Sean Connery is back! Blofeld is back! Guy Hamilton is back! and they even brought Shirley Bassey back!

In 1971 following the box office disappointment of On Her Majesty's Secret Service(even though it ranked #9 on the boxoffice charts that year) Bond's cinematic fathers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman set out to create another Bond movie, not Diamonds Are Forever but the typical cliche Bond film that had sold so well in the past. The problem with Diamonds Are Forever is that it is a just add water Bond film with uninspired scenes filmed simply because they fit into the James Bond mold, this redundant atmosphere doubtlessly had stand-up comics licking their lips. Diamonds Are Forever boasted Connery's return as Bond and Guy Hamilton second Bond film (his first being Goldfinger) but it was as if that was enough, why come up with any great story ideas when we have James Bond and his director back! we'll just add Blofeld, Connery, Hamilton,John Barry, Ken Adam, with a pinch of salt and have a first rate Bond film. I don't mean to come down too hard on the cast and crew of Diamonds are forever, it was a very good movie, but Bond movies shouldn't be very good they should be great.



The pretitle sequence of Diamonds is very promising, but then everything slows down leading to the worst five hours of the film: an uninspired chase sequence that starts in a moon buggy and ends in a car chase down the Las Vegas strip. This is a perfect example of the just add water Bond film called Diamonds Are Forever, it is blatantly assumed that a car chase is interesting and exciting, and why not after all these are cars and there going really fast! The interesting thing about a Bond chase scene isn't "will he escape?" (because will already know the answer), but:how will he escape?". Fortunately for the audience the second half is much better. Charles Gray works well as Blofeld, and since all of the obligatory scenes insuring the films success are over, Creativity comes into play and this is the perfect reminder of why you are watching this movie to begin with. So to summarize my rant the first half of Diamonds Are Forever is bland, but the second makes the entire film salvageable, though it is still one of the worst Bond Films.



Sean Connery gives his worst performance as Bond, of course that is not saying much because Connery always gives a great performance no matter how un interested he is. Charles Grey is the worst Blofeld but once again that is not really much of a criticism. Blofeld is no longer number one in Diamonds Are Forever now he is just "Blofeld",personally I preferred the ominous number one but I guess after so many failures he doesn't demand as much respect within SPECTRE. Jill St. John gives a performance that is terrible during every scene not filmed in the Whyte House. On the other hand every scene in the Whyte House (in the bridal suite with Bond, and at the slots with Q) are played wonderfully. Putter Smith and Bruce Glover steal the show as the dark and comically disturbed, vicious, yet loyal (to each other and Blofeld) SPECTRE assassins. Norman Burton is the only actor in the entire James Bond series that was really bad, just not the best for the role like others, but really awful. Burton's Leiter is malicious, and so offensive to Bond personally, that he appears a more formidable foe for 007 than Blofeld.

Well scored by the brilliant John Barry and with two awe inspiring sets from Ken Adam (Blofeld's penthouse apartmentand the petroleum rig) that while this may have been a formula film, it is an amazing formula, after all it would have to be, to make Diamonds Are Forever the "good"film that it is.

Rating - 6.5 (10)

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