In ‘Live and Let Die’ James Bond (Roger Moore) arrived to New York, USA. After landing, he left the airport and got into the car waiting for him. While driving, he received a call from Felix Leiter from the CIA. On a multi-lane road in Manhattan, a white Cadillac approached the car carrying agent 007 and fired a fatal shot. Bond’s chauffeur died, and 007 had difficulty controlling the driverless car.

New York scenes were the last shot for the film. It was March 1973, less than 3 months before the premiere, when the film crew arrived to NYC.

The car chase was filmed on East River Drive on Sunday, when street closures caused the least disruption. The day they were filming the car chase, the management from United Artists came to the film set to see how the film was made. Director Guy Hamilton told them: ‘You won’t really see anything. Why don’t you ride in one of the cars?’. He made sure they were in the car that would be bashed and they didn’t know about it. He later recalled with laughter that they were pale when they got out of the car.

The location of Leiter’s headquarters was shown in a short establishing shot filmed from South Street looking into Wall Street.

The car crashed at East River Drive near the Manhattan bridge.

James Bond took a taxi to the ‘Oh Cult Voodoo Shop’. Through its back room he entered the underground garage, where he found the white Cadillac in which the killer had previously driven. Suddenly, a group of people entered the garage, including Solitaire (Jane Seymour) and Tee Hee Johnson (Julius Harris). Bond secretly watched them get into the car and drive to the elevator. A moment later, he ran out into the street and hailed a taxi, which he followed after the departing car. The route led through Central Park to the ‘Fillet of Soul’ restaurant in Harlem.

The shop was filmed at 33 East 65th Street in New York. For 50 years this film location has not changed much.

The villains car drove out of the gate next to the store at 33 East 65th Street. Behind the gate there is actually a garage where the movie scenes were filmed.

Bond entered the garage through the door which now reads: ELEVATOR MOTOR ROOM”. As you can see in the photos below, the interior of the garages looks almost identical to what it looked like 50 years ago. To enter the garage you still have to use the elevator.

The ‘Fillet of Soul’ restaurant that Bond went to in the film, was located at Lenox Avenue in Harlem. In reality the fake facade of the restaurant was built for filming at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 94th Street. The fight scene in Harlem was shot at 118th Street.

Thank you James H. for showing me the film location.

Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘LIVE AND LET DIE’ to see locations photos compared with movie scenes.

More photos from New York: