Diamonds Are Forever | |
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British cinema poster for Diamonds Are Forever, designed by Robert McGinnis
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Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
Produced by |
Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli |
Screenplay by |
Richard Maibaum Tom Mankiewicz |
Based on |
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming |
Starring |
Sean Connery Jill St. John Charles Gray Lana Wood Jimmy Dean Bruce Cabot |
Music by | John Barry |
Cinematography | Ted Moore |
Edited by |
Bert Bates John Holmes |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $7.2 million |
Box office | $116 million |
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) is the seventh spy film in the James Bond series by Eon Productions, and the sixth and final Eon film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.
The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton. The story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a smuggling ring, and soon uncovering a plot by his old nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld to use the diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon. Bond has to battle his nemesis for one last time, to stop the smuggling and stall Blofeld's plan of destroying Washington, D.C., and extorting the world with nuclear supremacy.
After George Lazenby left the series, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli tested other actors, but studio United Artists wanted Sean Connery back, paying a then-record $1.25 million salary for him to return. The producers were inspired by Goldfinger, eventually hiring that film's director, Guy Hamilton, as well as Shirley Bassey performing vocals on the title theme song. Locations included Las Vegas, California, Amsterdam and Lufthansa's hangar in Germany. Diamonds Are Forever was a commercial success, but received criticism for its humorous camp tone. The film marked the "Spectre" organisation's final appearance in Eon's Bond films until the 2015 film of the same name.