| Diamonds Are Forever | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byRobert McGinnis | |
| Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
| Screenplay by | Richard Maibaum Tom Mankiewicz |
| Based on | Diamonds Are Forever byIan Fleming |
| Produced by | Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ted Moore |
| Edited by | Bert Bates John Holmes |
| Music by | John Barry |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom[1] United States[2] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7.2 million[3] |
| Box office | $116 million[3] |
Diamonds Are Forever is a 1971spy film and the seventh film in theJames Bond series produced byEon Productions. It is the sixth and final Eon film to starSean Connery, who returned to the role as the fictionalMI6 agentJames Bond, having declined to reprise the role inOn Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).
The film is based onIan Fleming's1956 novel and is the second of four Bond films directed byGuy Hamilton. The story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a smuggling ring and uncovering a plot by his old enemyErnst Stavro Blofeld to use the diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon. Bond sets out to stop the smuggling but discovers he must defeat Blofeld before he destroysWashington, D.C., in his plan to blackmail the world with nuclear supremacy.
AfterGeorge Lazenby left the series, the producersHarry Saltzman andAlbert R. Broccoli tested other actors, but the studioUnited Artists wanted Connery back, paying a then-record US$1.25 million salary for him to return. The producers were inspired byGoldfinger; as with that film, Hamilton was hired to direct, andShirley Bassey performed thetitle song. Locations included Las Vegas, California, and Amsterdam.Diamonds Are Forever was a commercial success and received positive reviews, although it was not considered among the best Bond films. It was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Sound.
Diamonds Are Forever was followed byLive and Let Die in 1973, withRoger Moore succeeding Connery as Bond.
To avenge Tracy,[a]James Bond huntsErnst Stavro Blofeld. At a facility where Blofeld lookalikes are being created throughplastic surgery, Bond kills a test subject and later the "real" Blofeld.
While the assassinsMr. Wint and Mr. Kidd kill people involved in a diamond-smuggling operation,M suspects that South African diamonds are being stockpiled to depress prices bydumping and assigns Bond to uncover the smuggling ring. Impersonating the smuggler Peter Franks, Bond travels to Amsterdam to meet the contactTiffany Case. Bond kills the real Franks, then switches IDs tofake his own death andassume Franks' identity. Tiffany and Bond go to Los Angeles, smuggling the diamonds inside Franks' corpse.
At the airport, Bond meets hisCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) contactFelix Leiter and travels to Las Vegas. At a funeral home operating in the smuggling ring, Franks' body is cremated, and the diamonds are passed on to the smuggler Shady Tree. The funeral home operator, Morton Slumber, double-crosses Bond, and Wint and Kidd try to cremate him alive. However, Tree stops the process after discovering that the diamonds in Franks' body were fake, planted by Bond and the CIA. Bond tells Leiter to ship the real diamonds. At the Whyte House, a casino and hotel owned by the billionaire Willard Whyte, Tree works as a stand-up comedian. Tree is killed by Wint and Kidd, who do not know the diamonds were fake.
At thecraps table, Bond meets a woman namedPlenty O'Toole, and later brings her to his room. Slumber's henchmen ambush them, throwing O'Toole out of the window and into the pool below. Bond instructs Tiffany to retrieve the diamonds at theCircus Circus casino. Tiffany reneges on her deal and flees, passing off the diamonds to the next smuggler. However, seeing that O'Toole was killed after being mistaken for her, Tiffany changes her mind. She drives Bond to the airport, where they see the diamonds given to Whyte's casino manager, Bert Saxby. Saxby later keeps a rendezvous with a scientist who takes the diamonds. The scientist goes to a remote research laboratory owned by Whyte, where a satellite is being built by a laser refraction specialist. Bond sneaks into the laboratory. However, after being caught, Bond escapes by stealing amoon buggy, fights his way out of the facility and reunites with Tiffany. Later in the evening, Bond and Tiffany evade the police in Las Vegas.
Bond climbs to the Whyte House's top floor to confront Whyte. He is instead met by two identical Blofelds, who use an electronic voice synthesiser to sound like Whyte when communicating with the outside world. Bond kills one of the Blofelds, who turns out to be a look-alike. He is then knocked out by gas, picked up by Wint and Kidd, taken out toLas Vegas Valley, placed in a pipeline and left to die. Bond escapes, then calls Blofeld, using another voice synthesiser to pose as Saxby. He locates Whyte's desert home, defeats bodyguards, and rescues Whyte. Meanwhile, Blofeld abducts Tiffany. With Whyte's help, Bond raids the laboratory and uncovers Blofeld's plot to use the diamonds to create alaser satellite, which has already been sent into orbit. With the satellite, Blofeld destroys nuclear weapons installations in the United States, theSoviet Union and China, then proposes an international auction for global nuclear supremacy.
Whyte identifies an oil rig off the coast ofBaja California as Blofeld's base of operations. After Bond's attempt to change the cassette containing the satellite control codes fails, Leiter and the CIA launch a helicopter attack on the rig. Blofeld tries to escape in amidget submarine. Bond gains control of its launch crane and uses the submarine as awrecking ball, destroying the satellite control room and the base. Bond and Tiffany head for Britain on anocean liner, where Wint and Kidd pose as room-service waiters to serve them a dinner with a time-bomb hidden in a cake. Bond, however, unravels their disguise. They attack Bond, who sets Kidd on fire, making him jump overboard. Bond then throws Wint overboard holding the bomb, which explodes seconds after. Seeing Blofeld's satellite still in orbit in the sky, Tiffany asks Bond if they can get the diamonds back to Earth.
In uncredited roles, Lola Larson (a stage name used by the gymnast Mary Hiller[7]) andTrina Parks appeared as Bambi and Thumper, Whyte's bodyguards;[8]Shane Rimmer as Tom, the director of Whyte's astronautics facility;[9]Ed Bishop as Klaus Hergersheimer, a scientist involved with building the satellite;[10]Henry Rowland as Doctor Tynan, andCassandra Peterson as a dancer. Peterson says in her autobiography that she was in the film but believes she did not make the final edit.[11] It has been rumoured that Peterson and later starValerie Perrine played Shady Tree's "Acorns", the showgirls who support him during his standup routine. They were actually played by the performers Jennifer Castle[12] and Pat Gill.[13]
The producers originally intended to haveDiamonds Are Forever re-create commercially successful aspects ofGoldfinger, including hiring the director,Guy Hamilton.[14]Peter R. Hunt, who had directedOn Her Majesty's Secret Service and worked in all previous Bond films as editor, was invited before Hamilton, but due to involvement with another project could only work on the film if the production date was postponed, which the producers declined to do.[15] As a condition for Hamilton directing after his difficulties withtrade unions during the filming ofBattle of Britain,Diamonds Are Forever was the first Bond production to be based primarily in the United States rather than the United Kingdom.[16]
WhileOn Her Majesty's Secret Service was in post-production,Richard Maibaum wrote several drafts about Bond avenging the death of his wifeTracy. The charactersIrma Bunt andMarc-Ange Draco were set to return and Bond mourning his deceased wife Tracy whileLouis Armstrong'sWe Have All the Time in the World played in the background.[17][18][19]Harry Saltzman had suggested Thailand and India as potential filming locations.[20] WhenGeorge Lazenby departed from the role prior to the film's release, a complete rewrite was requested, in addition to Maibaum's script failing to impressAlbert R. Broccoli and Saltzman.[17] Following this, Maibaum wrote an original script withAuric Goldfinger's twin seeking revenge for the death of his brother.[21] In this version, Goldfinger's brother was a Swedish shipping magnate armed with a laser cannon held within the hull of a supertanker. The idea was borrowed from an early draft ofOn Her Majesty's Secret Service in whichErnst Stavro Blofeld was to be Goldfinger's twin brother, withGert Fröbe set to return.[22] The film would have ended with a boat chase of Chinesejunks andRomangalleys onLake Mead.[23] The plot was later changed after Broccoli had a dream, where his close friendHoward Hughes was replaced by an imposter. Hence, the character of Willard Whyte was created, andTom Mankiewicz was chosen to rework the script.[24]
Mankiewicz says he was hired because Broccoli wanted an American writer to work on the script, since so much of it was set in Las Vegas "and the Brits write really lousy American gangsters" – but it had to be someone who also understood the British idiom, since it had British characters.[25]David Picker, then-president of United Artists, had seen the stage musicalGeorgy written by Mankiewicz, and recommended him; he was hired on a two-week trial and kept on for the rest of the film, as well as several subsequent Bond films. The idea of Goldfinger's brother was scrapped, and Blofeld was written back into the script.[21] Mankiewicz later estimated the novel provided around 45 minutes of the film's final running time.[26] The adaptation eliminated the main villains from the source Ian Fleming novel, mobsters calledJack and Seraffimo Spang, but used the henchmen Shady Tree, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd.[24]
George Lazenby was originally offered a contract for seven Bond films but declined and left after just one,On Her Majesty's Secret Service, on the advice of his agentRonan O'Rahilly.[27] Producers contemplated replacing him withJohn Gavin, although the actorsClint Eastwood,Adam West,Burt Reynolds,Robert Wagner,Brett Halsey,Malcolm Roberts, andRanulph Fiennes had also been considered; Eastwood, Reynolds, and West had stated that Bond should not be played by an American actor, with West stating he was doing "something else" at the time.[14][16][28][29] Reynolds would later regret the decision to turn it down, stating he "could have done that".[30]Michael Gambon rejected an offer, telling Broccoli that he was "in terrible shape".[31] The producersAlbert R. Broccoli andHarry Saltzman wanted to castRoger Moore, but he was busy filmingThe Persuaders!.[16] The singerTom Jones stated he was considered for the role, but Broccoli felt that he was too famous and people would not have believed him as Bond.[32]
Picker was unhappy with this decision and made it clear that Connery was to be enticed back to the role and that money was no object. When approached about resuming the role of Bond, Connery demanded the fee of $1.25 million. To entice the actor to play Bond once more, United Artists offered two back-to-back films of his choice.[33] After both sides agreed to the deal, Connery used the fee to establish the Scottish International Education Trust, where Scottish artists could apply for funding without having to leave their country to pursue their careers. Since John Gavin was no longer in the running for the role, his contract was paid in full by United Artists. The first film made under Connery's deal wasThe Offence, directed by his friendSidney Lumet.[14]
Charles Gray was cast as villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, after playing a Bond ally named Dikko Henderson inYou Only Live Twice (1967).[14] The jazz musician Putter Smith was invited by Saltzman to play Mr. Kidd, after aThelonious Monk Band show. MusicianPaul Williams was originally cast as Mr. Wint. When he could not agree with the producers on compensation, Bruce Glover replaced him. Glover said he was surprised at being chosen, because at first producers said he was too normal and that they wanted a deformed,Peter Lorre-like actor.[14]Bruce Cabot, who played the part of Bert Saxby, died the following year;Diamonds turned out to be his final film role.Jimmy Dean was cast as Willard Whyte after Saltzman saw a presentation of him. Dean was very worried about playing a Howard Hughespastiche, because he was an employee of Hughes at theDesert Inn.[14]
Jill St. John had originally been offered the part of Plenty O'Toole but landed the female lead afterSidney Korshak, who assisted the producers in filming in Las Vegas locations, recommended his client St. John,[34] who became the first American Bond girl.[35]Linda Thorson met with Cubby Broccoli, hoping to be considered for the part of Case, but he never considered her for the role, although he did briefly list her as a possibility for the part of Plenty O'Toole. Some time later, Broccoli told Thorson she was never cast in a Bond film because she did not have long hair.[36]Lana Wood was cast as Plenty O'Toole, following a suggestion of screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz.[14] Wood modelled her performance afterLeigh Taylor-Young andMinnie Mouse.[37]Denise Perrier,Miss World 1953, played "Marie", the woman in the pre-credit beach scene whom Bond throttles with the top of her bikini to disclose the location of Blofeld.[24] Perrier has stated she asked Connery to go a little rough on her to make the strangling look more believable, and he complied.[38]
A cameo appearance bySammy Davis Jr. playing on the roulette table was filmed, but his scene was eventually deleted.[39]
Initially, the character of Miss Moneypenny did not feature, partly because Lois Maxwell had held out for a pay increase, but it was decided during production to add the scene where, disguised as a customs officer, Moneypenny gives Bond his travel documents at the port of Dover. The additional scene was a last-minute rewrite, as the producers felt it important to incorporate Maxwell after her issue was resolved. Maxwell and Connery filmed their lines separately for the short scene.[40][41]
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Filming began on 5 April 1971, with the South African scenes actually shot in the desert near Las Vegas.[14] The scene was originally written to include Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd killing Dr. Tynan by forcing a scorpion down his mouth, but it was rewritten in order to be approved by British censors.[6] The film was shot primarily in the United States, with locations including theLos Angeles International Airport,[42]Universal City Studios and eight hotels of Las Vegas.[43] BesidesPinewood Studios inBuckinghamshire, other places in England wereDover andSouthampton. The climactic oil rig sequence was shot off the shore ofOceanside, California. Other filming locations includedCap D'Antibes in France for the opening scenes, Amsterdam andFrankfurt Airport.[44] The exteriors for the finale on board theSS Canberra were filmed when the vessel was at thePort of Southampton.[45]
Filming in Las Vegas took place mostly in hotels owned by Howard Hughes, for he was a friend of Cubby Broccoli's.[35] Getting the streets empty to shoot was achieved through the collaboration of Hughes, the Las Vegas police, and the shopkeepers' association.[46] TheInternational Hotel doubled for the Whyte House, and since the owner of theCircus Circus was a Bond fan, he allowed the Circus to be used on film and even made a cameo.[24][46] The cinematographers said filming in Las Vegas at night had an advantage: no additional illumination was required due to the high number of neon lights.[47] Sean Connery made the most of his time on location in Las Vegas. "I didn't get any sleep at all. We shot every night, I caught all the shows and played golf all day. On the weekend I collapsed – boy, did I collapse. Like a skull with legs." He also played the slot machines, and once delayed a scene because he was collecting his winnings.[48] While shooting in Las Vegas, Connery dated his co-stars Lana Wood and Jill St. John.[49]
The home ofKirk Douglas was used for the scene in Tiffany's house, while theElrod House inPalm Springs, designed byJohn Lautner, became Willard Whyte's house.[50] The exterior shots of the Slumber Mortuary were of the Palm Mortuary inHenderson, Nevada. The interiors were a set constructed at Pinewood Studios, where Ken Adam imitated the real building'slozenge-shaped stained glass window in its chapel. The Garden of Remembrance scene was shot at Palm Downtown Cemetery, Las Vegas. During location filming, Ken Adam visited several funeral homes in the Las Vegas area, and the inspiration behind the gaudy design of the Slumber Mortuary, for example the use of tastelessArt Nouveau furniture andTiffany lamps, came from these experiences.[44] Production wrapped with the crematorium sequence, on 13 August 1971.[24]
Since the car chase in Las Vegas would have many car crashes, the filmmakers had aproduct placement arrangement withFord to use their vehicles. Ford's only demand was that Sean Connery had to drive the1971 Mustang Mach 1 which serves as Tiffany Case's car.[46] A Mustang was used inGoldfinger andThunderball, while aMercury Cougar was used inOn Her Majesty's Secret Service, and "Bond girls" drove each one. The moon buggy was inspired by theNASA lunar rover, but with additions such as flailing arms since the producers did not find the design "outrageous" enough. Built by the custom car fabricatorDean Jeffries on a rear-engined Corvair chassis, it was capable of road speeds. Thefibreglass tyres had to be replaced during the chase sequence because the heat and irregular desert soil ruined them.[51]
Hamilton had the idea of making a fight scene inside a lift, which was choreographed and performed by Connery and the stuntmanJoe Robinson.[52] During a car chase scene, where the police are chasing Bond in a small parking lot, the Mustang was to jump a small ramp over several cars. The stunt driver they had hired could not perform this and wrecked two or three cars in the process. The stunt team had only one car left, and calledBill Hickman, who drove for hours to the location, jumped into the Mustang, and did the stunt in one take.[53] Acontinuity mistake during the same car chase made it into the film's final cut: when Bond drives the Mustang on two wheels through a narrow alley, the car enters the alley on its right side tires and exits driving on its left side.[14]
While filming the scene of finding Plenty O'Toole drowned in Tiffany's swimming pool,Lana Wood actually had her feet loosely tied 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. The floor of the pool was sloped and the block would move deeper with each take. Eventually, Wood was submerged but was noticed by onlookers and rescued. Wood, a certified diver, took some water but remained calm during the ordeal, although she later said there had been some "very uncomfortable moments and quite some struggling until they pulled me out."[54]
The original soundtrack was once again composed byJohn Barry, his sixth time composing for a Bond film. "Diamonds Are Forever", the title song, was the second James Bond theme to be performed byShirley Bassey, after "Goldfinger" in 1964.
With Connery back in the lead role, the "James Bond Theme" was played by an electric guitar in the somewhat unusual, bluedgun barrel sequence accompanied with prismatic ripples of light, in the pre-credits sequence, and in a full orchestral version during a hovercraft sequence in Amsterdam.
Diamonds are Forever was released on 14 December 1971 inMunich, West Germany, and on 16 December in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, before opening in 44 other cities in the United States, Canada and Europe on 17 December and 11 more cities in Japan, New Zealand and Europe on 18 December 1971. It grossed $2,242,557 in its opening six days worldwide, including $1,569,249 in its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, where it finished number one at the box office for the week.[55][56] The film had its UK premiere at theOdeon Leicester Square on 30 December 1971. In its first 17 days in the United States and Canada to 2 January 1972 it grossed $16,238,915 and had grossed $8,330,000 overseas to the same date, for a worldwide total of $24,568,915, which United Artists claimed was a record in such a short period.[57] After 31 days, it had grossed a record $36,647,251.[58]
Diamonds are Forever wasnumber one in the United States for seven consecutive weeks and went on to gross $116 million worldwide,[3] of which $43 million was from the United States and Canada.[59]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times noted, in a positive review, the irrelevance of the plot and "moments of silliness", such as Bond driving a moon buggy with revolving antennae and flapping robot arms. He praised the Las Vegas car chase scene, particularly the segment when Bond drives theFord Mustang on two wheels.[60]Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times enthusiastically praised the film as:
A nostalgic journey down memory lane – by jet, by helicopter, by hearse, by moon machine, and by bare foot across deep-pile rugs to king-sized beds in hotel rooms as big as Nevada. A lot of things have changed sinceYou Only Live Twice (1967), the last real Bond adventure, but 007 has remained a steadfast agent for the military-industrial complex, a friend to the CIA and a triumphant sexist. It's enough to make one weepy with gratitude. I mean, not everything must be mutable.Diamonds Are Forever is also great, absurd fun, not only because it recalls the moods and manners of the sixties (which, being over, now seem safely comprehensible), but also because all of the people connected with the movie obviously know what they are up to.[61]
Jay Cocks, reviewing forTime magazine, feltDiamonds Are Forever was "in some ways the best of the lot. It is by all odds the broadest – which is to say wackiest, not sexiest." He praised Connery as "a fine, forceful actor with an undeniable presence [who] turns his well-publicized contempt for the Bond character into some wry moments of self-parody. He is capable of doing better things, but whether he likes it or not, he is the perfect, the only James Bond."[62]Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune wrote the film is "not merely bad Bond, it is a bad movie. A disjointed script competes with, of all things, a lack of action for responsibility for this failure. The women are unappealing even to Bond, judging from his lack of ardor and the villains are hardly threatening."[63]
Peter Schjeldahl ofThe New York Times describedDiamonds Are Forever as "a pretty good movie – not great art, but fantastic packaging. The best (or, anyway, the best worst) of the classic formulae – notably, gimmickry and exoticism a go go – have been retained, some up‐dating elements have been added and other elements have been fudged."[64]Variety wrote that James Bond "still packs a lethal wallop in all his cavortings, still manages to surround himself with scantily-clad sexpots. YetDiamonds Are Forever doesn't carry the same quality or flair as its many predecessors. Apparently Messrs. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who have made a fortune producing these Ian Fleming-inspired mellers, have reached that point where a sustained story means little in prepping an 007 picture. That is what this latest in the series lacks, and for this reason there can be no suspense. But action there is, plenty of it in the familiar Bond manner."[65]
The film was nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Sound forGordon McCallum,John W. Mitchell andAl Overton.[66]
Twenty-five years after the film's release,James Berardinelli criticised the concept of a laser-shootingsatellite, and the performances ofJill St. John,Norman Burton andJimmy Dean.[67]Christopher Null called St. John "one of the least effective Bond girls – beautiful, but shrill and helpless".[68]
According toDanny Peary,Diamonds are Forever is "one of the most forgettable movies of the entire Bond series" and that "until Blofeld's reappearance we must watch what is no better than a mundane diamond-smuggling melodrama, without the spectacle we associate with James Bond: the Las Vegas setting isn't exotic enough, there's little humour, assassins Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint are similar to characters you'd find onThe Avengers, but not nearly as amusing – and the trouble Bond gets into, evenMaxwell Smart could escape."[69]IGN chose it as the third-worst James Bond film, behind onlyThe Man with the Golden Gun andDie Another Day.[70]
Total Film listed Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, and Bambi and Thumper, as the first and second worst villains in the Bond series (respectively).
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 53 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus states, "Diamonds are Forever is a largely derivative affair, but it's still pretty entertaining nonetheless, thanks to great stunts, witty dialogue, and the presence of Sean Connery."[73]
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