The Greatest
James Bond Girls



Moonraker (1979)


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Greatest Bond Girls in James Bond Films
Title Screen
Film Title/Year/Director, Bond Girl (Actress)
Screenshots

Moonraker (1979)
d. Lewis Gilbert

Corinne Dufour (Corinne Clery)

Bond (Moore) was introduced to pretty Corinne Dufour when she piloted the helicopter that transported him from the Los Angeles Airport to her boss' estate and complex in the desert - Drax Indusries.

Bond was investigating the mysterious disappearance of a Moonraker space shuttle, built by the cultured billionaire villain Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) for the US government. Bond quipped to her, with a personal compliment: "He seems to have an eye for a good investment."

During his first night at Drax's mansion, he visited Corinne's bedroom (she was wearing silky lingerie), where she observed: "My mother gave me a list of things not to do on a first date." 007 replied: "Maybe you won't need it. It's not what I came for." He asked for information about Drax's operations, to her surprise, but then kissed her.

As they sat together on her bed, she explained how everyone had been working on something "very secret" but everything had been moved to an unknown location. She reclined back, and Bond kissed her again, after asking: "What about that list of your mother's?" She encouragingly replied: "I never learned to read."

After love-making, she followed Bond into Drax's study, where she inadvertently aided Bond in his investigations by revealing Drax's safe location after glancing in its direction. She watched as he cracked the safe and took photographs of classified documents and blueprints.

The next morning, after Corinne's assistance to Bond in the study and her betrayal were reported by henchman Chang (Toshiro Suga), Drax terminated her employment immediately - and then she was mauled by Drax's two ferocious hunting doberman pinschers when they were unleashed by Chang as she fled on foot through the woods.





Moonraker (1979)

Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles)

With the unlikely name Dr. Holly Goodhead, this smart Bond girl (a graduate of Vassar College with a PhD. degree) first met Bond at Drax Industries in Southern California. When Bond (Moore) first came up to her, he asked for "Dr. Goodhead" and was astonished to find an attractive woman ("A woman") - she replied: "Your powers of observation do you credit, Mr. Bond."

She was a NASA-trained astrophysicist and astronaut, and a battle of wits ensued when she took an instant dislike to the chauvinistic and sexist agent. He was very wary of her after he was almost killed in a sabotaged, runaway centrifuge machine that she had invited him to try.

The next time he encountered her was in Venice, Italy, outside the Venini Glass Works factory/museum, owned by Drax Industries since 1965. When he came upon her, she berated him ("I dislike being spied on"). He knew the location of her hotel ("I like to keep abreast of things"), and claimed he was impressed when she said she was addressing a seminar of the European Space Commission: "Heady stuff...I keep forgetting that you are more than just a very beautiful woman." But she was offended by his ingratiating attitude and refused his dinner (and drink) invitations.

However, after another Drax assassination attempt on his life, he confronted her in her Venetial hotel bedroom, where he noticed champagne in an ice bucket ("Bollinger. If it's '69, you were expecting me"). He soon suspected she was an agent, noting her hypodermic syringe fountain pen ("Not what I want to get stuck with tonight"), her dart-throwing diary ("fairly deadly diary"), a flame-throwing atomizer ("Trifle overpowering, your scent"), and a radio receiver and aerial concealed within her handbag - all standard CIA-issued equipment.

She had been planted as a undercover agent into villainous megalomaniac Hugo Drax's (Michael Lonsdale) organization in SoCal. He astutely noted: "I have friends in low places" - a reference to his association with CIA agent Felix Leiter from previous films. She suggested working with him to investigate the hijacking of the Moonraker space shuttle: "Could this possibly be the moment for us to pool our resources?" - and they kissed for the first time. He agreed: "We'd be better off working together. Detente?" And then they sank down onto her bed to consummate their new alliance with a romantic truce. Bond snuck away before she awakened.

They next encountered each other in Rio - he regarded their relationship as "chilly since Venice," although she claimed he walked out on her after their one-night stand. He suggested that they team up and work together properly: "Why waste time working against each other?" - and he briefed her on his findings about Drax's air freight business and empty warehouse in the city - it was obvious that Drax was "moving out." They still shared a mutual distrust of each other (Bond: "That's what makes it more exciting, doesn't it?").

Both were involved in a life-and-death struggle with Drax's new henchman Jaws (Richard Kiel) during a cable-car ride to Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio. Afterwards, Holly kissed Bond to reward him for saving her life, and he was appreciative: "Remind me to do it more often." But their kissing was interrupted when they were taken captive in a fake ambulance. Bond escaped from one of Drax's henchmen, but Holly remained a prisoner.

They eventually became paired up again as prisoners at Drax's mission-control Moonraker launch headquarters hidden in an ancient temple in the Brazilian-Amazonian jungle. She piloted Moonraker 6 (on a pre-arranged flight program) that took them to Drax's secret, opulent space station in outer space.

They teamed up and defeated Drax's genocidal plan (Operation Orchid) to destroy life on Earth with killer globes (filled with deadly nerve gas derived from rare orchids) and to create a "super race" of "perfect human specimens."

Holly ultimately made love to Bond after their final escape from the exploding space station in the last remaining Moonraker 5 space shuttle. They had sex in weightless gravity (seen on a video feed projected to the White House and Buckingham Palace), only draped by a sheet as they nakedly embraced in the film's conclusion (with the accompanying lines):

Minister of Defence Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen): "My God! What's Bond doing?"
"Q" (Desmond Llewelyn): "I think he's attempting reentry, Sir."

Holly also requested more before returning home with the suggestive last lines of the film: "Take me around the world one more time" to which Bond replied: "Why not?"










Moonraker (1979)

Manuela (Emily Bolton)

During his mission, Bond (Moore) flew on an Air France Concorde to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and while on his way from the airport to his hotel, he saw that he was followed by a woman in an open convertible snapping photographs.

After he was lodged in the President's suite, he was attended by the same woman - Manuela (Emily Bolton), who was at the in-room mini-bar fixing him a vodka martini ("Shaken, not stirred").

She identified herself as his field agent contact from Station VH, there to assist him. She knew that the initials C and W (from the crates he had seen in Venice) belonged to a large import company in Rio, a subsidiary of the Drax Group.

He explained how he wanted to pay a "discreet visit" to the warehouse (on Carioca Avenue) that evening, but meanwhile would kill time by having an intimate romantic interlude with her (Bond: "How do you kill five hours in Rio if you don't samba?") - he loosened the waist tie-string on the white gown of his willing Brazilian helper before engaging in a tryst.

Afterwards later that evening, Manuela escorted Bond through a crowd of party-goers at the Rio carnival, on their way to the warehouse. He was forced to rescue the defenseless Manuela (holding up a knife from her handbag) when she was menaced in an alleyway by clown-costumed henchman Jaws (Richard Kiel) who approached for a neck-bite. Jaws was swept away by a group of party revellers before he could retaliate.






Greatest Bond Girls in James Bond Films
(chronological, each Bond film a separate page)
Introduction | Dr. No (1962) | From Russia With Love (1963) | Goldfinger (1964) | Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967) | On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) | Diamonds are Forever (1971) | Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Moonraker (1979) | For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983) | A View to a Kill (1985) | The Living Daylights (1987) | Licence to Kill (1989)
GoldenEye (1995) | Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) | The World is Not Enough (1999) | Die Another Day (2002)
Casino Royale (2006) | Quantum of Solace (2008) | Skyfall (2012) | Spectre (2015) | No Time to Die (2021) | Unofficial Never Say Never Again (1983)

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