The James Bond films often get a bad reputation over the years and given that this is the most enduring and longest-running continuous series of films featuring one character that, along with DR. WHO, has been played by several actors, it is a testament to their enduring quality that you can watch them again and again, even when they sometimes turn out to be disappointing.
What’s interesting though is that some of the films have actually gained a quality about them from their original release. Roger Moore’s second film as Bond, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974) was deemed a disappointment as a film on its’ original release and it wasn’t until THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) restored the spectacle and escapist style of films like GOLDFINGER (1964) with prosperity across the globe as one of the biggest Bonds of all that Moore established himself as the spy.
George Lazenby had the chance to succeed Sean Connery as Bond when Connery decided at the time of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE’s release in 1967 that he’d had enough, based on the seemingly unwelcome attention that he got whilst filming in Japan some of the sequences. Connery had in fact become far bigger than Bond as an actor who had found range in films like THE HILL (1965) and MARNIE (1964).
Unfortunately, Lazenby’s well-chronicled star demands during production and bad advice from his agent that apparently Bond was not going to last beyond his film and Italian films were more profitable made his only entry in the series, 1969’s ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (OHMSS) a bit of a disappointment compared to Connery’s legacy.
Even today, there is a what if feeling about whether Connery would have brought the same kind of sensitivity to the portrayal of Bond that Lazenby brought in the film, particularly as it is one of the most faithful adaptations of an Ian Fleming Bond novel ever, right up until the very end of the film.
Although 2006’s CASINO ROYALE maintains some of the essence of the original novel, it has been expanded to fit the time, although the Poker game takes up more considerable time. CASINO ROYALE was one of the longest of the Bond movies (there is a strong rumour that the latest yet-to-be-released film (scheduled for October 2020 rather than April due to the COVID-19 crisis) is going to be the longest one ever at a rumoured three hours, although I am not sure that will be the case) and before that OHMSS was one of the longest too.
In OHMSS, Bond has gone AWOL and becomes involved with a rebellious woman, Tracy (Diana Rigg) who is determined to drown herself in the sea at the film’s opening. Bond is staying at the same hotel and pays her debts from the casino. He is kidnapped and brought to meet her father, Marc-Ange Draco (Gabrielle Ferzetti), who teases him with a dowry of one million pounds (a lot of money in late 1960s terms), but upon return to London, Bond is removed from ‘Operation Bedlam’, a project that has been going on for two years to try and hunt down Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Telly Savalas), who is trying to claim a title based on information from a heraldry expert, Sir Hilary Bray (George Baker).
Bond agrees to pose as Bray, voice and all – and heads to Switzerland, where he is taken by Blofeld’s right hand person (Ilse Steppart) to his hideaway, Piz Gloria, in the Swiss Alps. He discovers a group of girls who seem to be suffering various allergies and are cured by processes the mysterious Blofeld is giving to them, but as always in a Bond film, there is a more global and sinister plan afoot….
From the pre-credit sequence through to the explosive climax at Piz Gloria, coupled with some magnificent ski chase footage (the interesting thing to note is that at no point in any of his Bond films – and that includes the renegade Bond from 1983, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, a remake of THUNDERBALL – that Connery never, ever skied), as well as great music (and please remember that WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD by Louis Armstrong, for whom this was his last ever recording as he died shortly after completing, came from this and was not the backdrop to a Guinness commercial in the UK) , OHMSS is a fantastic entry in the Bond saga, which long-term Bond editor and director of this film Peter Hunt claimed was ‘the David Lean of Bond films. It has grown in stature, like LICENCE TO KILL and OCTOPUSSY, from its’ original release.
A definite Bond classic