SimonJack If this weren't a James Bond 007 film, it might rate a notch higher. But no more than that. This is an interesting plot, and the film has some of the usual great scenery and camera work. An unusually higher caliber of cast (Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas) raise it a level. But it has a few things against it. The biggest minus is that it drags in several places. It has short bursts of boredom with little action or interest. The second problem is George Lazenby as James Bond. Again, if he wasn't James Bond but someone else, it would be OK. But, he doesn't have the Bond persona. George is a nice guy, a gentleman, even a little down to earth and humble. But he's not a very good actor. His fight scenes have the slightest pause in them, so they seem contrived or staged. James Bond, on the other hand, is supposed to be tough and macho. He's an overly self-confident, even a little conceited character. That's James Bond, but not George Lazenby. And the third thing wrong with this plot is Bond getting married. I don't think any fans were ready for that at that stage of the Bond character. Again, if the hero was anyone other than Bond, it would be OK for a film. But not here. And Diana Rigg's warming up to him after a while just isn't very convincing. Lazenby didn't go over back then, and the search was on for another actor to play James Bond. We would see Sean Connery return two more times. This was Lazenby's first starring role after just appearing in a TV series. He has stayed in the movies and on TV, but couldn't hold up in leading man roles.

Movie_Muse_Reviews "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is an odd "Bond" movie to assess, namely because it's the first film without Sean Connery, but also because some other actors were replaced, including Telly Savalas supplanting Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, while other key roles (Q, M, Moneypenny) remained the same. This quasi-reinvention warrants a level of comparison to the previous five "Bond" films, but can also be assessed as its own "one- off" edition.Australian George Lazenby is a handsome, charismatic charmer, and it's clear to see why he won Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman's admiration and reportedly a 7-film deal. If he would've gotten a chance to grow into James Bond, he would have earned a lot more fans and would not generally have been ranked as the least of the six Bonds. He's a definitely a younger, pluckier interpretation of the character as opposed to Connery's mature, gentlemanly wiles. Still, he's easy to root for — the "Bond" films are a formula and he fits nicely into his end of the equation.What's nice about "OHMSS" is how it dials back from the silliness and larger-than-life nature of "You Only Live Twice," which is probably the result of it being a direct interpretation of an Ian Fleming novel. The bulk of the action stays at Blofeld's Switzerland hideaway, where Bond is getting close to his foe to find out the truth behind his "allergy research, so there's more isolation that world-traipsing, while the ski chases give the movie that big "Bond" energy without resulting to spaceships and nuclear war. The stakes are Bond's survival — and his love for Tracy (Diana Rigg).Seeing Bond in love, even though his romance with Tracy bookends the film and there's a little sexual mischief in the middle, definitely adds a bit more depth to James and a lot more emotion to points of the film. "OHMSS" isn't dramatic or deeply touching, but there's a real human element we haven't necessarily seen at play and won't see at play much until the Daniel Craig era.At 142 minutes, "OHMSS" hold the title of the longest of all the early "Bond" entries, and it's 30 minutes too long to be sure. Parts of the film drag — the first act feels especially pointless — and most of the payoff comes in the final 45 minutes. Other than a few sneak attacks on Bond in his hotel room(s) there is not a lot of intermediary action to hold our attention. The entertainment is supposed to come from the suspense of Bond's deception while in Blofeld's clutches.Director Peter Hunt turned out to be a one-off as well and maybe that was for the best. His style calls a lot more attention to itself than Terence Young or Guy Hamilton's with a little more brute action and a tone of rapid-fire editing in the action sequences. It gets a bit dizzying and he turns to camera effects way more than was status quo for these films. So in some ways it's a more visceral, visually interesting take, and in some ways he oversteps. Regardless, he gets things going when they need to get going, keeping "OHMSS" from becoming a total slog. It's just a lot of peaks and valleys."On Her Majesty's Secret Service" has a lot of the elements you want in a "Bond" film, providing a safe playground for Lazenby to fill Bond's shoes. If the film doesn't end up as a one-off blip and the Lazenby Bond storyline is continued, the conversation around "OHMSS" changes. Instead, it's a solid if not overly long "Bond" entry of little consequence.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

gavin6942 James Bond woos a mob boss's daughter and goes undercover to uncover the true reason for Blofeld's allergy research in the Swiss Alps that involves beautiful women from around the world.Although George Lazenby sort of shot himself in the foot by walking away from the Bond franchise, he is arguably the best James Bond ever on screen and this is one of the better films. Even telly Savalas plays a great Blofeld, though Donald Pleasance is clearly the best. And Diana Rigg? This may be her best role outside of "The Avengers".I feel like there is more development of plot and characterization, rather than non-stop action or strange gadgets. This was a fully-baked Bond, something you just never see.

TankGuy In the midst of his quest to find Blofeld and destroy SPECTRE, James Bond rescues the unhinged Tracy Di Vicenzo as she attempts to drown herself. Their paths cross once again and it isn't long until they fall in love. To his dismay however, 007 is relieved of his mission to locate Blofeld, with MI6 citing his failure to track the supervillan down. Bond takes it upon himself to assume the identity of a genealogist who is currently studying Blofeld's family tree, before heading to Switzerland. He discovers that Blofeld has set up a clinic where he is supposedly "curing" young women of various food allergies. After his cover his blown, Bond learns that Blofeld intends to use the women to spread a virus which will devastate the world's crops, unless the United Nations pardon him and recognise his title as Count De Bleuchamp.The first and last outing for Australian George Lazenby, who stepped in to replace Connery after the latter declared he was "finished" with Bond. OHMSS will always be remembered as "the one where Bond gets married" or "the one where Bond's wife gets killed", and it is much deeper than most of the other movies given it's romantic backstory. To most people, it comes across as boring and old fashioned and it's also one of the longest Bond movies, however it will always hold a place within my top 5 Bond movies. Louis Armstrong's We Have All The Time In The World is truly sublime, especially given the movie's context and some of John Barry's greatest work is also featured here. The instrumental title piece is riveting in itself and even more so when it kicks in during the action scenes. Said action scenes are also spectacular and the exhilarating ski chase is a proper thrill-ride. This movie also has some of the best fights in the entire series, here they're a little more violent and slapdash which works to the film's advantage. I am always invigorated by both the anarchic car chase during a stock car rally as well as the chaotic bobsled chase and fight at the end of the film. We are also treated to a dangerously thrilling avalanche in which Bond is almost buried alive, not to mention the climatic attack on Blofeld's mountaintop clinic which was also amazing. The mammoth proportion of chaos and destruction in the film's action sequences is just awesome. Lazenby does a fine job playing Bond here and acquits himself brilliantly where the stunts and action are both concerned. He seems to be more than proficient at hand to hand(he broke one of the stuntmen's noses during a screen test)which is why the fights are so terrific. I would have loved to have seen him progress in the role of Bond and it would have been interesting to see him in the next film, Diamonds Are Forever. The brilliant Telly Savalas has his turn at Blofeld and certainly doesn't disappoint.Wrapped in a moving love story, the 6th Bond movie is a very impressive actioner as well as an outstanding effort. Frankly I don't understand why this only has a 6.8 on IMDb. 10/10