Review - Thunderball (1965)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, as we get closer to the release of No Time to Die, it's time for me to take a look at my favorite Sean Connery era James Bond film: Thunderball. 

            So the movie starts with James Bond at the funeral of Colonel Bouvar, who Bond realized faked his death, and Bond confronts the man, kills him, and makes his escape. After the main title sequence, with the theme song for the movie being performed by Tom Jones,  we meet Emilio Largo, who is the number two guy in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE, attend a meeting with the other big shots within SPECTRE. Here, Largo details a plan to steal a pair of atomic bombs and hold NATO hostage. Largo's plan apparently involves switching a French Air Force pilot named Francois Derval with a surgically altered imposter named Angelo Palazzi. 

         Bond, meanwhile, is called back to MI6, where M informs him and all of the other 00's of the situation, and assigns them to various locations to find the stolen missiles. Bond, who looks at a picture of Derval with his sister Dominique, also known as Domino, in the Bahamas. Bond requests to be sent to the Bahamas, which M grants, and he's off to the Bahamas to find Largo and recover the bombs. Bond meets Domino, and learns that she's Largo's mistress, and he later meets Largo, and the two recognize each other as adversaries but feign ignorance of each other's true nature while playing a pretty long cat-and-mouse game. 

       Bond later meets with Felix Leiter, along with Q and a new ally named Paula, and Bond gets some equipment needed for the mission, including an underwater infrared camera and underwater breathing apparatus. Bond heads to investigate Largo's ship, the Disco Volante, and he goes to meet with Largo at his estate. Some time later, Paula is taken by Largo's henchwoman Fiona Volpe, and takes her own life before she can be interrogated. Bond eventually makes his escape from Largo's men at a local Junkanoo celebration. Volpe later catches up to Bond, but is accidentally shot by a henchman aiming for Bond. 

        Bond and Leiter later find the jet that carried the stolen missiles, finding the jet camouflaged underwater, with the dead body of Palazzi inside. Upon reaching shore, Bond informs Domino that her brother was killed by Largo, and asks for her help in locating the Disco Volante. Unfortunately, Domino is caught and imprisoned by Largo. Bond replaces a SPECTRE agent, and follows Largo and his men as they prepare to move the bombs. Largo recognizes Bond and leaves him trapped. Bond gets out, and he and Leiter get the help of the U.S. Navy to intercept the Disco Volante, and a massive underwater battle ensues, with many of Largo's men being defeated. Bond goes after Largo, send the Disco Volante out of control, defeats his men, but Largo gets the upper hand, only to be killed by Domino. Bond and Domino escape, and the two are airlifted from the water by a plane with the skyhook device. 

        Okay, so Thunderball has quite a lot going for it, and a lot of it was just fantastic. Sean Connery is great once again, and I definitely enjoyed Claudine Auger as Domino, as well as Adolfo Celi as Largo. The underwater sequences we're absolutely fantastic, and setting the movie in the Bahamas was definitely terrific. Director Terence Young definitely made an excellent film with this one, and so I'm giving Thunderball a rating of 5/5. 

        This movie also marks the only time a different producer other than Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli was credited. This is due to the films rights to the novel Thunderball belonging, at the time, to Kevin McClory, who gained the rights after filing a lawsuit against Ian Fleming, due to the Thunderball novel containing story elements from the script to an abandoned early attempt at a Bond film by Fleming, McClory, and a man named Jack Wittingham. So, Saltzman and Broccoli turned to McClory to make Thunderball as a movie, and they agreed to credit him as sole producer to get the movie made. Now, McClory, who retained the rights, would later make another adaptation of Thunderball in 1983, under the title Never Say Never Again, an unofficial Bond film released by Warner Bros, directed by Irvin Kershner, and star Sean Connery as Bond, returning to the role for the first time since the EON produced Diamonds Are Forever. 

      This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time with my next Bond review: The Man with the Golden Gun.