Different Diamonds...

chrisno1

Several years ago, when I researched a lot of background to the Bond films, i learnt of several alternative plots / scenarios to the films that the screenwriters had discarded before the final draft. DAF always seemed to me to have the most colourful history.

Initailly it was to have nothing to do with SPECTRE and the villian was to be Goldfinger's brother. The space laser plot did not exist. I also read they had planned scenes in South Africa or Zaire.

Later ideas, those by Richard Maibaum rounded out the story more or less as we know it, before Tom Mankiewicz revised the final drafts. Maibaums climax had a flotilla of yachts forcing Blofelds yacht over the Hoover dam; unlikely, but interesting.

The sections I found most interesting were regarding the PTS and the oil rig battle.

Mankiewicz had Bond hang-gliding towards an isolated villa, where he meets a beautiful woman who provides him with Bloefleds location. Bond kills her with her bikini top (this idea was part used, and then revised for LALD, when Bond seduces Solitaire). We then see Bond in Bolivia tracking down what we later learn is a double of Bloefleld.

As it stands, the battle on the oil rig is hardly thrilling, and Bloefeld doesn't appear to be killed or to escape. Mankiewicz had Bond escape from his cell, rescue Tiffany and then, amid the chaos, he spies Bloefeld's submersible. Bond dives off the rig and attatches the rope of a weather balloon to the escape ship. While Bloefeld escapes, Bond clings to the balloon, which floats on the ocean's surface. Bloefeld beaches the submersible and realises Bond is still giving chase. He runs into an abandoned diamond mine, but is caught. In the ensuing fight Blofeld assaults Bond with a diamond studded knuckle-duster. Bloefled is killed when Bond kicks him down a mine shaft. The white cat is still alive....

Now I know DAF is by no means a perfect film, but a climax like that (which included dialouge regarding Tracy's death) would certainly have raised it up a notch or two.
Any thoughts?
Does anyone know anymore about this scenario?

youknowmyname

I like DAF, but agree that the ending could've been better and the film would've been much better if it included some dialogue regarding Tracy's death (the exclusion of all things Tracy was a major mistake on the filmmaker's part). I also like how Blofeld goes out in this one, it is a little better than being dropped down a smoke stack with a whistling sound effect (for Pete's sake). :v

Barbel

chrisno1 wrote:

Does anyone know anymore about this scenario?

One of the early ideas was to have Gert Frobe return as Auric's twin brother. Richard Maibaum reasoned that if Auric "was obsessed by gold, why not let him have a brother who was obsessed by diamonds?" and gave him the line 'You remember my brother Auric, Mr Bond. Mother always said he was a bit retarded' (Adrian Turner On Goldfinger, Bloomsbury 1998).

The laser was to have been mounted on a supertanker- Broccoli liked the tanker idea enough to feature it later in TSWLM.

The Hoover dam sequence would have included Bond exhorting various Vegas boatowners to help in chasing Blofeld's boat by broadcasting "Las Vegas expects every man to do his duty". The replacement oil rig climax (written by Tom Mankiewicz) was intended to involve frogmen diving from the helicopters (a la TB) to blow up the rig; the frogmen were included in the film's poster.

Tee Hee

Interesting stuff Chris. I knew that Goldfinger's brother was originally supposed to be the villain, but that's it. ;%

As much as I like some of Bond's more ruthless moments (Bond shooting Dent in DN, Bond kicking Locque's car over the cliff in FYEO), I don't know if I'd like to see Bond strangle a woman to death. To do so would be out of character and just plain nasty IMO. With Marie, I always assumed Bond let her go after she revealed Blofeld's whereabouts. As far as we know, Bond let the other two goons in the PTS live as well. Personally, I think it's much better that way anyway. After all, Bond's fight was not with them, but with Blofeld.

I'm a fan of DAF, but just like everyone else, I can't help but wonder what could have been had they played up the Tracy angle from the last film and sent a vengeful Bond after Blofeld. The film would certainly have been darker. But instead, the filmmakers gave us a taste of what we could expect for the next 14 years under Roger Moore. Connery could well have ended his tenure with a bang, perhaps even convincing the producers to pass on Moore and continue in that direction with a darker actor. Of course, that’s a terrible thought. As a Moore fan, I wouldn’t replace Sir Roger with anyone. :v

I personally was never convinced that Blofeld died on that oil rig towards the end of DAF. Perhaps the filmmakers did this intentionally, leaving open the possibility of bringing him back yet again. Well, if you consider the mysterious man in the PTS of FYEO to be in fact Blofeld, then they did!

If Blofeld did in fact die on that oil rig (or down that smokestack), I personally don’t find it very gratifying. Having Bond confront Blofeld man to man in an abandoned mine would definitely have been an improvement IMO, for I would have liked to see Bond literally get his hands on Ernst, not dispose of him from behind the controls of a crane or a helicopter.

Ah well, could've, should've, would've...

7289

And to think they tossed Fleming's Novel into the garbage can and instead came up with all these "really great" ideas.

What MASTERMINDS!!!!

Napoleon Plural

Au contrair, TH, as Blofeld is now the Lord Lucan (look it up) of Bond villains... who knows what happened to him?

Loved the film (it's a great family TV flick not one for the widescreen sit down by yourself in a dark room event) but while the climax thrilled me as a kid, sure, it's slight but not as longwinded as some.

Weezer12

Interesting stuff, Chris...Do you have any more unused ideas?

Mailfist

After all the ideas that were batted about you would have thought they could have come up with a better end product. The weakest of the Connery movies and one of the worst in the series.

I would have liked to see Bond go up against the Mafia as in the novel, but with the books filmed out of seguence I suppose SPECTRE was a more natural enemy following on from OHMSS.

Like the rest of you I think it was a mistake not to have more mention of Tracey.

Connery could have added real depth to a couple of scenes with Tracey mentioned. Possibly one with Felix. What would be more natural than Bond's best friend, and a man in the same line of work, offering his condolences.

And there should have been some mention of Tracey in the scenes with Blofeld. It was never really explict why Bond was chasing him half way around the world.

But this was another in a long list of bad decisions by the producers about DAF. It started well with the PTS, and the fight in the lift with Franks was excellent, but when Bond landed in America he seemed somewhere in transit to have stepped into a Matt Helm movie.

Didn't you just love the corporate image for the SPECTRE henchmen on the oil rig. All dressed in their nice pastal blue coveralls. Austin Powers eat your heart out.

However, I am glad that they dropped the Goldfinger brother idea. Goldfinger is probably the seminal Bond villian and to have brought in his brother would have deluted this.