On Her Majesty's Secret Service

release year: 1969
genre: James Bond
viewing setting: home Bluray 1/14/19 and 12/10/12 and home DVD 12/4/06 and home laserdisc 12/1/99

synopsis: Bond hunts for SPECTRE #1 man Blofeld, and in the process falls in love with a foreign countess.

impressions: It was okay, but it was a departure from earlier 007 adventures - both because of a new Bond (Lazenby) and because of a different sort of script from Ian Fleming. There was plenty of action, and there were plenty of women. It just didn't resemble the previous Connery Bond films, and that made it stand out as something different than previous Bond films. With careful viewing, though, it does stand on its own merits. Notable: Bond threatens to resign if "M" doesn't let him track Blofeld down; Bond keeps mementos from previous adventures in his desk; Bond wears a kilt as part of his guise; big feast with lots of women flirting with Bond; bad guy falls into snow machine and produces red snow; Bond uses Draco's attack forces when "M" refuses to attack Blofeld; during the final attack, the third man out of the helicopter goes headfirst; Bond gets married; and last but not least, a sad ending.

acting: George Lazenby did a decent enough job as Bond; one wonders how he'd have improved with more movies. Telly Savalas played Blofeld, and this is a head bad guy who actually fights and participates in the chases - at one point, he leads his henchmen in a ski chase of Bond. Diana Rigg made a good companion/love interest for Bond, though her good acting job was helped due to the script, which gave her a lot of screen time. Gabriele Ferzetti was great as Tracy's father, the crime boss Draco.

chase scenes: 1 ski chase, 1 car chase, a second ski chase, 1 bobsled chase

mass fight at end: 3 helicopters full of commandos attack Blofeld's mountain lodge

neat gadgets: not much: a photocopier that also opens safes

confirmed Bond kills: 5

confirmed Bond seductions: 3 (all of them more than once!)

obnoxious female name: none

defining Bond moments:

samples caviar after beating up bad guy in hotel suite
leers at women who walk by
makes himself at home in enemy's office, checks out random Playboy magazine, and steals the centerfold
casually lets swinging door slam back into bad guy
uses exact same pickup lines on different women

quotable:

girl: "Are you here for Christmas?"

Bond: (looking around at all the girls) "Er, well, I might be."

Blofeld: (to Bond, who is getting groped under the table by one of the girls) "Is anything wrong?"

Bond: "Just a slight stiffness coming on."

Blofeld: "Your stiffness of last night - it is gone?"

Bond: (glances at all the women) "For the time being."

Bond: (as he and Tracy drive into the stock car race) "Looks like we've hit the rush hour."

Tracy: (after driving through the stock car race and causing total chaos) "We didn't even stop for the prize."

final word: Different Bond movie in some ways, but actually really good.

back to the main review page