On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a novel by Ian Fleming released in 1963. It is the sixth film (released in 1969) in the James Bond franchise and the first and last film to star George Lazenby as British secret service agent Commander James Bond. Lazenby was the second official actor to be cast for the film role of James Bond, the first being Sean Connery. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and made by EON Productions, the production company responsible for making all the Bond films. It is one of the closest adaptations to the novel of all the Bond movies.
Plot Summary
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In the movie and book, James Bond saves a woman (Teresa di Vicenzo, played by Diana Rigg) who tries to drown herself in the ocean and later gambles with money that she does not have. Her father, Marc Ange Draco, (Gabriele Ferzetti) the head of a Corsican mafia family, thinking that Bond can help with his daughters emotional instability, proposes that if James Bond marries his daughter, Bond will receive one million dollars on their wedding day. Bond refuses, but agrees to see her again as part of an agreement that Draco will provide Bond with information about the location of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the head of the crime organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E..
Draco eventually complies and informs Bond that several men from Draco's organization have been recruited by Blofeld, via an attorney in Bern, Switzerland. A search of the attorney's office reveals correspondence between Blofeld and the Royal College of Arms. Blofeld is attempting to lay claim to the title 'Compte Balthazar de Bleuchamp'. His correspondence is with Sir Hillary Bray, a geneologist at the College. Bond proposes posing as Bray so that he may visit Blofeld, on the pretense of verifying a physical attribute of the Bleuchamps - a lack of earlobes.
Blofeld has established a research institute, Piz Gloria, on top of a mountain in Switzerland (filmed at a restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in the Bernese Oberland). Bond, undercover as the foppish Bray, meets ten beautiful women from around the world. The women are at the institute undergoing an unorthodox treatment for their allergies. In reality, the young women are unknowingly being trained to distribute biological warfare agents throughout the world.
Bond's lasciviousness exposes his true identity. He escapes by skiing down the mountain, while being chased by Blofeld and his henchmen. He ends up in a village during a winter festival. Now it is Tracy?s turn to save James. Tracy is in Switzerland undergoing therapy, and has found out James' location from her father. James and Tracy meet unexpectedly while Bond is being pursued. They escape in her car, but she is captured by Blofeld. With Draco, Bond returns by helicopter to destroy the institute, save Tracy and to stop Blofeld from carrying out his plans to blackmail the worlds governments under the threat of bacteriological warfare.
After their raid on Piz Gloria, Bond and Tracy marry, but Tracy is shot and killed by Irma Bunt, Blofeld's right hand woman, while Bond's car was on the side of the road, stopped to remove the flowers decorating it from their wedding reception. Bond would eventually avenge Tracy Bond in an confrontation with Blofield in the pre-credits sequence of For Your Eyes Only (1981).
The film closely follows the plot of the book but adds a few sequences, such as Tracy' capture and rescue. In the books both Blofeld and Irma Bunt meet their deaths in You Only Live Twice (which follows On Her Majesty's Secret Service, unlike in the movie series where it precedes it).
Theme Music
Once again the soundtrack to this James Bond adventure was done by Bond veteran John Barry who up until Diamonds are Forever had worked on every Bond film made before it. The opening theme proved difficult to produce, as Bond opening themes usually take the title of the movie and then include the title in the lyrics (the theme for Thunderball was changed at the very last minute in order to comply with this tradition), sometimes keyed so that the title of the film is sung at the same time as it appears on screen. There are only two other exceptions of this throughout the franchise. In the The Spy Who Loved Me the theme song was titled "Nobody Does It Better" and in Octopussy the theme song's title is "All Time High", and does not feature the word "Octopussy" in the lyrics. John Barry felt that it would be very difficult to write a theme with the words On Her Majesty's Secret Service in (unless it were done in the style of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera), and so eventually he convinced director Peter Hunt to allow him to write an instrumental for the opening credits (which later appears several times in the film, used as an alternate action theme in a similar manner to Monty Norman's 007 Theme) and another song, eventually titled We Have All The Time In The World, which was sung by Louis Armstrong. It appears during the Bond/Tracy love montage, bridging the gap between Draco's birthday party and Bond's break-in to Gebrolder Gumbold's office. We Have All The Time In The World is often mistakenly referred to as the opening credits theme.
Vehicles & Gadgets
- Aston Martin DBS - The car was only briefly seen in the movie. Once in the beginning of the movie and once at the end of the movie after the wedding. Nothing is known on what kind of gadgets were installed.
- Radioactive Lint - In the beginning of the move, Q is showing M a homing device made out of regular lint. "Placed in an opponent's pocket, the location fix and anti-personnel uses should be obvious." M is more concerned with locating Bond, who is nowhere to be found.
- Safecracker - A small (for its time) device that consists of a flexible cable ending in a grapple that is meant to be fitted on a typical safe combination lock. The machine would then examine the lock, figure out its combination and open the safe. In addtion, the device has a photocopier function that could allow for easy copying of secret documents to minimize the chance of the owner learning of the break in by missing the documents.
Locations
Cast & Characters
- Directed By: Albert R. Broccoli, Ian Fleming
- Screenplay By: John Barry
Trivia
- Some fans consider this to be the best of the Bond series... Lazenby "nailed" the part of James Bond as described in the novels. Some fans of the movie series only, however, were disappointed in his performance as it diverged significantly from Connery's portrayal of the character.
- Lazenby wanted this part so much that he set up an "accidental" meeting between himself and film maker Cubby Broccoli. Lazenby arranged to have his haircut at the barber he knew Broccoli to frequent. Lazenby dressed the part, by sporting several Bond elements, such as a Rolex watch and a Savile Row suit (costing him most of the money he had). Broccoli noticed the elements and offered him a reading for the part.
- Despite all the work Lazenby went through to get the part, he wasn't interested in reprising the role. He thought the tuxedo-clad Bond would be archaic in the sexually liberated '60s. He was offered at one point a seven-movie contract, signed a Letter of intent to star in Diamonds Are Forever, and was even paid an initial installment of his fee (which he later returned).
- For insurance reasons Lazenby wasn't able to do any of the skiing that took place in the film: he did on occasion sneak off to go skiing, and on one occasion he ended up skiing underneath the cable car, which (by an incredible coincidence) was bringing Cubby Broccoli up to Piz Gloria.
- The novel was the first Bond book published after the start of the film series. In tribute, Fleming mentions Dr. No co-star Ursula Andress by name in one chapter.
- Although some scoffed at the idea of burly, robust Telly Savalas taking over the role of Blofeld from meek Donald Pleasance, Fleming's novels established that Blofeld had the ability to change his appearance and entire demeanor substantially. Therefore, the changes in actor with each appearance of Blofeld is actually in keeping with James Bond literary canon.
- The film contains the worst single continuity error in the history of the Bond films when Blofeld fails to recognize the lightly-disguised Bond when they first meet. Although both characters are played by different actors, they had met face-to-face in the previous film, You Only Live Twice. Since the order of the movies is reversed from the order of the books, OHMSS does mark the enemies' first encounter in the novels.
