58 replies to this topic

[PrinceKamalKhan]

"A big, flashy production, too, is 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', the latest of the James Bond series, but with a rank amateur(and I guess I mean that) substituted for the suave Sean Connery. The new Bond is George Lazenby and it's kind of touching watching him attempt to get the delivery of his lines, although I must admit that a less sympathetic audience will only laugh at the wrong moments. Mr. Lazenby, however, is tall, has a pleasant face and a manner that would probably also strike us as pleasant if we met him personally rather than in a movie. And, aside from Lazenby, this new 007 adventure delivers its full load of action and violence, this time directed by Peter Hunt.

"We meet Bond in Switzerland, mainly, where he encounters several willing and ready girls and a bald-headed villain, naturally played by Telly Savalas. It's a four-thunk movie, by which I mean just as Bond is about to indulge his carnal appetites with a beauty, somebody him hits him over the head and the sound track emits a loud thunk. Any normal man would develop a bad case of impotence. But not Bond. He'll be back and rutting you may be sure."

-Hollis Alpert,Saturday Review-January 10, 1970


"The latest episode in the super-serial of the sixties, the new James Bond thriller, 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is set mainly in Switzerland and it's marvellous fun. It introduces a new Bond, George Lazenby, who's quite a dull fellow, and the script isn't much either, but the movie is exciting anyway. The director, Peter Hunt, is a wizard at action sequences, particularly an ethereal ski chase that you know is a classic while you're goggling at it, and a mean, fast bobsled chase that is shot and edited like nothing I've ever seen before. I know that on one level it's not worth doing, but it sure has been done brilliantly. Diana Rigg is a tall, amusing Mrs. Bond; it's a shame they kill her off (in a bad 'sincere' ending). A wife never hurt Nick Charles and the Bond figure is beginning to need all the help he can get. Gabriele Ferzetti (the hero of 'L'Aventura,' who is aging to look like Olivier) is an amiable gangster-tycoon; he and Ilse Steppat, the indefatigable villainess, help give the picture some tone."

-Pauline Kael,The New Yorker-January 3, 1970


" 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is by a long shot the very best of the James Bond epics. For those who vastly admired those which went before, this is high praise indeed. (Agent 007-haters are free to retreat, muttering, into the other room.) Its is long - well over two hours - and ablaze with action all the way. But it is also the first of the films in which Bond is allowed any genuine claims to humanity, real feeling and sentiment.

"Admittedly he has probably only graduated to a more cerebral form of comic strip or a higher grade of cardboard. But in his own terms he's oddly touching and, in the end, a figure of considerable sympathy. (It's a jolt, the ending.)

"It's ironic that Sean Connery, having seen James Bond through the thinly two-dimensional days, should not be around for the new, higher-interest Bond. But George Lazenby handles it very nicely, although at his first meeting he's a good deal less vivid than Connery was.

"Humanity was the only course left for the Bond series, since the reliance on mechanical gadgetry had about run its course. This time, although the dread Ernst Blofeld (Telly Savalas) intends to dominate the world via post-hypnotic suggestion to platoons of pulchritudinous pretties, the action is largely mundane: car chases, ski races, your everyday avalanche, helicoptering, fist fights.

"But the action is beautifully paced and describes a rising series of highs, interspaced by Bond's blooming romance with a gangster's dazzling and high-spirited daughter (Diana Rigg). Bond in kilts and horn rims as a visiting expert on heraldry is a creature of great and owlish fun.

"There is much violence but it is extravagantly make believe, even at the outrageous moment when one of the bad chaps falls before a rotary snow plow and soon begins to... ah... drift.

"The previous Bonds are evoked in the titles and elsewhere; Lois Maxwell is around as Miss Moneypenny and Bernard Lee as 'M' (for whom I have wanted to supply an assistant, to be called 'm').

"Sets, special effects, action sequences are extensive and admirable, in the Bond tradition. John Barry's music is always intelligent and this time has a chance to be extensively lyrical as well as adventurous.

"It is a first time effort for Peter Hunt as director and he's turned the splendid trick of creating impressions of depth without jeopardizing the gorgeous escapist nonsense which the 007 enterprises are.

"As followers of the Avengers TV series know, Diana Rigg is a fine actress and delicious lady. She is enchanting here as the love of James' life.

"The film is one of the more welcome Christmas presents, to say the least."

-Los Angeles Times- December 18, 1969



"The most amusing thing about 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service,' now at Keith's, is its breezy self-confidant attitude. The movie is blessedly free of anxiety: no worries about the two-year gap between Bond pictures or the necessity of introducing a new actor as Bond himself or the reaction of the audience.

"The opening sequence quickly introduced the romantic leads, hurls us into the action and cracks a joke about the changing of the guard. Our sophistication is taken for granted: The filmmakers assume that we're all regular customers and know exactly what we want. In case there are a few newcomers in the house, Maurice Binder's titles supply a witty resume of the first five films and everyone is off and running.

"This carefree approach is sensible as well as refreshing. At this moment, very few packagers of mass-entertainment seem to be capable of it, and perhaps the Bond movies are, indeed, the only ones left where you can count on the good will and knowledgeability of nearly every member of the audience. Although it's become rare, a feeling of implicit trust - even of cynical complicity - between filmmaker and viewer is absolutely necessary in escapist entertainment. 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' restores that feeling, effortlessly picking up the series where it left off, and what a relief it is.

"The first few reels are so fast-moving that we anticipate a better movie than we actually get. Peter Hunt, who directed, was an editor and second unit director on the earlier Bond vehicles, and he really does cut on a dime. The action bits and the early plot exposition are polished off in record time, and with attackers coming at us from all directions and Hunt always a jump cut or two ahead, we're hard pressed to keep up.

"Our familiarity with with the Bond genre and its artifices permits Hunt to cut corners. We want him to floor the accelerator and most of the time he obliges. At the same time, the viewers tend become connoisseurs, noting that none of the fights is quite so rousing as the showdown between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in 'From Russia With Love' and none of the scenic designs quite so spacious and pleasing as those of Ken Adam in 'Goldfinger' or 'You Only Live Twice'.

"By bringing the villain (Telly Savalas as Spectre chief Ernst Blofeld) back to life at the fadeout instead of waiting to revive him in the next Bond film, the screenplay makes us wonder if we'll also have to resolve the film's predicament - how to prevent Blofeld from using dozens of girls as biological time bombs - at a later date.

"The ending has a deliberate cliffhanger note that wasn't used before. Worst of all, there's a sentimental catch that tends to send us out on a downbeat note - the killing of Bond's bride (Diana Rigg). The death of Mrs. Bond could easily begin the next picture in the series ('Diamonds Are Forever') and one tends to suspect that it will.

"In the person of George Lazenby, Bond seems younger, callower, perhaps more of a functionary. It's as if the plot mechanism in the film version of 'Casino Royale' were really true: Bond has retired, and the Service has given his name to several new agents. Physically Lazenby is built like James Coburn and moves like him but his relaxed manner hasn't hardened into a conceit and should wear rather well."

-Washington Post - December 23, 1969


"A bare fact must be faced. The superheated screen activities of Ian Fleming's supersleuth and sex symbol, James Bond, are as inevitable as sex or crime or 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service,' the sixth steaming annal in the sock 'em and spoof 'em spy series that crashed into the DeMille and other local theaters yesterday.

"Serious criticism of such an esteemed institution would be tantamount to throwing rocks at Buckingham Palace, but it does call for a handful of pebbles. Devotees will note that Sean Connery, the virile, suave conqueror of all those dastards and dames in the five previous capers, has given up his 007 Bond credentials to George Lazenby, a 30-year-old Australian newcomer to films. He's tall, dark, handsome and has a dimpled chin. But Mr. Lazenby, if not a spurious Bond, is merely a casual, pleasant, satisfactory replacement.

"For the record, he plays a decidedly second fiddle to an overabundance of continuous action, a soundtrack as explosive as the London Blitz, and flip dialogue and characterizations set against some authentic, truly spectacular Portuguese and Swiss scenic backgrounds, caught in eyecatching colors.

"What are Bond's problems now? They're too numerous, as usual, to hold the constant attention of anyone other than a charter member of Her Majesty's Secret Service. What sets our bully boy off and fighting, running, shooting and loving this time is a lissome, leggy lass mysteriously bent on drowning herself in the waves thunderously crashing on a lonely Portuguese beach.

"First thing you know he's involved in a battle with two toughs that is as full of karate chops and belts in the belly as a brawl in a Singapore alley. To the credit of Richard Maibaum, the scenarist, the film's tongue-in-cheek attitude is set right at the outset. Once our new Bond emerges triumphant, he turns to the audience and says, somewhat plaintively: 'This never happened to the other fellow.'

"But it does. The lady of his life, the svelte Diana Rigg, who learned her karate chops from the British TV 'Avenger' series, is the daughter of the blandly effete Gabriele Ferzetti, Mafioso-like tycoon, who likes Bond and wants to destroy that Spectre chief, Telly Savalas, his competition in world crime. That suits Bond too, and practically right off he's in Switzerland, where our villain maintains an eyrie atop an Alp.

"It's an inaccessible retreat, supposedly an institute for allergy research complete with hired guns, scientific gimmicks and an international conclave of allegedly allergic beauties who are really being brainwashed by the oily, bald-domed Mr. Savalas to spread his biological destruction of the world's food supply. Get it?

"Bond dallies with the dolls, of course, but the heart of the matter is a series of chases shot by the 41-year-old Peter Hunt, second unit director of the previous adventures, who's making his directorial debut with this one. The chases are breakneck, devastating affairs.

"A viewer must remember what seems to be the longest ski chase and bobsled run ever, full of gunfire and spills, that even includes an avalanche. There also is a decibel-filled fight amid clanging Swiss cow bells, the jarring bombing of that eyrie by helicopter-borne rescuers and the inadvertent clashes of the escaping Bond and Miss Rigg in a slithering, bang-up stock car race. One must say amen to a colleague's observation:

"I never expected to see Switzerland defoliated like 'this.'

"It should be reported that the producers and distributors already have rung up a reported $82,200,000 on their first five Bond issues. It is not ungallant to report that Bond marries Miss Rigg, who is gunned down and killed by Savalas on their honeymoon. So it is reasonable to expect that Bond inevitably will be loving, shooting and running again."

A.H. Weiler, New York Times - December 19, 1969

Thanks to mi6.co.uk for the last 3 reviews-

http://www.mi6.co.uk...s...ss&id=02423

The first 2 I dug up on my own.

[Revelator]

Thank you for these reviews Kamal. It would be interesting to know who wrote the LA Times review, which is surprisingly thoughtful. This sampling tends to confirm the impression that OHMSS enjoyed a relatively good critical reception. It's also interesting to know that some critics were divided about the ending--I think Kael would have preferred for Bond and Tracy to become a team and work together like Nick and Nora Charles in The Third Man. I wonder if you can track down Molly Haskell's Village Voice review--I've never seen the complete piece, but from what I've read it's probably the finest review of them all:

In a world, an industry, and particularly a genre which values the new and improved product above all, it is nothing short of miraculous to see a movie which dares to go backward, a technological artifact which has nobly deteriorated into a human being. I speak of the new and obsolete James Bond, played by a man named George Lazenby, who seems more comfortable in a wet tuxedo than a dry martini, more at ease as a donnish genealogist than reading (or playing) Playboy, and who actually dares to think that one woman who is his equal is better than a thousand part-time playmates...The love between Bond and his Tracy begins as a payment and ends as a sacrament. After ostensibly getting rid of the bad guys, they are married. They drive off to a shocking, stunning ending. Their love, being too real, is killed by the conventions it defied. But they win the final victory by calling, unexpectedly, upon feeling. Some of the audience hissed, I was shattered. If you like your Bonds with happy endings, don't go.

[Trident]

Yes, many thanks for digging these up! Most entertaining reading, particularly in hindsight. What's somewhat surprising (to me, that is), the apparent near total ignorance of some reviewers to Fleming's source material. At this point in the series nobody seemed to bother much about 'faithful' or 'close to the novel'. The series was viewed as a cinema phenomenon that routinely employed superlatives in every category without care for need and plausibility. Some reviewers obviously seem to regard the film's ending as a plot device thought up by the script writers as a deliberate attempt to stun the audience of an easy-going, lighthearted film series. The Nick-and-Nora suggestion indicates to me a completely different direction, far from Fleming, that some contemporary reviewers nonetheless seemed to view as a realistic alternative to what we've seen in the years after OHMSS.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Thank you for these reviews Kamal.

You're welcome, Revelator .

It would be interesting to know who wrote the LA Times review, which is surprisingly thoughtful. This sampling tends to confirm the impression that OHMSS enjoyed a relatively good critical reception.

Much better than I would've thought considering it's reputation. LA Times going so far as to say it was the best one yet back in 1969 with no Connery in the cast is a real eye-opener. Also, the film managed to be the 2nd highest grossing film of 1969 so that's impressive too. It does make me wonder how a 2nd Lazenby Bond film would've been received. Hollis Alpert was very kind to Lazenby. It is interesting that he makes no mention of Diana Rigg or Bond's wedding Tracy in his review. That must've been shocking to Bond film fans at that time who hadn't read the novels.

It's also interesting to know that some critics were divided about the ending--I think Kael would have preferred for Bond and Tracy to become a team and work together like Nick and Nora Charles in The Third Man. I wonder if you can track down Molly Haskell's Village Voice review--I've never seen the complete piece, but from what I've read it's probably the finest review of them all.

I found it thru google news archive-

http://news.google.c...A...rvice&hl=en

Yes, many thanks for digging these up! Most entertaining reading, particularly in hindsight. What's somewhat surprising (to me, that is), the apparent near total ignorance of some reviewers to Fleming's source material. At this point in the series nobody seemed to bother much about 'faithful' or 'close to the novel'. The series was viewed as a cinema phenomenon that routinely employed superlatives in every category without care for need and plausibility. Some reviewers obviously seem to regard the film's ending as a plot device thought up by the script writers as a deliberate attempt to stun the audience of an easy-going, lighthearted film series. The Nick-and-Nora suggestion indicates to me a completely different direction, far from Fleming, that some contemporary reviewers nonetheless seemed to view as a realistic alternative to what we've seen in the years after OHMSS.

You're welcome, Trident . At that point in the series, YOLT was the only film to basically discard most it's literary source material although GF had reshuffled the novel elements. I figure the average critic and viewer probably just assumed the films were basically the same as the books. It's interesting to look back now and think how different the series might've had turned out if EON had been as faithful to the novels in the 1970s as they had been in the 1960s. I do wonder how they would've handled DAF as an authentic sequel to OHMSS yet still be faithful somewhat to the novel. Would the Spang Brothers appear and be working with Blofeld? Had EON thought ahead to cast Telly Savalas as Blofeld?

[O.H.M.S.S.]

These reviews are interesting to read. I think the world has grown kinder towards OHMSS and Lazenby. Rightly so, although it still puzzles me why they thought Connery would have been better. Sure Sir Sean was great in the first five, but the character was an entilrey different one and had to be handled in another way then was needed for this movie. I must say the guy from the LA Times gives the best of the reviews here. Thanks for digging this up, Prince Kamal.

[Major Tallon]

This was the review by Mary Knoblauch in Chicago's American:

I rejoice to tell you, James Bond fans, that "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," is a return to the gold old days of "Dr. No."

In fact, there is not a single outlandish gimmick or gadget in the whole film. And, Ian Fleming fans, you will be pleased to know that this is an almost literal translation of the book, unhoked, mad ski chase, a wedding ring for Bond, tragic ending, and all.

James Bond married! Yes, non-book readers, he does this at last with the daughter of a Mafia-type chieftain, played to the hilt by Emma Peel, er . . . Diana Rigg.

And he finally meets his old archnemesis, Blofeld, face to face, in Blofeld's hideaway, and at even closer quarters during the wildest Bond hand-to-hand combat yet -- on a bobsled, screaming down the Alps.

It's been years, folks, since you've seen legit action like this in a Bond film -- a rescue of a drowning maiden [well, pretty girl], Alpine skiing chases amid rifle fire and avalanches, a bullet-sprinkled car chase that ends up in a stock car race on an ice-covered track, Bond's miraculous escape by riding a cable car's cable.

It's Bond's vendetta against Blofeld, and nothing can stop him, not even M relieving him of the assignment. Even without Sean Connery, replaced by novice actor George Lazenby, the Bond magic weaves its spell.

Lazenby looks more like Fleming's description of Bond than Connery did, and while his acting is not always all that great, it's good enough to hold the illusion together, even if he does order Dom Perignon instead of Taittinger champagne.

The biggest mistake was the casting of Telly Savalas as Blofeld, the guy whose face we've never seen, and who has appeared only as a hand stroking a white cat in previous films.

Savalas' style is just too Savalas to make the confrontation as dramatic as it should be, after all the build-up. The master stroke would have been Alfred Hitchcock, but I guess he's too busy for such frivolity.

Special effects are first rate, and each of the luscious femmes who inhabit Blofeld's mountaintop hideaway looks like a future candidate for a staple in her belly button.

As escapist fare this film, now in the Woods theater, is first rate.

Cheer the hero, hiss the villain, shed a tear over 007's fadeout tragedy. Gorge on a barrel of buttered popcorn. Giggle at the overblown sound effects in fist fights.

And consider that no one can parody a Bond film better than the guys who started it all in the first place. After the traditional action-packed opener, when the rescued girl drives away alone, Bond says wryly: "This never happened to the other fella." Good stuff.

Edited by Major Tallon, 17 April 2010 - 02:29 PM.

[Revelator]

The master stroke would have been Alfred Hitchcock.

!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, that'd be a pretty neat idea, except that the sight of Hitchcock engaging Bond in hand-to-hand combat or whizzing down a mountain in skis would have been too bizarre for words. But Hitch could certainly play a creepy, megalomaniacal genius in real life.

[Gobi-1]

The biggest mistake was the casting of Telly Savalas as Blofeld, the guy whose face we've never seen, and who has appeared only as a hand stroking a white cat in previous films.

Apparently Mary Knoblauch never saw You Only Live Twice.

[Attempting Re-entry]

Great thread - those vintage reviews are a fascinating read.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

This was the review by Mary Knoblauch in Chicago's American:

I rejoice to tell you, James Bond fans, that "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," is a return to the gold old days of "Dr. No."

In fact, there is not a single outlandish gimmick or gadget in the whole film. And, Ian Fleming fans, you will be pleased to know that this is an almost literal translation of the book, unhoked, mad ski chase, a wedding ring for Bond, tragic ending, and all.

James Bond married! Yes, non-book readers, he does this at last with the daughter of a Mafia-type chieftain, played to the hilt by Emma Peel, er . . . Diana Rigg.

And he finally meets his old archnemesis, Blofeld, face to face, in Blofeld's hideaway, and at even closer quarters during the wildest Bond hand-to-hand combat yet -- on a bobsled, screaming down the Alps.

It's been years, folks, since you've seen legit action like this in a Bond film -- a rescue of a drowning maiden [well, pretty girl], Alpine skiing chases amid rifle fire and avalanches, a bullet-sprinkled car chase that ends up in a stock car race on an ice-covered track, Bond's miraculous escape by riding a cable car's cable.

It's Bond's vendetta against Blofeld, and nothing can stop him, not even M relieving him of the assignment. Even without Sean Connery, replaced by novice actor George Lazenby, the Bond magic weaves its spell.

Lazenby looks more like Fleming's description of Bond than Connery did, and while his acting is not always all that great, it's good enough to hold the illusion together, even if he does order Dom Perignon instead of Taittinger champagne.

The biggest mistake was the casting of Telly Savalas as Blofeld, the guy whose face we've never seen, and who has appeared only as a hand stroking a white cat in previous films.

Savalas' style is just too Savalas to make the confrontation as dramatic as it should be, after all the build-up. The master stroke would have been Alfred Hitchcock, but I guess he's too busy for such frivolity.

Special effects are first rate, and each of the luscious femmes who inhabit Blofeld's mountaintop hideaway looks like a future candidate for a staple in her belly button.

As escapist fare this film, now in the Woods theater, is first rate.

Cheer the hero, hiss the villain, shed a tear over 007's fadeout tragedy. Gorge on a barrel of buttered popcorn. Giggle at the overblown sound effects in fist fights.

And consider that no one can parody a Bond film better than the guys who started it all in the first place. After the traditional action-packed opener, when the rescued girl drives away alone, Bond says wryly: "This never happened to the other fella." Good stuff.

Thanks for posting. Another positive from the time OHMSS was a new release. Very interesting comment from Miss Knoblauch about Lazenby himself.

[Stephen Spotswood]

The master stroke would have been Alfred Hitchcock.

!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, that'd be a pretty neat idea, except that the sight of Hitchcock engaging Bond in hand-to-hand combat or whizzing down a mountain in skis would have been too bizarre for words. But Hitch could certainly play a creepy, megalomaniacal genius in real life.

I had a feeling Hitchcock had problems keeping his zipper closed.

[The Shark]

The master stroke would have been Alfred Hitchcock.

!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, that'd be a pretty neat idea, except that the sight of Hitchcock engaging Bond in hand-to-hand combat or whizzing down a mountain in skis would have been too bizarre for words. But Hitch could certainly play a creepy, megalomaniacal genius in real life.

I had a feeling Hitchcock had problems keeping his zipper closed.

More of a problem keeping the keyhole in his latest blonde starlet's bedroom door - closed.

[THX-007]

This not what a critic said but what Roger Moore said during the commentary for MWTGG

"I have a great deal of e-mail contact with George Lazenby; he's sort of on the joke circuit ... that we simply send jokes to each other. OHMSS - very well made film - Peter Hunt - excellent, excellent, excellent fight stuff, excellent snow effects ... but I think the end result for George was that it was one of the better Bonds".

[Fiona Volpe lover]

These reviews are interesting to read. I've always thought that OHMSS got mainly poor reviews. Obviously that wasn't the case!

[chrisno1]

Dilys Powell, TheSundayTimes, 21/12/1969 (excerts)

"Begin with adventure in this season of goodwill and international extermination, begin with private massacre, with the body chucked over a precipice or fried in a helicopter attack. Begin with 007.
"It's inevitable that the appearance in On Her Majesty's Secret Service of a new James Bond should stir regrets for the previous one. I can't help missing Seam Connery with his saturnine mask and his flat delivery of the throwaway line. His successor, George Lazenby, I find too amiable; one doesn't get the rasping indifference to danger which used to combine so happily with the sybarite's taste in drink. As a matter of fact Mr Lazenby is most effective when Richard Maibaum's script allows him to be something other than pure 007, when for instance, he masquerades as the emissary of teh College of Arms sent to authenticate the claim to nobility of the villainous Bloefeld (Telly savalas).
"But then one must remember that the Bond of On Her Majesty's Secret Service had changed. He was indestructible as ever, but this time he wanted to marry the girl (Diana Rigg). Perhaps before making a judgement one should wait for the next film in the series. Meanwhile one might as well enjoy the ferocious speed of the present narrative with its chases by car, ski or bob-sled, through avalanche or the melee of a stockcar race on ice. And perhaps one might spare a moment to consider whom, after the director (Peter Hunt), to congratulate first: the aerial cameramen, the ski cameramen, the stockcar sequence director, teh stunt arranger or the editor and second unit director."

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Dilys Powell, TheSundayTimes, 21/12/1969 (excerts)

"Begin with adventure in this season of goodwill and international extermination, begin with private massacre, with the body chucked over a precipice or fried in a helicopter attack. Begin with 007.
"It's inevitable that the appearance in On Her Majesty's Secret Service of a new James Bond should stir regrets for the previous one. I can't help missing Seam Connery with his saturnine mask and his flat delivery of the throwaway line. His successor, George Lazenby, I find too amiable; one doesn't get the rasping indifference to danger which used to combine so happily with the sybarite's taste in drink. As a matter of fact Mr Lazenby is most effective when Richard Maibaum's script allows him to be something other than pure 007, when for instance, he masquerades as the emissary of teh College of Arms sent to authenticate the claim to nobility of the villainous Bloefeld (Telly savalas).
"But then one must remember that the Bond of On Her Majesty's Secret Service had changed. He was indestructible as ever, but this time he wanted to marry the girl (Diana Rigg). Perhaps before making a judgement one should wait for the next film in the series. Meanwhile one might as well enjoy the ferocious speed of the present narrative with its chases by car, ski or bob-sled, through avalanche or the melee of a stockcar race on ice. And perhaps one might spare a moment to consider whom, after the director (Peter Hunt), to congratulate first: the aerial cameramen, the ski cameramen, the stockcar sequence director, teh stunt arranger or the editor and second unit director."

Just saw this. Thanks for adding, chrisno1.

[DaveBond21]

Excellent work, PKK. You're a legend...

[Matt_13]

Great read, thanks for this. A lot of positives thrown in those reviews, many of them similar to what was said about Casino Royale. Interesting stuff.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Excellent work, PKK. You're a legend...

Thank you, sir!

Great read, thanks for this. A lot of positives thrown in those reviews, many of them similar to what was said about Casino Royale. Interesting stuff.

Indeed. I also figure regardless of what folks thought of Lazenby's performance, there was no other comparable action/adventure series of films that were near the quality of the Bond films. OHMSS's being a Bond film in and of itself was going to put it head and shoulders above much of its competition.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Roger Ebert on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service from December 29, 1969:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0pZlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1ooNAAAAIBAJ&dq=on%20her%20majesty's%20secret%20service&pg=1460%2C4258993

[Revelator]

Many thanks to Prince Kamal Khan for finding the google newslink for Molly Haskell's Village Voice review. I thought I'd transcribe and post it here, since I think it's the most in-depth and interesting review OHMSS received on release:

Village Voice, Dec. 25, 1969
Film: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
By Molly Haskell

In a world, an industry, and particularly genre which values the new and improved product above all, it is nothing short of miraculous to see a movie which dares to go backward, a technological artifact which has nobly deteriorated into a human being. I speak of the new and obsolete James Bond, played by a man named George Lazenby, who seems more comfortable in a wet tuxedo than a dry martini, more at ease as a donnish genealogist than reading (or playing) Playboy, and who actually dares to think that one woman is enough for him, or at least that one woman who is his equal is better than a thousand part-time playmates. And Diana Rigg, a handsome brunette who radiates softness, light, and intelligence, is a subtle sensation as his match, and looks just like what she is supposed to be—the daughter of a romantic, departed Englishwoman and an Italian bandit-count (Gabriele Ferzetti). Indeed, there is something downright Shavian if not Congrevian in this mating of true minds, who “dwindle” like Millamant and Mirabell into marriage, and in the comedy-of-manners style of the film, which affectionately mocks the conventions it uses to disguise true feelings.

With “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” Peter Hunt has directed what to my mind is the most engaging and exciting James Bond film. Hunt is a newcomer, who, according to the program notes, worked as editor and unit director on the five previous Bond films. He has been able to call upon and yet carefully modify certain expectations.

Lazenby is a less slick and streamlined model than his predecessor. He has small eyes in an unmemorable face (none of Connery’s beaming black and white contrasts), and a hesitant, attentive manner strongly suggestive of both thought and feeling. He is less than efficient at his work.

“Have you lost confidence in me, Sir?” he asks M, who is releasing him from a case on which he has spent two fruitless years.

“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” is least effective in the areas where the others were strong: in wizardry, gimmickry, and narrative neatness. There are loose ends, longeurs, the nature of the Enemy takes forever to emerge and when it does is anti-climactic, and the only gimmick is a safe-cracking computer which takes an entire hour to do the job. But the action sequences, particularly the ski chase, winter carnival, and stock-car racing episodes are breathtaking. Each is long, beautifully developed and refined, and invites the thrill of complicity more than the shock of surprise. The fist fights, on the other hand, are sheer hyperbole—big black henchmen, a few swift belts and chops that sound like they were recorded from inside a punching bag. Death is comically rather than cosmically cheap, perhaps to beguile us before the tragic ending. If the film refers to anything beyond its own unfolding it is neither the aesthetics of death nor the poetics of men-machines, but human weakness and sex (i.e. maleness and femaleness) as the most human of weaknesses and the most private and variable of joys.

The stable of nitwit beauties being brainwashed by the evil Blofeld (Telly Savalas) are seen with humorous interest rather than contempt. Even Bond’s dalliances are mutual jokes rather than caricatures. The only truly wicked and immutable character in the film is the dikey, but sexless Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat), assistant to Blofeld and executor of his wishes. The most grotesque scene in the film is when she substitutes herself for one of the young girls as a trap for Bond, and he pulls back the sheets to discover her.

The love between Bond and his Tracy begins as a payment and ends as a sacrament. After ostensibly getting rid of the bad guys, they are married. They drive off to a shocking, stunning ending. Their love, being too real, is killed by the conventions it defied. But they win the final victory by calling, unexpectedly, upon feeling. Some of the audience hissed, I was shattered. If you like your Bonds with happy endings, don’t go.

[glidrose]

The New York Times' Vincent Canby called OHMSS was the worst film in the series. Put it on his "ten worst" list for 1969.

Edited by glidrose, 07 February 2012 - 12:27 AM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Why mention it? Do you agree with him?

[glidrose]

Why mention it? Good question. Let me think about it for a longish moment.

Here's what I've come up with so far. On 29 March 2010, PrinceKamalKhan started a thread. He called this thread "What did critics think of Lazenby and OHMSS in 1969?"

On 6 February 2012 I posted New York Times film critic Vincent Canby's 1969 opinion of the film.

I'm stumped. I don't know why I posted Canby's 1969 opinion to this thread. Can somebody help me out? I must be having one of those "senior moments" I so often hear about.

Edited by glidrose, 07 February 2012 - 01:46 AM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

That's not the question; there's only one reason I can think of that you would mention a negative review when we've been trying to ferret out the positive ones; therein, do you agree with Canby?

[glidrose]

That's not the question

Yes it bloody well was. It was the first of two questions.

there's only one reason I can think of that you would mention a negative review when we've been trying to ferret out the positive ones; therein, do you agree with Canby?

Think harder. There's another reason. But I cannot help you if you willfully misinterpret my intentions or the reason for this thread. Read the thread title. Go on. It won't bite.

I have thus far criticized Moore, Dalton and Brosnan on these fora. I have also said that Rigg and Savalas were miscast. No word against Lazenby. Therefore one may assume he's at least mid-level in my pantheon of Bond actors.

I have also said on these fora that for many years OHMSS was underrated, now it is overrated. One may assume I place it in the middle of the pack. Or perhaps somewhere above the middle of the pack but not at the top.

In another thread Captain Tightpants said he tries to forget he ever saw ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. He asked if that counted as a Dirty Little Secret? I said no and rechristened him Prince Stiff Boxers. One may have assumed I liked the film and was peeved with Captain Tightpants' nonchalance.

[Mr. Blofeld]

My mistake; sorry, must've been in an off-mood when I posted that. :-o

[PrinceKamalKhan]

The New York Times' Vincent Canby called OHMSS was the worst film in the series. Put it on his "ten worst" list for 1969.

Do you have a link for this or a copy of Canby's review, glidrose? If so, please post it. My main point in this thread was just to post reviews(positive, negative or indifferent) that were dated from the time when OHMSS was the newest Bond flick to get some perspective on how Lazenby and the film were received at the time.

[glidrose]

The New York Times' Vincent Canby called OHMSS was the worst film in the series. Put it on his "ten worst" list for 1969.

Do you have a link for this or a copy of Canby's review, glidrose? If so, please post it. My main point in this thread was just to post reviews(positive, negative or indifferent) that were dated from the time when OHMSS was the newest Bond flick to get some perspective on how Lazenby and the film were received at the time.

Not off hand.

However, in his DAF review Canby writes "It may be that I've become jaded, or that I've forgotten the details of all but the last (and worst) Bond film ("On His Majesty's Secret Service.")"

http://www.nytimes.c...FB467838A669EDE

In his round-up of the ten worst films of 1969 (New York Times, January 4, 1970), Canby writes that Diana Rigg's "presence makes everything around her look even more dull and foolish than is absolutely necessary."

In his review of the 1974 Peter Hunt directed film "Gold" (starring Roger Moore), Canby also writes, "The movie was directed by Peter Hunt, who directed "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," the worst Bond film ever." Canby has no love for "Gold" either writing: "Gold is an overwritten, overacted, overdirected, overproduced adventure film that, like many much better, much simpler B-movies of the nineteen-thirties and forties, is about men doing a job. Because "Gold" has the social conscience of a dim-witted ostrich, you expect Mr. Moore at any minute to refer to Mr. Sabela as a good darkie. [The cast] without exception all are dreadful. Mr. Hunt's sense of style is summed up in his decision to photograph the beginning of one scene through a brandy glass. It could have been, of course, that he was only embarrassed by the content of the film and trying his best to hide it."

http://www.nytimes.c...FB667838F669EDE

[Dustin]

This Canby guy certainly liked a good hatchet job...