40th Anniversary of the US Release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the US release of my favorite James Bond movie, & also the 1 with the longest name, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (OHMSS) The movie was the only 1 to star George Lazenby. It is also the 1 that adhere's most closely to the Ian Fleming novel.

OHMSS has an interesting & contoversial history. While filming You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery announced he was stepping down as Bond. This began another tradition that is as much a part of the Bond world as the gadgets etc in the movie. I am talking about the search & speculation about who would take over the role. Recently, Life.com released some previously unseen pictures of that search. It is interesting to see what might have been. (UNPUBLISHED: James Bond Auditions, LIFE.com’s unseen James Bond auditions photographs) Another interesting fact is that 2 future Bonds were among those considered, Timothy Dalton & Roger Moore.

& while many people were not happy with the choice of Lazenby (a reaction echoed by the choice of Daniel Craig to play the latest incarnation), I think that he was a good choice. Unfortunately (& to his regret) Lazenby let the complaints get to him, & following some bad advise from his agent. He decided not to sign a contract for 7 additional pictures that he was offered. I highly doubt that Broccoli & Salzman would have been foolish to risk the francise on a bad actor. They saw that he had the talent & would grow with his subsequent portraylas of Bond. I wish he had because I think he would have grown in the role. I also think that the following Bonds wouldn't have headed in the direction they did.

As I said, this movie stuck the closest to the plot of any Bond film, & that created 1 of the few weaknesses in the film. You Only Live Twice was written as the sequel to OHMSS. But it was filmed before OHMSS. Since Bond had already met Blofeld in that movie, the fact that he wasn't recognized in this 1 by Blofeld hurts the plot. Diamonds Are Forever should have been filmed as the 5th Bond, saving YOLT for the followup to OHMSS. because of the way they were filmed YOLT jettisoned what was the main them of the book, Bond's revenge. & Diamonds are Forever would have worked better without a poor version of that theme added in.

As I said before, the casting of Lazenby works well for me. As did most of the other cast beyond the regulars. Diana Rigg became the 2nd star of The Avengers to appear in a Bond movie. Interestingly enough, this movie also featured a future Avengers star, Joanna Lumley, had a small part as 1 of the girls who Blofeld was using to forward his plot. She did an excellent job of playing Tracy (Countessa Tracy di Vicenzo) the woman who's life Bond saves & eventually marries. Ilse Steppat was perfect as Irma Bunt. Telly Savalis was a little disconcerting at 1st considering the roles he was best known for. But he does an an air of confidence to Blofeld as well as a cultured side that makes him all the more dangerous in the end.

Bernard Lee as M, Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny & Desmond Llewellyn as Q all return. The movie doesn't have the usual huge number of gadgets. In fact it only has 1 that Bond actually uses & it makes perfect sense in the context of its use. It advances the plot & doesn't exist merely to help Bond escape.

The book is the 2nd of the Blofeld Trilogy. It follows the events of Thunderball (although The Spy Who Loved Me covers events between the 2). As noted before YOLT follows OHMSS. Except for the earlier mentioned problem, it doesn't really create a plot problem for the movie.

Like the book, the movie opens with Bond looking for Blofeld. & like the movie openning of Dr. No we don't see Bond's face right away. The precredit sequence deals with Bond's preventing Tracy from commiting suicide. He gets roughed up as a result & Tracy gets away. As they go into the opening credits we have 1 small bit of breaking the 4th wall as Lazenby looks at the audience & says "This never happened to the other feller", an acknowledgment that he is the new Bond. The credit sequence (see below for music aspect) was again done by Maurice Binder. He works in scenes from the previous 5 Bond films (sans Connery) that make it clear this is a part of the series. he also works in 1 of the idea of time that is also a part of the plot.

The main plot centers arround Bond search for Blofeld as well as his falling in love with Tracy. While Connery could have played it as needed, this is where I think it was good he wasn't playing Bond. the Bond in this movie is much more human & vulnerable than the Connery Bond. & it would have been hard for him to play it that way given the expectations from the past 5 movies. This is where I think Lazenby really shines. & he especially does so in the final scene (spoiler alert) when we see him deal with the murder of his new bride. You can feel the hurt & pain that was there because Bond finally openned his heart to a woman in a way never before seen in the movies (& only with Vesper Lynd in the 1st novel, Casino Royale.)

As I said the main plot is actually 2 plots that mostly run parallel with little overlap until they crash at the end. But they also work in concert to move both stories along. We have the plot of Bond searching for Blofeld. & we have the plot of Bond falling in love with Tracy. Where they overlap is with Tracy's father, Marc-Ange Draco, the head of "The Union Corse", helps Bond locate Blofeld. It isn't until Tracy helps Bond escape Piz Gloria towards the end that the 2 completely merge. It was the Tracy storyline that upset a lot of the Bond movie fans. But it was well within keeping with the literary Bond created by Ian Fleming & a side of Bond all to often missing from the movies until daniel Craig. (A couple exceptions are a scene in The Spy Who Loved Me & the Timothy Dalton potrayal of Bond, esp in License to Kill, my #2 favorite Bond.)

The soundtrack music was once again composed by John Barry. & it up to his usual standards. It has a lush feel that still holds up after 40 years. It is mostly in the style of the type of instrumental music you would listen to during the cocktail hour before dinner while you drank your martinis, shaken not stirred of course. Like Binder, he does work in a small bit of the theme from Goldfinger at 1 point as another subtle reminder that this is still Bond.

This time he wisely opted to create an instrumental tune for the openning credits. The theme is also worked in to several of the action scenes as a 3rd alternative to the usual James Bond & 007 themes. Here is the opening credits that shows you how well Binder & Barry merge the music & credits to tie in the past with the present:



Because part of the story takes place arround Christmas this is the only Bond that actually has a Christmas tune in it. The song, Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown, was sung by Nina. It is used in the background when Bond ison the run from Blofeld & is found by Tracy.



Louis Armstrong also sings what was the love song/theme of the movie. It gets worked in as an instrumental at various times, including the powerful ending where it is played slowly, almost dirgelike & segues into the Bond theme for the closing credits. Barry wrote it with the help of lyricist Hal David & turned out to be the last song Louis Armstrong recorded as he dies shortly thereafter of a heart attack.

As I said, I consider this the best of the entire Bond series. It is definitely a much underappreciated entry in the series that will be hard to ever top.