Trivia - Octopussy
An outtake exists of Lois Maxwell introducing her new assistant, Penelope Smallbone, to Roger Moore as "Miss Smallbush."
Miss. Smallbone owes her name to model Perri Small [real name Penelope Smallbone] who revealed her true identity to Albert Broccoli and he 'borrowed' it for "Octopussy".
Rumours abounded prior to the film's release that Sean Connery was going to appear in the film alongside Moore, possibly as the villain. There have been similar claims on and off ever since.
The film takes cues from two Ian Fleming short stories. The sequence at the Sotheby's auction house is inspired by the plot of "Property of A Lady" (can be found in the "For Your Eyes Only" anthology) and later Octopussy explains how she knows of 007 by recounting the happenings of the Ian Fleming short story "Octopussy".
Many pieces of 007 adventures not used in previous outings make it into "Octopussy". The backgammon game was to have taken place in Max Kalba's club in "The Spy Who Loved Me" [1977] and the Acrostar was penciled in for "Moonraker" [1979]. "The Man With the Golden Gun" [1974] was to have featured the 'tiger hunt' sequence.
The tiger at the foot of Kamal's stairs is the same one that "roars" out of the jungle at 007 during the chase. It was loaded to the production by the owner of the house.
This is the first film since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" that Bond enters M's office carrying the iconic trillby hat, harping back to the Connery era. It is the only occsion Roger Moore is seen with the hat.
There are two rather quick dawns in the Indian sequences - the first is when Bond escapes into the jungle and Khan organises a hunt to pursue him. The second is during the film's climax. Gobinda notes that the girls outside the mansion are "selling themselves", though it's actually the dead of night, and then when Bond sets off after Octopussy just a few minutes later, it's broad daylight.
1983 sees Moore go head to head with Connery at the box office. "Octopussy" was released in the same year as the rival James Bond production "Never Say Never Again". Ultimately EON Production's "Octopussy" won out - making $187 million at the box office worldwide, as against "Never Say Never Again", which clocked in at $160 million.
Maud Adams had already appeared as a Bond Girl once before, playing the doomed Andrea Adams in "The Man with the Golden Gun" [1974]. Other returnees include Andy Bradford [009] who had been shot by a crossbow during the climax of "For Your Eyes Only" [1981]; and Albert Moses [Sadruddin] who had previously played a bartender in "The Spy Who Loved Me" [1977].
One of the teenagers in the car who taunt Bond after refusing to give him a lift is played by Gary Russell, later author of a number of TV and film related books for Virgin in the UK.
The French TV hosts Igor Bogdanoff and Grichka Bogdanoff were first approached for the parts of the knife-throwing twin assassins Mischka and Grischka.
Roger Moore originally intended to hang up the PPK after the completion of "Octopussy" - he was 55 at the time of filming. During the recasting process, James Brolin was almost given the role of James Bond but ultimately Roger Moore agreed to return in "A View to a Kill" [1985]. Brolin's screen tests can be seen on the Ultimate Edition DVD. The producers were glad to retain Moore for another film due to the pressure of facing off against "Never Say Never Again".
Faye Dunaway and Sybil Danning were among those also being considered to play Octopussy.
On the DVD Ultimate Edition, Director John Glen comments he picked up Paul Hardwick for the role of the "Soviet Chairman" due to his likeness to Leonid Brezhnev.
Udaipur's Lake Palace Hotel is often nicknamed "The Octopussy Hotel".
The electric taxi that Vijay uses to help Bond escape from Khan's assassins was specially built by the producers and could reach speeds of 70mph.
When aired on TV, the credit sequence often gets censored in order to hide several of the more risque shots.
Royal Maharana Bagwat Singh, who had granted the production the rights to shoot in their Udaipur locations would host the cast and crew to luxury banquets, serving them a specially made Rose Wine.
A cover version of the song, "All Time High" performed by Pulp can be heard on the David Arnold Bond song compilation album, "Shaken and Stirred: the David Arnold James Bond Project".
An early draft of the script cast Octopussy as the villain, using her research on Tracy Bond's death to manipulate Bond into joining her vendetta against SPECTRE. The ongoing legal battle with Kevin McClory put paid to that.
Bond was originally meant to deal with only one Indian agent and Vijay Amitraj came on board the production to play the likable ally at a very late stage.
A March 2001 article in the British newspaper "The Guardian" reported that this movie was still shown nightly in town at Udaipur.
When Bond hands out his winnings at the backgammon table, he tells Sadruddin, "That'll keep you in curry for a few weeks," probably the most racist comment ever uttered in a Bond film.
When Bond bends metal bars surrounding a window, after weakening them with acid, a brief musical cue of the theme from Superman [1978] can be heard.
Louis Jourdan had previously been considered for the role of Hugo Drax in "Moonraker" [1979].
A video-game based on the film was put into production by Capcom and Parker Brothers in 1984 but was never released. The first video-game to feature James Bond would be based on "A View To A Kill".
When Bond first arrives in India, he is alerted to Vijay's disguise as a snake charmer when the latter plays the James Bond theme on his pipes!
This film is the first, and to date only, James Bond film to include the name of a female lead character in its title. "Dr No" and "Goldfinger" constitute those others include a character's name in the title.
Would anyone outside the UK understand the scene in which Bond tells a tiger to "Sit!"? It was a joke at the expense of Barbara Woodhouse, a popular though completely potty UK TV celebrity of the early '80s whose remarkable talent for taming and training pets made her a household name for a while.
While swinging through the trees during the Indian 'tiger hunt' sequence, Bond is accompanied by a Tarzan yodel taken from the original MGM film.
The film ends with the traditional James Bond Will Return In... caption - but the film it claims he'll be returning in is From A View To a Kill - by the time the film was released two years later, it had lost the "From". Incidentally this is the last Bond film to confirm the name of the upcoming film in the closing credits.
