Diamonds Are Forever, 1971
Director
Cast
- Sean Connery
- Jill St John
- Charles Gray
- Jimmy Dean
- Bernard Lee
- Lois Maxwell
- Desmond Llewelyn
- Sid Haig
visit the film locations
Las Vegas: Flights: McCarran International Airport, 5757 Wayne Newton Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119
Visit: Las Vegas Hilton, 3000 Paradise Road
Visit: Circus Circus, 2880 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Visit: Riviera Hotel and Casino, 2901 Las Vegas Boulevard South at Riviera Boulevard
Visit: the Tropicana, 3801 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Amsterdam: Flights: Schiphol Airport
Trivia
The Riviera is featured in Go, while the Tropicana is seen in The Godfather
Diamonds Are Forever location: the ‘Whyte House’: Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas
Sean Connery returned as Bond, for his last appearance in the mainstream series, in one of the better films – with one of the best theme songs – unfortunately hampered by production problems, and soured by a streak of embarrassingly dated homophobia.
The diamond smuggling plot naturally takes Bond to Europe’s gem capital, Amsterdam, where shocked sightseers see the body of the old lady being hauled from the Amstel Canal at the Skinny Bridge.
Diamonds Are Forever location: Tiffany Case’s apartment: Reguliersgracht 36, Amsterdam
The canalside apartment of Tiffany Case (Jill St John) is on the third floor of Reguliersgracht 36.
But, of course, Bond is soon off to glossier locations, in this case Las Vegas, Nevada. Apart from the car chase through the parking lot of the Mint, which was filmed on the Universal lot in Los Angeles, the Las Vegas exteriors were shot in the casino city itself.
Diamonds Are Forever location: Bond meets up with Tiffany Case: Circus Circus, Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas
The ‘Slumber Mortuary’, where Bond nearly gets cremated, was the old Las Vegas Visitors Bureau building on Highway 10. Although there was no shortage of over-the-top decor in Vegas, the designers decided to built the fantasy interior at Pinewood. Full advantage was taken of the ‘theme’ casinos though, with Bond and Tiffany Case meeting up in Circus Circus, 2880 Las Vegas Boulevard South, where trapeze artists dangle over the heads of the punters.
Diamonds Are Forever location: Bond wins: the Riviera Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas
Willard Whyte’s ‘Whyte House’ is the Las Vegas Hilton (then the Las Vegas International Hotel), 3000 Paradise Road. At the Riviera Hotel and Casino, 2901 Las Vegas Boulevard South (a major location for Martin Scorsese’s Casino), Bond wins $50,000 and Plenty O’Toole, though Sammy Davis Jr’s cameo ended up on the cutting room floor.
Diamonds Are Forever location: Bond’s hotel: the Tropicana, Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas
Bond stays, naturally, at the home of the bare-breasted Folies Bergère revue, the Tropicana, 3801 Las Vegas Boulevard South. The car chase, filmed on Fremont Street, meant that Vegas’ main drag had to be cordoned off for three nights.
The ‘Techtronics Missile Laboratories’ are the Johns Manville Gypsum plant on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Whyte’s winter villa is a private home, the Elrod Residence, 2175 Southridge Drive, Palm Springs, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte John Lautner.
Blofeld (Charles Gray, promoted to arch-villain from his Mr Henderson role in You Only Live Twice) launches his satellite from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, on the coast between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, I-1, southern California. The anti-aircraft guns were mounted on a temporary oil rig which was installed off the coast of Southern California near Oceanside, Route 5, between Los Angeles and San Diego.
It was a confused and troubled production, leading to some eccentric continuity as the disparate shots were matched up. The most famous blooper is the stunt car careering down a narrow alley on its two left-hand wheels and emerging from the alley on its right side.
