Some describe the penultimate James Bond film, “Skyfall” from 2012, as a complex portrait of the secret agent; they praise Bond’s self-knowledge as an alcoholic, physically weak person, especially as someone who has to deal with childhood trauma – and accepts it, that his parents’ house will be reduced to rubble and ashes. Daniel Craig in the role of 007? Nobody was ever better.
Such biographical expansions seem necessary, as the James Bond episodes in which the Secret Service man reveals the least about himself are the weakest: These include, for example, all films with Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. The previous Bond producers around Albert “Cubby” Broccoli were already trying to give their agent depth.
Bond in love
When “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was released in British cinemas in December 1969 (the film was also released here in 1970), people were shocked by the result. James Bond (George Lazenby) falls in love for the first time. The first half of the longest work in the series to date, at more than 140 minutes, revolves around the liaison with Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). We see the two lovebirds ice skating, and Bond has melancholic conversations with his future father-in-law.
Double Zero, the most important man in the fight against the villain Blofeld (Telly Savalas), ends up giving up his job and marrying his Contessa. The man wanted to relax; a large part of the film takes place, unusually for the jet setter Bond, in just one place, Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps. Overall, there was probably too little action and too much of a test of patience for his fans: the sixth Bond film was a failure and failed with audiences and critics.
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” offered a successful contrast to the over-the-top, almost pop-like predecessor “You Only Live Twice” (1967). Few climactic effects and explosions, and the villain Blofeld, previously portrayed by Donald Pleasence, was no longer an involuntary comedian and cat lover (Mike Meyers would later parody him as “Dr. Evil” in his “Austin Powers” series), but became a sober psychopath thanks to Telly Savalas. With Diana Rigg as Teresa, Bond also had a playmate for the first time who was not only much more mysterious, but above all more intelligent than the secret agent.
The most impressive personality was of course 007 himself: George Lazenby succeeded Sean Connery, who had to be persuaded to continue from film number three, “Goldfinger” (1964), and who had appeared increasingly cynical. In the Bond canon, the tall Australian Lazenby is still considered the wrong choice. Simply because he is Australian and not British.
007, the chocolate bar
Perhaps the then 30-year-old didn’t appear quite as charming and urbane as Connery, but he had boyishness on his side and a stronger physical presence. The makers were happy to have found someone at all, even after Patrick McGoohan (“The Prisoner”) turned down the lead role several times. In any case, producer Broccoli became aware of Lazenby when he saw him in a TV advertisement for chocolate bars.
“This never happened to the other fellow” is one of the most striking sentences in the history of the Bond franchise. It was also one of Lazenby’s first lines in the film, after in the prologue – one of the best photographed in the entire series – he first stops Teresa from committing suicide by drowning and then takes out a killer, only to watch the woman drive away in the car roars away on the beach.
“That never happened to the other guy” – the defeat that Connery would never have allowed only makes the new Bond more human.
For this love story, which already has its problematic beginning here, John Barry composed what is probably his most beautiful Bond score (“Diamonds Are Forever” was supposed to have a similar, almost dreamlike quality in 1971). Louis Armstrong’s wise “We Have All The Time In The World”, to this day the crowning achievement of all Bond songs, serves as a motif throughout the film.
Bond will quote the title at the end, and it then turns out to be the tragic foreshadowing of an impossible love. Director Peter R. Hunt would later go on record saying that the lead duo didn’t really get along. Diana Rigg, who has long since become a star thanks to her role in the TV series “The Avengers”, is said to have been upset by the rude manners of film debutant Lazenby; the upstart probably showed his first airs during filming.
The attempt to capture the spirit of the times with “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” seemed more strange than really successful. 1969 was one of the most exciting years ever, there was the moon landing, psychedelia reigned in the culture, free love became an option, drugs were everywhere, including in Vietnam. The Bond film poster proclaimed, in the language of its time, “Far Up!” Far Out! Far More!”. Blofeld’s “Angels of Death” were intended to pay tribute to this new freedom of movement. Twelve friendly women from all over the world who are put into a trance by the villain and then help distribute bioweapons around the globe.
In the film, the “angels” appear like employees of a harem, and Bond can still show off his early 1960s macho charm. From today’s perspective, you could imagine him holding the final door open for “Mad Men” Don Draper.
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” is now viewed more positively than when it premiered in 1969, and even George Lazenby – it should stay with this one agent mission – has been rehabilitated. Back then, it was impossible to imagine what would come after him: another mission for Sean Connery, even older, even more tired; and for seven films (1973-1985) Roger Moore. This led Bond into pop, into even more women and into the world of gimmicks.
James Bond would never walk down the aisle again.
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