" Diamonds Are Forever " is a fascinating entry in the James Bond canon, serving as both a hard-boiled 1956 novel by Ian Fleming and a campy 1971 film that marked Sean Connery's final "official" turn as 007. The Original Novel (1956)

: Unlike the globe-trotting films, the book is a gritty, somewhat linear pursuit of a diamond smuggling pipeline. It starts in the mines of Sierra Leone and ends in Las Vegas.

: The reclusive billionaire character Willard Whyte was inspired by a dream producer Albert R. Broccoli had about his friend, the real-life Howard Hughes.

Fleming’s fourth Bond novel was inspired by a 1954 Sunday Times article about diamond smuggling in Africa.

: While it sounds glamorous, the lyrics describe a preference for materialistic stability over the risks of love—"Diamonds never lie to me / For when love's gone, they'll lustre on".

: Fleming conducted deep research for the book, even interviewing a former MI5 head who was working for De Beers at the time. The 1971 Film: A Campy Return