Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by Adam S — 04 Dec 2014

Pratically a seat-warmer waiting for Sean Connery to return, George Lazenby's only outing as 007 James Bond is not a terribly memorable Bond film that has failed to live up to the test of time.

When Bond saves a young woman from drowning, her criminal father offers him a financial reward if he'll agree to romance her. Refusing the offer, Bond agrees to keep dating the girl in exchange for information on Blofeld and SPECTRE. The information allows Bond to pose as a professor and infiltrate a brainwashing facility operated by the criminal mastermind. Suddenly, Bond is caught in a plot of biological warfare, and must fight to arrest Blofeld and put a stop to the nefarious plan.

Lazenby stars for the first time as Bond, and is joined by Diana Rigg in a strong role as Bond girl Tracy. Also appearing are Terry Savalas, Gabrielle Ferzetti and returning cast members Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn. In addition, a young Joanna Lumley appears as one of Blofeld's "Angels of Death".

It has a fun skiing fight scene, but the overall tone of this film is far too campy to be taken seriously anymore. It feels exactly like a product of it's time, and Lazenby's forced acting doesn't help anybody.

Worth watching nowadays only as a curiousity for Bond purists.

6/10.