Sean Connery returned for the seventh movie in the Bond series with James matching wits with his nemesis, Blofeld, here played by Charles Gray (pictured below right) – the third Blofeld in as many films, who wants to use the world’s diamond supply to build an orbiting space laser.
This is one of the weakest Bonds, with its plot about diamond smuggling developing rather tiresomely into a chase with Moon buggies and Connery simply going through the motions.
The Las Vegas sequences have some dash, however – including James ripping Vegas apart in a great chase in his Ford Mustang Mach 1 – and Bruce Glover and Putter Smith make an intriguing double act of the gay hitmen, Wint and Kidd.
Sadly, it was to be Connery’s swan-song as 007 but came as a welcome (albeit brief) return to Bond form after the dismal performance by George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
Sean Connery quit the Bond series after 1967’s You Only Live Twice, essentially because he was fed up with all of the 007 hype and hubbub.
He had also apparently experienced strained relations with the producers. The chances of getting him to ever return seemed non-existent, and it appeared that the franchise would actually go for an American – John Gavin of Psycho – as the new Bond.
However, Connery’s post-Bond career hadn’t exactly set the world on fire, so his prospects weren’t as promising as he might have liked.
He also wanted to set up a charity, so he negotiated a then-astonishing salary of roughly $1.25 million plus a percentage, all of which went to the Scottish International Education Trust.
“Hi. I’m Plenty . . . Plenty O’Toole”
“Named after your father perhaps?”
James Bond
Sean Connery
Tiffany Case
Jill St. John
Ernst Blofeld
Charles Gray
Plenty O’Toole
Lana Wood
Willard Whyte
Jimmy Dean
Burt Saxby
Bruce Cabot
Mr Kidd
Putter Smith
Mr Wint
Bruce Glover
Felix Leiter
Norman Burton
M
Bernard Lee
Q
Desmond Llewelyn
Miss Moneypenny
Lois Maxwell
Dr Metz
Joseph Furst
Shady Tree
Leonard Barr
Mrs Whistler
Margaret Lacey
Peter Franks
Joe Robinson
“Bambi”
Donna Garratt
“Thumper”
Trina Parks
Sir Donald Munger
Laurence Naismith
Mr Slumber
David Bauer
Maxwell
Burt Metcalf
Klaus Hergersheimer
Ed Bishop
Director
Guy Hamilton
