Diamonds Are Forever - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[sophie]

Willard Whyte was based on Howard Hughes. Amongst the similarities; Whyte owned the Whyte House in this movie, Howard Hughes owned a real life Las Vegas Hotel, the Desert Inn. At the time of the movie, Jimmy Dean, who played Whyte, was an employee of Hughes at the Desert Inn. Dean confessed to being largely uneasy portraying a fictional version of his real-life boss.

[bessie]

FRANCHISE TRADEMARK: Bulky blond henchman Peter Franks (Joe Robinson) is one of the many franchise incarnations of the Donald "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw) character from From Russia with Love (1963), along with Hans in You Only Live Twice (1967); Erich Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only (1981); Venz in A View to a Kill (1985); Necros in The Living Daylights (1987), and Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Robinson taught Sir Sean Connery judo for You Only Live Twice (1967), and accidentally pulled off Connery's hairpiece during one take of the elevator fight.

[charlie]

This movie boasts the most number of aliases used by James Bond. These were as Peter Franks, as Mr. Jones (and Tiffany Case as Mrs. Jones), as Klaus Hergescheimer at Whyte Techtronics, and as Burt Saxby on the telephone.

[jessica]

This is the only instance to date that a leading James Bond villain has been seen in drag (in Thunderball (1965)'s opening sequence, Bob Simmons played a minor male villain henchman impersonating Madame Boitier).

[kylie]

The character of Dr. Metz, an expert on laser refraction, may be an homage to the Metz corporation (Metz-Werke GmbH & Co. KG), a well-known manufacturer of professional-quality camera flash equipment.

[sara]

Originally, this had been planned as a revenge movie, and Richard Maibaum's original treatment for the script had Bond mourning his dead wife Tracy and vowing revenge on Blofeld. However, with George Lazenby's departure from the role, the script was completely re-written, and there is no mention of Tracy and of her death deeply affecting Bond.

[nicholas]

The Ernst Stavro Blofeld villain character returns to the official film franchise in Spectre (2015), but since Blofeld last appeared in this official series movie and informally in For Your Eyes Only (1981), and the unofficial entry Never Say Never Again (1983), Blofeld has appeared in three James Bond video games: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)), this time with the likeness of Donald Pleasence (from You Only Live Twice (1967)), voiced by Gideon Emery. Blofeld is a playable multiplayer character in GoldenEye 007 (2010) for the Wii, with the likeness of Charles Gray (from this movie). Blofeld is one of the main characters in 007 Legends (2012), featured in the mission, based on On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), in which the character was an amalgamation of the three actors who had appeared in the official film franchise, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, and Donald Pleasence). Throughout the game, he is voiced by Glenn Wrage.

[veronica]

Tiffany Case's lack of experience with weapons and fighting saves both Bond's life and her own in the final scene. When Mr. Wint is trying to strangle Bond, rather than trying to hit him with something hard like a wine bottle or a dinner knife, she chooses what seems to be the least harmful item in the room (something that looks like a light and fluffy dessert). This distracts Mr. Wint (who, of course knows that there is a real bomb in "la bombe surprise"), allowing Bond to gain the upper hand and also revealing the existence of the hidden bomb when the fake dessert breaks apart. If she had hit Mr. Wint with any of the other items and knocked him out or killed him, she and Bond would have had no idea about the bomb that's about to explode.

[marc]

The distinctive Landmark Hotel can be seen briefly in the background of the Las Vegas gas station scene. It is the tower with saucer-shaped upper section visible behind Tiffany Case as she delivers the "Forget it, Curly . . . " line. The Landmark was built in 1963, didn't open until 1969 and was imploded in 1995 to allow for an expansion of the adjacent Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot.

[javier]

Finnish censorship visa register # 80253 delivered on 9-12-1971.

[tom]

Some dialogue between Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd at the funeral parlor was cut from the script. As Bond passed them, they were arranging flowers. Mr. Wint said, "Mother loved Azalias, but they always made her sneeze." Mr. Kidd replied, "Now she can really enjoy them." After Mr. Wint knocks Bond out with the urn, he quipped, "Mother was always such a help."

[steve]

Bond is correct when he describes Mouton Rothschild as a claret. It was officially elevated to that status in 1970, the year before this movie was released. A real sommelier would have known that. The fact that Mr. Wint didn't exposed him to Bond as a fraud.

[morris]

Upon release, this movie broke Hollywood's three-day gross record.

[leo]

After the disappointing box-office performance of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) in the U.S., although it was a hit in other parts of the world, the producers of this movie went all-out to win back American audiences. This partly explains why the bulk of this film is set in the U.S., 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 movie in the Vegas casinos, however, was only permitted from the hours of 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Strangely, the name "Las Vegas" is never spoken in this movie.

[camila]

This movie had been updated from a PG rating to a 12 rating by the BBFC due to James Bond saying the word "bitch", and Mr. Kidd being engulfed in flames by Bond, as a result screaming in terror, which was similar to a scene in another Bond movie, Licence to Kill (1989), which had a 15 rating.

[kyle]

The number of Blofelds that James Bond encountered in the movie totalled four, including the real one. There were three duplicates, including incomplete ones. The first was prepared in the clinic, the second pretended to be Blofeld in the clinic, and the third was seen with the real Blofeld on the top floor of the Whyte House. The plastic surgery subplot is actually in keeping with traits given to him by Ian Fleming.

[gerald]

This is the only Bond film in which Sean Connery's eyebrows weren't trimmed.

[caroline]

The laser satellite's reflector is actually the collapsible reflector from an old-fashioned camera flash-bulb attachment.