Movie review: ‘Diamonds are Forever’

FloridaGator80
A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

When I started reviewing films for my blog, I hadn’t really planned to review really well-known or blockbuster films such as the James Bond franchise. Yet, such reviews appear in hindsight to have been inevitable. So, today, I’m reviewing “Diamonds are Forever” just because I really like Las Vegas and the exteriors of the circa 1970-71 gambling town are fun compared to what you see today from the evolution over the past 50 years. Besides, it is Sean Connery’s last turn in the 007 series (no, I don’t count 1983’s “Never Say Never Again,” since it’s not from the Saltzman-Broccoli production company) and that’s a milestone. Besides, there’s also Jill St. John, arch-villain “Blofeld” carrying out a threat-to-the-world plot and, well, Las Vegas. So, enjoy among Bond’s best!

‘Diamonds are Forever’
(1971; 120 minutes; rated GP; directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Sean Connery, Jill St. John and Charles Gray)

A FITTING FINALE FOR CONNERY AS 007

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion, more trivia and the updating of links on July 27, 2016. I again expanded it on June 19, 2018. I again expanded it on April 4, 2020. I again expanded it on Feb. 11, 2026.)

OK, there is Sean Connery as “James Bond” and then there’s everyone else. Yes, I enthusiastically enjoyed most of Roger Moore’s efforts as 007 and it is my opinion that Pierce Brosnan was much, much better than the schmuck playing 007 today (Daniel Craig … with his, “I’m having a bowel movement” expression in every scene). Further, I’d say that no actor in the future who plays “Bond, James Bond” can ever live up anywhere near the bar set by Connery. None. Nada. And that’s the fact, Jack!

Today, I’m taking a look at “Diamonds are Forever” in Connery’s last turn as 007 (as I wrote above, I don’t count 1983’s “Never Say Never Again,” since it’s not from the Saltzman-Broccoli production company) and it’s Bond in Las Vegas … as much a natural pairing as Wayne Newton and Las Vegas.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

“Diamonds are Forever” certainly doesn’t reach the espionage heights of “Dr. No” (click here to read my review) and “Goldfinger” (click here to read my review) the No. 1 and No. 2 best of the 007 franchise. Nor can it compete with “Thunderball” (click here to read my review) for big-screen action and exotic on-location cinematography. Still, it doesn’t rely on especially silly gadgets and is more in the somewhat real world spy tradecraft than the Roger Moore efforts to come.

Connery is at his Bond-ish best as he bids adieu to the part (he came back for this one after George Lazenby’s horrific effort as 007 in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” in 1969 and that B-list star’s refusal of another Bond film). In this one, Bond is on the trail of diamond smugglers in a caper that turns into – surprise! surprise! – a space-based threat against the world.

The rest of the cast is in their usual roles with their usual solid performances from Bond’s spy organization to the arch-villain he’s facing again.

On the other hand, Jill St. John is the visually stunning “Tiffany Case” and she is a Bond “woman.” Forget any of the so-called “Bond girls” from other 007 efforts, St. John brought something mature to 007’s femme fatales that Barbara Bach would carry on with and some ways surpass in “The Spy Who Loved Me” (click here to read my review). Both Ursula Andress as “Honey Ryder” in “Dr. No” (click here for my review) and Honor Blackman as “Pussy Galore” in “Goldfinger” (click here to read my review) set the stage for St. John and the femme fatale being a woman and not a “girl.”

So, I’ll get to my take on the acting in a few paragraphs, but there are much more fun things to examine first.

So, let’s examine the visuals. Just like all the Bond films, there are a variety of glamorous locations across the globe, but the pre-boom Las Vegas of 1970 gives you a look today at just how the tourist mecca has grown over the past decades. From the Strip to downtown, it’s a drive down vintage lane here – and the wonderful flight of fancy if you had owned all that desert that’s developed now.

Next is political incorrectness. It’s no surprise that a movie from that era would be sexist, but there are references that were an attempt to disguise rough truths with saccharine statements, such as the official talking about how well black workers in South African diamond mines were treated in the apartheid era: Audiences were told that to ensure “loyalty” from the company, miners benefited from the “extensive amenities and social services we provide” as one character put it.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

Finally, well ahead of its time, is how the issue of how gays were portrayed at the time and you’ll find a pair of interesting gay characters in “Diamonds are Forever.” Bruce Glover and Putter Smith do a nice turn as efficient, quipping assassins “Mr. Wint” and “Mr. Kidd” respectively. They are delightfully deadpan and usually droll in their delivery of sarcasm and they are lethal lovers who actually hold hands on screen (quite a statement in mainstream film at the time).

Although they are somewhat effeminate in voice and manners, killing doesn’t bother them at all – and they are especially good at it. One classic line is Smith’s observation of St. John and his response to Glover’s glare: “Miss Case seems quite attractive … for a lady. Heh, heh.” Not exactly pioneers as homosexuals on the big screen, but very interesting given the 1971 release of the film and certainly not the cringe-worthy embarrassment of a gay character in 1978’s “The Wild Geese” (click here to read my review).

Now, onto my look at some of the cast …

  • An Oscar winner and two-time Golden Globe winner and four-time nominee (not for this one), Connery didn’t need to stretch himself much since he had set the standard for the character. While this one is not his best, Connery is totally effective and in no way mailed in what could have been a mail-in effort. He won his Oscar and one Globe for “The Untouchables” and I liked him best as the supporting actor in the “Indiana Jones” world – he is “Indy’s” father, “Professor Henry Jones Sr.,” in the great second sequel “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” He was also very effective in “Rising Sun” with Wesley Snipes. He died at 90 of respiratory failure in 2020.
  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), St. John is just right in her timing in this one … off-handedness when necessary and potentially treacherous when it suits her and always trying to be the temptress. She managed to elevate what could have been a character in which an actor failed miserably and that’s a great compliment. St. John was nominated for 1963’s “Come Blow Your Horn” with Frank Sinatra and was especially solid in Old Blue Eyes’ private-eye flick “Tony Rome” (click here to read my review). I especially enjoyed her work on four episodes of the kitschy TV series “The Love Boat” (click here for my look at the series) and has an impressive TV resume that includes work on eight episodes of the iconic “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

    Charles Gray, who plays “Blofeld” and is Connery’s chief opponent, and he’s at his oily best and a completely different character than the one he’d play five years later in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Gray was a classically trained actor (the Royal Shakespeare Company) and obviously was adaptable since he played a short-lived ally of 007 in 1967’s “You Only Live Twice.” He was also in “The Seven-Percent Solution.” Gray died at 71 in 2000 of throat cancer.

  • Jimmy Dean, who plays “Willard Whyte” (a billionaire who initially looks reclusive like Howard Hughes, but who has been kidnapped and his financial empire used by Gray). Dean doesn’t have to delve deep to play a good ol’ boy. When he is rescued he drawls, “FBI? CIA?” Connery responds, “No, British Intelligence, Mr. Whyte. James Bond.” Again, here’s an acting performance that wouldn’t have been handled any better by any other actor. He had a slim resume of acting credit with only nine and “Diamonds are Forever” was his first motion picture. Dean, who was tall at 6-foot-3, died at the age of 81 in 2010.
  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

    Lana Wood, the sister of more famous Natalie Wood, plays “Plenty O’Toole” and challenges St. John for stunning good looks. She gets tossed out a hotel window into a pool and Connery tells the gangsters who threw her, “Exceptionally fine shot.” One gangster’s droll reply: “I didn’t know there was a pool down there.” While St. John managed to elevate her character, Wood didn’t get the chance. Her screen time is limited while St. John was a co-star with Connery and therefore she falls more into the “Bond girl” realm rather than key character in the movie. Wood continues to work in Hollywood and has been on TV shows as varied as “Police Story,” “Mission: Impossible” and “The Magical World of Disney.” While she never did an episode of “The Love Boat,” she did find herself on “Fantasy Island.”

  • As for acting careers, Smith as “Mr. Kidd” had only five roles (two on TV) in his career, which stopped in 1987, to 111 acting credits for a still-working Glover, who was “Mr. Wint.” Glover was also in “Chinatown” as well as various TV series including “CHiPs” and “Vega$” and he died at 92 in 2025.

On the action front, the film offers a cool chase in the desert with Connery in a moon buggy being prepared for space flight by Dean’s company and the final assault scene on Gray’s HQ aboard an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico (actually shot on a rig off Southern California) is also pretty good by the standards of the day.

Plus, the film shows in a downtown Las Vegas car chase how you can just use a parking lot for action and not have to have CGI to do a good job (although I would I have thought twice about having cops in cars at night wearing motorcycle officers’ helmets and dark aviator sunglasses).

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Diamonds are Forever.”

Oh, at the end of the car chase scene Connery and St. John escape by him putting his first generation update Mustang Mach I up on two wheels and down a narrow alley. However, look closely: it goes up on its right side headed into the alley and comes out on its left side. The film shows a changeover of sides while it was IN the alley, but that was probably added (since it is to show the actors’ faces) after filmmakers realized the mistake in the stunt. If they did the stunt intentionally that way, they were apparently laying an obvious Easter egg for the audience and critics.

I’d give some more background about the plot, but you really do not need it. It’s James Bond.

In late December 1971 “Diamonds are Forever” was No. 1 at the box office for a single week before being knocked aside by Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” (click here to read my review) and set a then-record for three-day opening box office. However, “Diamonds are Forever” would make $116 million on a budget of $7.2 million (in comparison, “Dirty Harry”  would make $35 million on a $4 million budget). While I enjoy “Dirty Harry” the most of all 1971’s films, I’d say that the best movie of that year was “The French Connection” (click here to read my review). Here are the films from 1971 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Some cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • John’s birth name is Jill Arlyn Oppenheim and her nickname is “Magic;” Gray’s birth name was Donald Marshall Gray; Wood’s birth name is Svetlana Nikolaevna Gurdin; and Putter Smith’s birth name is Patrick Verne Smith.
  • “Diamonds are Forever” was nominated for an Oscar! It was for sound and lost out at the 44th annual Academy Awards presentation in 1972 to “Fiddler on the Roof with Topol (and he was nominated for best actor).
  • Dean had a remarkable life with first being a country singer whose success evolved into becoming a TV sensation. He is probably best known today for his national “Jimmy Dean” brand of sausage products. “Diamonds are Forever” was his only film until one in 1990 titled after his hit song “Big Bad John.”
  • Despite the terrible reception as “James Bond,” Lazenby was offered more 007 roles and he refused. The producers then considered Burt Reynolds, but the Bandit-to-be was unavailable and Adam West, who was TV’s “Batman” turned it down because he believed the role should go to a British actor.
  • St. John was the only primary cast member to do an episode on “The Love Boat” (click here for my look at that kitschy TV series).
  • Gray’s nickname with friends was “No Neck.”
  • Norman Burton plays the recurring character “Felix Leiter,” who is 007’s liaison with the CIA. Despite not making a mark in this one, I’m mentioning him because played the longsuffering “Lt. Roscoe” in one of my favorite films: “The Gumball Rally” (click here to read my review).
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The original plot had Gert Fröbe returning as Auric Goldfinger’s twin from Goldfinger (1964) seeking revenge for the death of his brother. This character was a Swedish billionaire with a laser mounted on a supertanker.” It’s my opinion that this would have been a great idea since Fröbe was such an outstanding villain in the 007 world!
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s extensive trivia page about the film …

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples,
©2014, ©2016, ©2018, ©2020, ©2026
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without
express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner
is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that
full and clear credit is given to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Unknown's avatar

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a Reply