Thunderball

"What exactly do you do?"
"Oh, I travel... a sort of licensed troubleshooter."

James Bond (Connery) is sent to a health clinic for some R&R.  While there he encounters the suspicious Count Lippe (Doleman).  Lippe tries to kill Bond, but is unsuccessful.  Lippe is at the clinic to lead a SPECTRE mission to steal 2 atomic bombs.  SPRECTRE is successful and contacts the British and American governments, demanding a ransom of 100 million dollars in diamonds or they will destroy an unspecified city.  MI6 calls in all double 0 agents to stop SPECTRE.

Bond goes to Nassau to find Domino Derval (Auger), the sister of the pilot SPECTRE used to steal the bombs.  He is aided by CIA agent Felix Leiter (Van Nutter).  He learns that Domino is the mistress of Emilio Largo (Celi), SPECTRE agent #2.  Largo and Bond are aware of each other and begin a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, accelerated by the arrival of SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe (Paluzzi).  Can Bond find the bombs and stop Largo?


The fourth film in the James Bond series, based on the novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming.  Terence Young returned to the directors chair (he directed the first, Dr. No, and second, From Russia with Love, Bond films).  The story was part of a lawsuit between Fleming and collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham.  McClory and Whittingham and Fleming wrote the story together as a screenplay for a film that never happened.  Fleming then turned the story into a novel.  After the lawsuit was settled, McClory was named a producer on the film (to prevent him from making a competing film).

This is considered one of the best Bond films (alongside Goldfinger).  The story is strong and the cast is good.  It was filmed on location in the Bahamas, with significant portions of the film filmed underwater.  Like Goldfinger, this film has all of the classic aspects that make a great Bond film: a shady organization, 4 beautiful women including a dangerous assassin, sharks, etc.  It has an iconic opening song, "Thunderball" performed by Tom Jones.

In 1983, the story was remade as Never Say Never Again, once again starring Connery as Bond.  This film was not produced by Eon films.  McClory retained film writes for the story, and he was part of a private production company that greenlight this film.

Thunderball (1965) 130 minutes
Director: Terence Young
Starring: Sean Connery as James Bond
Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo
Claudine Auger as Domino Derval
Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe
Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter
Bernard Lee as M
Martine Beswick as Paula Caplan
Guy Doleman as Count Lippe
Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing
Earl Cameron as Pinder