Out with the old, in with the new. Sean Connery quit the Bond role in the last film, so George Lazenby was hired to step in on this sixth film in the franchise.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a good film marred by a couple of serious problems. First; Lazenby is not a good actor. He doesn’t suit the role very well and is generally awkward on screen. This is to the extent where it ruins the film, and makes it probably the worst one in our marathon so far.

Second; there are so many sloppy technical elements it’s distracting. Dubbing usually works well enough but here it’s risible; at times sound comes out when people’s mouths are shut. The bigger crime is that these silly edits never add any value to the film, they just serve to make a crap joke or to fill a gap. There are also lots of terrible special effects, tragically spliced into otherwise great scenes.

Third; the costumes are ridiculous and again, we are found laughing at the film rather than with it.

The plot doesn’t quite make sense either. Bond is sent to Blofeld’s lair in the Alps, posing as a genealogist. The two had an encounter at the end of the last film so it seems strange that here they don’t know each other. There’s also a love story that ends up with Bond getting married. It’s a nice thought but Lazenby isn’t up to the task and it never feels like he really connects with his fiancée (Diana Rigg).

That brings us to the better aspects of the film. For starters, Rigg shines through and makes a lot out of her role as the daughter of a crime boss, offered up to Bond in marriage in exchange for cash. It’s not easy when your role relies on interacting with Lazenby, but she manages to make something of it.

What also stands out is the technical wizardry at work. At its best, at least visually, this film is the best of the lot so far. Director Steven Soderbergh* thinks this is the only Bond worth coming back to. I wouldn’t go that far but I can largely agree with what he says on the visual artistry. Of course at it’s worst, it doesn’t get much worse.

John Barry’s soundtrack is also a real winner. It’s sinister, exciting, fits the action well and is so memorable it’s become part of the ‘standard issue’ James Bond music. He ties it into the original theme whilst still making it its own thing.

The things to like about On Her Majesty’s Secret Service are tragically overshadowed by the weaker elements of it. The awkward lead, the very long run time and sloppy attention to detail are too much despite Hunt’s best efforts.

*http://extension765.com/sdr/2-most-irrelevant-no-1

From my site: http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/05/27/onhermajestyssecretservice.html

The forgotten Bond. Or should I say the unwanted, unrecognized Bond.

But it's not Lazenby who's the problem. I mean, he may be part of it but he might have gotten criticism anyway because he had rather large shoes to fill. In the end he never got a real chance.
No, the main problem is the horrible script. It's cheesy and dull and there isn't much at stake. [spoiler] The movie felt off from the start with now Theme Song and flasbacks from the other Bond movies in the opening credits. There was no excitement going into it. I mean, there is an evil plot by Blofeld to destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. How ingenius is that ? (attention, sarkasm). And everything just so he'll be accepted as a Count ? And was that the same Blofeld as in "You Only Live Twice" I wonder ? He didn't seem to recognize Bond but he was asked how many millions he wants "this time". Which sounds like he was the same. Now, logic was never a strong suite of bond movies but this feels like a gaping hole. And the whole romantic angle ? That felt like a totally different movie. And it didn't fit. It felt completely hollow and constructed and it made no impact at the end. [/spoiler] There isn't much more to say about that.
I also blame the director as he seem to have no idea how to get good performances out of his cast. Of course Hunt knew how to make movies as he was an editor for the first four. But knowing how to make a movie and making one are different things. Horrible German accents and weird, funny sound effects during the fights only add to the pile. And the movie was way, way too long. I checked the time after what I thought must be already two hours and I was just halfway in.

No, this was not a good movie at all. Bond or otherwise. Such a shame Diana Rigg threw away "The Avengers" for this one off appearance. And that after only being third choice for the role (after Bardot and Deneuve).

Decent enough entry, a little slow at times and while some effects weren't bad for its time, others were a bit iffy (not to mention some shoddy editing a time or two). I did like George Lazenby in the role (and at certain angles, kind of did look like Connery), as he did have some charm (although his quips didn't quite work for me), just a shame this was a one and done for him. The movie is on the lengthy side, probably 15 minutes could've been trimmed, though Lazenby and Diana Rigg shared great chemistry which does make the ending work so well. **3.5/5**

Even if we have all the time in the world, the world is not enough.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is directed by Peter Hunt and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum from the novel written by Ian Fleming. It stars George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Ilse Steppat, Yuri Borienko and Gabriele Ferzetti. Music is by John Barry and cinematography by Michael Reed.

Bond 6 and 007 is obsessed with locating SPECTRE supremo Ernst Stavro Blofeld. After rescuing beautiful Countess Tracy di Vincenzo from suicide, this brings Bond into contact with her father, Marc Ange Draco, who agrees to help Bond find Blofeld in exchange for 007 courting Tracy. Blofeld is located in the Switzerland Alps at Piz Gloria, where he is masterminding a fiendish plot involving biological extinction of food group species'. Bond will need to use all his wits to stop the plan from being executed, he also has big matters of the heart to contend to as well...

Connery gone, but not for good as it turned out, so into the tuxedo came George Lazenby, an Australian model with no previous acting experience of note. It would be Lazenby's only stint as 007, badly advised by those around him that Bond had no future in the upcoming 70s, his head swelling with ego by the day (something he readily admits and regrets), Lazenby announced he would only be doing the one James Bond film. The legacy of OHMSS is the most interesting in the whole Bond franchise, for where once it was reviled and wrongly accused of being a flop, it now, over 40 years later, is regarded as being one of the finest entries in the whole series. Yes it is still divisive, I have seen some fearful arguments about its worth, but generations of critics and film makers have come along to laud it as essential Bond and essential Fleming's Bond at that.

Everything about OHMSS is different to what Connery's Bond had become, the gadgets are gone and heaven forbid, Bond got a heart and fell in love. He was a man, with real aggression, real emotions and forced to use brain and brawn instead of mechanical trickery. Changes in the production department, too, wasn't just about Lazenby's appearance. Peter Hunt, previously the Bond film's editor, directed his one and only Bond film, and Michael Reed on cinematography also appears for the one and only time. New Bond, new era, but reviews were mixed and in spite of making a profit of over $73 million Worldwide, this was considerably down on previous films. The reviews didn't help, with much scorn poured on Lazenby for not being Connery, but really it's hard to imagine anyone coming in and not getting beat with that particular stick! Box office take wasn't helped by the film's length, at over 2 hours 10 minutes, this restricted the number of showings in theatres, something that should be greatly noted.

Away from Bond anyway, OHMSS is a stunning action thriller in its own right. From the opening beach side fist fight, where uppercuts lift men off their feet and drop kicks propel them backwards, to helicopter attacks, bobsleigh pursuits (resplendent with punches and flinging bodies), ski chases and a car chase in the middle of a stock car race: on ice! There's enough pulse pumping action here to fill out two Bond movies. But the Bond aspects are magnificent as well. Lazenby has wonderful physicality and throws a mean punch, he cuts a fine figure of a man and he's acting inexperience isn't a problem in the hands of the astute Hunt. Lazenby is matched by Rigg as Tracy, the best Bond girl of them all, she's no bimbo, she's tough (fighting off a guy with a broken bottle), smart yet vulnerable, funny and heart achingly beautiful, her interplay with Lazenby is brilliantly executed, so much so that when the devastating finale arrives it has extra poignancy. A scene that closes the film on a downbeat note and remains the most emotional scene ever put into a Bond movie.

Savalas finally gives us a villain who can compete with Bond on a physical level, making the fight between them an evenly matched and believable one. He lacks Pleasance's sinister fizzog, though the bald pate and Grecian looks marks Savalas out as an imposing foe as well. The Swiss Alps setting is gorgeous, with Reed capturing the scope magnificently, while some of his colour lensing in the interiors soothe the eyes considerably. Barry's score is one of his best, lush romantic strains accompany Tracy and James, operatic overtures dart in and out of the Swiss scenery and the James Bond theme is deftly woven into the action sequences. Louis Armstrong's beautiful "We Have All The Time In The World" features prominently, perfectly romantic and forever to be thought of as part of the Bond Universe. Finally it's the great writing that gives us the best sequence involving the trifecta of Bond, Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and M (Bernard Lee). 5 minutes of class that gives Moneypenny an acknowledged importance in the relationship between the two men in her life. It's just one of a number of truly excellent scenes in the greatest Bond film of them all. 10/10

This was the worst Bond movie of the early era.
It has nothing to do with Lazenby being Bond. It's just that it was written to be just a depressing piece of trash for the Hollywood formula of the late sixties than went into the eighties.
There is little scenery, little action, little to see of the bad guys. Bond is pretty much on his own in a "spy movie" instead of a "Bond movie". Bond is in a complex in a mountain surrounded by snow. If this wasn't the lowest budget ever for a Bond movie, someone was robbed.
It is written with "hate", which was the standard of the late sixties through the eighties.
As someone born in 1956, this was about all I was exposed to in art, film, TV, theater, religion, everywhere.
It was the Hollywood formula, and to see anything else, you literally had to sneak off while everyone else was asleep and see something "not depressing" on your own.
There's just too much of this hate in Art. It isn't Art. It's trash.
It's also boring.