After George Lazenby got a lukewarm reception as James Bond in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and he backed out of a seven year contract to play the character, the search was on again for a new 007. The producers eventually convinced the original and greatest Bond, Sean Connery, to return one more time for 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever" (Connery would play Bond for the last time in 1984's "Never Say Never Again", a thinly veiled remake of "Thunderball", for another studio) before handing over the franchise to Roger Moore.
That said, "Diamonds Are Forever" is definitely the weakest of the original Bond films starring Connery. Agent 007 hooks up with a ditzy smuggler (Jill St. John) as he links stolen diamonds to a plot by SPECTRE leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray) to build an orbiting space laser.
Many Bond fans dismissed Lazenby and anything to do with OHMSS. Apparently, so did the makers of this movie. How much better this film would have been if it was about Bond getting personal revenge against Blofeld for what happened in OHMSS (those who have seen OHMSS know what I am referring to). Unfortunately, there is no reference at all to the events in the previous picture, and the plot follows the basic "evil villain holds world ransom with super weapon" formula instead.
Connery's still the best Bond and knows how to make an entrance, but he looks noticeably older and less engaged than in his earlier efforts. OHMSS had a smart, classy, and capable "Bond Girl" in Diana Rigg's Tracy. "Diamonds Are Forever" has an annoying and bumbling Jill St. John as Tiffany Case and Lana Wood in a blink-and-you'll-miss-her walk-on as the aptly named Plenty O'Toole. Also appearing in the film are two agile female guards named Bambi and Thumper (I wonder what the folks at Disney thought?) and a pair of ambiguously gay assassins. Charles Gray is a strangely effeminate Blofeld (he even dresses in drag at one point) who lacks the bald head, as well as the diabolical menace, of Donald Pleasence or Telly Salvalas.
Since the story is weak and formulaic, "Diamonds Are Forever" instead relies on the same campy jokes and pointless chase sequences that would later plague the Roger Moore era. It should also be noted that this was the last of the "official" Bond films that could feature SPECTRE due to complex copyright reasons, although an unnamed figure who was obviously supposed to be Blofeld appears in the opening of 1981's "For Your Eyes Only".
6 out of 10.
That said, "Diamonds Are Forever" is definitely the weakest of the original Bond films starring Connery. Agent 007 hooks up with a ditzy smuggler (Jill St. John) as he links stolen diamonds to a plot by SPECTRE leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray) to build an orbiting space laser.
Many Bond fans dismissed Lazenby and anything to do with OHMSS. Apparently, so did the makers of this movie. How much better this film would have been if it was about Bond getting personal revenge against Blofeld for what happened in OHMSS (those who have seen OHMSS know what I am referring to). Unfortunately, there is no reference at all to the events in the previous picture, and the plot follows the basic "evil villain holds world ransom with super weapon" formula instead.
Connery's still the best Bond and knows how to make an entrance, but he looks noticeably older and less engaged than in his earlier efforts. OHMSS had a smart, classy, and capable "Bond Girl" in Diana Rigg's Tracy. "Diamonds Are Forever" has an annoying and bumbling Jill St. John as Tiffany Case and Lana Wood in a blink-and-you'll-miss-her walk-on as the aptly named Plenty O'Toole. Also appearing in the film are two agile female guards named Bambi and Thumper (I wonder what the folks at Disney thought?) and a pair of ambiguously gay assassins. Charles Gray is a strangely effeminate Blofeld (he even dresses in drag at one point) who lacks the bald head, as well as the diabolical menace, of Donald Pleasence or Telly Salvalas.
Since the story is weak and formulaic, "Diamonds Are Forever" instead relies on the same campy jokes and pointless chase sequences that would later plague the Roger Moore era. It should also be noted that this was the last of the "official" Bond films that could feature SPECTRE due to complex copyright reasons, although an unnamed figure who was obviously supposed to be Blofeld appears in the opening of 1981's "For Your Eyes Only".
6 out of 10.