MovieChat Forums > Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Discussion > Crematorium escape

Crematorium escape

posted 8 years ago by Drooch
5 replies | jump to latest

Director Guy Hamilton created some of Bond's most nightmarish death traps - Goldfinger's slow genital cutting laser beam, Bond abandoned on croc island, and perhaps most disturbingly this cooked alive in a coffin gag. Unfortunately the script cheats and has Bond freed by Shady Tree, but I'm unsure how, exactly.

Can anyone explain why Bond was freed? Was it pure luck? How did Shady know where to look for Bond? When were the real diamonds switched with the fakes that caused Shady's return? Why exactly are Wint and Kidd killing everyone involved in the smuggling operation again? Caught it on TV half asleep and awoke with questions, any help welcome.

[–] tonycarr 8 years ago

It's been a while since I've seen this but I think the fake diamonds were "inserted" into Franks's body (alimentary, my dear Leiter). When Franks is cremated the diamonds are in the urn that Bond puts in the alcove that Shady then removes, only to discover they were fakes all along. Can't remember where the original diamonds were at this point.

Wint and Kidd killing everyone is one of those strange things that happen in 007 land. The story is in the book but makes no sense in the film, like Golfginger gassing all those gang bosses, or Dr No drugging Bond's coffee. Those two always seem strange to me. They wander around with no connection to Blofeld as far as I can see. Similarly I've never understood Bolfeld's exit from Las Vegas. He's had plastic surgery so nobody could recognise him and he's been pretending to be Willard Whyte, who no one's seen in years. So why does he need to drag up badly and walk around carrying a large white cat. Hardly inconspicuous. And I still don't understand how a low level smuggler like Tiffany knows the personel of MI6

[–] tbonesays 8 years ago

The stated reason is that Blofeld has all the diamonds he needs so K&W are snuffing out his rube Goldberg smuggling chain. Blofeld's exit from the hotel is obvious as there is an army of control agents on the casino floor and Bond would have let them know what he looks like (beginning of film mud death).

the cremation scene is weird how Bond non-chalantly brushes off the guys who just tried to kill him. But they did stop his burning because they realized they had fake diamonds.

[–] crood 8 years ago

Wint and Kidd are connected to Blofeld through Saxby. Just after killing Shady Tree, he tells them about not getting the real diamonds and they need Tree alive. They reply that it's unfortunate.

A couple of other things that don't entirely make sense. From everything we see, this is Peter Franks' first involvement with the smuggling operation. What happened to the previous guy(s)? Were they killed as part of each operation? If so, why just them?

The idea to use Franks' dead body to smuggle the diamonds into the US is a spur of the moment decision after being forced to kill him. Previously, Tiffany told him to come up with something original to smuggle them in. How was a funeral home already part of the smuggling operation?

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

Any more thoughts on this topic?

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 3 years ago

Wint and Kidd are killing everyone in the operation to tie up loose ends, if the cops pick them up and they talk it could mean trouble for Blofeld. Blofeld doesn’t care about the mob he’s using, if these mobsters are killed it doesn’t matter to him as the laser satellite is his endgame.

Bond was freed because he didn’t give Shady Tree the real diamonds (somewhere along the way Bond and/or Felix swapped them out. This isn’t very clear however which is one of the films multiple problems). Also Shady was in on the plot to kill Bond/Peter Franks, now as to why Bond wasn’t like “Why the f-ck did you try to burn me alive” and he just walks away as if it was nothing is beyond me.