Film Review - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Following the temporary departure of Sean Connery from the role, Australian George Lazenby takes up the mantle of 007 for this film and the story here has him pursuing Blofeld (Terry Savalas) to the Swiss Alps to stop his new plan to conquer the world, at the same time he comes across the spirited and somewhat reckless woman Tracy (Diana Rigg) for whom he has all the time in the world.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was easily my favourite of Fleming's Bond stories, the character felt human, there was a great plot and a well written leading lady in Tracy which gives the story a real human heart, with that how was the film version?

Surprisingly the film version is pretty good, one of the best films in the series for sure, director Peter Hunt (a long serving editor of the series before this film) seems very confident in the director's chair, no doubt helped by his editing experience, his action direction is very good indeed and very fast paced especially the skiing scenes which are terrific to watch.

But my praise doesn't end there, John Barry produces what is arguably his best score of the series as well as the beautiful song "We have all the Time in the World" Louis Armstrong's last recorded song before his death and Rigg is just wonderful as Tracy as is Savalas as Blofeld.

If there is one fault with the film it is Lazenby himself, don't get me wrong he handles himself very well, his action work is great, he handles the humour with a nice tone of cheekiness and gets right the most important scene in the movie but what undercuts all of this good work (and it is good work indeed) is his lack of acting experience, something that was not noticeable in a later film of his, 1975's The Man from Hong Kong where he was great in that film and came across as someone who had had more acting experience.

But despite that minor negative, OHMSS stands tall as a very well made and exciting Bond film, 3 and a half out of 5.