The Spy Who Loved Me poster’s credit changes

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One of the most memorable posters in the history of the James Bond movie series is artist Bob Peak’s artwork for 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. But there were a couple of tweaks in the credits that accompanied that artwork on its way to theaters.

Gary Firuta, a Bond collector, shared with us an image of the original poster. Roger Moore’s billing as Bond is above the title, just as in the final version. Two things caught our eye down toward the bottom. First, there was the billing for Moore’s fellow actors: “Starring CURT JURGENS and Introducing BARBARA BACH.” Then, elsewhere in the credits on the poster, “Assistant to the Producer MIKE WILSON.”

The Starring Jurgens/Introducing Bach order also appeared on the back cover of Christopher Wood’s novelization of the movie. An “introducing” credit is sometimes used for a big role of a relatively new actor. In this case, the then-29-year-old Bach had acting credits dating back to 1968.

A revised poster came out with this billing: “Starring BARBARA BACH and CURT JURGENS as ‘Stromberg.'” That matched the after-the-title billing of the movies main titles.

The “Mike Wilson” credit is also interesting. Wilson, of course, was Michael G. Wilson, the stepson of producer Albert R. Broccoli, who had been deeply involved in legal matters involving Broccoli’s business separation from Harry Saltzman. “Assistant to the Producer” is not often a credit that gets included on movie posters, then or now. One could argue it was understandable; Eon Productions is a family business and Broccoli and Wilson were family. The poster credit was also slightly different than the credit Wilson had in the main titles of the movie: “Special Assistant to Producer MICHAEL WILSON.”

What’s more, production designer Ken Adam, whose credit was included on the posters of You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, wasn’t getting credit on Spy’s poster. Neither did the movie’s associate producer, William P. Cartlidge, who, at least on paper, outranked Wilson. Up until that point, associate producers (Stanley Sopel on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Diamonds Are Forever and Charles Orme on The Man With The Golden Gun) hadn’t gotten credits on Bond movie posters either.

On the other hand, in the movie’s main titles, Wilson shared the screen with eight other crew members, among them art director Peter Lamont. Adam and Cartlidge had the screen to themselves when their credits appeared in the Maurice Binder-designed titles. Thus, it’d be kind of odd for Wilson to get onto the movie poster while Adam and Cartlidge did not.

When the final poster came out, producer Broccoli, director Lewis Gilbert, screenwriters Wood and Richard Maibaum and composer Marvin Hamlisch had credits. Wilson’s name was removed.

We don’t pretend to *know* the inside story. But it is worth noting when the next Bond movie, Moonraker, came out, Wilson (now sporting the title of executive producer), Adam and Cartlidge all got credits on the poster.