Thunderball was the fourth instalment in the Bond franchise and supposedly the most successful financially taking inflation into account. The film has Connery's Bond searching for two NATO atomic bombs stolen by SPECTRE who asked for £100 million in diamonds for ransom in exchange for not blowing up Miami. Much of the action in the film takes place underwater.
In the film, Bond is assisted by Domino, the mistress of SPECTRE's Number Two, Emilio Largo. Several actresses were considered for the role including Julie Christie, Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway but finally the role was given to Miss France and First Runner-Up in Miss World 1958, Claudine Auger. The name of the character was changed from Dominetta Palazzi to Dominique Derval to reflect Auger's nationality but her voice was still dubbed.
The three actresses who were considered for the role of Domino :-
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| Julie Christie |
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| Raquel Welch |
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| Faye Dunaway |
The other notable Bond girl in the film was Luciana Paluzzi who played SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe. In Never Say Never Again (the re-make of Thunderball) her name was changed to Fatima Blush and she was played by Barbara Carrera.
I must admit that I have not actually watched Thunderball but I do remember the theme song by Tom Jones. Initially a song called Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was written as the theme (recorded by Shirley Bassey but re-recorded by Dionne Warwick) but the producers wanted the title of the film in the theme song. Country singer Johnny Cash submitted a song entitled "Thunderball" to Eon Productions incorporating the plot of the film but the song was never used. Instead John Barry and Don Black hurriedly wrote a song which was recorded by Tom Jones.
It seems that during recording Jones fainted when singing the last note of the song. What a big girl's blouse, Tom ol' chap.
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