Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter in Thunderball (1965)
Vitals
Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter, CIA agent
Nassau, The Bahamas, Summer 1965
Film: Thunderball
Release Date: December 29, 1965
Director: Terence Young
Wardrobe Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Background
Just as I ended last summer by looking at one of James Bond’s aloha-wearing allies in Thunderball, let’s kick off the first weekend of summer during Thunderball‘s 60th anniversary year with Bond’s “brother from Langley” dripped out for days in the tropics.
Rik Van Nutter became the third actor in as many films to play 007’s CIA pal Felix Leiter. Jack Lord had originated the role in Dr. No, but when asked to return for Goldfinger, he demanded equal billing with Sean Connery and a significantly higher salary—so the avuncular Cec Linder filled in instead.
For the fourth official Bond film, producers Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman selected Thunderball, which—staying faithful to Ian Fleming’s novel—necessitated Felix’s return. At the time, Van Nutter was best known for supporting roles in Italian productions, but after he and his then-wife Anita Ekberg (whose famous “mouth” had already made a cameo in From Russia with Love) dined with Cubby and his wife Dana, Van Nutter was offered the part without so much as an audition.
Although his presence wasn’t as prominent as other characters in Thunderball, Van Nutter’s characterization as Leiter has been celebrated for his easygoing chemistry with Connery and echoing the languid charm described in Fleming’s novels. Despite the positive reception, Van Nutter would join the ranks of Lord and Linder before him as a one-and-done Leiter, replaced by an exasperated Norman Burton for Connery’s final official Bond adventure, Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971.
What’d He Wear?
On his excellent site Bond Suits, Matt Spaiser recently explored the difference in James Bond and Felix Leiter’s clothes by contrasting Sean Connery’s tailoring with Cec Linder in Goldfinger. This dissonance continues with how Bond and Leiter—now portrayed by Rik Van Nutter—dress down for the tropical heat in Thunderball.
While the British MI6 agents Paula (Martine Beswick) and Bond sport tasteful stripes, CIA man Leiter looks every bit the American tourist in his bold sports shirt.
After Leiter is reintroduced in Thunderball wearing a seersucker suit and sunglasses on the beach, his clothing becomes less refined, especially when compared to his English counterpart’s classic casual-wear. Bond presents as the tasteful yin to Leiter’s tackier yang; while Bond steps out in solid-colored linen or classic stripes and gingham with the occasional straw trilby, Leiter wears a bright baseball cap and brashly patterned shirts in the tradition of many American tourists (including yours truly, as my real-life acquaintances can attest!)
Leiter’s Popover Shirts
Both of Leiter’s shirts appear to be popover shirts, a sporty style that blends the structure of a button-up sports shirt with the pullover ease of a polo. Both shirts are short-sleeved, styled with a straight hem (cut with side vents) meant to be worn untucked and a long four-button placket extending down to mid-chest.
Leiter’s first shirt evokes textiles created with the batik method—a centuries-old technique associated with the Indonesian island Java, where it was refined for centuries until the effect was widely appropriated among the increased influence of aloha shirts during the post-World War II era. The complex pattern on Leiter’s shirt combines chartreuse-green and rich blue blocks with black floral outlines and contrasting white spots, all interwoven with lacy, vine-like linework for a patchwork effect of diagonal and curved shapes.
Leiter wears this shirt with a pair of mid-blue swim trunks with a short inseam like Bond’s Jantzens, though a brief continuity error swaps these out for full-length navy trousers.
Later in Thunderball, Leiter wears another green-toned shirt, though in a darker green ground with a tonal cross-hatched geometric print and a large-scaled motif of faded white-stenciled fish all over the shirt, among a scattered field of white specks. Like the other popover shirt, this has a long placket to mid-chest but the top button at the spread collar is placed on such a curve that only a corresponding loop (which isn’t visible, if it’s present at all) would make fastening that top button practical.
Leiter smartly contrasts this shirt with pale stone-colored cotton flat-front trousers, though we see little detail since he spends the entirety of the scene perched on his knees inside a Coast Guard helicopter. Though he was barefoot while piloting his own helicopter with Bond, it’s more likely that he wears shoes for his latter part of their mission.
Leiter’s Accessories
When his missions take him up into a helicopter, Leiter pulls on a plain red cotton canvas baseball cap with a long bill that gives his eyes some shade from the tropical sun. The cap has an adjustable back strap and contrasting white ventilation eyelet in each of the six panels that comprise its soft crown.
“On you, anything looks good,” Leiter reassures Bond as the latter straps on “the kitchen sink” for his dive. Even among Bond gals played by Claudine Auger, Martine Beswick, Luciana Paluzzi, and Molly Peters, you can’t blame ol’ Felix for shooting his shot.
For the initial helicopter scene and the indoor scene as Leiter consults with Pinder (Earl Cameron), Leiter wears an all-gold wristwatch on the inside of his left wrist. By the time he’s back out in the Coast Guard helicopter with Bond, he has changed into a more tool-oriented steel watch—also on the inside of his left wrist.
We don’t see it as clearly as Bond’s Rolex or Breitling, but it follows the design of a contemporary Rolex diver with its stainless 40mm case, black dial, and steel link bracelet. The markings on the bezel (which, upon closer inspection, appears to be a telling blue-and-red “Pepsi” bezel) and the presence of a date window at the 3 o’clock position distinguish it from the Submariner (as a Sub with date complication wouldn’t be introduced until the following year, 1966), so Leiter’s watch is almost certainly a Rolex GMT Master ref. 1675, as identified by Jake’s Rolex World.
Leiter also wears a gold ring with a chunky turquoise stone on his right ring finger.
The Gun
A spiritual continuation of the small-caliber AR-7 survival rifle that Bond constructed in the field two years earlier in From Russia With Love, Felix Leiter keeps another unique firearm in his arsenal with the, well, Unique Combo Model L pistol-carbine.
Produced in the 1960s by the French manufacturer D’Armes Des Pyrenees, the Unique Model L was actually a compact semi-automatic pistol that could be fitted into the intentionally designed walnut stock, functionally converting it into a carbine. The pistol and stock were marketed together as the “Combo Model L,” retailing for between $65 and $80 at the time of production.
Leiter shoots a shark with a single round from his Unique Combo Model L pistol-carbine, causing enough damage to attract the surrounding sharks, thus creating a distraction for Bond to safely dive without being attacked. A larger cartridge would have done more significant damage, as it’s likely the already light .22 LR round lost considerable momentum when it hit the water.
While the Model L was offered in .22 LR, .32 ACP, and .380 ACP, I believe only the 22-caliber Model L was available in the carbine combo configuration. The Model L was produced in both blued steel and aluminum alloy frames, though the weight difference was negligible as Pyrenees marketed both varieties as weighing 21½ ounces. Once the pistol’s 3¼” barrel was removed, the action would seamlessly fit into the 34″-long carbine assembly, extending the barrel to a full 18″ and weighing just over four pounds.
When introduced in the mid-1960s, the pistol-carbine combo retailed for $64.95, plus $11.50 for the detachable Model 4XC scope that was specifically designed to fit the wooden carbine stock.
A Unique Combo Model L pistol-carbine in a similar scoped configuration as Rik Van Nutter uses in Thunderball, albeit with slightly different front sights than the M1 Carbine-style sights on Leiter’s weapon. (Source: Armas de Fuego)
IMFDB identifies that “the barrel and front sight appears to be that of an M1 Carbine and may be a Plainfield or Iver Johnson clone with a pistol grip added to the stock.” While there’s definitely some similarities with the front sight, the presence of both a full stock and pistol grip, the barrel configuration, and the lack of a magazine ahead of the trigger demonstrate that it’s almost certainly not in the M1 Carbine family. The discussion page leads to the far more likely suggestion of the Unique Model L.
Little information is available about the Unique Model L online, but you can find considerable discussion and contemporary advertising in this GunBoards.com forum.
How to Get the Look
Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter in Thunderball (1965)
007’s steadfast CIA ally Felix Leiter follows the American tourist template when dressing for missions in the Bahamas, clad in green tropical-printed popover shirts with red baseball caps and his trusty sports watch.
- Dark-green geometric-print (with white fish stencil-print) short-sleeved popover shirt with cutaway spread collar, four-button placket, and straight hem
- Light stone-colored cotton flat-front trousers
- Red cotton canvas baseball cap with contrasting white ventilation eyelets
- Gold ring with turquoise stone
- Rolex GMT Master ref. 1675 stainless steel watch with 40mm case, blue-and-red “Pepsi” bezel, black dial with 3 o’clock date window, and steel link bracelet
Do Yourself A Favor And…
Check out the movie.
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