When George Lazenby (unwisely) announced that he would not be doing any more Bond films, the producers nearly panicked. His film had not made a lot of money; it was not yet known whether the public would accept a James Bond that wasn't Sean Connery. The decision was to get Connery back at any cost. They did, for the highest salary an actor had ever been paid up to that point (which he later donated to charity) plus a deal where Connery could pick two roles of his choice. His performance in Diamonds Are Forever is mediocre, but a mediocre Connery is still great. The plot is a little on the thin side, and the production values were a little on the low side, but it's still a lot of fun. The light-hearted goofy humor that people often attribute to Roger Moore's reign as Bond actually started here. Most, but not all, of the humor works. (One of my favorite lines is the pet rat line.) Wint and Kidd make interesting henchmen, but Jill St. John, the main Bond girl this time around is very poor, particularly in the footsteps of the highly respected Diana Rigg. Charles Gray (who had a different role in You Only Live Twice) plays arguably the worst Blofeld, devoid of menace. But the worst part is when two athletic women named Bambi and Thumper beat the living daylights out of Bond while he stands around like a clumsy old oaf and lets them do it. (It would not surprise me if this scene inspired John Hughes' Home Alone.) If you can ignore these rather large flaws, what's left is actually not that bad. It's seldom boring; there's enough Bondian action and wry humor to keep the pace moving, and the Elaborate Badguy Hideout (tm) designed by the great Bond set designer Ken Adam, carried on one of the greatest Bond traditions.