Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by Alex S — 06 May 2012

This is the bond film that dared to be a bit different (that wasn't Casino Royale). It had some quite interesting moments the woman he's after gets away and he remarks "this never happened to the other fella" implying that the 007 mantle has been passed on to a new agent rather than just a different actor. It's true George... a lot of stuff here never happened to Sean Connery.

Like Casino Royale this film takes bond back to his hardman in a good suit roots, no gadgets, no Lasers, just brawn and brass balls. Yet this is also quite a self referential Bond, the sorting through of his desk finding old gadgets from previous films, the hat trick and the (at times) Connery impersonation.

Where this film really works is that it gives Bond a professional match in Telly Savalas' Blofeld and a romantic match in Diana Riggs Tracy Di Vicenzo a feisty capable woman who is driving instead of Bond and punching out bad guys as well! She is a person who Bond can not only seduce and shag (as standard) but open up to and if only momentarily expose himself emotionally to revealing a depth no one had ever seen.

This films set pieces mostly follow a Winter Olympics motif... even curling gets a look in. and while you cannot watch Spectre operate without thinking about Dr Evil nowadays Blofeld and co are a solidly villainous bunch, none more so than the films bitter tasting final scene (a moment of quiet tragedy spoiled by the bloody Bond theme of all things.).

A lot of what was wrong with Lazenbys tenure was that they had no idea how a bond film was supposed to work without Sean Connery as Bond. This comes across as a mere recasting rather than a full blown regeneration like we see in the Moore/ Brosnan/ Craig Years. Lazenby is never let loose and therefore cannot fully make his mark as 007. Time has certainly been kind to this Bond, the Bond that never returned may better than you think.