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Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, Jimmy Dean. Directed by Guy Hamilton. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (widescreen). Dolby Digital mono. 120 minutes. 1971. MGM Home Entertainment 1001092. PG. $26.98.

Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery's swan song as Agent 007, continues the plot of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Bond pursuing the murderous Blofeld (Charles Gray), the man responsible for killing Bond's wife. Otherwise, the movie marks a departure for the franchise: Bond is more Americanized than ever, the tone is more humorous and lighthearted, and there is a greater dependence on plot than on gadgets.

Connery is often over-rated as a dramatic actor, but he's perfect as Bond: The camera loves his expressionless face, which manages to exude self-deprecating irony, cool intelligence, and plenty of ingenuity. It's the last especially that helps Bond tackle his mission: to track the flow of the diamonds that keep disappearing from a South African mine but never appear on marketplace.

Posing as noted smuggler Peter Franks, Bond approaches sexy contact Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) in Amsterdam and proceeds to smuggle the stones into the US inside a coffin. From the funeral home, where he plans to catch the smugglers—and where he is almost burned alive—Bond goes to Las Vegas, where he becomes suspicious of the doings of Willard Whyte (Jimmy Dean), a reclusive millionaire à la Howard Hughes. It turns out Blofeld, who had presumably been terminated by Bond, is alive, Bond having actually killed Blofeld's double (a masterpiece of plastic surgery). Blofeld now controls Whyte's enterprises—casinos, hotels, etc.—while the real millionaire is held hostage in a cell. Bond also discovers that Blofeld is using the diamonds to create a space-satellite–mounted laser so powerful that one beam is able detonate a missile or explode a submarine. Blofeld uses precisely these means to hold the world for ransom.

Although one of the movie's opening images shows Bond strangling an informant with her own bra, this kind of macho bravado is remarkably absent from Diamonds Are Forever. There is the inevitable frolicking with Tiffany once she proves a reliable ally, but the only other would-be conquest is Plenty O'Toole (Lana Wood), who follows Bond to his room after his bonanza at the roulette table—however, she's unceremoniously thrown out the window before they can get to know each other better.

Jill St. John makes an understated Bond girl. She's attractive, a tad ironic, and more intelligent than she at first appears. A practical woman who chooses with care what side she's on, she's not just a bombshell for Bond or the viewer to be smitten by.

As a man who gets his kicks from dominating the world and from petting his bejeweled white cat, Charles Gray is elegant, aristocratic, and a bit effeminate. Cunning and resourceful, he gives Bond a run for his money, but he isn't as deliciously villainous as, say, Gert Froebe in Goldfinger.

The most vibrant scenes include Bond's fistfight with Franks (Joe Robinson) in an old-fashioned cage elevator; Bond's climb up to Blofeld's fortified Las Vegas haunt and their confrontation; the activities of the two athletic killers, Bambi and Thumper, who guard Whyte's cell and give Bond a run for his money; Bond's escape from Blofeld's desert moonscape-like complex in a lunar buggy, chased by scores of cars and, later, desert bikes; Bond and Tiffany's escape from the Las Vegas police in her red Mustang; the climactic attack on Blofeld's offshore oil-rig headquarters; and any scene with the gay hired-killer duo, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, who are given some of the most entertaining lines in the movie.

Purists may point out that the story and its lighthearted tone have little to do with Ian Fleming's Bond, a tough, hard-drinking guy with a dark sensibility and more than a touch of bitterness. Timothy Dalton's take on 007 was closer to the author's vision, but audiences never bought it. Sean Connery created the most appealing Bond, a standard by which heirs to his throne are still measured.

MGM Home Entertainment has done a superb job with Diamonds, as it has with the other Bond titles. The DVD brims with extras: deleted scenes, audio commentary by director Guy Hamilton and members of the cast and crew, and documentaries about the film and its producer, the famed "Cubby" Broccoli.

The transfer is topnotch: The images are sharp and crisp, the focus relentless, and the colors realistic and sizzling. The mono audio is clear, and the special sound effects are enhanced by THX. Diamonds Are Forever, here presented in its original CinemaScope format and enhanced for widescreen TVs, is a great intro for Bond virgins and a guaranteed pleasure for fans and repeat viewers.