A One Mann’s Movies review of “From Roger Moore With Love” (2024).
Who was your James Bond? Well, on paper anyway, my Bond was Roger Moore, since the first Bond film I went to see, with my brother David at the ABC in Manchester, was “Live and Let Die on its release in 1973. However, I was so taken with the character that I then pursued a retrospective watch of all the previous Bond films with such dedication that Sean Connery really became “my James Bond”. I always found Moore far too urbane and lightweight compared to Connery. But I digress. “From Roger Moore With Love” is pretty much what it says on the tin: a documentary charting the life and times of the one-time knitting-pattern and clothing model and then TV and film actor.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“From Roger Moore With Love” Plot Summary:
We look at the life of Roger Moore from his humble beginnings in a London suburb through to being one of the most famous actors in the world, delving into previously unseen clips from his own home video collection.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Infrequent strong language, moderate sex references.”)
Talent:
Directed by: Jack Cocker.
Running Time: 1h 18m.
“From Roger Moore With Love” Summary:
Positives:
- Efficient and well-edited documentary charting Moore’s career.
- Some starry names appear as talking heads to give their opinions of Moore.
- Some starry names appear on Moore’s home videos of parties at his house.
Negatives:
- The whole thing feels light-weight as a documentary subject.
- I’d have liked some more on Moore’s non-Bond film work.
Review of “From Roger Moore With Love”:
A nice man with an eye for the ladies.
The documentary should give hope to many appearance-conscious young teens. We see Moore blossom from a “chubby” and “ugly” kid into an Adonis at the age of 18 or 19. Everyone seems to say what a ‘nice guy’ Moore was. But he seems to have gone through quite a lot of wives on the journey… which doesn’t strike you as being very nice. I appreciate that being a star and looking like that has women throwing themselves at you (oh, yes, I know the problem). But you don’t necessarily have to say “yes” all the time! I’m not sure the documentary gave enough time to some of these women to give their view of the other side of the ‘nice guy’ Moore. It rather paints his second wife, Dorothy Squires, as being some sort of obsessed nut-job in trying to hang onto their marriage.
Starry names.
One of the joys of the documentary is seeing who is going to pop up as a ‘talking head’ to give their views on Moore, so I don’t want to spoil that through this review. Let’s just say that there are some big names shown and they are all uniformly generous in their appreciation of the late actor. While ‘nice’, this does unfortunately leave the documentary feeling bland. I feel that if there had been more drama and contention in there, it would have made for a more incisive watch. But perhaps, unusually for Hollywood, it just wasn’t there!
Some of the most interesting parts of the documentary are scenes from a party that Moore threw at his house in Switzerland in (I’m guessing) the 1980’s when a starry line-up of screen icons are seen mucking about around the pool.
The narration goes on a Trip.
Having a lot of fun with the narration is Steve Coogan, who famously does a flawless Roger Moore impersonation. Here he is sometimes seen performing the narration and trying to get the famous voice right. Much of this narration comes, I believe, from Moore’s own comments in his autobiographies, or at least is inspired by them. As you would expect from Moore, the comments often end with some lascivious Dad joke or a cheesy line.
Where’s the rest?
Where the documentary again felt light is on the movie coverage. We start with Moore’s boat crash during the filming of “Live and Let Die” (which I must admit, I don’t actually recall hearing about before: I’ve just ordered a copy of his “The 007 Diaries: Filming Live and Let Die” which is referenced in the film.) With the inclusion of that (admitted in the post-film Q&A as Bond-bait by director Jack Cocker!) we then zip back to his early life; one Hollywood flop with Lana Turner no less and then his rise to fame in TV series including “Ivanhoe”, “The Saint” and “The Persuaders”.
We then return to Bond, looking at “Live and Let Die”; “The Man With The Golden Gun” and “The Spy Who Loved Me” before zipping forwards to his relationship with Christopher Walken in (the pretty awful!) “A View to a Kill”.
But this overlooks all of his other movie credits and some retrospective on those would have been welcome. Granted many of them were not great (“North Sea Hijack”; “Escape to Athena”; “The Sea Wolves”!) but I would actually rate “The Man Who Haunted Himself” and that at least deserved a mention.
Monkey?
There is no monkey at the end of the (very short) BBC credits. However, in the cinema showings (or, at least, the “Everyman” showing that I saw) there is a follow on Q&A with the director that lasts about another 10 minutes.
Summary Thoughts on “From Roger Moore With Love”
It’s a perfectly well-made documentary about a public figure. However, as the public figure seems to be so nice and well-loved it doesn’t make for a terribly gripping documentary.
You don’t have long to watch this on the box: it’s showing on Christmas Day on BBC2 at 9pm.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “From Roger Moore With Love”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJ33hx7DAI.
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