Diamonds Are Forever [1971]

Random Trivia For This Title:

• Charles Gray, who plays the master villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in this film, played a Bond ally called Henderson in You Only Live Twice. David Bauer, who plays Morton Slumber, previously appeared uncredited as an American diplomat in You Only Live Twice also.
• Upon release, this film broke Hollywood's three-day gross record.
• The title "Diamonds are Forever" was apparently inspired by an American magazine advertisement which James Bond creator Ian Fleming saw. The tagline for the ad read "A Diamond is Forever", a common catchphrase in both the diamond selling business and saying in the English language. "Diamonds are Forever" was the fourth James Bond novel. It was first published on 26 March 1956 and this film is only loosely based on it. Fleming also wrote a 1957 non-Bond book titled "The Diamond Smugglers" which dealt with the same subject of diamond smuggling.
• During Bond's briefing with M at the beginning of the film, M refers to Bond having just been on Holiday, and later quipped how the Service had managed well during Bond's absence. These were inside jokes referring to Sean Connery's absence in the previous film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• After the disappointing box-office performance of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the US - although it was a hit in other parts of the world - the producers of this film went all-out to win back American audiences. This partly explains why the bulk of this film is set in the United States, specifically Las Vegas, and because much of Ian Fleming's source novel takes place in Las Vegas or in the surrounding desert. Many of the James Bond movies have been known to have cast and crew participate in some high-stakes gambling. Shooting this film in the Vegas casinos, however, was only permitted in the hours of 3-6 AM. Strangely, the name [Las] Vegas is never spoken in this movie.
• Producers ^[?] Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli cast Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole after seeing her in Playboy Magazine. Her voice is dubbed in the movie, and she is standing on a box for some of her scenes with Sean Connery because, even in high heels, she was too small to fit into the frame with him. In the scene in Bond's hotel room, she was unaware that her derrière would be visible through her pink panties.
• Jill St. John went on to marry Robert Wagner, who appeared in the [Austin Powers] movies which spoofed the [James Bond] films. St. John was also best friends with Wagner's late wife Natalie Wood who drowned in 1981. This makes co-star Lana Wood his then-sister-in-law.
• Reportedly, the final scene Sean Connery filmed as Bond (at least in the official movie series) was the one in which an unconscious Bond is loaded into a coffin at the funeral home. So, Connery's last ever day of playing James Bond for EON Productions was Friday the 13th August, 1971.
• According to Lana Wood's autobiography, she was the victim of a prank when she first met Sean Connery. Someone on the set told her to meet Sean at his Las Vegas hotel room. The door was open and she sat down in a chair. Sean called from the bathroom that he'd be there in a minute. He then walked out stark naked. They had a brief fling during filming, until she was abruptly dumped by Sean, who decided to carry on with Jill St. John instead.
• The original plot had Gert Fröbe returning as Auric Goldfinger's twin from Goldfinger seeking revenge for the death of his brother.
• Blofeld's "death" aboard the mini-sub was not how the sequence was originally intended to end. In the screenplay, Blofeld used the sub to escape and Bond followed, with the two eventually doing battle inside a diamond mine. These scenes were never filmed.
• George Lazenby was asked to make a second [Bond] movie but declined, due to a lengthy and restrictive potential contract. Burt Reynolds was the original choice to replace him but was unavailable. Then American actor John Gavin was signed to play James Bond in this movie. At the time, he had recently played the French Spy OSS 117 in the Eurospy flick OSS 117 - Double Agent. Adam West turned down the role because he felt that James Bond should be a British actor. Michael Gambon turned down the role because he was "in terrible shape" and "had tits like a woman." At the last minute Sean Connery agreed to return as Bond for the sixth time in a two-picture deal and at an astronomical salary for the time. Producer Albert R. Broccoli insisted that Gavin be paid-out the full salary called for in his contract.
• During a late 1990s airing of the movie on TBS's Dinner and A Movie, Bruce Glover recalled that while filming their scenes together, he and Putter Smith had Sean Connery convinced that the two were actually openly homosexual. Glover added that a few years later while on an airline flight he was flirting with a female flight attendant, and suddenly heard a Sottish accented voice saying "You son of a bitch..." Glover turned around and saw the man was Connery.