Opinions on the worst of all the Bond girls?
My pick… Mary Goodnight
Totally forgettable.
Stacey Sutton bad performance with an even worse character.
Tip of the hat to Halle Berry who does have the worst written character, but Berry, fresh off her Oscar, makes it seem better than it is (I am intentionally damming with praise)
As a character I think Bibi Dahl goes a bit far in the direction of the ‘little/daddy’ dynamics. It’s an intentional play - and well played too, both by her and Moore, who deflects her advances professionally and ice cream cool - so she does not qualify as a ‘bad’ Bond girl. But being Moore’s age now there’s an uncomfortable edge to the schoolgirl interaction that previously didn’t concern me.
I think I might go with Talisa Soto’s Lupe Lamora. I neither feel there’s any coherent motivation to the character nor is the part played particularly convincing. One wonders what made Sanchez even haul her back.
Personally, I find her charming. I only wish I could forget:
Seconded.
Bibi, Lupe, Christmas Jinx and anyone else you care to mention will always have Tanya Roberts as an insurance policy.
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I went through a TMWTGG phase not long ago and had the same impression. Is she the smartest person in the room? No. But I find her innocence and warmth rather endearing.
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I think Britt Ekland does fine with the material she’s given. Tanya Roberts, not so much. Not much of an actress, even less of a character.
Stacey Sutton’s going to regret tearing up that $5 million cheque, given that she’s now jobless and Bond will either not stick around or drop dead of decrepitude. Clot.
Not sure about worst, but most oddly written and performed is Solitaire, particularly at the end: with a fantastic view of the fight in the pool, a huge unmissable bloaty balloon man with added stereo flatulent noises, who explodes about ten feet away from you, and you still ask “What happened to Kananga?”? I accept Bond’s potency robs her of second sight, but evidently he’s so virile he’s made her blind. And deaf.
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I have to go with Stacey because Robert’s line delivery is bad. Unacceptable when so many better actors were around at the time. I’m sure a few were mooted.
Christmas and Jinx.
I also go for Tanya Roberts as Stacey as the worst Bondgirl.
The funny thing is that when it was announced she would be the new Bondgirl I was happy and excited about it, because she was a stunning lady and not a very bad actress. She was already famous for her parts in Charlie Angel’s, The Beastmaster (and especially the photos in Playboy) and later Sheena.
But in AVTAK her part was very boring, she was dressed in the most boring and average, not very flattering outfits a Bondgirl ever wore, but most of all she was not believable in her part and her delivery was not very good either. Also she was way too young for Moore’s Bond, their relationship was not convincing at all.
Someone like Fay Dunaway, Kate O’Mara, or Catherine Schell (to name a few) would have been much better next to Moore.
A real miscast.
I remember thinking at the time that even Priscilla Barnes would have been better. Four years later…
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I had to look up who you meant there.
Then again, when the film itself practically forgot about her by the last scene I may hopefully be forgiven for doing the same 30 years onwards…
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I had the same reaction hours ago and had to look her up too.
Solitaire
Another vote for Mary Goodnight from me. Whenever an actress tries to claim that she’s not playing a ‘typical Bond girl’ I feel that it’s Goodnight, more than any other, that she’s referring to. This is the character who perpetuated the negative stereotype that a Bond girl is there to look pretty and has an IQ lower than her bra size.
To be fair to the ‘Bond girl’ monicker: Goodnight, along with certain parts of Tiffany Case and maybe Solitaire, was deliberately written as a dud - when before females in Bond films were rarely depicted as outright laughing stock.
Angela Scoular’s Ruby for example was a funny eccentric girl, but nowhere near dumb. She knew what she wanted and proved resourceful enough to get it. Same with Sylvia Trench, she was clever enough to find Bond’s home and waiting inside for him to return. The female roles really written as caricatures came much later.
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Close tie between Stacey Sutton and Bibi Dahl for me. Playing a drinking game with AVTAK with a shot for each time Stacey screams “Jaaaames!” could end in hospital.
Honorary mentions to the doctors: Holly Goodhead and Christmas Jones.
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Apparently Moore discovered during the shoot that he was actually older than Roberts’s mother, which further confirmed his decision to retire from Bond.
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For me, the bottom of the Bond girl barrel is between four candidates: Mary Goodnight, Domino Petachi, Christmas Jones, and Stacey Sutton.
I agree with Jim in that Britt Ekland “does fine with the material she’s given”, the problem is her character isn’t very bright/aware of her surroundings. I think what dooms her character is the finale with Bond trying to get the Solex and Goodnight’s behind almost blows the entire operation. However, she is not at the bottom for me. I will say this for Ekland, she clearly enjoyed/enjoys being a Bond girl.
I’m not particularly fond of Domino Petachi or what Kim Basinger does with the character, but there’s nothing particularly all that bad about it either. She’s pretty much just there. However, I like Basinger in films outside Never Say Never Again which is enough to keep her from the bottom.
I like Denise Richards, but she is best in the bitchy role (see Wild Things) and that is not Christmas Jones. On top of that, I was disappointed in several of her reads, and reciting technical gobbledy-gook is obviously not her forte. However, like Basinger, I can’t quite put her on the bottom either.
So, it’s Tanya Roberts’ Stacey Sutton for me. As has been mentioned, her character is kind of plain, particularly away from the Chateau de Chantilly. The wardrobe department gave her the most basic costumes to wear which other than a brief bit of nightie-wearing did little to show off her sex appeal (which was the main reason she was cast in the first place!) And her line readings left something to be desired–nowhere was this more evident than during the city hall fire sequence. Having said all that, I will add that director John Glen commended her for attitude, bravery, and professionalism in having to deal with all the heat and fire going on around her in the scene, so I appreciate that and refuse to be too hard on her, but, nevertheless, she’s my least favorite Bond girl.
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