On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)  

Review: written 28th August 2007

Girls, Swiss scenery, Diana Rigg, Action - the perfect Bond mix?

There is much to like and much to dislike about this generally underrated flick. Vilified for having the first actor to play Bond who was NOT Sean Connery (and have him be Australian, to boot), this movie was a relatively big success for its time, but remains the black sheep of the Bond movie family. At the very least, it generates polarised opinion.

Plotwise, it stays closer to the Ian Fleming source novel than ever before, and veers away from gadgets and highly stylised sets in favour of trying to progress the characters. However, in doing so it ventures into new territory - Bond in love. How much you accept the movie will likely hinge on how much you buy into this concept, and perhaps in tackling this along with introducing a new actor playing Bond - they bit off a bit more than they could chew ( and all the more kudos to the makers of Casino Royale for essentially achieving the same feat without too much egg on their face).

Let's start off by saying - George Lazenby is by no means the disaster he is often portrayed as. His arrogance in real life helps his on screen character, and physically he certainly moves well, looks the part, and is more believable in the action scenes than any actor to follow (bar Daniel Craig). At the very least, he proved that the character was bigger than the actor, and paved the way for all the other Bonds to follow.

The effect of the casting on the final outcome can not be underestimated - Diana Rigg perfectly cast as Bond's love interest, and Telly Savalas surprisingly and undeniably the best actor to play Blofeld.

Peter Hunt directed with a sure hand, having been editor or second unit director on all the Bond movies to date. However, another love or hate aspect of the film is its style. In the previous outing, Lewis Gilbert directed the fantastic with standard routine direction. Here, Hunt chooses to direct the down to earth, with a surreal touch. Sound effects are exaggerated, visual cues are stylised. This works for the most part, but dates the film somewhat to its '69 / 70 timeframe, when cinema was moving into a period of heightened senses and cinema as symbolism rather than naturalism. That said, there are some of the most striking cinematographic scenes on display - the first use of flashback in a Bond movie (in the window of Bond's office, seeing Tracy dragged away from the avalanche), the spectacular skiing shots, including spectacular aerial shots, arguably the best in the whole series. The only drawback to these scenes are the inserted back projection shots establishing the actors in the frame.

John Barry had arguably his finest score here, aided by the last recorded song from Louis Armstrong, ironically `We have all the time in the world'. The Bond theme is sparingly used, but to all the greater effect when we do hear it. One highlight is the scene in Bonds office as he goes through the items in his desk and we hear the themes from previous movies.

All told, the ingredients are present and correct - Ian Fleming's source novel, John Barry score, beautiful girls, great action scenes and stunts, the best portrayal of Blofeld in the Bond series (just compare to Charles Gray in the next movie if you disagree!), and a capable Bond. It's the new ingredients which will have you choosing to love or hate - Bond gets married, and in particular that downbeat ending.

Like I said, it's a love or hate thing - and maybe this isn't a 5 star classic movie - but I'm giving it a few extra points, because there's just so much that's interesting about it, despite its flaws.

Other James Bond EON films:

•      Doctor No
•      From Russia with love
•      Goldfinger
•      Thunderball
•      You Only Live Twice
•      On her majesty’s secret service
•      Diamonds are forever
•      Live and let die
•      The man with the golden gun
•      The spy who loved me
•      Moonraker
•      For your eyes only
•      Octopussy
•      A view to a kill
•      The living daylights
•      License to kill
•      Goldeneye
•      Tomorrow never dies
•      The world is not enough
•      Die another day
•      Casino Royale
•      Quantum of Solace
•      Skyfall
•      Spectre
•      No time to die