Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

UK 1969
produced by
Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman for EON Productions/United Artists
directed by Peter R. Hunt
starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ilse Steppat, Lois Maxwell, George Baker, Bernard Lee, Bernard Horsfall, Desmond Llewelyn, Yuri Borienko, Virginia North, Geoffrey Cheshire, Irvin Allen, Terence Mountain, John Gay, James Bree, Angela Scoular, Catherine Schell, Julie Ege, Mona Chong, Sylvana Henriques, Sally Sheridan, Joanna Lumley, Zaheera, Anouska Hempel, Ingrid Back, Helena Ronee, Jenny Hanley
screenplay by Richard Maibaum, additional dialogue by Simon Raven, based on a novel by Ian Fleming, music by John Barry, theme by Monty Norman, songs performed by Louis Armstrong, Nina van Pallandt, special effects by John Stears, ski sequences supervised by Willy Bogner, stock car sequence directed by Anthony Squire

James Bond, EON's James Bond, Blofeld

review by
Mike Haberfelner





James Bond (George Lazenby) saves a girl, Tracy (Diana Rigg), from trying to drown herself, then from a couple of ruffians, and later at the hotel helps out with her gambling debts - for which he thanks him by inviting him to her room. The next day, Bond is kidnapped by the ruffians from before and taken to Tracy's father, Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), a notorious crime kingpin, who makes Bond an offer, marry his daughter in return for 1 million Pound. Bond turns him down, but his interest is somehow piqued still and he starts dating Tracy - and by the by gets information out of her father in regards to the whereabouts of the evil crime organisation SPECTRE, run by Bond's arch enemy Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Eventually he learns that Blofeld has invited genealogist Hilary Bray (George Baker) to the Swiss Alps to do research on his ancestry and in essence find him a title. Bond takes over as Bray and is shipped to Blofeld's headquarters in his stead, sporting a very effeminate and clumsy exterior. And still, all the girls in Blofeld's "Allergy Research Center" Piz Gloria on one of the many mountaintops want a piece of Bond - who uses their knowledge of the base for his investigations - but its not long before he's found out, and Blofeld gloats about his new scheme to blackmail the world by using the girls from all around the world at the research center as patients zero for the worldwide spread of a virus should his demands not be met. Provided with that info, Blofeld locks Bond away, but Bond of course manages to get out and makes a daring escape to the village in the valley, always hunted by Blofeld's henchmen, led by his right hand woman Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat). In the village, Bond stumbles into Tracy at an ice rink, and she helps him make good his escape by taking him in her car through a stock car race, which is enough to shake off any pursuer. Bond and Tracy are not so lucky the next day when they ski for their lives and get into an avalanche. Bond is presumed dead but Tracy has somehow survived it unscathed and is taken captive by Blofeld, who wants to make her his companion. Of course though, Bond hasn't really died, and he now wants assistance from MI6 to save Tracy and destroy Blofeld's headquarters, but MI6 has other plans, so Bond contacts Draco, and he provides Bond with enough men, firepower and helicopters to save his daughter and do enough damage to save the world on the side. Now attacking and destroying Piz Gloria works like a charm, but Blofeld gets away.

Days, weeks or months later, Bond marries Tracy, but refuses Draco's dowry/bribe as a man of honour, but heading for their honeymoon, they cross paths with Blofeld and Irma Blunt, who send a hail of bullets their way - which tragically kill Tracy.

 

Now back in the day, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was panned by critics and know-it-alls, basically because George Lazenby, a relative unknown, wasn't Sean Connery, and also because this movie dared to be a little different. And to be honest, Lazenby sure isn't Sean Connery (but neither was Roger Moore to be honest), but he does a very decent job, and he doesn't only have the 007 image down to the t but also proves to be able to cover the (for the character) uncharacteristically wide emotional range. The film as such is certainly less spectacle oriented than most other entries, boasts fewer lush exotic locations, and actually shows Bond doing more investigating and even some undercover work - that said, the action scenes are still mighty exciting and very well put together. Also Bond in love was a new concept, and Diana Rigg, fresh from her success as Emma Peel in TV's The Avengers, sure proves to be more than just a damsel in distress, fending for herself and saving Bond's life a couple of times. And to round it out, this is the only James Bond film with an utterly sad ending.

 

Now despite all the nay-sayers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service has done very good business back in the day and has since been (rightly) been rediscovered as one of the more interesting films of the series, and really provides some very good entertainment.

 

As for why George Lazenby didn't return as James Bond? Of course nay-sayers always claim that he got fired for one reason or another, but a more credible theory is that he just didn't want to, seeing the James Bond series as a whole as not terribly timely anymore in the wake of the success of anti-establishment movies like Easy Rider. And while this assumption has been proven dead wrong in hindsight, from 1969's point of view it at least makes a lot of sense.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find On Her Majesty's Secret Service
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find On Her Majesty's Secret Service here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find On Her Majesty's Secret Service at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!