With the skill of a Bond villain.
3 Likes
Actually, you are mixing up Tiffany Case and Pussy Galore. James Bond and Tiffany do go back to England and live together for awhile following Diamonds Are Forever, which is mentioned in From Russia, With Love. Bond’s relationship that continues at the start of Anthony Horowitz’s Trigger Mortis is with Pussy Galore which continues on from Goldfinger.
And yes, you did use the spoiler blocking correctly.
4 Likes
Wow! You are correct. Maybe time to re-read that, too. 
3 Likes
True. She does not really need Bond. But she also apparently has never shot with a machine gun.
Or… that is an ingenious way to make others think she is a dumb damsel when she is just much more clever to get off that rig.
6 Likes
Agreed. I do not think Bond abandons Tiffany. I think @Stbernard nails it when he notes the meta- aspect to the entire film. We know. The film knows. Bond and Tiffany know. They will be together at the end. As a result, the film can entertain multiple possibilities at any moment, and feint in any direction. As SAF notes:
Because the film does not definitively present her in any traditional Bond girl role. Tiffany (like Plenty) is a working girl, looking to make bank. She is less part of the villain’s scheme/inner circle or captive, than an employee of a corporation–much like Bambi, Thumper, Mrs. Whistler, Mr. Kidd, and Mr. Wint. Plenty, for her part, is also an employee–maybe not of a criminal corporation, but neither does she work for J.C. Penney.
Tiffany is never given a victim, damsel-in-distress, or ally narrative. That is why the screenplay has to maneuver her to Bond in the crane, since that is the only way she gets saved. She needs to move herself to her rescuer, rather than await his arrival. DAF’s narrative often seems akin to moving pieces on the James Bond chessboard–pieces which have more than one way that they can move.
Not sure about Stromberg, but applied to Blofeld, it could explain why there are outfits on the oil rig for Tiffany.
Exactly. Tiffany displays more autonomy that any Bond girl up to that time, and never follows any usual Bond Girl narrative. She is a working girl, like Plenty O’Toole (which was the role Jill St. John first auditioned for). Maybe this is why
Her narrative works adjacent to Bond’s narrative, rather than allied or subservient to it.
DAF is a defining 1970s movie, in addition to being a great Bond movie.
The movie never makes up its mind about Tiffany. She is both competent criminal associate and dumb damsel–both a brunette and a redhead. In the same way, Bond is both ready to leave Tiffany on the oil rig, and ready to find a way to save her. DAF is the Schrodinger’s Cat of Bond movies.
Agreed (though I do believe there are ladies present), and yet further evidence that DAF is forever.
5 Likes
My sincerest apologies, ladies! And to all enlightened gentlepeople for my oversight.
3 Likes
Blofeld does drag dress in the film. Maybe he carries a practical disguise wardrobe for Earth’s Most Wanted Fugitive. ‘La Comtesse de Bleauchamp Collection’ ? 
As for Anya’s prisoner outfit, I’d like to think that belonged to Naomi, with a few size alterations.
6 Likes
On every villain’s team, there must be a talented seamstress.
5 Likes
But of course. It was made clear right from the start in Dr No:
Sister Lily: This will be your room, Mr. Bond. This is your bathroom in here. And for you, young lady, this is your room. And you’ll find fresh clothes in here. I hope they fit. We didn’t get your sizes till last night. Don’t hesitate to ring if there’s anything else you want. Anything at all.
It’s not just thugs with machine guns, you know (and also, look at Safin’s personnel in NTTD).
8 Likes
Fatima Blush in NSNA. 
Some outfits designed by Barbara Carrera herself. Slaughterhouse in a blouse!
7 Likes
We’re long overdue another femme fatale in the style of Volpe, Blush and Onatopp. Margareta Piel from Benson’s DoubleShot would be good inspiration for something similar but different.
I think it handles that quite well in the finale. Despite misreading Bond’s intentions with the tape and being called a twit, she is nonetheless resourceful enough to pull that off.
6 Likes
Yeah, I don’t think you can blame Tiffany Case for switching the tapes. She doesn’t know that James Bond has already switched them. She came into the control room just after he made the switch and as Ernst Stavro Blofeld is ordering him to put back the tape. For all she knows Blofeld caught him before he could make the swap. And then Bond’s comment on her problems all being behind her now could just as easily be interpreted as saying, “It’s up to you to switch the tapes.” So I’ve never liked Bond calling her a twit after she told him she swapped the tapes. She couldn’t know. It was just an unfortunate series of events.
4 Likes
It is a nasty Bond moment (along with a few others in DAF). That edge against women alternates with a more relaxed–almost avuncular–attitude toward them.
4 Likes
The Hamilton-Mankiewicz trio demonstrate some very curious attitudes to women. Anya is a significant course correction, Holly Goodhead even more so.
3 Likes
Terence Young had some “curious attitudes” to Marguerite LeWars (Annabel Chung in Dr. No). She details his sexual assault and threats to cut her out of the movie at the 23:00 mark. 
Tough, classy lady!
2 Likes
I believe it’s supposed to be humorous, an attempt at “cute bickering” between a comedy duo.
The trouble is Sean and Jill have no comedic chemistry and their characters don’t seem particularly fond of each other, outside of the presumably good sex, so it comes off as genuine animosity/disgust. It’s not like Tiff could have known he’d already switched tapes; she thought she was helping. And yet it takes so little for Bond to unload on her and reveal what he’s thought of her all along. If this is his response to wrong moves, one suspects that if he’d been around when Mary Goodnight turned on the solar-powered laser with her derriere, he’d have tossed her into one of those cryogenic vats and sailed off solo.
6 Likes
Agreed. They are both using each other for personal ends. It is not a love connection.
He is still traumatized from Tracy’s death. Also, having killed 3 1/2 Blofelds, he still cannot be sure Blofeld is dead. On top of all that, there is the job he is on, which he doesn’t believe is worthy of MI6. Some testiness is to be expected.
DAF’s Bond is similar to many male protagonists in 1970s movies in having an ambivalent, contradictory relationship with women.
5 Likes
I have to remind myself this is the same guy from DN. Nothing tops prime Connery but the evolution we get with DAF makes his Bond all the better. The sarcasm is more pronounced, as if he’s amused by the absurdity around him. He has seen fantastical evil and isn’t phased by what comes next. His reputation has become legend (“you just killed James Bond! - “is that who it was?”, making him seasoned but fatigued. As you’ve explained, Connery’s real life feelings align with where his Bond would have been at that point in his life too.
I don’t have OHMSS in my Connery timeline - the Japanese section of the PTS taking place after YOLT makes more sense to me. But I love the general idea Connery Bond has become so emotionally detached he’s not really caring all that much if someone lives or dies. He’s more transactional now. He’s already had numerous friends die by this point. When he looks to find Tiffany on the oil rig she’s not there. If she was visible he’d probably attempt a rescue, but she’s not. He’s saving himself and if Tiffany managed to survive that’s fine too.
5 Likes
ConneryBond is kind of tired at that point - and anybody in his way would earn a snide remark (he just wants to get on that cruise and be done with it).
Also, it was considered funny by the mainstream audience to diminish women. It still was for more decades to come. Even MooreBond could ask Anya whether she wanted him to drive when Jaws attacked, and be surprised that Dr. Goodhead is… a WOMAN?
And people smirked and laughed. As a teenager even I did. Talking about indoctrination.
5 Likes
Plus the toupee is itchy.
5 Likes