On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)

Template:Infobox Film Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) is the sixth spy film in the James Bond series, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, and the only one to star George Lazenby as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the film, Bond faces Blofeld, who is planning on unleashing a plague through a group of brainwashed "angels of death" unless his demands are met. Along the way, Bond meets, falls in love with, and eventually marries Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo.

This Bond film is the second in what is considered the "Blofeld Trilogy", coming between You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). This trilogy is of interest not only for the three different Blofeld actors (Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice, Telly Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Charles Gray in Diamonds Are Forever) but for its two Bond actors (Sean Connery, then George Lazenby, and back to Connery).

This is the only Bond film to be directed by Peter R. Hunt, who before was a film editor or second unit director on every previous film. Though its theatrical release was not as lucrative as its predecessor You Only Live Twice and Lazenby's performance was much criticized, On Her Majesty's Secret Service grossed over $87 million worldwide and was met with positive critical reviews.

Plot

The pre-title sequence shows Miss Moneypenny, M and Q discussing the whereabouts of Bond. Bond is actually in Portugal, driving on a coastal highway when a woman in a Mercury Cougar overtakes him. Bond follows the woman to a beach where she attempts suicide by drowning in the waters. Bond drives down to the shore, saving the woman's life by carrying her back to the beach. As he brings the woman back to consciousness and introduces himself, two thugs try to kill Bond. After a fight with the thugs, from which Bond emerges the victor, the woman jumps into her car and speeds away. Bond notes that "This never happened to the other fellow," presumably Sean Connery.

Bond later encounters the same woman in a casino where she places a bet; a bet which she is unable to meet. On her behalf, Bond rescues the woman by paying her bet. The woman, Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo invites him to her hotel room to thank Bond for his deed. When Bond later visits Tracy's room, a thug emerges behind Bond, Bond knocks him out then goes back to his room where he finds Tracy. Tracy threatens to kill Bond for a thrill, however Bond disarms Tracy and questions her about the thug in her room. Tracy has nothing to say about the incident with the thug.

The next morning Tracy leaves the hotel. Later, as Bond leaves the hotel, several men kidnap him and lead him to Marc-Ange Draco, the head of the European crime syndicate Unione Corse, whom Bond recognizes immediately. Draco reveals that Tracy is his only daughter and tells Bond of her troubled past, offering Bond a personal dowry of one million pounds if he will marry her. Bond refuses, but agrees to continue romancing Tracy under the agreement that Draco reveals the whereabouts of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE.

File:OHMSSTracyBond.jpg

James Bond and Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo

Bond returns to MI6 but is told by M that he has been relieved from the task of hunting Blofeld, prompting Bond to resign. After M accepts the letter, Bond learns that as Moneypenny was recording his dictation, she changes the wording to request two weeks leave instead. Realizing he can pursue Blofeld on his time off and not quit MI6, Bond thanks Moneypenny and heads for Draco's birthday party in Portugal. There, Tracy discovers Bond's deal with her father and strong-arms him into providing Bond with the information he requested. Draco tells Bond that his next line of pursuit should be a law firm in Bern, Switzerland. After a brief argument, Bond and Tracy begin a whirlwind romance.

Bond and Tracy go to Bern with Draco to investigate the lawyer's connection with Blofeld. Searching the law office, Bond finds Blofeld's correspondence with the London College of Arms: Blofeld is attempting to claim the title 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp'. His College of Arms correspondent is genealogist Sir Hilary Bray. Bond visits M at home and is granted permission to recommence investigation of Blofeld.

Posing as Bray, Bond visits Blofeld, who has established a clinical research institute atop Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps. In disguise, Bond meets ten young women, the "Angels of Death", that are patients of the institute's clinic. In fact, the women are being brainwashed to distribute bacteriological warfare agents throughout various parts of the world.

File:Blofeld and Bond in Piz Gloria.jpg

Blofeld (Telly Savalas) and James Bond (George Lazenby) posing as Sir Hilary Bray at Blofeld's mountain top retreat.

Bond's lasciviousness betrays him to Blofeld's henchwoman Irma Bunt, who captures him during a second visit to the room of one of the "patients", then Blofeld identifies Bond. Bond escapes imprisonment, skiing down Piz Gloria, arriving at the village of Mürren and encounters Tracy. A blizzard forces them to a remote barn where Bond declares his love for Tracy and proposes marriage to her. Tracy accepts Bond's marriage proposal. The next morning Blofeld captures Tracy while leaving Bond to die in a man-made avalanche which Bond survives.

Blofeld holds the world to ransom with the threat of destroying its agriculture using his brainwashed women, demanding amnesty for all past crimes and he is recognized as the current Count de Bleauchamp. Bond enlists Draco and his forces to attack Blofeld's headquarters, while also freeing Tracy from Blofeld's captivity. The raid is successful as Bond and Blofeld are the last to escape before the institute is destroyed. The pair engage in a furious bobsled chase down Piz Gloria, eventually Blofeld is snared in tree branches while Bond drives away in the bobsled.

Bond and Tracy marry in Portugal, then drive away in Bond's Aston Martin. Bond pulls over to the roadside to remove flowers from the car. As this happens, Blofeld and Bunt in a Mercedes-Benz 600 drive past the couple's car, spraying bullets. Bond survives the attack, however as he enters the car and speaks to his wife, Bond realizes that Tracy has been killed from Bunt's gunfire. A police officer pulls over near the bullet-riddled car and stares silently at Bond. Bond says to the officer, "There is no hurry. . .We have all the time in the world." while hugging Tracy's lifeless body.

Cast

• George Lazenby as James Bond - An MI6 agent.
• Diana Rigg as Countess Tracy di Vicenzo - A haughty yet vulnerable countess who captures Bond's heart. She is Draco's daughter.
• Telly Savalas as Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Bond's arch nemesis, leader of SPECTRE and in hiding
• Gabriele Ferzetti as Marc-Ange Draco - Head of the Union Corse, a major crime syndicate and Tracy's father
• Ilse Steppat as Irma Bunt - Blofeld's henchwoman
• Bernard Lee as M - Head of the British Secret Service.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny - M's secretary
• George Baker as Sir Hilary Bray - Professor in the London College of Arms, which Bond impersonates in Piz Gloria
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q
• Angela Scoular as Ruby Bartlett - an English girl at the clinic whom Bond beds
• Catherine Schell as Nancy - another girl at the clinic Bond romances
• Julie Ege as Helen - Scandinavian Girl at the Blofeld clinic

Blofeld's Angels of Death

File:OHMSSangels.jpg

The Angels of Death with Bond

The Angels of Death are several beautiful women from all over the world (though in the novel, only ten from the UK) being brainwashed by Blofeld under the guise of allergy treatment. Their mission is to help Blofeld contaminate and ultimately sterilize the world's food supply. In the novel, Ruby's last name is "Windsor".

Name	Actress	Allergy
Ruby Bartlett (English)	Angela Scoular	Chicken
Nancy (Hungarian)	Catherina von Schell	Potatoes
American Girl	Dani Sheridan	Pork
Australian Girl	Anouska Hempel	Beef
Chinese Girl	Mona Chong	Rice
English Girl	Joanna Lumley
German Girl	Ingrit Black
Helen (Scandinavian)	Julie Ege	Fish
Indian Girl	Zara	Lentils
Irish Girl	Jenny Hanley	Corn (Maize)
Israeli Girl	Helena Ronee
Jamaican Girl	Sylvana Henriques	Bananas

Production

Fleming wrote the novel to On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1962 as Dr. No was being filmed. It was originally intended to have brought to the screen following Goldfinger, and early prints of that film even announced this. In 1965 there was a contest searching for 12 women to star as Blofeld's angels of death. However, Thunderball was filmed instead since the rights dispute was arranged. Then it was earmarked to follow Thunderball, but the impossibility to search for winter locations made Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli postpone the film, favouring production of You Only Live Twice.

Peter R. Hunt asked to direct after editing the other Bond films and being second unit director in You Only Live Twice.Hunt had been working on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Michael Reed and was keen to proceed with the next project. When writing the script, the producers decided to make the closest adaptation of the book as possible: virtually everything in the novel occurs in the film. They stayed so close to the book that they caused several continuity errors due to the movies taking place in a different order: Blofeld did not recognise Bond at first, despite having met him face-to-face in the previous film, You Only Live Twice. Also, in that film, Bond had a small, portable and quick-to-use safecracking device, whereas here he uses a larger and much slower one. In the original script, Bond undergoes plastic surgery to disguise him from his enemies. The intention was to allow an unrecognizable Bond to infiltrate Blofeld's hideout, and help the audience accept the new actor in the role. However, this was dropped in favor of ignoring the change in actor, a decision later mirrored with Superman Returns, the Batman series, and the rest of the Bond films.

Casting

In 1967, after five James Bond films, Sean Connery quit the role. In his place Albert R. Broccoli initially chose actor Timothy Dalton. However, Dalton declined, believing himself too young for the role. Harry Saltzman considered Roger Moore, but he was unavailable because of his television programme The Saint. Saltzman also briefly considered Jeremy Brett for the role of Bond after seeing his performance in My Fair Lady. The confirmed front runners were John Richardson, Hans de Vries, Robert Campbell and Anthony Rogers. Richardson was said to have been runner up to Lazenby and was strongly considered for Live and Let Die.

Broccoli eventually chose Australian George Lazenby after seeing him in a commercial. Lazenby dressed the part by sporting several sartorial Bond elements such as a Rolex Submariner wristwatch and a Savile Row suit (ordered, but uncollected, by Connery) Lazenby recalled in an interview. Broccoli noticed Lazenby as a Bond-type man, physique and the character elements, and offered him an audition. The position was consolidated when Lazenby accidentally punched a professional wrestler, who was acting as stunt coordinator, in the face, impressing Broccoli with his ability to display aggression. As a result, he was offered a contract for seven movies, but was convinced by his agent Ronan O'Rahilly that the secret agent would be archaic in the liberated 1970s and left the series in 1969.

For Tracy Bond, the producers wanted an established actress opposite neophyte Lazenby. Brigitte Bardot was invited, but declined, so Diana Rigg, who had already been the popular heroine Emma Peel in The Avengers, was cast. Rigg said one of the reasons for accepting the role was that she always wanted to be in an epic film. Telly Savalas was cast following a suggestion from Broccoli, and Hunt's neighbour George Baker was invited for Sir Hilary Bray. Baker's voice was also used when Lazenby was impersonating Bray, as Hunt considered Lazenby's imitation not convincing enough. Gabriele Ferzetti was cast as Draco after the producers saw him in an Italian mafia film, but Ferzetti's heavy accent led to his voice being dubbed over.

Filming

Filming began in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, on October 21st 1968, and used several locations including the capital city, Berne, itself and various regions in the Berner Oberland including the now famous revolving restaurant "Piz Gloria", and wrapped in Portugal, in May 1969. The first scene shot was an aerial view of Bond climbing the stairs of Blofeld's mountain retreat to witness the girls. Production was difficulted by weak snowing, which was not favorable to the skiing action scenes — the producers even considered moving to another location in Switzerland, but it was taken by the production of Downhill Racer.

Piz Gloria, Switzerland

Filming locations included London with the historic Pinewood Studios. Bern, Switzerland included several scenes shot on location. The Christmas celebrations were filmed in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Various chase scenes in The Alps were shot at Lauterbrunnen while Piz Gloria and Schilthorn were shown as Blofeld's headquarters in the Alps. The restaurant atop a mountain was still under construction, but the producers found the location interesting, and had to finance electricity and aerial lift to make filming there possible. Lisbon was used for the reunion of Bond and Tracy and the pre-credit coastal and hotel scenes were filmed at Estoril and Cascais in Portugal — Harry Saltzman wanted these scenes to be in France, but after searching in that country, Peter Hunt considered that not only the locations weren't photogenic, but were already "overexposed". This makes On Her Majesty's Secret Service the only Bond film, so far, to be set and filmed entirely in Europe.

"One time, we were on location at an ice rink and Diana and Peter were drinking champagne inside. Of course I wasn't invited as Peter was there. I could see them through the window, but the crew were all outside stomping around on the ice trying to keep warm. So, when she got in the car, I went for her. She couldn't drive the car properly and I got in to her about her drinking and things like that. Then she jumped out and started shouting 'he's attacking me in the car!' I called her a so-and-so for not considering the crew who were freezing their butts off outside. And it wasn't that at all in the end, as she was sick that night, and I was at fault for getting in to her about it. I think everyone gets upset at one time."

George Lazenby

The downhill skiing involved professional skiiers, and various camera tricks. Some cameras were handheld, with the operators holding them as they were going downhill with the stuntmen, and others were aerial, with cameramen Johnny Jordan—which had previously worked in the helicopter battle of You Only Live Twice—developing a system where he was dangled by a parachute harness rig at 18 feet (5.5 m) high, allowing scenes to be shot from any angle. The bobsledding chase was also filmed with the help of Swiss Olympic athletes.

The avalanche scenes were due to be filmed in co-operation with the Swiss army who annually used explosions to prevent snow build-up and causing avalanches, but the area chosen naturally avalanched just before filming and so stock footage and images created by the special effects crew with salt were used. The stuntmen were filmed later, added by optical and editing to the footage.

For the scene where Bond and Tracy crash into a car race while being pursued, an ice rink was constructed over an unused airplane track, with water and snow sprayed on it constantly. Diana Rigg and George Lazenby did most of the driving due to the high number of close-ups.

To make audiences not forget it was the same James Bond, just played by another actor, the producers inserted many references to the previous movies, some as in-jokes. These include Bond mentioning "This never happened to the other fellow", the credits sequence with images of the previous installments, Bond visiting his office and finding objects from Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball, and a janitor whistling the theme from Goldfinger.

According to an interview with Lazenby, the difficulties were due to director Peter R. Hunt refusing to talk directly to Lazenby, who was too brusque in passing on a request that Hunt's friends clear a set before filming Allegedly, there also were personality conflicts with leading lady Diana Rigg, who was already an established star. However, according to director Hunt, these rumours are untrue and there were no such difficulties - or else they were minor - and he would have agreed to direct Diamonds Are Forever if Lazenby had accepted the contract. Rigg herself acknowledged having eaten food spiced with garlic just before her kissing scenes with Lazenby, though witnesses also acknowledge that was done in an ironic and jesting tone, demonstrating a very English sense of humour on the part of Rigg.

Music

Main article: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (soundtrack)

The soundtrack to the film was composed, arranged, and conducted by John Barry. It was his fifth successive Bond film.

John Barry felt it would be difficult to compose a theme song containing the title "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" unless it was written operatically, in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. Director Peter R. Hunt allowed an instrumental title theme. The track is notable for its incorporation of the Moog synthesizer in its recurring bassline - the first time this instrument had been heard in a film soundtrack. Its distinctive sound would become a mainstay of soundtracks in the 1970s.

The theme, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", is used in the film as an action theme alternate to Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme", as is the case with Barry's previous "007" theme. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was remixed in 1997 by the Propellerheads for the Shaken and Stirred album. Barry-orchestrator Nic Raine recorded an arrangement of the escape from Piz Gloria sequence and it was featured as a theme in the trailers for the 2004 Pixar animated film The Incredibles.

Barry also composed the love song, "We Have All the Time in the World", sung by Louis Armstrong. With lyrics by Burt Bacharach's regular lyricist Hal David, it is heard during the Bond–Tracy courtship montage, bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold law office in Bern, Switzerland. It was Louis Armstrong's last recorded song (He died of a heart attack two years later.) Barry recalled Armstrong was very ill when he recorded the song, but recorded it in one take.

Release and reception

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was released on 18 December 1969. It grossed $ 87,400,000 worldwide, with $22.8 million in the United States alone. It was one of the highest-grossing films worldwide in 1969. .

Critical response to On Her Majesty's Secret Service remains sharply divided, affecting estimates of Lazenby's potential as Bond. It followed the plot of the novel more closely than the other film adaptations of the eponymous source novels, including serious dramatic subject matter pivotal to the development of Bond's character: Bond's contemplated resignation from MI6; his comically-botched impersonation of a sexually ascetic genealogist at a mountaintop allergies clinic for beautiful young women; and his brief, tragic marriage to Tracy Draco, the daughter of a Corsican crime syndicate leader. A 1994 commitee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Bond's line 'Just a slight stiffness coming on' as the Rudest Ever Moment in Any Film. American movie reviewer Leonard Maltin has suggested that had Connery held the leading role, On Her Majesty's Secret Service would have epitomised the series. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 86% "fresh" rating.

IGN ranked On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the eighth best Bond movie, Entertainment Weekly as the sixth, and Norman Wilner of MSN, as the fifth best.

A heavily edited TV version was broadcast by ABC in 1976 and again in 1980 with Lazenby dubbed. This version opens with Bond's escape from Piz Gloria, and follows that section of the film through to the scene in M's office after the avalanche that results in Tracy's capture by Blofeld. The entire film is then played as a flashback, including the entire ski chase/escape from Piz Gloria sequence, all over again.

The Barbican Centre in London has announced this film will be shown digitally in 2009 for its 40th Anniversary.

External links

• On Her Majesty's Secret Service at IMDb
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service at AllMovie
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service at Rotten Tomatoes
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service at Box Office Mojo