Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
is the seventh spy film in the James Bond series by Eon Productions,
and the sixth and final Eon film to star Sean Connery as the
fictional MI6 agent James Bond.
The
film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is
the second of four James Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton. The
story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a
smuggling ring, and soon uncovering a plot by his old nemesis Ernst
Stavro Blofeld to use the diamonds and build a giant laser. Bond has
to battle his nemesis for one last time, in order to stop the
smuggling and stall Blofeld's plan of destroying Washington DC, and
extorting the world with nuclear supremacy.
After George Lazenby left
the franchise, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli tested
other actors, but studio United Artists wanted Sean Connery back,
paying a then-record $1.25 million salary for him to return. The
producers were inspired by Goldfinger, eventually hiring that film's
director, Guy Hamilton. Locations included Las Vegas, California,
Amsterdam and Lufthansa's hangar in Germany. Diamonds Are Forever was
a commercial success, but received criticism for its humorous camp
tone. Peter R. Hunt, who had directed On 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
in the film if the production date was postponed, which the producers
declined to do.
This was the last Bond
movie by Eon to use SPECTRE or Blofeld, elements that had not been
featured in Ian Fleming's book, the content of which was largely
eschewed in the adaptation. After this, writer Kevin McClory's legal
claim against the Fleming estate that he, and not Ian Fleming, had
created the organisation for the novel Thunderball was upheld by the
courts. Blofeld is seen but not identified later in For Your Eyes
Only (1981), as Eon's arrangements with the Fleming estate did not
permit them to use McClory's works.
The
original plot had as a villain Auric Goldfinger's twin, seeking
revenge for the death of his brother. The plot was later changed
after Albert R. Broccoli had a dream, where his close friend Howard
Hughes was replaced by an imposter. So the character of Willard Whyte
was created, and Tom Mankiewicz was chosen to rework the script. The
adaptation eliminated the main villains from the source Ian Fleming
novel, mobsters called Jack and Seraffimo Spang, but used the
henchmen Shady Tree, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd (pictured right).
Richard Maibaum's original
idea for the ending was a giant boat chase across Lake Mead with
Blofeld being pursued by Bond and all the Las Vegas casino owners who
would be sailing in their private yachts. Bond would rouse the allies
into action with a spoof of Lord Nelson's famous cry, "Las Vegas
expects every man to do his duty." Maibaum was misinformed;
there were no Roman galleys or Chinese junks in Las Vegas, and the
idea was too expensive to replicate, so it was dropped.
Maibaum may have thought
the eventual oil rig finale a poor substitute, but it was originally
intended to be much more spectacular. Armed frogmen would jump from
the helicopters into the sea and attach limpet mines to the rig's
legs (this explains why frogmen appear on the movie's poster).
Blofeld would have escaped in his BathoSub and Bond would have
pursued him hanging from a weather balloon. The chase would have then
continued across a salt mine with the two mortal enemies scrambling
over the pure white hills of salt before Blofeld would fall to his
death in a salt granulator. Permission was not granted by the owners
of the salt mine. It also made the sequence too long. Further
problems followed when the explosives set up for the finale were set
off too early; fortunately, a handful of cameras were ready and able
to capture the footage.
George
Lazenby originally was 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 agent (worse agent ever). Producers contemplated
replacing him with John Gavin. Batman TV star Adam West (left) was
also considered, as well as Michael Gambon, who rejected the offer
telling Broccoli that he was "in terrible shape." United
Artists' chief David Picker was unhappy with these casting choices
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 (equal to
£20 million in 2013) and to entice the actor to play Bond one
more time United Artists offered to back two films of his choice.
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. 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 because another production of Macbeth (the
Roman Polanski version) was already in production.
Charles
Gray was cast as villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, after playing a Bond
ally called Henderson in You Only Live Twice (1967). David Bauer, who
plays Morton Slumber, previously appeared uncredited as an American
diplomat also in You Only Live Twice.
Jazz musician Putter Smith
was invited by Harry Saltzman to play Mr. Kidd after a Thelonious
Monk Band show. Musician Paul Williams was originally cast as Mr.
Wint. But when he couldn't 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.
Film star Bruce Cabot, who
played the part of Bert Saxby, died the following year and this
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 Hughes pastiche, because he was an employee of
Hughes at the Desert Inn.
Actresses considered for
the role of Tiffany Case included: Raquel Welch, Jane Fonda and Faye
Dunaway. Jill St. John (below) had originally been offered the part
of Plenty O'Toole but landed the female lead after impressing
director Guy Hamilton during screen tests. St. John became the first
American Bond girl. Lana Wood (younger sister of actress Natalie
Wood) was cast as Plenty O'Toole following a suggestion of
screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz. 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.
Untitled
Filming
began on 5 April 1971, with the South African scenes actually shot
in the desert near Las Vegas, and finished on 13 August 1971. The
film was shot primarily in the US, with locations including the Los
Angeles International Airport, Universal City Studios and eight
hotels of Las Vegas. Besides the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire,
other places in England were Dover and Southampton. The climactic oil
rig sequence was shot off the shore of Oceanside, California. Other
filming locations included Cap D'Antibes in France for the opening
scenes, Amsterdam and Lufthansa's hangar at Frankfurt Airport, Germany.
Filming in Las Vegas took
place mostly in hotels owned by Howard Hughes, since he was a friend
of Cubby Broccoli. Getting the streets empty in order to shoot was
achieved through the collaboration of Hughes, the Las Vegas police
and shopkeepers association. The Las Vegas Hilton doubled for the
Whyte House, and since the owner of the Circus Circus was a Bond fan,
he allowed the Circus to be used on film and even made a cameo. 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. 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.
AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
Untitled
Diamonds Are Forever -
James Bond Theatrical Film Trailer.
The
site used for the Willard Whyte Space Labs (where Bond gets away in
the Moon Buggy) was actually, at that time, a Johns-Manville gypsum
plant located just outside of Las Vegas. The home of Kirk Douglas was
used for the scene in Tiffany's house, while the Elrod House in Palm
Springs, designed by John Lautner, became Willard Whyte's house. The
exterior shots of the Slumber mortuary were of a real crematorium on
the outskirts of Las Vegas. The interiors were a set constructed at
Pinewood Studios, where Ken Adam imitated the real building's lozenge-shaped
stained glass window in its nave. During location filming, Adam
visited several funeral homes in the Las Vegas area, the inspiration
behind the gaudy design of the Slumber mortuary (the use of tasteless
Art Deco furniture and Tiffany lamps) came from these experiences.
Production wrapped with the crematorium sequence, on August 13th 1971.
Since the car chase in Las
Vegas would have many car crashes, the filmmakers had an arrangement
with Ford to use their vehicles. Ford's only demand was that Sean
Connery had to drive the 1971 Mustang Mach 1 which serves as Tiffany
Case's car. The Moon Buggy was inspired by the actual NASA vehicle,
but with additions such as flailing arms since the producers didn't
find the design "outrageous" enough. Built by custom car
fabricator Dean Jeffries on a rear-engined Corvair chassis, it was
capable of road speeds. The fibreglass tires had to be replaced
during the chase sequence because the heat and irregular desert soil
ruined them.
Hamilton
had the idea of making a fight scene inside a lift, which was
choreographed and done by Sean Connery and stuntman Joe Robinson. The
car chase where the red Mustang comes outside of the narrow street on
the opposite side in which it was rolled, was filmed over three
nights on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. The alleyway car roll sequence
is actually filmed in two locations. The entrance was at the car park
at Universal Studios and the exit was at Fremont Street, Las Vegas.
It eventually inspired a continuity mistake, as the car enters the
alley on the right side tires and exits the street driving on the
left side. 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 pool's sloping bottom
made the block slip into deeper water with each take. Eventually,
Wood was submerged but was noticed by on-lookers and rescued before
actually drowning. Wood, being a certified diver, took some water but
remained calm during the ordeal, although she later admitted to a few
"very uncomfortable moments and quite some struggling until they
pulled me out."
"Diamonds
Are Forever", the title song, was the second James Bond theme
to be performed by Shirley Bassey, after "Goldfinger" in
1964. Producer Harry Saltzman reportedly hated the song, and only the
insistence of co-producer Cubby Broccoli kept it in the film.
Saltzman's major objection was to the sexual innuendo of the lyrics.
Indeed, in an interview for the television programme James Bond's
Greatest Hits composer John Barry revealed that he told Bassey to
imagine she was singing about a penis. Bassey would later return for
a third performance for 1979's Moonraker. The original soundtrack was
once again composed by John Barry, his sixth time composing for a
Bond film. With Connery back in the lead role, the "James Bond
Theme" was played by an electric guitar in the somewhat unique,
blued gunbarrel sequence accompanied with prismatic ripples of light,
and pre-credits sequence, and in a full orchestral version during a
hovercraft sequence in Amsterdam. The film was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Sound (Gordon McCallum, John W. Mitchell and
Al Overton) but lost to Fiddler on the Roof.
Diamonds are Forever was
released on December 14th 1971. It grossed $116 million worldwide,of
which $43 million was from the United States. Reviews were mixed, as
the camp tone had a mostly negative reaction. Connery was applauded
by Kevin A. Ranson of MovieCrypt and Michael A. Smith of Nolan's Pop
Culture. Critic Roger Ebert criticised the complexity of the plot and
"moments of silliness" such as Bond finding himself driving
a moon buggy with antennae revolving and robot arms flapping. He
praised the Las Vegas car chase scene, particularly the segment when
Bond drives the Mustang on two wheels. According to Danny 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 on The Avengers, but not nearly
as amusing – and the trouble Bond gets into, even Maxwell Smart
could escape.” Would you believe, IGN chose it as the third
worst James Bond film, and Total Film listed Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd,
and Bambie and Thumper, as the first and second worst villains in the
Bond series (respectively).
AV
CLUB SLIDESHOW DEPARTMENT
My Neat Stuff Slideshow - Jssor Slider, Slideshow with Javascript Source Code
The
original plot had as a villain Auric Goldfinger's twin, seeking
revenge for the death of his brother. The plot was later changed
after Albert R. Broccoli had a dream, where his close friend Howard
Hughes was replaced by an imposter. So the character of Willard Whyte
was created, and Tom Mankiewicz was chosen to rework the script. The
adaptation eliminated the main villains from the source Ian Fleming
novel, mobsters called Jack and Seraffimo Spang, but used the
henchmen Shady Tree, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd (pictured right).
George
Lazenby originally was 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 agent (worse agent ever). Producers contemplated
replacing him with John Gavin. Batman TV star Adam West (left) was
also considered, as well as Michael Gambon, who rejected the offer
telling Broccoli that he was "in terrible shape." United
Artists' chief David Picker was unhappy with these casting choices
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 (equal to
£20 million in 2013) and to entice the actor to play Bond one
more time United Artists offered to back two films of his choice.
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. 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 because another production of Macbeth (the
Roman Polanski version) was already in production.
Charles
Gray was cast as villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, after playing a Bond
ally called Henderson in You Only Live Twice (1967). David Bauer, who
plays Morton Slumber, previously appeared uncredited as an American
diplomat also in You Only Live Twice.
Filming
began on 5 April 1971, with the South African scenes actually shot
in the desert near Las Vegas, and finished on 13 August 1971. The
film was shot primarily in the US, with locations including the Los
Angeles International Airport, Universal City Studios and eight
hotels of Las Vegas. Besides the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire,
other places in England were Dover and Southampton. The climactic oil
rig sequence was shot off the shore of Oceanside, California. Other
filming locations included Cap D'Antibes in France for the opening
scenes, Amsterdam and Lufthansa's hangar at Frankfurt Airport, Germany.
The
site used for the Willard Whyte Space Labs (where Bond gets away in
the Moon Buggy) was actually, at that time, a Johns-Manville gypsum
plant located just outside of Las Vegas. The home of Kirk Douglas was
used for the scene in Tiffany's house, while the Elrod House in Palm
Springs, designed by John Lautner, became Willard Whyte's house. The
exterior shots of the Slumber mortuary were of a real crematorium on
the outskirts of Las Vegas. The interiors were a set constructed at
Pinewood Studios, where Ken Adam imitated the real building's lozenge-shaped
stained glass window in its nave. During location filming, Adam
visited several funeral homes in the Las Vegas area, the inspiration
behind the gaudy design of the Slumber mortuary (the use of tasteless
Art Deco furniture and Tiffany lamps) came from these experiences.
Production wrapped with the crematorium sequence, on August 13th 1971.
Hamilton
had the idea of making a fight scene inside a lift, which was
choreographed and done by Sean Connery and stuntman Joe Robinson. The
car chase where the red Mustang comes outside of the narrow street on
the opposite side in which it was rolled, was filmed over three
nights on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. The alleyway car roll sequence
is actually filmed in two locations. The entrance was at the car park
at Universal Studios and the exit was at Fremont Street, Las Vegas.
It eventually inspired a continuity mistake, as the car enters the
alley on the right side tires and exits the street driving on the
left side. 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 pool's sloping bottom
made the block slip into deeper water with each take. Eventually,
Wood was submerged but was noticed by on-lookers and rescued before
actually drowning. Wood, being a certified diver, took some water but
remained calm during the ordeal, although she later admitted to a few
"very uncomfortable moments and quite some struggling until they
pulled me out."
"Diamonds
Are Forever", the title song, was the second James Bond theme
to be performed by Shirley Bassey, after "Goldfinger" in
1964. Producer Harry Saltzman reportedly hated the song, and only the
insistence of co-producer Cubby Broccoli kept it in the film.
Saltzman's major objection was to the sexual innuendo of the lyrics.
Indeed, in an interview for the television programme James Bond's
Greatest Hits composer John Barry revealed that he told Bassey to
imagine she was singing about a penis. Bassey would later return for
a third performance for 1979's Moonraker. The original soundtrack was
once again composed by John Barry, his sixth time composing for a
Bond film. With Connery back in the lead role, the "James Bond
Theme" was played by an electric guitar in the somewhat unique,
blued gunbarrel sequence accompanied with prismatic ripples of light,
and pre-credits sequence, and in a full orchestral version during a
hovercraft sequence in Amsterdam. The film was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Sound (Gordon McCallum, John W. Mitchell and
Al Overton) but lost to Fiddler on the Roof.
