007 Week: Thunderball

Hello and welcome to the beginning of 007 Week and we clearly cannot start this off without a Connery Bond film.  Sadly, it will not be Dr. No as I already reviewed that for Sean Connery Week if you will recall.  Mind you, there were other things you could have been doing during that week such as: laundry, hemming a skirt or making a quiche.  Nevertheless, we shall have to carry on and move to a popular title to this very day.  From its disturbing content of nuclear arms easily lifted to Bond having to prevent the impending World War III, this film brings us excitement, memorable villains and of course, the fetching ladies of the film.  This is Thunderball.

So... what are you doing after the funeral?

Madame LaPorte: You sound disappointed you did not kill him yourself.
Bond: I am. Jacques Bouvar spoiled two of my colleagues.





As this is the fourth film in the Bond Series starring Sean Connery (An Age of Kings, Macbeth Dr. No, Marnie, Goldfinger, The Anderson Tapes, Meteor, Outland, Highlander and The Hunt for Red October) Bond has returned from avenging several friends from a risque mission when he learns from his superior "M" (Benard Lee of The Angry Silence, Partners in Crime, Whistle Down the Wind, The Brain and Goldfinger) that an organization calling itself SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) has captured two NATO atomic warheads demanding no less than $100 million in diamonds or an undisclosed major city in England or the States will be destroyed.  Hot on the case, Bond follows leads to the Bahamas where he meets Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi of Pleasant Nights, The Honey Pot, Danger: Diablolik,  Hitler: The Last Ten Days, Ten Little Indians and The Next Man) a eye-patch wearing, card playing gambler that Bond suspects that SPECTRE's man of operations for this caper.

Mr. Peepers reporting as ordered, sir.

Bond's CIA contact Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter of Assignment: Outer Space, The Passionate Thief and Romanoff and Juliet) along with Largo's "niece" Domino (Claudine Auger of The Reckless, The Devil in Love, The Killing Game, Anyone Can Play, A Bay of Blood, Equinox and Summertime Killer) both clue Bond into where the warheads are being kept and pointing out the sheer amount of manpower Largo has at his fingertips.  Not for calling in the cavalry, Bond proceeds with his mission at all costs for Queen and country.

Some interesting facts about this film now.  This is the first of the Bond Franchise to have multiple alternative titles due to the translation gap.  These are: Operation: Thunderball, Ian Fleming's Thunderball, Agente 007- Thunderball, James Bond 007- Feuerball, Atomic Ball, Agent 007 Into The Fire, Thunderball Fighting, Operation Thunder, James Bond, Secret Agent, Operation Thunder and Longitude 78 West.

The "Golden Grotto" in the Bahamas does in fact exist and is now to this day been rechristened as "Thunderball Reef".  Sadly, the villa was torn down in 1990 for a hotel resort.   This is the first time we see all the double o's in one room as "M" has called them all to the carpet for a debriefing.  This is also the first of the Bond films to be shot entirely in Panavision (Anamorphic lens for widescreen shooting).  I really wanted to nick the 1965 Thunderbird Largo was driving around in Paris at the start of the film but I seemed to have misplaced my blue police box.

I think a grip left a tack on my chair!