On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Directed by Peter R. Hunt
Written by Richard Maibaum and Simon Raven from a novel by Ian Fleming
1969/UK
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] James Bond: [to the camera] This never happened to the other fellow.[/box]
Well Diana Rigg is the ultimate Bond girl so there is that, plus pretty Alpine scenery and some good action. Â The movie kind of goes downhill from there.
While on vacation, James Bond (George Lazenby) saves beautiful Tracy Draco (Rigg) from suicide by drowning. Â Her father, Marc-Ange, is a mob boss. Â He wants Bond to continue to protect his daughter by marrying her. He says he will repay by revealing the location of Ernst Blofeld (Telly Savalas) Â Bond of course is the world’s most marriageable bachelor and both he and Tracy are tentative at the start but they gradually fall in love.
In the meantime, Bond journeys to Blofeld’s alpine lair. Â He learns that Blofeld plans to achieve world domination through experiments on beautiful women in his “allergy clinic”. Blofeld kidnaps Tracy and uses her as a pawn in the inevitable conflict to come. Â All the regulars at MI6 are on the job.
George Lazenby has absolutely no twinkle in his eye, takes himself much too seriously, and has minimal acting talent. Â A Bond film rises or falls on its Bond and this one was a dud. Â The film is also at least 30 minutes too long for this kind of thing. Â Still I’ve spent 2 1/2 hours in worse ways during Lockdown,
The song for the movie, “We Have All the Time in the World”, is the only one that does not share its name with the movie. It was the last thing Louis Armstrong ever recorded. He died a couple of years later. RIP Louis, the world is a poorer place without you.
