(August 2, 1949– ): Voluptuous British actress who portrayed Miss Caruso, the Italian Secret Service agent whom Bond (Roger Moore) beds at the beginning of Live and Let Die. She was the first in a long line of 007 conquests during the Moore years. Roger Moore described their intimate moments in his hysterically funny diary:
A production point that seems to strike first-time visitors to a film studio is that sets built for interior shots rarely have roofs, so that light can blaze in from above. . . . Madeline and I were exposed to the draughts, which whistled around the stage, and the bed was icy. . . .
I bounded and rebounded in and out of bed all morning, my feet freezing with every leap. It would have tarnished Bond’s image to have worn wooly socks, and I envied Madeline, who, although bare from the waist up, could slide under the bed clothes; she squealed every time my cold feet made contact with the knees. . . .
Miss Moneypenny has delivered Bond’s intriguing magnetic timepiece. He embraces the signorina, then, holding the watch magnet near the long back zip on her dress, delicately draws his wrist down the line of her spine without touching her. The metal zip responds and the dress falls to the floor.
“What a gentle touch you have, James,” she whispers.
“Sheer magnetism,” I reply.
It may seem like money for jam pressed close to the beautiful Madeline Smith and taking her clothes off into the bargain, but on the twentieth take, your arm is aching, you’ve got cramp in your left foot, and your right knee is going to sleep. Part of the trouble was that Madeline’s dress just would not fall far enough down. . . . Julie Harris, the costume designer, had to go down on her knees off camera and gently pull the dress down. As the watch is by no means magnetic, [another crew member] was also down there on his knees with his hands up Madeline’s skirt, pulling a hidden wire attached to the end of the zip—so the floor around our feet was getting pretty crowded.[1]
A native of Hartfield, Sussex, England, Smith made her motion picture debut in director Robert G. Amram’s romantic comedy The Mini-Mob (1967), which included fellow Bond players Stuart Saunders (Octopussy), Eric Pohlmann, Bruce Boa, and Milton Reid. Smith had previously worked with Roger Moore on the TV series The Persuaders! (1 episode, 1971).
[1] Roger Moore, The 007 Diaries: Filming “Live and Let Die” (Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: The History Press, 2018), loc. 2356 of 2729, Kindle.
Keep current! Join Our Email List
Keep up to date with our latest and greatest spy movie finds.
"*" indicates required fields