Bill Cummings as Quist in Thunderball (1965)
Vitals
Bill Cummings as Quist, silent yet easily subdued SPECTRE henchman
Nassau, Summer 1965
Film: Thunderball
Release Date: December 29, 1965
Director: Terence Young
Wardrobe Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Background
As summer winds to an unofficial end, I want to continue celebrating some of my favorite warm-weather fashions. During a recent rewatch of Thunderball, I was again struck by how contemporary the men’s summer style remains almost sixty years later, with tropical prints and terry cloth still best-sellers for many modern-day outfitters.
Naturally, Sean Connery’s wardrobe as 007 remains a highlight, but I also delighted in the aloha shirts worn by his allies Q (Desmond Llewelyn) and Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) as well as the beach-wear sported by a character so minor that he’s routinely dismissed not just by the characters, but even the movie itself as Bill Cummings’ performance goes uncredited in the official end credits cast roll.
Quist is the man’s name, mentioned on screen only once by the megalomaniac Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) in an utterance that I had long mistaken for Largo barking out a throat clearance. We first meet Quist as he slumps in a beach chair with a pair of binoculars, fulfilling his unsung duties of surveilling Largo’s glamorous mistress Domino Derval (Claudine Auger). He’s not a very subtle watchdog, with his monitoring methods no more sophisticated than leering at Domino from several yards away.
Bond: Friend of yours?
Domino: He works for my guardian.
Bond: Your guardian has you watched?
Domino: (shrugs) He likes to know where I am.
At some point, Largo must give Quist the order to exterminate Bond, a task that Quist seeks to complete by hiding in the agent’s shower with a gun—or, as Roger Moore’s 007 may have quipped, “a water pistol”. 007 doesn’t even need his silenced Walther PPK to neutralize the threat, instead blasting the shower on the unfortunate Quist and slugging him in the stomach to disarm him.
“Have you seen everything you came to see?” Bond asks. “Go back to your friends and report; tell them the little fish I throw back into the sea,” before asking Leiter to toss Quist’s Beretta back to him. This may be the least seriously that Bond has ever taken one of his nemesis’ henchmen, sending the embarrassed would-be assassin back to his master…
Leiter: Who was he?
Bond: Like I said, a small fish.
While Bond may have been speaking metaphorically about tossing the “small fish” back into the sea, Largo takes the directive far more literally when he actually has Quist tossed into his private pool, where the hapless henchman meets the cruel fate of being gnawed alive by sharks as punishment for his failure, an ignoble but ultimately iconic death.
What’d He Wear?
Quist stands out as the most colorfully dressed on Largo’s henchmen, though this was likely a tactical choice as the rest of the black-clad mooks would stand out a bit too clearly while watching Domino from the beach… not to mention be prone to overheating in the heat-absorbing black clothing.
Though he’s prone to tactical errors, Quist proves to at least be effective in blending in with the touristy beach-goers in his terry-lined cabana shirt, worn both partially buttoned and totally unbuttoned as he slumps in an Adirondack beach chair. His short-sleeved shirt is entirely lined in a white piled terry toweling cotton, indeed the same absorptive cloth used in bath and beach towels to dry skin. The colorful shell is irregularly striped in white, navy, aqua, magenta, green, and rust in a manner that looks haphazardly painted: vertical on the body of the shirt, but horizontal on the sleeves and pockets. The lining extends over the top to present a white terry-lined Lido collar.
Consistent with resort-oriented leisurewear, Quist’s cabana shirt is generously sized as evident by the tops of the set-in sleeves falling off Bill Cummings’ shoulders. The short sleeves extend to Cummings’ elbows, with a short V-shaped vent on each side. Three large white buttons are spaced up the front, from mid-chest to the waist-line, with the lowest button aligned with the top of the non-matched patch pockets positioned over each hip.
What was Quist’s biggest mistake? Not getting the all-black uniform memo or wearing Calico cut pants without giving?
Quist wears pale stone-colored cotton flat-front trousers that, while less relaxed than swimwear, effectively harmonize with his resort-ready shirt while he’s lounging on the beach. The trousers have belt loops that go unused, and the waist closes with an extended button-through tab. In addition to two button-through back pockets, there are two full-top “frogmouth”-style front pockets, a style that was most fashionable through the 1960s and ’70s, as seen on many of Sean Connery’s non-suit trousers through the series.
Look, unless your workday ended with you desperately swimming for your life in a literal shark tank—a valid complain of both Quist and his portrayer, Bill Cummings—I don’t think we can really complain.
The straight-leg trousers are finished with plain-hemmed bottoms, which have a short break that clears the sand as Quist strides off the beach. His shoes are casual sneakers with espadrille-style roped soles and navy canvas uppers, though the uppers have a lace-up design more like sneakers or derbies than the traditional slip-on espadrille. The casual, beachy environment makes it particularly appropriate for Quist to go sockless with these shoes.
Quist may not be the most effective surveillance agent, but at least he’s more subtle than Felix Leiter in his seersucker suit, black tie, and black lace-ups… though both men would end up socked in the gut by James Bond within just a few scenes.
On the beach, Quist wears a plain steel wristwatch with a round yellowed dial on a black strap. Several days later (though I suspect the scene was originally intended to directly follow this one), Quist takes out 007’s shower but has swapped out his watch—likely done to protect it from water damage—for a gold ring on his left middle fingerr.
The Gun
Quist arms himself with a Beretta M1934, the compact semi-automatic pistol that—as its designation implies—was developed in the mid-1930s as the Italian firearms manufacturer Beretta’s response to the Walther PP series, which had impressed the Italian military and was seeking a new service pistol to replace its 9mm Glisenti pistols. Like the PP and PPK series, the blowback-operated M1934 and its subsequent sister model M1935 could fire the more universal .380 ACP and .32 ACP ammunition, respectively.
The Beretta M1934 also has the distinction as the first sidearm carried by the cinematic James Bond, when he handed it over in Dr. No (1962) to be replaced by the supposedly more powerful Walther PPK, though this was a misinterpretation of a similar scene from the novel Doctor No in which 007 had replaced his older .25-caliber Beretta with a .32-caliber Walther PPK; whether it was budget limitations or inattention to firearms, Dr. No instead featured a .380-caliber Beretta M1934 as the pistol to be replaced by the similarly powered .380-caliber Walther PP.
By From Russia With Love, the Bond series was paying slightly more attention to how they were arming their famous secret agent as it was now a .32-caliber Walther PPK that Sean Connery slipped into 007’s shoulder holster. The Beretta M1934 was then reserved specifically for Bond’s enemies, specifically the deadly Count Lippe (Guy Doleman)… and the decidedly less dangerous Quist.
Kudos to Quist for maintaining a grip on his Beretta even after Bond briefly knocks his lights out… thought 007 does seem to then knock it out of his hand with considerable ease.
The “Modello 1934” gained a reputation for reliability though not without some operational concerns, such as the fact that “the hammer remained operable even with the safety engaged, which was a potentially dangerous flaw in an otherwise very good handgun,” according to Martin J. Dougherty in Small Arms Visual Encyclopedia. Additionally, the slide doesn’t remain locked back after the magazine is removed, slowing down the reloading process. Despite these issues, the M1934 remained in Italian service until the 1980s, when it was replaced by the revolutionary Beretta 92F and 92FS series.
How to Get the Look
Bill Cummings as Quist in Thunderball (1965)
Terry-lined cabana shirts are great for comfortably drying off after a day in the water, though poor Quist’s shirt wouldn’t do him much good after it gets soaked first in James Bond’s shower and then again for a decidedly final time when he’s tossed into Emilio Largo’s shark pool.
Of course, that’s assuming George Costanza hasn’t sold your cabana-wear to a secondhand antique boutique…
- Multicolor-striped short-sleeved cabana shirt with white terrycloth collar and lining, three-button front, and patch hip pockets
- Pale stone-colored cotton flat front trousers with belt loops, “frogmouth” full-top front pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Navy canvas rope-soled sneakers
- Gold ring, left middle finger
- Stainless steel wristwatch with round yellowed dial on black leather strap
Do Yourself A Favor And…
Check out the movie.
Footnote
So what do we know about Bill Cummings, besides the fact that the accent for his sole line delivery (“You are going to shoot me in the back!”) doesn’t seem to match the actor’s very English name!
Born either in 1920 or 1928, Cummings was primarily a stunt performer who was paid $450 to jump into Largo’s pool of sharks. His career included stuntwork in nearly all Bond movies from Dr. No through For Your Eyes Only (with the exception of Moonraker) as well as several episodes of The Saint and The Prisoner and high-profile films like Cleopatra (1963), Casino Royale (1967), and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976). According to the James Bond Fandom wiki, Cummings ran a greengrocer’s store in Surrey before his death in February 2002.
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