James Bond filmography that Connery "looks weary and bored ... he is overweight, slow-moving, and doesn't seem to be trying to create a credible character". Despite that, Benson considers that Connery "still radiates more screen presence than Roger Moore or George Lazenby". On the other hand, Pauline Kael said "Connery's James Bond is less lecherous than before and less foppish—and he's better this way". In the early 1980s producer Jack Schwartzman moved ahead with a non-Eon Bond film, following the controversy over the 1961 novel "Thunderball" and the subsequent long legal battle; the result was "Never Say Never Again". Connery accepted an offer
1970s in film around the world (garnering the film high honors at the Cannes Film Festival and several BAFTA Award nominations). Sean Connery returned to the role of James Bond in 1971 in "Diamonds Are Forever" after George Lazenby filled the role in 1969. Roger Moore succeeded Connery in 1973 with an adaptation of Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die" which was the most successful of his Bond films in terms of admissions. "Live and Let Die" was followed by an adaptation of "The Man with the Golden Gun" in 1974, which at the time garnered the lowest box office taking of any