The Tastes Of James Bond: ‘Thunderball’ And ‘Never Say Never Again’

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By the time Sean Connery made Thunderball in 1961, the fourth of the 007 film series, the part fit him like a glove—not to mention the bespoke suits made for him by Anthony Sinclair on Savile Row, his ties by Turnbull & Asser—so the writers and producers could have some fun with a character whose personality and preferences, not least in food and drink, were by then well-known and expected to follow form.

Ian Fleming wrote Thunderball in 1961 (before any of the films), with collaborators conceived as a screenplay never produced. They also wrote a short story based on the same premise. Because of this, producer Kevin McClory was able to get the rights to make a different version of Thunderball entitled Never Say Never Again in 1983.

The plot of the novel begins with M giving 007 a poor report on his physical fitness owing to excessive drinking and sends him to a spa named Shrublands Health Centre in Great Yarmouth for treatment. There Bond encounters Macao gangster Count Lippe, who tries to kill him by locking him in the spine-stretching machine. Saved by a nurse, Bond retaliates by locking Lippe in a steam bath.

Word comes that SPECTRE, under the command of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has hijacked a British Vulcan bomber with two nuclear bombs aboard to be used as ransom. Blofeld had hired Lippe but had him murdered after the confrontation with Bond. The RAF bomber is sunk under water in the Bahamas, and SPECTRE removes the bombs for safekeeping aboard the Disco Volonte yacht owned by SPECTRE’s second-in-command Emilio Largo.

Bond flies to Nassau and meets CIA agent Felix Leiter and Largo’s mistress Domino Vitali, whom Bond seduces and recruits to spy on Largo. She is caught in the act on the Disco and tortured. Bond and Leiter chase the Disco in an American submarine, and Largo escapes with the bombs to an underwater cave where, just about to kill 007, he is shot and killed by Domino.

M’s insistence on 007’s physical deterioration is partially due to his eating white bread (Bond insists he doesn’t eat much white bread) and wants him to take the “nature cure” at Shrublands, where his meals consist of broth, vegetables and tea, although the beautiful clinician Pat Fearing brings him brandy. After completing two weeks at Shrublands, feeling quite chipper, Bond heads for Lucien’s restaurant in Brighton for a huge bowl of spaghetti “bolognaise” [sic] with extra garlic and a bottle of cheap Chianti. He also manage to get his cigarettes down to ten day.

Back in London Bond’s longtime housekeeper May is appalled by his commitment to a new, healthy diet, but within days, he admits he cannot “do my work on carrot juice” and asks her for “four scrambled eggs. Four rashers of that American hickory- smoked bacon if we have any left, hot buttered white toast, not that whole meal, and a big pot of coffee double strength and bring in the drink tray.”

When he meets Domino, she asks if he believes conch is an aphrodisiac, and Bond replies, “Island people have it on their wedding night. I haven’t found it has any effect on me.” With Felix Leiter he enjoys a huge lunch at the Royal Bahamian(now a Sandals resort) of martinis, seafood cocktail suprême, chicken sauté with watercress, Baltic herring in sour cream, chopped tenderloin of beef with onion rings, all of which Leiter and Bond find insipid.

On the submarine USS Manta, the captain offer Bond a dinner of Virginia ham baked with red eye gravy, poached eggs with rye toast and apple pie with ice cream.

THUNDERBALL, the movie: Goldfinger had been a tremendous hit, so the writers of Thunderball didn’t stray far from the formula or Fleming’s book, and the plot is very similar.

Bond has the same discussion about white bread with M— saying “Well, then I’ll cut out the white bread, sir”— and goes off to Shrublands. He also makes the comment about conch to Domino when he arrives in the Bahamas and checks into the Coral Harbour Hotel in Nassau (actually the Atlantis Paradise). That night at the Café Martinique with Domino, Bond orders caviar and Champagne Dom Pérignon ’55. Later in his room he enjoys a martini made with Smirnoff Blue vodka and Cinzano white vermouth. At Largo’s mansion they sip rum collins. And that’s about it.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN came out the same year, 1983, as Octopussy, starring Roger Moore, who had taken over the role of Bond after Connery in 1971 said he’d never play him again. When Kevin McClory got the rights to the story Thunderball, he was able to bring back Connery and re-made it as Never Say Never Again, a mediocre film in the series and one Connery did not seem to have his heart in.

The film repeats the scene at Shrublands and this time Bond brings along a picnic basket of caviar, foie gras and vodka. The scenario adds a sadomasochistic SPECTRE agent named Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera). Bond goes to Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Riviera to track Largo, then to Palymra in North Africa. As in the story, Domino shoots Largo with a speargun. Bond de-fuses the bomb underwater and returns with Domino to Nassau and vows to give up his spy career forever.

In the Bahamas Bond stays at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel and visits the Gazebo Bar, where Fatima skis up to him on the beach and apologizes for getting him wet. Bond responds, “Yes, but my martini’s still dry.”

In Monte Carlo Bond goes to a gala held by Largo at the Casino Royale, where he is serving Dom Pérignon, and with Domino has a vodka on the rocks and she a bloody Mary.

Connery’s clothes for the film were by Doug Hayward.

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