James Bond Thunderball risked ‘sex and sadism’ X-rating

Trailer for 1965 James Bond classic Thunderball

Thunderball was a massive box office success but risked disaster when The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) listed 30 complaints.

Previous films like Goldfinger a nd Dr No had been classified ‘A’, meaning children had to be accompanied by an adult.

The Bahamas-based romp was almost given a box-office-destroying restricted ‘X’ rating.

The censors said: “This screenplay has been deliberately hotted up with a view to its including more sex, sadism and violence than the previous Bond pictures.”

Meanwhile, Sean Connery had plenty else to worry about following a near-death experience when a stunt when wrong.

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The main complaints centred on the ‘nurse’ scene starring Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing.

She asks OO7 to take off his bathrobe so she can examine his injuries, and he soon aggressively grabs and kisses her.

Furious, she straps him into a motorised traction table for stretching the spine but an enemy comes in and turns the speed up to dangerous levels. When Molly’s timely return saves the day, she still worries she coudl lose her job and Bond smirks “I suppose my silence could have a price.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tbZGN1WQ_Ms

From a modern viewpoint, the shock is that blackmailed sex was not the issue with censors but rather that it was not clear enough that Bond was wearing shorts in the steam room.

They also objected to her stroking him with mink gloves “which have a strong sexual connotation” and felt that Bond’s usual droll comments about killing villains were “overdone”, “calllous” or added “to the sadism”.

The censor warned the producers: “I know that you would be reluctant, as I would, to have this picture in the ‘X’ category, but I must warn you that this might well be our decision unless certain scenes are substantially modified.”

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Connery, meanwhile was fighting his own battles over one iconic scene. His first reaction on reading the script had been “not bloody likely.”

When 007 breaks back into Villain Emilio Largo’s compound at night, he falls into the pool fighting with a henchman. A hatch lifts and sharks pour in.

Connery only agreed to go ahead if perspex dividers were installed a dead ‘stunt shark’ was used for close-ups. Both measures dramatically failed on the night.

Production designer Ken Adam later confessed: “What I didn’t tell Sean was that I could only get so much Plexiglass.” There was, in fact, still a gap left.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KyDGRZE6Jp0

The stunt shark also turned out to still be alive and Connery suddenly realised the deadly predator was closing in. The actor swam frantically to the edge of the pool and hurled himself out.

Special effects coordinator John Stears later described how the injured creature had begun to thrash, attracting the live ones on the other side of the supposedly protective glass, who found the gaps to get through.

A horrifying feeding frenzy erupted, as Stears screamed, “Get me out of here!”

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