9 replies to this topic

[ChandlerBing]

Well, this is one of those threads that just won't die. However, as a big fan of OHMSS (It's my favorite Bond ever, BTW) I would like to throw in my ten cents (if that much) and share this poster with you. Let's see if we can have a really good, intelligent debate about this one. If you think about the possibilities, it's not that hard to see why people get so pained when they think of what could have been.

[Jaelle]

Omigod, Yul Brynner and Julie Christie! The idea of those two working with Sean takes my breath away! Wow....! Sorry I can't contribute anything more thoughtful than that, I'm just absorbing and imagining the possibilities...

[ChandlerBing]

See, here you go...a lot of people have just dismissed the idea outright without even thinking about it. Also try this...

Originally the end credits for Thunderball promised "James Bond will return in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE" but this was cut from release prints when EON reevaluated their options. They had two choices:


1) Do the definitive James Bond film, OHMSS, following Ian Fleming's original series/story arc and definition of the character, taking advantage of an older, more mature Sean Connery as the tired, world-weary 007.
2) One More Time! Forget about Fleming, continuity or the series canon and try to make as much money as possible by replicating their previous successes and building on the gadgets, action, and thrills with humor. Surely the secret agent phenomenon could not last forever as imitation spies were popping up everywhere. Besides, audiences were responding to the lighthearted action/adventure formula established by EON and not a part of the original Fleming books.
Of course we know now that the producers chose option #2. Once that decision was made, it didn't matter which Fleming title was filmed, since they weren't going to adhere to the storyline anyway. In spring of that year plans were made to go to Japan for shooting You Only Live Twice.

But what if Saltzman and Broccoli decided differently, and went with the option of making OHMSS instead? Could it have been the ultimate James Bond film, starring Sean Connery, with a lavish budget, a seasoned and enthusiastic crew, made at that time when Bond-mania was at its zenith and audience interest at its peak?

It was during this period that Broccoli and Saltzman hired veteran British director Lewis Gilbert to helm the next film, before the decision was made to postpone OHMSS. Gilbert would have actually been a fine choice to direct the Fleming story, coming off a huge hit Alfie which won numerous awards in the US and UK (as well as being a box-office hit). It featured a strong romantic story with believable performances by the lead characters, with Michael Caine in the title role. Rather than concentrating on the gadgets, hardware and sci-fi aspects of YOLT, Gilbert possibly would have focused on the interpersonal relationships between Bond/M, Bond/Draco, Bond/Tracy, and most importantly Bond/Blofeld. After all, it was EON, not Gilbert, that took YOLT into outer space and away from Fleming's plot - what might he have done with a more intimate, character-driven story? It's fair to say that not only would the love scenes between Bond and Tracy have been more believable (and more intense) but the confrontation between Bond and Blofeld at Piz Gloria could have had far more verbal and emotional fireworks.

With a huge budget Gilbert would also have enjoyed much of the same crew he used for YOLT: Ken Adam to design the sets, Freddie Young as Director of Photography, John Barry to do the music. All three were at the top of their game professionally at that point, highly in demand, Academy-award-nominated, and anxious to make the "definitive" Bond film. In addition it's likely that Richard Maibaum would've been brought on board to help translate some of the original Fleming story, since he'd been doing that since the first Bond film. Whether Roald Dahl (hired to pen YOLT) would've been retained is anybody's guess, but even a collaboration between him and Maibaum might have been interesting. The result would have been a combination of a larger-than-life, action-packed adventure combined with the original Fleming story - much like Thunderball, Goldfinger, and Dr. No were.

OHMSS 1967 - THE STORY

Hypothetically, it would have been possible to take the basic Ian Fleming plotline and "rearrange" it to accommodate for more action and suspense in the film's first hour, which most audiences found slow in the 1969 version. In fact this was one of the main criticisms leveled by critics at the time (besides their objections to Lazenby) - the premise of "following Bond around" for the first hour of the film, with no mission or objective, while a series of obligatory (and unmotivated) fight scenes were interspersed, strayed too far from the established Bond formula. Similar scenes had been added and shuffled around in Goldfinger, which considerably enhanced the story and actually improved on Fleming's original. Thus a 1967 Maibaum script might have gone like this:



1) A crisis is looming in Europe. Weapons of biological warfare have been used, in small quantities, and the leaders of the free world are at a loss to explain the phenomenon or the cause.
2) James Bond is AWOL, having been searching for the roots of SPECTRE for two years with little success. At this point no one is even sure of who is behind the operation. With SPECTRE currently underground, Bond is enjoying some quiet time while he relaxes, flirts with girls and eventually meets Tracy.
3) A secondary villain is introduced to provide motivation for Bond's mission. He would probably be the equivalent of Mr. Osato in YOLT but with more chops and menace (for the sake of argument let's call him Gumboldt). Perhaps this is who MI6 thinks is responsible for the bio-weapons scare, and dispatches Bond to investigate.
4) Bond however is clearly tired of his job at this point, having "saved the world" once too often and is looking for a way out of his assignment. He contemplates his resignation but changes his mind after a personal encounter with Gumboldt, perhaps in the presence of Tracy.
5) The story cross-cuts between Bond's invesigation/pursuit of Gumboldt, with several hair-raising action scenes and various exotic locales, and his emerging romance with Tracy.
6) Bond learns of the connection between the College of Arms and Count de Bleauchamp, who he suspects to be Blofeld. He assumes the identity of Sir Hillary Bray and infiltrates Piz Gloria. From here on out the film follows Fleming's story (and the 1969 film version).

You want more, do you? Check out this link:
http://www.hmss.com/films/ohmss67/

[ChandlerBing]

And while we're at it, try this....

[Tarl_Cabot]

Yul Brenner would have been a great Bloefeld. I love Telly though.I like Dianna Rigg too.Oh well, just enjoy OHMSS as is. A great Bond film...Sean was just as big an idiot for leaving before OHMSS as George was for DAF!

[Jaelle]

Chandler, you make an excellent case. Reading your post got me excited just thinking about the possibilities.

I have always thought that Sean could not have done OHMSS because I don't think he could've played Bond falling in love with the openness that Lazenby brought to the role. However, when I saw the name "Julie Christie" in your original post (or the attached link to it), I began to waver. Christie might have been able to modify Sean's performance in this vein somewhat. And thinking of Sean going up against *Yul Brynner* makes my head spin!

But would the public have accepted Sean's Bond falling in love and marrying, even with all the top-notch elements you listed? One of those many questions never to be answered.

[ChandlerBing]

OHMSS was a film that could not have been done earlier in the series because you have to set up the character of Bond, and Sean did that really well, this love em and leave em, indestructible guy who always saves the world, knows the right wines, and has the happy ending. OHMSS would have turned it all on its head as Tracy would have stood up to him, been mentally unstable/suicidal, makes Bond give a damn, and really get messed up by the end. THAT is the case for Connery's Bond to get to the end of his run in OHMSS and the end of the decade as Bond. He's seen and done it all, and then Tracy comes in and really shakes things up.
And then he loses her.

[Triton]

Yul Brynner would have been a very interesting choice as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He would have played a more convincing Count de Bleauchamp than Telly Savalas in my opinion. Telly always seemed too much like a New York or Chicago gangster to me, a similar observation was made by Raymond Benson in his book The James Bond Bedside Companion. Do you think that Yul Brynner would have taken part in the ski chase, like Telly's Blofeld. I would seem to me that Yul would have played the character with more dignity. "Ski chase? You must be joking."

As for Julie Christie and the idea that On Her Majesty's Secret Service should have been made in 1965, I think that if she would have made this picture then she would not have played Lara in Dr. Zhivago, and I really like her in that role.

[ray t]

Originally posted by Jaelle

But would the public have accepted Sean's Bond falling in love and marrying...

a moot point

they didnt accept lazenby in any shape or form, did they?

with connery the box office would have been bigger whether they 'accepted him marrying' or not

OHMSS is fine as is

in fact, it's only in retrospect with 'rose coloured glasses' and with the video-dvd revolution that OHMSS has taken on new regard.

in 1969 it was a downer and took a long time to make back its money.

LTK and Golden Gun were more successful in turning a quicker profit

[CommanderBond]

Originally posted by Tarl_Cabot
Yul Brenner would have been a great Bloefeld. I love Telly though.I like Dianna Rigg too.Oh well, just enjoy OHMSS as is. A great Bond film...Sean was just as big an idiot for leaving before OHMSS as George was for DAF!

I totally agree. I love Yul Brenner in the 10 commandments.He would have been the best Blofeld in my point of view.