I like the way Agent XXX/Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) was introduced in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Instead of showing the agent on a mission, in the thick of it, they use the bait-and-switch strategy to make the audience think that the USSR’s “best agent,” according to General Gogol (Walter Gotell), is not much different from James Bond: a man on a mission, bedding a beauty and ready to answer their country’s call.

But no – here that “best agent” is the woman in this bedroom. She’s on leave with her lover, another agent Sergei Barsov (Michael Billington), and XXX’s true identity isn’t known until Barsov leaves the bed and XXX moves to answer the call from the jewelry box. It’s cool camerawork how XXX’s female identity is emphasized as much with a subtle zoom-in. I do think the audience could have done without the camerawork leading up to this part, however, mainly the shots of Barsov’s chest rug and his gross back hair. Yuck.