On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Today I'll be continuing my James Bond marathon with the 6th official film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

SYNOPSIS:
James Bond (George Lazenby) happens across an Italian contessa, Tracy Draco (Diana Rigg) and rescues her from a suicide attempt, as well as protecting her from some aggressive bodyguards that have been following her.  Impressed with the effort to protect and woo his daughter, Marc Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti) offers to pay Bond £1 million dowry if he'll win over his headstrong daughter and marry her.  Bond considers the offer on the premise that Draco use his (less than legitimate) influence to help Bond track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savales), whose trail has been cold for 2 years now.  Through Draco's resources, Bond locates Blofeld running an experimental allergy clinic in the Swiss alps.  Bond must infiltrate the clinic and stop Blofeld from his latest global scheme before it's too late!

REVIEW:
First off, I want to point out that, unlike my other James Bond reviews, there will be a spoiler in this one.  I will clearly mark it so you can skip it if you want, but the ending to this film is something I want to discuss, because it's something that will come up in later films.  So you have been warned.

This was the first official Bond film to not star the Scottish Sean Connery.  Instead, they hired the Australian George Lazenby, keeping up the tradition of a non-English actor playing the Englishman.  Sadly this was George Lazenby's only Bond film; although he spoke highly of it for the rest of his life and reveled in the fact that he got to be James Bond.

A proper Australian gentlemen

M (Bernard Lee) relieves Bond of his search for Blofeld, telling him "Operation Bedlam is dead."  Bond insists that he's just found a lead through Draco, but M tells him to drop it.  Upset, Bond asks M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) to write his resignation letter.  He goes to clean out his desk, pausing on various souvenirs from past films as their theme music faintly plays in the background.

Probably the only time you'll ever see Bond's office in the films.  He much prefers field work to paperwork.

Being called back to M's office, he's told that his 2-week leave has been approved.  Moneypenny requested time off for him instead, telling him she knew he didn't really want to resign anyway.  This won't be the first time that Bond threatens to resign in the franchise, but he thanks Moneypenny by giving her a quick peck on the lips and offering to take her out on a proper date the moment he returns.  Will Moneypenny finally have a shot at a relationship with Bond?!

Bond then infiltrates Blofeld's new lair through the disguise of a genealogist (study of ancestry), as Blofeld has taken the name of Count Balthazar de Bleuchamp and is trying to make a legitimate claim of the title through genealogical records.  He's given himself some plastic surgery, removing his face scar and cutting off his earlobes to appear as though he's a descendant of the Bleuchamp's.

Now, I will mention at this point that there's a huge continuity error here.  In the previous film, Bond and Blofeld met face-to-face.  But now that Bond is showing up under a pseudonym, Blofeld welcomes him in without hesitation, apparently not recognizing his mortal enemy.  I guess the change of actors made everyone forget that these two characters actually know each other from the previous film.  Oops.

Bond and Blofeld, meeting face to face... again.

An interesting detail to note is that James Bond researched his own genealogy while getting into the role and found himself tied back to Sir Thomas Bond, a real-world nobleman whose coat of arms has the Latin phrase orbis non sufficit (the world is not enough) emblazoned across it.  This family motto would become the name of a James Bond film much later on, along with its theme song.

♫ The World is Nooooot Enough! ♫

It's interesting to note that Bond, the perpetual bachelor, seems to have met his match with Tracy.  She's tough-willed, determined, and not afraid of trouble.  When Bond is in a pinch, she jumps in to rescue him and the two of them escape together.  He decides that maybe she's just the kind of woman who can keep up with him and his adventures.  So he officially asks her to marry him.

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SPOILERS AHEAD!! (Skip the next 4 paragraphs if you don't want the ending spoiled)

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So let's get in to this ending.  As usual, Bond saves the day, but Blofeld escapes once again.  Bond marries Tracy with an extravagant wedding.  Everyone attends, both from Draco's family and MI6 staff.  Draco and M seem to hit it off, reminiscing about Draco's shady operations and how he's managed to elude MI6.  Moneypenny can't stop crying, likely because her crush is now married off to someone else and she never got that date.  Q (Desmond Llewelyn) makes an appearance to wish Bond well, but Bond tells him, "This time, I have the gadgets, and I know how to use them."

"I'm well-equipped for THIS mission, Q!"

So Bond and Tracy drive off for their honeymoon, stopping on the side of the road to remove the ridiculous amounts of flowers adorning their vehicle.  All of a sudden, Blofeld and his right-hand henchwoman, Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) drive by and open fire!  Bond takes cover behind his car, then jumps in the driver's seat, exclaiming, "It's Blofeld!"  He looks over to his new wife to find a bullet right between her eyes.

A cop on a bike pulls up to find Bond cradling Tracy's head in his lap.  He tells the cop, "It's all right.  It's quite all right.  She's having a rest.  We'll be going on soon.  There's no hurry, you see?  We have all the time in the world."  Then the film ends.  Truly, the most tragic and heartbreaking ending to a Bond film.

This was how Ian Fleming's 11th novel by the same name ended.  As you may remember from my You Only Live Twice (1967) review, this story actually preceded that one, causing Bond to become borderline useless in the next story.  But the movies were made out of order, so the previous film had to change their plot drastically to adapt.  Tracy would be known as the only girl to every officially marry Bond (he married a Japanese woman in You Only Live Twice (1967), but under a fake name). In the novels, he'd visit her grave every year on the anniversary of her death.  We'll witness this at least once in future films, and he'll make a reference to his past marriage in another film.

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END OF SPOILERS

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I just want to point out that this was the Diana Rigg I grew up with.  Everyone seems to recognize her as tough and fearless Olenna Tyrell from the TV show Game of Thrones, but I always remembered her as Tracy Draco from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).  She was absolutely beautiful back then, and just as strong and determined as her Olenna Tyrell character.  Glad to see that attitude of hers never changed.

Diana Rigg was always one of my favorite Bond girls

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) had a nice theme song, and the opening title sequence to accompany it shows clips from all the previous Bond films, to remind you that yes, even with a new actor, this is still the same James Bond.  Also, if you get a chance, you should look up the song, "We Have All the Time in the World," by Louis Armstrong.  It's a beautiful, yet tragic love song to accompany this film.

RECOMMENDATION:
This is an essential turning point for the Bond franchise.  Despite putting a new actor in the role, it took a risk by introducing a capable Bond girl who could handle the danger alongside Bond.  He truly found his match.  This is a very good film that shows a more emotional Bond, and George Lazenby did excellent in the role.  I'd highly recommend this film!