On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The Mission
James Bond (George Lazenby) has been searching for Blofeld (Telly Savalas) for over two years now, much to M's annoyance. His investigation lead him to Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), the head of a European crime syndicate, who strikes a deal with Bond - marry his daughter Tracy (Dianna Rigg) and he will give him a lead to find Blofeld. Bond takes leave from MI6 and disguises himself as a genealogy expert in order to infiltrate Blofeld's hideaway in the Swiss Alps; a research institute where the criminal mastermind is working on a plan to destroy the world's economy via bacteriological attacks on the agricultural industry.

Jimmy Bond Yo!
The Bond franchise continues without Connery! On Her Majesty's Secret Service largely downplays the lack of Connery but also can't resist playing with the audience's curiosity by introducing Bond via enigmatic extreme closeups (EG. A cigarette in a mouth) and showing him in silhouette. This is topped off by a cheeky wink at the audience, with George Lazenby remarking (in the context of the film) "This never happened to the other fellow".

It's apparently still meant to be the same character as opposed to two different men sharing the same codename (though this is a bit confusing given some continuity issues, such as Blofeld not recognising Bond). So Lazenby's Bond is more or less written the same as Connery's, though I'm not so sure the wry Connery-esque sense of humour still works coming from Lazenby. He has no qualms about using force on women - he slaps Tracy and twists her arm rather casually, though without Connery's self-assurance it comes off as a little sinister and unneccessary.

Lazenby's Bond has a slight Australian accent and reference is made to his rank as Commander. His obsession with getting Blofeld prompts him to threaten resignation when M tells him to abandon his search. He's generally more genial and easygoing than Connery, and the character now seems to have a penchant for more outgoing costumes (he is seen wearing both frills and full Scottish regalia at different points of the film).

The motto of the Bond coat of arms is "the world is not enough". He's still quite the ladykilelr - ladies flock to him even when he's disguised as an embarrassed and near-virginal academic. He wears nothing under his kilt and still has a taste for the finer things (he drinks Dom Perignon and can recognise perfumes by their scent). He can also ski and pilot a luge, and smirks lewdly whilst reading Playboy. And even though said Playboy belongs to someone else he still pulls the centrefold out to keep in his pocket.

His courtship of Tracy involves lazy walks through gardens and boutique shopping. He genuinely scared when unarmed and trying to escape from Blofeld's henchmen in a Swiss village, perhaps because he now has something to lose (Tracy). He goes into shock when she is shot dead almost immediately after their wedding.


Villainy
Blofeld has now relocated to the Swiss Alps, posing as Count Blochamps, a member of the European artistocracy. He's now played by Telly Savalas, and both his duelling scar and the light, slightly effete voice are gone. In fact, the only similarities with the character as played by Donald Pleasance are the nehru collar, lack of hair and fluffy white cat. Savalas plays Blofeld as a more regular Bond villain - charming, personable, cocky and even a little bit sleazy. It's pretty much a retread of Largo from Thunderball.

Blofeld is also a lot more hands-on this time around (more than any other Bond mastervillain featured in the franchise so far). His plans actually involve his own scientific expertise, and he's seen working as a scientist. He also actually accompanies his men as they chase Bond through the Alps on skis. Savalas' deep, velvety voice (whilst miles away from Pleasance) lends itself quite well to the brainwashing aspect of the plot.

His chief sidekick is Irma Bunt (Isle Steppat), a severe and loyal German woman very much in the mould of Number 3 of From Russia With Love.

Buddies and Babes
Bond's main offsider in this caper is Draco, a Corsican mafia leader who becomes an unlikely ally due to Bond's dealings with his daughter, Tracy. The relationship between Bond and Draco veers from slightly antagonistic to that of friendly colleagues.

Tracy is the typical feisty Bond badgirl. She tries to kill herself early on in the film, and seems to always have thugs hanging around trying to kill both her and Bond. Neither of these things are really explained, Draco simply says that she's needs to be 'tamed' by a strong man like James Bond. She resists Bond's charms and later falls in love with him despite herself.

M (Bernard Lee) gives Bond two weeks leave in response to Bond's attempt to resign, apparently on Moneypenny's advice. He practices lepidoptery as a hobby and has quite an expensive-looking mansion. Moneypenny is wistful and teary at Bond's wedding.

Bond is also asssisted by Campbell (Bernard Horsfall) at a few points throughout the film whilst apparently on leave from MI6. It's not really explained how or why this guy is helping him (Bond is supposed to be on leave, after all). They never actually speak to each other and the audience assumes that he's another MI6 agent.

Locations
Some of the earlier scenes (the casino, the bullfight) take place in Portugal, where Bond meets Tracy and Draco. The bulk of the film takes place in the Swiss Alps, with perhaps the most breathtaking location work in the series yet. Our Swiss Bond tour includes curling, skiing, the luge, iceskating, and a rather devastating avalanche.

Gadgets and Tricks of the Trade
For once, there isn't really any gadgetry. Q pioneers some radioactive lint but doesn't get a chance to rendezvous with Bond at any point during the course of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Quite how this lint would be used isn't really specified.

Bond has a watch with a throttle wire hidden in it, but doesn't get a chance to use it. He does however use a compact camera to take some surveillance photos in Blofeld's lair, and organises for a construction crane to deliver some complicated and heavy safecracking equipment to a Swiss office that he breaks into.

Bond disguises himself as a nerdy genealogy expert by wearing glasses and a hat. He also employs an upper-class British accent, achieved by Lazenby through the effective art of dubbing.

Licence to Kill
Our man drowns a would-be killer on the beach in the pre-titles sequence, and then doesn't kill anyone else for the next 100 minutes or so, which must be some kind of record for 007. He trips one of Blofeld's men over a cliff edge, and kills another by choking him with a sky before kicking him off the same cliff. He shoots at least another two men with a machine gun at the climactic battle in Blofeld's base.

Shag-Rate
Bond presumably shags Tracy during their courtship, though no sex scenes are alluded to until after they reunite in the Alps and cosy up in a barn for the night (where Bond proposes to her). Whilst posing as the awkward Sir Hillary Bray, he's 'seduced' by two of the 'Angels of Death' at the Blochamps Institute. He's saved from shagging them again (plus one other) when Irma Bunt rumbles his shag schedule the following night.

Quotes
JAMES BOND (after knocking an assassin out): Gatecrasher... I've leave you to tidy up.

TRACY: Suppose I want to kill you for a thrill.
JAMES BOND: I can think of something a lot more sociable we could do.

DRACO (talking about his daughter!): What she needs is a man to dominate her. To make love to her enough to make him love her.

JAMES BOND (after Draco offers him money to marry his daughter): That's quite an inducement, but I don't need a million dollars. I have a bachelor's taste for freedom.

DRACO: She likes you, I can see it.
JAMES BOND: You must give me the name of your occulist.

IRMA BUNT (as one of the 'Angels' covertly sticks her hand up under Bond's kilt): Is anything matter?
JAMES BOND: Just a slight stiffness coming on... in the shoulder.

JAMES BOND (after a man falls into a snow thresher and gets chewed up in a rather gory fashion): He had a lot of guts.

How Does It Rate?
Quite easily one of the highlights of the Bond franchise, it's just a shame that Connery didn't stay on for it as the tragic game-changing ending would've been a lot more effective combined with Connery's history with the role. Lazenby isn't bad by any stretch, he had a very hard job in trying to replace and emulate Connery's portrayal of the character, and I think he actually manages the best job possible. By the time Roger Moore took over as James Bond the audience had already accepted that other actors could play the character thanks to Lazenby's turn in the role... and so Moore had a chance to make the character his own. Lazenby was stuck with the bum deal of being the first one who isn't Sean Connery, whereas Moore just gets to be the new James Bond. It's ironic that when Pierce Brosnan was being replaced in the 2000s that a lot of fans suggested Clive Owen should be next - I think Lazenby actually comes across as very similar to how Owen probably would've played it, and there's also a slight physical resemblance between the two.

The action and direction is the best the series has seen up until this point, with some brilliant touches such as the flashback sequence played out on the panes of a window as Bond looks out in worry. It calls to mind the impressive titles sequences the franchise has been running since From Russia With Love, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service finally delivers on their promise of dynamic action filmmaking.

It also helps that (unlike the previous Bond film, You Only Live Twice) that this film plays very closely to the novel it's based on, and it comes across as a more authentic film and less like a shopping list of what would be good for the franchise. I'm a little confused though as to why Blofeld had to be played by someone else, plenty has been said about why Connery moved on but I haven't yet come across anything about Pleasance not reprising his role as Blofeld. It also doesn't help that Blofeld doesn't recognise Bond when they'd already met in the previous film. Most of the audience at the time must've been thinking, "That's okay Blofeld, we don't recognise him either!" These continuity errors are superfluous though, they don't say anything about the quality of the film - which is high and tight. It's easily the best Bond of the 60s (closely followed by From Russia With Love).

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DIRECTOR: Peter R. Hunt
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Richard Maibaum, with some input from Simon Raven. Based on the novel by Ian Fleming.
KEY ACTORS: George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ilse Steppat, George Baker, Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Catherine Schell, Bernard Horsfall, Joanna Lumley

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the 11th James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
- Goldfinger also features some sequences set in the Swiss Alps.
- The villain Blofeld (played by a different actor each time) is also featured as the mastervillain in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.
- George Lazenby only played James Bond in this film, the rest of his career was fairly uneventful, though he did make a hong kong ozploitation action film called The Man From Hong Kong.
- The snowbound skiing action sequences (and the general tone) of On Her Majesty's Secret Service inspired similar sequences in Inception.

AWARDS
Golden Globes - nomination Most Promising Newcomer (George Lazenby)