'Thunderball' is the best of the Sean Connery Bond movies. The series began in 1962 with 'Dr.No', an earnest attempt to put Ian Fleming's suave spy on the big screen. 'From Russia With Love' took 007 into Hitchcock territory, but it was not until 'Goldfinger' that the Bond formula - lavish action set-pieces, cheeky humour, outrageous sexism, absurd gadgets - was perfected. Audiences wanted more, and the producers duly obliged. 'Thunderball' was 'the biggest Bond of all' in 1965, and, in many ways, it still is. The international crime syndicate SPECTRE ( Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge & Extortion ) hijacks a Vulcan bomber during a training mission. Aboard are two atomic bombs. A taped message arrives at Whitehall demanding a king's ransom or else the bombs will be detonated. Bond flies to the Bahamas where 'Domino Derval' ( Claudine Auger ) - sister of one of the Vulcan crew - lives with her millionaire lover, 'Emilio Largo' ( Adolfo Celi ), a.k.a. SPECTRE agent no.2...
The story began life as a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whiitingham and Fleming, and was originally intended to be the first Bond movie. McClory's lack of a track record at the box office meant he could not get funding, and so it was abandoned. Fleming then wrote a book based on the treatment without consulting the others, and one sued. McClory won his case, got a credit on future editions ( along with Whittingham ), and the film rights were awarded to him. Not wishing to compete with Harry Saltzman and Albert R.Broccoli's series, he entered into partnership with them.
Chroniclers of the Bond series tend to regard this as the point at which the series went into decline, but I disagree. 'Thunderball' was the first true Bond epic. I think the problem is that some people have seen it only on television, and it was designed for the cinema. The underwater scenes are beautiful and John Barry's music gives them a strangely sinister and poetic quality. There were numerous imitators around then, such as Dean Martin's 'Matt Helm' and James Coburn's 'Derek Flint', so 'Thunderball' pulled out all the stops to keep Bond ahead of the competition. It gets off to a ( literally ) flying start with a château fight between 007 and a SPECTRE agent in drag, culminating in our hero making a getaway using a rocket-pack. The Aston Martin is on view again, and Fiona Volpe ( Luciana Paluzzi )'s rocket-firing motorcycle is a beauty ( like its owner ). The underwater finale and the yacht cum hydrofoil impresses still.
Terence Young, director of the first two Bonds, combines the toughness of 'Dr.No' with the tongue-in-cheek humour of 'Goldfinger'. What a pity though he left the series after this. Tom Jones belts out the John Barry and Don Black title song as though his life depended on it.
The film crushed all competition in 1965, setting a standard for box office grosses unsurpassed until 1977's 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. Connery played Bond a further three times, but those films ( particularly 'You Only Live Twice' ) were disappointments. No more was heard of McClory until the mid-'70's when he announced plans to remake 'Thunderball' as 'Warhead'. I have seen the script ( it was published online ) and it is nowhere near the quality of Maibaum and Hopkins' version. In 1983, the rogue remake 'Never Say Never Again' appeared, and, while entertaining for the most part, could not hope to - and did not - match 'Thunderball'.
The story began life as a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whiitingham and Fleming, and was originally intended to be the first Bond movie. McClory's lack of a track record at the box office meant he could not get funding, and so it was abandoned. Fleming then wrote a book based on the treatment without consulting the others, and one sued. McClory won his case, got a credit on future editions ( along with Whittingham ), and the film rights were awarded to him. Not wishing to compete with Harry Saltzman and Albert R.Broccoli's series, he entered into partnership with them.
Chroniclers of the Bond series tend to regard this as the point at which the series went into decline, but I disagree. 'Thunderball' was the first true Bond epic. I think the problem is that some people have seen it only on television, and it was designed for the cinema. The underwater scenes are beautiful and John Barry's music gives them a strangely sinister and poetic quality. There were numerous imitators around then, such as Dean Martin's 'Matt Helm' and James Coburn's 'Derek Flint', so 'Thunderball' pulled out all the stops to keep Bond ahead of the competition. It gets off to a ( literally ) flying start with a château fight between 007 and a SPECTRE agent in drag, culminating in our hero making a getaway using a rocket-pack. The Aston Martin is on view again, and Fiona Volpe ( Luciana Paluzzi )'s rocket-firing motorcycle is a beauty ( like its owner ). The underwater finale and the yacht cum hydrofoil impresses still.
Terence Young, director of the first two Bonds, combines the toughness of 'Dr.No' with the tongue-in-cheek humour of 'Goldfinger'. What a pity though he left the series after this. Tom Jones belts out the John Barry and Don Black title song as though his life depended on it.
The film crushed all competition in 1965, setting a standard for box office grosses unsurpassed until 1977's 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. Connery played Bond a further three times, but those films ( particularly 'You Only Live Twice' ) were disappointments. No more was heard of McClory until the mid-'70's when he announced plans to remake 'Thunderball' as 'Warhead'. I have seen the script ( it was published online ) and it is nowhere near the quality of Maibaum and Hopkins' version. In 1983, the rogue remake 'Never Say Never Again' appeared, and, while entertaining for the most part, could not hope to - and did not - match 'Thunderball'.