On Her Majesty's Secret Service- Very overrated?

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  • edited January 2013 Posts: 11,189
    And when it does appear, the Radio Times listing always refers to it as the forgotten Bond. Only forgotten by morons!
    But lets face it, when compared to most of Connery's films, TSWLM, GE, CR and SF (did I miss any?) OHMSS is somewhat forgotten. Personally I think its the most underrated film of all.  I'd certainly say that and LTK have the biggest "cult" following.

    Its on TV now actually (Sky Classics)
  • BAIN123 wrote:
    when compared to most of Connery's films, TSWLM, GE, CR and SF (did I miss any?)

    I'd say LALD is still petty well remembered if only for the theme song and you could throw MR in there, I think that's fairly well remembered (or lots of people have heard of it) because of the space stuff.
  • Live and Let Die would be well acknowledged even to this day, if only for having a former member of The Beatles as theme artist, and of course it has Roger Moore making his Bond debut, and the voodoo angle that year, was a different path at the time of release, from your usual James Bond adventures

    Moonraker also stands out for most as the first, and so far, only time, Bond has gone into space. It had better be the freaking last one can only hope

    Once again, I don't think On Her Majestys Secret Service is overrated. It's a fine adventure with a decent Bond in Lazenby, that gets unfairly ridiculed by some areas. Both actor, and release. Easily one of the biggest and recognized Bond releases of the 1960s decade for me
  • edited January 2013 Posts: 2,782




    Most excellent movie - modern trailer twist alert here.
  • Excellent! I was just listening to the original Zepp riff as well....
  • I don't consider OHMSS overrated. If anything it's underrated. Personally, I thought it was a masterpiece.
  • The whole romance is mishandled imo. Bond should feel teased and frustrated by Tracy, she lures him and he gets almost beaten up! It's the treat them mean, keep them keen thing. But it doesn't really play like that, it just seems a tedious stop start scenario for me. Rigg really doesn't seem that tragic to me she's one of these posh gals the 60s went in for a lot, like Julie Cristie and Julie Andrews and Truly Scruptious. She doesn't turn me on either, though she did in The Avengers.

    The whole Draco backstoy describing Tracy's tragic recent past is the most boring backstory every committed to a Bond film, I've seen it many times and it makes no impression at all, does she get married or something? I dunno.
  • Is it conceivable that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever get re-made with Daniel Craig or the next Bond?

    It seems that Lazenby is so maligned and yet this book, even film, is considered one of the best.

  • tomjcull wrote:
    Is it conceivable that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever get re-made with Daniel Craig or the next Bond?

    It seems that Lazenby is so maligned and yet this book, even film, is considered one of the best.

    This classic should never be remade. It's perfect as it is.
  • tomjcull wrote:
    Is it conceivable that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever get re-made with Daniel Craig or the next Bond?

    It seems that Lazenby is so maligned and yet this book, even film, is considered one of the best.

    This classic should never be remade. It's perfect as it is.

    =D>
  • Posts: 908
    tomjcull wrote:
    Is it conceivable that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever get re-made with Daniel Craig or the next Bond?

    It seems that Lazenby is so maligned and yet this book, even film, is considered one of the best.

    This classic should never be remade. It's perfect as it is.

    =D>

    Save the Kilt,that is! It just kills me EVERYTIME i watch the Movie.
  • Posts: 20
    Unlike some of the Roger Moore Bond outings (to which the opposite effect takes place), OHMSS is a rather good story with an unfortunately bad Bond.
  • edited March 2013 Posts: 174
    Matt_Helm wrote:
    tomjcull wrote:
    Is it conceivable that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever get re-made with Daniel Craig or the next Bond?

    It seems that Lazenby is so maligned and yet this book, even film, is considered one of the best.

    This classic should never be remade. It's perfect as it is.

    =D>

    Save the Kilt,that is! It just kills me EVERYTIME i watch the Movie.

    Well as I am a Scotsman I hope its not the kilt your laughing at!?! :))
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    edited March 2013 Posts: 4,043
    jfree92 wrote:
    Unlike some of the Roger Moore Bond outings (to which the opposite effect takes place), OHMSS is a rather good story with an unfortunately bad Bond.

    I'll take his Bond over Pierce and although Rog's Bond is more recognised I prefer Laz interpretarion.
  • Posts: 3
    NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Jazz007Jazz007 Minnesota
    Posts: 257
    I think the author of this thread has proven the fact that film is subjective - because I could count the reasons he/she dislikes OHMSS as reasons I count it as one of my favorite Bond films.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,425
    Just watched 0HMSS for the first time in ages. What a classic. It's always been one of my top five but right now I've got a say it's close to the top. So much to enjoy despite the slightly slow bit in the middle. Amazing action from start to finish and the skiing is just incredible. Just hope Bond 24 can live up to this in terms of the Alpine skiing scenes.
  • Posts: 12,521
    I don't know how many people have played Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, but I think of OHMSS kind of like the Majora's Mask of the Bond series. It's a bit darker than its previous titles, and is perfectly content being in its own class with no other title in the past/future really being that similar to it.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,425
    I know I'm going to be accused of lapsing into my default anti Brosnan mode but you've really got to hand it to Lazenby. He just nails the part. They stick him in a kilt and dub him for half the film and he still looks cool. I really struggle to think of a single scene where he doesn't deliver. I know it's gratuitous Brosnan bashing, but I can't help thinking how much respect Lazenby deserves for this one performance compared to the four mediocre to dismal entries that we got from the Irishman.

    I know that they were supposed to have got on really badly on set, but Lazenby and Rigg Are just really convincing. It's not just one of the best Bond on-screen romances, it's perhaps one of the most convincing film romances full stop. I know Craig and Green did an excellent job in Casino Royale, but in comparison with Lazenby and Rigg, that just seems like puppy love.

    As with Dalton only doing two films, you really have to regret the fact that Lazenby wasn't given a chance to do at least one more. 0HMSS just sets up the Blowfeld revenge story so perfectly and diamonds are forever just squanders it. Just having Lazenby do a solid revenge film in DAF would have been amazing.
  • Posts: 12,521
    On the main man, George Lazenby is actually my third favorite of the Bond actors, behind Connery and Craig. I simply love Lazenby's Bond; he's the most human of all the actors, in my opinion. Also isn't he the tallest to play Bond?
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,189
    Getafix wrote: »
    I know I'm going to be accused of lapsing into my default anti Brosnan mode but you've really got to hand it to Lazenby. He just nails the part. They stick him in a kilt and dub him for half the film and he still looks cool. I really struggle to think of a single scene where he doesn't deliver.

    The bullfighting scene, the scene in the car with Tracy when they are escaping, the scene with Draco ("that's quite an inducement") and the first scene with M in the office ("does this mean you've lost confidence in me"). Those are four scenes that instantly came to mind. He's as stiff as stiff can be in those four.

    HOWEVER I agree that the romance with Tracy is very believable on the the whole. That barn scene in OHMSS is SOOOO much better than the equivalent from CR ("I have no armour left")...and I rank CR as one of the top films.

    Incidently OHMSS is #2 for me behind FRWL.

  • Posts: 3,336
    #2 on my rating. Is it overrated? Meh. At least not by the general moviewatchers. It only has a 6,8 imbd rating... Shame.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Getafix wrote: »
    I know I'm going to be accused of lapsing into my default anti Brosnan mode but you've really got to hand it to Lazenby.

    No I don't. I'll hand it to Peter Hunt, but Lazenby commands little respect from me. Brosnan destroys him.
  • Posts: 11,425
    @foxRox, totally agree. Totally human, vulnerable, believable. A remarkable performance considering he wasn't actually an actor. @bain not sure I agree. The M scene in particular is fantastic. For today at least Laz has surpassed Dalts for me. I might even elevate him to number two spot.
  • Posts: 11,189
    I meant the first M scene early on in the film. He's good in the second.
  • Posts: 315
    I think it's one of the stronger films. Laz's Bond is closer to the original character, no gadgets and Bond must rely on his own physical skills and brains. The musical score is good and scenery is nice.

    On a related note, the actress who played Ruby also plays a store clerk in 'Day of the Jackal'. Ruby is far more exotic.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Getafix wrote: »
    @foxRox, totally agree. Totally human, vulnerable, believable. A remarkable performance considering he wasn't actually an actor. @bain not sure I agree. The M scene in particular is fantastic. For today at least Laz has surpassed Dalts for me. I might even elevate him to number two spot.

    I mean the first scene. It's great. Admitedly mainly because Bernard Lee justs ignores him. I think it's really nicely done.
  • Posts: 11,189
    I think lee dominates that scene entirely. True Laz looks good but his line readings aren't great.
  • edited October 2014 Posts: 11,425
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I think lee dominates that scene entirely. True Laz looks good but his line readings aren't great.

    May be I'm being overly generous about the subtelty of Laz's performance and not all of this was intentional, but one of the things I love about his performance is actually the way he doesn't need to dominate every scene. Connery and his shere charisma does just that - just commands and dominates whenever he's on the screen. Laz has charisma in bucket-loads (IMO), but some of the best scenes are when he is on the back foot. It's just the perfect performance for this story and this movie.

    I was reading someone the other day talking about how the point where you really see him fully, totally falling for Tracy, is where he's sitting disconsolately on the bench, trying to escape Blofeld's men and sort of being at his wits end. And then Tracy skates up in front of him and rescues him. You could never imagine that working with Connery. Just brilliant. And of course, as you rightly say, the following scenes are just brilliant.

    It would have been just fantastic to see a broken, hate-filled Laz take on Blofeld in the next movie.

    The more I think about it, the more I think Laz's departure was actually one of the biggest losses to the series. More so than Dalton even, dare I say it!

  • OHMSS gets a free pass from fans because it follows the novel closely. It shouldn't (get a free pass)..

    That said, even in the novel we don't have Bond adopting a silly ass voice when pretending to be Sir Hilly, though you get the sense he does moderate his manner. I suppose Lazenby's voice doesn't pass for a man of learning, that said in the previous film Bond was meant to have gone to Cambridge! But if he had to be dubbed, they should have got in someone other than George Baker, it is so obvious it is him, it doesn't match Lazenby's vocal at all, it doesn't sound like him. They should have got someone anonymous to do it so you think it might be Lazenby.

    That said, Bond looks young in this as the actor was 29, not many 29 year olds are knighted, eh, if he is to pass himself off as Sir Hilary? I suppose if the rugged Connery had played Bond, or if they'd got Burton in for a one-off, both could have passed for an early 40s academic type (A Fine Madness, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wold? respectively) who could be knighted. Bray wearing glasses is another film touch I think; in reality it would only take one of the gals to nick them playfully and put them on and exclaim 'But Sir Hilly, you're not short sighted at all!' for the gig to be up.

    Blofeld angling for a pardon made more sense in the novel when he had only the failed Thunderball operation behind him, in the films he's been on the case since Dr No - a pardon would be as likely to have been offered to Bin Laden. Not plausible him wanting to be made a count, but it's all Fleming so it gets a free pass.

    I could go on all day about OHMSS's problems.
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