My first film was DAF in 1972, when I was seven, at the local cinema. I was ready for seeing Connery as Bond as I had the toy moonbuggy. There was no mention of anyone called George Lazenby. I'll admit that then, I thought DAF was fantastic, particularly Barry's soundtrack.
After that it was Roger Moore in LALD and TMWTGG. I didn't really have a problem with Moore as Bond at that stage. This is probably because they followed the same jokey format started with DAF. And Moore is SO different to Connery that there was no way he would be compared.
After TMWTGG the Bond films came to TV in the UK. In April 1975 we had Doctor No which still holds the record for the largest power surge during a commercial break. The streets were emptied for this.
Then it was a Bond film every 6 months or so. So we had FRWL in late 1975. Again a major viewing event in a country with three TV channels. No VCRs then.
Goldfinger and Thunderball followed in 1976 plus the occasional repeat of the other films. They consistently topped the ratings.
You Only Live Twice came in the first half of 1977 and then the cinematic release of The Spy Who Loved Me. It was very obvious that the plots of the two films were similar.
So I had seen every single James Bond film except one. OHMSS.
I read the book which I found amazing and I thought if the film follows the book we're in for a treat. In a pre-internet age though, there was very little information about the film. I had a small still photograph of Lazenby from a TV tie-in magazine called "Look-In" and that was about it. There had been a picture of Jenny Hanley with a caption saying she had been in a Bond film. With her blond hair then when she was presenting a children's show called "Magpie", I thought she played Tracy as described in the book.
Alas if the films had continued with the 6 month gap I would have seen OHMSS in late 1977. I think there was a strike at ITV which may have delayed things.
I was hugely disappointed when the film didn't appear. The film was being shown in a double bill with DAF at a nearby cinema but I couldn't convince my father to drive and see it.
So it wasn't until Sept 78 that I saw a trailer on ITV for the showing of OHMSS. I thought 'fantastic'. The trailers looked great and concentrated on the beach fight.
A friend had told me that Telly Savalas played Blofeld which was big news as he was popular as Kojak at the time.
But it wasn't until the TV listings came out that I saw the full casting with Diana Rigg as Tracy! There was the poster in the TV guide too with a caption saying it was the film with the most action.
It was still a major event on TV. I loved the way Lazenby knelt down and shot in the gunbarrel and also Barry's rearrangement of the Bond theme. The 'This Never Happened to the Other Feller' line was perfectly timed in the film and the music was brilliant.
As the film largely followed the book, it engrossed me throughout and apart from the fact that Lazenby was Bond I thought of this as a mainstream Connery era film. With Bond falling in love to 'All The Time In The World' only made it more powerful.
What surprised was the largely negative reaction to Lazenby. Most of my schoolmates thought the film was great but were completely indoctrinated to be against Lazenby. This is where I saw at first-hand the sheep mentality that had obviously affected the critics' reviews in 1969/70.
It WAS a life changing event. I had to wait another two years before seeing it again in 1980 and then three more till 1983. 1983 was a major showing as Diana Rigg had new set of fans from The Avengers which were being shown on the new Channel 4 at the time.
Of course the next film couldn't have been more different, Moon raker!
And I do feel very sorry for the americans who had the criminal edit imposed on them by the cretins at ABC. So they were robbed of seeing the film in its original form FIRST. That was so important for this film.
I had my honeymoon in the Bernese Oberland and since set up the Lazenbyland website. Ironically it was only this year that I finally saw the film on the big screen appropriately enough with my own seven year old son, who thought it was great!
Edited by lazenbyland, 11 December 2009 - 12:12 AM.