Bond producer's Saltzman & Broccoli had been trying to make On Her Majesty's Secret Service for a number of years. It was initially chosen to follow Goldfinger and then Thunderball but was always delayed for some reason. In the meantime Connery was growing restless. Being James Bond is tough. By the time You Only Live Twice was shooting, Sean Connery was getting tired of the whole affair, everywhere he went, he was hounded by press. There’s the famous story about Connery being followed into a bathroom by a reporter seeking an interview. On top of that, his commitment to the Bond pictures meant turning down lots of other movies. So Connery called it quits (for the moment) leaving producers in the lurch. Today the franchise would probably be rebooted with an all new cast, probably with the promise of getting back to Bond's edgy roots. But in 1969 there was no standard way to handle a situation such as this. At some point the decision was made to simply re-cast Bond and continue the series as if nothing had changed. To this end, producers selected Australian model George Lazenby to play 007 in one of the most unusual films in the Bond series, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
In the two years since You Only Live Twice, Bond has been traveling the world looking for Super-villain Blofeld (Telly Salvalis stepping in for Donald Plesence). One night Bond is on a beach in Portugal, spying on a woman (this is Bond after all) when suddenly she tries to drown herself. He saves her. Later, he saves her again when she intentionally makes a bad bet. Her name is Tracy (Diana Rigg) and she loves danger. Women have always been a bit of an issue In the Bond cannon because they're so disposable. But Bond takes an interest in Tracy, and they fall in love. Not “action movie love” but full on “riding on horseback while Louis Armstrong plays in the background” sort of love and decide to get married. This comes in handy as Tracy’s father is a shipping magnet/criminal who has an idea on where Blofeld might be. So the now betrothed James Bond goes to Switzerland disguised as an expert on family trees and infiltrates Blofelds “allergy treatment clinic.” There are loads of beautiful women and Bond discovers that Blofeld has an evil plot to sterilize English crops and livestock using mind-control. As far as evil plots for Bond to foil go, I doubt the series will ever come up with a more natural threat for Bond to fight against than sterillty even if it isn’t his own.
The film has the potential to be one of the best Bond-films, but it also has a litany of problems. Firstly, Tracy is supposed to be the woman that Bond loves and the pivot of the whole film, but almost as soon as we really start to believe that Bond is really changing, she disappears for a good 40 minutes. She shows up again for the 3rd act and that’s all great, but her absence is felt by the audience, though not by Bond who continues to bed women like it’s 1969 (which, to be fair, it is). Bonds status as a timeless sex symbol is not served by such behavior. It's actually very typical of the Ian Fleming novels where Bond is usually introduced having some sort of interesting personal issue leaving the reader intrigued as to how Bond will deal with it... and then Fleming drops the issue as soon as Bond gets his main mission and never mentions it again (Goldfinger is the best example in which Bond experiences Spy Who Came In From The Cold level angst about his job, barely knows what country he's in and then all that is forgotten as soon as the plot shows up).
Then there’s the way he and Tracy fall in love. Tracy’s father basically offers her to him in exchange for Blofeld’s location. Why does the father do this? Because she’s too wild, “She needs a man to dominate her.” It's irritating because it really is fascinating to see Bond have something of an emotional arc. The idea of an action hero who changes and grows over the course of a series is something Hollywood is just kinda starting to figure out now with it's comic-book films (Spider-Man 2). Seeing a series attempt it in '69 is fascinating, no mater how cringe-inducing it's set-up is.
None of this ambition is helped be Lazenby in the lead. Outside of a commercial, Lazenby had never acted before and it shows. It’s not that Lazenby is bad, but he plays Bond too close to the Cary Grant mold that inspired the film version of the character. Connery arguably did the same thing, but added a blue-collar, rough and tumble twist to the persona. Lazenby plays Bond without such a twist, and since no one can play a better Cary Grant than Cary Grant, Lazenby just comes off as lesser right off the bat. It doesn’t help that longtime Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum writes Lazenby’s Bond as if it where still Connery. He’s still obsessed with the temperature of his Don Peringione and able to tell you exactly where that caviar came from, never mind the continued direct references to the Connery films which do nothing but remind us that Lazenby is decidedly Not-Connery. The film spends so much time trying to convince us that this is the same Bond when it should be selling us on how great this new Bond is, even if he isn't.
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| At least this Bond has real hair. |
Despite these serious issues, Her Majesty is still a very entertaining film. Part of it’s virtues is the direction by Peter Hunt. Hunt had edited all of the previous films and earned his chance to direct. His style can only be described as unique for this genre. It's easily the most visually striking film in the series so far
He brings a dream-like, psychedelic feel to many scenes. Also, he amps up the high-speed editing style used on the previous films. Lots of sped up action and dropped frames during the action scenes. He’s not afraid to sacrifice spacial reasoning for visceral thrill. The result is still a recognizable, mainstream action film, but it does feel as if Hunt had been watching Breathless and The Prisoner (a psychedelic spy show that’s essentially the 60’s version of Lost). Also, whatever Lazenby’s issues are as a dramatic performer, it’s clear that the man is in better fighting shape than Connery was and the film reclaims the brutality that the last two entries lacked. On top of this, there are several very memorable action scenes. The opening fight on the beach is interesting. But there’s also a very extended escape from Blofeld’s compound on ski’s that’s exceptionally done and has been copied again and again (True Lies, Inception, other Bond films).
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| it seriously is. |
It’s a shame that the film was made at this point in the series. To have made this film earlier, with Connery, with that ending, would have represented a huge shift in the series. What we get still suffers from a script that has no understanding of women. It's not the best Bond, but its strong, iconoclastic style, and attempts at greatness force it to rank as the best effort since Goldfinger.
Grade: B
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is currently streaming on Netflix Instant.
Grade: B
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is currently streaming on Netflix Instant.
Previous Bondathon entries:
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
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