11 Things You Learn Rewatching The Spy Who Loved Me
9. Karl Stromberg Is A Total Bore
It's not terribly surprising that Blofeld was originally intended to be the movie's villain - plans for which were scuppered due to legal issues - considering that eventual baddie Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens) is the most transparent Blofeld stand-in imaginable.
He's just another megalomaniac with too much money, and sadly not particularly interesting even at that. He's got a silly, spider-like underwater base called Atlantis, wantonly kills his dubiously-motivated underlings and is barely even in the movie for the first two acts (leaving the heavy lifting to Jaws).
Jürgens does his best to make Stromberg menacing, but with such little presence or stature on screen, and the fact he dies like a chump while eating dinner, it's hard to see him as anything more than a generic, bland rich old white guy antagonist.
Thankfully the movie's other major villain is decidedly more entertaining...