If only Sean Connery had starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service instead of George Lazenby. If he had and with just a few tweaks, this could have been the best Bond movie in the entire franchise. It has some great action, a good plot and for the first time in the series, some actual romance. It also has a grittier style about it than the earlier movies. In many ways it was as much of a reboot of the series as when Daniel Craig appeared as Bond over 30 years later. Unlike the recent reboot however, this one failed and the producers turned back to Connery and the over-the-top style they avoided with this one.
From the very beginning it's obvious that the producers were worried about how the audience would accept someone else playing Bond. After the pre-credit sequence, Lazenby looks dead into the camera and says, "This never happened to the other fellow." Then, to emphasize the point that this is still part of the same series, scenes from the earlier movies are played over the opening credits. A few scenes later a janitor can be heard whistling the theme to Goldfinger. And again a few scenes later, Bond is going through his desk where he finds souvenirs from earlier adventures. None of this is really necessary and what's really annoying about it is that after going to all the trouble of showing that this movie is a sequel to the earlier films, the story has Blofeld meet Bond and not recognize him, even though they had just met in the previous movie!
The story starts with Bond obsessing over Blofeld. He has a brief affair with Tracy Di Vicenzo (Rigg), a suicidal young girl who turns out to be the daughter of mafia boss, Marc Draco. Draco urges Bond to continue seeing Tracy as he thinks he's good for her. Bond agrees to keep seeing her if Draco will help him find Blofeld. What follows this gentlemen's agreement is the worst scene in the movie, which is a montage of Bond and Tracy falling in love. They walk through a field of flowers, ride horses together, and hold hands in a scene that looks so dated and awful, it's embarrassing. Fortunately, it's over quickly. Eventually Bond tracks down Blofeld on the top of a mountain where he has a spectacular place whose cover is that of an allergy institute, but in reality is his base for taking over the world.
One thing I'll say about Lazenby is that he looks the part. A former model, he's trim, fit and athletic. Physically he looks the most like the Bond described in the books. When he opens his mouth though, it's obvious that he's an amateur when it comes to acting. He's okay, but often not very good at all. He's particularly bad at delivering Bond's one-liners, although he's not helped by having some truly rotten ones. When the person Bond is fighting gets his neck caught in the limb of a tree, he says, "He's branching out." In another scene, a skier falls in the path of a snowplow and is churned up, to which Bond quips, "He had a lot of guts." However, in a scene like Bond's escape from Blofeld's mountaintop fortress and the subsequent chase down the mountain Lazenby is superb. Almost the entire scene is played without a line of dialogue, which suits his talents. There's another silent but well done scene where Bond breaks into a lawyer's office to find out information about Blofeld and ends up reading a Playboy magazine, pocketing the centerfold as he leaves.
To counteract Lazenby's inexperience, the producers cast established actress Diana Rigg as Tracy. I think she's terrific in the part and is one of my favorite Bond girls, however, she acts circles around Lazenby. Instead of supporting his weaker performance, her portrayal just emphasizes Lazenby's weaknesses. It would have been great to see how Connery and would have played off her.
The ending has the potential to be very emotional. Bond and Tracy get married. That's right, Bond gets married (and for real this time). There's a moment at the wedding where Bond and Moneypenny share a look and then he throws her his hat. If Connery had done that it would have meant something because of their shared history, but with Lazenby it lacks resonance. And of course the last line in the final scene, which is the first and only time a Bond movie ends on such a down note, might have been truly emotional if Connery had delivered it. Connery's tough, womanizing Bond having to deal with that moment could have sealed this movie as the best of the series. Plus I think Connery might have had the clout and the intelligence to put the kibosh on that fucking montage scene.
