On Her Majesty's Secret Service

[mrs_emma_peel]

I was listening to Mark Kermode's Film Reviews yesterday afternoon on Radio 5 Live where he gave a rave review for the new Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy movie ...
he also referred to On Her Majesty's Secret Service as being one of his favourite Bond films because of the humanity and close relationship with Tracy di Vicenzo displayed by George Lazenby's James Bond character ... and said that such humanity was not seen again in a Bond movie until Bond's close relationship with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006).
Emma

[GRAEME]

I was listening to Mark Kermode's Film Reviews yesterday afternoon on Radio 5 Live where he gave a rave review for the new Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy movie ...
he also referred to On Her Majesty's Secret Service as being one of his favourite Bond films because of the humanity and close relationship with Tracy di Vicenzo displayed by George Lazenby's James Bond character ... and said that such humanity was not seen again in a Bond movie until Bond's close relationship with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006).
Emma

Of course, in the book OHSS, Bond encounters Tracy just after paying his annual respects at Vesper's grave. He is still mourning Vesper, the woman he almost asked to marry, and then he meets the woman who will be, briefly, his only wife (in the original novels, in any case). Fleming links the two quite deliberately; foreshadowing the tragic outcome.

[TimR]

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has always been my favorite of the James Bond films, but I didn't know I was in such good company. The bobsled chase and the ski chase are terrific - no nonsense with computers there.

Mrs. Peel - very nice work and informative work on the thread.

[mrs_emma_peel]

Many thanks for your kind words Tim - very much appreciated
Emma

[mrs_emma_peel]

Beautiful wallpapers again, Mrs. Peel. What are those unusual symbols punctuating the sentences in your posts? Anything to do with forum changes?

Finalists in the audition to be cast as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service:


John Richardson, Hans de Vries, Robert Campbell, Anthony Rogers, George Lazenby

More fascinating pictures here:

UNPUBLISHED: James Bond Auditions - Photo Gallery - LIFE

Thank you Cornershop I love your superb, rare picture of the James Bond OHMSS audition candidates.

Apologies for taking so long to reply to your question ... there are two reasons for the strange symbols ... first, you're right they are because of forum changes, but secondly and chiefly because they were copied/pasted directly from a Word document which doesn't transfer quotation marks, apostrophes, brackets, questions marks, dots etc correctly ... and these parts of the text now appear as something like Egyptian hieroglyphics when the forum changed, but are principally due to the Word document transfer. Text is ok, but Word does not transfer grammar symbols correctly. I should have re-typed all grammar symbols in the Britmovie text box ... I do this now ... but unfortunately too late for the OHMSS article.
I do hope the text is still readable.
Thanks again for your kind words Cornershop
Emma

[ayrshireman]

Add this forum member to the list of OHMSS fans.

My favourite Bond film, along with Casino Royale (2006).

[markrgv]

I watched this film again the other day, after watching all the early films recently. It's not one of my favourite Bond films - yet is a good well made film (except those speeded up parts - which there are a lot of!); i can see why some love it and some hate it.

Anyway, what did occur to me while watching the very moving sad ending, is how upsetting this must have been for a cinema audience at the time. Having been used to coming away happy, having seen Bond destroy the baddies and gotten the girl - this moving end must have left them very shocked and low.

[ayrshireman]

Of course, the original intention was to have a happy ending, with the wedding, and have the murder of Tracy take place in the opening sequence of DAF.

[GRAEME]

Of course, the original intention was to have a happy ending, with the wedding, and have the murder of Tracy take place in the opening sequence of DAF.

I have never heard that before! Can you cite your sourse for that? Considering that DAF more or less ignores the events of OHMSS - the pursuit of Blofeld being distinctly un-personal and revenge-like - I find that hard to believe. Unless, that is, the script went through a huge metamorphosis.

DAF would have been a much more interesting film! What a pity they didn't choose to film the books in the correct sequence in the first place...

[captainhaddock]

I have never heard that before! Can you cite your sourse for that? Considering that DAF more or less ignores the events of OHMSS - the pursuit of Blofeld being distinctly un-personal and revenge-like - I find that hard to believe. Unless, that is, the script went through a huge metamorphosis.

DAF would have been a much more interesting film! What a pity they didn't choose to film the books in the correct sequence in the first place...

peter hunt says as much on the dvd commentary included on the recent dvd issues of OHMSS
keep up to speed graeme

[batman]

I have never heard that before!

It is mentioned in a few books and DVD interviews. The idea was to finish OHMSS with the wedding and then have Diamonds Are Forever feature Lazenby tracking down Blofeld in order to get his revenge for Tracy's death at the start of the film. However, once Lazenby jumped ship the idea was dumped, although it is possible that had John Gavin not been ousted by the return of Connery the film may had followed that path anyway. Once Connery was back on board everything changed.

If only ....

[markrgv]

Yes - also watched the 'making of' on the dvd (why are they always too short and rushed?) and in it Peter Hunt says he would have finished the film on the crane shot of the Aston Martin driving away as guests throw flowers on it. Then for Diamonds, he would have shown the rest of the sequence for the pre-credits sequence of the film. Then the film could have been about Bond getting revenge on Blofeld.

Maybe if OHMSS had been more of a success, and all the problems with Lazenby hadn't happened - and his agents hadn't told the producers that he wouldn't be doing any more; then maybe all would have stayed on board and Diamonds (or the follow up to OHMSS) would have been a far different movie.

[Bob-Meade]

OHMSS is my Fav Bond film by far. I am also very fortunate in knowing Lucy Fleming (Ian Fleming's niece) quite well.

Did you also know,that George Lazenby's Agent: Ronan O'Rahilly was also the founder of Radio Caroline, the first of the offshore radio stations to give auntie BBC a well needed kick in the backside! And still broadcasts via Astra 28.2

Lucy also played "Jenny Richards", in Terry Nation's iconic TV series: Survivors.

It is odd how over a period of time, these 3 interests of mine, have converged!

But yes, it is a shame that George did not go on to make more Bond films.

Bob

[cassidy]

I agree that it is a shame that George Lazenby didn't go on to make more Bond films after watching OHMS (which I hadn't seen for ages) this afternoon. He was a very credible Bond and the film itself is good entertainment. Bittersweet memories of the film because Mrs cassidy's uncle was in the business that supplied the fabric for Tracey's wedding dress. That same fabric was used for Mrs c's own wedding dress which was then lent to "a friend" some years later for her daughters wedding. Needless to say both the friend and the dress have not been seen since .