On Her Majesty's Secret Service
No, George Lazenby's only Bond would not have been better with Connery
Earlier today, I happened across an article about ex-tennis player Pam Shriver, and how she looks after her ex-husband, George Lazenby. Until today, I wasn’t aware that George has dementia; to be honest, it has reawakened feelings of disappointment that he didn’t get another chance as Bond.
Roger Moore was great, of course, but there is something “take the money and run” about Diamonds Are Forever, if you know what I mean.
Some years ago - I’m guessing in 2012 - my site Cult Britannia featured a look at every Bond movie to date for a feature called Bond at 50. My own entry was dedicated to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a film so significant that it punctuates No Time To Die to the point of distraction.
So, no doubt affected by the interview, I decided to dig out and polish up my appreciation of OHMSS, just for you.
It's blessed with arguably the best theme tune of all Bond movies; one of the finest Bond girls of them all and certainly the best ski sequence, one that has never been bettered.
So why isn't On Her Majesty’s Secret Service given more love? Can it really be down to poor old George Lazenby, or is there something else going on?
Basic criticisms be damned
On the face of things, you can appreciate the basic criticisms: Lazenby and his co-star, Diana Rigg, could have better chemistry; there’s the barmy decision to overdub the star with the voice of George Baker midway through his first film; the overlong sequence in Geneva in which Bond utilises the services of Draco to crane lift a then-state-of-the-art photocopier into the office of Blofeld's solicitor, with the help of a Time Lord.
Yet while detractors focus on these perceived shortcomings (and let's be honest, there isn't single James Bond movie that can be described as perfect, not even Casino Royale) there are a whole load of great aspects to OHMSS that simply cannot be overlooked simply because the film didn't star Sean Connery.
Admittedly the plot is a little flimsy, requiring the audience to suspend disbelief long enough to accept that Blofeld doesn't recognise Bond (despite affectations of homosexuality, a dodgy plummy accent and the addition of a kilt) but this is all incidental; the real story here is that of James' and Tracy's blossoming, but inevitably doomed, relationship.
There isn't a single set piece in the film that doesn't hang on this fact. There might be the odd fascinating oddity around the movie - a younger Inspector Wexford and nubile Joanna Lumley and Catherine Schell (not to mention the hypnosis-and-nerve-gas plot) - but On Her Majesty's Secret Service is intrinsically different to other James Bond adventures.
No, Mr Bond, I expect her to die
Before and since, Bond movies have always been driven by the villain, the quest to defeat (or in some cases unmask) him/her with the ultimate prize being the girl and a suggestive quip. Here On Her Majesty's Secret Service, however, the villain is little more than a plot device, a means to drag the hero away from his icy, haughty potential conquest and get down to some undercover work, make an escape and eventually be reunited.
Of course, the union doesn't last long. There is no double entendre, no witty comeback. As Bond cradles the body of his bride, all he can do is sorrowfully tell the passing motorcycle cop that the "have all the time in the world."
Cue Louis Armstrong.
But to get from A to B - from beginning to end - in a Bond movie that is anything but by the numbers, you need skilful direction and masterful casting. In the case of Rigg and Telly Savalas, this is easily identified. Both dominate the scenes in which they feature, but this is not to Lazenby's disadvantage, as he plays off both of them well.
James Bond might be a serial seducing super spy, but he's not a megalomaniac intent on holding the world to ransom just so he can be pardoned for past crimes. Of course, there are similarities between James and Tracy if you care to look for them, but Bond isn’t a spoiled girl with a car crash of a life. (Although it might be amusing to imagine Tracy on the cover of Hello! magazine in modern times…)
A debut and the lapsed debutante
Put this to one side, however, and the fact is that Lazenby is as good as he needs to be in this movie.
It's his debut as James Bond, after all, and it is a genuine shame that Eon allowed themselves to be pushed into agreeing a one-movie contract (in a moment of notorious agent interference that puts the Premier League to shame) and taking the series in an interesting new direction, rather than the formulaic Connery return that followed. Of course, things might have been very different had a 22 year old actor named Timothy Dalton accepted the role...
Thanks to Peter Hunt's direction, however (or lack of it, if you believe contemporary reports from Lazenby), what occurs is a memorable movie that still looks great many years later, featuring a lead with a hugely impressive physical presence. You truly believe that the new Bond is licenced to kill - with his bare hands.
(In fact, the conversion from Connery to Lazenby in fitness terms is equivalent to the difference in Pierce Brosnan's stature between GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies -- he clearly hit the gym between movies.)
After all, short of the curious car chase and the faked moon-landing gags in Diamonds Are Forever, is there really anything that compares with the awesome escape sequence - that lasts several hours within the time frame of the movie and influenced every snow-bound locale in subsequent outings - or the attack on Blofeld's "Eagle's Nest" mountain hideaway (in reality Piz Gloria, in the Swiss Alps)?
In fact, are these moments bettered in any of the films post-Lazenby?
It stands up to comparisons
I'm not blind - I know there are weaknesses. But these can be found in any James Bond movie, either at a directorial, budgetary or acting level. The filmed backdrops of the Florida hotel in Goldfinger; the obviously-not-steel cables in Moonraker; the dialogue in The Living Daylights.
Blaming these problems on one guy who isn't actually that bad in a film that is a diversion from the established image of 1960s James Bond 43 years later is simply barmy. Licence to Kill is widely regarded as a "poor" Bond movie, but this again attempts to put the hero in an unusual situation, one that promises early on (although sadly not followed through) to take the series in a new direction.
Basically, OHMSS could have been the 1970s equivalent to the 2006 Casino Royale, the start of a hard-edged, more violent and more realistic James Bond that was closer to Ian Fleming's original creation. The fact that On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a film that more than most others mirrors the source material can be no coincidence.
So: don't diss the OHMSS. Spend some time getting to know it again, enjoy the blossoming relationship between James and Tracy, wince at the pointless intro dialogue and have fun spotting future Doctor Who guest actors (Bernard Horsfall, George Baker, Diana Rigg). But most of all, enjoy those skiing action sequences, the car chase and the helicopter assault; the apparent death of Blofeld and his devastating return at the end.
More than most Bond movies, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a genuine classic, and don't let anybody tell you anything different.
Me and George Lazenby
Looking back at this review, and today’s news, I’ve remembered that I’ve always had a soft spot for Lazenby’s Bond.
Perhaps it was the simple fact of his surname. A spit away from where I type this is the village of Lazenby, one of just three possible origins for the surname (ours, near Redcar, is one of two in North Yorkshire, the other being in the vicinity of the market town Northallerton; a third is Lazonby, with that slightly different spelling, in Cumbria).
Now, I’m not saying that George Lazenby’s ancestry dates back to Yorkshire, but let’s face it, he looks like one of us…
What’s coming up?
I don’t like to preview what’s in store for the next edition, as things can change; today’s was supposed to be about an ITV TV show!
Over on the podKast, the time differential between Patreon and Spotify has set us back slightly, so I’ve got a special thing going on there, and upload that has been lost for the past 7 years — our first (and so far, only) live podcast with an audience.
You can check that out later on our Kasterborous podcast Patreon, and of course you can please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.
Catch you next time!
Enjoyed this. There’s so much to appreciate in OHMSS as a film, a Bond film and an adaptation of a novel, and that’s before we get to George, who, quite frankly, does a phenomenal job at 29 of stepping into what were then the world’s biggest and most unfillable shoes.
I believe that the sounds of impact in the fight scenes serve Lazenby badly. There are probably other factors but this is one step away from Batman's "thwack" speech bubbles and is not needed. Laenby was capable of handling the action. Attempts to beef up the fights could be argued to diminish them.