![]() ![]() It's Bond's best and the franchise's most heartfelt scene. She convincingly captures the hearts of 007 and audiences. Also, Diana Rigg makes for the most captivating Bond girl yet.simply because she plays it not as a girl, but as a woman. In sombering up the tone and losing much of the gadgetry, his Bond exhibits the best of all worlds-the suave sophistication and unflappable air of Connery's tenure with the deathly stakes of Daniel Craig's later run. Promoted from series editor, Peter Hunt presents some of the franchise's highlight action sequences, many of them on snow and ice. It's a shame, really, as On Her Majesty's Secret Service delivers on all fronts. Unfortunately, when the film failed to gross as much as expected, he got wrongly blamed. Indeed, as producer "Cubby" Broccoli himself once reportedly said, Lazenby probably would've made the best 007 if he was allowed to go on. He commits to the action, womanizing, and espionage in spades and his dedication shows. He's no Connery but that's what's amazing: He got hired to approximate the Bond-ed actor but ends up doing his slightly own thing. Non-actor Lazenby does a ridiculously excellent job in this, his solo outing. In this classic spy caper, James Bond (Lazenby) woos a mob boss's daughter (Rigg) and goes undercover to uncover the true reason for Blofeld's (Telly Savalas) allergy research in the Swiss Alps that involves beautiful women from around the world. It proves a welcome respite from the increasing cheekiness and gimmickry of the franchise, even giving Bond a true love as a crutch and true equal as a nemesis. The film smartly breaks the fourth wall once early on to let the audience know that we're all (filmgoers, actor, producers) in the unknown possibly rocky waters, but then holsters much of the cheekiness for much of the story. Sure, Connery sits this one out and the producers put a lookalike in his place but it is a whipsmart move. Honestly, it's doubtful that anybody who badmouths On Her Majesty's Secret Service has actually seen it. The sixth 007 adventure frustratingly gets a horribly undeserved rap. This film is really full of good and bad things to end up being yet another medicore Bond film.Ī crowning jewel in the franchise, Secret Service sees Connery clone George Lazenby works hard to emerge from his forebear's shadow but - with such a powerful well-directed script - his more serious side of Bond easily sits among Her Majesty's best of the bunch. Blofeld had a change of actor, which did change the character and the feel of the movie, but it wasn't necessarily a bad change. To go along with that, the one liners were noticably bad, and the film is just not James Bond-y enough. I know the 60's loved exaggerating the punches and fight scenes, but the fast paced and sped up editing here is obnoxious to say the least. Speaking of the action, this film has a huge issue in its editing. I don't know why we continue to take our favorite spy in strange places ie space, underwater, and now in snowy mountains, but it made for some fun ski chases. But the film picks up in its last act for a semi-decent action film. I can't say I wasn't at least on the verge of falling asleep at that time. There is a good 45-50 minutes or little to no action at all, and this is a Bond film. It's 2 and a half hours long, and you feel the length. One of the biggest issues with this film though is the pacing. But I'm not sure Bond has had as close of a relationship to a woman in any of the other films, which makes this film pretty unique. Knowing that Rigg has a big part in Game of Thrones 50 years later was interesting to watch as well. Lazenby isn't as good at pulling off the womanizing or bada** side of Bond, but his chemistry with Tracy, played by Diana Rigg, was great. It just has several problems that could have been fixed. I will say that this film with Connery probably would have been better, but this is by no means a bad film. The studio was able to get pretty much everyone else back, with the exception of Blofeld, for the film. Of course, this was a one off for George Lazenby, who wished to only play 007 once. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is often the forgotten Bond because it was in between Connery outings.
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