The Cast
Sean Connery (James Bond) Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) Jimmy Dean (Willary White) Norman Burton (Felix Leiter) Charles Gray (Ernst Blofeld) Bernard Lee ('M') Desmond Llewelyn ('Q') Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) Lana Wood (Plenty O'Toole) Bruce Cabot (Burt Saxby) Putter Smith (Mr. Kidd) Bruce Glover (Mr. Wint) Joseph Furst (Dr. Metz) Leonard Barr (Shady Tree) Margaert Lacy (Mrs. Whistler) Joe Robinson (Peter Franks) David Bauer (Morton Slumber) Trina Parks (Bambi) Donna Garrett (Thumper)
Review
Connery's last film as 007 in the EON/United Artist series. Connery seems to be sleepwalking through this role, and with his unprecendented salary for returning as Bond one last time, you'd be forgiven for expecting more out of him. Looking old, out of shape, haggard and tired, Connery picks up where Lazenby's Bond left off...avenging Tracy. But you'd hardly guess that Bond was bent on revenge at the beginning of this film by the way everyone plays the scene. Connery acts as though avenging his wife is as casual as driving through a pick up window at McDonalds. The real story though is Bond hot on the heels of diamond smugglers. A certain amount of smuggling is accepted by the British in their South African mines, but lately an alarming amount is leaving the area and not being sold on the market. Bond is assigned to infiltrate a diamond smuggling pipeline and find out where it leads and for what purpose. The cast, other than Bond, is the real strength. Wonderfully written charcters dot the 'Diamonds' landscape. Tiffany Case is a smuggler with a wig for every occasion and a smart response for every remark. Charles Gray, with a full head of hair, takes over the Blofeld duties, and is much better than his predecessors. Wint and Kidd, and Bambi and Thumper are great tag-team villians. One thing I learned is that a return for nostalgia's sake is worthless if the actor doesn't get to the root of the character. For the most part, Connery nor Bond resemble our first look at him in Dr. No. Connery seemed distracted and uninterested at times. Too bad. If he didn't want the job, he should've stepped aside to allow another actor to give the story the respect that it needed. My grade: A
