On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
The
sixth Bond movie saw a temporary change of leading man, with Sean
Connery (the one true Bond) departing, and odd-Bond-out George
Lazenby making his one and only appearance as 007.
After five gruelling movies in six years, Sean Connery was sick
of playing Bond as the Sixties came to a close, and he clearly
told the series' bosses that he would not return for another
go-round after 1967's You Only Live Twice.
This put the producers in the unenviable position of needing to
replace the man who was largely responsible for making the series
work.
A thorough search ensued, and the result was that Australian
actor Lazenby took the role for On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Actually, "actor" is a serious overstatement, as Lazenby
had worked almost exclusively as a model prior to his break as
Bond.
Lazenby is one of many people's main criticisms of OHMSS,
and for good reason; his lack of experience really shows. Granted,
it would have been hard for any actor to take over the role, but
Lazenby seemed ill-prepared for the role and his weak acting often
hurts the film.
OHMSS is one of the most unusual Bonds of all and
deviates from the standard path in a number of ways. It has an
oddly-paced plot and comes across as three different films in a
way - Each act seems almost unrelated to the others, and this
inconsistency is jarring.
In the first, Bond starts to develop leads to capture personal
enemy Blofeld (here played by Telly Savalas) but he meets and
falls in love with Tracy (Diana Rigg), which takes up much of this
section of the film.
During the second act, Tracy completely vanishes and Bond poses
as genealogist Sir Hillary Bray to infiltrate Blofeld's Swiss
villa, a place stocked with babes who are allegedly getting their
allergies cured!
Not only is Tracy not seen, but Bond - who
apparently made an intense connection with her - does his usual
thing and puts the moves on as many of these women as possible . .
.
The film moves toward its conclusion with Bond's identity
becoming revealed, his escape from Blofeld's lair and his reunion
with Tracy.
But it is the events of the final minutes of the movie that set
it apart from other Bonds. James Bond's marriage (!) and Blofeld's
subsequent murder of his new wife humanise Bond - but is that
really a good thing?.
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