AJB live commentary on DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Higgins

Time for another group-viewing, this time, it‘s

Diamonds Are Forever







London Summertime: 20:00
Paris Summertime: 21:00
New York local time 15:00
LA local time 12:00


PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT WE ARE ALL STARTING 10 MINUTES LATER !

The 19:00 deadline is set so that everybody has enough time to find their DVDs/Blu Rays, boot their players and get done with the menus and pause right where the gunbarrel starts.

WE ARE STARTING PRECISELY AT 19:10

- Please make sure that everybody has their BluRay/DVD/VCR ready and start the player latest 19:00 GMT to get done with all the dodgy menus.
- PAUSE YOUR PLAYER RIGHT BEFORE THE GUNBARREL
- HIT PLAY PRECISELY AT 19:10.
I‘ll post some timecodes during the thread just in case that somebody has messed it up

Shady Tree

Looking forward to viewing this one again! It was my first Bond film, my first Bond film in the cinema, and my first Bond film in its original run. At age eight I was probably a bit young but I loved it, and I remember seeing it in a huge crowded cinema with an audience who loved it too!

I reviewed it in this post a few years ago: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/post/767494/#p767494

Barbel

Often forgotten (or at least not mentioned much) is, as Shady referred to above, how well DAF went down with audiences at the time. People genuinely enjoyed having Connery back as Bond and the movie itself.
I suspect a bit of bandwagon-jumping having to do with its low standing these days. Many people will have heard it was a letdown after OHMSS (very much NOT how it was seen on release) and watch it with that idea in mind.

caractacus potts

Yes I like Jill St John in this, even if she's playing the fool in her final scenes.
The scene where she blocks the car at the gas station is very funny.

I think her version of Tiffany Case would be the most fun BondGirl to actually hang out with in real life.
(the character in the book is quite different)

Barbel

caractacus potts wrote:

(the character in the book is quite different)

Author John Brosnan said that the book Tiffany was Lauren Bacall, while film Tiffany was Lucille Ball.

Number24

I agree. She's very good in the early parts of DAF, but especially on the oil platform she's just a dumb bimbo.

Number24

Not that there aren't a lot of positives to DAF's Bond Girls ...


Jill st. John





Lana Wood:

Higgins

I have a different „first“ experience with DAF.

I habe 2 brothers and when we visited my grandparents, we always went together with my cousin to the cinema. We started with Bud Spencer and Lois de Funes.

Now, I have seen TSWLM and MR and James Bond was THE thing for me!
They where playing DAF in the local cinema and we planned to go to there.
My uncle whom I found very cool back then as a 13 year old told us, that there is only one bad James Bond movie and DAF is the one. He advised not to go.

Well, we knew better and boy was my uncle right

Shady Tree

@Higgins. That must have been after '79, then, but I'm curious as to what year it would have been?

Charmed & Dangerous

Shady Tree wrote:

It was my first Bond film, my first Bond film in the cinema, and my first Bond film in its original run. At age seven I was probably a bit young but I loved it, and I remember it seeing it in a huge crowded cinema with an audience who loved it too!

"Shmall world!"



It was my first Bond film, my first in the cinema and on its original run at the Odeon Brentwood, and I was also seven. I clearly remember watching the scenes with the piton gun atop the Whyte House and being blown away. I still love the film from start to finish. :x

Shady Tree

Charmed & Dangerous wrote:

I clearly remember watching the scenes with the piton gun atop the Whyte House and being blown away. I still love the film from start to finish. :x

Connery's tux, flash trouser seams, the carnation, butterfly tie and frilly evening shirt! That matte painting of Vegas night lights in the distance, with their twinkling effect! (Kudos to Peter Lamont for that one, working under Ken Adam!) The sound effect of distant traffic noise and night air! John Barry's evocative score for the scene, kicking in at precisely the right moment; jazzy but eerily moody, yielding 'the Bond chord' but ending playfully! Sublime!

Higgins

Shady Tree wrote:

@Higgins. That must have been after '79, then, but I'm curious as to what year it would have been?

You never ask a lady about her age

Shady Tree

Higgins wrote:

Shady Tree wrote:

@Higgins. That must have been after '79, then, but I'm curious as to what year it would have been?

You never ask a lady about her age

) True... I'm just interested about the point by which DAF was getting its unfortunate reputation. I guess if you'd already seen all the space stuff in MR, the business with Blofeld's satellite would have seemed lame by comparison. And TSWLM had been a watershed in changing expectations of Bond films during the 70s.

Higgins

I think, that I‘ve seen MR before I‘ve seen DAF, but then I‘ve been older than 13 8-)

But the Space stuff and the desert chase scenes looked horrible -no matter what year

Higgins

Guys, I may be on the road on Friday late evening and probably exhausted when I am back home ( driving over 200 km/h is hard ).

I have asked Barbel to take over the lead in this thread and he thankfully has accepted {[]

Barbel

But of course, only too glad to help.

Barbel

Shady Tree wrote:

Charmed & Dangerous wrote:

I clearly remember watching the scenes with the piton gun atop the Whyte House and being blown away. I still love the film from start to finish. :x

Connery's tux, flash trouser seams, the carnation, butterfly tie and frilly evening shirt! That matte painting of Vegas night lights in the distance, with their twinkling effect! (Kudos to Peter Lamont for that one, working under Ken Adam!) The sound effect of distant traffic noise and night air! John Barry's evocative score for the scene, kicking in at precisely the right moment; jazzy but eerily moody, yielding 'the Bond chord' but ending playfully! Sublime!

Could not agree more

Barbel

Points about the OST-

1971- The original release coincided with the movie. It contains a lot of very enjoyable music, but concentrates on the "lounge" selections ("Tiffany Case", "Q's Trick", and the "Source Instrumental" of DAF) at the expense of more action-oriented cues. I believe this was ordered by the record company.

1999- Nic Raine conducting the City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra covered a few selections not included on the above album (eg "Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd", much missed on the first release) as well as ones that had been.

2003- The remaster by Lukas Kendall. Very comprehensive, with much music not on the original release. Some of the original tracks were expanded, and as well as previously unreleased cues (eg "The Whyte House", "Following The Diamonds") there was a grab-bag of "Additional And Unreleased Cues" at the end. Very enjoyable.

I won't be going into too much detail on all of this unless asked, but I will say that DAF has one of the best scores of any Bond film in its full version. Barry presents a range of casual lounge music ("Tiffany Case"), Las Vegas cues that double as diegetic music ("Q's Trick"), tense pieces ("The Whyte House"), and pure Bond ("Bond To Holland"). In addition to all of this, his main theme is one of his best ever- the ostinato that opens the Shirley Bassey vocal version is the perfect summation of the film's emphasis on diamonds, and he works many variations of the delicious melody into the cues. A master at the top of his game.

I take it you all know that John Barry told both Don Black (lyricist) and Shirley Bassey (singer) to treat the diamond theme as if it were a penis ("All I need to please me", "Stimulate and tease me", "Caress it, touch it, stroke it")?

I take it you all know about Barry throwing Harry Saltzman out of his flat when he said he didn't like the song? (Saltzman was notoriously tone deaf- he didn't like "Goldfinger", for example.).*

*He'd probably have liked "Another Way To Die" if he'd still been around.

Shady Tree

Thanks for your summary of the history of the OST, Barbel. I always loved the 1971 DAF album, and I repeatedly borrowed the same copy of it from the local public library in 1972. Another vinyl release I treasured was 'The James Bond Collection', a 10th anniversary double album which included selections of cues from the seven OSTs up to DAF. There were no previously unreleased tracks in this compilation but its sleeve was impressively designed with stills from the films. Moving on to 1999, I welcomed getting the Wint and Kidd theme in the Nic Raine album.

Moving on still further, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop when, in 2003, the remastered DAF OST treated us to a wave of cues that we'd previously been able to hear only in the movie itself. I'd like to give a special shout to 'Following The Diamonds'. In the film, this track graces what might otherwise have seemed a humdrum tailing scene, lending it some suspense. When enjoyed as an isolated track on the album, its genius is clear: it has a beautifully modulated linearity, intertwining themes with teasing variations on a repeated motif.

emtiem

Barbel wrote:

Often forgotten (or at least not mentioned much) is, as Shady referred to above, how well DAF went down with audiences at the time. People genuinely enjoyed having Connery back as Bond and the movie itself.

Highest grossing film in the UK in 1971? 'On The Buses'

Took as much as Diamonds Are Forever and Get Carter combined.

Barbel

Well, you enjoy that on Friday while we all watch DAF.
I was one of the people watching DAF in the cinema at the time. A ridiculous number of times, to be honest. Audiences laughed at the jokes, "oohed" in the right places, and warmly appreciated Sean Connery- there were actual cheers when he appeared onscreen saying The Line.

Higgins

Seanboys 8-)

Barbel

1971, Higgins.

Edit: Turns out I must have seen it in early 72 (see below).

Shady Tree

emtiem wrote:

Highest grossing film in the UK in 1971? 'On The Buses'

Took as much as Diamonds Are Forever and Get Carter combined.

In the UK, at the time, the relative success of big screen outings for TV sitcoms reflects what a dire state the British film industry was in generally and how much television had supplanted the cinema as a medium of entertainment. On the whole, folk would rather go to the cinema to see a favourite TV show enhanced by some big-screen treatment than to see films per se. I do indeed remember watching Hammer's 'On The Buses' in a crowded cinema too - but tbh DAF felt much more like an 'event', pulling in the punters and with everyone talking about it.

'On The Buses' as a TV show is the antithesis of Bond. Stan is a working class cheeky chappy who wants a girlfriend but whose opportunities to enjoy some hanky panky on the sofa are invariably stifled by his depressing domestic situation couped up with his old mum, his short-sighted sister and his frustrated brother-in-law. Stan, unlike Bond, hardly ever gets away. His workmate, Jack, sometimes gets the girl, but Jack is a scrawny long-haired toothy guy with a comically lecherous laugh whose sex appeal for a procession of busty 'clippies' is hard to understand. The inspector at the bus depot is a hapless tinpot dictator, essentially bullied by Jack and Stan. And times were hard: Stan and Arthur would spend entire scenes around the frugal family tea table bickering over which of them had a greater right to the one leftover sausage.

For many, 'On The Buses' was about having a laugh at a comic version of their own situation, while Bond was all about jetting off to another world of fantasy and spectacle. Yet on the other hand, Stan could be seen as a poor man's Bond in a different genre, which perhaps helps to explain the cinematic popularity of both 'On The Buses' and DAF for the same contemporary audiences: Mum is M, Blakey is Blofeld, Jack is Felix, and the busty clippies are the Bond girls. Despite his efforts to get hitched up romantically, Stan, like Bond, is always back to square one at the beginning of his next episode, ready for a new escapade.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/19/1324319950824/On-the-Buses-007.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2c96d48742416f35b8231ec345eaf029

As for 'Get Carter', a great film, its flinty, grim vision inspired talent working in British TV. Together with 'The French Connection', from across the pond, its grittiness was an initial influence on Euston Films' hit police drama, 'The Sweeney', which in turn spawned broader, big screen spin-offs of its own. In 'Sweeney 2' (1978) Leon Lissek has lines very much in the style of a Fleming character as he shows Regan and Carter around the villains' luxurious base in Malta, pompously expounding details about the fishing season.

CoolHandBond

Barbel wrote:

I was one of the people watching DAF in the cinema at the time. A ridiculous number of times, to be honest. Audiences laughed at the jokes, "oohed" in the right places, and warmly appreciated Sean Connery- there were actual cheers when he appeared onscreen saying The Line.

DAF had a release date in London mid December 1971. Unlike today, movies were given a London release before going on general release some time after. The general release date for the UK was Easter 1972, so many of you would not have seen it until that date.

Am I the only AJB member to have seen all the films upon original release in the cinema? I first saw DN in 1962 although my only recollection is of the spider scene to be fair, but I did see it again mid 60’s on a double bill with FRWL.

Barbel

You may well be, CHB!

Shady Tree

Precisely when I saw DAF is a detail lost in time. In my case it was in a cinema in a home county bordering close to London, so if my own previous references to seeing it in 71 would need to be scratched and corrected to 72 I'd accept that. All I know is that when I saw it everyone was talking about it.

(And thinking more about 'On The Buses', it was actually 'Mutiny On The Buses' that I saw in the cinema - the 1972 follow-up to the first 'On The Buses' movie of 1971.)

Mr Snow

Barbel wrote:

caractacus potts wrote:

(the character in the book is quite different)

Author John Brosnan said that the book Tiffany was Lauren Bacall, while film Tiffany was Lucille Ball.

In that 'case' 8-) I'll definitely go with book Tiffany.

Off track (another intended pun) admittedly but for those that like gambling, horse racing and anything Lauren Bacall :x this IMO is a must see. Talk about chemistry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF_chuSy9G4

Barbel

Shady Tree wrote:

Precisely when I saw it is a detail lost in time. In my case it was in a cinema in a home country bordering close to London, so if my own previous references to seeing it in 71 would need to be scratched and corrected to 72 I'd accept that. All I know is that when I saw it everyone was talking about it.

Yes, I agree. Just replace "London" with "Glasgow" for me.

Barbel

Mr Snow wrote:

Barbel wrote:

caractacus potts wrote:

(the character in the book is quite different)

Author John Brosnan said that the book Tiffany was Lauren Bacall, while film Tiffany was Lucille Ball.

In that 'case' 8-) I'll definitely go with book Tiffany.

Off track (another intended pun) admittedly but for those that like gambling, horse racing and anything Lauren Bacall :x this IMO is a must see. Talk about chemistry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF_chuSy9G4

Classic scene, classic film. {[]

emtiem

Shady Tree wrote:

emtiem wrote:

Highest grossing film in the UK in 1971? 'On The Buses'

Took as much as Diamonds Are Forever and Get Carter combined.

In the UK, at the time, the relative success of big screen outings for TV sitcoms reflects what a dire state the British film industry was in generally and how much television had supplanted the cinema as a medium of entertainment. On the whole, folk would rather go to the cinema to see a favourite TV show enhanced by some big-screen treatment than to see films per se. I do indeed remember watching Hammer's 'On The Buses' in a crowded cinema too - but tbh DAF felt much more like an 'event', pulling in the punters and with everyone talking about it.

'On The Buses' as a TV show is the antithesis of Bond. Stan is a working class cheeky chappy who wants a girlfriend but whose opportunities to enjoy some hanky panky on the sofa are invariably stifled by his depressing domestic situation couped up with his old mum, his short-sighted sister and his frustrated brother-in-law. Stan, unlike Bond, hardly ever gets away. His workmate, Jack, sometimes gets the girl, but Jack is a scrawny long-haired toothy guy with a comically lecherous laugh whose sex appeal for a procession of busty 'clippies' is hard to understand. The inspector at the bus depot is a hapless tinpot dictator, essentially bullied by Jack and Stan. And times were hard: Stan and Arthur would spend entire scenes around the frugal family tea table bickering over which of them had a greater right to the one leftover sausage.

For many, 'On The Buses' was about having a laugh at a comic version of their own situation, while Bond was all about jetting off to another world of fantasy and spectacle. Yet on the other hand, Stan could be seen as a poor man's Bond in a different genre, which perhaps helps to explain the cinematic popularity of both 'On The Buses' and DAF for the same contemporary audiences: Mum is M, Blakey is Blofeld, Jack is Felix, and the busty clippies are the Bond girls. Despite his efforts to get hitched up romantically, Stan, like Bond, is always back to square one at the beginning of his next episode, ready for a new escapade.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/19/1324319950824/On-the-Buses-007.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2c96d48742416f35b8231ec345eaf029

As for 'Get Carter', a great film, its flinty, grim vision inspired talent working in British TV. Together with 'The French Connection', from across the pond, its grittiness was an initial influence on Euston Films' hit police drama, 'The Sweeney', which in turn spawned broader, big screen spin-offs of its own. In 'Sweeney 2' (1978) Leon Lissek has lines very much in the style of a Fleming character as he shows Regan and Carter around the villains' luxurious base in Malta, pompously expounding details about the fishing season.

I must admit I haven't looked into when the films were released: DAF might've been right at the end of the year or something so hadn't had its full run or something.