For Your Eyes Only was one of Roger Moore’s favorite James Bond films, along with 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.
The film was a massive hit, grossing $195m on a budget of $28m and continues to entertain, again on our screens this weekend on ITV Sunday.
He’s signaled a return to more poignant action sequences after its alien-racing predecessor Moonraker was heavily criticized for its plots and geeky gadgets.
The film’s leading man might have appreciated the grittier tone, but he didn’t expect to be so shocked by some of the ensuing scenes he had to shoot.
Finding himself shaken and agitated, he turned to alcohol and pills to help him cope. Scroll down to see the scene.
As always with 007’s death-defying adventures, For Your Eyes Only already included some exciting scenes.
Moore was filmed handcuffed, ready in place for a scene where Bond is dragged through shark-infested waters.
In another long, adrenaline-fueled sequence, he’s hit on a sled speeding off the edge of a cliff with co-star John Wyman later saying, “I feared for your life. You would think that was the end of it… We could both get off the cliff making the guy (who He was directing the sled) turning the wrong way.”
In fact, during the filming of the film, 23-year-old stuntman Paolo Rigoni died while filming the bobsleigh chase.
Moore himself, always the most self-deprecating of the stars, constantly downplayed his own efforts and used sensational complications.
“I’m into love scenes. I’m no good after the third take,” he joked, while insisting the stunts were another matter: “I actually do all of them… I do all my lies.”
However, he was definitely not serious when he said, “I’ve done some stunts like jumping off a cliff with a parachute but I’ve always had a weakness for kissing scenes,” because he had a tremendous fear greater than any other.
Moore must have been horrified when he saw that a large part of the film would be shot in a monastery high in the mountains of Meteora.
His problems were nearly solved when the monks began covering the buildings with sheeting and bits of plastic, in an effort to stop production of a film they believed immorally promoted violence.
The case was settled by the Greek Supreme Court, which ruled that the monks had rights only to the interior spaces of the monastery.
Filming resumed and Moore was forced to confront his greatest fear, in a scene that even veteran stuntman Ric Sylvester said made him fear for his life.
In the action sequences, Bond hangs from a thin rope quietly using his bags to help him climb, while the villain descends down to knock off his braces before 007 impales him with a knife.
“From where we were,” said Sylvester, “you could see the local cemetery, and the chest [to stop my fall] It looks like a coffin. You didn’t need to be an English major to connect the dots.”
Filmed around the vertigo-ridden cliffs, these scenes were an absolute horror for Moore, who suffered from vertigo. He later admitted that he drained tall glasses of beer and took Valium before filming.
For Your Eyes Only on ITV at 3pm on Sunday, 9 July
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