Far up ! Far out! Far more ! James Bond 007 is back!
Movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Plot (imdb.com)
The most emotional adventure of his career begins for James Bond(GEORGE LAZENBY) on a deserted beach where a young woman tries to drown herself. He rescues the girl and for his trouble is attacked by two toughs - the girl's bodyguards.
It soon becomes much bigger for 007 - the girl is Teresa Draco(DIANA RIGG), daughter of crime boss Marc Ange Draco(GABRIELE FERZETTI), who wants James to marry his wayward daughter, and in return he can provide 007 with information on an even more dangerous criminal leader - Ernst Stavro Bloefeld(TELLY SAVALAS) of SPECTRE.
But both James and Teresa find more than they ever bargained for when their paths collide in a vicious pursuit in the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland, an enormous avalanche, and a smuggling ring for germ warfare against the West by Blofeld, who proves most difficult to kill and who exacts a revenge that James can never forget - or forgive.
My Review
Believe it or not, OHMSS is the first & only James Bond movie I've seen yet and I simply loved it!
I may have fleetingly caught some scenes from some Bond movies on TV but never viewed any one of 'em completely. So I must say my first Bond flick turned out to be a thrilling entertaining experience.
For a movie shot in the late 1960s, it had absolutely gripping action scenes(in the truest sense) from the moment our hero stares at the camera & smiles, "I'm Bond, James Bond"!. You dont wanna go to the loo, dare you miss any one of those chase sequences!
For a while, you forget to release your breath watching those long, intense & no-holds barred chases on sporty cars, skis and even on bobsleighs!
This movie focused more on James Bond's smart & deceptive nature to sidestep his enemies and barely shows him flaunting or using his own custom, hi-fi gadgets to trap his adversaries or lure women. Hardly any display of sophisticated technology.
Nevertheless, action choreography is, without hesitation, brilliant. Surely, directors of the present day Bond movies with unlimited funds must be inspired by this flick and learnt how to shoot chase sequences without spending a million dollars!
So many other aspects of OHMSS too add to the typical James Bond charm.
The timeless Bond music that they play especially when our hero sidesteps the villain & scores that deadly punch!
Or the Bond's seductive personality, the swagger, playing big money at the casino, lethally trained at every sport & skill to take on the deadliest of enemies and the license to kill - done very convincingly by actor & handsome hunk George Lazenby.
And man, can we think of a James Bond movie without its host of beautiful damsels (so many of 'em!). In this movie, our envied Bond gets to personally vibe with gorgeous Scandinavian, Chinese, Jamaican, American, English, Indian, Australian, German, Israeli & Irish girls!!! phew, did I miss out on any other nationality? :)
Smart aleck wisecracks by the other characters like the heroine's father and influential gangster Draco or even the suave yet fatally dangerous bald-headed villain Stavro who slightly reminds you of our bollywood glamorous villain Feroz Khan are the other cool shades of OHMSS.
In the story, our James Bond promises to marry his sweetheart Teresa and settle down. What happens in the end? Do they ride into the sunset after the wedding bells or more dangers lie by the enemy who has sworn revenge?
You'll not be disappointed. Infact, despite some wooden performance in certain scenes by leading actor George Lazenby, I am giving this movie 5 stars because the makers of the movie have put their heart into the action scenes and the plot...and it shows.
Some trivia (imdb.com)
~ Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore were both offered the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), but both turned it down. Dalton felt he was too young at the time, and Moore was still under his contract in the TV series "The Saint" (1962).
~ George Lazenby was previously a car salesman with a part time job as a male model. He was also well-known in Britain as "The Big Fry man," after the chocolate bar commercials he starred in, carrying an outsize bar on his hunky shoulder.
~ Sean Connery was offered a then very large salary of $1 million to make this film but declined.
~ To date, George Lazenby is the youngest actor to portray 007 at age 30.The rest of the actors and their ages, in no particular order: Sean Connery - 31, Roger Moore - 45, Timothy Dalton - 42, Pierce Brosnan - 41 and Daniel Craig - 38.
~ Features the only signature gun barrel sequence of all Bond films in which Bond drops down on one knee while shooting at the audience.
Director - Peter R. Hunt
Year - 1969
Starring - George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti
Verdict ~ Standing applause. Did this one & only George Lazenby Bond movie become a benchmark for the others?
