Ian Fleming's 1956 James Bond novel about diamond smuggling. The weakest of the original Bond books, mostly due to the lack of an interesting villain. O.F. Snelling, in his raving-fan companion-piece to Bond (007 James Bond: A Report) states "{...}There seems to me to be little about {the Spang brothers} that is frightening, dreadful, or sinister."

Bond is sent to the US to track down a group of diamond smugglers known as the Spangled Mob, after their leaders, the Spang brothers. He gets reacquainted with Felix Leiter, now missing an arm and a leg and working for Pinkerton after his retirement from the CIA. In a curiously anticlimactic sequence, he offhandedly kills one of the Spang brothers and several other heavies. On his return from the case, he is targeted by two more killers, but handily whips them and saves the girl.

Fleming is an expert in the field of espionage.
Unfortunately, he knows little about American organized crime, and this book comes off as a hodgepodge of flat characters and uninspired guesswork.

The memorable line from this book is also quoted in his factual book about a real diamond smuggling interdiction operation, The Diamond Smugglers. "It reads better than it lives.".

Diamonds are forever also marked Sean Connery's first return to the role of James Bond (The second being the unofficial Bond: Never say Never Again). After George Lazenby refused to have another go at the character, Connery took the part in this 1971 classic, directed by Guy Hamilton, before Moore took over the role in the next movie.

Plot:

The plot of the film has not much in common with the original novel, bnut that is usually the case with Bond movies. It revolves around the plan of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (whom Bond thought he had killed in the intro) to smuggle Diamonds into the US in order to finish his "giant laser" (which he likes to call the "Alan Pa..." oops, wrong movie) to once again blackmail the world.

The atmosphere throughout the movie is unusual. Purposefully relying more than usual on humorous remarks, settings and characters, it seems a lighter than usual movie, but at times shows a nasty, almost bitter undercurrent.Also of note are Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, the gay assassins trying to kill Bond over and over, whose mannerisms are just strange. The appearance of the multiple Blofeld-Clones is brilliant.

Bond girls are Jill St. John as Tiffany Case and Lana Wood as the aptly named Plenty O'Toole. Not to forget Bambi and Thumper, the bodyguard gymnasts in the Las Vegas villa. Not to forget that this Bond contains more nudity than ever.

Shirley Bassey is once again providing the theme song, Diamonds are Forever.

Previous Bond: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond will return in: Live and Let die

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