In Diamonds Are Forever, this throwaway exchange between Bond, posing as Peter Franks, and one of the goons transporting his “brother’s” corpse to a funeral home neatly captures one of the movie’s biggest character dynamics. Here’s Bond, an elite international secret agent, surrounded by a collection of dimwitted criminals who seem hopelessly outmatched.

Diamonds Are Forever certainly has its highlights, but one of my biggest issues is how little intellectual resistance Bond encounters as he makes his way through Las Vegas. Rather than feeling like a battle of wits, Bond feels much more superior and intimidating than any of the idiots he encounters. The disparity is particularly noticeable because Bond’s opponents are so easily manipulated, and Bond always seems to have a difficult time to relate to anybody in the movie.

Was this really the best collection of characters they could throw at Bond in Diamonds Are Forever? I’d scream if Shady Tree got any more screen time.