ROBERT COTTON Stromberg is the first of the Roger Moore Sci-Fi villains. A rewrite of Blofeld Mark 1 in a rewrite of YOLT. Manages a level of menace from his first scene on and truly deserves his unpleasant end. I'm constantly surprised that people find Bond's removal of Professor Dent in Dr. No more disturbing than Bond's dispatching of Stromberg in this film. Talk about no mercy ... If only Bond had said "the first shot won't kill you." Jaws is the ultimate extension of the OddJob scenario. In the end, he even manages to survive into the next film. Quite an accomplishment. Other than the obvious shark reference, Jaws (specifically in this film) is by far the most menacing henchman in the later films. It isn't until the desert fight that he begins to fall into comic book villainy. Naomi. Ah, well. If only they were brains ... BILL KOENIG Curt Jurgens was another wonderful character actor who, as director Lewis Gilbert noted, could speak and act in multiple languages. Arguably, he´s the best of the “fantastic’ villains since Goldfinger. The same applies to Richard Kiel as Jaws (in the physical villain category). This is a case of Eon finally getting around to checking out television villains from a decade earlier. Kiel had been in “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ “I Spy,’ and “The Wild, Wild West.’ JAMES McMAHON Karl Stromberg - Another wanna-be Goldfinger retread, two dimensional and cardboard.  We never really feel any sense of purpose or emotion from him.  But I gotta hand it to him, when he captured the beautiful Major Anya Amasova, the first thing he did was put her into a low cut catsuit, which he'd somehow had on hand ahead of time.  Hmmm.  Dr. Evil would do the same thing decades later when he captured Vanessa Kensington.    Jaws - A macabre concept for a killer, and very much in the style of Ian Fleming's novels, yet somehow Jaws has always come across as a lightweight, never threatening or scary.  And that relegates him to comic relief territory, and that's a shame.  This was a good idea, gone horrible, Roger-Moore-era, wrong. DEBORAH LIPP The scheme is, of course, a retread of YOLT; the first utterly unoriginal scheme in the series. Curt Jurgens does a perfectly acceptable job, but the character is lackluster; that he is a late addition to the script is painfully clear. Jaws is truly one of the greatest. Although he has comedic qualities, he is genuinely scary and fully threatening; the best 'bizarre' henchman since Jaws. There's a weak villain, and secondary henchmen who are either bland (Sandor) or more along the line of a femme fatale (Naomi); it is Jaws who really gives this movie its personality.

ED WERNER Now we have yet another fairly accomplished actor in Curt Jurgens, playing the roll of Bond villain Karl Stromberg. Again, there is really no physical match between Bond and Stromberg, so from the onset, you know that there isn't going to be a fight to the finish between these two men. Not only is he not in the least bit intimidating, he also has webs between his fingers. Basically, Stromberg doesn't do much except have the Bond girl tied up on his funky looking chair, dispatch an anatomical freak (Jaws) against his enemies and blow some people up with a missile. OK, so he also is going to bring the world to the brink of destruction by capturing U.S. and Russian subs, then have them fire their nuclear missiles at one another, prompting Armageddon, etc. However, he is one of the most forgettable villains in the series. TOM ZIELINSKI Karl Stromberg - A bit of a generic if not forgettable villain, this megalomaniac's plot is to spark WW III in hopes of starting an under-the-sea utopia.  Here's an idea Karl, take a long walk off your weirdly-designed Atlantis and leave the rest of us alone.  That the film is a re-make of You Only Live Twice ("Vee are now…impregnable…") doesn't help, as even Donald Pleasance has more charisma.  Curt Jurgens is OK I guess, but Stromberg himself deserves nothing more than a middle-of-the-road grade for a middle-of-the-road villain. Jaws - As much as I dislike this character, it is undeniable that Richard Kiel brought presence and some danger to the role in this film.  Not yet entirely played for laughs, Jaws' huge stature and steel teeth are memorable.  I didn't care much for the vampire-like biting of necks though, and I wish the character had died at the end of this film as originally written. PAUL BAACK On paper, it seems so classic: the great German actor Curt Jurgens as one of the more... deranged... Bond villains; an icthiophile complete with webbed fingers, no less; motivated to destroy the world by dint of messianic zeal, rather than the boring old profit motive. Unfortunately, the viewer need sharp eyes to spot all the cool, but very small details that would go to making him an interesting character. "NOW you are beautiful," he says to a tied-up Anya Amosova, indicating that that's how he apparently likes his women. Which would be interesting, except that's the first and last hint of any aberrant sexuality -- usually de rigueur for a Bond baddie. The upshot is a Bond Villain who doesn't really do anything really villainous. Oh, sure, he wants to destroy the world, but that's such an abstract concept to begin with, that when coupled with the lighthearted atmosphere of a Roger Moore 007 picture, it has no real meaning. Bottom line: Karl Stromberg comes across as more of a genteel grump than the really, really bad guy he could have been, especially as played by the physically imposing Jurgens. Jaws, of course, gets most of our attention. The problem is, after starting out as really scary (hell, he rips people's throats out with those steel chompers of his,) he's reduced to a cartoony buffoon halfway through the show. He's too goofy to be a real threat anymore, and the filmmakers can't even bring themselves to kill him off at the end. Richard Kiel was a real find, casting-wise, but EON hedged their bets too much, in an apparent attempt to create the first kid-friendly Bond film character. Milton Reid's "Sandor" character seems to have wandered in from a 1940s Republic serial, and not given much to do until Roger Moore pitches him off a rooftop.

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