Diamonds Are Forever (film)

Diamonds Are Forever
Theatrical release poster by Robert McGinnis
Directed byGuy Hamilton
Screenplay byRichard Maibaum
Tom Mankiewicz
Based onDiamonds Are Forever
by Ian Fleming
Produced byHarry Saltzman
Albert R. Broccoli
Starring
CinematographyTed Moore
Edited byBert Bates
John Holmes
Music byJohn Barry
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • 14 December 1971 (1971-12-14) (West Germany)
  • 17 December 1971 (1971-12-17) (USA)
  • 30 December 1971 (1971-12-30) (UK, premiere)
Running time
120 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom[1]
United States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7.2 million[3]
Box office$116 million[3]

Diamonds Are Forever is a 1971 spy film and the seventh film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sixth and final Eon film to star Sean Connery, who returned to the role as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, having declined to reprise the role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name and is the second of four James Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton. The story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a smuggling ring and soon uncovering a plot by his old enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld to use the diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon. Bond has to battle his enemy one last time to stop the smuggling and Blofeld's plan of destroying Washington D.C. and extorting the world with nuclear supremacy.

After George Lazenby left the series, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli tested other actors, but studio United Artists wanted Connery back, paying a then-record $1.25 million salary for him to return. The producers were inspired by Goldfinger; as with that film, Guy Hamilton was hired to direct, and Shirley Bassey performed vocals on the title theme song. Locations included Las Vegas, California, and Amsterdam. Diamonds Are Forever was a commercial success and received positive reviews, though some of the humor has become controversial in retrospect. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound.

  1. ^ "Diamonds Are Forever". Lumiere. European Audiovisual Observatory. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Diamonds Are Forever (1971)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference numbers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).