On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) - film review

James Bond is in Europe, pursuing Ernst Blofeld, the infamous head of the crime syndicate SPECTRE, when he becomes distracted by another kind of prey, the beautiful Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo, known as Tracy to her friends.  Tracy’s father is Marc-Ange Draco, the head of Europe’s largest crime consortium.  Draco is concerned over his daughter’s self-destructive tendencies and offers Bond one million pounds if he will marry her.  Whilst pursuing a whirlwind romance with Tracy, Bond continues his investigation into Blofeld’s whereabouts and soon discovers that the arch-criminal is masquerading as an aristocrat, the Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp.   To prove that the title is legitimately his, Blofeld engages the services of the genealogist Sir Hilary Bray.  Posing as Bray, Bond meets Blofeld at a research clinic he has established high up in the Swiss Alps.  Ostensibly, the clinic exists to treat young women with cripppling allergies, but Bond discovers a much darker purpose.  On their return to their own countries, the women will release a bacteriological agent that will render several species of animal and plant sterile, unless the governments of the world accede to Blofeld’s request for an unconditional pardon for his past crimes...

The sixth of the Bond films is the most romantic and sophisticated in the entire series but it is also one of the most divisive.  From the day of its first release, the film has been praised in some quarters and pilloried in others, with equal zeal.  On Her Majesty’s Secret Service certainly had the potential to be the best of the Bond movies.  The screenplay is superbly written, eschewing cheap gimmickry for proper character development; the action sequences are very well realised, exciting and yet entirely realistic, avoiding the superhuman excesses that would become de rigueur in the later Bond films.  Telly Savalas makes a perfect Blofeld, a far more believable villain than the monstrosity portrayed by Donald Pleasence in the preceding film.  Ex-Avenger Diana Rigg is stunning as the female lead, the only Bond Girl in the entire series who looks like a real person instead of a vague male fantasy.  What is there not to like about this film?  Oh, yes, the lead actor...

When Sean Connery gave up the role of 007 to spend more time with his Swiss bank account and less time in the glare of the media, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman clearly didn’t have much of a clue whom to replace him with.  Timothy Dalton was Broccoli’s preference but Dalton, wisely, considered himself too young for the part and turned it down.  Saltzman wanted Roger Moore, but this actor was still under contract to work on the TV series The Saint.  Various other actors were considered, including Jeremy Brett (now known as the definitive TV Sherlock Holmes) and John Richardson.  In the end, the part was given to an unknown Australian model named George Lazenby, whose only previous acting experience was in TV commercials. 

Lazenby’s lack of acting experience proved to be a great handicap and is the one thing (perhaps the only thing) that dents the appeal of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.   And yet Lazenby looks absolutely right for the part and does a great deal to extend the character beyond the limited confines of the previous Bond films.  His Bond is much less self-assured and smug than Connery’s and in some sequences he appears genuinely out of his depth.  Action sequences are far more suspenseful and exciting if the hero himself doubts whether he will succeed, if he can convey genuine fear – Lazenby does just that and probably gives a much more convincing and rounded portrayal of Ian Fleming’s famous creation than Connery did or, for that matter, any of his successors.  The only thing that counts against Lazenby is his lack of confidence, which has been mistaken for lack of charisma and ability.  You only have to watch the actor in the final, devastatingly poignant scene, to realise what a great Bond George Lazenby could have been if his agent hadn’t persuaded him to give up the role after just one film.

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