Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by Winston J — 19 Sep 2008

Great cast and a great movie. Diana Riggs had just rocketed to fame as Emma Peel on television's "the Avengers". Here in OHMSS she looks absolutely beautiful and very hot. Also in the film was actor Telly Savalas (who would also later conquer the broadcast airwaves in the 70's with the Emmy-award winning detective series called 'Kojak'). I still think Savalas was the best Bloefeld out of all the early Bond films: he was mentally and physically a tough match for Bond.

I thought George Lazenby was an excellent James Bond (critics be damned). I thought it was just unfortunate he had to come after Sean Connery.

Director Peter Hunt was a master in film editing before he took the job of directing his first, and as I recall it his very last, James Bond film. His previous jobs of course were editor for Doctor No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball - all the early great Bond films.

The incredible ski chases shot in On Her Majesty's Secret Service were the first ever for the Bond series, and of course it has been copied and imitated many times over. But none that followed were ever as exciting and breathtaking as the original.

The music for OHMSS had to be music composer John Barry's finest, with songs like the enchanting "Do you Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown," and Lous Armstrong's sweet "We Have All the Time In the World". For the instrumentals you have the great "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" main title theme, and the exciting "Battle of Piz Gloria" theme also among other memorable Barry music.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "From Russia With Love" are my top two favorite Bond films.

******.