I’m surprised that Bond disguising himself by pretending to make out on the street, except it’s just him with his arms wrapped around himself, never came up
And you forgot the best part, after the jealous stare of Wint after Kidd tells him Tiffany Case is attractive, Wint says "For a girl" to end Kidd's girl oggling moment. I don't know if that's "queen" stereotype or awesome writing.
Sage. Gotta love the sage version. Artery clogging American breakfast goodness. Purnells Old Folks is up there, too. Edit: Where can. I get that passport? Suits life in States these days.
Can we have the movie rankings at the end of the video shown on screen in future episodes? There's now so many that it's hard to remember the two whole lists.
My favourite joke in the “henchmen are back” climax is when one of them menacingly pulls out a corkscrew... Holds for a moment... And then pulls the cork from the bottle.
I think for 1971 having gay characters who aren't stereotypical, and are in a good relationship, and just happen to be gay was really progressive. That it was largely added by the actors explains a lot, given how the Bond writers treat women I don't see them doing that intentionally.
I'm not even a huge fan of the Bond series but this show has become appointment viewing! I will drop whatever I'm watching whenever I see a new episode come up!
When this series first popped up I thought "Eh, not for me." Then two weeks ago I put one on in the background. It hooked me enough that I listened to all so far. And now I'm so into this that over the weekend I watched "Diamonds are Forever" as homework in preparation for the video. :)
I've never watched more than five minutes of consecutive wrestling, but I still tune in to SideWalkSlam every time. Hearing LRR analyze things they're into is entertaining in itself.
@@notme222 I haven't gotten that far but I basically started the same with the "no thanks not for me" reaction. Should've known better than to doubt the LRR crew.
"If God had wanted man to fly... " "... He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd." Love this one. I love Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, I love Charles Gray as Blofeld, I even like Bambi and Thumper. However dumb and campy it is, I love it.
I always liked the scenes of Bond doing "spy" stuff in this movie, ie when he pretends to be a tenant in the apartment or a scientist in the lab. Neat to see him infiltrating just by playing off social interactions
I’m not a big fan of this film overall, but all those scenes are awesome. Tom Mankiewicz has such a knack for dialogue, no one who hates this movie can deny that it’s at least very witty.
Speaking of Sean Connery looking older here, and Roger Moore aging over his movies: Sean Connery did 6 movies over 10 years. George Lazenby did 1 movie. Roger Moore did 8 movies over 13 years. Timothy Dalton did 2 movies over 3 years. Pierce Brosnan did 4 movies over 7 years. Daniel Craig did 5 movies over 15 years. Daniel Craig did not do as many movies as Sean Connery, but he's not been doing it much longer than anyone else did.
I can only think that it was the cigarettes and booze that aged those born before 1940. After all, Connery was only 41 in 1971 and he probably made the movie when he was 40 in 1970.
@@williamh0809 That's weird that Connery was considered to be an aging Bond in "Diamonds Are Forever" when he was actually four years YOUNGER than Roger Moore in "Live And Let Die".
@@jerryshunk7152 Moore, especially from ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', was the right man at the right time (except the last film). 28.01 - 29.06 th-cam.com/video/vQ5PC7m45_0/w-d-xo.html
So I've decided to listen to this specific one because what I most remember about the movie is the explicit homophobia, which is saying something considering casual homophobia was a normal thing to me as a teenager. So I was very surprised you seemed to agree the movie doesen't frame their sexuality explicitly as a bad thing, just implicitly. Then I compared the original to the German dub... Bond's line "That's rather potent. Not the cork, your aftershave. Strong enough to bury anything." (Not too bad as puns go.) was translated "Riecht ziemlich kräftig. Nicht der Korken, ihr Aftershave. Zu süß und zu schwul." ("Smells rather strong. Not the cork, your aftershave. Too sweet and too gay.") So some prick decided the English version lacked homophobia and the Protagonist, a male role model for insecure douchebags, if there ever was one, needed to come out as decidedly anti-gay... Yay
Overall Movie Rankings G: - OHMSS (Lazenby) - From Russia with Love (Connery) - Goldfinger (Connery) - Dr. No (Connery) - You Only Live Twice (Connery) - Thunderball (Connery) - Diamonds are Forever (Connery) ... - Casino Royale 1967 (It's complicated) Matt: - From Russia with Love (Connery) - OHMSS (Lazenby) - Dr. No (Connery) - You Only Live Twice (Connery) - Goldfinger (Connery) - Thunderball (Connery) - Diamonds are Forever (Connery) ... - Casino Royale 1967 (It's complicated)
First three bond movies I conciously can remember are For your eyes only which i saw at the cinema, the Spy who loved me , and Diamonds are forever which would be from TV about that time I must have been 8ish I LOVED DaF probably because of the moon buggy. By the time of Timothy Dalton I'd seen them all multiple times, I loved OHMSS and really didn't like from Russia with Love!! still don't, Ovo I've seen the rest since and I still think OHMSS is top 3 with Skyfall and the Living Daylights!! Though there are a heap of good ones
Always felt they were so scared Bond would flop without Connery, they made OHMSS the best movie ever just to carry Lazenby. Then Connery came back, they heaved a sigh of relief and phoned in this utter piece of piffle.
Piffle, lol. This is one of maybe 3 bond movies I actively avoid. I don't know if it's just that they phoned it in, I think broccoli was as done with Connery as Connery was with them.
Its actually one of the tackier and more "youre telling me a secret agent is an open and known member of the Playboy club? Christ, no wonder everyone knows who he is, the mans a slut."
It was more of nod to Playboy's support of Ian Fleming. It started in 1960 when Playboy published the short story 'The Hildebrand Rarity' in its March issue. Coincidentally, the issue also featured a pictorial of Jill St. John, who would go on to play Tiffany Case in DAF. Playboy also serialized the novel OHMSS for American audiences over the April, May and June 1963 issues. Playboy would later go on to publish the short story 'The Property of a Lady' and 'You Only Live Twice' in upcoming issues.
Not Tacky at all in 1970 Playboy was huge because it was right in the middle of the sexual revolution hence all the sexual content of Bond Films . Its easy to judge it today in the post Reagan era war on sexuality and fun that has lasted since 1980 .
I always felt like Bond was so violent in asking people Blofeld was because he wanted revenge for the death of his wife. And after that with M, Bond’s heart just isn’t in his work anymore.
1:21:20 I mean as someone who has family in las vegas, yeah they expand out there exceptionally fast. That 2 lane road through the desert ends up being a whole-assed suburb in like 6 months time.
You know, when Lazenby's agent stepped in and said Bond was dead as a franchise, he wasn't entirely wrong. The Connery-style Bond was definitely dead, and this film shows why. Also, Eon's running out of source material if it wants to keep using Fleming's plots. The Spy Who Loved Me is basically a romance novel about a naive woman caught up in a hotel insurance scam. Moonraker's about a Nazi who wants to hit London with a rocket - not a bad idea, but kinda lacking in world-shattering drama. Live and Let Die is about someone who finds pirate gold and uses it for Nefarious Purposes. Fleming's Bond plots were never brilliant, but you can hear the bottom-of-the-barrel scrape by this point.
By this point, they were nearly to the point of trying to film ‘007 in New York’, a short story that was ultimately nothing more than James Bond’s internal monologue about food and hotels in the title city. There’s a reason that it and ‘The Hildebrandt Rarity’ have never been filmed....
Diamonds are Forever is in my top 3 Favourite Bond Movies, and possibly my most watched Bond from age 4 to present...Only 20 mins and my world has been rocked... I thought I had stumbled on a Mandela Effect, for easily over 30 years I've thought the Henchmans name was Mr. Wind and thinking the guys are pronoucing that weirdly.. but no I've been completely wrong. Please Graham and Matt continue giving me quality entertainment and re-educating my childhood memories.
Hmm. In my modern interpretation I thought "They were bold enough to give gay representation to villains. That's great for 1971." But maybe you're right and it was done along the lines of "How can we make these two even stranger?" Which would be unfortunate. I'm going to undermine that by pretending it isn't true, and instead being glad that even hired killers found love. Silva was gay in Skyfall, which I think was a good thing.
It's a step along the way. Making gays the villians had been happening for decades even when Diamonds Are Forever was new. If it was only that they were queeny villains, it would be no step forward in representation, but I do see them as differentiated from early gay-as-villain films like Rebecca (Where insane Mrs. Danvers was clearly a lesbian, but they couldn't say it in the film)
Right. But the issue is, going back to silent films, gays and lesbians were either villains or the archetype called “the sissy” meant to be looked down upon. Never “this is a normal character in the film who just happens to be gay.” That really never happened. You didn’t really see that until the 80s with Billy Crystal’s character on Soap.
I'm surprised at how relatively low you both were on the theme song, for me Diamonds are Forever is THE bond theme song above all others. It's just so damn memorable and catchy.
I had forgotten all about this movie until now. I wonder how much Gaiman's Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar were inspired by those two... Edit: I had to look it up, and apparently "Wint/Kidd and Croup/Vandermar were both inspired by the hangmen in the 1823 novel Quentin Durward".
Fun fact I just spotted - in the shot of Mr Kidd being turfed over the side of the ship, you can see the lifebelt reads Canberra - -the SS Canberra was running P&O cruises at the time, but would later transport British troops to the Falklands, then to repatriate Argentine POWs after hostilities.
Are you forgetting the gay pilots in Goldfinger? Pussy Galore was converted by Bond's ways to the other team. I haven't seen your review of that show yet.
Just traveled here from your “Die Another Day” review. I’m surprised that I had never noticed how many similarities there really are from “Diamonds Are Forever,” to “Die Another Day.” They ARE practically the same movie, except as you guys mention that D.A.D. was the extreme version of this Bond film. The altering of a person to look like another. Diamonds in a satellite that makes sunlight enhanced lasers to destroy things. The round glass floor in a villian inhabited lair. I probably missed the similarities between the two, because while I’ve seen “Diamonds Are Forever” half a trillion times since I was a kid (my dad was a huge Bond fan), I just disliked “Die Another Day” after one viewing in the theater and kind of forgot the plot/story over the years.
please consider reviewing the 1967 film "O.K. Connery" AKA Operation Kid Brother". It stared Sean Connery's Real Life Brother, Neil Connery, as the Brother of 007 being brought into the spy world.
I know realism wasn't a big thing for this movie, but I just Googled some facts. Diamonds burn at about 850°C, crematoria reach 800-1000°C. Taking a chance, weren't they?
A flatter, more 1-dimensional tv veteran actor, Roger Moore was never "my" Bond. Connery offered the most layered persona of all the Bonds, imo - simply because he was a superior actor. Even in DAF, in which he looks like an aging, hunched, out-of-shape high school principal, making it laughable when women swoon at the sight of him (more likely perceiving him as a rich dude to hit on), Connery's style prevails over all future Bonds.
I actually think the multiple tape swap scenes are great and would be much better received if the rest of Case's character wasn't made to look so bad. Bond and Case are both trying to competently complete their assignment but things get mixed up because of their lack of proper communication due to the circumstances.
I remember watching this and being all "yep, James Bond." And being...content about it. Wint And Kyd were the best part of the movie though. Also I got the Daily Drop elevator reference.
Context is important here. At this point, both Connery & Hamilton HATED Broccoli and wanted to screw him over. As such, nothing in the film is taken seriously. Everybody just kinda had fun with it at Broccoli’s expense. This is my favorite “bad” Bond movie because it’s so campy. From the effeminate “hands-up” in the pre-title sequence to 007 sodomizing Mr Wint at the end, Connery is clearly sh*tting on the character. This may be a bad Bond movie, but it is the greatest Bond parody ever made.
Really? I'm German and my perception was that it takes black people more serious than I would have expected in a 70s American movie, assuming it's because it's a British film. I'd really like to know what black Americans and British people think about it.
@@Yora21 It may well be that I only think that because I saw it 40 years after the fact, and perhaps it was fair for its day. Be interesting to see what Graham and Matt think.
Poor Tiffany. I kind of hope someone tells her about this that way she at least will see people defending her for doing what she could considering they treated her character like crap. We appreciate you Jill St John
Oh man, I love the idea of bringing back Goldfinger's twin brother. "Mr Bond, you haf defeated my brozer, Goldfinger, but now you face me, Diamondtoe!"
When Tiffany Case comes homes she asks Bond what her brunette wig is doing in the pool which explains why Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd mistakenly killed Plenty O’Toole.
Hey google, what temperature are bodies cremated at? -During the cremation process, the furnace reaches temperatures around 1800° F. Hey google, what temperature do diamonds burn at? -Diamonds will burn at about 1562°F (850°C). House fires and jewelers' torches can reach that temperature. Uh oh.
So my thoughts on Tiffany Case. If you look at the previous Connery bond films Only 2 have better Female stories? Maybe? She didn't accidentally stumble into the situation ( Dr. No), definitely better than you only live twice female situation, You can debate between this , thunder ball and from Russia with love as are are on about the same level. All the women are involved in some way and once they have gotten involved with bond are along for the ride. Not saying she is great, but I think she believes she is a big fish, and over the course of the movie finds out how small a cog she was in the machine. It should be more humorous, but kind of falls flat.
I just noticed this: in the opening title, we see Bond walking in disguised as a doctor. We then see the Dr he knocked out on the ground, *still clearly wearing his uniform that Bond ostensibly stole from him for his disguise*
That is not exactly how the cat thing worked. Bond realized which was supposedly the real Blofeld because of which one the cat was hanging out by. Kicking the cat to him was merely a way of getting him to jump, and in catching the cat would be unable to reach for a weapon, giving Bond the opening to shoot him in the head. It was only then that the REAL cat (with the diamond necklace) came out, giving a swipe at the fake one before coming over to who was actually the real Blofeld. "Right idea, Mr. Bond" - "... but wrong pussy"
@@loadingreadyrun What I heard was that kicking the cat determined who the real Blofeld was, where it was the existence of the cat was the actual clue. It didn't matter where the cat went, merely the fact that the cat was hanging next to Blofeld 2 that was his clue. Kicking it was just a distraction to give him his opening to shoot him.
I find it hilarious that it is give or take now if the episode is going to be shorter or longer than the movie. I would also argue that it retconned HMSS. I mean the movie starts with Bond hunting across the globe for the man who killed his wife.
So, I watched this film yesterday with my sister, and we found the "plot" to be horrendously contrived. I'll add that I found the back-to-back moon buggy and Vegas car chases to be too much car chase in a row. And both my sister and I were shocked at the problematic circus act ya'll mentioned, because wow. Just wow. I do wish there'd been more of a Q "here are your gadgets, Bond" type of scene. I like those scenes. Overall, I don't mind having rewatched it for the first time in a very long time, but the film fell very flat for me. At least my sister had gone over Howard Hughes a few days prior due to some unrelated conversation so we had context for Willard Whyte.
His rampaging in the beginning in only so many words is clearly him trying to avenge Tracy’s death. Bond thinks he gets his revenge on Blofeld and clearly doesn’t until the beginning of For Your Eyes Only.
In the first scene after gunbarrel, Bond is still in Japan looking for Blofeld, only because he is the head of a global criminal organization. There is no reference to Tracy, to his marriage and there is no Draco and Irma Bunt. ''Diamonds Are Forever'' is a sequel of ''You Only Live Twice''.
Easy answers to those things: Bond’s search eventually lead him back to Japan after searching Austria and other areas around it, Draco was searching for Blofeld somewhere else and/or had nothing else to do with Bond because he partially blamed him and Bunt is either dead or in hiding.
In Skyfall The way it is played it seems like he is just trying to make Bond uncomfortable & unsettle him - but when Bond also implies that he’s had some kind of sexual encounters with men (when he says ‘what makes you think it’s my first time’ ) Silva moves on & never comes back to it. Presumably any male encounters by either of them were work-based rather than personal preference. Silva also seemed to be in a relationship with Severine who is female which would suggest that if anything he would be bisexual rather than gay.
@28:20, you bring up an interesting point. Is Blowfeld Spectre? Is everything he does considered to be for Spectre? No one calls Blowfeld "number 1" nor does he call anyone else by a number. Maybe Specter has been disbanded or just taken apart by Bond. Maybe all those guys in the beginning Bond was beating information out of were the last members of Spectre. Could have been an interesting plot point.
This movie is a rough one to have right after OHMSS, which has the side effect of making me question if I ever liked Connery as Bond? Not exactly as a crisis of faith, but dang. Going to go back and watch Dr No and You Only Live Twice before calling it, but it's a bit of a shock. Totally expecting later actors to be below Connery in my own rankings but... ugh. Goldfinger was definitely better than this one though (with the exception of the bond girl interactions, which Goldfinger is *hopefully* going to stay the worst)
I have been wondering that since I watched all the movies again two years ago. Goldfinger and From Russia with Love are great movies, but the other four I find not worth rewatching. And Connery's performance in those two is solid, but nothing that really impresses me these days.
I like this one purely on a camp basis: laser-firing satellites, moon cars, ocean-based oil rigs, 70's Vegas, Jill St.John's beehive hairdo, Jimmy Dean's Pure Pork Sausage (okay, it's not IN the film, but for any American of the era NOT to make the connection would require Herculean efforts mentally)... -how the gun got in the mashed spuds. er, mud, is one question. What the hell was the guy using it going to do when the gunk-stuffed barrel blew his hand off is another. Coat it in melted butter? -Hollywood executive: "We're paying you enough money, Connery, for you to handle the smell. Besides, aren't you supposed to _like_ potatoes where you come from? Oh, that's Ireland. And you're a Scotsman. Fuck it, who cares?" -I do like Charles Gray in everything he's done. But these days I keep expecting Blofeld to tell us his plan to do the Time Warp. -As I said back at "Goldfinger," this is my second favorite Bond theme, and when we get to it my 3rd fave is going to make folks give me serious side-eye. -Naturally, this plot is WAY the hell away from the original book, which was just a simple diamond smuggling ring. It still takes place mostly in Vegas, but it ends back at the South African mine from the start of the story, where Bond uses an AA gun to shoot down the head of the ring as he tries to fly away in a helicopter. -In the book, Wint & Kidd are just a couple of standard mob thugs, with about as much chemistry as a bowl of spa potatoes (yes, we're going to call back the spuds). In the movie... In '73 when I first saw the film on TV, the duo kind of confused me. I was a small boy, growing up in the 70's, and I was raised Catholic. Said confusion lifted roughly around the same time I gave up Catholicism for Lent before the decade was out. None of that changes the fact that the duo completely steal the show from the rest of the cast, and they are the most memorable characters in the entire film, and yes that includes Bond. Nowadays they'd have ACT-UP and half of Hollywood calling for their scalps, but things were simpler (dumber) back then. -Hovercrafts will never NOT be cool. -That joke about Tiffany's name landed just as poorly in '71 as it does in 2020, because Van Cleef & Arpels is a /French/ jewelry firm and thus too "frou frou" for the average 'MERICAN to know. -Cheap, tacky, and gross. If you add in "hot as Hell" and you have the authentic Vegas experience. I'd like to see a Bond movie where they have to do a scene in one of the Indian Gaming centers. "You will find your contact at Casino Morongo. The buffet is half off on weekdays!" -My headcannon on the Plenty O'Toole killing is that it was Wint & Kidd's day off and Blofeld sent in second stringers. -Before gear is used for space missions, it's customary to test it in conditions that try to simulate the feel of wherever it is the gear will be used, and the moon set was a very bad attempt at showing this.There _is_ a movie where they showed a space mission being faked called "Capricorn One," but that was done six years later. (And if you can, see this movie. It's great.) -Somewhere in Las Vegas is an alleyway shaped like a Mobius strip. -The entire pipe sequence is wacky as hell. BUT, this is not the only time we'll see a pipeline pig in a Bond movie. -There people who think that Bambi & Thumper were meant to be a distaff version of Wint & Kidd, but the actresses involved weren't working together like the males ones were. And you know what they say: No Glover, no lover. (I'll go stand in the corner.) -Over all, I call this the point where the silly goes over the top for the series, and doesn't really recover until after Moore's stint. But I till find it more enjoyable than... yeah, I'm gonna keep harping on it.
He could have taped the gun barrel before going for a mud soak, or something similar. Why Blofeld thought his doubles needed such protection in the treatment (but not like, a guard?) I don't know. Maybe that guy in particular was just super paranoid. But everyone knew the name and association of Tiffany's jewelry at the time: that's the whole plot of an iconic movie from the era, isn't it?
I have to disagree on Mr Wint and Mr Kidd. You want progression and equality, then them being villains is a perfect example of this. Easily the best part of the movie, and two of the best villains of the Bond franchise.
" Bert Saxbee ", was played by Bruce Cabot. He did dozens of films with John Wayne, who got him into this film. He was ill, and passed away shortly after its release.
I wonder if the reason the fight with Bambi and Thumper went that way was because Bond is in the Bittish Navy, so the writers thought he had training in underwater combat? Not well-explained in the movie though.
Once again a highly entertaining podcast. We've gone straight from probably my favourite Bond movie of all time in OHMSS to one of my least preferred entries in the series. Connery has some great comedic moments, but I just think he looks weird and out of shape here. In the early movies he was both incredibly suave and seemed like he could kick your ass, but that's really not the case here. Charles Gray is also awfully miscast as Blofeld and I didn't care for most of the action scenes aside from the elevator fight. The climax I think is particularly dull with Bond willingly getting himself captured in a vain, drawn out attempt at switching the tapes and then afterwards he just swings Blofeld's escape pod around during the battle. I'm also not crazy about the really hammy acting from from many of the supporting cast like Plenty O'Toole and even Willard Whyte, whom you enjoyed. It's clearly meant to be over the top, but I just feel like this type of acting belongs more in a Pink Panther movie or a Monty Python skit than in a Bond film.
The backstory for the Howard Hughes connections becomes apparent from Cubby Broccoli's autobiography. Cubby was basically Hughes's wingman in the 30s and Hughes made it clear that the movie had his approval.
The series has implied that other characters were gay prior to "Diamonds Are Forever." "From Russia with Love" implies that Rosa Klebb is a lesbian by having her ogle and briefly grope Tatiana Romanova when she interviews her. In the book of "Goldfinger", Pussy Galore is a lesbian who is turned by Bond, and while the film never overtly refers to this, it's supposed to be implied by her Flying Circus show consisting entirely of attractive women and her remark about being immune to Bond's charm. I think they couldn't be explicit about it, so it's subtly inferred rathern than explicit as with Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd
There's one huge piece Matt and Graham didn't mention about this movie and that's the real-life feud Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) and Lana Wood (Plenty O'Toole) have for each other. Apparently, Connery was romantically linked with both Wood and St. John during filming, which made for tension on set. Later, in 1981, Lana's sister, Natalie, drowned while yachting with her then husband, Robert Wagner (Number 2 in Austin Powers). A year later, St. John and Wagner began dating and the two eventually got married in 1990. In a 1999 Bond Girl reunion, St. John refused to be photographed with Wood and in 2016, Wood confronted Wagner and St. John at an event honoring the latter about Natalie Wood's drowning case being reopened. Oh, what a tangled web Diamonds weaved
I always figured what Tiffany spotted in the Casino was the diamonds on Blofeld's cat's collar. She had been dealing with them, so seeing a pet wearing a £10k necklace might strike her as odd.
I’m surprised that Bond disguising himself by pretending to make out on the street, except it’s just him with his arms wrapped around himself, never came up
Yeah, and it didn't look convincing.
That's a classic kid's prank to impress people at school lol!
Jimmy Dean Sausage is HUGE in the USA! You can get it in every store that sells groceries, big or small.
And you forgot the best part, after the jealous stare of Wint after Kidd tells him Tiffany Case is attractive, Wint says "For a girl" to end Kidd's girl oggling moment. I don't know if that's "queen" stereotype or awesome writing.
What a great Sean Connery shrug screenshot.
In reality a lot of African mines at the time used to Xray workers EVERY DAY so they couldn't smuggle diamonds out.
"It was a very strange thing". Yeah guys Bond films have many sucg
Jimmy Dean is still sold in the US and is DELICIOUS. 10/10.
Sage. Gotta love the sage version. Artery clogging American breakfast goodness. Purnells Old Folks is up there, too.
Edit: Where can. I get that passport? Suits life in States these days.
Big Bad John...
Can we have the movie rankings at the end of the video shown on screen in future episodes? There's now so many that it's hard to remember the two whole lists.
Hmm. Solid idea.
@@loadingreadyrun It should now be called "Yora's List".
Presumably the baddies are faking the Apollo 15 mission, which was in August ‘71 and featured the first moon rover?
Yes, there were six moon landings between July 69 and December 72, there wasn't just one manned landing as a lot of people think!
@@philipcorner574 Fun fact...the last man to walk on on the moon was Gene Cernan...
@@mikepatrick5909 I know, I read his autobiography!
My favourite joke in the “henchmen are back” climax is when one of them menacingly pulls out a corkscrew... Holds for a moment... And then pulls the cork from the bottle.
"The pool is James Bond's natural habitat" I lost it XD
Yes, Jimmy dean is still a known name for sausages in the states.
Yep, they still use clips of him in commercials.
@@Endocrom He's the Colonel Sanders of breakfast sausage..
I think for 1971 having gay characters who aren't stereotypical, and are in a good relationship, and just happen to be gay was really progressive. That it was largely added by the actors explains a lot, given how the Bond writers treat women I don't see them doing that intentionally.
I'm not even a huge fan of the Bond series but this show has become appointment viewing!
I will drop whatever I'm watching whenever I see a new episode come up!
When this series first popped up I thought "Eh, not for me." Then two weeks ago I put one on in the background. It hooked me enough that I listened to all so far. And now I'm so into this that over the weekend I watched "Diamonds are Forever" as homework in preparation for the video. :)
I've never watched more than five minutes of consecutive wrestling, but I still tune in to SideWalkSlam every time. Hearing LRR analyze things they're into is entertaining in itself.
@@notme222 I haven't gotten that far but I basically started the same with the "no thanks not for me" reaction.
Should've known better than to doubt the LRR crew.
@@havcola6983 IT REALLY IS!!
@@notme222 I also watched the movie again to be ready for this episode. Plan to do same going forward
Bond's quip after Plenty gives her full name is the best. "Named for your father, no doubt."
I really am not sure. Was that another homophobic joke?
@@Yora21 It was a reference to the size of her dad's penis.
She is reckoned to be the inspiration for the Austin Powers bit part character Dixie Normous.
Charles Gray is a pretty good villain in The Devil Rides Out, and as a Satanist (again) in an episode of the British TV show Bergerac.
@@Yora21 I think it's just a normal dick joke, not a homophobic one.
Best thing about this movie is Shirley Bassey singing the title track.
Thr opening or closing one? 😁
Fun piece of trivia: When Bond speaks Dutch to fool mr.Franks he's actually speaking German, not Dutch.
"If God had wanted man to fly... "
"... He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd."
Love this one. I love Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, I love Charles Gray as Blofeld, I even like Bambi and Thumper. However dumb and campy it is, I love it.
weren't Mr Kidd and Mr Wint basically transplanted as bad guys in the Kids Next Door cartoon?
@@davidtee5367 Never really watched it, so I don't know.
@@davidtee5367 Yes, they are a direct parody in the form of "Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb"
Don't forget, Mr. Wint had his pre-one-liner to the helicopter contact about how the dentist couldn't make it. He was bitten by the bug.
"There's various uses for pigs." - Graham Stark, 2020
I think there is genuinely a t-shirt, patch, or immensely detailed, painstaking embroidery to auction at Desert Bus in this quote and image.
I have no idea why that got me so bad
I always liked the scenes of Bond doing "spy" stuff in this movie, ie when he pretends to be a tenant in the apartment or a scientist in the lab. Neat to see him infiltrating just by playing off social interactions
Sneaking into the lab and also the climbing on the roof are probably my two favorite parts of this movie that I remember fondly.
I’m not a big fan of this film overall, but all those scenes are awesome. Tom Mankiewicz has such a knack for dialogue, no one who hates this movie can deny that it’s at least very witty.
"Allright were going to remake Goldfinger, whats one better than Gold?
"Diamonds!"
Speaking of Sean Connery looking older here, and Roger Moore aging over his movies:
Sean Connery did 6 movies over 10 years.
George Lazenby did 1 movie.
Roger Moore did 8 movies over 13 years.
Timothy Dalton did 2 movies over 3 years.
Pierce Brosnan did 4 movies over 7 years.
Daniel Craig did 5 movies over 15 years.
Daniel Craig did not do as many movies as Sean Connery, but he's not been doing it much longer than anyone else did.
Roger was by far the worst!
I can only think that it was the cigarettes and booze that aged those born before 1940. After all, Connery was only 41 in 1971 and he probably made the movie when he was 40 in 1970.
@@williamh0809 That's weird that Connery was considered to be an aging Bond in "Diamonds Are Forever" when he was actually four years YOUNGER than Roger Moore in "Live And Let Die".
@@jerryshunk7152 Moore, especially from ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', was the right man at the right time (except the last film).
28.01 - 29.06 th-cam.com/video/vQ5PC7m45_0/w-d-xo.html
@@williamh0809
Filming Dates 5 April 1971 - 7 September 1971
So I've decided to listen to this specific one because what I most remember about the movie is the explicit homophobia, which is saying something considering casual homophobia was a normal thing to me as a teenager. So I was very surprised you seemed to agree the movie doesen't frame their sexuality explicitly as a bad thing, just implicitly. Then I compared the original to the German dub... Bond's line "That's rather potent. Not the cork, your aftershave. Strong enough to bury anything." (Not too bad as puns go.) was translated "Riecht ziemlich kräftig. Nicht der Korken, ihr Aftershave. Zu süß und zu schwul." ("Smells rather strong. Not the cork, your aftershave. Too sweet and too gay.")
So some prick decided the English version lacked homophobia and the Protagonist, a male role model for insecure douchebags, if there ever was one, needed to come out as decidedly anti-gay... Yay
Overall Movie Rankings
G:
- OHMSS (Lazenby)
- From Russia with Love (Connery)
- Goldfinger (Connery)
- Dr. No (Connery)
- You Only Live Twice (Connery)
- Thunderball (Connery)
- Diamonds are Forever (Connery)
...
- Casino Royale 1967 (It's complicated)
Matt:
- From Russia with Love (Connery)
- OHMSS (Lazenby)
- Dr. No (Connery)
- You Only Live Twice (Connery)
- Goldfinger (Connery)
- Thunderball (Connery)
- Diamonds are Forever (Connery)
...
- Casino Royale 1967 (It's complicated)
It's complicated lol. Maybe a spreadsheet is needed at some point.
First three bond movies I conciously can remember are For your eyes only which i saw at the cinema, the Spy who loved me , and Diamonds are forever which would be from TV about that time I must have been 8ish I LOVED DaF probably because of the moon buggy. By the time of Timothy Dalton I'd seen them all multiple times, I loved OHMSS and really didn't like from Russia with Love!! still don't, Ovo I've seen the rest since and I still think OHMSS is top 3 with Skyfall and the Living Daylights!! Though there are a heap of good ones
Always felt they were so scared Bond would flop without Connery, they made OHMSS the best movie ever just to carry Lazenby. Then Connery came back, they heaved a sigh of relief and phoned in this utter piece of piffle.
Best ever. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Piffle, lol. This is one of maybe 3 bond movies I actively avoid. I don't know if it's just that they phoned it in, I think broccoli was as done with Connery as Connery was with them.
@@minutiaminute you're entitled to your silly opinions
@oriolesfan61 well said coming from an orioles fan!
#camdenyardstrike2023
It isn't a credit card that they pull up from franks it's a Playboy member card. So Tacky.
Its actually one of the tackier and more "youre telling me a secret agent is an open and known member of the Playboy club? Christ, no wonder everyone knows who he is, the mans a slut."
It was more of nod to Playboy's support of Ian Fleming. It started in 1960 when Playboy published the short story 'The Hildebrand Rarity' in its March issue. Coincidentally, the issue also featured a pictorial of Jill St. John, who would go on to play Tiffany Case in DAF. Playboy also serialized the novel OHMSS for American audiences over the April, May and June 1963 issues. Playboy would later go on to publish the short story 'The Property of a Lady' and 'You Only Live Twice' in upcoming issues.
Not Tacky at all in 1970 Playboy was huge because it was right in the middle of the sexual revolution hence all the sexual content of Bond Films . Its easy to judge it today in the post Reagan era war on sexuality and fun that has lasted since 1980 .
I always felt like Bond was so violent in asking people Blofeld was because he wanted revenge for the death of his wife. And after that with M, Bond’s heart just isn’t in his work anymore.
1:21:20 I mean as someone who has family in las vegas, yeah they expand out there exceptionally fast. That 2 lane road through the desert ends up being a whole-assed suburb in like 6 months time.
You know, when Lazenby's agent stepped in and said Bond was dead as a franchise, he wasn't entirely wrong. The Connery-style Bond was definitely dead, and this film shows why. Also, Eon's running out of source material if it wants to keep using Fleming's plots. The Spy Who Loved Me is basically a romance novel about a naive woman caught up in a hotel insurance scam. Moonraker's about a Nazi who wants to hit London with a rocket - not a bad idea, but kinda lacking in world-shattering drama. Live and Let Die is about someone who finds pirate gold and uses it for Nefarious Purposes. Fleming's Bond plots were never brilliant, but you can hear the bottom-of-the-barrel scrape by this point.
By this point, they were nearly to the point of trying to film ‘007 in New York’, a short story that was ultimately nothing more than James Bond’s internal monologue about food and hotels in the title city. There’s a reason that it and ‘The Hildebrandt Rarity’ have never been filmed....
Diamonds are Forever is in my top 3 Favourite Bond Movies, and possibly my most watched Bond from age 4 to present...Only 20 mins and my world has been rocked... I thought I had stumbled on a Mandela Effect, for easily over 30 years I've thought the Henchmans name was Mr. Wind and thinking the guys are pronoucing that weirdly.. but no I've been completely wrong. Please Graham and Matt continue giving me quality entertainment and re-educating my childhood memories.
Oh hey it's Monday! Rewatch hype!
These guys don't bring up that Connery was so out of shape.
He was in much better shape for Never Say Never Again!
Hmm. In my modern interpretation I thought "They were bold enough to give gay representation to villains. That's great for 1971." But maybe you're right and it was done along the lines of "How can we make these two even stranger?" Which would be unfortunate. I'm going to undermine that by pretending it isn't true, and instead being glad that even hired killers found love.
Silva was gay in Skyfall, which I think was a good thing.
It's a step along the way. Making gays the villians had been happening for decades even when Diamonds Are Forever was new. If it was only that they were queeny villains, it would be no step forward in representation, but I do see them as differentiated from early gay-as-villain films like Rebecca (Where insane Mrs. Danvers was clearly a lesbian, but they couldn't say it in the film)
The result is certainly interesting. But it's clear the intention wasn't meant to be positive.
Don't forget Rosa Klebb, it's pretty obvious in her interview with Tatiana.
The characters in the book, which was published in 1956, were also gay.
Right. But the issue is, going back to silent films, gays and lesbians were either villains or the archetype called “the sissy” meant to be looked down upon.
Never “this is a normal character in the film who just happens to be gay.” That really never happened. You didn’t really see that until the 80s with Billy Crystal’s character on Soap.
1.5 million for the lead star is a lot.
Especially for a movie with a budget of 7.2 million. That's a fifth of the total budget.
Neil Gaiman essentially borrowed the characters of Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd with his assassin dueo Croup and Vandemar in the novel Neverwhere.
I have to say, not knowing "Jimmy Dean" name might be the most Canadian moment in the show so far.
Heck, in MY part of Canada, you can find Jimmy Dean sausages in the stores...definitely overshadowed by the big local brands, but they're there...
I'm surprised at how relatively low you both were on the theme song, for me Diamonds are Forever is THE bond theme song above all others. It's just so damn memorable and catchy.
it's better than goldfinger
Same. Best Bassey song, even better than Goldfinger imo
I had forgotten all about this movie until now. I wonder how much Gaiman's Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar were inspired by those two... Edit: I had to look it up, and apparently "Wint/Kidd and Croup/Vandermar were both inspired by the hangmen in the 1823 novel Quentin Durward".
Those Ken Adam sets are a health and safety nightmare - did Adam think that handrails on staircases aren't sexy?
This show is a highlight of my week! Keep up the awesome work.
I finally understand the Funky Brothers: Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb
from Codename: Kids Next Door.
Gay person in 2020 here, no issues with the portrayal of homosexuals in this movie.
Fun fact I just spotted - in the shot of Mr Kidd being turfed over the side of the ship, you can see the lifebelt reads Canberra - -the SS Canberra was running P&O cruises at the time, but would later transport British troops to the Falklands, then to repatriate Argentine POWs after hostilities.
Are you forgetting the gay pilots in Goldfinger? Pussy Galore was converted by Bond's ways to the other team. I haven't seen your review of that show yet.
in the movie they could only hint at the lesbianism, Wint and Kidd are the first time it's overt
There's Klebb as well.
Very well Matt as you wish. I love Thunderball so be behind the gym after school and we shall fight irl :P.
Just traveled here from your “Die Another Day” review. I’m surprised that I had never noticed how many similarities there really are from “Diamonds Are Forever,” to “Die Another Day.” They ARE practically the same movie, except as you guys mention that D.A.D. was the extreme version of this Bond film.
The altering of a person to look like another.
Diamonds in a satellite that makes sunlight enhanced lasers to destroy things.
The round glass floor in a villian inhabited lair.
I probably missed the similarities between the two, because while I’ve seen “Diamonds Are Forever” half a trillion times since I was a kid (my dad was a huge Bond fan), I just disliked “Die Another Day” after one viewing in the theater and kind of forgot the plot/story over the years.
That astronaut bit is maybe my favourite joke in any Bond film.
Astronaut was good, yes. But the best ever joke was in NSNA(1983): "There was this girl in Philadelphia!".
please consider reviewing the 1967 film "O.K. Connery" AKA Operation Kid Brother". It stared Sean Connery's Real Life Brother, Neil Connery, as the Brother of 007 being brought into the spy world.
They mentioned it in one of the first few episodes.
I know realism wasn't a big thing for this movie, but I just Googled some facts. Diamonds burn at about 850°C, crematoria reach 800-1000°C. Taking a chance, weren't they?
A flatter, more 1-dimensional tv veteran actor, Roger Moore was never "my" Bond. Connery offered the most layered persona of all the Bonds, imo - simply because he was a superior actor. Even in DAF, in which he looks like an aging, hunched, out-of-shape high school principal, making it laughable when women swoon at the sight of him (more likely perceiving him as a rich dude to hit on), Connery's style prevails over all future Bonds.
What's with all the Thunderball comparisons at the end there? C'mon, guys, can't we all just get beyond Thunderball?
[ducks rotten tomatoes]
I disagree with 90 % of their words but super to listen anyway
Just want to thank Graham, Matt and Matt for giving me a reason to look forward to Monday.
I appreciate Matt sneaking some jokes into the editing, "Fight me IRL" one got me xD
I actually think the multiple tape swap scenes are great and would be much better received if the rest of Case's character wasn't made to look so bad. Bond and Case are both trying to competently complete their assignment but things get mixed up because of their lack of proper communication due to the circumstances.
I remember watching this and being all "yep, James Bond." And being...content about it. Wint And Kyd were the best part of the movie though.
Also I got the Daily Drop elevator reference.
Context is important here. At this point, both Connery & Hamilton HATED Broccoli and wanted to screw him over. As such, nothing in the film is taken seriously. Everybody just kinda had fun with it at Broccoli’s expense. This is my favorite “bad” Bond movie because it’s so campy. From the effeminate “hands-up” in the pre-title sequence to 007 sodomizing Mr Wint at the end, Connery is clearly sh*tting on the character. This may be a bad Bond movie, but it is the greatest Bond parody ever made.
Interested to see what you think of live and let die. I rewatched it a couple of years ago and thought it was pretty racist
Really? I'm German and my perception was that it takes black people more serious than I would have expected in a 70s American movie, assuming it's because it's a British film.
I'd really like to know what black Americans and British people think about it.
@@Yora21 It may well be that I only think that because I saw it 40 years after the fact, and perhaps it was fair for its day. Be interesting to see what Graham and Matt think.
Not that any Bond timeline is important but I like to place DAF after YOLT and before OHMSS
Fun fact: 2 days from the release of this episode on the 19th is Jill St John‘s(Tiffany Case) 80th birthday.
Poor Tiffany. I kind of hope someone tells her about this that way she at least will see people defending her for doing what she could considering they treated her character like crap. We appreciate you Jill St John
RIP Sean Connery, thanks for so many great films.
I'm still behind on this podcast, and was just about to watch this episode when I heard :-(
You mentioned Connery’s movie The Offence: it’s a good film, though very gritty and downbeat. It was filmed in my hometown of Bracknell in the UK.
My dad's favorite bond is also Roger Moore. I'm looking forward to watching For Your Eyes Only together with him prior to that episode.
Started watching these in order recently... viewing for 1st time. I think Moore is awesome. Like Connery, Love Moore.
Oh man, I love the idea of bringing back Goldfinger's twin brother. "Mr Bond, you haf defeated my brozer, Goldfinger, but now you face me, Diamondtoe!"
When Tiffany Case comes homes she asks Bond what her brunette wig is doing in the pool which explains why Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd mistakenly killed Plenty O’Toole.
Hey google, what temperature are bodies cremated at?
-During the cremation process, the furnace reaches temperatures around 1800° F.
Hey google, what temperature do diamonds burn at?
-Diamonds will burn at about 1562°F (850°C). House fires and jewelers' torches can reach that temperature.
Uh oh.
Wait, diamonds can burn?
Yep: ----> th-cam.com/video/n0wvDwSnzcw/w-d-xo.html
Isn’t there a villain couple in Kids Next Door inspired by the henchmen?
Yes they were inspired by Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint
@@josephdanieljirehdimacali4418 that's what I thought. As soon as G started describing the hentchmen, I knew something seemed familiar.
So my thoughts on Tiffany Case. If you look at the previous Connery bond films Only 2 have better Female stories? Maybe? She didn't accidentally stumble into the situation ( Dr. No), definitely better than you only live twice female situation, You can debate between this , thunder ball and from Russia with love as are are on about the same level. All the women are involved in some way and once they have gotten involved with bond are along for the ride. Not saying she is great, but I think she believes she is a big fish, and over the course of the movie finds out how small a cog she was in the machine. It should be more humorous, but kind of falls flat.
I just noticed this: in the opening title, we see Bond walking in disguised as a doctor. We then see the Dr he knocked out on the ground, *still clearly wearing his uniform that Bond ostensibly stole from him for his disguise*
That is not exactly how the cat thing worked. Bond realized which was supposedly the real Blofeld because of which one the cat was hanging out by. Kicking the cat to him was merely a way of getting him to jump, and in catching the cat would be unable to reach for a weapon, giving Bond the opening to shoot him in the head.
It was only then that the REAL cat (with the diamond necklace) came out, giving a swipe at the fake one before coming over to who was actually the real Blofeld.
"Right idea, Mr. Bond" - "... but wrong pussy"
I think that's actually what we said, just that it *looked* like Bond kicked the cat directly at one of the Blofelds.
@@loadingreadyrun What I heard was that kicking the cat determined who the real Blofeld was, where it was the existence of the cat was the actual clue. It didn't matter where the cat went, merely the fact that the cat was hanging next to Blofeld 2 that was his clue. Kicking it was just a distraction to give him his opening to shoot him.
I find it hilarious that it is give or take now if the episode is going to be shorter or longer than the movie.
I would also argue that it retconned HMSS. I mean the movie starts with Bond hunting across the globe for the man who killed his wife.
So, I watched this film yesterday with my sister, and we found the "plot" to be horrendously contrived.
I'll add that I found the back-to-back moon buggy and Vegas car chases to be too much car chase in a row. And both my sister and I were shocked at the problematic circus act ya'll mentioned, because wow. Just wow.
I do wish there'd been more of a Q "here are your gadgets, Bond" type of scene. I like those scenes.
Overall, I don't mind having rewatched it for the first time in a very long time, but the film fell very flat for me. At least my sister had gone over Howard Hughes a few days prior due to some unrelated conversation so we had context for Willard Whyte.
Mr Wint and Mr Kidd killing the dentist with a scorpion is silly...A scorpion bite isn't usually fatal and won't kill you in seconds.
His rampaging in the beginning in only so many words is clearly him trying to avenge Tracy’s death. Bond thinks he gets his revenge on Blofeld and clearly doesn’t until the beginning of For Your Eyes Only.
In the first scene after gunbarrel, Bond is still in Japan looking for Blofeld, only because he is the head of a global criminal organization. There is no reference to Tracy, to his marriage and there is no Draco and Irma Bunt. ''Diamonds Are Forever'' is a sequel of ''You Only Live Twice''.
Easy answers to those things: Bond’s search eventually lead him back to Japan after searching Austria and other areas around it, Draco was searching for Blofeld somewhere else and/or had nothing else to do with Bond because he partially blamed him and Bunt is either dead or in hiding.
I’m quite positive that the villain of skyfall is gay, or heavily implied to be.
In Skyfall The way it is played it seems like he is just trying to make Bond uncomfortable & unsettle him - but when Bond also implies that he’s had some kind of sexual encounters with men (when he says ‘what makes you think it’s my first time’ ) Silva moves on & never comes back to it. Presumably any male encounters by either of them were work-based rather than personal preference. Silva also seemed to be in a relationship with Severine who is female which would suggest that if anything he would be bisexual rather than gay.
Jimmy Dean sausages are still huge in the US. I'd even say his name is more well known to the average American for sausage than music nowadays.
@28:20, you bring up an interesting point. Is Blowfeld Spectre? Is everything he does considered to be for Spectre? No one calls Blowfeld "number 1" nor does he call anyone else by a number. Maybe Specter has been disbanded or just taken apart by Bond. Maybe all those guys in the beginning Bond was beating information out of were the last members of Spectre. Could have been an interesting plot point.
The sideshow " Mad Scientist ", was played by Jay Sarnow, who at the time owned Circus Circus, and Caesars Palace. He wanted a small part in the film.
I know this is the wrong show, but I'd love a button with "There's various uses for pigs." on it.
The Jimmy Dean brand of sausages is absolutely still a thing.
This movie is a rough one to have right after OHMSS, which has the side effect of making me question if I ever liked Connery as Bond?
Not exactly as a crisis of faith, but dang. Going to go back and watch Dr No and You Only Live Twice before calling it, but it's a bit of a shock.
Totally expecting later actors to be below Connery in my own rankings but... ugh.
Goldfinger was definitely better than this one though (with the exception of the bond girl interactions, which Goldfinger is *hopefully* going to stay the worst)
Man With the Golden Gun is very, very not great for women.
[G] I’d say this one is worse, in terms of characters for women.
@@Paxford0502 oh. Well not looking forward to that then.
@@loadingreadyrun I'm weighting one interaction as way worse then the sum here, but that's a fair call G
I have been wondering that since I watched all the movies again two years ago.
Goldfinger and From Russia with Love are great movies, but the other four I find not worth rewatching. And Connery's performance in those two is solid, but nothing that really impresses me these days.
One of the highlights of my week! Thanks for helping me get through Monday guys! Can’t wait to hear your takes on the Roger Moore era!
I like this one purely on a camp basis: laser-firing satellites, moon cars, ocean-based oil rigs, 70's Vegas, Jill St.John's beehive hairdo, Jimmy Dean's Pure Pork Sausage (okay, it's not IN the film, but for any American of the era NOT to make the connection would require Herculean efforts mentally)...
-how the gun got in the mashed spuds. er, mud, is one question. What the hell was the guy using it going to do when the gunk-stuffed barrel blew his hand off is another. Coat it in melted butter?
-Hollywood executive: "We're paying you enough money, Connery, for you to handle the smell. Besides, aren't you supposed to _like_ potatoes where you come from? Oh, that's Ireland. And you're a Scotsman. Fuck it, who cares?"
-I do like Charles Gray in everything he's done. But these days I keep expecting Blofeld to tell us his plan to do the Time Warp.
-As I said back at "Goldfinger," this is my second favorite Bond theme, and when we get to it my 3rd fave is going to make folks give me serious side-eye.
-Naturally, this plot is WAY the hell away from the original book, which was just a simple diamond smuggling ring. It still takes place mostly in Vegas, but it ends back at the South African mine from the start of the story, where Bond uses an AA gun to shoot down the head of the ring as he tries to fly away in a helicopter.
-In the book, Wint & Kidd are just a couple of standard mob thugs, with about as much chemistry as a bowl of spa potatoes (yes, we're going to call back the spuds). In the movie... In '73 when I first saw the film on TV, the duo kind of confused me. I was a small boy, growing up in the 70's, and I was raised Catholic. Said confusion lifted roughly around the same time I gave up Catholicism for Lent before the decade was out. None of that changes the fact that the duo completely steal the show from the rest of the cast, and they are the most memorable characters in the entire film, and yes that includes Bond. Nowadays they'd have ACT-UP and half of Hollywood calling for their scalps, but things were simpler (dumber) back then.
-Hovercrafts will never NOT be cool.
-That joke about Tiffany's name landed just as poorly in '71 as it does in 2020, because Van Cleef & Arpels is a /French/ jewelry firm and thus too "frou frou" for the average 'MERICAN to know.
-Cheap, tacky, and gross. If you add in "hot as Hell" and you have the authentic Vegas experience. I'd like to see a Bond movie where they have to do a scene in one of the Indian Gaming centers. "You will find your contact at Casino Morongo. The buffet is half off on weekdays!"
-My headcannon on the Plenty O'Toole killing is that it was Wint & Kidd's day off and Blofeld sent in second stringers.
-Before gear is used for space missions, it's customary to test it in conditions that try to simulate the feel of wherever it is the gear will be used, and the moon set was a very bad attempt at showing this.There _is_ a movie where they showed a space mission being faked called "Capricorn One," but that was done six years later. (And if you can, see this movie. It's great.)
-Somewhere in Las Vegas is an alleyway shaped like a Mobius strip.
-The entire pipe sequence is wacky as hell. BUT, this is not the only time we'll see a pipeline pig in a Bond movie.
-There people who think that Bambi & Thumper were meant to be a distaff version of Wint & Kidd, but the actresses involved weren't working together like the males ones were. And you know what they say: No Glover, no lover. (I'll go stand in the corner.)
-Over all, I call this the point where the silly goes over the top for the series, and doesn't really recover until after Moore's stint. But I till find it more enjoyable than... yeah, I'm gonna keep harping on it.
He could have taped the gun barrel before going for a mud soak, or something similar. Why Blofeld thought his doubles needed such protection in the treatment (but not like, a guard?) I don't know. Maybe that guy in particular was just super paranoid.
But everyone knew the name and association of Tiffany's jewelry at the time: that's the whole plot of an iconic movie from the era, isn't it?
I have to disagree on Mr Wint and Mr Kidd. You want progression and equality, then them being villains is a perfect example of this. Easily the best part of the movie, and two of the best villains of the Bond franchise.
Of course Never Say Never Again is the superior Thunderball!
" Bert Saxbee ", was played by Bruce Cabot. He did dozens of films with John Wayne, who got him into this film. He was ill, and passed away shortly after its release.
I wonder if the reason the fight with Bambi and Thumper went that way was because Bond is in the Bittish Navy, so the writers thought he had training in underwater combat? Not well-explained in the movie though.
Tiffany is almost the polar opposite of Tracy.
Once again a highly entertaining podcast.
We've gone straight from probably my favourite Bond movie of all time in OHMSS to one of my least preferred entries in the series. Connery has some great comedic moments, but I just think he looks weird and out of shape here. In the early movies he was both incredibly suave and seemed like he could kick your ass, but that's really not the case here. Charles Gray is also awfully miscast as Blofeld and I didn't care for most of the action scenes aside from the elevator fight. The climax I think is particularly dull with Bond willingly getting himself captured in a vain, drawn out attempt at switching the tapes and then afterwards he just swings Blofeld's escape pod around during the battle. I'm also not crazy about the really hammy acting from from many of the supporting cast like Plenty O'Toole and even Willard Whyte, whom you enjoyed. It's clearly meant to be over the top, but I just feel like this type of acting belongs more in a Pink Panther movie or a Monty Python skit than in a Bond film.
Pipeline
Inspection
Gantry
I don't like that James Bond is a known quantity. It takes me out of the movie
The backstory for the Howard Hughes connections becomes apparent from Cubby Broccoli's autobiography. Cubby was basically Hughes's wingman in the 30s and Hughes made it clear that the movie had his approval.
The series has implied that other characters were gay prior to "Diamonds Are Forever." "From Russia with Love" implies that Rosa Klebb is a lesbian by having her ogle and briefly grope Tatiana Romanova when she interviews her. In the book of "Goldfinger", Pussy Galore is a lesbian who is turned by Bond, and while the film never overtly refers to this, it's supposed to be implied by her Flying Circus show consisting entirely of attractive women and her remark about being immune to Bond's charm. I think they couldn't be explicit about it, so it's subtly inferred rathern than explicit as with Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd
Plenty O'Toole should trade surnames with pro golfer Dick Lotz.
There's one huge piece Matt and Graham didn't mention about this movie and that's the real-life feud Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) and Lana Wood (Plenty O'Toole) have for each other. Apparently, Connery was romantically linked with both Wood and St. John during filming, which made for tension on set. Later, in 1981, Lana's sister, Natalie, drowned while yachting with her then husband, Robert Wagner (Number 2 in Austin Powers). A year later, St. John and Wagner began dating and the two eventually got married in 1990. In a 1999 Bond Girl reunion, St. John refused to be photographed with Wood and in 2016, Wood confronted Wagner and St. John at an event honoring the latter about Natalie Wood's drowning case being reopened. Oh, what a tangled web Diamonds weaved
This is unironically my favorite Connery Bond film, I really like the OTT nearly self parody of it.
I always figured what Tiffany spotted in the Casino was the diamonds on Blofeld's cat's collar. She had been dealing with them, so seeing a pet wearing a £10k necklace might strike her as odd.
This may be an odd request, but any chance we could have an updating tier list for where all the movies and elements rank for you guys?
Jimmy Dean was my favorite character in Diamonds Are Forever. And Jimmy Dean ® Sausages are a delicious part of any breakfast.