Kiss Kiss Club - Nassau, Thunderball

Bond is escaping from Largo's men in Thunderball after being taken captive at his hotel. After setting fire to a bottle of rum in the car, Bond escapes through the streets of Nassau. After making his way through the crowd at the Jankanoo, Bond arrives at a club, conveniently called Kiss Kiss Club, where he tries to blend in at the dance floor. Before arriving at the club, Bond runs down a regular street in central Nassau. This location was first identified by Thomas Gleitsmann in 2016.

What makes this location possible to identify is a house with five ground floor windows, actually seen in the film. The remains of this house can still be found in Nassau, more accurately in a part of downtown Nassau very close to Bay Street.

The name "Kiss Kiss Club" is a reference to a phrase which had become very famous in the mid 1960's, namely "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" which was popularly symbolising James Bond at the time. The use of the phrase is usually attributed to Italy, but according to sources Ian Fleming had actually used the similar phrase 'bang, bang, kiss, kiss' already in the 1950's.

A fictitious sign with Kiss Kiss Club was put up above the side street.

The street Bond runs down is called East Street and intersects with Bay Street, which is the main street that runs through downtown Nassau. Only about 100 meters south along East Street, you find the remains of the house and a small street going east. This is called Miller's Court and is the location where the sign for the Kiss Kiss Club was put up.

John Barry wrote a song called 'Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' which was supposed to be the main theme for the movie which was later changed for 'Thunderball' by Tom Jones, when the producers felt that the movie title needed to be included in the song's lyrics. But John Barry's song was still recorded and was sung both by Dionne Warwick and Shirley Bassey. The instrumental music of this song is also widely used in the film.

  
In the scene leading up to Kiss Kiss Club, Bond escapes through a crowd on Bay Street. This is actually at the intersection of East Street, so Bond running down the street and arriving at the club is screen accurate.

The location of Kiss Kiss club however, was not filmed close to Bay Street in Nassau but somewhere on a beach in Nassau. There is only one establishing shot of the club in the film and it is obvious that it was not filmed close to where the entrance was filmed. The palm trees and sand indicate that this was shot on some beach, which also was confirmed by Luciana Paluzzi (Fiona Volpe) when we contacted her about the matter.

In the far back a mock-up of the entrance gate has been erected.