Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd

Albert Wint
Charles Kidd
James Bond character

Bruce Glover as Mr. Wint (left) and Putter Smith as Mr. Kidd during filming of Diamonds Are Forever.
Created by Ian Fleming
Portrayed by Bruce Glover
Putter Smith
Information
Gender Male
Affiliation The Spangled Mob (novel)
SPECTRE (film)
Classification Henchmen

W. Winter—known as Wint—and Charles 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 henchmen for the villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, 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 the clean-shaven actor Bruce Glover and Kidd by bespectacled 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 novels) 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 London to New York City it is their job to tail whoever is smuggling the diamonds internationally to ensure that the smuggler does not get any ideas about going into business for himself. For this, the duo pose as American businessmen who call themselves "W. Winter" and "B. Kitteridge". Although they are both hardened assassins, Wint is pathologically afraid of travel. When he must do so, he wears an identifying name tag and a sticker that says "My blood group is F." He also has to be paid a special bonus by his employers. Because of his phobia, Wint picked up the nickname "Windy", although no one would dare call him that to his face. Kidd is nicknamed "Boofy" due to his "pretty-boy" appearance. Felix Leiter suspects that they are both homosexual, a point emphasized in the film. Wint has a large red wart on one thumb, a detail that leads to his being positively identified.

In a ghost town outside Las Vegas, the leading gangster, Seraffimo Spang, penetrates Bond's cover and orders Wint and Kidd to torture Bond to learn his true identity. Wint and Kidd then perform a "Brooklyn stomping," kicking Bond into unconsciousness while wearing football cleats, after which Tiffany Case helps him escape. After they kidnap Tiffany on the Queen Elizabeth, Bond comes to her rescue by climbing down the side of the ship and diving into her cabin via the porthole. They have a fight, and Bond shoots them both. To avoid trouble, he then fakes evidence in the cabin to make it look like a 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 Blofeld. Their assignment is to kill off every link in a Slumber Brothers mobster diamond-smuggling pipeline running from South Africa to the United States via the Netherlands, and to steal the diamonds from the mobsters so as to divert them to Blofeld, who is using them for a laser satellite. The pair takes a sadistic pleasure in their work — for example, to Wint's amusement 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 Kidd begins the old quote, "If God had wanted man to fly ..." to which Wint concludes: "He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd"; and Wint saying "If at first you don't succeed, Mr. Kidd", followed by Kidd's reply, "Try, try again, Mr. Wint."

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 is attractive, "... for a lady".

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 SS Canberra cruise liner after Bond foils Blofeld's plot. They pose as stewards in the couple's suite, serving them a romantic dinner consisting 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 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 cover anything". After tasting a glass of Mouton Rothschild '55, Bond casually remarks that he had expected a claret with such a grand dinner. When Mr. Wint replies that the ship's cellars are unfortunately poorly stocked with clarets, Bond exposes the henchman's ignorance, replying that Mouton Rothschild in fact is a claret, before saying "I've smelt that aftershave before, and both times I've smelt a rat". Realizing Bond has blown their cover, the pair drop the charade and attack him; Kidd ignites the shashlik skewers, aiming to impale Bond, while Wint strangles him with a chain. During the struggle, Bond first neutralizes Kidd by splashing Courvoisier on the flaming skewers, setting him on fire. Within seconds, Kidd is engulfed in flames, and in desperation jumps overboard to his death. Case throws the dessert at Wint, but she misses and this reveals the bomb hidden in the cake. Bond gains the upper hand against Wint, pulling the villain's coat-tails between his legs and tying his hands and the bomb together with them. Bond hoists Wint overboard and the bomb explodes and kills him before he hits the water.

Cultural impact

References

External links

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