In 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, the seventh James Bond film referenced a comic strip that may have gotten past some 007 fans.
Toward the end of the movie, Bond (Sean Connery) and Blofeld (Charles Gray) exchange some witticisms. At one point, Bond tells Blofeld he’s holding “all the aces, right down to the Dragon Lady (Jill St. John as Tiffany Case) here.”
The Dragon Lady originated with the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, created by Milton Caniff (1907-1988). Caniff exited the strip late in 1946 when he created Steve Canyon, a character he owned.
At the time Diamonds Are Forever was made, Terry and the Pirates was still being made with other writers and artists. The Dragon Lady remained one of the strip’s most famous characters. Here’s part of the Wikipedia description of The Dragon Lady:
Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring.[1][2] Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna May Wong,[3] the term comes from the female villain in the comic stripTerry and the Pirates.[1][3] It has since been applied to powerful women from certain regions of Asia, as well as a number of Asian and Asian American film actresses. The stereotype has generated a large quantity of sociological literature.
At the time Diamonds Are Forever was released, Terry and the Pirates was in its last years. It would end its run in 1973. With the Bond film, the last drafts of the script were written by Tom Mankiewicz (b. 1942). It’s possible Mankiewicz had read the comic strip. But, at this late date, there’s no way to be sure.
Regardless, the Dragon Lady was a character Diamonds Are Forever references.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Charles Gray, Diamonds Are Forever, Jill St. John, Milton Caniff, Sean Connery, Terry and the Pirates, The Dragon Lady, Tom Mankiewicz |
The Spy Command 
In January 1972, my dad and I got to see DAF in Boston. Dad was a big Terry fan and had often talked about the comic strip, the radio series and especially The Dragon Lady. So when Connery says That Line, we both laughed! Not sure if anyone else in the audience got it. Thanks for mentioning it and Happy New Year!