Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever, published in 1956, is the fourth James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. It is also the seventh film in the EON Productions film franchise, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. It was released in 1971.

The film

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."

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The movie begins with Bond's worldwide pursuit of the head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., 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 (unusually, however, there is no reference to the death of Tracy in the screenplay). 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.

Related Topics:
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Tracy Bond - MI6 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Plastic surgery

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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 depress 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.

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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, holding the world to ransom in an international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder.

Related Topics:
Las Vegas - America - Russia - China

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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.

Related Topics:
Jimmy Dean - Howard Hughes

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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 concrete boulder and drowning her in a swimming pool, and attempting to incinerate James Bond alive in a crematorium furnace.

Related Topics:
Henchmen - Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd - Homosexual - Scorpion

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

Related Topics:
Bambi - Thumper

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Perhaps due to legal wrangling over the rights to Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E., no direct reference to the criminal organization's name is made in the script this time around.

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Cast & characters

• 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

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

"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."

Related Topics:
Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger - 1964 - 1979's - Moonraker - Chicago - Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone

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

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Track listing

• Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title) - Shirley Bassey
• Bond Meets Bambi And Thumper
• Moon Buggy Ride
• Circus, Circus
• Death At The Whyte House
• Diamonds Are Forever (Source Instrumental)
• Diamonds Are Forever (Bond And Tiffany)
• Bond Smells A Rat
• Tiffany Case
• 007 And Counting
• Q's Trick
• To Hell With Blofeld
• Gunbarrel and Manhunt
• Mr.Wint and Mr.Kidd/Bond To Holland
• Peter Franks
• Airport Source/On The Road
• Slumber, Inc.
• The Whyte House
• Plenty, Then Tiffany
• Following The Diamonds
• 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 suspenders — 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 the suspenders. (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
• Cairo
• Las Vegas
• Baja California
• Amsterdam

Shooting locations

• Pinewood Studios — London
• United States
• Germany
• Netherlands
• France

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.
• John Gavin, an unknown American, was originally cast as Bond. However, the producers were unhappy with this decision due to their experience with the similarly-unknown George Lazenby in the previous film, and when Sean Connery made it known that he would be interested in returning, Gavin's contract was quietly bought out.
• When first approached about resuming the role of Bond Sean Connery half jokingly demanded the astronomical fee of £2m ($4m or over $20m in 2005) and a production deal. Both demands were met and Connery used part of the fee to establish a charity to help deprived children in Edinburgh.
• 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 OHMSS, possibly because George Lazenby had yet to commit to any more films.
• 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 Las Vegas International Hotel).
• Two villains in the Cartoon Network's animated series ', 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.
• Scenes also cut from the theatrical release include 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.