Lauterbrunnen R. Tolkien hiked from Interlaken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley while on a trip to the Continent in 1911. The landscape of the valley later provided the concept and pictorial model for his sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of Rivendell, the dwelling place of Elrond Half-elven and his people. Lauterbrunnen featured in several scenes from the 1969 James Bond film" On Her Majesty's Secret Service", including a car chase in which Bond (played for the only time by George Lazenby) was driven away from henchmen of Ernst Stavro Blofeld by his girlfriend Tracy di Vicenzo in a dramatic pursuit
Diamonds Are Forever (film) by William Shakespeare, using only Scottish actors and in which Connery himself would play the title role. This project was abandoned because Roman Polanski's version of "Macbeth" was already in production. Charles Gray was cast as villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, after playing a Bond ally named Dikko Henderson in "You Only Live Twice" (1967). David Bauer, who plays Morton Slumber, had also previously appeared in that film, uncredited, as an American diplomat. Jazz musician Putter Smith was invited by Harry Saltzman to play Mr. Kidd, after a Thelonious Monk Band show. Musician Paul Williams was originally cast as Mr. Wint.