as Bond has nailed down his role as 007, accentuating Bond’s stylishness and sophistication while toning down his cold-bloodedness.

In From Russia With Love the bad guys don’t want to take over the world. They want something more mundane — a Soviet decoding device named the Lektor. Assigned to the mission of stealing the McGuffin device are No. 3, former KGB agent Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), and No. 5, Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), an expert chess player who has plotted every move of the mission.

Kronsteen’s plan requires using Bond’s weakness for women as an element in acquiring the decoding device. Once Bond obtains the decoding device from Russian cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), SPECTRE muscleman Red Grant (Robert Shaw) is to forcibly take it from Bond and kill him.

But Bond suspects a trap. Being Bond, however, he can’t resist the lure of a beautiful woman. So, flaunting danger, Bond travels to Istanbul to meet Tatiana. The centerpiece of this 007 feature is the thrilling fight to the death between Bond and enemy agent Red Grant aboard the Orient Express.

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Sun 17 Jun, 9:15pm

Octopussy (1983)

directed by John Glen starring Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan in English, Russian, German, Spanish with English subtitles

This (13th) time around, 007 receives the usual call to come and visit “Mother” when another agent drops off a fake Faberge jeweled egg at the British embassy in East Berlin and is later killed at a traveling circus.

Suspicions mount when the assistant manager of the circus, Kamal (Louis Jourdan), outbids Bond for the real Faberge piece at Sotheby’s. Bond follows Kamal to India where the superspy thwarts many an ingenious attack and encounters the antiheroine of the title (Maud Adams), an international smuggler who runs the circus as a cover for her illegal operations.

It does not take long to figure out that Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a decidedly rank Russian general, is planning to raise enough money with the fake Faberges to detonate a nuclear bomb in Europe and then defeat NATO forces once and for all in conventional warfare.

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