On Her Majesty's
Secret Service
U.K. / 1969
Directed by Peter Hunt
Starring
George Lazenby
Diana Rigg
Telly Savalas
Color / 142 Minutes / PG
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
MGM Home Entertainment
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Blu-ray edition (Feb. 2013)
Review by
Brian Lindsey
 
7
     8   10 = Highest Rating  
The best of all the James Bond novels written by creator Ian Fleming is brought vividly to the screen in a solid series entry. It features exciting action sequences, great performances by Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas (the best Blofeld of all the actors to play Bond's archenemy), a marvelous John Barry score and a terrific script. Australian George Lazenby, however, just wasn't quite ready to tackle the role of James Bond at the beginning of his acting career. While excellent in the fight scenes (Lazenby is perhaps the best brawler of the five Bond actors), his handling of dialog is another story. Had Connery done this one it would arguably be the best Bond film of all. As it turned out, On Her Majesty's Secret Service would be Lazenby's only outing as 007.
    On a Portuguese beach, James Bond prevents a stranger from committing suicide — a beautiful redhead (Rigg) who tries drowning herself in the surf. Once rescued, Bond is bringing the dazed girl around when they're set upon by armed thugs. 007 thrashes the intruders in a gritty, rough and tumble fight scene that lets the audience know that this Bond doesn't need Q's gadgets to get him out of a jam. The woman, however, escapes without so much as a word of thanks, leaving the mystified, empty-handed Bond (i.e., Lazenby) with only a great quip for comfort: "This never happened to the other fellow."
    More comes to light after the credits sequence, which unwisely incorporates scenes from previous Connery Bond films. Bond meets the mystery woman from the beach at a hotel casino. Her name is Tracy and she's an international jet-set type suffering severe emotional burnout. After blowing a huge wad of dough (which she doesn't have) at baccarat, gentleman James pays her way out of trouble. Tracy cynically offers Bond a night of sexual passion in recompense, to which he's not at all disagreeable. Before hooking up with her, however, 007 is attacked in the hotel by another thug, this time a giant black man with whom Bond has one helluva fight scene — all hand-to-hand combat with meat-slapping foley cranked to maximum. (Lazenby is at his best here.) Finally coldcocking his opponent, Bond proceeds to his rendezvous with Tracy. He senses she's a very troubled young woman. Genuinely touched, Bond offers to help. He doesn't learn much more about her but they do have sex. In the morning Bond discovers that her monetary debt has been repaid to him in full. She's also stolen his Walther PPK. This only intrigues Bond more.
    On his way to a golf outing Bond is kidnapped by even more thugs, this time packing plenty of heat. Instead of a bullet to the back of the skull at some remote location, 007 is driven to a meeting with Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), head of the Union Corse, France's biggest crime syndicate. Draco reveals himself to be Tracy's father. (Yes, he's a gangster, but in the fantasy world of James Bond he's a benevolent one.) Tracy is actually the Comptessa Teresa de Vincenzo, widow of an Italian count who killed himself (and his mistress) behind the wheel of a Masarati. Ever since, Tracy has been on a downward spiral leading to the recent suicide attempt. The thugs who assaulted Bond were Draco's men, "minders" looking after the boss's daughter who were unsure of Bond's intentions. Impressed with Bond's gallantry, Draco makes the secret agent a startling proposition: if he woos and marries Tracy, the syndicate head will pay him a cool million pounds sterling! Bond refuses. He doesn't care that much about money and enjoys "a bachelor's taste for freedom." But Draco has something else to offer more important to Bond than cash: information — specifically, the possible whereabouts of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the evil head of SPECTRE and the world's most wanted man. Bond makes a deal, agreeing to date Tracy as a sort of "therapy" provided Draco can assist in tracking down Blofeld. Before long 007 finds himself falling in love with Tracy, helping her rebound from her life-sapping ennui.
    He's also hot on Blofeld's trail, based on a tip from Draco. Bond does a little breaking and entering at a Swiss law firm, learning from copied documents that his quarry is posing as the Count de Bleauchamp. The "Count" currently resides atop Piz Gloria, a privately owned alp with a secretive allergy research clinic built on its crest. Aside from pursuing scientific discoveries, this mystery man's chief goal in life is to have the legitimacy of his title affirmed. Bond hatches a scheme to penetrate Bleauchamp's aerie posing as a researcher for the London College of Arms, the internationally recognized authority on Europe's royal houses.
    This he does, using one of the lamest plot devices ever foisted on a Bond audience. Since You Only Live Twice was filmed before OHMSS, Bond and Blofeld have already met face to face. (Big mistake.) Apparently, since the characters are played by different actors this time, the two don't immediately recognize each other! Blofeld could have had plastic surgery, of course, but Bond's entire disguise consists of a pair of glasses and a dubbed voice (provided by George Baker, who plays one of the college eggheads). This is totally ridiculous. Fortunately Bond isn't undercover for very long. Blofeld is on to him, but not before he discovers that SPECTRE is once again up to dirty tricks on a global scale. Captured, Bond thankfully loses the dubbed voice as his urbane 'host' spells out his latest plan for worldwide blackmail. Since Blofeld again makes the mistake of not having Bond executed on the spot, our hero escapes from the clinic to make a hair-raising ski run down the slopes of Piz Gloria, hotly pursued by SPECTRE gunmen. Will 007 reach a place of safety to alert the authorities? And what of his blossoming relationship with Tracy... Are there wedding bells in Bond's future?
    Well, yes and yes. Bond's escape from Blofeld's clutches is memorably staged — the initial leg of his flight is the very first ski chase of the 007 series (well-crafted, though hamstrung by Ed Woodian moments of obvious day-for-night filming as well as dated, cheesy bluescreen shots; Barry's pulsing score really helps here). This is followed by one of the loudest fight scenes ever (in a shed full of bells) and an exciting road rally with the implacable Tracy herself behind the wheel. (She proves to be Bond's guardian angel.) Blofeld's plot is foiled, of course, and his mountaintop HQ destroyed when Bond, Draco, and a platoon of Draco's men launch a 'private' commando raid on the clinic. To Bond's chagrin — though not for lack of trying — Blofeld manages to escape once again. And 007, of all people, should remember that one of the letters in the SPECTRE acronym stands for "revenge".
    Most casual Bond fans hold OHMSS in low regard, chiefly because Connery isn't in it. It was a major mistake to film You Only Live Twice beforehand; Connery's shadow haunts this movie at virtually every turn. Lazenby is terrific in the action scenes (if all the Bond actors had to duke it out in the ring I'd put my money on George) but he was simply too inexperienced an actor at the time to carry many of his scenes, particularly the poignant, intimate ones he shares with the marvelous Diana Rigg. It's too bad, too... Lazenby would've fared better in the much more action-oriented Bond films to follow, and Connery could've stepped away from the role on a high note equal to Goldfinger. But it was not to be.

The DVD itself is another winner from MGM. While the video transfer could've used some work and it's disappointing to hear Barry's score in mono, you can expect the usual assortment of terrific extras. The Inside OHMSS making-of documentary is particularly good. The bonus features and snazzy animated menus of the Bond discs are always top-flight. 6/20/01

UPDATE A completely remastered edition — meticulously restored, given a new 5.1 Surround audio mix and featuring additional extras — was released in 2006, but it has since gone OOP. In September 2012 MGM is issuing all the 007 films in a deluxe "Bond 50" anniversary Blu-ray collection. (A stand-alone Blu-ray edition of OHMSS is slated for 2013.)
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