Diamonds Are Forever
Financiers: Bring Seany back, he’ll make us money!
Producers: But we wanted to make turn with Bond… and he surely won’t be cheap…
Financiers: Money isn’t problem, bring Seany back!!!
And so Lazenby’s Bond career was short-lived, and Seany returned to the game… and how not to return when he was offered (then) record $1,250,000.00 to reprise role of gentleman “Bond, James Bond.”
In “Diamonds are forever,” J.B. tries by all means to reach Blofeld (“SPECTRE” organization’s notorious leader) and at one point manages to catch him before plastic surgery attempt and kills him. Finally he can put period on his revenge and continue with more or less normal secret agent life.
M suspects there exists serious group smuggling diamonds from South Africa and deliberately “hoarding” them on market to drop their price and make market unstable. J.B. is sent to Amsterdam (disguised as smuggler and killer Peter Franks) to contact Tiffany Case where part of diamonds is located, and thereby expose smuggling. After showdown with real Peter Franks, J.B. uses killer’s body for smuggling diamonds to Las Vegas, where with help of his CIA friend Felix Leiter, will exchange for fake diamonds, and continue tracking smugglers’ flow until he discovers mastermind behind everything. All that time he’s followed by Tiffany, who still has her own plan for diamonds.
Bond’s adventures in Las Vegas continue (of course) in casino owned by reclusive millionaire Willard Whyte, who’s maybe also entangled in this smuggling chain.
And all the time, following all of them are two strange (and sadistic) killers, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, who in turn eliminate everyone connected to diamonds, and for whom it’s unknown who their employer is… and who, at one point, almost manage to eliminate J.B. himself (and in quite morbid way).
And when J.B. manages to approach mastermind behind everything, he’ll realize ghost from past returned…
When they decided to make film “Diamonds are forever,” producers and screenwriters seemed to say “Well this film doesn’t need to be done seriously, we have Seany now, let’s make relatively likeable plot… and then insert all kinds of silly and unserious stuff that comes to mind.” So J.B. in this film smuggles diamonds, attends cremation of killer he… uh… killed (not for emotional reasons, obviously), discovers laboratory of scientist making satellite (and thereby discovers true purpose of diamonds), flees laboratory in strange tragicomic hybrid of LRV and robot with funny hands, ends up in sewer pipe, catches villain who’s in mini-submarine with crane and batters him everywhere with him like with toy…
…and drops jokes. Seany, i.e., James Bond knew before to occasionally slip some quip, slick joke or cynical comment in previous films, but now they really gave it to him with comments, ways to eliminate opponents, and even WTF grimace at one point.
For film from early 70s, film did very good job both visually and musically.
As for acting… good old Seany obviously benefited from break from Bond (during that period he filmed some 4-5 films that were solid), as well as million-dollar fee for “Diamonds are forever,” so his enthusiasm returned to period from beginning of Bond career. Though visibly aged, he kept that slick attitude, to which he now added slightly more comic note.
Bond girl Tiffany Case was played by Jill St. John… though I don’t know if I can find complaints to her acting as much as, unlike previous Bond girls, her character wasn’t excessively developed, so she seemed somehow useless and helpless, and even bit silly.
I must mention really brief episodic role by Lana Wood who Bond meets in casino, who introduces herself as Plenty O’Toole, with which Bond films/books continued tradition of Bond girls with ambiguous names… and in case of this charming and attractive actress, there really was Plenty. 😁 This scene with her and Bond is hilarious. 😎
Charles Grey presented us completely different Ernst Stavro Blofeld… though he doesn’t have classic frightening “physical presence” like Telly Savalas had. But with comments… everything literally resembles standup roasting of Bond by Blofeld with sarcastic, provocative and cunning comments (“I do so enjoy our little visits, Mr Bond, however potentially painful they may be. But I’m afraid this one has come to an end.”).
Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd duo is truly creepy, just how you’d imagine sadistic psychopath killers, with mild dose of comic comments (“And who would imagine that…” – note from subconscious).
Bernard Lee (M), Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) and Desmond Llewelyn (Q) standard with their screen time and comments.
Bond’s vehicle of choice, in its glory and splendor, is Ford Mustang.
Bond’s weapon now is, for change, Beretta 418.
Of interesting gadgets in film, worth mentioning pocket mousetrap, fake fingerprints, apparatus that changes speaker’s voice color over phone (forgot other term 😅), as well as La Bombe Surprise.
Film was mostly filmed in USA (most Las Vegas, then Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Universal City Studios…) and a bit in Europe (Dover, Southampton, Amsterdam, Antibes and indispensable “Pinewood Studios”).
Opening number “Diamonds are forever” was sung by Shirley Bassey.
Though film’s budget was only $200,000.00 bigger compared to previous film (now $7,200,000.00), it managed to earn as much as 116 million dollars (Lazenby’s Bond “barely reached” 82 million), which says enough about how much audience longed for Seany as Bond.
Couple interesting facts about film:
- Since Seany asked for fat money to return (supposedly he got 1,250,000.00 dollars, which for that period was unimaginable sum), they had to save on special effects
- To present mud from opening scene, mashed potatoes were used. What producers didn’t take into account is after 24 hours standing (and moreover exposed to lights), “mud” smelled so bad someone probably thought creature died somewhere on set
- Comment from film’s beginning that Bond was on vacation was internal joke about Seany’s absence in previous film
- Scene from “moon landing” location was reference to popular conspiracy theories that real moon landing was staged
- Seany jumped in as last (and quite expensive) ace up sleeve. As replacement for Lazenby many actors were considered, including acting legends like Burt Reynolds and Adam West
- Tiffany was first American Bond girl. She was presented as cocky and loudly grumbling, because that’s how they experienced American women then
- Producers (Saltzman and Broccoli) engaged Lana Wood as Plenty. First time they saw her in “Playboy” magazine. And good they engaged her
- Tiffany Case in novel “Diamonds are forever” is blonde, and in film redhead. Bond subtly commented on this (“Weren’t you a blonde when I came in?”)
- This is last Bond film where secret agent wears hat in famous opening “showdown with camera”
- For Tiffany Case’s role Raquel Welch, Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway were also considered
- In fact, Roger Moore was offered Bond role, but had to refuse due to commitments to another film
- There exists jewelry store in London named after psychopaths from film (“Wint and Kidd”)
Why did film “Diamonds are forever,” however much, objectively speaking, was “only” solid film, manage to achieve such great success?
Without doubt, Sean Connery’s return was surely big factor. However, producers’ approach to film was also different. “Diamonds are forever” was conceived as homage to (Bond) films of 60s. That’s why from film’s beginning you feel some nostalgic note reminding you of first Bond films. Plot is shaky, but that compensates with mild (!?) exaggeration with action, comedy (and even parody), as well as witty comments. In translation, it was conceived for this film to be fun and relaxing, as typical summer hit without much thinking (see: Hobbs and Shaw).
And sometimes that’s quite enough. 😁
And you, dear reader, do you know who appears in next Bond film? 😊
Trailer | Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Format: Film | Premiere: 1971 | Runtime: 120 minutes
