It seems to me that in Thunderball (1965), whenever there’s little to no dialogue or when the iconic hazy, lazy elevator music plays, it’s always an enjoyable scene. That’s not to say that the music in question here is poor – I actually think it’s catchy and I get the melody stuck in my head after a viewing and get a bit drowsy the more I hum it to myself. I think it perfectly encapsulates the laid-back Caribbean setting of the movie, alongside its sinister villain. And this scene is a perfect example of that.

It starts out with Bond arriving at his hotel, where the receptionist (like most) is smitten – so much so that they show a second shot of her adoring face as Bond leaves! Bond skips his room and heads to Paula Caplan’s, where he checks his previously set up hollowed-out book recording device. The harpsichord (I think that’s the instrument at least…) part of this music gets me every time! Love it!

Sure enough, he plays back the recording and hears someone enter the room – although short, I for some reason always enjoy the camera pan to the noises at the start – gives a great effect! Bond seems to figure out that the intruder is in his bathroom, so he retrofits his gun with a silencer, which always looks cool.

Before he can enter the bathroom, there’s a knock on the door and it’s his CIA contact Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter). For some reason, Bond gut punches Felix in what I would call a bit of an overreaction to maintain secrecy, seeing as how the the hotel room door is some ways away from the bathroom. At first I thought Bond just didn’t want Felix to reveal his code name (007) and the MI6 employ that comes with it, but Bond turns around and says it anyway when he subdues the intruder.

Which leads us to the odd way that Bond incapacitates the bad guy – turning on hot water in the shower? Eh. Surely the water wouldn’t be scalding hot when first turned on as the scene would indicate, aside from the obvious smoke machine that steams bottom of the tub. Kind of primitive. Anyways, Bond and Felix warn the “little fish” to go back to his friends and report what he encountered. The henchmen clearly doesn’t trust that Bond will let him go, and fears he will be shot in the back as he leaves. But he mistook Bond’s “give to it him” to Felix to mean a kill shot instead of returning his weapon. A frustrated Bond then really wants him gone, as his “NOW MOVE!” quote is very loud and a bit jarring.

The entrance to Largo’s Palmyra estate in Thunderball (1965)

At Largo’s Palmyra estate, the “little fish” is quickly interrogated in one of my favorite Largo scenes. Why the henchman actually returns to Largo is a mystery, since his fate seems obvious right from when he arrives. Remind me to never tell my boss I messed up next to an open tank full of sharks, especially when he speaks to them as “friends” and tells them to “gently” chew on their food.

Largo is clearly disappointed in his henchman’s failure and slaps him with an overdubbed towel slap heard ’round the world before any excuses can be made. “You let him get the better of you” and a head shake is all it takes for Largo’s brutes to feed the sharks a human morsel. Largo then oddly kisses his SPECTRE ring afterwards in a force of habit, I guess? Or a show of his dedication to the cause? *shrugs*

The scene ends with a great visual of an underwater perspective of the black-dressed Palmyra henchmen – and then the picture ominously turns a shade of light red. Dead!

The henchman in Thunderball (1965) is shark bait!