On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) | The One that Got Away

After nearly a decade of James Bond thrilling the world, the Bond franchise went through a few sudden and dramatic changes. A (terrible) spoof of Casino Royale by a different studio came out AND Sean Connery finally called it quits. While the spoof did little to affect the franchise as a whole, it was almost tragic to fans that Connery would be hanging up the title of 007. When it was announced that someone else would be playing the character in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, before his name was even released, he was already being compared to Connery.

This, among other various reasons, would be why George Lazenby would willingly give up the opportunities afforded to him in his contract to play the role again. He was constantly being compared and critiqued over the fact that he wasn't Connery, and it probably didn't help that On Her Majesty's Secret Service was his first major movie role. It was more ammunition for the critics. He did, nonetheless, try his best. Judging the film well out of context from the hype and time period, how does it hold up?

Pros

Lazenby does a good job portraying Bond with smug confidence and strong-jawed charm
Action scenes are better than they were with Connery, including an exciting car chase
Plot surrounding brainwashed, sleeper-agent bioweapons is a good one that is still a common villainous plot in movies today
Exotic locations
Good chemistry between Bond and the leading lady, Tracy
Slightly more serious Bond film than it's been in the last few installments

Cons

Plot drags and takes a long time to get going
Still a ‘60s movie with a lot of the chase sequences including a bunch of bad-looking blue-screen
Lacking a genuine theme song
Questionable decisions about how to handle the story's big moments

Plot & Thoughts

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was one of the Bond films I had never seen until I purchased the Blu-ray set. I had heard a variety of different opinions. Some opinions were that it was the worst. Some said that it was among the best. When I first watched it for myself, I felt myself leaning a lot more towards the former. Spoilers ahead to explain why…

I found it extremely boring and tediously segmented. The first third of the film establishes a romance between James Bond (George Lazenby) and Tracy (Diana Rigg), the daughter of a mob boss in Europe. After Bond is relieved of duty in his hunt for Ernst Stravo Blofeld (Telly Savalas), whom you may remember from the previous film, You Only Live Twice, he goes on vacation. While on vacation, he bumps into Tracy, seemingly at the behest of her father who wants her to find a man who can “control her” properly. Bond is elected for the position of suitor, unbeknownst to her, and starts to woo her for a good chunk of the film.

Then, we abruptly leave Tracy and that part of the movie behind because Bond develops a lead on Blofeld and gets back on the job. After a safe-cracking sequence that is slightly tense and entertaining in a very James Bond way, we find out that Blofeld is likely a guy using the alias of Bleuchamp as a man with a facility in Switzerland developing cures for allergies. He also happens to be claiming to be of blue blood, worthy of the title of Count. To infiltrate the secret base, Bond impersonates a genealogical expert to test this title claim.

It's during this section that On Her Majesty's Secret Service takes a nosedive in its pacing and excitement, which is very ironic and surprising. You would think that when the movie’s focus manages to shift to the actual plot of Bond tracking down Blofeld things would pick up, but the pacing and the way the film goes about doing this is really slow. The whole genealogical plot is already just a bit of an arbitrary method of having Bond get close, which isn't explained very well. Even if we know that it's all just an act, the film chooses to spend a lot of time focusing on the act, which is ultimately made meaningless. There are multiple scenes and sections where the dialogue feels almost pointless to the plot. Maybe if you're able to just stop paying attention to the intricacies of the genealogy and focus on the plot to send out brainwashed Manchurian candidates into the world as walking bioweapons, you'll enjoy it more.

It's more confusing yet when Bond and Blofeld meet each other in the facility for the first time but don't recognize each other. I was very confused since Blofeld was just finally revealed in the previous film, You Only Live Twice. As it turns out, this film follows the plot of the original book a lot more than the other Bond films. In fact, it’s On Her Majesty's Secret Service that is supposed to be the first time the two characters meet face to face. So despite the iconic performance of Donald Pleasence from You Only Live Twice, Bond does not recognize this Blofeld, and the infiltration shenanigans continue for a while until he is inevitably caught.

After the disguise is blown, the final act of the film kicks in and the pace starts to pick up again. There are finally some action scenes to remind you of the fact that this is an action movie. Tracy suddenly shows up, out of nowhere, and an exciting car chase ensues. Then, you eventually get a classic storm-the-facility sequence, like the last movie, followed by a harrowing chase and fight down a snowy mountain with Blofeld. To top it all off, we're treated to one of the more shocking and depressing endings of the franchise involving the death of a character beloved to Bond. As Bond holds the victim in his arms and weeps openly for the first and last time in the character's history, the film focuses on the bullet hole in the windshield of the car, and... plays the upbeat exciting theme song of James Bond. Nothing quite sets the mood of solemn melancholy than the screeching trumpets and funky bass of the classic Bond theme song, am I right?

Having watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service again, my opinion of it has improved, slightly. Since I knew what I was in for with the dull second chunk, I was able to appreciate the finer points of the opening and closing acts. The closing act feels like a hot cup of coffee to the dull second act of the film and jolts you awake with enough action to remind you that this is indeed a James Bond movie. The action scenes continue to be an improvement with better cinematography, fight choreography, and chase sequences.

Even though the opening act is almost completely unrelated to the primary plot of the film and Bond's attempts to foil Blofeld's plans, I grew to appreciate it a bit more as well. I like Tracy as a character. Most Bond women require him to rescue them—Tracy is no exception—and most of the Bond girls are at least strong-willed and passionate, independent women. Tracy is certainly of that type, capable of some skilled driving, but also delicate enough that she wants James to sweep her off her feet at some point. The budding and blossoming romance, though a little forced in the beginning is at least satisfying and it helps the film tremendously when Tracy returns to the story because of our investment in the characters’ relationship—never mind the fact that James Bond probably seduced and banged a dozen women while he was in disguise.

Had George Lazenby been given a chance and had he not been scared off by the experience of superstardom, I think he might have grown quite well into the role of Bond. He plays the part with the smug confidence and masculine toughness one expects of the character, and he is allowed to show a bit more emotion than Connery was able to do in his films. However, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is still not a great first impression. Even though the first and last acts of the film are not bad, that middle chunk is just convoluted and slow to the point that it is enough to make me not excited to watch it. Maybe if it was edited down in a way that allowed the audience to learn the details of the evil plan without having to sit through scene after scene of establishing shots and expository dialogue that doesn't amount to anything, I'd have a different opinion.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

My opinion of On Her Majesty's Secret Service may have improved since the first time I watched it, but not enough for me to easily recommend it. I don't think it's a bad movie. It has its moments. It has some good performances in the leading roles. It has some solid action sequences that are fun to watch. It even has some bold choices like ending the movie on a big downer. Yet that middle section of the movie is so dull and slow that it just weighs everything else down.

Hair of the Dog Bonus Drinking Game Rule

This is a tricky one. Lazenby doesn't have too many quirks here that seem out of character for Bond, and the film itself doesn't do anything in particular over and over throughout the film that is all that noticeable. You could drink any time there's a blue screen sequence, but those were far more prevalent in the previous films. No. Instead, I think the best rule to put here is to help alleviate the slow middle section of the film.