Well, Look Who’s Back As Bond!
As some of you know, I am reviewing every single James Bond 007 film in order, and after the last film I reviewed, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, Actor George Lazenby bailed out of the role!
So the series was in disarray: Sean Connery bolted after doing the first 5 films, then the “one and done Bond” leaves, and the Producers were desperate for a replacement – and what about this choice?
Here’s some terrific insight:
“Burt Reynolds was the original choice to play Bond in the movie but was unavailable!”
Wow! What if there had been an American Actor playing the British spy with a “license to kill?” Even more interesting is that they then hired this Actor to take over the role:
John Gavin IS James Bond!
After Lazenby quite the series, American actor John Gavin was actually signed to play James Bond in this movie!
He was a rising star and had the rough good looks needed for the part…so what happened? Money!
At the last minute Sean Connery agreed to return as Bond for the sixth time – and
Gavin was out! That said, Producer Albert R. Broccoli insisted that Gavin be paid-out his full salary – even though never shot a scene.
So Connery was back – but how sparkling was his return?
Here is the trailer, which plays up that “he’s back in a new Bond spectacular!”
“Diamonds Are Forever!”
There is much to unpack on this 1971 film, for better and for worse. First, because of Connery’s high fee, the special effects budget for the film was significantly scaled back. You see, Connery was reportedly paid $1,250,000 to return as James Bond, a figure unheard of in those days!
Before I can lay out the plot of “Diamonds Are Forever”, we must go back to the previous installment “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”:
This was the film where 007 got married! In fact, that was to be the end of the movie – the death of Bond’s wife Tracy was originally planned for the opening sequence of “Diamonds Are Forever!”
They ultimately decided to have her death be the devastating end to “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” in order to “tidy up loose ends”.
So the film begins with 007 tracking down Ernst Stavro Blofeld around the world in a series of short scenes where you only hear Bond as he forces various goons to tell him where Blofeld is.
After 007 finds him and kills him to avenge his wife’s murder, we find that Blofeld has created several “look-a-like” stand-ins for himself!
However, Bond kills two of the “alternative Blofelds” and ultimately sends the original into a vat of boiling lava, saying:
“Welcome to hell, Blofeld.”
Blofeld’s cat cries out and we see it is wearing a sparkling diamond necklace, and the opening credits begin with the iconic theme song by “Shirley Bassey!”
Introducing Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd!
We come out of credits to meet these two hit men, who are killing various people who are part of a diamond smuggling pipeline. They are glib, like when they watch a helicopter explode after hiding a bomb inside:
“If god had wanted man to fly Mr Wint…”
“He would have given him wings Mr Kidd” – and they walk off holding hands!
In the film, it is heavily implied that Wint and Kidd are gay, and possibly lovers. In this scene, they are shown holding hands. In another, Kidd comments that diamond smuggler Tiffany Case is very attractive “for a lady”.
And speaking of Tiffany Case:
Meet 007’s First American “Bond Girl!”
That’s right, Jill St. John plays Tiffany Case, who is overseeing the transfer of these diamonds to Las Vegas, and Bond pretends to be the go-between. Of course she beds him – and when the real go-between shows up, there is a terrific fight in an elevator. According to trivia, in one take of the brutal fight Connery’s hairpiece is accidentally pulled off!
Bond ends up following the diamonds to Las Vegas – although the words “Las Vegas” are never uttered in the film – and we learn about the reclusive Willard Whyte who lives in “The Whyte House.”
What’s interesting is that Singer Jimmy Dean, who would go on to make a fortune selling Jimmy Dean sausage in grocery stores, stars as Whyte – but we won’t meet him until later in the film.
Willard Whyte is obviously based on Howard Hughes. Hughes, it turns out, allowed them to film inside his casinos and at his other properties. His fee was reputed to be one 16mm print of the film!
There is a nice little scene where 007 is burned alive inside a coffin – until they realize he still has the diamonds, and Jill St. John does a great job leading Bond on as they try to get back the diamonds he’s taken.
The is only one other “Bond Girl” is the film – and she has the most salacious name ever, which results in a noticeable shot of nudity as well.
Bond is playing craps when he meets her….here’s the introduction:
“I’m Plenty. Plenty O ‘Toole.”
007: “Named after your father I presume.”
Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister, is stunning in the film, and she joins Bond back in his room, where three goons are waiting:
Even though they are 15 stories up, she is tossed out the window and into the hotel pool, wearing only panties and high heels…007 looks down and says “nice aim.”
The Mobster looks down as well and replies: “I didn’t know there was a pool down there.”
While it’s great to see vintage Las Vegas in the film, remember when I said the high cost for Connery led them to cut back on locations? They shoot virtually the entire film there!
There’s a well done car chase through downtown Vegas at night, with an improbable ending stunt as Bond maneuvers through an alley this way:
It’s not much of a plot actually: Bond continues to hang out with Tiffany Case as he slowly finds out who is smuggling the diamonds, and we meet two bodyguards for Whyte called Bambi and Thumper who 007 must fight off in order to get Whyte.
It turns out that Whyte was kidnapped and Blofeld is using his aerospace facility to make a satellite! Yes, Blofeld is still alive!
Now, to one of the film’s most notorious scenes, when “Plenty O’ Toole” is shown at the bottom of a swimming pool, wearing a very see-through dress.
During the filming of the scene, Lana Wood actually had her feet tied (albeit loosely) to a cement block on the bottom. Film crew members held a rope across the pool for her, with which she could lift her face out of the water to breathe between takes. Unfortunately, like most pools, this one had a sloping bottom, and the block was slipping into deeper water with each take.
Eventually it reached a depth from which she could no longer get her face out of the water. Alert film crew members noticed this, and quickly jumped into the water to untie her feet, thus saving her from drowning for real!
For one sequence where 007 sneaks into a massive space facility in the desert, Bond escapes through a moon landing “movie set” by driving off in the landing vehicle – according to trivia, this scene is having fun with a popular conspiracy theory of the time that the real moon landings were faked.
The finale of the film takes place on an oil rig out in the Pacific Ocean. Here’s a fun fact: “Instead of building their own oil rig, the production team hired a semi-portable one for $40,000 a day, customized it and then towed it to a location off the Southern California coast.”
Bond discovers that Blofeld was behind the entire plan to use the diamonds to create a high powered laser beam from space – and Bond finally exacts his deadly revenge against him!
The film ends with one more appearance by the gay hit men, who Bond dispatches in a somewhat humorous way.
Oh, and here’s why they killed off Blofeld – more great trivia:
“This was the last Bond movie to use SPECTRE or Blofeld. After this, writer Kevin McClory’s legal claim against the Ian Fleming estate that he, and not Fleming, had created the organization for the novel “Thunderball” was upheld by the courts. Blofeld is seen but not identified later in For Your Eyes Only (1981), as arrangements with the Fleming estate do not permit them to use McClory’s works.“
More on the McClory issue in my review of “Thunderball” below.
After the previous installments, this had the feel of 007 “sleepwalking” through the movie. We saw one scene with M, Miss Moneypenny and Q – but for the most part Connery looked a bit disinterested, and the plot is pretty thin.
“Diamonds Are Forever” is easy to watch but takes its time not going anywhere much – and there’s absolutely so suspense or danger – and a few of 007’s quips are the worst ever uttered by the character.
But it didn’t matter. The public was eager to have Sean Connery back, and the film broke Hollywood’s three-day box office gross record when released.
It ended up grossing more than $115 million dollars….Bond was definitely back – but once again, Connery wasn’t – that’s right, he walked away with this money, not to return!
So after the box office success of “Diamonds”, the Producers would have to introduce a new 007 all over again, and this time they went British:
Roger Moore was about to take over the role – and my review of “Live And Let Die” is next!
As I said, I am reviewing the 007 films in order, and before Connery returned to the role, we had the “one and done” Bond – see my review here:
The “one and done 007” George Lazenby film was one of the best Bonds of all time, and it all happened because Sean Connery left the series!
“You Only Live Twice” was the end of Connery until “Diamonds” – here’s my review of that film and details of “The Rock’s” connection to 007!
As you know, I am reviewing all the Bond films in order, and prior to Connery’s departure after “You Only Live Twice”, 007 had his most explosive outing ever!
It was bigger and bolder than any Bond film – but it’s also at the heart of the 007 / Kevin McClory legal battles.
Click here for my review of “Thunderball”:
It was never going to be easy to top the record-breaking success of “Goldfinger” – the fastest grossing film of its time!
It was a film where it all came together perfectly – see my review here:
“Goldfinger” was the third in the Bond series – I also looked at the sophomore effort from 007:
“From Russia With Love” gave James Bond a worthy adversary – the incredible Robert Shaw!
See why this is a terrific entry in the series by clicking on my review here:
The story of 007 got its start with this one first entry, chosen instead of the legally entailed “Thunderball”:
Click here to see my review of “the birth of Bond!”
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Categories: 70's Cinema, 70's Music, Action Films, Cult Movies, Film Fight Club, Movies, Pop Culture, Revenge Movies, Talent/Celebrities
johnrieber 
This was a great film, and to me, Sean Connery IS James Bond, and noone else.
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Thank you for another great post on the next 007 movie. It’s a walk down memory lane (love that ‘sideways’ car driving down the alley) and the inside scoop on what happened behind the scenes. Looking forward to the next movie!
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Burt Reynolds. Oh, my. I’m not sure about that one. Good thing Sean Connery came back. I suspect you’ve written this and my poor reading is getting in the way, but if you were re-watching just one of Sean Connery’s 007 versions, which would you choose? Great series John. I love these walks down memory lane.
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Great question. I will say that my review for the first 4 were all great, and for a first-timer, probably “Thunderball” because it’s so big and bold…”Goldfinger” is loved because of how it blew up the franchise as the biggest grossing film of that time…he became an Icon after that one….I was “damning with faint praise” on my “Diamonds” review because, while I loved it as a kid, you can see him not trying very hard…it’s fun to go and re-watched every single one in order to see the subtle and not-so-subtle changes…now onto Moore!
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Yeah, I should probably go back and watch all of them. It is interesting watching Connery … you can definitely see when he loves his material and when he’s not as much of a fan. Love the stories behind the story.
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My first Bond exposure was as a young kid taken to a second-run double feature – my sisters were forced to take me…I was hooked on Connery – so going back now and watching them in order, one every 4-5 days, has really exposed some of the tropes and as you say, his lessening interest in the character…thanks for the comment, much appreciated!
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When he is on though, he’s amazing. I happened to stumble across the Untouchables a few weeks ago. I was reminded how he stole the show. His lines about the Chicago way . . . so memorable. Ha, ha.
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I did enjoy this film and honestly the behind the scenes drama and machinations only kick it up a huge notch
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Not a Bond fan as you know, but I could watch Lana Wood all day!
Burt Reynolds would have been an awful choice as Bond, totally wrong in character.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Lana Wood is superb…..chuq
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She sure was – two of the most memorable scenes in the film!
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My favourite Bond is Daniel Craig.
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And you have just started one of the most debated arguments online! That’s one reason I am reviewing the films in order, to see how the character changed over time!
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Lol! It’s those little blue shorts that did it for me…
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