Nothing More, Nothing Less- On Her Majesty's Secret Service at 50 (1969-2019)

Well, here be the marker for what follows soon. What with work and the like my viewing of the film might not be until December but soon hope to get to work on my mooted track-by-track commentary for the soundtrack and so on.

The caption of this thread might change but, we're almost in that magical period, OHMSS50.

To think the film that was the hardest to see, only the subject of trivia answers in pop culture, the most direct Fleming adaptation post FRWL, the one seen as a commercial flop when it really wasn't a flop is now publicly held in high esteem.
50 years can do many things.

Did the forum already have a OHMSS banner? I can only remember MR, LTK and TWINE. As close as Christmas comes, there ought to be one. Nothing is bigger than OHMSS hitting 50!

Solid 'keep your eyes on her face, keep your eyes on her face' work from George in that pic there .

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Solid 'keep your eyes on her face, keep your eyes on her face' work from George in that pic there .

She's got the gadgets and she knows how to use them!

I second the OHMSS decor for Christmas idea. Granted, TWINE is also sort of a Christmas movie (or New Years?) but 50 is a bigger milestone than 20.

Rewatched Becoming Bond yesterday ... it's still quite the tale, and Lazenby is still quite the teller.

Fun to ponder the 'what if' of him signing that contract for another 6 and seeing it through ... assuming the continuation of the 'one every 2 years' production rate that would've taken things to '81, Lazenby would have 7 under his belt and we could be talking about him in the same exalted terms as Connery. And Dalton might've got his start with the '83 release and got to do 4.

No Moore-era, though.

Good one, Hilly!

Makeshift Python wrote:

Did the forum already have a OHMSS banner? I can only remember MR, LTK and TWINE. As close as Christmas comes, there ought to be one. Nothing is bigger than OHMSS hitting 50!

There will be. Supposed to swap out the TWINE one now. Just haven't had a chance to put one together.

If anyone wants to submit a banner, feel free to. If not, I'll do one along the lines of the ones we've had.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Solid 'keep your eyes on her face, keep your eyes on her face' work from George in that pic there .

Perhaps she had just breathed a great gust of garlic in his face...

I think we have an idea, via that picture, of Lazenby's face if confronted with Plenty O'Toole.

Slight stiffness coming on and all that.

Had a crack at the header on the forum. I'm useless at such things hence using Paint but it's a place-holder until the anniversary proper. I've a ton of pictures on my laptop I was tempted by, including this one I found today:

That's great.

Here's one I rather like.

Excellent, I think we can do that Christmas week. Unwrapping our presents or some such.

Great header.

Good header work, Hilly old chap.

thanks fellas. I always have ideas for stuff just lack the technical nouse for such things.

Loving the new banner. Just in time for the official 50th anniversary date.

Thanks. I confess I forget the exact date of OHMSS so figured we'd strike now before my work gets too much.

It came out on December 18th, so you're more than good.

The 18th, eh? I shall maybe schedule my annual festive season rewatch for the night of Saturday 21st, in that case (better a weekend so that a little too much mulled wine can be consumed in accompaniment, hehehe).

I'm going to be quite cheeky and put my latest viewing of OHMSS here. It was well established on the old forum my often overbearing loyalty and defence of this film and though things have settled in recent years, it seems appropriate in its fiftieth year to do it differently tonight.

I forget exactly when I first saw the film. I'm sure it was when I was about six or seven and my enduring memory of that viewing was Bond creeping up the stairs after escaping the cable car barn and spying on the girls as Blofeld intoned his instructions. Since then, somehow, for some reason, this film lodged itself top of my list and will always thus be there.

--

The PTS does a fair job of showing what's coming in that we get some nifty camera angles and zooms in/out (re: the focus on Bond as he lights up or as he goes to stand when the goons show up. You have in Diana Rigg one of the most beautiful women going and a fast furious punch-up. There's something about how Tracy uses the DBS to get to her car and then you have the most infamous line in a Bond film perhaps on account of it breaking the fourth wall. Cheeky, daring and yet it works.

Now fine, the titles might not be the best but there's always been something about it starts. The theme's beginning in time with a slow motion running Bond and then Bond hanging off a clock. Time's against our hero, he's changed, he's new and he's had enough already. For the first time I've noticed that the end of theme seems different to the album release or maybe because of my soundtrack reviewing, it sounds different.

Lazenby rocks the style from the off. Sure he had to wear a kilt later but the way he strides into the hotel, the suit looks smashing and then straight after, his entrance into the casino. Check out the woman in the foreground who looks to her left to check out Bond, right out of the Young films where you'd have such reactions from the hotel receptionist in Dr No or whatever. The casino (how I wish somehow it was stated as Royale) scene is the first to feel properly taken from the book, the PTS sort of was with the cars but the guests around the casino table and the way Tracy makes her entrance. (Do always like when that American says "too rich for my blood", how Bond looks faintly unbothered -"Why are you talking to me, man?")
It makes me wonder if Hunt made an effort to make sure that the other players at the table in some way resembled Fleming's descriptions.

Now there have been those who say Hunt edited the action to make Lazenby look better, to paper over the acting cracks. I'll sideskip that as honestly I love this fight. It feels savage and shows Lazenby can handle himself as he did in the PTS. (If only, I'll say here for the first time, that we had more than one Lazenby film. Would've been interesting to see how his fights evolved).
It does make me realise how many quotes I weave into life or just remember ad nauseum when I hear: "I can think of something more sociable to do." It's a funny scene, Bond's growl "Get dressed" and then how he tries to kiss Tracy once he sits on the chez longue with her. It does make you wonder if any of the other guests saw them, er, saying Bond woke on the balcony.
And did Tracy take Bond's gun? I guess she did. Never sort of twigged that.

Do like Lazenby with Draco's goons. "Maybe we can make up a foursome" or "mystery tour, hmm?" (But noticed that his little cut above the eye, there when he woke, was gone in the car). I'm trying to avoid mentioning the music in light of the review but got to love that instrumental.

From the off you can't help but like Draco and yet, in theory, not a nice man professionally I'd have thought (nice guys don't end up Capu of the Union Corse). I do like Bond's "Everything?" (well, of course Draco would know, the goons likely were watching the balcony...!)
See I think Lazenby could hold his own. Sure some bits might feel a bit rough but he seems natural in his way. Rigg said she and the others carried him but did they? Some prodding or some such. Though I never quite noticed Lazenby's face after he says he'll sleep on the idea. Like he's about to burst out laughing.

And then we have Moneypenny. The best interactions Bond seemed to have with her, the most honest were here. And the same with M, well maybe not THE best M/007 scenes but they're up there. M here for the first time since Dr No/FRWL seems quite close to Fleming's.

Got to love the ranch scene (I say ranch). The odd night school line (it seems...out of place or maybe I'm tired) and that moment: "Between friends...or lovers" (I never quite connected that they have the same clothes when the montage starts on horseback, so I guess they're courtship starts right then). For the first time a song in the films duration and a montage no less. It is hard to be critical when you're dealing with Satchmo. It's an odd moment for a Bond film but a necessary one that of course is to lay the foundation for Bond ultimately proposing to her, in this regard it actually does more than the book does to cement that.

It is curious that Bond's prospective father-in-law and wife drive him to Gumbold but then I suppose Draco is using one of his cranes to help Bond out (and there's a SIS agent working on site an' all!). Amazing how much changes in ten years. To crack a safe, Lazenby's Bond needs something that could sink the Titanic via its weight and needs the crane to help out whereas Moore's Bond in Moonraker uses a cigarette case. Now Craig's Bond might well use a watch and have the safe cracked in seconds.

It is funny how elements of the book get a little swapped about -absent in the PTS is Bond being taken to Draco's hideaway after following Tracy onto the beach and then he visits Quarterdeck as part of his mission as such as opposed to Xmas Day and with representatives of Ag. and Fish.
Where they filmed the exterior is a few miles from my town and when I was searching out the river, took photos and realised it was where they did the film but the house itself burned down a few years ago apparently.
Had this been a Moore film perhaps prior to meeting Hilly we had a perplexed Bond dealing with the Sable Basilisk. The subsequent scene where Campbell is reading a paper is the only to touch upon the scene cut from the film where Bond chases a goon into the Royal Mail underground rail system (the incident is reported on the front of Campbell's paper).
And here again, the book is captured in the shape of Frauline Steppat. With respect to her, she is the perfect embodiment of Fleming's Bunt right down to the toadlike features...! (But the one downside to the film, the dubbing. I shall never understand it. In theory Fleming's Bond did not need to change his voice and we're meant to assume Bond here can change his voice entirely? I still find myself hoping against certain hope that an original recording of the scenes will be found and restored. Great shame that in his only film, Lazenby is bloody dubbed for what is a fair whack of it).

There is of course one of the most stunning moments in a Bond film. The flight to Piz Gloria. Again, Piz Gloria is from the book. I can't help but think Bond is twigged early on by Blofeld so the voice dub is pointless. It is pointless.

Ten Gorgeous Girls. One of the weirdest scenes in a Bond film but one of the most enjoyable. Our hero surrounded by enough girls to keep him going a week. I do like the image of Bunt walking from room to room with the genealogy book ("Now it is your turn!"). Lazenby at least has the good sense to look bored by the whole heraldry business (such as Bond was at times in the book).
Intriguing how in the book Campbell stumbles upon Piz Gloria on his own back but feels the need here to try and get up there somehow. He seems in support of Bond and yet on his own foray.

It is almost a relief, bizarre as that sounds, for when Bond goes into Ruby's room and is rumbled by Bunt. It's a bizarre, wonderful moment anyway followed by the zoom in/out of the tree and what follows is a brilliant moment between Blofeld and Bond. For once I properly savoured Savalas as Blofeld. There is that also wonderful moment when as he's about to be imprisoned, Bond fights lose and goes for Blofeld but is stopped in time.

Thence, one of my favourite Bond scenes total. Escape from Piz Gloria. The theme is sumptuously used here and the action realistic, sure there's back-projection but for the most part it looks good. Do like how Blofeld is involved, of all the Blofeld's Savalas feels the more rounded in terms of his interaction with Bond, to a point Tracy and the physical action.

Here next is where Lazenby comes into his own as Bond. The startled expression on his face as he flees into the barn and his near desperate efforts to get out of the barn from Blofeld's goons. Then his face as he makes his way to the ice rink and by it. Though perhaps he doesn't convey Bond's physical exhaustion of the book by the time Bond reached the rink, there is a certain weariness he captures. Dare I suggest a look of fear just before he turns into the bear and is startled nearly out of his wits. The scene is down well, the cutting of camera shots to the goons, to Bond and back. From this scene on, the film enters this world where it's on a different level to subsequent movies. If only just before Tracy's arrival when Bond sat we saw the couple that Bond sits next to in the book, edge away from him ("Bond didn't care...he just wanted to be left alone"). Though look, what odds Bond managed to sit where Tracy had left her fur coat(!)

Tracy's arrival is one of the best moments going. The look on her face, Bond's relief and surprise. Thankfully no music accompanies this, some other composers might have been tempted to score it. Da-dah. Again, the film's on its own level aided by the fact that Tracy is played by the actress who played Emma Peel (I do wonder had it not been Diana Rigg would Tracy have been as she was in this film, re: the car chase, the fight with Gunther...).
"What of someone's way of saying thank you?"

I always think as thrilling as it is, that the car race is a random thing to throw into the film but then if they followed the book and had Bond 'fork left for danger' Bunt's car, then it wouldn't quite work. For all the fact that they're fleeing for their lives (and this mob won't quit until they've killed Bond and now Tracy), Diana Rigg does seem to be enjoying herself as she flings the car about. And when the mini slaps the other car's door shut, there seems to be a thankful honk of the horn. (Had it been a Moore film, or even Craig, what odds that Bond and Tracy would've had the time to collect the prize!)

Ah, the barn scene. Can't help but go weak at the knees as you get that shot of Tracy shaking her hair loose, Bond's expression and Rigg's smile as she catches Bond staring. Love the effect they give, similar to how Star Trek TOS filmed their women -sort of in halo. And there is perhaps the most unique moment in a Bond film, the proposal. It works, it just works. I remember watching this at the BFI South Bank years ago (where apparently someone else from KTBEU was there also) and you could've heard a pin drop during that moment. Always like Tracy's expression as he lays her on the blanket: "Goodnight James," thinking, well I guess not tonight. That moment of "it's not new year yet!" makes me smile.

(Imagine the farmer who owns that barn. Goes to sort out his cows or whatever and there's a smashing motor left there. Result)

Ski chase. Beautifully shot at the start (and after) accompanied by one of the best tracks. There's something at once savage about Lazenby's guts quip but also comical. What was it Lazenby said about Hunt and the avalanche (Or maybe I made this up), that only Hunt would create a real avalanche just for the film as opposed to effects. It's a brilliant moment in the film and what immediately follows with Bond staring out of the window is a nice touch.
Got to be one of the top 5 M/007 scenes though. Bernard Lee's "understand?" conveys much than some could ever do. Lazenby is good here.

Over and Out. In some respects I enjoy the helicopter moments a lot. The music, the scenery, Tracy realising help is on the way and Draco's vexed voice: "Mer-cy flight!" As much as Blofeld wooing Tracy is sometimes odd and the poetry exchanged, Rigg excels and Savalas seems to be having some fun.
Here comes one of my favourite Bond set pieces. Helicopters flying in, gunfire, explosions, people jumping onto the peak...and Tracy going full Emma Peel. I imagine one could argue that the fact she's carrying on to the Bond theme works. She is the Mrs Bond-to-be.
For all my dislike of the dubbing, the guns make me nervous is chuckle worthy and then Bond's face after seeing what that scientist threw.
(And yes Bond sliding on the ice is still quite cool).
Never really noted that Bond and Draco are the only two to not wear white. Draco's way of the leaders I guess. But what a right hook he gives Tracy. I guess slinging her into the chopper without knocking her out wasn't in the cards (and it strikes me writing that, that as they're checking their watches, she's lying on the floor there and you've no sight of her) and on *that* note...the "3.2..1" is a little off, the delay between Draco's countdown and the explosion jars. (Dig Blofeld's reaction to seeing Piz Gloria explode. He really did buy into his project).

Have to credit Bond on the bobsled chase. He takes the brunt of the grenade, tumbles down the slope, gets onto Blofeld's sled, is having his head knocked against the walls and still is okay after. Impressive stuntwork for Bond but also Blofeld. The way the back-projection bits meld with the actual on location bits is well done. The branched off line still provokes a smile in spite of everything. (Twig Lazenby's startled expression as he A) lands in the snow eyes wide and B) as he takes his goggles off).

Laze and Rigg do enough to convey the love they feel for each other, character-wise. It's a lovely scene in its way. There's a sense up through to them driving off that, wait is this the end for Bond? Next film will be pipe and slippers? Tracy in the film feels more rounded than the book, aided no doubt by Dame Diana and whatever she says now about the film and Lazenby, she and Lazenby both do good jobs and both hold their own against the other and in the film. If only the Bond series really did go weird in the era of Easy Rider and the next film was Mr and Mrs Bond kicking arse. Well, never mind, I jest.

As with the book, the closer you get to the end (and by now you know, what is coming), the more you don't want it to end. That you want to tell Bond to stop being lovey-dovey just one second to notice the dawdling Merc approaching. Lazenby's anguished "It's Blofeld!" thick with the emotion of redoing the scene. Indeed, my eyes sparked this time round. Those who do not rate Lazenby, well, the way he speaks to the patrolman -maybe it helped that he had the book on his lap at one point during filming, I don't know but it's how Bond was at the end of the book and you're left as the credits roll with the wish that if only he had the one more film, if only it had been revenge-driven and so on...
...but what can't be taken is that it's a solid film, always is and always will be. There'll be more Bond's, there might even be a film that bubbles into my top 5 dislodging my well established top 5 but there'll be nothing to dislodge On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Nothing more, nothing less, only love.

Stunning write up, Hilly! Didn't realise you feel as you do about the dubbing. It really doesn't bother me. I guess, since Bond and Blofeld met in YOLT, they needed to find ways of having Bond and Blofeld interact without the latter recognising him, and an accent helped that.

If you have those pictures you took, might be nice to see for those non-UK residing folk.

The dubbing isn't the worst thing but it's a shame when you consider it's his only film. Had he done 6-7 I wouldn't have minded.

I'll try to find those photos. I seemed to have not kept them to my laptop

Addendum, found them. For these photos I had my back to the Thames (which you briefly glimpse as the DBS drives through to the house itself). This is a few miles from London (a sign nearby says 56 by river) and fits the Fleming description in the book quite well. Though to drive I imagine it's a drive of an hour or so nowadays.

Now picturing Bond cheekily asking M if he fancied a quick drink at that pub .

Ha, yes. Whilst boring M rigid over just what he knows about butterflies.

On a movie locations site there's this snippet for Quarterdeck

Quote :

In the UK, M’s house, ‘Quarterdeck’, was Thames Lawn, a riverfront mansion at the end of St Peter Street in Marlow, near the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. The house burned down in the 1990s and a new building has replaced it, but you can still see the gates, just as they were in 1969, alongside the Two Brewers pub (now renovated after itself being damaged in a disastrous fire in 2013).

Very quiet part of the world.

I've been quietly hoarding most photos (behind the scenes stuff) of Lazenby/Rigg and whilst googling about the car, found this one.