On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Of all the films in the series, this is probably the most controversial of the lot. Starring Australian George Lazenby, in his one and only Bond film, with the unenviable task on taking on the role after Connery briefly departs, initial audience reactions was muted. Although it raked it plenty at the box office, it was still less than its predecessors, and so it was followed up with Connery being lured back in once more for Diamonds are Forever, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (henceforth OHMSS) was relegated to the back room of the series, an unfortunate blip, best forgotten about.
And yet, this is the film in the series that Christopher Nolan ranks as his favourite (one only needs to look at the snow-bound finale of Inception and compare it to OHMSS to see the inspiration). Putting aside some slightly wooden acting from Lazenby, this easily ranks as one of the best in the series, mixing some of the more flamboyant aspects of Connery's films with a new, more serious tone that isn't a million miles away from Daniel Craig's tenure.
But at the heart of the film, we have to talk about George Lazenby. Post-Bond, he has been very forthright on his experience and in particular the reason why he went for the role (he recalls taking women on dates to see the Connery films and when he saw that they couldn't take their eyes off of Connery, he knew he wanted that role). Lazenby, an Australian male model, who only had some experience in a few advertisements, including one for Fry's chocolate bars, tells the story that he learnt of where the auditions were being held, combined with him knowing who made Connery's suits, and "sweet talked" his way past the receptionist at the auditions. Once in, he says he blagged to the producers about a wealth of acting experience in Europe, before being awarded the role, and confession on day one of shooting that his acting experience is limited to modelling and chocolate bar ads...
I have to couch a lot of what Lazenby says about what happened around his time as Bond as WHEN I MET HIM (NAME DROP AND INSERT PICTURE OF ME LOOKING LIKE A GRINNING IMBECILE) at a showing of OHMSS, the majority of his stories to the audience felt like tall tales, stretched out with fanciful embellishments, and told with winning charm. Nearly every story ended with "So I slept with her."
Lazenby cuts a convincing Bondian figure throughout the movie, certainly appearing more youthful and psychical that Connery did when he left the role. If you can believe it, Lazenby was 29 years old when he took on the role, the youngest of any actor cast as Bond (and more shocking being the same age as your truly - you tell me who looks as if they have lived a rougher life). Some of his line delivery is a little bit stilted and odd (when Bond has to masquerade as a kilt wearing geneologist, Lazenby is dubbed throughout these scenes) and yet his tentativeness lends a certain sense of vulnerability to his Bond that works to the advantage of the film.
The chief reason as to why the film needs a vulnerability is that this is the first time that Bond really falls for anyone, with this anyone being Countessa Teresa "Tracy" Draco, played by national treasure Dame Diana Rigg (probably most famous these days as the queen as snide asides Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones). Tracy is the wild child of a Draco who runs a European crime family. Bond first intervenes in her life in the pre-credits sequence where he prevents her from committing suicide on a beach (again, Bond gets involved in the plot of the film through a serendipitous event). He is then kidnapped by her father, who rather than killing him, requests that he dates and marries her in the hope that a man of his "talents" will be the one thing that could bring a sense of control to her life. Naturally, this being classic Bond, the foundations of the relationship are built on sexism, with Draco promising Bond a ludicrous dowry if he marries her.
Bond at first pushes back against this, but when M refuses to let Bond continue his search for Blofeld, he barters with Draco for information on Blofeld in exchange for dating Tracy. And what does Tracy think about being used as little more than a bartering chip? She's less than impressed to say the least, and in a rare move for the series, we actually get several scenes of protagonist perspective with Tracy, working against her father's manoeuvres, in conversation with her friends.
Naturally, the relationship between Bond and Tracy does blossom from but a means to an end on both their parts into something more genuine. This development is best shown in a true anomaly in the series being a montage of romantic meetings between the pair, set to the tune of Louis Armstrong's "All the Time in the World" (which serves as the theme for the film as the fantastic title sequence is instead backed to orchestral piece).
Here, Lazenby's innocence and slightly stilted line delivery play into making the relationship between him and Tracy more believable, with Tracy being the far more assertive of the pair. Here is not a "Bond girl" but a "Bond woman" who has lived a life past Bond, experienced the highs that he has, and has shown that she is not adverse to using the opposite sex as disposable pleasure in the same way that Bond himself has.
Unfortunately, the middle portion of the film somewhat undermines this relationship, to the point that it becomes entirely background noise for a long time. Draco provides Bond with the details of where he thinks Blofeld is, namely masquerading a member of European royalty, who is seeking to have his lineage confirmed, whilst also running a mountaintop clinic in Switzerland claiming to be working on a cure for allergies. Here, Bond disguises himself as a fusty genealogist there to test Blofeld's claims. He goes on to discover that Blofeld has brainwashed the all female international cohort of patients to deliver a payload of bacteriological warefare agents, that would destroy whole ecosystems unless he is given amnesty for his prior crimes.
The primary problem for this more traditional Bpart of the film and what damage it does to the believability of Bond and Tracy's relationship is that it comes after the "All the Time in the World" montage and involves Bond bedding several of the all-female ward of patients at the clinic. By sequencing the film in this way, it makes what appeared to be a genuine romantic moment for the pair, to instead be Bond just going through the motions.
Additionally, Bond and Blofeld both meet, each keeping up their disguise, and somehow do not immediately recognise each other, with Blofeld waiting a considerable amount of time before calling Bond's bluff and capturing him. Blofeld here is played by Telly Savalas, and like the previous Bond before him has undergone a substantial change not just in appearance but in character. The bald head remains, but gone is the facial scar (you would need to remove that if you want to try and hide the fact that you are a villainous mastermind), and in is a fairly well built, dominating presence, who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in a brawl with Bond, nor attempting to romance Tracy.
And Tracy suddenly crashes back into the plot, after Bond escapes from Blofeld's mountaintop complex, and literally skates right into her on an ice rink, whilst being pursued by goons. Tracy had followed Bond to Switzerland, smitten as she was with him, and now, more or less single handedly assures Bond's escape from the henchmen, proving to be a dab hand at dangerous driving, and also sassy one liners. The escape here is what crystalises the relationship betweeen Bond and Tracy, they both see in each other a kindred spirit in danger.
This extended set piece, along with the final raid on the clinic, is the action highlight of the film - I'm that much of a fan that simply having two figures skiing down a mountain, chased by bad guys with guns, and the Bond theme blaring in the background, is enough to get my pulse racing. The chase ends when Blofeld creates an avalanche that separates Bond from Tracy, the latter of which he naturally kidnaps. Bond likewise, just as naturally, survives the avalanche and teams up with Draco to lay siege to the alpine clinic. Here we also see that Tracy is no damsel in distress, distracting Blofeld, and once the raid begins, getting into a one on one fight with a baddie.
Once the dust settles, and Blofeld is seemingly defeated we end on the wedding of Bond and Tracy. M, Q and Moneypenny are all in attendance, with Moneypenny holding back tears, and waving to a wonderfully timid looking Bond and he makes his way to Tracy waiting in her car to drive happily off into the sunset, discussing a life outside of secret agent espionage, and talking about how many children they will have ...except when they pull over to whisper sweet nothings into each other's ears, only to have Blofeld drive by, with his primary henchwoman Irma Bunt let out a volley of machine gun fire.
An incensed Bond yells that it was Blofeld, only to turn to see that Tracy is dead, having been fatally shot by Bunt (with Irma Bunt able to avoid any form of retribution from Bond whatsoever, never featuring in any of the films past this). A police officer on a bike rolls up, and Lazenby delivers a wonderful final line "It is quite alright really, she's having a rest, we'll be going on soon, no hurry you see, we have all the time in the world." The darkest ending to a Bond film, that even Craig's movies have not yet dared to go to, Lazenby's innocence, coupled with the work put in to making his and Tracy's relationship matter, sells the scene. If you only watch one scene from the film, make it this one.
If you've ever dismissed OHMSS as the black sheep of the Bond family, and never even bothered to watch it, I'd highly recommend it as something ahead of its time. It marries (quite literally) action without a reliance on gadgetry, supported with stylish cinematography, to the first time the Bond series has flitted with emotion, here not even flitting, but doing a deep dive into romance. Oh and it also can double as a Christmas having...
And yet, this is the film in the series that Christopher Nolan ranks as his favourite (one only needs to look at the snow-bound finale of Inception and compare it to OHMSS to see the inspiration). Putting aside some slightly wooden acting from Lazenby, this easily ranks as one of the best in the series, mixing some of the more flamboyant aspects of Connery's films with a new, more serious tone that isn't a million miles away from Daniel Craig's tenure.
But at the heart of the film, we have to talk about George Lazenby. Post-Bond, he has been very forthright on his experience and in particular the reason why he went for the role (he recalls taking women on dates to see the Connery films and when he saw that they couldn't take their eyes off of Connery, he knew he wanted that role). Lazenby, an Australian male model, who only had some experience in a few advertisements, including one for Fry's chocolate bars, tells the story that he learnt of where the auditions were being held, combined with him knowing who made Connery's suits, and "sweet talked" his way past the receptionist at the auditions. Once in, he says he blagged to the producers about a wealth of acting experience in Europe, before being awarded the role, and confession on day one of shooting that his acting experience is limited to modelling and chocolate bar ads...
Lazenby cuts a convincing Bondian figure throughout the movie, certainly appearing more youthful and psychical that Connery did when he left the role. If you can believe it, Lazenby was 29 years old when he took on the role, the youngest of any actor cast as Bond (and more shocking being the same age as your truly - you tell me who looks as if they have lived a rougher life). Some of his line delivery is a little bit stilted and odd (when Bond has to masquerade as a kilt wearing geneologist, Lazenby is dubbed throughout these scenes) and yet his tentativeness lends a certain sense of vulnerability to his Bond that works to the advantage of the film.
Bond at first pushes back against this, but when M refuses to let Bond continue his search for Blofeld, he barters with Draco for information on Blofeld in exchange for dating Tracy. And what does Tracy think about being used as little more than a bartering chip? She's less than impressed to say the least, and in a rare move for the series, we actually get several scenes of protagonist perspective with Tracy, working against her father's manoeuvres, in conversation with her friends.
Naturally, the relationship between Bond and Tracy does blossom from but a means to an end on both their parts into something more genuine. This development is best shown in a true anomaly in the series being a montage of romantic meetings between the pair, set to the tune of Louis Armstrong's "All the Time in the World" (which serves as the theme for the film as the fantastic title sequence is instead backed to orchestral piece).Here, Lazenby's innocence and slightly stilted line delivery play into making the relationship between him and Tracy more believable, with Tracy being the far more assertive of the pair. Here is not a "Bond girl" but a "Bond woman" who has lived a life past Bond, experienced the highs that he has, and has shown that she is not adverse to using the opposite sex as disposable pleasure in the same way that Bond himself has.
Unfortunately, the middle portion of the film somewhat undermines this relationship, to the point that it becomes entirely background noise for a long time. Draco provides Bond with the details of where he thinks Blofeld is, namely masquerading a member of European royalty, who is seeking to have his lineage confirmed, whilst also running a mountaintop clinic in Switzerland claiming to be working on a cure for allergies. Here, Bond disguises himself as a fusty genealogist there to test Blofeld's claims. He goes on to discover that Blofeld has brainwashed the all female international cohort of patients to deliver a payload of bacteriological warefare agents, that would destroy whole ecosystems unless he is given amnesty for his prior crimes.
The primary problem for this more traditional Bpart of the film and what damage it does to the believability of Bond and Tracy's relationship is that it comes after the "All the Time in the World" montage and involves Bond bedding several of the all-female ward of patients at the clinic. By sequencing the film in this way, it makes what appeared to be a genuine romantic moment for the pair, to instead be Bond just going through the motions.
Additionally, Bond and Blofeld both meet, each keeping up their disguise, and somehow do not immediately recognise each other, with Blofeld waiting a considerable amount of time before calling Bond's bluff and capturing him. Blofeld here is played by Telly Savalas, and like the previous Bond before him has undergone a substantial change not just in appearance but in character. The bald head remains, but gone is the facial scar (you would need to remove that if you want to try and hide the fact that you are a villainous mastermind), and in is a fairly well built, dominating presence, who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in a brawl with Bond, nor attempting to romance Tracy.And Tracy suddenly crashes back into the plot, after Bond escapes from Blofeld's mountaintop complex, and literally skates right into her on an ice rink, whilst being pursued by goons. Tracy had followed Bond to Switzerland, smitten as she was with him, and now, more or less single handedly assures Bond's escape from the henchmen, proving to be a dab hand at dangerous driving, and also sassy one liners. The escape here is what crystalises the relationship betweeen Bond and Tracy, they both see in each other a kindred spirit in danger.
This extended set piece, along with the final raid on the clinic, is the action highlight of the film - I'm that much of a fan that simply having two figures skiing down a mountain, chased by bad guys with guns, and the Bond theme blaring in the background, is enough to get my pulse racing. The chase ends when Blofeld creates an avalanche that separates Bond from Tracy, the latter of which he naturally kidnaps. Bond likewise, just as naturally, survives the avalanche and teams up with Draco to lay siege to the alpine clinic. Here we also see that Tracy is no damsel in distress, distracting Blofeld, and once the raid begins, getting into a one on one fight with a baddie.
Once the dust settles, and Blofeld is seemingly defeated we end on the wedding of Bond and Tracy. M, Q and Moneypenny are all in attendance, with Moneypenny holding back tears, and waving to a wonderfully timid looking Bond and he makes his way to Tracy waiting in her car to drive happily off into the sunset, discussing a life outside of secret agent espionage, and talking about how many children they will have ...except when they pull over to whisper sweet nothings into each other's ears, only to have Blofeld drive by, with his primary henchwoman Irma Bunt let out a volley of machine gun fire.
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