On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: The Most Experimental Bond Movie

Well, at long last a proper examination. Wonderful. Connery/Lazenby aside, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is my personal favorite Bond film and arguably the greatest Bond-movie ever. Actually, it´s the only one in the series you can REALLY remember the story of. All the other Bond-movies are basically all the same potato mash. And don´t forget Louis Armstrong 🙂

Great video! On Her Majesty's Secret Service is my favorite Bond film. Looking forward to hearing your opinion on the Dalton films. The Living Daylights is extremely underrated.

OHMSS is also unique because of how closely it follows the book. In fact, outside of reversing the order, and therefore Bond and Blofeld never having met (even though they met face to face in You Only Live Twice) I honestly can’t think of many changes they made from the book, right down to the death of Tracy. Sure, Goldfinger also followed the book fairly closely, but it deviated enough to be more than noticeable. Truthfully, the only other film that came as close was From Russia With Love, in which they substituted Spectre for Smersh as they wanted to be able to sell the film in Russia, a difficult task if the Russians were the main villains.

Don't think they had greenscreen in 1969; that "skiing" footage looks more like rear projection, which was pretty standard back in the day.

My favorite scene in the movie is the one in which Bond sneaks into a girl's room and slips into her bed, and finds himself cuddling with Irma Bunt. I saw the film for the first time as a teenager. At my school there were several female teachers who were very much like Irma Bunt, in both character and appearance. Bond's encounter with Irma Bunt was more than just comedy. There was deeper meaning in it. Bond had let his frivolous impulses take over, and had forgotten about the serious nature of his work. Irma Bunt took Bond back to dismal reality. Someone had to do it. It's obvious that the electric doors were monitored by Blofeld's gang. They must have been curious about which rooms were most frequently visited by Bond. Blofeld was a man of science, after all.

OHMSS is great Lazenby gives us a human Bond not a. Superspy Can you imagine Connery crying after Tracy's death? ❤ Diana Rigg

It's my second favourite Bond film. For your eyes only remains the best, and it is also the only exciting one.

Kind of a shame the movie only recently is getting attention, great video btw

Thunderball was my favorite of all the Bond movies to date. I thoroughly enjoyed all the Connery movies. George Lazenby is my second favorite actor as Bond, in spite of all the undeserved criticism he received. I felt he had the look and the presence to make OHMSS exceptional. And I agree that Sean Connery wouldn't have been as effective in the final scene of OHMSS. Like your brother, I am a huge Bond fan, although I nearly lost interest in the most recent films. I'm hoping things get better with the next generation.

Part of Connery interview in Playboy November 1965 PLAYBOY: In any case, ''Dr. No'' turned out to be a hit, and you found yourself under contract for a series ... exactly what you said you wanted to avoid. CONNERY: Yes ... but it allows me to make other films, and I have only two more Bonds to do. PLAYBOY: Which ones? CONNERY: ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' and possibly ''You Only Live Twice''. They would like to start ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' in Switzerland in January (1966), but I'm not sure I'll be free in time and I don't want to rush it, although they say the snow will be at its best then. I'm not going to rush anything anymore. PLAYBOY: We'll be looking forward to both films ... especially since we were fortunate enough to serialize both books exclusively prior to their hardcover publication. Do you think the success of the series will continue to snowball? CONNERY: Well, it's a healthy market and it has been maintained because each succeeding film has got bigger and the gimmicks trickier. But we have to be careful where we go next, because I think with ''Thunderball'' we've reached the limit as far as size and gimmicks are concerned. In ''Thunderball'' we have Bond underwater for about 40 percent of the time, and there is a love scene underwater, and attacks by aquaparas from the sky, and two-man submarines under the sea, and Bond is menaced by sharks. Instead of the Aston Martin we have a hydrofoil disguised as a cabin cruiser, and Bond escapes with a self-propelling jet set attached to his back. So all the gimmicks now have been done. And they are expected. What is needed now is a change of course ... more attention to character and better dialogue.

Peter Hunt was an excellent director. Still think Sean Bean vs Brosnan in GoldenEye is still the best fight.

Yes, so experimental they revised film order to accommodate Swiss location shooting & veteran editor carried novel on set with him to stay true to source during his 1 & done 007 directing gig.

Thanks for this - it's definitely a one-off in the canon and doesn't seem to get the amount of discussion I've always thought it deserves. Nice depth to your assessment here. Always felt Lazenby should have been given more - not just Bond, but parts in general. Went from male model to leading role in his first actual film role, and did such a great job with it. Then, of course, we got Roger Moore whose acting ranged from male model to shop-window dummy. Oh well. NB - you compare with From Russia w Love, which probably the closest Connery came to such character focus, but have you also considered Robert Shaw's character in that? I mean, who is he if not... Bond. Surely he's the Bond who went freelance instead of joining MI6.

Just one bit of inaccuracy in this. Although I like the documentary overall. Peter Hunt wasn't the only editor/ second unit director to direct Bond films. His editor from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, John Glen, directed all of the James Bond adventures in the 1980s beginning with For Your Eyes Only (1981), and ending with Licence To Kill (1989), which I gave a four-star review in a local newspaper I wrote for when it was first released.

Casino Royale with Daniel craig got me into it

OHMSS still remains my favorite Bond movie? Connery is my favorite Bond actor, but OHMSS is my favorite? From the novel, the film, to the main title instrumental score by John Barry, to the Olive metallic colored Aston Martin DBS, to Piz Gloria , to Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas , to Peter Hunt's directorial debut.....OHMSS holds a special reservation in my humbled opinion?

I have seen every Bond film when it came out, except for the first two. I saw those as a double feature when they were rereleased after the success of Goldfinger. My favorite Bond movie is probably Goldfinger, and after that, OHMSS. I would have liked to see Lazenby grow into the role. Connery of course was the best Bond, and after him IMHO Daniel Craig.

Although Lazenby received much support from Broccoli and Saltzman, he had a less easy ride from the board of United Artists who were none too keen to see him take over the mantle of Bond. On 7 July 1968, test footage of Lazenby and Rigg had been sent to United Artists in New York - and the were less than impressed by what they saw. On 23 September 1968, UA's head man David Picker even flew into London, desperate to tempt Connery back into the fold. But Connery was adamant that he wasn't coming back - EON and UA had made him a star and Connery was now a major player, capable of picking only the roles that interested him. And at this moment, Bond simply didn't interest him at all. It was only reluctantly that UA accepted EON's recommendation that Lazenby be given the part (ΜΙ6 Production Notes - On Her Majesty's Secret Service).

The film comes at the right time, when the messages are ''make love, not war'' and ''all you need is love''. Has the right actors to the other roles (better for Blofeld is Yul Brynner), but not in Bond. Here Bond is not relatively young, vulnerable and infinite, but a mature man with experience, like the actors to the other roles. Connery in ''You Only Live Twice'' is the character of Bond here. An agent tired of his job, finds happiness in love and marriage. Peter Hunt did a great job, but plot is more like a romantic movie, and ignored Bond and Blofeld metting in previous film. With Connery, Bond and Tracy romance would be like him and Bardot in ''Shalako''. Until early 70s Connery is Bond for everyone. We also see this when Lazenby breaks the 4th wall (didn't say ''This never happened to the other movies''). After Connery here, I believe to Stanley Baker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vstr-jhCjVY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw95BwoB0zE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1EADjxkIUs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL6NSDUEqtM&t=44s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EewkHMgYsg

Nonsense, Lazenby is awfull😂😂😂