Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by William C — 14 Jan 2015

George Lazenby's first and final outing as 007 is a fine entry in the series despite the mixed reception it has received among fans and was a much-needed toning down after its predecessor, You Only Live Twice.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service takes the Bond formula and moderates it to fit the needs of a wider audience and subsequently, works pretty well. It's beautifully shot, featuring beautiful cinematography, intriguing locales, and well-done action sequences.

The only problem this movie really has is its most notorious one: Lazenby's portrayal of Bond. While I don't agree that he's as bad as many people claim, he's certainly the worst actor to play Bond (but not by a huge margin).

He's just a bit wooden in his portrayal due to his inexperience as an actor and subsequently tries too hard to mimic Sean Connery (which he doesn't manage to do very well, by the way). Because of this, I never really enjoyed his presence on-screen but I'm sure he would've came into his own as Bond if he had played the character in a few more films.

Although I will say this, it was nice to see a change of pace after Connery's constant misogyny and complete disregard for everyone in five consecutive films, which wore me down quite a bit after a while, and thankfully, that's something Lazenby never tried to duplicate from Connery.

Some people think that this film would have been much better if Connery had stuck around to play Bond, and yes, it probably would've been for the most part; except for the emotional scenes with Teresa, which wouldn't have been at all believable due to Connery's complete and utter emotional detachment with people, especially women.

So long story short, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a fine addition to the franchise and if you're able to overlook Lazenby's weak performance, then you'll surely be able to enjoy what it has to offer.