Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by Rowan C — 10 Nov 2011

The highly under-rated Bond film but my favourite.

No one really accepts On Her Majesty's Secret Service because of Connery not being in it. Like Humans do they always prefer the "first" one of anything, and no one liked Bond #2 because Connery was the first, so everyone would compare George Lazenby to Sean. Most people might dislike or hate this one just to fit into the crowd of other haters, because of the bad things they heard about it or just because they will not give George a chance and sit and watch the film with their arms crossed and act like a little kid "I don't like this one".

Sean Connery is a good actor, but his ego would over-take him in this one and he would sound incredibly wooden saying "I love you" to Tracy, but for all we know he could have been good in this but no one knows because he wasn't in it so there is no point making "What-if?" scenarios. George was a incredibly good Bond and even though this is his one film I would have LOVED to have seen him in more and if he was in like seven more up until like For Your Eyes Only or something the audiences would get used to him and love him, but because he was the first replacement no one liked him and also because no one knew who he was unless they watched TV and saw him in adverts. With Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig everyone has gotten used to the changes because they know it will happen and even though they might not happily accept it they will have to.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a great adaption of the book.

OHMSS has a great script.

OHMSS has a wonderful Bond girl. The strict, the secret, spy-like girl Tracy. Bond seems to fall for these ones. Tracy and Vesper are quite simular.

OHMSS might not fully continue from the previous film in continuity terms because Blofeld does not recognise Bond, but remember the remarkable quote "This never happened to the other fella" an no sir it didn't.

"We Have All the Time in the World" is a beautiful and emotional song and when the scene with Bond and Tracy connecting I always feel really moved because Diana Rigg was not only the best choice for Tracy but as the original posters would say about the Bond actor being Bond, Diana IS Tracy.

If you know people who call themselves true Bond fans and they don't like this one, well, they aren't TRUE fans at all. The conclusion of the film is the most emotional scene in any Bond film and Bond fans will never forget the emotional impact.

OHMSS conclsion:

Directing - 10/10.

Script - 10/10.

Production Design - 9/10.

Costumes - 9/10.

Music - 10/10.

Acting - 9/10.

Over-rated or under-rated? - Under-rated.