List of James Bond henchmen in Diamonds Are Forever

A list of henchmen from the 1971 James Bond film and novel Diamonds Are Forever from the List of James Bond henchmen.

Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd

Mr. Wint / Mr. Kidd
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	The Spangled Mob (novel) SPECTRE (film)
Portrayed by	Bruce Glover / Putter Smith

Mr. Albert Wint and Mr. Charles Kidd are fictional characters in the James Bond novel and film Diamonds Are Forever. In the novel, Wint and Kidd are homosexual members of The Spangled Mob. In the film, it is assumed that they are henchmen for the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, though the characters share no scenes with and are not seen taking instructions from Blofeld (or anyone else, except for Bert Saxby) — though the fact that they are waiting for Bond's body when Blofeld sends him down the lift to Willard Whyte's private parking garage is an indication.

In the film, Mr. Wint is played by the clean-shaven actor Bruce Glover and Mr. Kidd by bespectacled jazz musician Putter Smith in a rare acting role.

One of their key trademarks is to enjoy making quips after killing their targets, and also when making one of their failed attempts to kill Bond.^[1]

Film

Mr. Wint and his partner Mr. Kidd are American assassins working for Blofeld. Their assignment is to kill off every link in a Slumber Brothers mobster diamond-smuggling 'pipeline' running from South Africa to the United States via The Netherlands, and to steal the diamonds from the mobsters so as to divert them to Blofeld (where they are to be incorporated into a killer laser satellite). The pair takes a sadistic pleasure in their work – for example, to Wint's amusement Kidd photographs the body of the old lady (Mrs. Whistler) they have drowned in the canals of Amsterdam, joking about sending the pictures to the primary-age children to whom she was a school teacher. This is typical of an overtly morbid sense of humour they share, completing each other's sentences as a game and delighting in competing over laboured, blackly humorous puns. Thus an attempt to incinerate James Bond alive in a crematorium is "a glowing tribute" and "heart-warming." They also amuse themselves with the twisted application of proverbs – for example, after blowing up a helicopter in flight Kidd begins the old quote, "If God had wanted man to fly..." to which Wint concludes: "He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd"; and Wint saying "If at first you don't succeed, Mr. Kidd", followed by Kidd's reply, "Try, try again, Mr. Wint."

It is strongly implied (though not confirmed) in the film that the two are lovers. They are seen holding hands in one scene; and at one point, Mr. Kidd remarks that Tiffany Case is attractive, only to receive a glare from Mr. Wint, prompting him to add, "...for a lady". Mr. Wint can also be seen spraying himself with perfume, although this clearly isn't a sign of homosexuality.

The two use numerous methods of killing their targets (or trying to), some highly creative:

• Placing a scorpion down the shirt of a South African dentist.
• Using a timed bomb to blow up the helicopter which was meant to pick up the doctor's merchandise.
• Drowning Mrs. Whistler in the Amstel River.
• Sealing Bond in a coffin and sending him into a crematorium furnace. (In their dry style of humor, Wint refers to this as "very moving", referring to the conveyor belt carrying the coffin. Kidd replies that it is "heart warming" and Wint summarises it as "a glowing tribute"). Bond escapes when his mob contacts discover that the diamonds he had given them are fakes and retrieve the coffin from the crematorium.
• Burying Bond alive by putting him into a length of pipeline to be buried in the desert outside Las Vegas – the second time he has been unconscious at their mercy, yet again they opt for an overly elaborate kill. Bond escapes by shortcircuting a pipeline welding device, forcing some workers to inspect it.
• Drowning Plenty O'Toole with her legs tied to a block of concrete, in a swimming pool just deep enough to submerge her only up to the tip of her nose, and by doing so killing her as slowly as possible.
• In a deleted scene made available on DVD, the pair's shooting of Shady Tree is even seen to be achieved via a joke prop gun that first produces a flag with 'BANG!' written on it, before a real bullet.

Their final attempt to kill Bond and Case takes place on a cruise liner after Bond foils Blofeld's plot. They pose as stewards in the couple's suite, serving them a romantic dinner consisting of Oysters Andaluz, shashlik, tidbits, prime rib au jus and Salade Utopia. Dessert is La Bombe Surprise – in the most literal sense, since a bomb is really hidden in it. However, Bond links the smell of Wint's cologne to his misadventure in the pipeline and quickly realises that something is wrong. He remarks that his cologne is "strong enough to bury anything" and that "I've smelt that aftershave before and both times I've smelt a rat." After tasting a glass of Mouton Rothschild '55, Bond casually remarks that he had expected a claret with such a grand dinner. When Mr. Wint replies that the cellars are unfortunately poorly stocked with clarets, Bond exposes the henchman's ignorance, replying that Mouton Rothschild in fact is a claret.

Realizing Bond has blown their cover, the pair finally turn on him with physical violence. Mr. Kidd ignites the shashlik skewers, aiming to impale Bond while Mr. Wint strangles him with a chain. During the struggle, Bond first neutralises Kidd by splashing Courvoisier on the flaming skewers, setting Kidd on fire. Within seconds, he is engulfed in flames, and in desperation jumps overboard, the flames are extinquished but it is not shown whether he survives or not. After this elimination of Mr. Kidd, Tiffany throws the dessert at a notably distressed Mr. Wint, but she misses – and this reveals the bomb hidden in the bombe. When Wint is distracted by the sight, Bond gains the upper hand against him, pulling the villain's coat-tails between his legs and tying his hands and the bomb together with them. Bond hoists an overexcited Mr. Wint overboard, and the bomb explodes before he hits the water. As 007 wryly observes, "He certainly left with his tails between his legs" a play on the popular saying "tail between his legs!"

Novel

In the novel, the duo have a less flamboyant role. As killers and "enforcers" to the Spangled Mob, it is their mission, among other things, to make sure the smuggling of the diamonds and everything connected to it go off without a hitch. If something does go wrong, Wint and Kidd (they are never referred to as "Mr." in the novels) are sent to "persuade" the perpetrators never to make a mistake again. They are obviously quite sadistic and give evidence of enjoying their jobs. This is particularly evident in a scene that Bond witnesses in a mud-bath, where they pour boiling mud over the face of a jockey who they believe has prevented a Mob-owned horse from winning a race.

From London to New York City it is their job to tail whoever is smuggling the diamonds internationally to ensure that the smuggler does not get any ideas about going into business for himself. For this, the duo pose as American businessmen who call themselves "W. Winter" and "B. Kitteridge".

Although they are both hardened assassins, Wint is pathologically afraid of travel. When he must do so, he wears an identifying name tag and a sticker that says "My blood group is F." He also has to be paid a special bonus by his employers. Because of his phobia, Wint picked up the nickname "Windy" - although no one would dare call him that to his face. Kidd is nicknamed "Boofy" due to his 'pretty-boy' appearance. Felix Leiter suspects that they are both homosexual, a point emphasised in the film. Wint has a large red wart on one thumb, a detail that leads to his being positively identified.

In a ghost town outside Las Vegas, the leading gangster, Seraffimo Spang, penetrates Bond's cover and orders Wint and Kidd to torture Bond to learn his true identity. Wint and Kidd then perform a "Brooklyn stomping," kicking Bond into unconsciousness while wearing football cleats, after which Tiffany Case helps him escape.

After they kidnap Tiffany on the Queen Elizabeth, Bond comes to her rescue by climbing down the side of the ship and diving into her cabin via the porthole. They have a fight, and Bond shoots them both. To avoid trouble, he then fakes evidence in the cabin to make it look like a murder-suicide. After the killings, Bond considers his relationship with Tiffany and wonders if it will last forever. But he notices the dead eyes of the assassins staring at him. Bond imagines they say "nothing lasts forever, except what you did to me!", a reference to the book's title.

References in popular culture

• These two are frequently parodied as the characters "Mr. Wink" and "Mr. Fibb" on the animated series Codename: Kids Next Door.

• The minor antagonists, Specs and Trapper, in the animated series Static Shock, are based on Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. Likewise, the two assassins Touch and Go in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series of 2003 share many personality characteristics with Kidd and Wint, particularly their ironic humor and habit of addressing each other.

• The pair are parodied in Daniel Waters' Sex and Death 101, which features a lesbian couple named Bambi Wint and Thumper Kidd. The women not only have the surnames of the male assassins (and the first names of Willard Whyte's female bodyguards), but also converse in the same distinctive, polite speech patterns.

• A London diamond jewellery store, established 2002, is named Wint&Kidd.^[2]

• In Fallout 3 a pair of 'ghouls' the player may encounter on a mission are named 'Wint' and 'Kidd'.

• In the second episode of the first series of The League Of Gentlemen, two surveyors arrive in Royston Vasey called Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd. The characters use the same polite speech patterns as Wint & Kidd in Diamonds are Forever.^[3]

• In the Neil Gaiman novel (and by this admission also the television series) Neverwhere, Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar have the same overly-polite way of speaking, Vandemar even saying "If at first you don't succeed, Mr. Croup..." and Croup finishing "Try, try again, Mr. Vandemar".

• In the student radio comedy series 'The Dead or Alive Show: This is Unique FM' as broadcast on the University of Warwick's student radio station RaW 1251 AM, two journalists named Wint and Kidd are portrayed^[4]. Their mannerisms and catchphrases are the same as the characters from the film.

Tiffany Case

Tiffany Case
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	The Spangled Mob (novel) SPECTRE (unwittingly) (film)
Portrayed by	Jill St. John

Main article: Tiffany Case

Tiffany Case is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film Diamonds Are Forever. For the 1971 film she was portrayed by Jill St. John.

Tiffany is the fourth link in the diamond smuggling chain in the unwitting employ of SPECTRE. She would receive the diamonds from Whistler and pass them off to Franks. Though initially antagonistic to him, Tiffany eventually joins Bond's side when another girl, Plenty O'Toole, is murdered by mistake in her place.

Peter Franks

Peter Franks
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	The Spangled Mob (novel) SPECTRE (film)
Portrayed by	Joe Robinson

Peter Franks is a diamond smuggler, portrayed in the film by British actor and stuntman Joe Robinson. In both the film and the book, James Bond takes his identity in order to meet Tiffany Case. Robinson claimed that he was a strong contender for the role of Red Grant in From Russia with Love. Though he lost the role to Robert Shaw, Connery recommended him for Diamonds are Forever.^[5]

In the book, Bond takes the identity of Franks because the two look similar. Franks never physically appears.

In the movie, Franks is taken into customs of the Dover Ferry terminal so Bond can take his identity, and after he escapes he goes to Amsterdam to meet Tiffany. Bond, knowing he can't let Tiffany meet the real Peter Franks, heads for her apartment, where he encounters Franks in the elevator, and Bond's cover is blown when he is about to attack him. A long and brutal fight then ensues, and Bond finally kills Peter by knocking him off a balcony with a fire extinguisher, where he falls to his death. Bond then switches his wallet with Peter's, to make Tiffany think he killed James Bond, thus maintaining his cover as Franks. The two then smuggle the diamonds to Los Angeles within the body of Peter Franks (in his alimentary canal) .

When Bond switches wallets with Franks, a Playboy card is seen in Bond's wallet.

Shady Tree

Shady Tree
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	The Spangled Mob (novel) SPECTRE (film)
Portrayed by	Leonard Barr

Shady Tree is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

In both the novel and movie, Michael (Shady) Tree was the link in the "Pipeline" who received the Diamonds once they were in America. His fate is unrevealed in the novel; he was based in New York and acted as a 'frontman'. He is a red-haired hunchback and deals with most of the 'small fry' henchmen.

In the movie, he is a stand-up comedian working for Willard Whyte in the Whyte House casino-hotel in Las Vegas. He first appears as a courier, collecting the diamonds (which have been extracted from Peter Franks' corpse) from the Slumber funeral home to be delivered to Willard Whyte. When he discovers that they were fakes planted by Bond and the CIA, he confronts Bond (who was rescued from Wint and Kidd's assassination attempt in Slumber's cremation furnace) and demands that he delivers the real diamonds. He later encounters Wint and Kidd after his stand up act in the Whyte House. The duo came to him saying (Wint) "Shady, we just adored your act. (Kidd) What taste, what style. (Wint again) And we have a few suggestions", to which he replied that "Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 40 years". Then, in a deleted scene, Kidd shoots a toy gun from which a "bang" sign pops out - and then the gun fires a real bullet, killing Tree. As the assassins come out of the room, Bert Saxby informs that Tree is needed alive because of the fake diamonds, to which Kidd replies "That's most annoying," implying that they already killed Tree.

Bert Saxby

Bert Saxby
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE, Willard Whyte (formerly)
Portrayed by	Bruce Cabot

Albert R. "Bert" Saxby is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. One of Ernst Stavro Blofeld's leading henchmen, Saxby was portrayed by King Kong star Bruce Cabot (who passed away the following year).

Bert Saxby worked for Willard Whyte, until Blofeld took over; Saxby then became Blofeld's right-hand man. Saxby manages Whyte's end of the casino and first meets 007 while the latter is posing as Peter Franks. Later Saxby goes up to he office to inform Blofeld that Shady Tree is dead; he then tells his boss to turn on one of the cameras watching 007. Blofeld simply commands Saxby to "just get me the diamonds." A few days later, Bert hires a person to steal the diamonds, that SPECTRE needs to complete their project, from jewel smuggler Tiffany Case's locker at the McCarren International Airport. The hired person takes the diamonds to Saxby in a Ford minibus, who then delivers them to Professor Doctor Metz at a gas station. He was shot and killed by CIA agents while attempting to assassinate Willard Whyte while taking cover behind a rock with a sniper rifle when Whyte was being rescued by Bond and the CIA. As the dead Saxby tumbled down a hill, Whyte spouted one of the movie's best-remembered deadpan-lines: "Tell him he's fired!"

His name is a direct reference to James Bond film-producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli.

Bambi and Thumper

Thumper and Bambi
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE
Portrayed by	Trina Parks and Lola Larson

Bambi & Thumper are fictional characters in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, portrayed by actresses Lola Larson and Trina Parks. Their names are references to Bambi. The two are bodyguards who prevent anyone from seeing the reclusive Willard Whyte. When James Bond enters the house where Mr. Whyte is supposed to be staying, he is approached in a seductive manner by Thumper, but she knees him in the groin and the two women then viciously attack him. Bond is even choked by Bambi's thighs, but soon gets out from that predicament, only to be thrown into an outdoor pool. The two women jump in to finish him off, but Bond is quickly able to turn the tables on them, holding them both underwater while Felix Leiter and his men show up. While Bond repeatedly dunks them, he talks amusedly to Leiter, who complains about Bond "giving breaststroke lessons". Upon Felix asking about the location of Whyte, Bond says "Haven't found out yet". He then brings the two up for air and promptly shoves them down again, saying "Still haven't found out yet". The bubbles and struggles of the women underwater indicate that they are just about to drown, when Bond first releases Thumper. She immediately flees to the poolside, while desperately kicking Bambi has to go through several more seconds of being held underwater. Thumper points out the shed where Whyte is being held, and Bond eventually releases Bambi, too. Bond, heading for Whyte, leaves behind the exhaustedly coughing women, who are presumably arrested.

Morton Slumber

Morton Slumber
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE
Portrayed by	David Bauer

Morton Slumber is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. He is portrayed by David Bauer, who also appeared as a diplomat in You Only Live Twice.

Slumber owns his own company, Slumber Inc., as well as a funeral home. He is one of the members of the diamond smuggling ring, using his business as a front for it. His role was to receive the diamonds from Peter Franks in a corpse bound for cremation and pass them off to Shady Tree. When Bond arrives disguised as Franks, Slumber takes the body of "Franks' brother" (actually the real Franks) and cremates it. In fact, Bond has planted fake diamonds in Franks' body in the knowledge that an attempt will be made on his life. When Wint and Kidd attempt to assassinate Bond (by cremating him alive) to eliminate another link in the chain, Bond is removed from the furnace in the nick of time once Slumber and Tree realize that the diamonds are fake, and that "Franks" still has yet to deliver the real ones. Slumber's fate is unknown, but it could be assumed he was either arrested after Blofeld's plot unraveled, or killed by Mister Wint and Mister Kidd.

Professor Dr. Metz

Professor Dr. Metz
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE (unwittingly)
Portrayed by	Joseph Furst

Professor Dr. Metz is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. He is portrayed by Joseph Furst.

Metz is a scientist and pacifist who is an expert on light refraction. He is duped by Blofeld into helping him build a laser satellite using the smuggled diamonds capable of destroying nuclear missiles. Metz believes that Blofeld intends to use the laser to ensure world peace, and thus goes along with the plan. When Blofeld's intents are revealed as malicious, Metz asserts that he's bluffing, but is proven wrong yet again when Blofeld activates the satellite. Whether Metz was able to escape the exploding oil rig or not is unknown.

Dr. Tynan

Dr. Tynan
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE (unwittingly) (film) The Spangled Mob (unwittingly) (novel)
Portrayed by	Henry Rowland (actor)

Dr. Tynan is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Diamonds Are Forever. He is portrayed by Henry Rowland.

Tynan is a South African dentist who is the first link in the diamond smuggling pipeline. He extracts the diamonds from the mouths of miners and ships them out of the country. In both versions of the story, he is met by Wint and Kidd, who pick up the diamonds from him. Kidd then complains of a toothache, and when Dr. Tynan bends over to check on Kidd's mouth, Wint drops a scorpion down the back of his shirt (in the movie's alternate version, it was shoved up his mouth) , envenomating Tynan within seconds. When smuggler and helicopter pilot Joe meets Wint and Kidd, the former tells Joe that Tynan was "Bitten by the bug."

Joe

Joe
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE (unwittingly) (film) The Spangled Mob (unwittingly) (novel)
Portrayed by	Raymond Baker

Joe the pilot is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Diamonds Are Forever. He is portrayed by Raymond Baker.

Joe is the second link in the diamond smuggling chain that leads up to SPECTRE. He is the pilot of a helicopter, who the novel identifies as being from Germany. In the novel, where he does not have a name and is a former Luftwaffe aviator, he receives the diamonds from Tynan in South Africa and delivers them straight to London.

Unaware that Wint and Kidd have killed Tynan, Joe accepts a box, ostensibly full of diamonds, from them and flies off. Unfortunately for him, the box is actually an explosive, and Joe becomes the second victim of SPECTRE's treachery. In the novel, he is possibly killed by the Spangled Mob in the end, as Serafimmo Spang tells Tynan (also unnamed in the novel) that he would not be seeing the pilot anymore.

Mrs. Whistler

Mrs. Whistler
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE (unwittingly)
Portrayed by	Margaret Lacey

Mrs. Whistler is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. She is portrayed by Margaret Lacey.

Whistler is an elderly schoolteacher who is the third link in the diamond smuggling pipeline. She would receive the diamonds from Tynan and then pass them off to Tiffany. Interestingly, her smuggling method involved delivering the diamonds in hollowed-out Bibles. It is likely that Whistler did not know what she was involved in, and she, like Tynan, is killed by Wint and Kidd after she passes the diamonds off, via drowning in the canals of Amsterdam.

Marie

Marie
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE
Portrayed by	Denise Perrier

Marie is a fictional character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. She is portrayed by Denise Perrier.

Marie is a young woman who appears to be a confidant of Blofeld and SPECTRE. When Bond is looking for Blofeld, he gets directed to an Egyptian man by a Japanese man, both of whom he assaults. He gets her name out of the Egyptian in the pre-credits sequence. Catching up to Marie while she sunbathes, Bond begins to strangle her with her own swimsuit until she finally gives in and reveals Blofeld's location.

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ "Wint&Kidd-About us". Wint&Kidd. http://www.wintandkidd.com/flash.php. Retrieved 2009-07-04. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ ""The League of Gentlemen" (1999) - Trivia". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184135/trivia?tr0715790. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
4. ^ http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-dead-or-alive-show-podcast/id303973791
5. ^ http://www.thevisitor.co.uk/morecambe-news/Joe-has-eye-of-the.836535.jp

External links

• Universal exports