Fifty years ago on Christmas day of 1969, I saw my first James Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, from the balcony of the gorgeous State theatre in Kalamazoo Michigan.
I was so thoroughly entertained and amazed by everything I saw, including that ceiling in the ladies’ bedrooms that lit up with colored lights as Blofeld hypnotized them. I asked my father if there was a way I could create a ceiling with colored lights like that in my bedroom, and he figured out how to do it. I stapled strands of Christmas tree lights all over the ceiling, each strand with one specific color and each strand wired to its own on/off toggle switch on my bed headboard so I could set whatever mood I wanted. We installed a drop-ceiling and filled every slot with those translucent plastic tiles common for covering fluorescent tube lights in schools and office buildings. They created a diffused lighting effect from the Christmas lights above, similar enough to the movie for me!
Last year my wife Betty and I flew to Switzerland to finally visit that impossibly spectacular Piz Gloria building at the top of the Alps on the 50th anniversary of the filming of the movie.
This year I took a train to Chicago for a 50th anniversary screening of the film at the historic Pickwick theater, seen in the iconic Siskel and Ebert At the Movies TV show.
6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The one with… the first different and one-time Bond actor George Lazenby; circular Blofeld headquarters atop a mountaintop peak in Swiss Alps; new Bond actor pre-title scene line, “This never happened to the other fella.”; first major ski chase shootout (much on one ski); Diana Rigg (TV’s “The Avengers”); first/only legit wedding for Bond; bobsled chase; Telly Savalas as Blofeld; Louis Armstrong song We Have All The Time In The World; hypnosis under colored ceiling lights
And on this day of reflection and celebration, my full review of the movie…
6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Having successfully plucked former bodybuilder Sean Connery out of obscurity at age 32 to become the face of James Bond, the producers took another chance by casting 29 year-old obscure Australian model George Lazenby (30 at time of release), who had never acted before, to replace Connery. “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” released in 1969, became and remains one of the best films of the series, if not as financially successful as its predecessors.
The then (and still) relatively unknown Lazenby introduced himself cleverly in the opening segment; when the series most enchanting lead actress Diana Rigg flees a fight scene without throwing herself in the arms of 007 in thanks for her rescue, Lazenby, the first to step into Connery’s enormous shoes, looks into the camera and says dejectedly, “This never happened to the other fella.”
The movie then further breaks with the formula of the previous four films by having a theme song without any vocals, but the instrumental piece by John Barry is magnificent.
There are some nice and perhaps strategic nods/links to the films that came before — the opening titles feature clips from the first five movies in the series (conspicuously omitting “the other fella”). And when Bond threatens to resign because he is not granted permission to pursue Blofeld, as he is cleaning out his desk he appears nostalgic as he picks up mementos from his previous missions in “Dr. No,” “From Russia with Love” and “Thunderball” as subtle music cues from each play.
And Lazenby’s Bond continued the tradition of throwing his hat onto Moneypenny’s hat rack as he entered the outer office of M. In a nice gesture showing there is more to M’s assistant than superficial flirtations, Moneypenny rescues Bond from himself by circumventing his resignation letter and replacing it with a request for leave, which both Bond and M appreciate. This also leads to the only time we see inside M’s home, where Bond finds M working on his butterfly collection.
The bulk of the film takes place at the impossibly spectacular Piz Gloria round building perched atop a snowy mountain peak in the Swiss Alps with a restaurant that was only completed with the help of producers during film production, and which is only accessible only by aerial cable car. Bond goes undercover as a genealogy expert (Lazenby’s voice is dubbed during a half-hour of scenes with this accented character) to learn what Blofeld (this time played by Telly Savalas, pre-“Kojak”) is up to in the secret and heavily-guarded fortress. Of course, the place is filled with young pretty women undergoing some sort of allergy treatment, which turns out to be hypnosis sparked by colored lights in the ceiling, so Blofeld can control them to carry out his latest diabolical plot. And of course Bond takes full advantage of the opportunity, even blowing his cover by sneaking into the girls’ rooms at night during their treatments.
This film is loaded with action, including Bond chasing Blofeld down a bobsled run, and a ski chase in which Bond is mostly on only one ski – it’s the first Bond film to feature a spectacular ski chase, which was repeated in several other films. There’s also a car chase on a snowy race track, and of course the use of the aerial tram to good effect.
Bond even experiences true love and his only cinematic legitimate wedding that ends with the series’ only downbeat climax until the 21st century.
There is no tricked-out car and no notable gadgets, which leaves Bond to handle each situation by his wits, ingenuity, and his own physicality. He turns his pockets inside out to use as gloves to slide on the aerial , he brushes snow off a car windshield with his own arms, and he uses an eraser and clip to open an electronic door in order to sneak out to get to the girls’ rooms.
Bond finally gets into an Aston Martin, the DBS, in the final scene.
The only minor imperfections are several scenes that unfortunately utilize sped-up film, one of which is the opening pre-title sequence on the beach that also features poor jump cuts in which Bond and men he is fighting keep appearing in different positions relative to the water’s edge and the sky changes from overcast dusk to pre-sunset brighter skies from shot-to-shot.
Otherwise, this is a very convincingly resourceful, charismatic, and romantic James Bond who also handles himself in physical and gunfire battles as well as “the other fella.”