Diamonds Are Forever

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Diamonds Are Forever
Bond:	Sean Connery
Writer:	Ian Fleming
Screenplay:	Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz
Director:	Guy Hamilton
Music:	John Barry
Video:	See the Music Video
Composer:	John Barry Don Black
Performer:	Shirley Bassey
Distributor:	United Artists
Released:	December 17, 1971
Runtime:	125 min.
Preceded by:	On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Followed by:	Live and Let Die
Budget:	$7,200,000
Worldgross:	$116,000,000
Admissions:	70.3 million

Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh film in the EON Productions James Bond series. It was the sixth and final film in the series to star Sean Connery as British Secret Service Agent, Commander James Bond. Connery would later portray Bond again in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again in 1983 and lend his voice for Bond in the 2005 video game adaptation of From Russia with Love.

Loosely based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli and released in 1971. It was the second of four films to be directed by Guy Hamilton.

Plot summary

Relatively little of the original novel survives the adaptation to film, though many characters from the original book, plus the idea of Tiffany being a diamond smuggler, are retained, so it isn't a complete "rewrite."

The movie begins with Bond's worldwide pursuit of the head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in revenge for the murder of his wife, Tracy Bond with the implied permission of MI6, at the end of the previous adventure, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Cornering Blofeld in an underground lab where the villain is in the process of creating duplicates of himself (via a form of plastic surgery), Bond throws Blofeld into a vat of superheated mud. "Welcome to Hell, Blofeld," he quips.

Meanwhile, huge quantities of South African diamonds are being stolen but have not been sold on the market. Suspecting that the stones are being stockpiled to inflate prices, the Government orders Bond to assume the identity of a professional diamond smuggler called Peter Franks to infiltrate the smuggling operation and find out who the stockpilers are.

With the help of fellow smuggler Tiffany Case, and amidst the bright lights of Las Vegas, he uncovers a plot by Blofeld (who didn't die in the cave; Bond had killed another duplicate instead) to create a laser satellite capable of destroying any target on Earth. He uses this weapon to selectively destroy nuclear installations in America, Russia, and China, setting up an international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder.

A notable part of the plot of the movie involves Blofeld's use of the industrial properties of a recluse Nevada multimillionaire (played by Jimmy Dean) by the name of Willard Whyte, the character being a thinly veiled version of Howard Hughes.

The film features a very unusual couple of henchmen: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. There is a strong suggestion that they are involved in more than just a professional relationship; they appear to be homosexual, although the film never explicitly makes that clear. Throughout the film, they use several interesting ways of assassinating their victims, from the use of a scorpion to kill a South African dentist, tying the feet of Plenty O'Toole to a metal plate and drowning her in a swimming pool, and attempting to incinerate James Bond alive in a crematorium furnace.

Also memorable are the female guards placed by Blofeld over Willard Whyte, named Bambi and Thumper.

Cast & characters

File:Connery4.jpg

Sean Connery as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever

• James Bond — Sean Connery
• M — Bernard Lee
• Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell
• Q — Desmond Llewelyn
• Felix Leiter — Norman Burton
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld — Charles Gray
• Tiffany Case — Jill St. John
• Willard Whyte — Jimmy Dean
• Mr. Wint — Bruce Glover
• Mr. Kidd — Putter Smith
• Plenty O'Toole; Lana Wood
• Bert Saxby — Bruce Cabot
• Sir Donald Munger — Laurence Naismith

The women of Diamonds Are Forever

Picture	Name	Actress
100px	Tiffany Case	Jill St. John	The aptly named Tiffany Case is the lead Bond girl of "Diamonds Are Forever". Jill St. John was originally slated to play Plenty O'Toole until the producers thought that St. John was "too much of an actress" for the role of Plenty. Tiffany was so named because she was born on the third floor of the world-renown jewelry store of the same name when her mother was shopping for a wedding ring. In the movie, Tiffany, "like any sensible animal", allies with whichever side that seems convenient at the moment. In the end, as Fiona Volpe might comment, she "repents" and return to the side of right and virtue.
100px	Plenty O'Toole	Lana Wood	Plenty O'Toole is another of the (suggestively named) Bond girls who appeared in the scenario only to exit it a few minutes later. Lana Wood, in a memoir she wrote after the death of her sister Natalie Wood, credited her appearance in Playboy Magazine for her being casted as Plenty O'Toole. She also had an affair with co-star Sean Connery on the set. Most of Plenty's scenes ended up on the cutting floor, two of which were included on the Special Edition DVD. The first scene was of her having dinner with Bond, the second was of her sneaking back to the hotel room (after being thrown out the window and into a swimming pool) seeing Bond and Tiffany together, and looking up Tiffany's address from her purse (which explained how she knew where Tiffany lived).
100px	Bambi	Lola Larson	Although not a real Bond girl per se, Bambi forms one-half of the female duo who guards Willard Whyte; the two remains to this day one of the best remembered henchwomen of Bond villains. For years, Donna Garrett was credited with playing Bambi, for she appeared (and credited) in the film's trailers. But it was gymnast Lola Larson who actually ended up in the movie playing the role.
100px	Thumper	Trina Parks	Thumper is the other half of the female duo that guards Willard Whyte. Trina Parks thought it was interesting to have a combat form styled after rhythmic gymnastics and dance, thus she choreographed many of her own moves in the movie. The role of Thumper, like Bambi, was credited in a trailer for the film, and but went uncredited in the film itself.
100px	Marie	Denise Perrier	Marie is the trendy jetsetter that Bond confronted in Egypt and coerced from her the whereabouts of Blofeld. It is memorable in which Bond rips the top of her bikini off and choked her with it after a quick one liner saying, "Yes, as a matter of fact there is. There is something I want you to get off your chest". It is interesting that the brief flash of nudity was not edited out of network TV airings of the film.

Crew

• Directed by: Guy Hamilton
• Written by: Ian Fleming
• Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Composed by: John Barry
• Cinematography by: Ted Moore
• Production design by: Ken Adam
• Set decoration by: Peter Lamont

Soundtrack

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Diamonds Are Forever
Artist	John Barry
Background	gainsboro
Released	1971
Recorded	October 1971
Genre
Length
Label	EMI
Producer	Frank Collura (Reissue)
This album	Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Artist	James Bond soundtrack
Last album	On Her Majesty's Secret|Service (1969)
Next album	Live and Let Die (1973)

"Diamonds Are Forever", the title song, was the second James Bond theme to be performed by Shirley Bassey, after "Goldfinger" in 1964. Bassey would later return for a third performance for 1979's "Moonraker." The title song was later sampled by Chicago rapper Kanye West for a single titled "Diamonds from Sierra Leone."

The original soundtrack was once again composed by John Barry. This was his sixth time composing for a James Bond film.

Track listing

1. Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title) - Shirley Bassey
2. Bond Meets Bambi And Thumper
3. Moon Buggy Ride
4. Circus, Circus
5. Death At The Whyte House
6. Diamonds Are Forever (Source Instrumental)
7. Diamonds Are Forever (Bond And Tiffany)
8. Bond Smells A Rat
9. Tiffany Case
10. 007 And Counting
11. Q's Trick
12. To Hell With Blofeld
13. Gunbarrel and Manhunt
14. Mr.Wint and Mr.Kidd/Bond To Holland
15. Peter Franks
16. Airport Source/On The Road
17. Slumber, Inc.
18. The Whyte House
19. Plenty, Then Tiffany
20. Following The Diamonds
21. Additional and Alternate Cues

Vehicles & gadgets

• Pocket snap trap — A small gadget hidden in a pocket to give a person performing an unwanted search on the wielder a painful surprise that would provide a critical distraction for the wielder to exploit for an attack.
• 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 — Tiffany Case picks up Bond after eluding some henchmen.
• Moon buggy — Used by Bond to escape from the laboratory.
• Fake Fingerprint — Bond uses a fake fingerprint that clings to his thumb to trick Tiffany Case into believing he is Peter Franks.
• Slot Machine Ring — Q created a ring that when used ensures a jackpot at the slot machines every time.
• Grappling braces — When Bond rides on top of the elevator to the suite of Willard Whyte he uses for the last leg of this trip the rappelling cord built into his braces. (A similar gadget is the belt used in GoldenEye.) Bond uses a special gun to fire the pitons needed to rappel, and later demonstrates that this can also be a deadly weapon.

Locations

Film locations

• Japan and Cairo - feature in pre-credits sequence
• London, United Kingdom
• South Africa - Bond is not shown there, but part of the story involving Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd takes place there.
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Los Angeles, California, United States
• Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
• Baja California, Mexico

Shooting locations

• Pinewood Studios — London
• Germany
• Netherlands
• France
• Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
• Los Angeles, California, United States
• Palm Springs, California, United States - Bond, Thumper and Bambi scene.

Trivia

• According to the 'making of' documentary on the DVD the series producers originally intended Diamonds Are Forever as an extensive reboot of the Bond franchise to appeal to an American audience.

• It was originally proposed for the previous film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, to end before it does in its book form. The film would end with Bond and Tracy driving off after their wedding, and then the already-filmed sequence of Bond and Tracy pulling over, only to be shot at by Blofeld and Irma Bunt, would provide the pre-title sequence for Diamonds Are Forever. The idea was dropped prior to the theatrical release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service because George Lazenby had already announced he would not be returning to the role for the next film.

• John Gavin, an American actor who had played Sam Loomis in Psycho for Alfred Hitchcock amongst many other credits, was originally cast as Bond. However, United Artists' chief David Picker was unhappy with this decision and made it clear that Sean Connery should be enticed back to the role and that money was, essentially, no object. When approached about resuming the role of Bond Sean Connery demanded the fee of £1.2 million (then $2 million, and over $20m inflation adjusted for 2005) and that UA agree to back two films of his choice. Both demands were met and Connery used part of the fee to establish, in collaboration with the Scots racing driver Jackie Stewart, a charity to help deprived children in Edinburgh. Gavin's contract was quietly bought out by UA. The first film made under Connery's deal was The Offence directed by his friend Sidney Lumet. The second was to be an adaptation of Macbeth by William Shakespeare using only Scottish actors and in which Connery himself would play the title role. This project was abandoned due to the Roman Polański film version that was also in production at the same time. Sean Connery never played Macbeth on film, although his son Jason Connery later did.

• Albert R. Broccoli claimed to have literally dreamed up the plot for this film. A close friend of Howard Hughes, Broccoli dreamed that Hughes had been replaced by an imposter.
• The exterior for the Whyte House Hotel is the Las Vegas Hilton (then called the International Hotel).

• Two villains in the Cartoon Network's animated series Codename: Kids Next Door, Mr. Fibb and Mr. Wink, are spoofs of Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint.

• Sammy Davis Jr.'s brief cameo appearance was cut from the theatrical release. It would later be restored on the DVD. A still photo of him can be seen in the program Bond reads when he notices Shady Tree has a stage show.

• Scenes also cut from the theatrical release include a wet, towel clad Plenty O' Toole sneaking back into Bond's hotel room and searching through Tiffany Case's purse, and Plenty breaking into Tiffany's house.

• The climax of the film was changed several times during pre-production. Early drafts included a boat chase on Lake Mead that ended with Blofeld getting trapped above Hoover Dam. When the climax was relocated to an oil rig, the original ending had Bond pursue Blofeld who was trying to escape in his mini submarine. They both would have ended up fighting each other in a salt mine.

• The woman in the bikini named "Marie", who in the beginning of the film is "convinced" by Bond to give up the location of Blofeld, was Denise Perrier, Miss World 1953.

• The expletives "God damn" and "bitch" are heard in dialogue, marking the first use of adult language in a Bond film (previous films never used words stronger than "damn" or "hell"). The film still retained its PG rating in the USA, though.

• This was the second time in which Lana Wood's character was sent out of a window. In the film The Searchers, where Lana played the young version of her older sister Natalie Wood's character, she is sent out of a window to escape being killed by rampaging Indians. In this film, Lana's character, Plenty O'Toole, is thrown almost completely naked out of a window to what was supposed to be her death, but survived, albeit temporarily, by landing in the pool.

• The filmmakers must have had some sort of arrangement to use Ford vehicles. Besides Tiffany's Mustang, Blofeld's chief scientist drives a Ford Econoline van, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd drive a Ford Thunderbird, and in the moon buggy chase the security guards are driving Ford Custon 500s. About the only non-Ford vehicles that appears in the scenes shot in America is Blofeld's Mercedes limousine, along with a Plymouth Fury III (used by CIA agents where 007 is sitting in a parked Galaxie 500 sedan).

• The distinctive round house where Willard Whyte was being held prisoner and where Bond fought Bambi and Thumper, supposedly just outside Las Vegas, is actually located in Palm Springs, California.

External links

• MGM Official website