Rereading 007 - Diamonds Are Forever
Oh, Diamonds Are Forever. After the cool efficiency of Moonraker, DAF is like its blowsy, over-rouged, over-dressed cousin, dripping with gems and extravagant gestures - and that's just the book, never mind the film.
First off, SIS is meddling in diamond smuggling. Why? Because Ian Fleming had got interested in it? It doesn't seem very relevant to the SIS brief, but there it is. We have a taut opening scene in the wilds of Sierra Leone, then M lecturing 007 on the science of diamonds in London. Bond's job is to find out where the diamonds are coming from (even though they already know - Sierra Leone), and how they are getting via London to the end of the pipeline in the USA. And by the way, M has already decided that the company responsible is called House of Diamonds, run by the Spang brothers who just happen to be gangsters and one of them lives in London and one in the USA. So there's really nothing left for Bond to investigate, if we're honest about it.
All of this is an excuse for a moderately entertaining smuggling set-piece in which Bond brings diamonds into the States hidden in golf balls. His associate on the job is Tiffany Case, who's tough-talking but has hidden vulnerabilities, like most Bond girls.
As soon as he arrives in the US, Bond is spotted by Felix Leiter, who we are relieved to see has implausibly survived his shark attack and is now working for Pinkertons. Felix is as funny and charming as ever and is now able to rib James about being a company man, as they make their way down to the horse-racing city of Saratoga.
The Saratoga section is probably the best part of the book - an authentic-feeling look at a tough industry (horse racing/gambling). The descriptions of the racing settings and the mud baths feel raw and convincing.
But then it's off to Vegas for some card-play, plus some reckless bearding of Jack Spang that's reminiscent of Bond's foolishness in Harlem in Live And Let Die and similarly involves someone else getting hurt. He already knows that the Spang brothers are the villains, anyway, so why is he still here? To flirt with Tiffany and get captured by Jack Spang, of course.
Spang's fake Western town and antique steam engine are where things lose all sense of reality. Bond is beaten up (football boots seems a feeble MO for someone as theatrical as Jack Spang) and then left in a corner where Tiffany can conveniently rescue him and they can burn down the Western town and escape. So they do.
Felix Leiter picks them up in the middle of the desert and of course they decide to travel home to the UK on a very slow cruise-liner rather than flying. It's like the Phantom train in Live And Let Die all over again, but I enjoy Fleming's use of slow, grand methods of travel, so I'll let it pass. And on the liner, we have the bizarre business of the High and Low Field - you can just imagine Fleming witnessing this ridiculous game on an Atlantic crossing and wondering how you could work it into a book - and the two hoodlums who Bond surely ought to have identified as soon as he knew one had a wart on his thumb.
It's a grand, extravagant, sprawling mess, basically. It's hardly surprising that they dropped large sections of it for the film, the only oddity (or perhaps not) being that they introduced even more ridiculous ideas in exchange. The film of DAF is so nonsensical, I can barely stand it, but worth it for Willard White, who is a surprisingly charming and well-balanced young man for a reclusive multi-millionaire.
First off, SIS is meddling in diamond smuggling. Why? Because Ian Fleming had got interested in it? It doesn't seem very relevant to the SIS brief, but there it is. We have a taut opening scene in the wilds of Sierra Leone, then M lecturing 007 on the science of diamonds in London. Bond's job is to find out where the diamonds are coming from (even though they already know - Sierra Leone), and how they are getting via London to the end of the pipeline in the USA. And by the way, M has already decided that the company responsible is called House of Diamonds, run by the Spang brothers who just happen to be gangsters and one of them lives in London and one in the USA. So there's really nothing left for Bond to investigate, if we're honest about it.
All of this is an excuse for a moderately entertaining smuggling set-piece in which Bond brings diamonds into the States hidden in golf balls. His associate on the job is Tiffany Case, who's tough-talking but has hidden vulnerabilities, like most Bond girls.
As soon as he arrives in the US, Bond is spotted by Felix Leiter, who we are relieved to see has implausibly survived his shark attack and is now working for Pinkertons. Felix is as funny and charming as ever and is now able to rib James about being a company man, as they make their way down to the horse-racing city of Saratoga.
The Saratoga section is probably the best part of the book - an authentic-feeling look at a tough industry (horse racing/gambling). The descriptions of the racing settings and the mud baths feel raw and convincing.
But then it's off to Vegas for some card-play, plus some reckless bearding of Jack Spang that's reminiscent of Bond's foolishness in Harlem in Live And Let Die and similarly involves someone else getting hurt. He already knows that the Spang brothers are the villains, anyway, so why is he still here? To flirt with Tiffany and get captured by Jack Spang, of course.
Spang's fake Western town and antique steam engine are where things lose all sense of reality. Bond is beaten up (football boots seems a feeble MO for someone as theatrical as Jack Spang) and then left in a corner where Tiffany can conveniently rescue him and they can burn down the Western town and escape. So they do.
Felix Leiter picks them up in the middle of the desert and of course they decide to travel home to the UK on a very slow cruise-liner rather than flying. It's like the Phantom train in Live And Let Die all over again, but I enjoy Fleming's use of slow, grand methods of travel, so I'll let it pass. And on the liner, we have the bizarre business of the High and Low Field - you can just imagine Fleming witnessing this ridiculous game on an Atlantic crossing and wondering how you could work it into a book - and the two hoodlums who Bond surely ought to have identified as soon as he knew one had a wart on his thumb.
It's a grand, extravagant, sprawling mess, basically. It's hardly surprising that they dropped large sections of it for the film, the only oddity (or perhaps not) being that they introduced even more ridiculous ideas in exchange. The film of DAF is so nonsensical, I can barely stand it, but worth it for Willard White, who is a surprisingly charming and well-balanced young man for a reclusive multi-millionaire.
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