During the production of the fifth film, You Only Live Twice (1967), Sean Connery announced he was retiring from the series. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman set about testing dozens of potential replacements (future Bonds Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton were among those considered), and to the world's surprise they cast an Australian former car salesman and male model with no previous acting experience. Lazenby later spoke of how he barreled his way into Saltzman's office and essentially lied his way into the part. He had heard from a former girlfriend and casting agent about the Bond auditions and decided to give himself a Bond makeover. He went to Connery's Savile Row tailor and finagled an actual suit that Connery had ordered but never used. It fit Lazenby perfectly. He went to Connery's barber and asked for a haircut just like James Bond's. He then showed up at Saltzman's office with an invented acting biography and as much Bond "attitude" and body language as he could muster, and successfully landed a series of tests, including a fight test in which he knocked down a stuntman and gave him a bloody nose--only because he hadn't fully learned how to pull his punches. But this impressed Saltzman and Broccoli, who decided their search was over. Lazenby was the new James Bond.
Ian Fleming wrote the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service while the first 007 picture, Dr. No (1962), was being filmed. It was originally intended to be made as the fifth film, following Thunderball (1965), which meant it would have starred Connery. But for various logistical reasons, it was pushed back. The film stays quite faithful to the novel, and both are notable for the inclusion of Bond falling in love and getting married in the course of battling his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In this outing, Blofeld has built a fortress, Piz Gloria, atop a Swiss mountain that doubles as an allergy research institute, but he really uses it as a place to hypnotize young women to later spread deadly bacteria that will cause the destruction of global agriculture and potentially "the human race."
Diana Rigg, riding high from her just-completed run as Emma Peel on television's The Avengers, was cast as the strong, independent, beautiful woman (Tracy di Vicenzo) who captures Bond's heart. Telly Savalas made an entertaining Blofeld, and an international group of actors rounded out the large supporting cast, including Joanna Lumley as one of Blofeld's "angels of death." Before Bond gets engaged to Tracy, he's in many ways the same old Bond, seducing at least two, possibly three or more of the "angels" at Piz Gloria, where he is posing as a genealogist in order to spy on Blofeld.
That's one of the satisfactions of OHMSS: it gives us a new Bond actor but remains true to the old Bond character, even while providing some new character shadings. An early montage of previous Bond-movie props and musical cues cements the idea that this is the same character, and his attitude and ways with action and seduction are on par with what 1969 audiences already knew and loved. But Lazenby also makes this the first genuinely romantic Bond, and even offers moments of vulnerability and fear, traits that humanize and ground the character a bit more than previously seen. Lazenby couldn't match Connery's magnetic charm and superior acting ability, but in truth, he is perfectly fine in the role, especially in the action scenes, and undoubtedly he would have grown even more comfortable and accepted had he done additional Bond films.
But Lazenby was given some poor advice at the time: that Bond was already anachronistic, the series would soon end, and Lazenby could easily command millions from other roles and grow his career. All of that would prove dead wrong. Despite generous offers from Broccoli and Saltzman to continue, Lazenby turned them down, and the producers eventually convinced Connery to return for one more film, Diamonds are Forever (1971). (A decade later Connery would play 007 again in 1983's Never Say Never Again, but that was not part of the official Bond canon.)
As a piece of filmmaking, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a masterpiece. Peter Hunt had edited the first five films and now was handed the reins for his directing debut, and he was up to the task. The film flows magnificently, with breathless action sequences among the best in the series. Practically the entire second half of the film is a continuous piece of action, with one set piece streaming to the next with expert pace and precision. Hunt also blends the romantic, quieter scenes into the story very convincingly. When Bond proposes marriage to Tracy on Christmas Eve (On Her Majesty's Secret Service has its adherents as a "Christmas movie"), it's just after a thrilling ski chase in which one villain is killed by a snow blower, and just before an eye-popping avalanche sequence.
That avalanche, two miles long according to Hunt, was set off manually by bombs from helicopters, an indication of the all-out nature of the production in which no expense was spared. There are also beautiful aerial shots of ski chases and Swiss mountain scenery, making this one of the most physically beautiful Bond movies. Elsewhere, Bond must ski down a mountain on one ski, attempt escape on a high cable-car wire, and lead a thrilling helicopter assault on Piz Gloria. There's also a memorable fight in a bell shop and a famous bobsled chase that are models of action film editing. Hunt provides very satisfying touches to make the film visually coherent, such as filming one section of a car chase with high banks of snow on either side of the road, making it look like a bobrun and foreshadowing the later bobsled chase. John Barry's score is one of his finest, and the title song, heard over a romantic montage, was one of the last recordings made by Louis Armstrong. Ultimately, the high craftsmanship of its moviemaking has enabled On Her Majesty's Secret Service to outlast its unfair initial critical derision, and it remains a gem waiting to be discovered by even more future audiences.
By Jeremy Arnold
