On Her Majesty's Secret Service

"Good morning! My name's Bond, James Bond!"

In 1967, during the production of You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery announced his resignation from role of James Bond and wanted to pursue other acting gigs. During the time of filming in Japan, Connery was constantly followed, stalked and bothered by much of the public and enough was enough. In addition, he also wanted to play roles that had much more character development than 007. These were movies that got more and more fantastical in his mind and the plots became more and more grandiose and unrealistic. To each their own. However, this wasn't going to be the end of James Bond. If Connery wasn't willing to return, the films would go on without him. Who was going to replace the ever successful actor as James Bond?

Early publicity photos for the new 007

Enter George Lazenby. Born in Australia in 1939, George had a some-what rocky carer. He started off as a model, a car salesman, and even did a few commercials. He got the attention of James Bond film producer Albert R. Broccoli after seeing him in a commercial sponsoring Fry's Chocolate Cream Eggs. I have no idea what they are either, but apparently they were popular. George was fit, tall, handsome and just the right build to succeed Sean Connery as the new 007. When Lazenby showed up to audition, he boasted and said that he had many other acting gigs in the past. This, according to Lazenby, was a total lie as he had not one film credit featuring him but he was just young and naive and felt that he knew how to manipulate the big shots in Hollywood and it worked out for him. Upon a screening test, he punched Russian wrestler-turned actor Yuri Borienko and broke his nose!

Notice how Lezenby's name isn't prominently mentioned.

Now, George is not meant to be another 007. The writers and makers of the film wanted the audience to be sure of this. As mentioned before, he was unheard of and they wanted to make him look in every way similar to Connery's Bond as possible. Just in the last picture, the tagline said: "Sean Connery IS James Bond." Now, this statement was most-likely done to assure people that Connery was the true James Bond as there was a rival picture in that same year starring David Niven. But now, since Connery had stepped down as Bond, this was about to change. All of the poster work on the current movie had it simply titled "James Bond 007" in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. There was no mention of who George was. For the past five films, people were used to seeing his predecessor (Connery) and for them to suddenly replace was not fair to them. James Bond is a character and the actor in the role is not what is important.

Now that they had their new 007, the hunt was on for the leading lady. Diana Rigg, famous for her role as Miss Peal in "The Avengers", starred as Teresa de Vincenzo, or Tracey. She is going to be the wife of 007 in the movie and the one that Bond falls in love with. In the past films, James Bond had never had a woman he fell in love with. He either had to use her for information, or maybe had a feeling of emotion towards her for the time of the mission but never afterwards. This time, Bond actually needs her for information and also builds an attraction for her outside of the mission.

The film starts with 007 away from the office and driving around Portugal in his new Aston Martin DBS. Out of nowhere, this red convertible cuts him off the road and speeds off into the horizon. Curious, Bond accelerates and starts to give chase. Once caught up, 007 notices that the car has stopped and the door is open. Pulling up along side, he takes out what looks to be the butt of a gun but then but transforms into a telescope. The woman is headed towards the shore and looks to be continuously walking. It's as if she is attempting to commit suicide. Bond speeds down the street onto the sand and gets out of the car rushing to safe her life. He knocks her out, then after she comes to, he does the classic greeting: "Good morning, My name's Bond! James Bond!" Before she can answer, a group of thugs come up and hold Bond and the girl hostage. As Bond is about to lay down before getting shot, he sneaks over and lands a punch on the aggressor. Lazenby is full of rage and anger and is far more physical and unstable than most of the times we see Connery. Mind you, as stated before, Lazenby is only 29 years old and has had no prior acting experience so he is essentially being himself.

Once 007 defeats the three killers, he notices that the women has escaped and drove off in her car. Looking towards her, Bond stops to look at the audience breaking the forth wall saying, "This never happened to the other fellow." The "other fellow" being of course Sean Connery. 


 


The film opens with 007 at a place of his calling, a casino. When playing a game of chemin de fir, the same woman pops up that he noticed earlier at the beach. She throws a hand and loses. Unable to pay up for her loss, Bond jumps in and says, "Forgive me, my mind was elsewhere." He pays off the dealer and goes off to grab a wine with the girl. She reveals herself to be Teresa de Vincenzo. Already using his charm. Tracey says, "Why do you insist on rescuing me, Mr. Bond?"  

Blofeld as played this time by Telly Savalas

Then, after a night of the usual fling fling, Bond wakes up by himself in his bed. Hmm...this is odd for 007. Usually he's the one that leaves the girl behind, but not this time. A group of thugs enter the hotel as Bond is about to go golfing and take him to an unknown location outside of the city. Quickly disarming his captors, and even taking a knife from one of them, Bond locks himself in a room while the three thugs start banging on the door. Upon turning around, there's a man in what appears to be quite a fancy office at a desk. Bond throws the weapon right behind the man hitting the date on a wall calendar. "But today's the thirteenth", the man states. "I'm superstitious", Bond quips in return. The man reveals himself to be Draco; a crime boss in the city and who has all ties with the underworld of crime. He's not a bad person, per say, but he does know a lot of things about SPECTRE, the organization run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond's #1 enemy. Tracey is Draco's daughter, thus the reason for the thugs bringing 007 over to his office. They were not there to kill Bond, but simply there to ensure the safety of his daughter.

Tracey is an unstable and spoiled brat according to Draco. She needs a "man to control and dominate her." To this, James Bond tells her that what he is looking for is not for him. He's an agent working for the good of England and is not looking for love nor to marry, especially for crime lord. When Bond asks if Draco has any leads he says that he won't tell the British government but he might tell his future son in law. The things he does for England.

Bond Girl Diana Rigg and Lazenby taking a break during filming

When James reports to M that he has discovered the location of Blofeld, M tells him that he has been relieved of the mission and that he needs to get on other duties. In order to disguise himself as a member of the Code of Arms, James Bond takes on the identity of Sir Hillary Bray. Blofeld is in the Swiss Alps posing as Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp and it is up to Bond to find out just what he is doing. This movie really gives a great taste of 007 doing some real spying and throughout most of the middle of the film, he puts on an accent to disguise himself. There is a wonderful areal view of the Swiss Alps in this movie and the scenes used during the arrival in helicopter are quite amazing!

The rest of the film is one fun ride after the other and there is a twist at the end that marks this one of the most important stories in the history of 007.

While the film was well underway, George and Diana Rigg had a liking to each other and even started dating. Things were going well for the inexperienced actor. He was James Bond, had one of the most sought after women on British television and now was the household name. His agent, however, felt that the James Bond series was a thing of the past and that no one would want to see movies dealing with spies anymore. He couldn't be any more wrong. In any even, Lazenby took his advice and stepped down from the role. He was also having problems with the story and didn't agree with the director or writers at times. He felt he wasn't being heard and wanted to bring his two cents in. The crew had some things to say in response to his behavior during production. Diana Rigg: "The role made Sean Connery a millionaire. It made Sean Connery ... I truly don't know what's happening in George's mind so I can only speak of my reaction. I think it's a pretty foolish move. I think if he can bear to do an apprenticeship, which everybody in this business has to do – has to do – then he should do it quietly and with humility. Everybody has to do it. There are few instant successes in the film business. And the instant successes one usually associates with somebody who is willing to learn anyway."

I'm sure George wishes he didn't make that decision but I guess it was for the best. At least he did one movie.

The movie didn't make as much as expected due to it not starring Connery, but it did make a fair profit. George did show up at the premiere, but he came with long hair and a beard so that he could further dissociate himself with the James Bond character. George's career was poor after this movie and he did performances here and there where he would play spoofs of 007 but nothing compared to his stance as James Bond.

In conclusion, I wouldn't call this my favorite James Bond movie, but it is certainly one that I would highly recommend for all to see at least once. It gives you a different perspective of the character and even though he's not Sean Connery, the love story in this movie works because Connery's Bond isn't one you could see actually falling in love with a character, maybe except for the end of Never Say Never Again. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you check out this underrated film! 

In 1971, United Artists lured Sean Connery back for one more film and thus Diamonds Are Forever was done. The first James Bond movie to enter the 70s. Since Lazenby had already departed, Albert. R. Broccoli was going to continue the legacy left by George and what better way to bank on a movie than to grab back a star-albeit reluctant-that made the series famous. A fun fact, the only way UA was to get back Connery, was if they paid him a sum of, what was then unheard of at the time for an actor, 1.5 million dollars in which he used to donate to the Scottish Educational Trust.  

SOUNDTRACK:

This is the only James Bond movie not to have a singer for the vocal main theme for the picture. John Barry did the orchestrations as usual, however the producers felt a title called "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" would be too long and decided to just use an instrumental them song, which I feel is quite brilliant. It's a whole new theme and not a Bond theme. This song plays during the opening credits of the film.

For the secondary song, "We Have All The Time In The World" Louie Armstrong did the vocals that was used to capture the bonding with 007 and Tracey. This was to be his final performance before his death in 1973. It's not my favorite theme, but it can get quite catchy. Again, the music used here does not associate itself with Sean Connery. There is no electric guitar theme used by Vic Flick, except for the end of the film during a highly climactic battle. 

Sources:

Movie Logo: http://www.fanart.tv

Poster: http://www.impawards.com 

Image of Louis Armstrong: http://www.lossofsoul.com 

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