For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only (1981) is the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The screenplay takes its characters from and combines the plots of two short stories from Ian Fleming's collection For Your Eyes Only: the title story and Risico. It also includes elements inspired by the novels Live and Let Die (the keelhauling sequence), Goldfinger (the identigraph sequence) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (the opening at the graveyard). In the film, Bond and Melina Havelock become tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek businessmen against the backdrop of Cold War spy games. Bond is after a missile command system known as the ATAC (a MacGuffin introduced to tie together the original stories' plots), whilst Melina is out to avenge the murder of her parents. As well as seeing a conscious return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of 007 creator Fleming, and therefore a more gritty, realistic approach (following the science-fiction Bond film Moonraker), the film is perhaps unusual for the Bond series in having a strong narrative theme: revenge and its personal consequences. FYEO was also the first James Bond film to be directed by John Glen.
The film was released on both June 24th (in the United Kingdom) and June 26th (in the United States) of 1981 (two weeks after the release of blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark). Despite the film's mixed critical reception, the film was a monetary success, generating $195.3 million worldwide.
Cast
Roger Moore as James Bond An MI6 agent sent to retrieve a stolen "ATAC" system that could be misused for controlling British military submarines.- Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock: The daughter of a diver who is murdered after obtaining the ATAC. She joins hands with Bond to avenge his death.
- Julian Glover as Aristotle Kristatos: A smuggler planning to expand his fortune by selling the ATAC to the Russian Army.
- Chaim Topol as Milos Columbo: Kristatos' former smuggling partner who assists Bond in his mission. named after Gioacchino Colombo, the Ferrari engine designer, specifically Ferrari 125, which Fleming admired.[1]
- Michael Gothard as Emile Locque: An associate of Kristatos, based in Greece
- Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl: An ice skating prodigy who is training with the financial support of Kristatos
- John Wyman as Erich Kriegler: An Olympic class athlete and Kristatos' henchman/KGB contact. Writer Jeremy Black said that he resembles Hans of You Only Live Twice and Stamper of Tomorrow Never Dies.[2]
- Robert Brown as M: The Strict head of MI6
- Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny: The secretary of M, the head of MI6.
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q: MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful for the latter's mission.
- James Villiers as Chief of Staff Bill Tanner: Bond's friend and colleague in the MI6.
- Walter Gotell as General Gogol: M's Russian counterpart.
- Geoffrey Keen as Fredrick Gray: The British Minister of Defence, a high-ranking minister in the British government.
- Cassandra Harris as Countess Lisl von Schlaf: Columbo's mistress.
- Jill Bennett as Jacoba Brink: Bibi's skating coach.
- Stefan Kalipha as Hector Gonzales: A Cuban hitman hired by Kristatos to kill the Havelocks.
- Janet Brown as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: The Prime Minister when Bond's actions are commended via telephone, although it's not Bond it's Max, the parrot
- John Hollis and Robert Rietty (voice) (both uncredited) as Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Bond's arch-nemesis and the head of SPECTRE. Originally thought to have met his demise in the film Diamonds Are Forever, he re-appears in this film, but is shortly killed (supposedly, as he has a nasty habit of survival) by being thrown down a factory chimney.
Bob Simmons, who previously portrayed Bond in the gun barrel sequences in the first three films and SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Boitier in Thunderball, cameos as another villian as Gonzales' henchman who falls victim to Bond's exploding Lotus.
