Live And Let Die - Location Guide

New York, USA The United Nations is in session when San Monique's representative, Kananga, has a British diplomat brutally murdered. Later, 007 rendezvous with Felix Leiter who is observing Dr. Kananga - a dignitary from the isle of San Monique. Bond's chauffeur is written off by a Whisper, and Felix traces the car to the Oh Cult Voodoo shop on East 65th Street. Bond tails the hoodlums into Harlem has a nasty turn in a restaurant booth on 2nd Avenue and is faced with Mr. Big - a New York gangster.

London, UK M wakes Bond at his London home with an urgent assignment. Bond, tucked up with a co-worker - the lovely Miss Caruso of the Italian Secret Service - is disgruntled by the early morning wake up call. M explains that three of their operatives have been murdered in the last 24 hours and 007 is deployed to America to investigate.

San Monique (fictional), The Bahamas Bond journeys to the island nation of San Monique where he teams up with Quarrel Jnr and Rosie Carver to investigate the death of agent Baines. Bond suspects that Dr. Kananga is behind it all and in a shady grove in the heart of the island, he confronts Rosie. Bond hang-glides by night into the expansive mansion of Tarot queen, Solitaire, before freeing her from the clutches of Kananga. Bond unmasks Kananga's drug dealings and escapes after a bumpy chase through the windy island roads. After a the scheme is unveiled in the USA, 007 returns to San Monique to see the end of Kananga and rescue the damsel in distress, Solitaire.

New Orleans, USA Bond hails a dodgy cab driver in the pay of Mr. Big to the Royal Orleans hotel. Predictably, 007 does not meet with Felix but is taken to the small Lakefront Airport where he gives a 'flying' lesson whilst avoiding Mr. Big's goons. Bond and Felix check out the Fillet of Soul restaurant on Docker street in the centre of town before 007 is let down into the underground hideout of Mr. Big. Tee Hee escorts Bond to the swamplands where Kananga keeps crocodiles. Bond escapes the croc-pen and takes on the Louisiana Police and Kananga's men in a speed-boat get-away along the Bayou river.

Shooting Live And Let Die Filming began in October 1972, less than two months after Roger Moore had been announced as the third actor to fill 007's shoes. Guy Hamilton rolled cameras on "Live And Let Die" on location in the USA - shooting the Dixieland funeral sequence, on the corner of Charter and Durmaine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. By mid-October, 007 was on the Bayou shooting the extensive boat chase throughout the striking Louisiana riverside. At Crawdad Bridge, 007's speedboat makes a massive jump - bringing himself to the attention of Sheriff JW. The massive chase covered over 30 miles of water in the process of filming "Live And Let Die".

Above: Roger Moore's debut outing casts the spotlight on the USA.

In November, the production encountered a minor setback when Roger Moore suffered a kidney stone problem - delaying Hamilton’s location shoot and causing the production to juggle filming to capture pick-ups for the film without its star.

Moore was trained in pre-production for over three months in order to participate in a slim portion of Bond’s rip-roaring chase onboard an old-fashioned double-decker bus. Doubling for the mythical San Monique, Jamaica was host to the filmmakers during December 1972. Stunt drivers threw the bus under the Johnson Town Bridge in Lucea, Jamaica a few days later on December 7th. Roger Moore paid Ross Kananga, the crocodile wrangler, a visit just before Christmas. It was at the Jamaican Safari Village in Falmouth Lagoon that the real-life Kananga filled 007’s shoes to make the daring jump across the backs of the chomping crocs.

Above: Bond's travels see him journey from the bustling streets of NYC to the shady tropics of fictional San Monique. Then in the southern states of America, Bond hits the Bayou before returning to the tropics for the final confrontation with Kananga.

After Christmas, Hamilton and his crew returned to Pinewood to shoot with Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee at the set that would reveal 007’s London apartment for the one and only time thus far. The crew’s last stop was New York City where the logistical problems of shooting in Harlem hounded the crew. Ultimately, the first unit captured more than expected including a couple of set piece fights on location at 117th Street and the exteriors of the Oh Cult Voodoo shop on 33 East 65th Street.

Fan Facts
Despite some staggering stunts and the tropical flare of "Live and Let Die", the scenery of Moore's first outing somehow fails to wow the fans. Jamaica has been host to the Bond production on numerous occasions but the back-drop of the likes of "Dr. No" and "Casino Royale" impressed voters far more than the mysterious San Monique or the rugged NYC sequence.