Tuesday 20 November 2012

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

1969, Peter Hunt, 142 mins.

The first Bond movie without Sean Connery sees Bond battle Blofeld in Switzerland.



My favourite Bond movie and one of the best films of the Sixties. It’s got just about everything; wit, charm, astonishingly visceral action, a pounding John Barry score, gorgeous location photography, and classic villains in the shape of Ilse Steppat’s Irma Bunt and Telly Savalas’s definitive Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Admittedly, it’s also got George Lazenby but, personally, I like him – he does very well in the action scenes and has genuine presence, while his engagement with proceedings is a vast improvement on Sean Connery’s efforts in his later Bond movies. He has a lot to carry too – a more emotional storyline than usual which allows the role of the Bond girl, in the shape of Diana Rigg, to be fully developed; and an ending which hits you like a hard blow to the gut even when you know it’s coming.  

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