Bond Revisted

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Bond 6

While on leave, British agent James Bond (George Lazenby) prevents a young woman, Tracy Draco, from committing suicide. Her father is the head of a powerful crime syndicate who is impressed by Bond and wants him to protect his daughter by marrying her. In exchange he offers Bond information which will lead 007 to his arch enemy Ernst Blofeld. At first Bond agrees to the deal purely to fulfil his objective to kill Blofeld but later he grows to love Tracy. When the British learn of Blofeld's plans to destroy mankind with a deadly virus, 007 is torn between his loyalty to his county and his intent to marry Tracy. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Joanna Lumley makes one of her first screen appearances in this movie. Unlike other "Avengers" actors and actresses (Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman), she is the only one to have appeared in a Bond movie before starring in "The Avengers" (1961). The building used for Blofeld's clinic called Piz Gloria, is a restaurant located atop the Schilthorn Mountain in the Bernese Oberlands. The only public access to the restaurant is by cable car (from Murren or Stechelberg). Since George Lazenby was a virtual unknown when he was cast as Bond, initial teaser advertising for the film emphasized the Bond character rather than the actor playing him. Several ads in fact utilized an image of a "faceless" Bond. United Artists would later say that this marketing strategy was a mistake which hurt the film's performance at the box office. In addition to having the longest running length of the Bond series, this movie also has the longest title (5 words, 9 syllables). Just before the opening credits, after Tracy runs away from him, Bond turns to the camera and says, "This never happened to the other fellow," a sly reference to the previous Bond, Sean Connery. It is also the only time Bond breaks the "fourth wall" in the series.

"Orbis non sufficit", is Latin for "the world is not enough". This is the motto of James Bond's family and is mentioned in both Ian Fleming's original novel and this film. It was later used as a Bond movie title in its own right for The World Is Not Enough (1999). As Bond clears out his desk, we see Honey's knife from Dr. No (1962), Grant's garrote/ watch from From Russia with Love (1963), and a re-breather from Thunderball (1965). A bit of the theme music from each movie is played as we see the appropriate item. As Bond passes a janitor in Draco's headquarters, the man can be heard whistling the Goldfinger (1964) theme.

The film performed admirably, outgrossing its nearest competitor almost two to one at the U.S. box office where, according to Variety, it was the most popular film in the country for four solid weeks. It generated enough rentals at the box-office to claim ninth position on the box office chart for the year 1970. The persistent belief that it was a flop arises from its disappointing showing in comparison to the previous three Sean Connery Bond films, all of which made twice as much money.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Played by George Lazenby for the only time.
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Bad guy extraordinary played by Donald Pleasance in an uncanny Telly Savalas impersonation...okay, it was Telly Savalas, just seeing if you were paying attention.
• Tracy Di Vicenzo/Tracy Bond - Diana Rigg, The only woman Bond ever married, unless you count Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice, but as Kissy says, "Remember, you gave false name to priest!" and "This is business!"
• Blofeld's Angels of Death - 12 beautiful girls that were at Blofeld's clinic to have their allergies cured, but Blofeld brainwashes them to release a deadly agent the will devastate the world, that is unless, of course, the world's goverments pay him ONE MILLION DOLLARS...or something like that.

The Theme Song:

John Barry felt it would be difficult to compose a theme song containing the title On Her Majesty's Secret Service unless it was written operatically, in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan; director Peter R. Hunt allowed an instrumental title theme. (Thank goodness) Barry also composed the love song, "We Have All the Time in the World", sung by Louis Armstrong. With lyrics by Burt Bacharach's regular lyricist Hal David, it is heard during the Bond–Tracy courtship montage, bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold law office in Bern, Switzerland. "We Have All the Time in the World" often is mistakenly referred to as the opening credits theme. It was Louis Armstrong's last film performance (he was dying of cancer at the time).

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin DBS — This car is seen in the movie in four scenes: in the pre-credits teaser, outside Bond's hotel, briefly outside a jeweler's shop, and as Bond & Tracy's wedding car. Nothing is known about what kind of gadgets are installed, except for a rifle with a telescopic sight mounted in the glovebox.
• Radioactive Lint — In the beginning of the story, Q is showing M a homing device made of radioactive lint: "When placed in a person's pocket, the anti-personnel and location fix seems fairly obvious." M is more concerned with a location fix of 007. Reportedly, director Peter Hunt had a disdain for the multiple gadgets of previous films, so the creation of the seemingly silly radioactive lint (coupled with a general lack of gadgets in the film otherwise) was seen as his response to this. Ironically, the concept of radioactive lint actually makes it one of the more practical of all James Bond film gadgets.
• Safecracker — A small (for its time) device consisting of a flexible cable ending in a grapple meant to be fitted on a typical safe combination lock. The machine would then examine the lock, figure its combination, and open the safe. Additionally, the safecracker has an integral photocopier, to copy secret documents, and minimize the chance of the owner's learning of the break-in if the documents went missing. It is implied that the device is slow-working, as it takes an entire lunch hour to crack the safe. As demonstrated in the film, the device isn't very practical; aside from its slowness it requires support to transport the large device to the site and again to remove it after the job is done (in this film, a fellow agent passes the device to Bond using a crane from a neighbouring construction site). [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

James Bond driving his Aston Martin DBS on a Portuguese coastal highway. Suddenly, a woman in a red Mercury Cougar convertible roars up behind him and overtakes him. Soon, he comes across the same car parked along the side of the road. Using a telescopic rifle sight, Bond spies her walking into the tall waves of the Atlantic Ocean, appearing utterly lost. Realising she is intending suicide, Bond drives down to the shore, runs into the surf and plucks her from the sea. He brings her back to consciousness and introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond" (simultaneously revealing his face, in the same manner as Sean Connery was revealed in Dr. No). Two men then surprise the pair and separate them — Bond being led away at gunpoint and the woman at knifepoint. In short order, Bond gains the advantage and defeats them — trapping one under a boat, snaring the other in a fishing net. Meanwhile, the woman takes Bond's car, drives it back up to her car, jumps into the Cougar, and speeds away. Bond comments, "This never happened to the other fellow" (the only time the character breaks the fourth wall in the official series, although Connery as Bond does so at the end of the unofficial Bond film, Never Say Never Again), initiating the title credits sequence.

Okay a few thoughts. As a stand alone movie, this is pretty good. The ski scenes were spectacular! A guy, the same guy that filmed the Little Nellie stuff in You Only Live Twice, hung 18 feet below a helicopter in a parachute harness to film this. But as we all now, there is no way this movie will be viewed as a stand alone. So why is it not as well known as some of the preceding Bond films?

Well, to start off with, I think they tried too hard to convince us that everything was okay and that Bond was back. The title sequence used clips from the previous Bond films. There is a scene where Bond goes to his office, sits down, opens up a drawer, and starts pulling out props from the other films (accompanied with musical clues as to which movie the prop was from no less). To me the filmmakers were screaming, “See! He IS Bond! Really, would we lie to you!?”

Then on the other hand, they didn’t try hard enough, deviating from established themes, like the gadgets, the sharp Bond wit, stuff like that. I’m not saying that a less gadget filled movie is bad, just not when you are switching stars and trying to establish the new guy. Another thing is the theme song, with no lyrics it is hrad to associate the song with the movie, and Armstrong's song, though beautiful, doesn't convey "Bond film" to the listener.

Next, Lazenby played a more straight forward Bond, closer to the novels, but the public was used to Connery’s suave flippantness and playful humor. Again, not the fault of the filmmakers, but its still out there. I think if Lazenby was the first Bond, or had made some more Bond movies, he would have settled into the role.

And I think the biggest thing may be a little out there, but Bond defies M, and works outside Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with a bunch of international criminals no less. I know he is in love, but we want to see a secret agent, not a rogue agent. Bond lets it get too personal. The other time he did this, License to Kill, also underperformed. And as for Bond getting married, I think people want their Bond to be the suave, debonair ladies man, not the faithful husband, its part of the aura surrounding the secret agent. If he was married he couldn’t sleep with every girl he meets on a mission, there would be no sexual tension anymore, ot Bond would end up cheating on Tracy. I know, give the guy a break, but this is a fictional story and people want Bond to be a certain way. It was a catch 22 situation for Lazenby, I don't think he could have done anything to overcome the Connery legend, but I do think it helped Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan. Of course, to me, Sean Connery IS Bond!

Next Up: Bond 7, Diamonds Are Forever, Connery is Back!