A function at the British embassy in East Berlin is gatecrashed by a 00 agent dressed in a clown suit with a mortal wound and a fake Fabergé egg. This prompts a new M, played by Robert Brown, to send 007 to an auction for the genuine article at Sotheby's. He enters a bidding war with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan, played by Louis Jourdan, and trails him to India. Soon, he discovers Kamal's accomplices. First is the renegade Soviet General Orlov, played by Stephen Berkoff, who is stealing Russian treasures and replacing them with forgeries. Second is an all-female group of smugglers led by the mysterious yet familiar Octopussy, played by Maud Adams, who transport the jewels under the guise of a travelling circus. However, the smuggling was only the tip of the iceberg, as Orlov and Khan are about to hatch a plot to destabilise Western Europe and bypass Mutually Assured Destruction.
My greatest issue with this film is what really connects jewel smuggling and terrorists with nukes. I think the writing around it seems rather tenuous. On top of that, the film is a really goofy one. Bond's Indian contact Vijay initially greets Bond by posing as a snake-charmer and playing his leitmotif. There's also a scene where Bond impersonates Tarzan, and later has to infiltrate the circus dressed as a clown.
OK, I'm starting to nitpick a bit. But do the goofy moments wreck the film as they did other films? I'm quite surprised by this, but they don't. Even when Bond is trying to disable a bomb in front of an audience dressed as a clown, there is still the right amount of tension. I don't know how they managed that, but they did.
Overall, it's not the greatest Bond film out there, but it certainly isn't a horrible one. They seemed to get lucky with the balance of goofy and tense.
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