Movie Notes: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

November 5th, 2006

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

= 4 stars

Starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg
Directed by Peter R. Hunt

$On Her Majesty\'s Secret Service$

Amazon link

George Lazenby (James Bond)

Diana Rigg (Traci Di Vicenzo)

This James Bond film from 1969 is an odd duck. It has many things going for it, but other things are just wrong, and if the mistakes hadn’t happened, this would have been an awesome Bond film, possibly the best ever.

First the bad:

1. Telly Savalas as Blofeld. Voice too low, too physically husky, it’s more like he’s running a mafia than a world domination plot.

2. The hokey idea of hypnotising beautiful women from around the world and turning them into sleeper agents is just plain nutty, and never comes to fruition.

3. Geroge Lazenby is a wimpy, one-dimensional Bond. He’s got the action chops and semi-Cary Grant looks, but doesn’t have the acting chops or wry sex-appeal of Sean Connery. I’m not surprised Lazenby only played Bond once.

Now the good:

1. The action is stellar. Right from the opening sequence, the pace of the cuts is giddy and almost hyperactive.

2. Diana Rigg (from The Avengers) as Teresa Di Vicenzo is the best Bond woman I’ve seen yet. Smart, sexy, and can hold her own in a car chase or wielding a broken bottle. Her character moves from icy dissatisfaction to someone we genuinely care about. She has the dubious distinction as the only woman to marry James Bond.

3. Bold changes to the Bond formula: No theme song sung by a pop chanteuse. 007 quits the service. Bond gets married. Lastly, the ending is right out of left field and was a total shocker to me.

I can only wonder what On Her Majesty’s Secret Service would have been with Sean Connery as Bond. He would have taken some of the key scenes - where 007 does something more than just kill and seduce - to another level. Playing off of Diana Rigg would easily have made cinematic history.

And if Lazenby really wanted a part, he could have played Blofeld.

IMDB: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Wikipedia: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Rotten Tomatoes: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 86%

Next Bond Movie: Diamonds Are Forever
Previous Bond Movie: You Only Live Twice

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Slammerworm 1 year ago 1 point
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Well yes, we can only wonder how this movie might have turned out had Connery been along for the trip. He wasn't, though, and so we have the movie we have. For my money, Lazenby was fine, just a little stiff, perhaps, but then Roger Moore took a while (too long!) to settle into the role. Had he not been a stereotypically headstrong Aussie Larrikin, Lazenby could have gone on to combine the credible action of Connery with the suave charm of Moore to become THE Bond of the 1970s (of course, there may well have been the same varying quality of script). Anyway, OHMSS is a top three Bond movie, mostly for eschewing the by-then rampant sci-fi/superhero cliches and presenting a streamlined (if a little bit 'Our Man Flint') narrative with the emphasis on character. There is also a stark, visceral grittiness which has more in common with 'Dr No' and the down-to-earth 1970s than the intervening phantastic psychedelic 1960s. Going back to conjecture, it is tempting to see the 1960s Bond movies as a canon unto themselves, with credible 'naivety-to-disillusion' bookending episodes. Connery's subsequent reprisal of the role was a mistake; he was far too old to be a believable Bond. The ensuing Moore movies were an increasingly-cartoonish retreat from 'real' violence and suffered badly in comparison with edgier contemporaries like 'Dirty Harry', 'Mean Streets', 'Scarface' or even TV shows like 'The Sweeney'. OHMSS was an curious one-off, and an excellent, though premature 'farewell' to the 1960s 'superhero' Bond, which posited a tantalising set of indications as to how the franchise could have progressed.

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