Thunderball (1965)

DarthDimi

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St_George

Thunderball

by @St_George

Directed by: Terence Young; Produced by: Kevin McClory (Presenters: Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli); Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins – adapted from the Ian Fleming novel (1961), itself based on a script by Fleming, McClory and Jack Whittingham; Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik Van Nutter, Bernard Lee, Martine Beswick, Guy Doleman, Philip Locke, Desmond Llewelyn, Molly Peters and Lois Maxwell; Certificate: PG; Country: UK/USA; Running time: 130 minutes; Colour; Released: December 29 1965; Worldwide box-office: $141.2m (inflation adjusted: $1,014.9m ~ 1/24*)

* denotes worldwide box-office ranking out of all 24 Bond films (inflation adjusted), according to 007james.com

Plot ~ 7/10

Thunderball's plot is big, brash fantasy, but very Fleming-faithful. Through a plan cooked up by its ‘Number 2′ Emilio Largo, SPECTRE – back again – sets about stealing two nuclear warheads via a NATO Vulcan bomber. Enlisting a fall-guy who’s had plastic surgery to assume the identity of bumped-off pilot Francois Derval, the criminal organisation sabotages a test flight of the Vulcan, crash-landing it in the Caribbean just off the coast of The Bahamas. Here Largo and his goons, murdering the fake Derval, hide the jet and its warheads, ensuring the UK Government can be held ransom to the tune of £100m in cut diamonds – a major UK or US city will be destroyed with the bombs unless it pays up. All the ’00′s including Bond are put on the case (‘Operation Thunderball’), yet fortuitously 007 has a lead: he was at the clinic where Derval was offed and the operative had his face done, in which case he pursues Derval’s sister Domino – in The Bahamas…

Bond ~ 7/10

It’s no secret that after three films Connery was growing tired of playing Bond. Not that it shows enormously here, but all the same, the 007 of Thunderball is not that of the previous film and certainly not that of the first two. More reliant on gadgets and less on his own wits, which thanks to the script seem strangely to take a backseat for the middle third of the movie where our hero appears content, well, to bugger around a bit in The Bahamas before getting a wiggle on to find the missing warheads, he spends a hell of a lot of time getting wet. Connery himself is game, for sure – and up to the mark sardonically, especially in the early Shrublands Clinic scenes – but while his Bond this time definitely delivers the muscle, he somehow lacks the spark of before.

Girls ~ 8/10

Recalled by many as quality Bond totty, Thunderball's girls are not all outstanding; specifically – and unfortunately – the leading female character: Claudine Auger’s Domino. A former Miss France, Auger looks the part and, like Connery, she literally spends a lot of time wet, but unlike Connery, she’s figuratively wet too. Tossed this way and that by the men around her, she suffers perhaps more than anyone else in the film from being under-written thanks to the script’s flaws. The rest of the ‘Thunderbirds’ do live up to that moniker, mind. There’s former model Molly Peters’ spunky nurse Pat Fearing and Martine Beswick’s gives-as-good-as-she-gets (until ending up the flick’s ‘sacrificial lamb’) Bahamian MI6 contact Paula Caplan. Both are also gorgeous. As is the film’s best character, Luciana Paluzzi’s Fiona Volpe. More on her below…

Villains ~ 7/10

The casting of Adolfo Celi as bad guy Emilio Largo is a mixed blessing. He looks terrific (cruelly handsome with his black eye-patch and physically imposing, along with the requisite glamour and vulagrity of a tycoon-turned-evil), but owing to his Italian tones he can’t make work the tepid and sometimes inept lines the script offers him, ensuring Largo – not one of Fleming’s best antagonists to start with really – comes off as a bit of a B-movie baddie. The evil Emilio is joined by a dismembered Blofeld (as in Russia, merely a voice and hand stroking a white cat), Guy Doleman’s charming but lightweight UK SPECTRE agent Count Lippe and Philip Locke’s Vargas, who given his pointlessness is rather ironically skewered by Bond’s harpoon bolt (“I think he got the point”). But then there’s Fiona. Yup, she’s so damn good she probably raises this film’s Girls and Villains scores by two points each. Incredibly sexy and sultry, very cunning and dangerous and an utterly ravishing redhead, Volpe the Voluptuous is surely the series’ best ever villainess.

Action ~ 5/10

Its underwater action scenes are Thunderball's biggest flaw. You can imagine the pre-production meetings: let’s have Bond constantly grapple with goons in the sea and have a unit of black-clad baddies face-off against US frogmen in orange wetsuits in a huge harpoon battle surrounded by sharks! It’ll be awesome! Sadly, it’s not. Unlike on Fleming’s written page, on-screen underwater action is really slow. And, given the script sets much of the movie’s action beneath the waves, it’s a big problem. To off-set it, in a surprising mis-step, overly blunt, even crude editing is applied to these sequences (as well as more oddly in one or two other scenes, such as the pre-titles fight, while the film is sped-up an unforgivably high number of times – not least during Bond and Largo’s desperate final face-off). Disappointing.

Humour ~ 7/10

More successful is this film’s humour. Its script may not zing with the one-liners of Goldfinger, but those it offers are ably delivered by (mostly) Connery, while his interactions with nurse Pat (sexy and sassy) and Paula (sardonic – this time from the girl) are very good value, as is the fast developing meme of Q demonstrating his wares to a bored, playful 007 – and, in a first, out in the field. Other highlights include Bond hitting a widow just returned from a funeral, whom he works out is the widow’s supposedly deceased husband (an enemy assassin) because ‘she’ opened the car door instead of waiting for it to be opened for ‘her’. Inexcusable in the ’60s that, obviously.

Music ~ 7/10

Its music often may be one of its stronger elements, but Thunderball's John Barry-penned score simply isn’t up to the quality of the previous two flicks’. It’s at its best – like the film itself – when setting mood. An example is Dance With Domino/ Bond’s Apartment; the first half of which is slow, smooth and lilting, almost sad, but fits perfectly with the cool that Bond adds to the high-living Nassau world he encounters, while the second half sets suspense through an equally slow, but eerie theme (which seems to echo the other-worldly drift of the sea). At its worst, though, the score goes crazy at moments when the underwater action doesn’t thrill enough in an effort to up the ante. Not classic stuff. Tom Jones’ Barry-written theme, with lyrics by Don Black, is fine – although the turned-down effort from Dionne Warwick, Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (orchestral versions of which feature in the film), is better.

Locations ~ 7/10

For many, The Bahamas (and its capital Nassau in particular) is one of the classic Bond film locations – and it’s hard to disagree with that. After all, not only like Dr No's Jamaica does it offer (especially back in the day when foreign climes were less easily reached) the colour and mild exoticism of the Caribbean, but it also delivers the glamorous, rarefied jet-setter atmosphere of a Monte Carlo or a St. Mortitz. Other locales include Paris (seen very briefly as the setting for SPECTRE’s HQ) and the Château d’Anet (which, not far from Paris, features in the pre-title sequence). The Shrublands Clinic exteriors were shot in Buckinghamshire, which while not very Bondian do add an old-world English charm to proceedings.

Gadgets ~ 7/10

When it comes to gadgets – and, well, the wider film itself – Thunderball's tone is set right from the off when Bond throws on his conveniently placed Bell Texton jet-pack and flies away from his pursuers. It’s cool, no question, even if the mop-top haircut-style helmet 007 has to wear when using it is not. A more practical and better gadget though is the natty mini-breather he can use if he has to abandon conventional underwater breathing equipment at any point (which, naturally, he does). In fact, it’s a gadget-and-a-half. Bond also uses a swallowable homer pill, an underwater camera with infra-red film and in-built geiger counter, as well as an underwater propulsion unit, which boasts spear guns and searchlights, but perhaps the less said about that one the better.

Style ~ 8/10

In many ways, Thunderball sums up mid-’60s style. The faraway paradise with its aspirational affluence that is The Bahamas is beautiful (especially in the bold tones of Technicolor caught in oh-so wide Panavision) and, frankly, still very inviting a fantasy destination today, not least with the added appeal of Connery and his ‘Thunderbirds’. Talking of whom, the swimsuits and ballgowns of the female talent are pretty unforgettable, especially Volpe the Voluptuous’s striking blue dress and boa combo. And, being this is the mid-’60s, the technology is starkly cool and almost crazily ambitious; especially Largo’s Disco Volante yacht, which splits away from its outer shell to become a high-powered hydrofoil – reminiscent of something that might be used by those other Thunderbirds (1964-66), the ones dreamt up by Gerry Anderson, that is.

Adjuster: -1

Thunderball sets the ‘the fourth Bond movie mis-step’ trend. It’s simply too big for its – and director Terence Young’s – boots. The latter said that, contrasted with those of his previous efforts Dr No and Russia, its budget was so large that the spare real crab left over from dining scenes was offered to the crew, but as archetypal Brits they just wanted fish and chips. In The Bahamas. Which kind of sums things up. It has its moments (most of them involving Fiona), but a slow tone, crazy editing and boring underwater scenes threaten to sink it. Not that the public of the day cared – released at the height of mid-’60s ‘Bondmania’, it made an absolute mint.

Overall: 70/100

Best bit: Fiona’s scrub in the tub

Best line: “Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She’s just dead”

Get the full treatment of my 'Bondathon' reviews here

Thunderball

My #1 favorite James Bond film and just about the last prime Sean Connery performance as 007 (he yawns his way through his later films).

This film is often criticized for the slower action, particularly in the underwater sequences. Well, I feel people are spoiled by the fast cuts and explosive action of modern day Bond films (especially Brosnan's films; in his tenure as 007, he must have ran from hundreds of explosions and dodged/shot a million bullets); there's nothing wrong with slower action in this film - it has a mood all it's own, especially underwater where there's no dialogue and John Barry's brilliant music dominates, which is why I picked up the soundtrack.
Thunderball is graced with two of my favorite Bond girls (well, one if you don't count villainess Fiona Volpe as simply a Bond girl) in Domino and Fiona. Both are extremely attractive. Domino spends much time in swimsuits which is irresistible eye candy and Fiona's scene in the tub is wonderful, and I love this bit:

Volpe: "Since you are here, would you mind giving me something to put on?"
Bond hands her her shoes.

Always makes me grin.
Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona is one of the best things about this film. Her "blow to your ego" scene with Bond is terrific and I think she's the absolute best female villain in all the Bond movies (yes, even better than Onatopp, though not by much). She arguably gets the best dialogue of the whole film, too.
Claudine Auger was cast for her beauty plain and simple. It's a reversal of Honer Blackman's more smart than attractive Pussy Galore in the previous film and harkens back to Ursula Andress in the first film, Dr. No, who, like Auger, was dubbed as she had a heavy, thick accent. Both Andress and Auger are pure, beautiful window dressing, enticing the men in. Still, both are very high on my list of favorite Bond girls, and not simply because both are staggeringly hot (that does have a lot to do with it, though..isn't that the main original purpose of a Bond girl?). I enjoy Domino's rebuff of Bond earlier in the film when they first meet. I really love that it's Domino that kills Largo and not Bond, even after she had Bond promise her that he would kill Largo. I always love when the Bond girl rescues Bond from the fire.

Some of my favorite scenes in Thunderball is the health spa bits early in the movie. Molly Peters is enjoyable (mainly as another bit of window dressing, but hey) and rack scene is unintentionally funny, what with the faces Connery makes and such.

The pre-title sequence is alright, and the fight between Bond and Jacques Bouvar is great, though I wish it wasn't so sped up in places, but that was a thing in just about all 1960s Bond films, so...
The jetpack....well, it's feasible and real, but the back projection shots with Connery are crap and the helmet Bond wears is just silly looking.

All in all, this is a great, great movie. I adore the Bahamas location, making Thunderball one of the most exotica and eye-pleasing Bond films (I always love locales in Bond films that have beaches and crystal blue-green oceans and such). The script has only a few small problems and Connery is still having fun. John Barry's music is perhaps his best, at least until On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I LOVE this movie. I mean, my user name is out of love for it. I can't quite explain why I love Thunderball more than every other Bond film but I suppose a lot of it comes from being one of the first Bond movies I ever saw, back when I was in high school and being attracted to both the girls and the scenery. It just screams the 1960s and I love that aspect of it.

A+

royale65

Thunderball

In 1959 Ian Fleming joined forces with Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham to produce a James Bond film; something that Fleming had been angling after for sometime, and together they worked on a screenplay.

However Fleming was uneasy, more so after McClory's début directorial film got a pasting at the box office. So concerned was Fleming that he got in contact with the people who represented a certain Mr Hitchcock. Alas it was not to be, much to the chagrin of espionage fans everywhere.

The plans for a James Bond film were put on hold as Fleming went back to Jamaica, to write For Your Eyes Only, a collection of short stories. Fleming based For Your Eyes Only on a mini-series for CBS television, starring James Bond; it was an abortive attempt to get 007 in a different medium.

Fleming set a dangerous precedent by adapting screen treatments into a book. After all 007 was his creation, so Fleming could do with Bond as he pleased. Wrong; in 1961 Fleming published Thunderball, based on the screenplay, with which he worked on with McClory and Whittingham, who promptly sued him, for the most mortal sin a writer can be accused; plagiarism.

Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli wanted Thunderball to be their first Bond picture, as it was the most recent. They were put off by the legal shenanigans, and decided to film Dr No, an all together much more simple story.

In 1963 the High Court found Fleming guilty of plagiarism, and any future editions of Thunderball were to include “based on a screen treatments by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming”. McClory was also to get film rights to Thunderball.

However, by this time EON Productions were in the middle of “Bond-mania”, and Sean Connery was the biggest box office draw.

In a rather phlegmatic move, McClory suggested that he, Harry and Cubby produce Thunderball together. Harry and Cubby readily agreed, after all, there would be little sense in having a rival 007 film, in which they had no control. That would come much later.

Thus in September 1964 the three men struck a deal to produce the film. It started production in March 1965 and it was pencilled in for a Christmas release in that year. They would be working from a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, who stayed relatively true to the source novel.

The producers asked Guy Hamilton to direct after his work on Goldfinger. Hamilton, however, felt too drained and had run out of creative ideas. Luckily Terence Young, the original Bond director, was available.

It was an artistically sound move; Young ensured Thunderball would be brutal, visceral and very stylish and sophisticated, just like his two, previous entries. What is more Young, and indeed Connery, who had a distaste for “gimmicks”, (and there were a lot of “gimmicks” in Thunderball) would not overwhelm the story.

After Goldfinger, the film-makers decided to up the ante, in terms of gadgets. There's a natty mini re-breather, in case ones oxygen has run out; the DB5 makes a welcome return in the PTS (Pre-Titles Sequence); an infra-red camera; a Geiger Counter hidden inside a camera and the villains yacht broke in two, revealing the front half would be a hydro-foil, to name but a few, but luckily Young's influence at the helm prevents them from taking centre stage.

The only exception is when Bond straps on a conveniently placed jet-pack in the film's opening sequence; a fore-warning of the excess to come.

In part the increased spectacle was down to the producers trying to show the public, and indeed their imitators, that there was only one true Bond; with Thunderball the Bond's became truly epic.

This is reflected in the budget, $5.6 million, the size and scope of Thunderball, massive underwater sequences (just as well the court case prevented Cubby and Harry from making this, their first one). Plus Thunderball was the first Bond to be given the Panavison treatment. Thanks to the cinematographer, Ted Moore, Thunderball looks like an epic movie, with it's sumptuous locations and pin-sharp clarity.

Moreover, the aforementioned underwater sequences, shot by Rico Browning of “Flipper” fame, look absolutely breathtaking, making Thunderball one of the best photographed pictures in the series.

It's during the Vulcan hi-jacking, a wonderful scene, where Thunderball's problems begin to appear. Before that we are treated to some very “Fleming-esque” exposition, at the Shrublands Health Clinic; the setting up of the plot, which is one of Young's greatest assets.

Young should get on with the rest of the film; it would make sense, pace-wise. Instead, however, we are shown, in the first of the underwater scene, the concealment of said Vulcan, and it almost ruins the pace of the film. Young's methodical style of directing threatens to turn it into banality.

In Fleming's novels the underwater passages zipped by; one felt the author's enthusiasm, as one got transported beneath the waves.

Thunderball tries to make up for the distinct lack pace early on, in other areas, namely strong characterizations in the primary cast; a great deal of tension and fabulous contributions by John Barry, Ken Adam and John Stears.

In particular 007 is well characterized; we see him at his most blunt instrument best when he and Largo, the villain of the piece, are playing Chemin de Fer, provoking Largo, and paradoxically, 007 is at his most suave and achingly cool in this scene.

We also see some rare emotion from said “blunt instrument”, when Bond tells Domino, the villains “kept woman”, about her brother, who'd been stabbed. In a moving scene, Bond much to his chagrin, was very harsh. 007, after all, has a job to do, as much as he wanted to protect Domino. To avoid betraying his emotion’s, Bond covered his eyes with sunglasses; secret agent first, human second.

It's a multi-faceted Bond performance, all carried of with great panache, great virility and undeniable charisma by Sean Connery, at his zenith as playing James Bond, 007.

As Domino Derval, Claudine Auger is, quite simply, stunning as Largo's kept woman. Domino is one of Fleming's best heroines, one of his most clearly defining, and well written parts, although Auger does not quite live up to expectations, down to her performance. However, it should be said that Auger does quite well, in a rather melancholy part, ensuring Domino is one of the most memorable leading ladies in the Connery-era.

Adolfo Celi is sadistic and charming as Emilio Largo, playing the part of a Bahamian millionaire; he's really a No. 2 to Ernst Stavro Blofeld in SPECTRE. Largo is a worthy successor to Dr No et al.

Bond's CIA friend, Felix Leiter, returns, this time played by Rik Van Nutter, who does a good job, being softly spoken, dryly humorous type of man. Leiter, for once, is instrumental in the story, in rescuing 007.

Rounding out the main cast is Luciana Paluzzi, as the ravishingly, seductively, voluptuously, red-headed assassin, Fiona Volpe, who is unrepentantly bad.

Paluzzi smoulders when she is on screen, and has an amazing sexual chemistry with Connery. The clashes of ego's between the two of them, provide some of the most inspired moments in the film, and indeed series.

Terence Young, John Barry and the editor, Peter Hunt all combine to produce one the most tense situations in Bond lore, over Fiona's death; a nail-biting scene, in which Hitchcock would be proud.

During post-production Young left the movie, to direct an U.N film. It fell to Hunt to edit the film, from a massive three hours, to a more palatable two hours and four minutes. The producers were impressed by Hunt's work, and they put him in the back of their minds, for a future 007 director.

Despite an odd lack of pace early on in the movie, Thunderball tries, and succeeds quite valiantly, to make up for it, with the beautiful, gorgeous cinematography by Ted Moore, plus Ken Adam and Barry provide, yet again, that there is no one better in the worlds of set design and music, respectively.

Moreover, the plot may seem “old hat” by today's standards, but stealing nuclear bombs, and holding a country for ransom, (in this case the U.K) was wildly innovative, and played on real peoples fears.

The gadgets and spectacle work well in this film; Young followed through on his promise that the story would not play second fiddle. It's still a Bond film, dictated around 007, not the other way round.

Best of all then, are Sean Connery and Luciana Paluzzi, who enliven the whole thing.

Thunderball was released in the middle of “spy-mania”, thus reaching $141 million worldwide. That is, incredibly, almost $1 billion in today's money, making Thunderball, not only the biggest Bond blockbuster of all time, but one of cinema's greatest blockbusters, ever.

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