Thunderball (4 Stars)

I was shocked to hear that Sean Connery passed away this morning. It's true, he was 90 years old, but it still came as a surprise, because he's always looked fit in recent years. Judging by his appearance, he was fitter than men half his age. He'll always be remembered for his signature role as James Bond, even though he made many other films in his acting career.

"Thunderball" is the fourth James Bond film, made in 1965. It's the only film in the series that shows all nine Double-O agents assembled, although we only see the other eight from the rear.

James Bond is entering on the left, heading for his chair when he's late for a meeting with the British Home Secretary. 

The film's plot is that a Spectre agent, Emilio Largo, also known as Number Two, has stolen two atomic bombs. He's holding NATO to ransom for 100 million pounds. All nine Double-O agents are put on the job to hunt him down before the deadline for the payment arrives. They're sent to different parts of the world, but James Bond requests permission to go to Nassau, because he has a lead that this is where Largo can be found. If his lead is so certain, it would have been more realistic for the other eight Double-O agents to accompany him, but when have the James Bond films ever been about realism? In the opening scenes we see him escaping from a preliminary mission with a personal jet pack. Colonel Pyat would have been proud!

The film has a less complex plot than the previous films. There's an outstanding underwater fight scene that lasts for seven minutes between Spectre agents and a Royal Navy task squad. It's beautifully filmed in eerie silence, as the two groups fire harpoon guns at one another. James Bond himself is made recognisable by being the only one with naked legs. I'm sure he must have frozen underwater, even in the Bahamas.

There's a cameo appearance of Anthony Dawson as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but he's not given this name in the film. He's only referred to as Number One. We don't even see his face in this film. That's just as well, because he's played by five different actors in the six classic James Bond films where he appears.

There are three Bond girls in this film, not the usual two. The good Bond girl is Domino, played by Claudine Auger. She starts out as Largo's mistress, but when she finds out that Largo murdered her brother she changes allegiance. The bad Bond Girl is Fiona Volpe, played by Luciana Paluzzi, a Spectre agent who was the mistress of Domino's brother until it was time to kill him. The third Bond Girl is Paula Caplan, played by Martine Beswick, a CIA agent assisting Bond in his investigations. As is typical for the secondary good Bond Girls, she's killed early in the film. (It was actually suicide by cyanide pill to prevent herself being captured).

It's interesting to follow the development of Sean Connery's accent in the James Bond films. He was born in Scotland, but the James Bond character in Ian Fleming's novels is supposed to be English. In the early films he tries to hide his Scottish accent, although it slips through occasionally. After three films, he finally has his voice under control. In "Thunderball" he finally sounds English.

Sean Connery
25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020

I'll watch two of Sean Connery's films as James Bond this weekend. Usually I would be writing a Marvel Years post at the weekend, but I've postponed my posts about Marvel comics until Google fixes the ugly imageanchor bug.

Success Rate:  + 13.7

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de