Diamonds Are Forever
Dir: Guy Hamilton
1971
*****
Diamonds Are Forever, the seventh 007 film and the Forth of Ian Flemming's novels (the earliest to be adapted at this point), is a bit of a mess, albeit a wonderfully over the top and beautifully ridiculous mess. I thought it was both a welcome return and a brilliant new direction for the character. After George Lazenby left the series after just one film (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) the producers had little time to find a replacement Bond. At first, they settled on half Mexican, half Irish actor Jack Gavin (although Adam West and Michael Gambon were both considered). United Artists wasn't happy with this decision and it was agreed that only Connery would do, they had to get him back. They presented Connery with a financial offer he couldn't refuse and Jack Gavin went on to become the United States Ambassador to Mexico. United Artists and the producers really wanted to re-create the commercial success of Goldfinger, their biggest hit to date (although not financially). They re-hired Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton to direct and asked Shirley Bassey back to sing the theme song (asking her to sing passionately and as if she was singing about a penis rather than a Diamond!). They even went as far as writing a script that would have seen Goldfinger's Twin as the villain who would seek revenge for his brother's death. This idea was scrapped after Cubby Broccoli used an idea he had a dream about that involved identity theft and his friend Howard Hughes. Once again, SPECTRE and Ernst Stavro Blofeld are the enemy but neither are mentioned by name following a legal claim against the Flemming estate by Kevin McClory whom insisted they were his creative property after he wrote both in the original script that became Thunderball. Neither SPECTRE nor Blofeld would be seen again for another decade. Interestingly, Blofeld isn't really the villain he was in Diamonds Are Forever, instead, his henchmen Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are far the more interesting baddies. The story is contrived and sprawling, Hamilton's want of humour reaches new heights and stolen Moon buggies, multiple Blofeld's and the overall camp feeling of the film make the film a less serious venture and more of a fantasy adventure. Personally, I love the over the top Bond films, Sean Connery will always be my favorite 007 but if I'm being honest it is Roger Moore's films that I love the most.