Though not Ian Fleming's most famous James Bond novel, 1962's
The Spy Who Loved Me
was distinguished by the unique device of telling the story from the heroine's point of view; in fact,
Bond
doesn't make an appearance until the book is two-thirds over. This would hardly work in the film world's
franchise, so the original austere plotline of the novel was eschewed altogether in favor of a labyrinthine story involving outer-space extortion. The leading lady, a "hard-luck kid" in the original, is now sexy Russian secret agent Barbara Bach, who joins forces with
(Roger Moore, making his third appearance as 007) to foil yet another megalomaniac villain (Curt Jurgens), who plans to threaten New York City with nuclear weaponry. Beyond the eye-popping opening ski-jump sequence, the film's best scenes involve seven-foot-two Richard Kiel as steel-toothed henchman Jaws. Fifteen scriptwriters worked on
; only two were credited, including
-film veteran Richard Maibaum.