On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 A popular debate that comes out around the holidays is whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, presumably because it is set on Christmas Eve (feel free to correct me, I haven't watched it in ages).  To that I say, how about Die Hard 2, Lethal Weapon, Batman Returns or The Long Kiss Goodnight?  All of them are all action films (two scripted by Shane Black) set around the holiday season but released nowhere near it.  In the end if the film makes you feel festive, then perhaps it is a Christmas movie but if you can enjoy it at any time of the year then it is probably just a good film. 

The sixth James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, has about half of its runtime set near Christmas time.  There is a Christmas carol especially written for the film "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?".  I find the song a repetitive bore as a listening experience but within the film the upbeat theme contrasts perfectly against the tense moment in the ice rink as Bond is panicking trying to get away from Irma Bunt and her men.  As such I am relieved that I do not have to associate an existing song like "Joy to the World" or "Away in the Manger" with that scene.  The book it is based on also had the same scenes set at Christmas Eve and even went further explaining how the crisis interrupted the Christmas celebrations of the MI6 staff.

Spoilers below for both On Her Majesty's Secret Service the novel and film (to be referred to henceforth as OHMSS-to save my fingers some typing)

Ian Fleming's novel was one of the most emotional of the series.  I think "From Russia, With Love" is  Fleming's best thriller but Bond's character arc in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is better and while "From Russia, With Love" ended on a dark cliffhanger, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" concludes with a full tragedy; the murder of Bond's new bride by Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Irma Bunt (who actually pulled the trigger) and the shattering of his happiness.

There used to be a website called "Blofeld's Cat" and there was a comedic list of rejected Fleming titles.  One of them was (as I recall) "Bond's New Bride Gets a Bullet in the Head on the Last Page".  I forget most of the others and one is too offensive to repeat here but I found that one very entertaining.  Yet as hard as it makes me laugh if I read the book or watch the film I am always fighting tears at the end.  Good tragedy has that sense of inevitability.  As Bond and Tracy drive away from their wedding I always hope it somehow plays differently.  The end of the film is so powerful two subsequent pre-title sequences (Diamonds Are Forever and For Your Eyes Only) are devoted to the fallout from it.  Daniel Craig's final Bond film, No Time To Die, uses several elements from the novel and the film but repurposes them (ie. Blofeld ruins Bond's future with Madeleine by tricking him instead of killing her - though he tries to kill them both too).  In No Time To Die we get a sense of what a skilled actor at the top of his game can do with this type of material, instead of OHMSS's weakest link, star George Lazenby.  

A favorite Bond fan debate is what kind of performance would Sean Connery have given had he starred in OHMSS.  For the uninitiated, Connery was the first big screen Bond and played the role in five films before being let out of his contract for the sixth and final film.  Connery was tired of the long shooting schedules, the overwhelming public attention, the lack of character development, and feeling underpaid.  Connery was hired for a small salary initially and got small raises for each subsequent film but nowhere near in proportion for how the films were grossing.  As such by the time of Connery's last film, You Only Live Twice (1967) he was out of shape and gave a perfunctory performance.  

OHMSS was originally scheduled to follow Goldfinger and then Thunderball, so if either of these things had happened it would have starred Connery.  I expect Connery would have given a better  performance than in You Only Live Twice since the dramatic material was so rich but the long shoot probably would have bothered him.  It might have depended on the director.  Connery respected Terence Young so if Young had made OHMSS instead of Thunderball the result likely would have been impressive.  I also expect Connery would have gotten along with OHMSS director Peter Hunt, though they probably worked together plenty since Hunt worked as an editor and second unit director on some of the other films.  Connery liked directors who were decisive and Hunt certainly had a clear vision for OHMSS.  

In the end Connery opted not to play Bond and the producers cast a long search and opted for George Lazenby, based largely on his physique and performance in the fight scenes.  In his defense, Lazenby has a lot of the right look.  He is tall with dark hair and strong like Daniel Craig and performs superbly in the fight and action scenes.  Bond is supposed to be a more subtle character which involves calculated emotional regulation and in certain moments Lazenby captures that perfectly.  For example in the moment where Tracy pulls Bond's Walther on him he charms her to get close enough to disarm her and then once he has he has delivers a line "I can be a lot more persuasive Contessa" that indicates just enough how violent he can be while also suggesting that in such a moment he would also be in full control.  In the casino scenes Lazenby looks terrific in the tuxedo and quietly bails out Tracy in a way to save her dignity.  In the finale Bond's remarks to the police officer are perfectly pitched with denial and sadness as his grief gradually overcomes him.

 However in many other scenes Lazenby's Bond acts too gregarious and his voice goes into a high register.  His first line onscreen "My name is Bond, James Bond" is delivered very cheerfully given the circumstances (he just stopped Tracy from drowning herself).  When he identifies the name of M's rare butterfly he does so a little too eagerly and it feels like he just saw it written down and not that he's studied the subject extensively.  Connery showed M up a lot in similar scenes but always in an understated way.  After Bond throws the knife at the calendar in Draco's office (a moment the novel notes he does to blow off steam and certainly plays that way in the film) he answers Draco with a grin and says "I'm superstitious".  The line is good but any of the other far more skilled actors would have had a better sense of how to approach it.  For example Roger Moore's Bond might have played the humor in the line but still would have remained wary of Draco, a la his demeanor when he arrives at Scaramanga's island in The Man With the Golden Gun.  Lazenby's Bond seems to trust Draco right away which makes no sense given Draco just had him kidnapped at gunpoint.  Notably in the book Bond lets his guard down immediately too but it plays as a false note in the film.  

Lazenby, who was 29 during filming, is a little young for a film that is supposed to be about a  veteran agent who the film goes to pains to point out, has lived all the adventures we have seen up until now and might be ready for a more quiet life.  Connery was in his late 30s and if he had played the part a little weary it would have fit better as it might have had the producers cast someone a few years older.  On the plus side it may be easier for audiences to accept this Bond in love as we have not seen him with lots of other women beforehand like we would have with Connery (and audiences might wonder why Tracy is a better match than Honey Ryder for example).  When Daniel Craig's Bond fell in love with Vesper Lynd it is in his first Bond film and audiences easily accepted it but they struggled a few films later when he fell in love with Madeleine Swann because they had already seen him with several women and may have had their own favorites.   

As a fantasy casting I would enjoy seeing either Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton play Bond in this story.  I can see both taking full advantage of the rich material far more than Connery would have.

John Barry's OHMSS score is my favorite among his Bond work.  Barry reworks the Bond theme with a higher pitch and a Moog synthesizer that plays well against the teasing shots of the new Bond during the driving scene on the Portuguese coast. The OHMSS theme is a beautiful march with a fast paced drum beat that Barry uses during the skiing scenes (name any other Bond film that plays the title song during an action scene apart from Dr No).  Additionally Barry finds several variations of it, using it at a slower pace during the "Over and Out" cue as Bond and Draco approach Piz Gloria near the climax.  Over and Out is repeated in No Time To Die when M reinstates Bond back On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  

Louis Armstrong's touching song "We Have All The Time In The World" has a sad irony since it is about hope that is taken away.  The phrase is the title of the closing chapter of the novel.  Bond says the line as he and Tracy drive away from their wedding and then to the police officer while processing what has just happened after Tracy is shot.  Louis Armstrong sang the song while in a weakened state near the end of his life with a lot of emotion and it has a beautiful melody.  The romantic montage in which the song is placed bothers some fans.  For the most part I find it fitting, especially when the characters are dressed a little more but the moment where Bond playfully chases Tracy on the beach does feel a little out of character.  The song is too emotional for the main titles (and the tone of the film at that time) so they had to put it somewhere and it helps establish Bond and Tracy's connection before she is offscreen for about an hour.  I always wondered why they did not reprise it at the end, though we do hear it in instrumental form briefly over the end credits before going into the Bond theme from that film.  In No Time To Die Bond uses the line to show how much he loves Madeleine and also as an ominous warning of the tragedy to come and the song beautifully plays over the first section of the end credits.

There is a famous scene of Bond reviewing some of the old gadgets with some jumpy musical edits but it is a little hard to make out that he is looking at the breathing device from Thunderball (probably due to its size and the fact that Bond puts it nowhere near his mouth).  In the beginning Bond also uses the scope from the sniper rifle from From Russia With Love to watch Tracy on the beach.

Diana Rigg is excellent as Tracy, though the character's self destructive tendencies are played down a little from the book.  Tracy in the beginning seems lost and reckless but we never quite feel why she is suicidal, though her wordless performance in the pre-title sequence suggests some deep pain.  In the novel we learn that she lost a baby girl produced from her short marriage to the Italian count but this is dropped from the film.  Tracy is usually composed in the film and direct and a little cold but loosens up  after Bond continues to pursue her after getting information he needed from Draco about Blofeld.  The whole idea of a man like Bond with his womanizing, drinking, and dangerous lifestyle being therapeutic to Tracy feels like a misguided Fleming fantasy but Bond is tender enough with her that we believe they have come to love each other.  

I haven't seen enough of Rigg's work but remember first seeing her as Lady Holiday in the Great Muppet Caper.  A year or two ago I saw Last Night in Soho in which I didn't recognize her until near the end of the film but she was very forceful in her final role.  As Tracy, Rigg has the regal presence and voice of a Countess but also is sharp and playful in a lot of the later scenes once Tracy has found some inner peace.  She is perfectly comfortable with action (in both a fight scene and the driving scenes) and we believe that she and Bond would have been happy (though the quiet life might not have suited them).  I know why Rigg is comfortable in action (having worked for years on an action show called "The Avengers") but the film never explains why Tracy has these skills.

As this is an early Bond film the fact that Bond sleeps with at least two other women after he has become involved with Tracy is brushed right over with one line.  Of course Blofeld could have blown the whole thing up by telling Tracy about Bond's affairs (which, to be fair, did provide him with useful information, but there's no question Bond had plenty of fun) but even Blofeld showed discretion.  The Craig films give Bond casual affairs only before he meets two women he falls in love with in Casino Royale and Spectre.

When I first started watch the Bond films in the 1980s I saw them out of order.  As I recall my order for the first few went something like Octupussy, The Spy Who Loved Me, Never Say Never Again, Goldfinger,  Dr No, and then OHMSS.  My reason for sharing this is Telly Savalas was my first Blofeld (apart from Max Von Sydow in Never Say Never Again but he was only in that film briefly).  Therefore Savalas is always the first Blofeld that comes to mind when I hear the name.  Savalas looks a little like the character as he was described in the book "Thunderball" and has a strong screen presence, is a massive physical opponent to Bond, and is commanding and ruthless.  Savalas had the odd way of holding a cigarette up which feels like an actorly touch and the filmmakers give him a lot of screen time to make an impression.  Some fans dislike that Blofeld participates in the hunt for Bond after he escapes but I like it.  In the books Blofeld does not mind getting his hands dirty and his presence increases the tension, much more so than if he was just barking orders into a phone from Piz Gloria.  As Blofeld himself starts the avalanche that buries Bond it makes it more powerful and strengthens him as a character.  

OHMSS may have the most picturesque locations of any of the Bond films.  A lot of the film takes place in Switzerland and we get to know the town, several of the Alps, the cable cars and the bobsled run, much of which are established on the helicopter ride to Piz Gloria.  I prefer it when much of a film stays put like in You Only Live Twice and Thunderball rather than jumping from place to place.

OHMSS is the first Bond film to have a different visual look than the others.  People who study film closely can notice the first five Bond films have three different directors (ie the pacing between Thunderball and You Only Live Twice is very different) but anyone can look at OHMSS and see an enormous change, especially in the way the fights are staged and edited.  The swings tend to be very big and the cuts are tight and clearly designed to generate excitement.  

Here are a few additional thoughts.

The pre-credit scene toys with the introduction to the new Bond and lets us see Bond in action right away so we go with him afterwards.  We never learn who the men are (in the book they are Draco's men ) but here they clearly plan to kill Bond so they may be SPECTRE assassins.  

During the office scene Moneypenny subtly saves Bond and M, two alpha men, from making a huge mistake due to their massive egos.

The overhead shot of Blofeld acknowledges the audience has seen him before but we do not see Blofeld's face until Bond does.  

In the book series Bond and Blofeld meet for the first time in OHMSS but in the film series they met in the previous film (although both were played by different actors) so Blofeld should recognize Bond right away.  Bond wears a hat and glasses throughout much of his time at Piz Gloria but notably not during his first meeting with Blofeld.

Hunt sets up a good scare moment when Bond finds Irma Bunt in Ruby's bed (and she sits up into camera with a dead eyed stare) followed by an effective blurring fade out and in (with an exaggerated zooms) as Bond is knocked out and moved to another lab and then wakes up just seeing Blofeld close the map (which Bond remembers and photographs in the climax). But I have some questions.  How does the German Irma giggle like the English Ruby?  What did Irma say to Ruby to get her out of the room (that she wanted a turn with Bray)?  Ruby didn't seem to be in any trouble later (though Blofeld still needed her for her mission).  Whose idea was it to prank Bond in this way?  Neither Blofeld nor anyone else there seems to have much of a sense of humor.    

I enjoy that Bond tries to recover in the moment before being knocked out by Gunther.

The idea that Bond might have to have sex with Irma Bunt is portrayed as an absolute horror moment.  Ilse Steppat was 51 at the time of filming or to put it another way, the same age as Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, a year younger than Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again and years younger than Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill.

Blofeld's scene with the captive Bond is well staged with Savalas quickly but clearly shooting off his lines.  Blofeld explains the plot but leaves out key details and Bond seems just resilient enough.  

Bond's attempt to attack Blofeld outside the cable car room is foolish as he is not ready to fight three tough men.

Why does Blofeld lock Bond in a room with a window at the top?  It feels like lazy screenwriting since  while it is not easy for Bond to escape Blofeld knows how capable Bond is at this stage.  Also the room would be freezing cold and Blofeld did not put Bond there to torture him and presumably wants him unhurt.

When Bond is trying to get away from the cable car there is a clumsy edit where in one shot Bond is hanging from the cable as the car approaches and then is suddenly on the grip above the cable car which would have been impossible.  He would have had to fling himself and even then landing there would have defied physics. The only plausible escape would have been for him to drop onto the car itself.

The ski scenes are often referenced as the best in the series.  I think the stunt work in the sequences in For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me is superior but OHMSS is more effective because we have just spent time in Piz Gloria with Bond and really want him to get out of there.  The chase is set up expertly and the fades to the SPECTRE men getting on their skis to go after them is more involving than if they just materialized on the mountain.  The OHMSS theme is the perfect musical companion.  The shots themselves have some stunning footage but there are some sloppy day for night shots. Hunt also breaks the chase up a few times by having Bond have to hide when the SPECTRE agents get a little too close rather than just having him constantly stay ahead of them.  The cliff fight and fall is a good interlude during the chase.

Hunt and screenwriter Richard Maibaum keep the stakes high since Blofeld leads the chase on the skis and Irma Bunt is in charge once Bond is on the ground. The audience knows is a little afraid of both (and Bond has been outsmarted by both of them repeatedly in Piz Gloria).  The bell room fight is a good use of sound and punctuated by Bunt yelling at the men in German.

Bond and Tracy get even closer during the car chase and Tracy (played by action veteran Diana Rigg) looks like she is having fun throughout the whole thing.  I believe this is the point that Bond starts to see potential for them beyond just an affair.

The proposal scene is sweet and funny with a light instrumental theme of "All the Time in the World" and Bond and Tracy tease and talk to each other like a real couple. 

The brief bonus ski chase is beautifully set up by romantic shots and score of Bond and Tracy skiing followed by a quick cut to the OHMSS theme as the SPECTRE agents ski into frame from behind in a menacing shot.  The daytime setting and Tracy's presence give it a different feel from the earlier chase.  I do hope eventually they got the car back which was abandoned in the farmhouse.  I wonder how far Blofeld and his men skied to get there.

I presume Bond was too exhausted to give chase when he sees Tracy pulled out of the drifts but it would help if the film had explained that.  Hunt cuts to Bond in M's office in London quickly presumably having thought it was better to plan the attack and rescue from there (and report the threat).  Lazenby perfectly captures Bond's uneasiness with the nervous pacing (which rightfully drives M nuts).

I don't see why with more than two days word the very capable British military would not be able to stage an attack (even in neutral Switzerland) but it sets up Draco's operation. M is clearly following orders he does not like.

When Bond calls Draco he looks behind him to make sure no one is listening since he is in his MI6 office.

The build up to the battle has an anticipatory suspense with Draco bluffing his way past the Swiss Air Force (in the book it was the pilot).  The filmmakers risk making Blofeld look foolish as he tries to charm Tracy with his presumed new title but the scenes are written and performed with enough sophistication that it works.  Blofeld threatens Tracy but also excuses himself when called away.  Rigg is excellent as Tracy is cold (thinking Bond is dead) until she hears her father's voice (and knows Bond is probably alive and help is coming) her eyes light up just a little and works to bring Blofeld into the Alpine room where she can see what is happening and Blofeld might be a little more exposed.  The poem flatters and distracts Blofeld just enough.

The battle is excitingly staged and edited.  Draco's men, because of Bond, know the layout of Piz Gloria and where the guards are stationed so they quickly take out the SPECTRE agents and none of the Union Corse men die.  Hunt runs through pieces of the original James Bond theme arrangement twice as Tracy fights the large Gunther and the Union Corse men and Bond take over the place, though notably the first time the Bond barely appears as the focus is mainly on Tracy's fight with Gunther.  Lazenby is smooth and focused with his movement and comfort with his weapons in this whole sequence.  I love the smirk he gives to the glass after he shoots the scientist who desperately throws the chemicals at him.

Bond and Tracy's brief interaction is nice.  Bond is relieved to see Tracy and makes sure she is safe but gets right back to his mission which is to find the location of the young women and get Blofeld if he can.  Tracy's refusal to leave Bond is realistic but unfortunately Draco's solution is to knock her out by punching her in the jaw.  The moment is a little disturbing today though it is played with a comic beat.  Draco is right to get Tracy out of there and let Bond fend for himself but to win an argument by punching his daughter (and then making a quip about it) is tasteless and that type of discipline may have contributed to some of their strained relationship earlier in the film.

The second run through of the Bond theme ends as Bond gets to the map room and starts taking pictures of the women but in the back of the frame in a couple of shots Hunt shows a figure that turns out to be Blofeld.   At this point we get the long awaited physical showdown between the two which Hunt delivers in spades.  Bond seems to drop the camera as he spins around to fire at and give chase to Blofeld (so does he have the information he needs about the young women?).  The OHMSS music cue cuts right in as this happens and it feels inevitable that Bond will catch him (he is younger and moving much faster) but he runs out of ammunition when he has Blofeld in his sights and has to switch to his Walther (a change which Lazenby again executes perfectly).

The bobsled chase is expertly edited (note how quickly the shots cut when Bond fires his Walther at the fleeing bobsled, then lowers his gun and puts on the helmet and gets in the other bobsled to pursue) despite some obvious backdrops.  Much of the chase is unscored (until Blofeld grabs a grenade) but makes excellent use of the sound design (the noise of the sled and the bullets richoetting. Blofeld is a desperate to escape and Bond is to catch him and the scene plays with real urgency.  When they end up on the same sled the strong Blofeld is a brutal opponent in the close conditions and Bond just barely manages to overcome him.  Bond makes the ultimate mistake of not checking to make sure Blofeld is dead when he gets pushed into the tree (repeated again in Diamonds Are Forever and Spectre).  The sight of the friendly Saint Bernard after the intensity of the chase is a cute close to the scene.  When I first saw the film my dad had to explain to me that those dogs have historically been used in the Swiss Alps to help people who are lost or cold.  

The wedding reception is just long enough to make its point.  We do not see the actual wedding with the new couple taking the vows (which would take screen time) but the reception is a much bigger event than the quiet moment in the book.  Tracy and Bond look happy and it is fun to see M and Draco chatting about different operations presumably off the record.  Bond's sensitive gesture to the crying Moneypenny is touching (and would have been even more if Connery had played Bond here).  The camera rises up as the Aston Martin pulls away as if it is the end of the film and Hunt has been quoted as possibly planning to close the story here and start the next film with Tracy's shooting, which might have helped the box office but also would have made the next film feel like a cheat. 

The cliffside road in Portugal looks similar to the one in the beginning of the film when Bond is chasing Tracy.  The couple's final moment is flirtatious and Blofeld's appearance in the car is sudden (and not teased like in the novel).  The whole scene in unscored until Bond starts to break down in the car.  Interesting while Blofeld (in a neck brace) is driving Irma Bunt actually fires the gun that kills Tracy.  Until now we thought Bunt had probably died in the car explosion at the stock car race.  She gets out of the car but it blows up right behind her and we hear her scream.  Since Bunt is not at Piz Gloria during the climax we forget that her death was unconfirmed (she might have been recovering)  The book establishes that she spotted Bond after the Piz Gloria explosion and tailed him.

We do not see how Bond survives but since he is on the far side of the Aston Martin the car gave him some cover.  Although Lazenby's line delivery of "It's Blofeld!" is a little stiff he is jumping into the car instinctively to pursue when he glances at Tracy and sees she has been shot.

I do have one quibble about this poignant moment.  As the camera cuts from the side to the front of the car and pulls back we see a bullet that killed Tracy went through the windshield.  Goldfinger clearly established that the Aston Martin's windshield is bulletproof.  This is a different car (a 1969 Aston Martin DBS as opposed to Goldfinger's 1964 DB5) but when did Q start downgrading the car's features?  All the other Aston Martins in the series also have bulletproof glass.  If Tracy had been shot because the right side driver's window was open that would make more sense.

Bond's sad acceptance of Tracy's loss is heartbreaking, especially as he cries (though the shot is framed so we do not see the tears) while kissing her fingers which probably still feel alive to him.  The moment is played for the pure tragedy it is and we do not close out the film with Bond suddenly energized to go after her killer.  His world has just been shattered and he and the audience need to process the loss before seeking justice.

It is a shame that Hunt moved on from the series after this excellent entry.  I can take or leave Lazenby but this film gave Hunt, who was an excellent editor, and John Glen (who joined the series while this film was already in production as editor and second unit director and went on to direct five Bond films) an excellent opportunity to construct sequences with an eye toward exactly how they would play onscreen.  I believe this is why the sequences are so much more visceral than in many of the other films.  For example the climaxes of the next three Guy Hamilton directed films feel flat and unexciting, even in Diamonds Are Forever which also has helicopters attacking a Blofeld run based. The only effective climax of a Guy Hamilton film is Goldfinger, which was edited by Hunt.

OHMSS is a fabulous adventure with a moving romance and it is well worth the time of any Bond fan or fan of action films. ****