What is Domino Vitali's Hair Color?
ghggjghf
Posts: 14MI6 Agent
Hi everyone, I'm an anonymous reader of Thunderball and loving it. One thing that's been bugging me is Bond Girl Domino Vitali's hair color, and all I know is the fact in the Brigitte Bardo style. But it doesn't specifically say the color. If anyone knows, please let me know and I would be very grateful.
— J. Alan
Comments
Welcome to AJB @ghggjghf
I always assumed Domino was a blonde for the reason you stated above. Without rereading the novel, I can't give you a specific answer. As a side note, when I subsequently read the Fleming novels, if they've been adapted fairly well, I always picture the man female protagonist how she is in the movie even if Fleming clearly states colour, height, bust size etc. A good example would be Tracy in OHMSS who when I read the book, is always Diana Rigg. Bond, of course, is always me ! 😉😉😉
In chapter 11 we're told that Domino has "a soft, muddled Brigitte Bardot haircut," which indeeds suggest blonde hair, since that was one Bardot's most famous attributes. However, in chapter 18, "Bond could see the yellow single cylinder of the aqualung tank and the glint of a mask with a fan of dark hair streaming out behind. The girl beached herself in the shallows."
Was Fleming unable make up his mind? Incidentally, Domino is pictured with blonde hair on the Penguin covers of Thunderball designed by Richie Fahey.
Incidentally, ch. 11 also contains what might be Fleming's silliest metaphor, when Bond describes Domino as "a beautiful Arab mare who would only allow herself to be ridden by a horseman with steel thighs and velvet hands."
*In chapter 11 we're told that Domino has "a soft, muddled Brigitte Bardot haircut”* - the haircut is the style, lots of people with different hair colours can have the same haircut (style).
*In chapter 18, "Bond could see the yellow single cylinder of the aqualung tank and the glint of a mask with a fan of dark hair streaming out behind. The girl beached herself in the shallows."* This just confirms that Domino has dark hair.
That’s my take on it, anyway.
In the blurb she's described as " the savagely beautiful blonde who is the mistress of SPE CTRE’s sinister ‘Number One’. " but I don't think Fleming wrote that.
Actually, now you mention it, I think Fleming did write his own blurbs…interesting 🤔
Paraphrasing Kingsley Amis (he was talking about TSWLM), Fleming either wrote it or approved it.
It could just have been a mistake. I believe that Mary Goodnight's hair colour changes from dark in OHMSS to blonde in TMWTGG (or vice versa). That was near the end of Fleming's life though so can be forgiven.
Fleming did write the blurbs for the first editions of all but two of the Bond books. However, "the savagely beautiful blonde" is not in his blurb, and might be from a posthumously published edition. Here is Fleming's blurb:
In Thunderball, Ian Fleming presents the blueprint for a monstrous crime that could be just around the corner.
James Bond is in disgrace. His monthly medical report is critical of the high-living that is ruining his health, and M packs him off for a fortnight in a nature-cure clinic to be tuned up to his former pitch of exceptional physical fitness. Furiously, Bond undergoes the shame of the carrot-juice and nut-cutlet regime—and thereby minutely upsets the plans of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., a new adversary, more deadly, more ruthless than even than Smersh.
What is S.P.E.C.T.R.E.? What are its plans? Alas, the organization is all too realistically described, its plans all too contemporary for comfort.
This, the latest James Bond adventure, casts a long and terrible shadow.
Thank you @Revelator for confirming that Fleming didn’t write the published first fiction TB blurb. I think my post at #4 may be the best explanation.