The picture is carried along by a buffoonish flamboyance and by a benignity that must emanate from the director’s and the producers’ quizzical view of the original book, which was dyed-in-the-wool cliquish.

Will James Bond live on in the 1970s? Not much farther, if this episode is anything to go by.

It is good, lively, mindless entertainment, slow to warm up but once embarked upon its improbable story quick to appreciate its own absurdity.

…From the nudes-in-hell credits to the interrupted voodoo ritual of the climax, Live and Let Die attests to the influence of Fleming’s friend Dennis Wheatley…