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Comments
Yay for Connery and John Barry’s music is suitable rousing.
PTS
Another one of Harry’s “look James Bond is dead” gags, followed up by a cracking fight. (Spot the stunt double for Bond!) Needlessly ruined by the jet pack (although “No well dressed man should be without one” almost saves it) and the underwater cannons. Nice segue into the main titles though.
Locations
It’s all about the Bahamas baby! @Brady said it right - “but I see it as a return to the Cold War spy drama of From Russia with Love mixed with the exotic feeling of Dr. No's Jamaica.”
Gadgets
This is how I like my gadgets – rooted in plausibility. A bit too much much maybe, the gimmickry is at an all high time high in the four films we’ve watched so far, but Young and Connery make sure this is a Bond movie that centres around it’s main character. Not set pieces, or gimmicks.
Action
A good amount of it and it’s integral to moving the story along. This is a film that focuses more on dialogue and the action is a welcome treat.
This time I had a blast watching the underwater climatic battle. But sometimes I feel they could have sacrificed a shot here and there.
Although the speed up green screen is at best misguided, the actual fight itself is “bloody good”, to paraphrase Terence Young.
Humor
Probably the wittiest of the four films thus far. Particular highlights include: M telling Moneypenny off and Bond’s reaction to it “Didn’t I have a hat...”; “I resent that remark”; “I’ll tell the chef”; “No, but I know a little about women.”;Is there any other reason, besides your enthusiasm for water sports?; “Do you think she’s worth going after?”“I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, sir.”;“Oh no!”
Q: “Ah, 007!” and the piece de resistance - “Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She’s just dead.”
Plot plausibility/Villain's scheme
I could do without the Derval double but other than that, great. This was before the time when plots involving stolen nuclear weapons became passé. Can’t find anything to fault with the villain’s scheme or the plot.
Yes, it is highly coincidental that Bond should end up in Shrublands. But Fleming had a few novels like that. It would have been nice for Bond to remark on that, like he did in the novels. But hey ho.
It starts slowly, building the mystery of Largo and SPECTRE's plot, then in just an hour and a half of the remaining runtime from when Bond goes to his briefing, an endless sequence of punchy moments and dialogues unravel that are truly amazing. So much great action, location shooting, acting and face-offs. All of it is just such a pretty package, and such a technical feat of filmmaking, especially when the logistical challenges posed by the diving shooting are put into consideration.
@BondJasonBond006 is right that from 45 minutes in to about 1:45 (though I'd say to the end of the film) we have one of the all-time best hours of Sean as Bond, only second in my mind (or tied with) the last hour of From Russia with Love and all its crazy tension.
I hold to my view of yesterday that it is the second best Connery. It has so many all-time great scenes, the best femme of the series in Fiona, some of the most skillful filming of action ever in the finale with the endless divers...There is just no film, much less another Bond film, like this one. Everything about it is big and it packs pounds of punch, but none of its ambitions make it seem like a parody or make it feel too over the top. It's one of the all-time most dire Bond plots, with a British and American government beside themselves in the face of a nuclear disaster, and it always makes you feel the danger.
If I had to pick a best section of this film, I have to give it to the part of the film that begins with Bond going to his hotel room and sleeping with Fiona until Fiona is shot on the dance floor. Fiona is just wild, and rubs everything in Bond's face, and Sean gives that great delivery of "don't flatter yourself," leading into Bond's frightened escape and finishing with that dance with Fiona and the gunshot he pulls her in the pace of that is masked by the drums as he covers up her fatal wound and leaves her in the club, her corpse still warm.
This is Bond!
Direction
Terence Young returned to direct this movie and you can tell. I see it as similar in style to Dr No, and that is no bad thing, but with everything ramped up. While we get the same sort of formula introduced in GF, I do think it’s directed quite well, even if the pacing, at times, is a little slow.
Opening title design
Brilliant, GF set the bar with title design and this one carries that on. Excellent.
Script
I know there were issues during the script process for this movie and that there were numerous versions. I believe it shows slightly as the movie does seem to suffer at times.
Cinematography
The movie looks great, especially in the Bahamas, some very nice camera work, especially the aerial shots.
Music
John Barry produces another wonderful score for this movie. Love the theme tune, Tom Jones really belts it out. As we had Bassey for more, I’d like to have seen more from Mr Jones. I’d still have him take one on now.
Editing
While the majority is very good, there are moments when the editing does suffer at certain points.
Not sure if it fits into this but the final scene aboard the Disco Volante and the boat is going at high speed. I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of the sped up action and, same applies here. The back projection of the sea, to show that the boat is going extremely fast, is a little too fast and seems not to be a true representation of how the boat is moving. I know it was 1965 etc. but it’s very weak in my opinion.
Costume design
Bond looks good, as do his leading ladies. I did notice though that once suit seemed a little baggy on him, as opposed to the tailored fit we are used to seeing. However, it may have just been me seeing something that wasn’t there.
Sets
Again, Ken Adam does wondrous things with his set design, from the wonderfully, simple but spectacular, SPECTRE briefing room, to the very grand conference room where M gives his briefing to the 00’s. Outstanding work as always from this Bond movie legend.
Good to see some naughty visual puns in the main titles that became prevalent in Moore's era. An example is the harpoon gun exploding across Connery's name.
SPECTRE appears to have moved on, with Blofeld now away from his luxury cruiser and into a grand Parisian HQ. And does SPECTRE have the police in it's pocket, such is the look on the policeman's face when he sees Largo?
This SPECTRE set is in keeping with the clinical, futuristic look the organisation seems to prefer (and often in contrast to the ornate luxury the individual members prefer for their own residential needs).
The sets overall are amazing though, especially the conference room used to brief the 00s, as @Shark_Of_Largo mentions. It's size is so overwhelming it almost distracts the viewer from listening to M's briefing.
The junkanoo is terrific. And all the more exciting for the way it is edited to maximise Bond's peril (Peter Hunt of course was able to reproduce this in his own Bond film 4 years later).
Overall for a film set in one location, heavily filmed underwater and based around the search for atomic bombs buried at sea the editing really is most important. Peter Hunt does a (Robert) sterling job to create any tension over the two hours plus running time. And the last half hour of the film is practically all underwater. A film like that could literally drown, but Thunderball somehow doesn't.
Location wise it's the Bahamas lovingly photographed at a time when most Europeans probably saw it as an unreachable destination.
Connery gets a chance to dress down a little. The black polo shirt makes its first appearance in a Bond movie. And of course chinos, shorts, and short sleeved shirts (a bit of a tongue twister there).
Connery is one of the few men who actually looks good in shorts.
The script is funny and clever although much of it's success could very well be down to Sean Connery. Several actors are dubbed (on the whole badly) so it's noticeable that the stand out support performances tend to come from the regular crew - Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewellyn.
Thunderball succeeds...just. It really needed another 6 months of development, but all things considered it works well. And if it comes 4th in a 4 horse race alongside the 3 previous films, well that really isn't so bad.
Next up You Only Live Twice - veeery sexiful
The scene that never fails to get a chuckle out of me is where we first meet Largo, who parks his car in a place he shouldn't and is accosted by an officer only for said officer to recoil and beg for pardon once Largo gives a sharp turn of his head to identify himself.
Connery is in beast mode here and really seems to be having a great time. There's more for him to do compared to GF and he absolutely cements himself (if there was any doubt) as Hollywood's alpha male. The violence, deadly charm, sex appeal, exotic locations, confidence...Connery was on a roll.
The women in this film are a collection of titillating beauties. We're first introduced to clinic worker Pam who never stood a chance to resist Bond's effortless advances. We then have my number 1 favourite Bond girl, Fiona. She's a sight to behold, absolutely stunning, dripping with sex appeal, a femme fatale who holds my full attention in every scene she's in. Who can forget that memorable bathroom scene where she asks for something to put on and Bond cheekily hands her a pair of sandals before sitting down on a chair like a boss, admiring her with both inconspicuously cautious and lustful eyes. We then have Paula and Domino's that round up the movie's Bond babes.
The underwater scenes are a bit of a drag but I appreciate the new ground it broke at the time. TB is a big film. A blockbuster with Bond, babes and thrills. Dion Warwick's Mr. Kiss kiss bang bang is a slick song, just right for Connery and the film itself is a combination of healthy doses of brutality and humour. This film is actually my dad's favourite Bond movie and as such is the Bond film I've probably watched the most but it never tires of being entertaining and it's just such a gorgeous film to revisit.
Interesting to see that so many of us have found a new respect and love for Thunderball since starting this Bondathon.
I'm bringing the sake!
I've never understood the lack of respect some have shown for Thunderball! Maybe it's just not as perfect as DN, FRWL & GF -- and there are some who don't even give GF its proper due! Oh well, no accounting for taste!
Actor & Character Elements
Bond & Actor Performance
In his fourth time in the suave seat of secret agent 007 James Bond, Sean Connery delivers the same fire best seen flaring in Dr. No and From Russia with Love.
If Dr. No and From Russia with Love presented a Bond to us that was primal and predatory, what we have here is that same kind of man with an uber confident twist added to him. While we saw Bond really struggle working on his own in Jamaica in the first film and miss the looming shadow of SPECTRE in the second, in Thunderball Bond is not only devil may care in his opposition to Largo and his cronies, he openly calls out the SPECTRE plot to the man at the card table and mocks him for his place in the organization that nearly killed the spy just two films back.
Suffice it to say, in Thunderball Sean’s Bond is a one man wrecking ball that connects all the dots nobody else can, sniffs out the plot, places himself in tough positions to best gain intelligence, and he is ultimately the one that progresses the mission to its final success, near single-handedly. It is such an endless kick to see Sean tear up the Bahamas as he counter-schemes Largo in the most delicious of fashions. He is always on the move, always thinking of how to get the information he needs. He checks one location and finds there’s no bombs, so he does the necessary detective work to uncover another location where they could be, goes there, and when his investigation again runs dry, he keeps at it relentlessly while doing his part to stop a nuclear onslaught.
This is a man who knows his enemy is faking his death and masquerading as a woman because they open their own car door. Who makes a point to secretly tape the sounds of his hotel room to discover when and where the intruder moved, and hides a gun under the table to have some concealed firepower on hand if things kick up. A man who uses a different hotel room than is booked under his name to throw off enemies who’ve pursued him. Who stands in the center of two opposing forces and fires in both directions to make them shoot at each other in the confusion. Who stabs an opponent while locked inside a pool with a school of sharks so that the creatures will follow the scent while he powers on past them. Who strategically uses a bottle or alcohol and lighter flames to trigger an opportunity to escape. Who spins a villainess in the direction of a bullet with the reflexes of a wild west gunman, coldly punning about her demise seconds later. Who uncovers a missing NATO plane’s location because he remembered Largo telling him of the rare grotto fish he had recently collected that just so happened to be swimming in one pacific part of the Bahamas. In short, Bond is always on the ball, 12 steps ahead and prepared to counter any move his enemies think they can make to best him.
In pure Sean Connery fashion, this film is absolutely jam-packed with moments where the man conveys cool, anger or assertiveness with just an expression or movement. The calm and cool way he sets off the Shrublands alarm with just his elbow. The look he gives to M when he shows up late to his briefing and gets reprimanded for it like a misbehaving child. The look of child-like wonder in his eyes when he tells Moneypenny about Domino’s two moles. How he pushes the gun away from his face that Largo is pointing near it, picking on how it’s a lady’s gun in his next breath. How his eyes thirst for Domino as he looks at her drying off poolside, only just after telling Largo that he wasn’t a passionate man.
To put it simply, Bond is remarkable in this film, a true man of action after being a glorified prisoner in the previous movie. He’s so on top of things and clever throughout, muscling in on Largo and provoking his ego with low blows and moments of one-upmanship, using spy tactics to infiltrate enemy boundaries to locate the bombs and matching his wits against those of SPECTRE in every confrontation. In Dr. No SPECTRE was nothing but a worthless acronym when the eponymous villain spat the organization at him, and in From Russia with Love the group where the unseen enemies manipulating Bond where they needed him.
In Thunderball, however, Bond now knows his enemy, sniffs out that the NATO plot is just the sort of thing they’d consider pulling off, and with this knowledge in tow he brings the heat to them in his every step, done playing the ignorant puppet. There’s a great arrogance in how Blofeld and his associates work, wearing rings on their very fingers that secretly and discreetly point to their hidden power in the world, which nearly everyone passing them by is unaware of. Bond isn’t, however, and it’s those same rings and that same arrogance that undoes the plans of people like Largo and Fiona who think they have everyone fooled. Bond spots the mark of SPECTRE and senses the organization’s presence, however, and it’s because of the ring that he is able to sniff out Fiona as one of their ranks when she tries to conceal the mark from him while she takes him for a back road drive. As Bond comments truthfully as Fiona and her men have him ambushed in his hotel room, “Vanity has its dangers.” SPECTRE think their power and mystery is so great they can get away with overtly mocking the public with their octopus insignia open to the eye, but thanks to Bond they linger in the shadows no longer. They have met their match.
Bond Girl & Performance
Domino Derval- There’s something about Domino that really does it for me. A series of details and moments come together to successfully create an interesting picture of a rather complex woman.
All we get of her at the start is a look at her in a picture, much like with Tatiana. Beyond her moles-two on her left thigh-we know nothing of her really and see her first with her foot caught in a bit of reef. Then, in a piece of characterization I always find interesting, Bond complements her when they come up for air by telling her she “swims like a man.” An odd yet fascinating remark, but one that does make Domino feel experienced at her hobby of diving and well trained in the practice.
While beautiful on the outside and most recognizable by the mole on the bottom right side of her face, Domino’s beauty masks a complicated interior. The most mystery (and uneasy creepiness) that emits from her is down to the strange relationship she has with Largo that never really gets properly cemented for us as the viewer, quite purposely. We know that Domino met and connected with Largo while she was with her brother, and that leads me to believe that the villain personally sought Francois Derval for the SPECTRE job early, and got familiar enough with him to hook him up with Fiona so that she could funnel Angelo the information he needed to best duplicate the man’s voice, mannerisms and overall disposition for the NATO scheme. In doing so, Largo also decided to snatch up Domino as a bonus. Bond thinks that Domino is Largo’s niece, not his mistress (as many in the Bahamas seem to think), but it seems that Largo and Domino only perpetuate that myth to hide the fact that they are lovers many, many years separated, adding to the tinge of creep factor present in every scene where the two interact.
It’s clear that while she may have liked Largo previously, now Domino is uncomfortable and not as assured in her associations with him. He’s very volatile towards her, which Domino implies in no uncertain terms. Every time Bond presses her about what she and Largo do together, her voice goes mellow and soft out of what seems to be a sense of fear or pain. In the Thunderball novel we learn of all the old millionaires Domino is constantly swarmed by, who prey on her beauty and flirt incessantly with her, so it’s only inevitable that a younger, more virile man like Bond would attract her. While dancing with Bond, the spy errs by comparing himself to Largo, which Domino denies, telling him he’s different just by “the way you hold me.” It’s not hard to imagine Largo being quite violent towards Domino, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if one of the film’s shots zoomed in on a part of her body that was imprinted with the octopus insignia of his ring where his fist had made contact with her flesh.
It’s clear that like Tatiana Romanova of From Russia with Love, Domino is an innocent girl lost in a game of high intrigue that she understands very little of, including Largo’s dreaded dealings and his ordered killing of her brother. It’s clear throughout the film that Bond has a concern for Domino, and realizes that at some point he’s going to have to face her with the death of her brother, which you can visibly see he is not looking forward to. When Domino questions Bond after he tells her about Francois’ murder, asking if he was only sleeping with her to get to Largo, she understandably feels misused by a man once again, nothing but his army candy, just as she is for the SPECTRE second in command. The fact that Domino still agrees to help Bond, if only to get a chance to cause Largo the kind of pain he has her, it’s clear how far she is willing to go to avenge the death of her brother, the only man who she says really ever cared for her.
Beyond being a first runner-up in a Miss World competition in 1958 and grabbing up some film roles at the beginning of the 60s, Claudine Auger was by no means a seasoned pro in the field of acting, and yet here she delvers a truly human and raw performance. Her body language is perfect, and her personality comes out very genuinely whenever she plays scenes opposite Sean. Their chemistry is strong, best exemplified by the poolside chat they have after just meeting and the dance their share following Bond’s card game with Largo. Auger exudes a sense of elegance and grace, rarely seen out of a form-hugging bikini to boot. This visual nicely compliments the kind of stripped down and vulnerable character Domino so naturally is, a really sympathetic figure being cruelly strung along. Auger’s performance gives credence to the “kept woman” Domino is under Largo’s thumb, as she emotes a sharp vulnerability that pierces the screen. She also captivates when she needs to deliver in moments of high performance. After Bond tells Domino of Francois’ murder, the tears rolling down Claudine’s face hit hard, and you believe the tragedy spilling from her eyes. Her face is centered in the shot in close up, drawing us to her and her pain. Not many Bond actresses with so little experience could nail the kind of raw emotion and genuine charm Claudine does so effortlessly here in so many of her scenes.
While dubber Nikki van der Zyl’s voice for Domino sounds a lot like a mix of Sylvia and Honey’s from Dr. No, her deliveries “fit” Claudine’s performance and her voice is the right mix of sweet and soft, providing the necessary charm or emotion to each of the scenes in which the character appears.
Bond Henchmen & Performances
Fiona Volpe- Good lord, what a woman. I can only imagine how many boys became men watching Luciana Paluzzi in Thunderball. She has and will long forever be one of my absolute favorite Bond characters in general, and not just one of my favorites from the bevvy of Bond beauties.
If ever there was a greatest hits compilation of Thunderball produced, every scene Fiona appears in would need to be included for there to exist any credibility in it. She’s so fierce, dangerous and sexy in every way in this movie, drawing your eye to her every movement and your ears to her every purring word. The way she bikes up to Count Lippe and blows him away, drives Bond around bends with the skill of a race car maverick, shoots clay pigeons with deadly ease and has her fun with Bond sans emotion like the spy made a habit of doing himself all sell her as a character who is a grand departure from the pretty faces we’ve seen up to this point in the series. Her beauty masks a dark and resourceful interior that has little opponents of equal skill.
She’s a woman that plays the boys’ games, but better. It’s Fiona that slaps Largo on the wrist for trying to get Bond killed, warning him that such rash behavior will draw his government to their plan. It’s Fiona who personally takes up the contract to axe Bond, and it’s her finesse and resourcefulness that nearly makes Bond bite it big-time during the Junkanoo festivities.
Two of my all-time favorite scenes in Bond are jam-packed back-to-back in this film, and point contain Fiona. First, Bond walks into his hotel room, sees Fiona, and when she asks him to hand her something to put on, he passes her sandals and sits comfortably to watch her stark naked in the tub. When they make love, the screen is electric, and Fiona is characterized like an animal as Barry overlays a passionate, romantic theme on the scene. I love the way Luciana bites on Sean’s ear and shoulder, and her line deliveries are caked in sensuality as her hands brush and grasp the gold bars of the bed post as she wails “safe” in erotic ecstasy as the scene comes to a close. In the next moment, Fiona reveals her true intentions in rolling in the sheets with Bond, and stamps her foot to emphasize that she’s not like all the other girls who fall so easily at his feet when they’ve had sex-this is actually the script writers breaking the fourth wall and poking fun at critics who thought Pussy fell too fast for Bond in Goldfinger. Bond’s remark of “don’t flatter yourself” that he barks back at her is delicious.
Directly after these moments we get the Junkanoo chase as Bond organizes an escape and goes to the Kiss Kiss club in an effort to dodge pursuers, to no avail. I love the look of fear Sean gives as he spots Largo’s men walking the perimeter of the club, their eyes glued to him, their hands grasping guns. For a brief moment Bond whips out his charm on a girl to direct himself nearer to the dance floor to get out of the open, but finds Fiona there waiting for him. As the drums rattle and the music booms, the pair dance with death and we see a gun rise from behind a curtain, pointed straight for Bond. With amazing reflexes, Fiona is whipped in front of the bullet’s path by the agent and her head falls limp on his shoulder like a sleepy lover’s as he covers up the blood pouring out of her back with her scarf, his eyes earnest and heated as he does it. The cherry on top of the cake is the one-liner he delivers as he leaves her behind (“she’s just dead”), a scene that recalls Dr. No and how he leaves a dead Mr. Jones in the car he took to meet his contacts in Jamaica.
(Another 'Dr. No' reference comes when Bond tells Fiona after she races him around in her car that he’s “always been a nervous passenger,” the exact thing he told to Mr. Jones before their scuffle)
All in all, Fiona Volpe, and the powerhouse sex cat behind her character, Luciana Paluzzi, represent one of the best figures in all of Bond, and she’s not even a Fleming original, to boot. Paluzzi is magnetic every time she’s on screen, and knows just how to move her body and inflect her voice to draw the eye to her as she plays her scenes. She’s simply one of those women that drips sex when you look at them, and I can’t imagine being a warm blooded male walking around her during the shooting of Thunderball; it’s women like that that make you lose your mind. It’s fitting, then, that “volpe” is Italian for fox, as you aren’t likely to find foxier babes than Ms. Paluzzi as she appears here.
Vargas- I have to give a quick honorable mention to Vargas. I don’t know what the intention of his character is, but I always find him so interesting to watch each time I put in Thunderball.
I guess it’s simply interesting to see a man without vices in a James Bond film full of men and women indulging in all sorts of things. He’s so stiff and in control all the time, and it’s clear that he takes his work as being one of Largo’s soldiers very seriously. I find it interesting how Largo seems to tease him about the fact that he doesn’t indulge himself in women, gambling, drinking or smoking, as if Vargas’ lifestyle is insulting to him. Perhaps it is, as he is the kind of mind who makes a point of showing off to those he betters, until Bond comes along of course and knocks him down a few dozen pegs.
Bond Villain & Performance
Emilio Largo- For some reason, Largo always seems to get a bad rap in the Bond fandom, but I love him and find him to be one of the vilest, creepiest enemies Bond has ever faced.
From the very first moment we see Largo, it’s clear he’s not a man that likes being messed with. He has the audacity to rest his car in a no-parking spot (the monster!), and when he’s reprimanded for it by a French policeman, he throws back a gaze of death to the man to shut him up. In the next scene, as Blofeld electrocutes the traitor in their ranks, all SPECTRE agents but Largo are freaking out at what they just witnessed while the eye-patched man remains cool and collected, jotting notes down on his paper with a pronounced indifference to it all. It becomes clear very fast why he’s No. 2 in the organization, the next in line to take over SPECTRE if something were to become of Blofeld. This man stares death in the face and chortles, refusing to bat his one eye.
Throughout the course of the film, there’s a lot of great moments that really sell Largo to me. For one, his commitment to SPECTRE is more than apparent, and he takes his work very seriously, such that he does all of it himself. It is Largo who dives for the bombs and takes out Angelo as punishment for his greed. When his agents fail him, he has them thrown into the pool as chum for his sharks, kissing his ring after he gives his orders, pledging his love to SPECTRE and the insignia that represents it. Even when he and his team are tasked with transporting the nukes, Largo takes lead on the operation, knowing there may well be danger ahead. He’s like a general who rides on horseback on the front lines with his soldiers, dedicated to their work and to SPECTRE, eager to impress and show his loyalty. It makes sense why he doesn’t suffer fools or mistakes; when he gives 110%, nobody around him should be giving anything less.
There’s also a great sense of imbalance to Largo, like any moment he could be set off into violent lashings. He’s got such a soft ego, which Bond more than spots and takes advantage of. As the film goes on Largo tells his associates-including Fiona-that he wants Bond dead simply because an enemy of SPECTRE is one that needs to die, but it’s clear to us, the audience, that he’s only using that as an excuse to mask his growing jealousy and resentment of Bond in foiling his plans and dismantling or belittling his private life. His pride is hurting.
The first time Largo and Bond meet at the card tables, the agent openly mocks his SPECTRE connections and then pummels him in the game with complete arrogance. Following that he buys the man’s mistress a drink, holds her romantically in a dance and begins motions to unravel his operation in the Bahamas. When Largo invites Bond to Palmyra for a bit of sport, Bond acts like an amateur at shooting clay pigeons while the villain shows off, thinking he’s got the agent bested. When it’s time for Bond to shoot a clay pigeon he comments on how hard it looks, not even looking at where the object will be flying out before giving a quick turn and destroying one with deadly precision. Bond looks down at the gun, feigning puzzlement at how he was just able to do that, confessing to Largo that it must indeed be very simple. The pricks to Largo’s ego Bond delivers to him are hilarious to watch, and as Bond hands him the gun after nailing his shot, you can see the man thinking, “everything’s easy for you, isn’t it?”
Largo is also a great schemer, and knows how to command force. It’s clear why he has a love for sharks; they are both predators and strike when they smell blood and weakness in their prey. Largo is enraged at Bond’s romancing of Domino, but he uses that to his advantage, offering Bond the opportunity to take the girl out for a night at the Junkanoo parade to get him away from his hotel where Paula can be intercepted and tortured for what she-and Bond-know of his plans. Bond’s attraction to Domino is strong and he takes the bait, just as Largo designed, and it costs him.
Adolfo Celi brings great life to Largo, and his performance more than exposes the man’s soft ego to the audience as we watch him crumble in the face of Bond’s superior strength in…well, everything. He feels on edge at all times, and that’s rooted in Celi’s posture that is always in command and forceful. You believe this man is not to be messed with, and his calm in the face of death itself in unnerving, as we’re only used to seeing this with Bond. Robert Rietty did the dubbing for Celi, and I think the voice and performance are a great match, like Gert Fröbe and Michael Collins in Goldfinger. Rietty gives Largo a real slimy sensibility, deepening his tone at just the right moments to convey an unsettled and vindictive disposition. It’s the work in tandem by Celi and Rietty that sell scenes like Largo’s hot and cold torture of Domino, as the former juggles the ice between his fingers and the latter’s voice cakes the visual performance in some real sadism.
In conclusion, I think Largo deserves his place as an early 60s Bond villain, and belongs alongside those like Dr. No, Donald Grant and Goldfinger as some of the series’ best.
Supporting Cast & Performances
M- If his part in Goldfinger was meant to give him some moments to be comical and witty, in Thunderball Bernard Lee got to really play M as a man in command that stood up loyally for his agents.
It’s in Thunderball that Bernard Lee really shines as a commander of a spy agency. When Bond addresses the hunch he has about the Dervals, M is willing to listen to his suggestions on how to approach the mission. When his colleagues have the audacity to question M’s judgment and that of his agents, he is quick to snap back and defend their work and acumen for spy craft.
Later on in the film when it appears that Largo and SPECTRE are going to win and the Brits are going to have to fork up the payment to avoid nuclear destruction, you can see M in distress, angry at how much of a fool they’ve been played. He has that Churchill-like bulldog determination that makes him despise bowing down to anyone. M is usually such a put together man and doesn’t let his emotions show through, but when the Home Secretary has the gall to question Bond’s efforts, the professional artifice cracks and he reprimands the man for his presumptions.
I can only imagine that Bond and M had a nice dinner with accompanying drinks once 007 landed back in London for all the guff they both had to put up with to complete Operation: Thunderball.
Moneypenny- In a rather unprecedented moment, in Thunderball we get to see Moneypenny slip up and insult M, calling him “old man,” triggering an awkward aftermath where Bond tries to pretend he’s looking for his hat to get through it.
In fact, Thunderball is a film where Moneypenny gets very, very sassy. Even when Bond phones her from Shrublands to have her investigate the Red Tong symbol on Lippe’s arm, she gives the man attitude and tells him to file it away until he gets back, though she finishes the scene off playfully.
In a big departure for the series at this point, there’s really no bit of flirtation between Bond and Moneypenny. When Bond enters the office he is sent to the briefing room immediately, leaving little time for frivolity. All the rest of the film Moneypenny is seen helping M in the briefing room as the 11th hour of the SPECTRE plot approaches.
Q- What makes Thunderball’s Q and Bond gadget briefing scene quite surprising is that neither party seem at all pleased to be with each other this time around, and there’s not much playfulness to it on either side. It seems Q found out about Bond running his glorious DB5 into a Swiss factory wall and still hasn’t forgiven the spy for it.
We get a nice little detail about Q’s character here that remained a vital part of his character forever after: he visibly dislikes being in the field and away from his workshop, calling the business “highly irregular.”
He and Bond have a series of fun interactions and swap barbs as Bond childishly flicks a light on a machine on and off and disrespects the amazing tech Q is showing him, asking “Is that clever?” while holding a special camera. Q follows up his inquiry with a sharp retort that shows the gadget man truly doesn’t joke about his work.
Felix- Rik Van Nutter takes on Felix duties this time around in Thunderball, carrying on the baton from past actors like Jack Lord and Cec Linder. Once again, everything about Nutter’s portrayal, his height, weight, overall stature and mannerisms are as big a departure from Linder’s Leiter from Goldfinger as that man’s were from Lord’s Leiter in Dr. No.
In usual Felix fashion, Nutter’s take on the character is largely the same as the others in as much that he doesn’t really do anything of importance beyond giving Bond some logistical and moral support. For much of his screen time he quite literally hangs in the back, spying on Bond as he makes his connections with Largo and Domino to instigate more opportunities to divulge where the two nuclear missiles may be located. When Felix does enter the action, he is of no great assistance. He drives Bond around to important locations, but really he amounts to nothing more than a glorified sailor and helicopter pilot with not much in the way of personality. In Fleming’s novel Leiter poses as an associate of Bond in his dealings with Largo in the Bahamas, and I kind of wish that we got to see that in this film, because at the very least it would give Felix a reason to be there. Paula could have done everything he did in this film, and she was far more worthy of added screen time and plot purpose in my opinion, as I really enjoy Martine Beswick for as little as she appears here.
Nutter’s performance is fine enough, but the dubbing is often very wooden and badly delivered, lifeless even. I feel like Nutter’s lines were delivered better on set, but in post-production ADR he re-read his dialogue poorly, giving it this wooden presentation in the overlaid audio. It’s also likely that the only reason he got the role was because of his marriage to Anita Ekberg, who’d recently appeared in the EON-produced film Call Me Bwana, but that’s neither here nor there.
The rotating casting door that has always been the fate of the character of Felix Leiter in James Bond films make it seem as if the role is cursed, and this issue is one of the biggest problems the franchise has had. It’s always difficult to criticize Felix and the actor playing him in any film because he’s the most heavily recast Bond character, so it’s nearly impossible to attach ourselves to him when we know the actor only changes again in the next film. Because of this, Felix barely feels like a character at times because there’s such a lack of consistency in him throughout the series, and that’s a real shame. This issue is especially severe in the Connery films. We go from the tall, slim, well-built and dashing Jack Lord to the graying and unfit looking Cec Linder only two years later, followed by the equally graying Rik Van Nutter. At least in Thunderball Van Nutter just looked like an older, grayer Lord, so his casting wasn’t as drastic a change in age and body type as the transition from Lord to Linder was, which is mindboggling to watch now. Maybe the reason why Hedison and Wright are my favorites are because they got to have more than one bite at the apple each playing Felix, and in their second films as the character, Licence To Kill and Quantum of Solace respectively, both men got meatier parts in the action that made Felix feel like a more important part of the story, which most Felix’s don’t get the honor of.
Poor, poor Felix. He’ll sit out the next couple of films, and only get appearances in Diamonds Are Forever and Live and Let Die before disappearing entirely until Timothy Dalton takes the Bond reigns before he once again fades from memory.
Pat Fearing- While her role in the film is quite simple and largely only facilitated by the convenience of having Bond recouping at the same clinic being used by SPECTRE’s Angelo and Lippe, I really enjoy Molly Peters as Pat Fearing here.
A real stunner, she’s another beauty in a long list of them that appear in this film, one of the all-time best ensembles of Bond women in the entire series, especially in such a great number. In performance alone Peters does the job, with high sex appeal and a voice that oozes attraction. She and Sean are quite playful in how they approach their scenes, and this reinforces the attraction that exists between the characters they are playing. Peters plays the role of Fearing well, and sells scenes well where she barks at Bond for misbehaving. She really gives it to Bond in this movie, and challenges him on everything, not holding back a step. In addition, I’m sure every boy of the 60s (and those re-watching the film today) fantasized about massaging Peters’ back with a mink glove in an effort to relieve her tensions.
Fearing gets an interesting and symbolic send-off in this film, as like nearly every other Bond girl, we never see head or tail from her again. She is visibly melancholic about Bond’s departure despite their rough start, and she tells him she’s available to him “anytime, anyplace,” to which Bond charmingly replies “another time, another place” as he speeds off. In this way, Patricia Fearing is a composite and representation of every Bond babe before and after her: Bond is a busy and committed man whose work demands him to always be on the move, eyeing the next mission and worldwide threat, having time only for the speediest of dalliances and most fleeting of flings.
Paula Kaplan- In many ways, the lovely Martine Beswick’s Paula Kaplan is one of the big missed opportunities in a film that nails largely everything. Many commentators I’ve heard or read analyze Thunderball are of the opinion that Beswick is here only to draw the eye to another beautiful woman, and this may hold true, but it’s hard not to wonder what effect the girl would’ve had given more time to shine.
Beswick’s history with early Bond is well documented, and she flirted with possible stardom many a time. She tested for Terence Young to be Honey Ryder in Dr. No, but was told by the director that she needed some more acting lessons, words of advice she took to heart. By the time From Russia with Love was being cast and shot around 1963 she returned to casting and Terence put her in the picture as one of the battling would-be brides at the gypsy camp. She must have made an impression and warranted casting in a bigger role to Young, who then fought for her against the producers’ wishes for a larger appearance in his 1965 feature Thunderball.
With all this in consideration, Beswick does catch the eye, and her screen presence and charming demeanor is quite visible, which makes it all the more shameful this is all we see of her in what could barely be called a substantial part. From the moment we meet her on the boat as Bond attempts a romance of Domino, it’s clear that the chemistry between Martine and Sean burned hot. One of my favorite parts of the film occurs when Bond and Paula are trying to make it seem like their boat is out of order to facilitate Domino taking Bond ashore. In this scene Beswick gives Paula a rather charming personality because she really ribs Bond on his sad attempts at seduction and plays her lines with great emphasis to show the audience that the character is purposely overacting to display how stupid she things the whole ruse is. I adore just how little of a care Paula gives when, after Bond asks her if she doesn’t mind finding her own way back to shore, she puts on an overblown performance, throws her hands comically up in the air for added expression and bellows, “Not at all!”
If only the rest of the film gave Paula this kind of fun material to play with to build up her character. Beyond being what is supposed to be Bond’s assistant in the Bahamas, all she really does is make sure the photos Bond shoots underwater of the Disco Volante’s underside are developed and delivered to his hotel room. There’s a sense that she fancies Bond, as she straightens her dress and fixes her hair in the mirror when she thinks he’s knocking later in the film, but other than this we don’t really get a solid impression of her past experiences, her skill sets as an agent or what kind of dynamic or working relationship her and Bond have had in the past. Because of this, when we find out she’s bitten on a cyanide capsule to escape Largo’s torture, it’s hard to feel anything because we know so little of her. All we’re left with is one fun scene with Paula and a beautiful, beautiful figure to stare at outside of that performance, but that stuff alone is more than some Bond girls in the franchise have gotten, so I guess there’s that.
You boys have fun! Maybe do a rendition on guitar of Nancy Sinatra's tune to warm up for the viewing of the film.
And let me just say: that poor cat! He's clearly not having any fun making this movie when the volcano lair blows up!
While this is a great Bond film, please don't get me wrong -- it's got some rough spots too. I think my own personal difficulty with this movie is that this is where our story first diverges significantly from Fleming's material. That's a cardinal error and a hard one for me to forgive. It's also sad (in my mind) to note that this film is where Sean got so fed up with the demands that come with playing the part of Bond, that he quit the series. For the first time but not the last. Oh well. You Only Come Into a Career-Making Part Like James Bond 007 Once. Or is it Twice? Or maybe even Three Times...
Moral of the story is: Never Say Never Again
1. GF
2. FRWL
3. DN
4. TB
5. YOLT
Previous ranking:
1. The Spy Who Loved Me
2. On Her Majestys Secret Service
3. Casino Royale
4. From Russia With Love
5. Skyfall
6. Goldfinger
7. Octopussy
8. Spectre
9. Dr No
10. The Living Daylights
11. Goldeneye
12. Live And Let Die
13. Licence To Kill
14. A View To A Kill
15. For Your Eyes Only
16. Moonraker
17. Thunderball
18. Quantum Of Solace
19. Diamonds Are Forever
20. Tomorrow Never Dies
21. You Only Live Twice
22. The Man With The Golden Gun
23. Die Another Day
24. The World Is Not Enough
It could be if the movie was taking place today....but it was filmed in 1967. No drones back then. No internet either.
One more minor disappointment (for me) with this movie. We've only just met Charles Gray as a very likable Henderson when he's written out far too early. But maybe Eon can use him again somewhere down the line. Or he can pop in from another movie universe entirely, using The Time Warp to bring us some miniature drones. "It's just a jump to the left...and then a step to the ri-hi-hi-hi-ight!"
And so far, Birdleson and I are still in agreement re: rankings...
1) GF
2) FRWL
3) DN
4) TB
5) YOLT