And it's a shame, actually. OHMSS is one of the better Bond films—they'd been announcing it in the final "James Bond Will Return" credit in the initial runs of the movies since Goldfinger. But, circumstances kept seeing it pushed off. By the time weather conditions were properly snowy in the Swiss Alps to film there, the first Bond of the series, Sean Connery, had had enough of competing with the scenery, the sets, and the gadgets and bid "ciao" to the series (although he would come back to the role...twice).
The producers had to find a new Bond. They approached a young Timothy Dalton (he would become "official" Bond #4) who said no, saying that 1) he was too young and 2) following Connery in the role would be "career-suicide." But, if you didn't have much of a career already, the role must have seemed very attractive...as it did to a 28 year old male model named George Lazenby, who lobbied hard...and won...the role. And Lazenby is a good place-holder for the series—he only did the one, refusing to sign a multi-picture contract, as he was already thinking the Bond films (at a time when Easy Rider and The Graduate were popular) was past its "relevancy" shelf-life.*
Lazenby had a couple of problems—he wasn't an actor (he'd padded his CV with fictional international pictures that couldn't be traced) and...he wasn't Sean Connery, who'd had years of acting and less-than-stellar roles (that few had seen and fewer remembered) before he starred as Bond. Of course, he wasn't as good—thus the slightly tarnished reputation of the film.
But, he has a couple of quite good scenes. This is one of them. Lazenby's performance noticeably improved when he was doing scenes with really good actors (like co-stars Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas and Bond-veteran Bernard Lee) and this scene shows a just-recovered-from-being-knocked-cold James Bond being confronted by the villain of the piece, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (the head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), who is only too happy to gloat about seeing through Bond's disguise, capturing him, and telling him of his latest blackmail plot against the world (Question: why don't they just shoot him?**). Bond villains DO like to gloat (even REAL ones!) and Savalas has a high time doing it. And Lazenby has just the right touch of concern...and typical Bond arrogance...that his opponent is so full of himself that he'll be able to eventually "save the day." Maybe.
The Set-up: As part of "Operation Bedlam," James Bond (George Lazenby) of MI6 has infiltrated the mountain-top clinic of one Count de Bleauchamp, a specialist in the treating of allergies, but who in reality is his old enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), hatching another plot to blackmail (dare I say it?) the world. As Blofeld is obsessed with being recognized as the legitimate heir to the de Bleauchamp lineage, Bond is posing as the head of the Royal College of Arms, Sir Hilary Bray, who has been contacted by the clinic for the genealogical research—and has been spending his nights researching the young women being treated there. He's has been discovered in flagrante and knocked unconscious.
Action!
BLOFELD: (laughs)
BLOFELD: This time?
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Words by Richard Maibaum and Simon Raven
Pictures by Michael Reed and Peter Hunt
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is available on DVD and Blu-Ray on M-G-M Home Video.
Words by Richard Maibaum and Simon Raven
Pictures by Michael Reed and Peter Hunt
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is available on DVD and Blu-Ray on M-G-M Home Video.
* He shouldn't be thought too harshly about this. The Bond producers, Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli, initially thought the Bond series would probably only last 10 years. They're still be produced 52 years later.
** A question asked in the "Austin Powers" series that parodied Bond so close-to-the-bone that the Daniel Craig films had to toss out all the old 007 tropes and start from scratch (in case you're kvetching about why those films were so different and "serious").
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