Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd
James Bond character
Bruce Glover as Mr. Wint (left) and Putter Smith as Mr. Kidd (right) during filming of Diamonds Are Forever.
First appearanceDiamonds Are Forever (1956 novel)
Last appearanceDiamonds Are Forever (1971 film)
Created byIan Fleming
Portrayed byBruce Glover
(Mr. Wint)
Putter Smith
(Mr. Kidd)
In-universe information
GenderMale (both)
AffiliationThe Spangled Mob (novel)
SPECTRE (film)
ClassificationHenchmen

Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are fictional characters in the James Bond novel and film Diamonds Are Forever.[1] In the novel, Wint and Kidd are members of The Spangled Mob. In the film, it is assumed that they are main villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld's henchmen, though the characters share no scenes with and are not seen taking instructions from Blofeld (or anyone else, except for Bert Saxby). One of their trademarks is trading quips after killing their targets; they also do so after a failed attempt to kill Bond.[2] In the film, Wint is played by Bruce Glover and Kidd by jazz musician Putter Smith in a rare acting role.

In novel

As killers and enforcers to the Spangled Mob, Wint and Kidd are tasked, among other things, to make sure the smuggling of the diamonds and everything connected to it go off without a hitch. If something does go wrong, Wint and Kidd (they are never referred to as "Mr." in the novel) are sent to "persuade" the perpetrators never to make a mistake again. They take sadistic pleasure in killing; this is particularly evident in a scene in which they pour boiling mud over the face of a jockey who they believe has prevented a Mob-owned horse from winning a race.

From

homosexual
, a point emphasized in the film. Wint has a large red wart on one thumb, a detail that allows Leiter to confirm his involvement when Bond mentions it.

In a ghost town outside Las Vegas, the leading gangster,

murder-suicide
. After the killings, Bond considers his relationship with Tiffany and wonders if it will last forever. But he notices the dead eyes of the assassins staring at him. Bond imagines they say "nothing lasts forever, except what you did to me!" — a reference to the book's title.

In film

Mr. Wint and his partner Mr. Kidd are American assassins working for Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray), although are never seen interacting with him. Their assignment is to dismantle Blofeld's diamond smuggling pipeline which, for almost two years, has been diverting diamonds to Blofeld, who is using them to construct a powerful laser satellite. With the satellite almost completed and both CIA and MI6 investigations showing too much interest in Blofeld's activities, the smuggling pipeline must be eliminated to cover Blofeld's trail. Wint and Kidd are sent to kill off anyone who comes into contact with the diamonds after they have done their part in the diamond smuggling operation.[2] They follow the final shipment of diamonds through the pipeline running from South Africa to the United States via the Netherlands. As Mr. Wint says, "Curious how everyone who touches those diamonds seems to die."

The pair takes a sadistic pleasure in their work — for example, to Mr. Wint's amusement when Mr. Kidd photographs the body of the old lady (Mrs. Whistler) they have drowned in the canals of Amsterdam, joking about sending the pictures to the primary-age children to whom she was a school teacher. This is typical of an overtly morbid sense of humour they share, completing each other's sentences as a game and delighting in competing over laboured, blackly humorous puns. Thus an attempt to incinerate James Bond alive in a crematorium is "a glowing tribute" and "heart-warming." They also amuse themselves with the twisted application of proverbs — for example, after blowing up a helicopter in flight Mr. Kidd begins the old quote, "If God had wanted man to fly ..." to which Mr. Wint concludes: "He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd"; and Mr. Wint saying "If at first you don't succeed, Mr. Kidd", followed by Mr. Kidd's reply, "Try, try again, Mr. Wint."

Although working closely as partners, they never address each other by their first names, instead preferring the more courtly and conventional title of courtesy - "mister". It is strongly implied in the film that the two are lovers. They are seen holding hands in one scene; Mr. Wint also has a habit of putting on women's perfume; and at one point, Mr. Kidd remarks that Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) is attractive, "for a lady," after which Mr. Wint looks at him jealously.

The two use numerous and creative methods of killing their targets such as:

Their final attempt to kill Bond and Case takes place on the

Willard Whyte; the meal consists of Oysters Andaluz, shashlik, tidbits, prime rib au jus and Salade Utopia. Dessert is La Bombe
Surprise — in the most literal sense, since it has an actual bomb hidden inside it. However, when Mr. Wint opens the wine bottle and gives Bond the cork to smell, Bond catches the scent of Mr. Wint's cologne, links it to his misadventure in the pipeline and quickly realizes that something is wrong. He comments on the cologne, describing it as "potent" and "strong enough to bury anything" (a reference to being deposited in the Las Vegas pipeline).

After tasting a glass of

tastevin is suspended. During the struggle, Bond first neutralizes Mr. Kidd by splashing Courvoisier
on him and the flaming skewers, setting the assassin on fire. Within seconds, Mr. Kidd is engulfed in flames, and in desperation he jumps overboard into the ocean. Case throws the dessert at Mr. Wint, but she misses and reveals the bomb hidden in the cake.

Inspired, Bond gains the upper hand against Mr. Wint; using the villain's own coat-tails, 007 ties Wint's hands together. Attaching the bomb to his would-be-killer's coat, 007 catapults the villain overboard; the explosion kills Wint just before he hits the water. Looking on from the deck, Bond wryly comments, "Well, he certainly left with his tail between his legs."

Cultural impact

  • These two are parodied as the characters "Mr. Wink" and "Mr. Fibb" in the animated series Codename: Kids Next Door.[3]
  • The pair is parodied in Daniel Waters' Sex and Death 101, which features a lesbian couple named Bambi Wint and Thumper Kidd. The women have the surnames of the male assassins and the first names of Willard Whyte's female bodyguards, and they converse in the same distinctive, polite speech patterns as the henchmen.[4]
  • A London diamond jewellery store, established in 2002, is named Wint & Kidd after the characters.[5]
  • In the
    Broken Steel, a pair of ghouls the player may encounter on a mission are named "Wint" and "Kidd".[6]
  • The 2003 TV series incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise introduces two superpowered criminal mercenaries called Mister Touch and Mister Go, who dialogue in the same way as Wint and Kidd.
  • The DC Animated Universe series Static Shock features two miscreant students, Specs and Trapper, who address each other in the same affected manner used by Wint and Kidd.
  • In the second episode of the first series of The League of Gentlemen, two surveyors arrive in Royston Vasey called Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. The characters use the same genteel speech patterns as Wint and Kidd in Diamonds Are Forever.[7]
  • In the video game Fur Fighters, two Siamese Bears named Mr. Grr and Mr. Arrgh attack the player in a funhouse that gradually laps the player's health due to its hypnotic influence. The funhouse is disabled when the bears are killed.

References

  1. ^ Canby, Vincent (December 18, 1971). "Diamonds Are Forever (1971) A Benign Bond:007 Stars in 'Diamonds Are Forever'". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b "James Bond multimedia | Putter Smith (Mr Kidd)". Jamesbondmm.co.uk. 1941-01-19. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  3. ^ Codename: Kids Next Door (2002) - Trivia - IMDb
  4. ^ "Sex And Death 101 Script - Drew's Script-O-Rama". Script-o-rama.com. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  5. ^ Wint & Kidd Jewellers London Archived 2012-10-11 at the Wayback Machine ("Named after the baddies in Diamonds are Forever")
  6. ^ "Fallout 3 @ GameBanshee". Gamebanshee.com. 2012-01-31. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  7. ^ "'The League of Gentlemen' (1999) — Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2010-04-28.

External links