Like all the James Bond films, Moonraker, the 11th epic based on the adventures of the famous Ian Fleming superspy, does not lack Death-defying action, ambitious special effects and, closest to our heart, beautiful women. In fact, Moonraker, scheduled to appear on your neighborhood screen in July, may have more gorgeous girls in its cast than any of its predecessors--so many that 007 himself (played by Roger Moore) remarked, on location filming, that "one of the consolations of playing in a succession of Bond films is that the girls are always different. They seem to be better-looking each time, so why should I complain?" Why, indeed? In addition to the two female lead roles, played by Texas-born Lois Chiles as a CIA agent and French film star Corinne Cléry as the archvillain's head chopper pilot, the Moonraker script calls for a bevy of eight shapely misses to play what have come to be known as the Bond Beauties. (If you think your girlfriend stacks up to the Bond Beauties, you can help her get a crack at an appearance in the next Bond thriller. See page 225.) The eight girls in Moonraker, all European models and actresses, play Space Lovers, employees of the villain, Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), who plans to take them up to a space station to propagate a new master race (he has boy Lovers to match each one) after he has destroyed the rest of the world. Officially, Drax is a billionaire contractor, a legitimate builder of space shuttles; secretly, he is a multinational megalomaniac with plans to rule the world. When a space shuttle on loan to Britain from the U.S. is mysteriously hijacked, M assigns James Bond to investigate. As Bond begins to sniff around, he is led to Drax's secret underground mission-control center hidden in the South American jungle. Special effects that rival those of Star Wars, involving space shuttles, space stations and the various ingenious gadgetry that has become synonymous with Bond epics, heighten the suspenseful action. And, naturally, 007 gets himself into a lion's share of do-or-die situations, including a push from an airborne jet, sans parachute, a gondola chase in Venice, a struggle with a kendo expert in a clock tower in St. Mark's Square, and a death-defying scuffle with Drax's steel-toothed henchman, Jaws (Richard Kiel), along a tram cable, scarily high above Guanabara Bay, Brazil. And, of course, a James Bond film wouldn't be a James Bond film without those tender bedroom interludes; Moonraker doesn't fall short on that score, either. Eat your heart out, Sean Connery.
