Plenty O'Toole is Bond's opportunistic would-be girlfriend from the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. She was played by actress Lana Wood.
Film biography
Plenty O'Toole works the casino floor at the Whyte House Hotel, becoming acquainted with seemingly wealthy men hoping to earn a profit for assistance. When her recent target runs out of money, she dismisses his advances and walks away, her attention then being quickly grabbed by James Bond, posing as diamond smuggler Peter Franks. Walking over to him, she introduces herself and offers to help.
- Plenty O'Toole: "Hi, I'm Plenty."
- James Bond: "But of course you are."
- Plenty O'Toole: "Plenty O'Toole."
- James Bond: "Named after your father perhaps? "
- ―Plenty introduces herself to Bond.[src]
Working with Bond, O'Toole initially demonstrates her run of bad luck, losing him money. However she is soon impressed when Bond manages to win back his share, plus more. Overjoyed at being given $5,000 for her help, Plenty continues to latch on to Bond insisting they go for drinks. While seated for dinner Bond and Plenty become better acquainted, Bond still pretending to be Franks. When Plenty notices Bond eyeing up a woman playing a harp she is quick to suppose a retreat so she can thank him properly.
Arriving at Bond's hotel room, Plenty is quick to kiss him. After he unzips her dress she goes bathroom to prepare herself for the evening when she is suddenly manhandled by three thugs anticipating Bond's return.
- "Hey, what the hell is this? A pervert's convention or something?"
- ― Plenty struggles with the thugs.
The three goons throw Plenty, only clad in her panties, out of the hotel window into a swimming pool down below. Bond remarks at their accuracy saying it was an "exceptional shot". One of the men promptly tells Bond that he didn't even know there was a pool down there.
Later that evening, when Bond has fought off the men and begins seducing Tiffany Case, Plenty returns, soaked, with only a towel to protect her modesty. After finding Bond in bed with Tiffany, Plenty rummages through Case's bag where she finds her home address in Vegas.
Plenty, drowned in the pool.
The next morning, Plenty visits Tiffany's home—presumably to confront her rival for Bond's attentions, although her precise motivation is never revealed. Unfortunately for her, she encounters Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, (who think she is Tiffany Case) promptly murder her by drowning her in the swimming pool, either because they mistake her for Tiffany or because they want to silence an inconvenient witness. The discovery of Plenty's body becomes a major factor in winning Tiffany over to Bond's side.
Behind the scenes
Lana Wood was cast as Plenty O'Toole following a suggestion of screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz.[1]
Due to the height difference Lana Wood had to stand on a box for most of her scenes with Sean Connery. This proved problematic for the scene where Bond had to strip Plenty out of her dress and down to her underwear because a body double would not have worked for obvious reasons. Ultimately Wood was given extra high heels to wear in that scene.
While filming the scene of finding Plenty O´Toole drowned in Tiffany's swimming pool, Wood actually had her feet loosely tied to a cement block on the bottom. Film crew members held a rope across the pool for her, with which she could lift her face out of the water to breathe between takes. The pool's sloping bottom made the block slip into deeper water with each take. Eventually, she was submerged but was noticed by on-lookers and rescued before drowning for real. Wood, being a certified diver, took some water but remained calm during the ordeal, although she later admitted to a few "very uncomfortable moments and quite some struggling until they pulled me out."[2]
Gallery
Trivia
- In this film, Plenty O'Toole tries and fails to sleep with James Bond, only to end up losing her clothes and being thrown out a window wearing nothing but her underwear and high heels for her trouble. In real life Lana Wood, who played Plenty, claims to have had an affair with Sean Connery, who played Bond.
- Plenty is the sixth woman that Bond do not succeed to protect from death.