On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) Review

 "This never happened to the other fella."
-James Bond



James Bond (George Lazenby) saves the life of Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), the daughter of Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), the leader of a crime syndicate.  Draco asks Bond to date Tracy and eventually marry her.  Bond agrees if Draco tracks down the location of Bond's archenemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas).  Bond soon finds himself at Blofeld's mountain lair and discovers Blofeld is planning to hold the world hostage once again.


What Works:

Let's get the obvious out of the way first.  This is George Lazenby's first and only turn as 007.  He's my least favorite James Bond, but that doesn't make him bad.  We just didn't really get enough time with him. This was also his first film role and he does a remarkably good job at it.  He's great in the action sequences and shows some vulnerability, which Connery never did.  Lazenby makes Bond feel more like a real person than an unstoppable force.  He absolutely nails the final scene of the film and gives us one of the most emotional moments of the franchise.  I will say that his attempts at one-liners fall flat, but otherwise Lazenby is solid.

This is a movie of two parts.  The second half is far superior to the first.  Once Bond is exposed up at Piz Gloria, from then on out, the movie becomes pretty much one long action sequence, and these sequences are some of the best in the franchise.  The ski chases are beautifully shot and the bobsled sequence is insane.  Some of the stunts they pulled off are bonkers and it's impressive that nobody got killed.  I also really like the battle of Piz Gloria.  Bond sliding across the ice while shooting goons always makes me cheer and Tracy gets a great fight of her own against Blofeld's heavy, Grunther (Yuri Borienko).

Speaking of Tracy, she's one of the elite Bond girls of the entire series.  She's emotionally complex, independent, and super capable.  She's the driver during the car chase, she gets some awesome skiing stunts, and the aforementioned fight with Grunther.  She's also the only girl to actually marry Bond.  The Bond movies are always so much more fun when the Bond girl is competent and Tracy is one of the best.

Telly Savalas is easily the best Blofeld of the series.  He actually manages to be menacing and is extremely charismatic.  I actually wish they had brought him back for Diamonds are Forever.  He's that good.  He's the best villain up to this point, which the exception of Goldfinger. 

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has some of the best music of the series.  The opening song is completely instrumental and they use it frequently during the action sequences.  It adds a lot of excitement and suspense to the movie, particularly when Bond and Draco are flying to Piz Gloria to rescue Tracy and the music slows down ominously.  That piece of music lives rent free in my head.

Finally, the ending.  Dear lord, the ending.  Top 2 saddest moments of the franchise and that is a recent development.  Up until No Time to Die, it was number one with a bullet.  I can't imagine what it was like watching this in theaters.  Tracy's death is heartbreaking and and Bond's reaction is a gut punch every single time.  As Bond once said, "Shocking.  Positively shocking."


What Sucks

As I mentioned, this movie is of two parts and the first half is not as good as the second.  There is precious little action in the first half of the movie and what is there are some of the worst fight scenes of the series.  I'm speaking on a technical level.  The direction of these sequences is not good.  The editing and cinematography are all over the place with some insane sound design.  It's jarring and doesn't fit with the second half of the film at all.

Apart from the action sequences, unless Bond and Tracy are speaking, the first half of the movie drags.  It takes a long time for Bond to get to Piz Gloria and once he is there, he spends a little too long in disguise as the painfully dull Sir Hilary Bray.  The Bray character has some funny moments, especially in the seduction scenes, but this section of the movie goes on for too long.


Verdict:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the most polarizing films in the series, but that's because the film itself is polarizing in quality.  The first half is dull with bad action sequences, but the second half is some of the best stuff in the entire franchise.  Rigg and Savalas are both awesome and Lazenby is underrated.  Even with the bad first half, the second half more then makes up for it.

 8/10: Really Good 


#1. From Russia with Love

#2. Goldfinger

#3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

#4. Dr. No

#5. Thunderball

#6. You Only Live Twice 

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