Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay) and
Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 joulukuu 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

"Diamonds Are Forever"...forever...forever...forever...

Plot:

A diamond smuggling investigation leads James Bond to Las Vegas, where he uncovers an extortion plot headed by his nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Plot Keywords:

Diamond | Smuggling | James Bond | British | Casino

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Jill St. John	...	Tiffany Case
Charles Gray	...	Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Lana Wood	...	Plenty O'Toole
Jimmy Dean	...	Willard Whyte
Bruce Cabot	...	Saxby
Putter Smith	...	Mr. Kidd
Bruce Glover	...	Mr. Wint
Norman Burton	...	Felix Leiter
Joseph Fürst	...	Dr. Metz (as Joseph Furst)
Bernard Lee	...	M
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
Leonard Barr	...	Shady Tree
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Margaret Lacey	...	Mrs. Whistler

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | West Germany:16 (nf) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | New Zealand:PG | UK:PG (tv rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1971) | Peru:14 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (1987) | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG (re-rating) (1994) | UK:A (original rating) (passed with cuts)

Filming Locations:

3rd Floor, Reguliersgracht 36, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Eon Productions

Trivia:

Product placements, brand integrations and promotional tie-ins for this movie include Lufthansa Airlines; Rolex Watches, James Bond wears a Rolex Submariner; Martini & Rossi Vermouth; Playboy Clubs; Hertz Rent-a-car; Las Vegas strip casinos and nightclubs such as the Riviera Hotel & Casino, Tropicana Hotel & Casino and Circus Circus Casino; Mouton Rothschild Wine; Seaspeed Hovercrafts; Courvoisier Cognac; Honda Motorbikes; Shell Oil; Bell Helicopters; and Ford cars including Mustang, Thunderbird and other makes.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the police chase the cops are wearing motorcycle helmets even though they are inside their cars.

Quotes:

[first lines]
James Bond: [tossing chinese man around] Where is he? I shan't ask you politely next time. Where is Blofeld?
Chinese Man: Ca-Ca-Cairo.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Secrets of 007: The James Bond Files (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Overly Americanised, action-free camp-fest

DAF is one of the weakest, laziest movies in the franchise.

For a start, where is the action? Apart from a good close quarters punch up in a lift, there is hardly any. What remains is lacking in energy and played mainly for laughs. 007 beaten up by two acrobatic women - until he just holds them underwater in a swimming pool. An awful slapstick car-trashing chase in Vegas. And the big finale is anything but. We have a few of Blofled's henchmen fighting a few helicopters. Bond does almost nothing except swing Blofeld's escape pod around with a crane.

Which brings us to another point - this is without doubt the least serious Bond movie ever. It is borderline comedy throughout, clearly influenced by the likes of The Man from UNCLE and the Batman TV show. Blofeld dresses in drag at one stage. Most of the supporting characters are comic relief. The sinister henchmen, Wint and Kidd, would stand out in any other movie due to their extreme black humour, but here they are just wasted. Jill St John's Tiffany Case is amongst the worst Bond girls, silly and helpless.

We even see Q - in Vegas - cheating on a slot machine.

At least Connery is back right? Wrong. He's clearly on set, but equally clearly thinking about his next round of golf. Even his delivery of 'Bond, James Bond' is awful. He isn't helped by some awful costume decisions, including a brown tweed suit, and a pink (!) tie. Connery's huge payout for this film means everything else looks cheaper than before; by the climax you have embarrassing helicopter explosions, clearly animated, that would have been superbly detailed model shots in previous (and later) movies.

There is virtually nothing good to say about Diamonds. The film is so lacking in energy or excitement that only the plot manages to pull it along. It's a series of weird and comedic scenes that hardly feel like a Bond movie in any way, and it's hard to believe this came after On Her Majesty's Sceret Service. The film scrimps so much on the action that you are left watching a bizarre, parallel universe version of Bond where nothing remotely Bond-ish seems to happen. It feels almost like a live-action version of a Saturday morning Bond cartoon, watered down for the kids (Bond never even uses his gun).

Two plus points; Shirey Bassey's theme tune is superbly atmospheric and mysterious. Jill St John is very sexy. That's it. Connery came back, the director of Goldfinger came back, and the result was this farce.