The Greatest
James Bond Girls



For Your Eyes Only (1981)



See also Greatest Film Series Franchises: James Bond Films (illustrated)

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

For Your Eyes Only (1981)
d. John Glen

Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet)

In the pre-title credits sequence, a British spy ship disguised as a trawler, the St. Georges, sank near Albania, with a nuclear submarine control system (ATAC) onboard.

Melina Havelock was a strong-willed Greek marine biologist who watched as her parents were gunned down on her father's yacht Triania at Corfu (Greece) by one of the film's evil henchman Hector Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha), when her father marine archaeologist Sir Timothy Havelock (Jack Hedley) was investigating and filing a report on the location of the wreck for the British. She played an icy, unsmiling, often staring, determined avenging angelic figure, on a mission to seek revenge for her parents' murder with a crossbow.

She first met Bond (Moore) shortly after tracking down Gonzales, poolside at his Spanish villa, and murdering him with an arrow from her crossbow as he dove into the pool. She helped Bond escape from Gonzales' guards in her Citroen 2CV after his Lotus Espirit exploded, and they successfully disabled two larger vehicles during a pursuit sequence. She claimed she still had "unfinished" business - the murder of the man who paid Gonzales. Bond advised her to give up her vengeful quest: "The Chinese have a saying: 'Before setting out on revenge, you first dig two graves.'" She replied: "I don't expect you to understand. You're English, but I'm half-Greek. And Greek women, like Elektra, always avenge their loved ones."

In the small town of Cortina in Northern Italy, Bond again crossed paths with Melina and rescued her from two black-garbed motorcyclists on Yamaha snow motorbikes. She persistently resisted being sent away by Bond, for her own safety. She argued: "It was my parents they killed, not yours." He urged her to let him handle things, trust him, and return to the Triaina in Corfu and wait. She reluctantly agreed: "I'll go back and wait, but not for long."

Later in the film, he returned to her in Greece, informing her of his findings that led to double-crossing villain Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover): "Kristatos killed your father, because he didn't want him to find the St. Georges before he did." The bad guy's scheme was to sell the ATAC decoder to the Russian KGB in exchange for a huge sum of money.

The two investigated the underwater wreckage site in a two-man submarine (the Neptune) where they found the ATAC undamaged, but Kristatos had caught up with them. He stole back the disarmed and retrieved ATAC and took them captive. He tied them together - Melina told Bond: "I didn't think it would end like this." Bond was more self-assured: "We're not dead yet." They were dragged behind Kristatos' boat over razor-sharp coral through shark-infested waters. Bond was able to effect their escape by severing his rope-bound hands, lashing their pull-rope around a huge coral rock - causing the rope to snap, and then they shared air from a dive-tank that Melina had left earlier at historical ruins on the ocean floor.

As the film ended, she joined Bond (with her deadly crossbow) in an assault on Kristatos' mountain monastery retreat St. Cyril's to prevent the exchange of the ATAC with Russian General Gogol (Walter Gotell), and to kill Kristatos and his henchmen, with the aid of Greek smuggler Columbo (Chaim Topol) and his men. As she was winched up in a basket, Melina used her crossbow to defensively wound one of the alerted armed guards.

Later, Bond dissuaded Melina from killing Kristatos with her weapon ("No Melina, that's not the answer"), but she resisted: "Out of my way, James." He assented but reminded her of a Chinese saying: "All right, but be prepared to dig those two graves." Unnoticed by both of them, Kristatos reached for a switchblade, when Columbo saved them both and threw a knife into Kristatos' back. Bond destroyed the ATAC before it could reach the hands of the Russian General.

Upon Bond's return to the Triaina yacht with Melina that evening, they passionately kissed each other. She asked: "You know what I'd like?...A moonlight swim." They both disrobed - her light blue robe and his white robe dropped to their feet, revealing their nakedness. She uttered: "For your eyes only, darling..." Bond left his Seiko watch/radio transmitter on the parrot's perch (just prior to a patched-in conversation with the British Prime Minister) before taking a skinny-dip moonlight swim with Melina.











For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson) (Pun: "Baby Doll")

Bond was repeatedly distracted by other females during the course of For Your Eyes Only, besides Melina Havelock (see above). Although she was the main Bond girl, she didn't really become romantic with Bond until the closing scene.

In fact, Bond was seduced twice earlier, first by teenaged ice-skater and Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), the protege of the film's main villain and semi-pedophile Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover). She was immediately smitten by Bond after meeting him during one of her practices on the ice.

Shortly later, she emerged towel-wrapped from Bond's hotel shower, seductively entered his bed and removed her towel, vowing: "I'll do anything for you." Flattered but astounded, Bond was smart to politely decline her amorous overtures ("but you're in training"), and told her to get dressed, because her uncle wouldn't approve. [She was reportedly the first and only Bond girl that the 007 agent rejected!]

She claimed her Uncle Ari still thought she was a virgin, and that love-making helped build up muscle tone. Bond promised to buy her an ice-cream after she was dressed. She advanced on Bond and gave him a long smooch and embrace as they left the room.

At the biathlon competition, Bond parted ways with her, advising: "Don't grow up anymore...The opposite sex would never survive it." Slightly later in the film, when she again was dragged away from Bond, she claimed: "I could eat you up alive."



For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Countess Lisl (Cassandra Harris)

A second more appropriate seduction came Bond's way from the "expensive mistress" of Greek smuggler Milos Columbo (Chaim Topol), who later became Bond's ally.

Bond first encountered Austrian Countess Lisl von Schlaf (Cassandra Harris).at the gambling table of a Greek casino - she was shilling for the house and betting with other people's money. After Bond witnessed a slight altercation at the Countess' table with Columbo (a set-up), he followed after her into the casino, and although wary and suspecting a trap, Bond offered to escort her back to her beach-house in Kristatos' borrowed, chauffeured limousine.

There, Lisl made suggestive romantic gestures toward 007. She offered him "champagne and oysters in the fridge. Why not come in for a bite?" Before a roaring fire, wearing only a nightie slipping off her shoulder as she partially exposed her breasts, she admitted that Columbo had wanted her to seduce Bond to learn more about his identity and mission.

The tables were turned when her fake fortune and status as an Austrian countess (she was from Liverpool) were divulged to Bond (Lisl: "My nightie's slippin'." Bond: "So is your accent, Countess"). However, he was obliging and kissed her before a passionate seduction during their one-night affair.

Unfortunately, she only lived until the next morning when she was run-down on the beach by a dune buggy and killed by one of Kristatos' assassins.




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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